Archive for August, 2010

Yesterday evening Thunderbird hosted the Opening Ceremonies for our new Full-Time and On-Demand students. One of the most colorful parts of the evening is the parade of flags– where our international students carry the banner of their home country and speak about where they’re from. The incoming fall class this year is incredibly diverse: more than 50 percent of our students are from outside the U.S., and they represent 53 different countries.

As Kay Keck, our VP of Full-Time Programs said last night, “No other place, besides the UN, will you find this much diversity among your peers.” Some of the countries represented include Mongolia, Tanzania, Uganda, Greece and Georgia. How many flags can you recognize? Check out the photo album.

By Kate Robertson ’10, full-time MBA student

For those who’ve investigated winterim options at Thunderbird School of Global Management, it is generally known that the Brazil Winterim, “Sustainable Business in Development,” is one of the most sought after courses. Having participated in the course myself, I must say that all of the hype is not without good reason! We’ve asked a few of the participants to reflect on their experiences in Brazil and here is what we received. More student comments can be found on my Nov. 9 blog post.
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This summer 12 Thunderbird students obtained international internships through the University of Arizona/Conacyt Annual Technology Transfer Program. The following post is from Grace K. Reidy, Accelerated MBA, Dec 2010

Thunderbird encourages students to seek out diverse teams because, while this diversity may not result in the highest grades, it will maximize cross-cultural learning. Well, the best word to describe my team in Merida, Mexico was diverse.

Each person came from a different culture and carried a different set of values. There was our Chilean team leader, the scientist, who liked to analyze every option, wanted complete information and understood the importance of coffee breaks to foster relationships with the center’s research scientists. There was the expressive patent attorney from China, whose primary concern was identifying ideas that could make money. He understood intellectual property laws in China and the United States. There was the Korean-American Pharmacy/MBA double major, who had a realistic perspective of what our team could accomplish and perfected the art of the managing the middle ground. He cared about delivering a good product but also wanted a cohesive team. Finally, there was me. The  CPA, accustomed to navigating ambiguity in the financial world, making quick decisions, delivering high-level products under tight deadlines and tracking time in 6-minute intervals.

Needless to say, there was a class of cultures in our team. Because our team did not take time to “form” properly, this “storming” phase was more dramatic than it should have been. Each person had a different conception of time. Each person had a different way of decision-making and even different ideas about “appropriate” ways to communicate their ideas. Our translator had a different concept of important information. Principles taught by Dr. Leclerc in Cross-Cultural Communication provided a framework to understand differences. The ideas of “self awareness” and a clearly defined “vision”, which Dr. Pearson relayed in Global Leadership helped identify the source of these the team issues. Because of the counsel from colleagues in Dr. Finney’s Managing Working Relationships, I made baby-steps towards bridging the communication gap. But ultimately, it was when we all began to demonstrate respect to each other, that the transition from “storming” to a productive “norming” team.

It was only because of humility that our diverse ideas began to meld into a solid final product. My key learning? Without the vision and meekness to bring out your team members’ strengths, what you know, your drive and your intelligence matter little.

This summer 12 Thunderbird students obtained international internships through the University of Arizona/Conacyt Annual Technology Transfer Program. The following post is from Franciska Segercz-Karsay, Accelerated MBA, May 2011

I was selected to be the group leader at the Center for Research in Mathematics in Guanajuato. My group consisted of an ex-soldier now MBA student at Eller, an ex-SAP consultant from India who now studies at the Tippie School of Business and a computer science PhD student from the University of Arizona.

We all shared a huge house in the center of the town. In many ways we were lucky. The town is beautiful, UNESCO heritage site, preserved colonial style. The food at the center was great and free – including the freshly squeezed orange juice in the morning. Lots of free exercising was included in the package as we lived on the top of the hill with about 1000 steps leading to our house. And most importantly we received significant support from the direction of the research center.

The best compliment we could have gotten was that they not only verbally expressed appreciation for our ideas, but they acted on those ideas. While we were still at CIMAT, the center realized a partnership that will help them commercialize many of their technologies.

As a result, the director of the center asked me to continue with the project remotely, possibly visiting the center once a month until a new group can take over the project next summer. He specifically asked me to be persistent and push them along with our plan to prepare their technologies for the market. In return he promised to provide all support I need from all the staff, including the researchers.

By Grace K. Reidy, Accelerated MBA, December 2010

Like me, you may marvel at how the Thunderbird brand attracts international attention to an isolated corner of the desert. Twelve Thunderbird students benefited from of that attention, enjoying the unique opportunity to intern in Mexico this past summer. For us, it was the perfect internship: consulting + Mexico + working in an emerging market with new business ideas. This internship opportunity came from an unexpected source, the University of Arizona.

For over 5 years the University of Arizona (U of A) has partnered with Mexico’s National Council for Science and Technology (Conacyt), providing business skills to help newly invented technologies become market realities. Each summer, U of A sends teams (three MBA students and one scientist/Ph.D student) to various research laboratories throughout Mexico. The students are paid a stipend (a very nice stipend…) and housing is provided. This year, due to rapid program expansion, U of A recruited over half of the MBA students from Thunderbird. These student teams worked in Mexico for 10 weeks with one research institution, assessing the feasibility of various inventions and then developing plans to help commercialize the inventions they said were a “go”. As is common in new businesses, a significant degree of autonomy was provided to us. Yes – we did have a schedule of deliverables, we held weekly Skpye meetings with our supervisor and we were supposed to work together on each project, bundling our respective areas of expertise – but when and how we worked was up to us. In essence, we were empowered.

From the Sonora desert in Hermosillo to the jungle in Merida, T-bird put into practice skills gleaned in almost every class in our program. The principles of a business plan, from Global Entrepreneurship, became our Bible. Market research and valuation classes also proved handy. As we dealt with different ideologies and visions bubbling out of the team’s autonomous environment, soft skills from our cross-cultural communication and leadership classes became essential to ensure our teams success.

Each team had a different experience. Each Thunderbird student has a different story to tell. In the next few days, we’ll be sharing these stories with you.

-CIMAT – by Fransciska Segercz-Karsay. Accelerated MBA

-CICY – by Grace K. Reidy. Accelerated MBA

-CIMAV – by Marcelo Nieto. Traditional MBA

-CIO – by Arturo Chaltelt. Accelerated MBA

-CIQA – by Gonzalo de León Plata. Accelerated MBA

-IANOE – by Mike Hathaway. MA/MS

By Kelly Fuson ’11, full-time MBA Global Management student

I have so much to blog about, including my final say on the Mac vs. the PC, and my finals days at my summer internship. But first, today was a milestone in my Thunderbird career because I finally took the OPI (oral proficiency interview) to satisfy the language requirement or to pass into French 2.

I have to wait three to five days to receive the results, but I definitely surprised myself. I thought for sure that I was going to freak out and forget everything that I knew but somehow I managed to stay calm and think through what I wanted to say. Don’t get me wrong, I’m certain that I butchered many of my conjugations and some of my grammar was out of order. I’m just glad I survived and made it through without speaking any english.

The experience reminded me, perhaps too vividly, of my GMAT experience. The questions that the proctor asks you start off at the novice level and continue to advance based on your responses. So as they say with the GMAT, the harder it gets the better you are doing. I don’t want to give away any of the questions that I was asked, but I definitely felt challenged!

Look for my next post in three to five days and I’ll share my results!

By Kate Robertson ’10, full-time MBA student

In our last blog post, we gave readers a glimpse into the organization Fundacao Amazonas Sustentavel, founded by T-Bird alumnus Luiz Villares. Because Luis is such an interesting and successful guy, we wanted to delve a bit deeper into his personal beliefs, those that brought him to where he is today.

“Sustainability is a matter of survival, no longer a choice,” Luiz wrote in a recent e-mail exchange. “It is mandatory to life, business, public policies and cultural traits. Brazil is fortunate to be endowed with forests, water, good soil, rich biodiversity; with a stable continental land, free of major weather hazards; all inhabited with one united people and language.”
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So proud of our Summer 2010 graduates! The flag ceremony (in which students speak on behalf of their home countries) is my favorite part!

By Kate Robertson ’10, full-time MBA student

Millions of people recently followed British adventurer Ed Stafford on an 859-day trek across the Amazon rainforest. Thunderbird also has a champion in the Amazon.

Brazilian alumnus Luiz Villares ’92 is taking steps to reverse the catastrophic impacts of deforestation as finance and administrative director of Fundacao Amazonas Sustentavel (Amazonas Sustainable Foundation).

During the 2009 Brazil Winterim, “Sustainable Business in Practice,” Thunderbird students had a chance to visit with Luiz and learn about his organization. Luiz also will sit down with participants in the 2010 Brazil Winterim.

Fundacao Amazonas Sustentavel, a nonprofit agency founded in 2007, strives to promote environmental conservation and quality-of-life improvement for the resident communities and users of the Amazonas State Conservation Units.

The organization’s projects include income generation, reforestation, reduction of greenhouse gases, development of clean energy sources, environmental education and technical training. Luiz and the Fundacao Amazonas Sustentavel have gained much-deserved attention throughout Brazil in recent years, and we wish them luck in the future.

To learn more about the organization, watch this video or connect with him on Twitter.

By Kelly Sheridan  MBA Class of Spring 2011 (and a Self Proclaimed Coffee Addict)

When I first started my summer internship at Synexxus, a defense consulting firm in Arlington, Virginia, I was excited and ready to use my MBA tool box.   Interested in pursuing a career in organizational development, I have focused my studies on matrices, models, graphs, and flow charts.    While I have managed to integrate Activity Based Costing and Nonaka’s theories on organizational knowledge creation into my projects, I have also come to realize the importance of something seemingly far less exciting – the coffee break.

Every company has its culture, or an emergent property of deeply rooted values, beliefs, and underlying assumptions of an organization.  My working team at Synexxus, led by a brilliant PhD graduate from MIT, maintains one critical underlying assumption:

“The powers of a man’s mind are directly proportioned to the quantity of coffee he drinks” (Sir James Mackintosh).

Fortunately this coffee culture – full of random coffee runs to the local Starbucks or Java Shack – fits in very well with my own infatuation for the coffee bean.  But, it is more than just a shared passion or love for that momentary “zing” – these coffee breaks give my team a few extra moments to catch up, share, and connect with one another over our challenges and accomplishments, as well as the minutiae of our daily happenings.  They are sacred moments that, while alone do not seem substantial, together serve as the grease that facilitates and enables our work.  And, besides, it makes the day a lot more fun.

Although my internship is coming to a close, I hope that I take the “coffee break” mantra with me as I further develop my career.  After all, organizational development is not just about processes and structures, but about people.   And let’s face it, what could be better than connecting over coffee?

(Kelly’s last post was on her passion for marathon running. Check it out here.)