Archive for the ‘Global Relations’ Category

Our first Global Cohort was a resounding success! Thunderbird for Good hosted 28 women entrepreneurs from Tonga, Samoa, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Papua New Guinea, Kiribati, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Palau. The women have since returned home and continue to share incredible stories of success, growth, and the many ways they are sharing their knowledge.

Goldman Sachs launched 10,000 Women in March 2008. It is a $100 million, five-year campaign to foster greater shared economic growth by providing 10,000 underserved women around the world with a business and management education. The program is founded on research conducted by Goldman Sachs, the World Bank, and others which suggests this kind of investment can have a significant impact on GDP growth. Research also suggests that such an investment in women can have a significant multiplier effect that leads not only to increased revenues and more employees for businesses, but also healthier, better-educated families, and ultimately more prosperous communities.

These culturally appropriate programs are intended to help open doors for thousands of women whose financial and practical circumstances would normally prevent them from receiving a traditional business education. Thunderbird is a proud partner in this initiative!

We are excited to host the 2nd Global Cohort of women entrepreneurs June 9th – 24th. Women from Latin America, Central America, and the Caribbean have been submitting applications with our US Embassies in countries such as Bolivia, Paraguay, Panama, Honduras, Nicaragua, Argentina, Colombia, Jamaica, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Trinidad, Ecuador, Chile, and more. We are thrilled to be working with the Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and other local business leaders to make this program a robust and fun learning experience.

We will officially welcome this new class of entrepreneurs to our campus on Monday, June 11th, so save the date! More details to follow. Immediately following this Welcome Reception, the women will sell their goods, handicrafts and cultural items during the 10,000 Women Marketplace. It is the perfect opportunity for these women to practice the 30-second elevator pitch Professor Steve Stralser will have just taught in class. Come eat, shop, mingle, meet, and welcome these entrepreneurs to Thunderbird!

Did you get involved as a volunteer during the 1st Global Cohort program in January? We are asking for volunteers once again to join us for an hour or two. We especially welcome all you Spanish speakers! Join us for off-campus dinners, working one-on-one with the women in the classroom, site visits to local businesses, sightseeing excursions and more. If you would like to get involved, please contact Cheri Roberts at 602-978-7742 or cheri.roberts@thunderbird.edu .

We are grateful for any time you can generously give. These programs are enriched by your efforts, and you will be in turn edified and inspired by these driven women entrepreneurs!

By Sherbahadar Himmat, Afghan Media Management Program Participant

From September 11 – 16, a media management training workshop was executed at Thunderbird School of Global Management for the executive directors of radio and TV stations in Afghanistan, Eastern provinces. I was one of the participants who attended the workshop and would like to express my feelings about it.

In this workshop at Thunderbird, which was a 5 day long program, we covered 6 different subjects which were taught by different professors. Their teaching methods were organized in a very professional way. Besides their teachings, we were also given the opportunity to express our thoughts and perspectives.

The subjects we were taught during the program were: Negotiation Skills, Marketing, Accounting, Multi-track Diplomacy, New Media for Business Development, Advertising, Commercials and Social Networks. In fact, studying each field separately could take several years to cover all the material. But the way the professors taught us, at the end of each day, I felt I majored in each of these subjects.

Students might not remember every single word of what he or she learns at the university while studying for several years, but they do understand several things about that field such as; what the field covered? What is the position/value of such majors/fields in the social life? How can he help his community and people? Why studying this field is important?

By studying each day at Thunderbird, we have learned the value of such fields in our social life,  and I now have an idea how to use these fields in my life.

There are the changes I have seen in myself after participating in this program, even after my 18 years of education and 8 years of work experience:

1: On this day we learned about Negotiation skills. I was provided with the keys to successful communication. I learned to take into consideration the points that are very necessary while communicating in a group, or the points to remember while I’m trying to achieve objectives. Basically, how to communicate.  How to present my suggestions/requests so I can persuade the listener, and I can achieve my goal or get a positive result. I might have handled meetings very professionally before, but the self-confidence that I have now, I didn’t own it before.

2 : Marketing is a very important step/process toward achieving your goals, not only in business, but in fact it is important in politics, culture, society, religion, economics, and other ways to achieve one’s goals. For example: to find market for a political goal, one has to work to attract more followers. But in business, it’s to attract more customers to sell your products to. The Marketing class at Thunderbird, taught me lessons in persuading and convincing others to do advertising, using my radio station. If I am told to explain this field in once sentence, I would say “If I don’t benefit others, they won’t benefit me.” Meaning if I want to receive something from someone else, I also have to give him something. What I should give that person was taught to me in Thunderbird on that one day.

3: Financing – It’s the most important part of keeping an organization moving and sustainable. I have run an organization for 8 years. My financing was somehow good, but Thunderbird showed me ways in which I can forecast my future. With the formulas and charts that Thunderbird provided us to manage our finances, I can clearly forecast my organization’s existence, strengths, and weaknesses in the upcoming years and I can easily say where I will be standing after five years.

4: Multi-track diplomacy: Before I used to think that only countries use this diplomacy for developing their relationships but now I understand that this diplomacy can be used to increase the network and relationship of two organizations. I learned how can we attract the attention of different people to our stations and use them in terms of achieving our goals.

We were offered very useful and wise advices and guidelines for receiving advertisements for our radios. Beside that we also learned “If we don’t make our programs based on our audience’s interest, we won’t find any listeners or audiences. If we don’t have any listeners/audiences, we won’t receive any advertisements, and if we don’t receive them, we can’t continue our business.”

At the end I want to thank Thunderbird from the bottom of my heart. I am very impressed with their management style and appreciate it. They taught us A LOT of things in so little time. If I don’t get success in my business from now on, that would mean that I didn’t follow the lessons and guidelines of Thunderbird and haven’t embraced the advice and guidelines which were taught to me there. If I had the possibilities and chances, I would pursue my higher education at Thunderbird again and then would return to serve my countrymen and women.

by Amy Scerra and Anna Mussman

Mr. Shaiq suggests meeting again in one month to continue the dialogue

At a reunion of sorts, nine media entrepreneurs from Nangarhar and Kunar gathered at FOB Fenty on October 13, two weeks after they returned from a 3-week exchange in the U.S., a program funded through a Public Diplomacy small grant and facilitated by American Councils for International Exchange. Thunderbird School of Global Management hosted the gentlemen for 9 days as they completed a rigorous week of business training.

This gathering of media minds brought Brigade, PRT and District military and civilian officers together with radio station owners and managers to reiterate the power of media, particularly in promoting good governance, rule of law, agriculture development and economic growth.

“Oranges are an important crop in Nangarhar,” said Rodat’s Ag Advisor, Dr. Cheng.  “If you warn farmers of an approaching cold spell through daily weather reports over the radio, the farmers can harvest and then sell their oranges before they are damaged by frost.”

Sabawoon Hotik, Task Force Bronco’s Cultural Advisor and Media Liaison, talked about contacting his office to confirm news stories.  He explained that due to security concerns, independent journalists are unable to travel to sites to validate claims made by the insurgency and it would be best if these journalists heard both sides.

Governance Advisor Joanne Jensen stressed the media’s influence on economic stability.  “Help local businesses grow through radio advertisements,” she advised.  “Media as a powerful tool for communications that can highlight the governance capacity to provide essential services to the population and build credibility for GIRoA and its leaders,” said Civil Affairs Officer Major Nilda Toro. “The media can capitalize on GIRoA’s progress to assist Afghanistan to move forward.”

SCR John Bernlohr pointed out that the drawdown in forces does not impact America’s commitment to the people of Afghanistan. “The U.S. Embassy is committed to stay for years to come and will continue to support a vibrant and free media throughout the country,” Bernlohr stated.

Speaking about their impressions of the United States, the group was astonished to see the conglomeration of ethnicities that represent American society. They also discussed misperceptions, “We thought Muslims were treated badly in the United States,” said Shakib Amiri, owner of NAN, a radio station in Shinwar District. “But when we talked to Muslims on 9-11 while they were worshipping at a mosque in Arizona, we learned that this isn’t true. These Muslims all said they were treated very well.”

As the gathering came to an end, Mr. Shaiq, owner of Sharq Network, asked to meet again.  “Americans have different ideas that can help us overcome problems that often seem impossible to fix,” said Mr. Shaiq,  as everyone nodded in agreement.

Thunderbird professor emeritus Llewellyn D. Howell, Ph.D., spoke before a group of about 130 Returned Peace Corps Volunteers at the Malaysian Embassy on September 24 at a luncheon reception hosted by the Malaysian Ambassador to the US, Jamaludin Jarjis, Ph.D. This weekend marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Peace Corps by President John F. Kennedy. Dr. Howell served in Malaysia Group IV from 1963 – 1965. He spoke on the history of Peace Corps experiences in Malaysia and the success of the Peace Corps program over the last 50 years.

Learn more about about Thunderbird’s connections with the Peace Corps here.

(Photo by Suzy Howell, Managing Editor, Thunderbird International Business Review.)

By Amanda Roberson
MBA Candidate, 2012

One week ago, the world watched as Peru’s election results rolled in and an unpredictable scenario unfolded: leftist candidate Ollanta Humala narrowly defeated center-right leaning Keiko Fujimori. It was a chain of events most people in the Latin American world never would have imagined, including a group of Thunderbird students who were in Lima just a few months ago for the school’s Latin American module in Peru. I was part of that group of students back in February. During Professor Roy Nelson’s Latin American Business Environment class, we studied Peru’s political past with regard to its economic development and discussed the potential ramifications of this year’s election on the country’s business climate. As we gave our final presentation, our unanimous assessment was that Peru was likely to continue its impressive record of steady economic growth except in the unlikely event that Humala, a wild card known for supporting nationalization of industries and being chummy with Hugo Chavez, won. But that was a very remote possibility, we said. A slew of moderate, business-friendly candidates were in the running, and one of them was sure to win. We were wrong. 

Now the world continues to watch with anticipation as Humala picks his cabinet members, holds his first official visits with regional leaders and sends other signals about his intentions for his presidency. So far, it’s been a rollercoaster ride for Peru. On Monday, the day after the election, the country’s stock exchange plunged 12.45%, a fall Peruvian media outlets called the biggest in the exchange’s history, forcing its closure for two hours (http://www.eldia.com.bo/index.php?c=Portada&articulo=Peru:-Bolsa-de-Lima-tiene-su-peor-caida-historica-tras-victoria-de-Humala&cat=1&pla=3&id_articulo=64837). The market and the Nuevo Sol currency began to rebound later in the week as Humala appointed economic moderates to his transition team and called for unity (http://www.forexyard.com/en/news/Perus-markets-rebound-after-Humala-sell-off-2011-06-07T172822Z.) On Saturday, the front page of the Peruvian daily El Comercio featured Humala with his arm around former Brazilian President Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva, popularly known as Lula. Humala spoke of Lula’s success in bringing about economic development while including the poor and said that he will be “inspired” by Brazil’s model without copying it (http://elcomercio.pe/politica/776035/noticia-lula-se-reunio-humala-nego-que-exista-fantasma-hugo-chavez-sobre). 

So, what to make of all of this? Will Humala follow Lula’s example and embark upon a path of inclusionary economic development? Or will his presidency really mean the end of the country’s business boom? In this case, I hope our previous predictions were also wrong.

As I entered my third week as an intern with Proyecto Salta, I spoke to Peruvians about their opinion of their new president and their predictions on what it could mean for their country. Their tones varied from celebratory excitement from those who voted for Humala to grim yet hopeful disbelief from those who opposed him. Maria Fris Sancho is the owner of a busy children’s shoe stall in a downtown Lima market. When we met on Monday afternoon, she told me she was sad for two reasons: (1) yesterday, someone had stolen 500 Soles worth (about $165) worth of merchandise from her stall and (2) Humala won. Regarding the latter, she said she feared a trickle-down effect. “The big companies leave. That means less jobs. That means people have less money, and that means that they buy less shoes from me,” she said. Our taxi driver Erver, an enthusiastic Keiko supporter, said he feared what Humala was capable of, given his past as a militant rumored to have instigated violence. Others said that Humala’s chumminess with Chavez (from whom he attempted to distance himself toward the end of the campaign) meant the Peruvian leader now owes a debt to his Venezuelan counterpart, and the consequences of that repayment could be scary.
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On Monday, May 23, 2011, five Thunderbird MBA students will begin their 12 week internship working with Proyecto Salta in Lima, Peru. Proyecto Salta is part of a larger project called “Strengthening Women Entrepreneurship in Peru” or SWEP as we like to call it; in which Thunderbird is working with our partners to train over 100,000 women entrepreneurs across Peru. SWEP is a four year public-private partnership project funded by the Multilateral Investment Fund of the Inter-American Development Bank, the Australian Government (Hence our branding for Salta that looks like a Kangaroo, or even better yet, what I like to call the llamaroo; which really blends the two cultures of Australia and Peru!), Mibanco (the #1 micro-finance institution in Latin America), and Goldman Sachs.
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Military leaders and others have studied the art of war for centuries. Australian entrepreneur Steve Killelea thinks it is time to study peace. His organization, the Institute for Economics and Peace, measures the financial and social benefits that countries achieve when their citizens live without violence or fear of violence.

“If you look at the world today, you will find that there is a lot of study on violence but very little study on peace,” Killelea said April 12, 2011, during a visit to Thunderbird School of Global Management in Glendale, Arizona. “We spend a lot of time understanding how much violence costs, but we don’t do enough on understanding the economic value and extra prosperity that can be associated with peace.”
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Afghan businesswomen are stepping forward to repair the damage caused by men, a Project Artemis graduate said during the program’s commencement ceremony Oct. 29, 2010, at Thunderbird School of Global Management in Glendale, Arizona.

“If we look at the history of our country, usually men make the mistakes and we, as women, have to repair the mistakes,” said Najiba Faiz, who spoke in Dari through an interpreter. “As an Afghan woman, I want to affirm that a woman is capable of holding a cradle in one hand and the world in the other.”

Faiz, who owns a food processing company in Herat, spoke on behalf of the 2010 Project Artemis class of 19 women entrepreneurs. The fellows spent two weeks at Thunderbird in a mini MBA program that included site visits, classroom lectures and one-on-one coaching from mentors assigned to each participant for the next two years.

The fellows will spend next week in Washington, D.C., with the U.S.-Afghan Women’s Council before returning to Afghanistan.

Faiz said her country has entered a new era of prosperity and development following 30 years of war, and women are playing a key role in the reconstruction. “Of course Afghanistan needs the help of the female population,” she said. “As Afghan women, we are optimistic that we will bring peace, stability and prosperity in our country soon.”

She said each Project Artemis fellow is a role model in her community. The program, which Thunderbird launched in 2005, has produced 63 graduates in four classes.

Faiz said programs such as Project Artemis that emphasize education play an important role in Afghanistan. “No country can accomplish what it wants without the education of its people,” she said.

She said foreign invasions and other conflicts have hampered education in Afghanistan, especially for the women oppressed during the Taliban era from 1996 to 2001.

“We must not forget that a few years ago, these women sitting here were not even able to leave their homes alone,” Faiz said. “If they did, the Taliban would threaten them and whip them.”

Faiz received a standing ovation following her remarks. Watch her full presentation in this Thunderbird Knowledge Network video:

Where do library books go when they are no longer needed? If that book was in the IBIC, Thunderbird’s International Business Information Centre, there is a pretty good chance that it it will get a new lease on life somewhere else in the world. T-bird sends our discarded books to an operation called Better World Books where they are sold online to fund distribution of books to schools, community centers and universities in need. Some books that cannot be sold are donated directly to Books for Africa and subsequently go to Africa.  The IBIC has gotten rid of thousands of books in the last few years as we transition to a more paperless operation with more electronic resources.

So where do all of these books from Glendale end up? In T-bird style, even our library is truly global. The following gallery was emailed to us from our friends at Better World Books who used funding from the sale of our books to send a 40-foot-long shipping container full of books to Monrovia, Liberia. These educational resources were then distributed across Liberia by Visions In Action, a development organization.

This partnership embraces many of Thunderbird’s core values: doing good (books go to people in need), sustainability (not dumping used books in a land fill) and entrepreneurship (we earn a small profit).

Want to learn more about the International Business Information Centre? Visit them on Facebook.

By Stewart Sarkozy-Banoczy ‘91

As I thought about what my first post of 2010 should be I realized that even outside the theme of this blog, I was thinking a lot about the concepts of global citizenship and being a good global neighbor. This came from my work on the Thunderbird Alumni Network Board and the Global Citizenship Task Force, but also from a National Public Radio (NPR) submission I made to the This I Believe Program. In my submission I attempt to describe my own belief of us as a global family and I want to share that submission with you here. I wrote it on the anniversary of the Wall coming down and I have been thinking a lot about these themes since then and how it applies to business and the work of Thunderbird around the globe.

This I Believe (original submission on Nov. 09, 2009)

We are all related. I believe we are, though we try our best to deny it. We have had our share of global family feuds that make the ferocity of the Hatfields and the McCoys look like child’s play. Even the Berlin wall –- the 20th century’s most visible family feud — did not last, as we witnessed twenty years ago today. We have a very big, very dysfunctional family.
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