Ranked #1 in the World
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
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