Archive for July, 2009

By Steven Stralser, Thunderbird professor

The recent performance by Lance Armstrong at the Tour de France highlighted several lessons that entrepreneurs can apply to managing their ventures. Like “the Tour,” these enterprises represent a path of grueling challenges from inception to maturity.

Lesson 1: What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger

In the case of Lance, we saw that physical challenges can produce great psychological strength. As entrepreneurs, we constantly are facing challenges and setbacks. It’s important to remember that the management focus during challenging times should not be on how your venture got into the struggle, but how it’s going to get out of it.
Read more »

Threats of violence keep Andeisha Farid indoors much of the time, but the recent graduate of a Thunderbird women’s entrepreneurship program in Afghanistan presses forward undeterred as founder and executive director of an orphanage network launched in 2008. “Women face lots of challenges in Afghanistan,” says Farid, a 26-year-old entrepreneur who graduated in February from the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women project in Afghanistan, which Thunderbird runs with the American University of Afghanistan.
Read more »

Entrepreneurs with good ideas swirling in their heads need to choose wisely before launching their next startup, LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman said July 28 during a live webcast with students in the global business plan class of Thunderbird Professor Steven Stralser, Ph.D. “You can only invest your life in one thing at a time,” Hoffman said. “And most entrepreneurs have a maximum of two to three startups in them.” He shared five strategies for identifying ideas with the greatest chance of success.
Read more »

Ever wonder what the process of starting a business feels like to the entrepreneur? LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman described it this way during a live webcast today with students in Steven Stralser’s global business plan class: “You throw yourself off a cliff and you assemble an airplane on the way down.” Hoffman said the challenge he faced when he jumped off the cliff six years ago with LinkedIn was reaching a critical mass of users before smacking into the ground. An online network of professionals isn’t useful unless its massive. Hoffman estimated he needed about 1 million users on LinkedIn to make the site sustainable. He hit the goal after 428 days. Today, he says, he adds 1 million users every 17 days. Stay tuned for more information about his interactive session at Thunderbird …

By Dr. Amanda M. Bullough, Thunderbird professor

NEW YORK — The Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women Leadership Academy brought together partners this week from some of the 17 participating countries in order to share best practices. It has been incredibly helpful and worthwhile to gather in New York and see what other partners are doing, and how we can alter our program this year with ideas we gathered from the others. It is clear that Thunderbird’s program in Afghanistan is fairly extreme, different from the other developing countries. We have similarities to programs in Liberia and Rwanda, but given that Afghanistan is no longer “post” conflict — as the country has slipped back into conflict since this past winter — our challenges are that much more significant.

A team of Thunderbird students led by Professor Gary Gibbons, Ph.D., has developed a sustainable business model to turn cattle and swine into cash for a collegiate club at the University of Arizona Meat Science Laboratory in Tucson. “It’s real-time consulting on a for-profit venture at a major university,” said Gibbons, a visiting professor of global entrepreneurship at Thunderbird’s Walker Center for Global Entrepreneurship.
Read more »

By Melissa Beran Samuelson, Thunderbird instructor

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Bomb blasts at two major hotels in Jakarta, Indonesia made headlines today. In fact, one of the women at my table yesterday morning after the blasts occurred was an Indonesian senator who was called about the bombing during the session. This act of terrorism made it all the more significant that the conference organizers had scheduled today for the launch of the “Jihad Against Violence” campaign.
Read more »

By Melissa Beran Samuelson, Thunderbird instructor

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — I arrived here as anyone does when flying half-way around the world, tired. However, I am so excited to be a part of the Women’s Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equality (WISE) Conference. That excitement carried me through cancelled connections, taxi rides between airports, and a last leg full of turbulence before landing in Kuala Lumpur.
Read more »

Corporate leaders looking for guidance in the prolonged economic crisis should check their rearview mirrors for fast-approaching global entrepreneurs, Thunderbird Professor Robert Hisrich, Ph.D., said recently from his office at the Walker Center for Global Entrepreneurship. He said big corporations can learn important survival lessons from small startups that know how to seize opportunities, stretch resources and create value for everyone around them.
Read more »

Women seeking equal participation in business leadership have made progress in some countries, but an award-winning study by Thunderbird Professor Amanda M. Bullough, Ph.D., shows that all countries still have room for improvement. “No country has achieved full gender equality in business leadership, but I think it’s achievable,” Bullough said. “And I don’t think it’s far off.” Her study, which divides 115 countries into four tiers based on women’s participation in business leadership, earned the best paper award for increased gender awareness in international business research at the 2009 Academy of International Business conference June 30 in San Diego.
Read more »