Thunderbird Magazine, Volume 54, Number 2 2001

              THUNDERBIRD Maga z in e WWW.T- BIRD.EDU 54/2/2001
THUNDERBIRD
Page 2
Expanding Across Borders
Sure, market entry sounds simple - until you
begin researching the financial, marketing. distri­bution,
and cultural challenges of the process.
Page 8
Multicultural Diplomacy
& Negotiations
Who you send in to negotiate and how they
prepare and proceed can make or break the deal.
says Dr. Karen Walch of Thunderbird.
Page 12
Real Options, Derivatives,
M&As, FORAD
Forget quick case studies! T-bird's finance classes
make students actively manage their firms each
day for a full term.
Page 16
UPS International
President Shares Strategy
"Forget B-to-B and B-to-C, B-to-Me is just around
the corner," said Ronald Wallace of UPS.
Page 22
The MIMjMBA Debate
Thunderbird is launching its first-ever MBA
option - which does not require second
language fluency. Learn why.
TABLE O F CONTENTS
Ranked #1 in international business
by The Wall Street Journal and
U. S. News & World Report
Thunderbird is America's premier source of global
management education with operations in the U.S.,
France, Russia, China, Japan, Mexico, Taiwan and Brazil.
Page 1
CHANGE AND CHALLENGE
Competition is up; enrollment's down. Thunderbird
must rapidly reposition itself to survive and thrive.
Page 14
MIMLA GRADUATES 2ND CLASS
One hundred and eleven Latin America-based
executives graduate from Thunderbird's Master of
International Management - Latin America program.
Page 18
EXECUTIVE DEGREES AT ' HOME'
Professionals can now pursue Thunderbird degrees in
Taiwan, Brazil, Arizona, France, and Mexico.
Page 21
BRAND MANAGERS ADVICE
What does it take to manage a major brand?
The same skills it takes to run your own business,
alumni say.
Page 24
WORLDWIDE WINTERIMS
T-birds take flight each January to experience the
business, culture, and language of key countries.
Page 28
RESOURCES THUNDERBIRD
Alumni use Thunderbird programs and
services to propel careers.
Page 30
FAMILY T I ES
Several families have graduated four or more mem­bers
from Thunderbird. And they're still recruiting!
Page 34
T- BI RDS OF TODAY
The Class of 2001. They're high-tech, high-touch,
and highly marketable. Meet a few.
Page 38
T- BIRD NEWS
Page 40
N ETWORK NEWS
Page 42
UPDATES
ABOUT OUR COVER
Phil Cabrera '78 is the assistant treasurer of
McDonalds International - which has restaurants in
120 countries and gets more than 50 percent
of revenues from outside the U.S.
~~-----------
_54/_2/2_001 _____________ ~I~I~---------------P.1
The last year has been one of the most dynamic in the history of
Thunderbird; at the same time, it has been challenging and stim­ulating.
Your institution has faced up to some sea-change shifts in
its marketplace and moved quickly to position itself for continued suc­cess
in the years ahead. This issue of Thunderbird magazine contains sev­eral
articles that will bring you up-to-date on several of the key initiatives
we have launched, but I wanted to
use this space to give you an
overview and put it into perspective.
Throughout the 90's, Thunderbird
enjoyed steady growth. The pool of
prospective students grew dramati­cally
as a master's degree in business
became increasingly attractive to
individuals - in the U.S. and else­where.
We attracted numerous appli­cants
and were able to increase both
the size and quality of our student
body. But as that decade ended, sev­eral
facto rs began to threaten our
progress.
For one thing, demographics in
the United States began to take their
toll. The age group most likely to
seek an MBA, those in their late-20's,
is at its smallest level in decades. That
age group represents the so-called
baby bust' generation bom in the
70's. It is a trend that will reverse
itself over the next few years, but we
are at the trough of that curve right
now.
was in place. Working with our Board of Trustees, the Thunderbird Global
Council, students, alumni, faculty and staff, we arrived at the Trustees
meeting in April with recommendations for our future. Out of that meet­ing
came a series of Board-directed initiatives that has launched us on a
new, exciting path. Much attention has been paid to the introduction of
the Thunderbird MBA, but that is only one of several steps that, com­bined,
are designed to position us for
great things in the years ahead. Let
me share a more complete list:
- We designed and launched a new
MBA degree. The faculty has done an
incredible job of putting together
one of the most innovative programs
in the industry.
-The faculty has taken the lessons
learned from the launch last fall of
the new MIM and placed advances
incorporated in the MBA into the
MIM offering for 2002.
- Thunderbird's three academic
departments have been merged into
a single faculty with eight areas of
emphasis: Accounting; Economics/
Operations/Decision Tools; Finance;
International Business Information
Center (\BIC); International Studies;
Languages; Management; and Mar­keting.
-The new Institute for Languages
and Communication is taking shape
with the formal launch expected
later this fall.
Another significant factor has
been the increasing number of non­U.
S. schools offering an MBA and
competing for the same applicants.
Additionally, and for Thunderbird
perhaps most importantly, the glob­alization
of the world economy has
meant virtually every graduate busi­ness
program in the world has incor­porated
at least some international
material into their curriculum and
begun marketing themselves as a
'global' program.
CHANGE AND
CHALLENGE
-We have retained Arthur D. Little to
do a comprehensive study of our
management capacity and structure
in light of this series of initiatives.
- Ground has been broken in
Archamps, France for the enlarge­ment
of our Thunderbird Europe,
French-Geneva Center, scheduled
for completion in mid-2002.
-We have joined the AEA Alliance of
leading business schools in Argen­tina,
Canada, China, England,
France, and Mexico. Thunderbird
wi ll be the sole U.s. representative.
The goal of the Alliance is to develop
partnerships and jointly produce
programs to extend the reach and
While we had been watching
these trends develop for some time,
the full impact hit Thunderbird last
August with the arrival of our Fall
2000 class. The group, while as qual-
A dynamic year at Thunderbird
By DR. ROY A. HERBERGER, JR.
PRESIDENT, THUNDERBIRD
ified as any we had ever admitted, was significantly smaller than we had
become accustomed to welcoming. Many of our peer institutions saw
similar dips in enrollment; but because Thunderbird is a stand-alone
independent private institution, the reduced enrollment had a more dra­matic
impact on us than similar changes at larger universities.
While the enrollment news was not so good, opportunity was at our
door. The good news is that this prompted us to take a deep and far­reaching
look at everything we have been doing and every strategy that
capability of member institutions.
While I am very confident in the direction we have set, I am also very
aware that success will only come through effective execution.
It is important to tell you that we could not be more proud of our staff
and our faculty in the way that they have come forward to help Thunder­bird
in these challenging times. You should also know how much your
support of the school and the decisions we had to make means to all of
us here. Even in the face of uncertainty, there is a quiet optimism and
belief in the future of Thunderbird. •
p.2 WWW.T - BIRD .E DU 54 / 2 / 2001
EXPANDING
ACROSS
BORDERS
Market entry strategies must be multi-faceted and well researched
BY LINDSEY MICHAELS
t is one of the world's most recognized brands, with nearly 29,000 restaurants in 120 countries bringing in $40 bil­lion
per year in revenues. It is McDonalds, and you'll find the famed restaurants everywhere from Britain to Bolivia
to Saudi Arabia to Singapore. When McDonalds' founder Ray Kroc served his first hamburgers to the heartland
of America in 1955 he probably never envisioned his trademark golden arches flying overseas. Yet today,
McDonalds is as recognized abroad as it is in the U.S. That's because 50 percent of all McDonalds restaurants are
located outside of the U.S. and more than 50 percent of the company's operating income is derived from them.
McDonalds isn't unique in that respect. Faced with domestic market
saturation, shareholder growth requirements, economy of scale initia­tives,
and increased human mobility, companies throughout the world
have begun globalizing aggressively. But, exactly what does it take to
enter - and expand - new markets successfully? A lot, says Phil
Cabrera '78, assistant treasurer, McDonalds International.
A six-year McDonalds employee, Cabrera is charged with helping his
company fund its expansion globally. "McDonalds typically invests
around US$l million in the land and building for each restaurant, "
Cabrera said. "Franchisees invest about US$500,000 in equipment, sig­nage,
and seating costs. Of course, investment amounts vary around the
world." Thus, funding is one of the first major market entry barriers for
capital-intensive companies like McDonalds.
Cabrera works directly with a multitude of company officials, world­wide
financial institutions, suppliers and franchisees. Along with tax and
legal advisors, he must also help investigate the unique tax, legal, and
banking practices of each country. Given that it owns or leases the land
most restaurants rest on, McDonalds is a major global real estate con­glomerate,
in addition to being a world-renowned food marketer.
"We have a very long-term view of the markets we're in and, as such,
have learned to deal with the volatility," Cabrera said.
According to Cabrera, in large part, McDonalds obtains much of its
required funding from multinational and local banks. "Our corporate
policy is to finance ourselves in the currency in which we sell our ham­burgers
whenever possible," he said. "So, a large part of my job indudes
working with controllers at the local level and educating local financial
institutions about the McDonalds model, which, in tum, helps our fran­chisees
obtain funding."
A 1978 graduate, Cabrera has focused on banking and international
business for more than 20 years. "The thing that distinguishes the Latin
American market, and international business in general, is volatility, and
that's what makes it challenging and fun," he said.
Cabrera suggests that people researching new markets develop dose
relationships with the local and international auditing firms, law firms,
and banks. Also meet with other multinationals and local firms, and
"leave your arrogance at home." Such groups, he said, can open local
doors and steer you dear of funding and partnership nightmares.
"Currency volatility is a given. There are times though when the local
currencies are so volatile that it is simply more advantageous to finance
in U.S. dollars. But don't let currencies end your expansion efforts -
especially if you're investing long-term." Cabrera cited Brazil as an exam­ple,
saying that McDonalds has been there for more than 20 years. As a
result, Brazil is already among McDonalds' largest markets and the mar­ket
is growing rapidly.
McDonalds still protects itself by monitoring all of its international
markets and hedging where appropriate.
"Another attractive thing about Brazil and most of Latin America for
us, at least, is that real estate has typically retained its value and serves as
a hedge."
Financing market entries strategies is one challenge. Identifying mar­ket
opportunities, packaging, price points, and distribution channels can
be another.
54 / 2 / 200 1 WWW.T - BIRD .E DU p . 3
p.4 WWW.T- BIRD .E DU 54/2/2001
"Asia is a duster of very different countries that must be analyzed and
marketed to separately," said Ramandeep Singh '99, who is the Asia
region business development manager for Bayer consumer products in
Singapore. "The India and China markets, which are just opening. are
not the same as Southeast Asian markets such as Thailand and Malaysia
- which are developed to an extent but which still have a long way to
go - or countries like Japan or Singapore, which are highly developed
and pretty similar in make up to that of the United States."
Singh cautioned that companies looking to enter each of those markets
must do thorough business intelligence and market reviews of each coun­try,
and then plan on employing country-specific market entry strategies.
"In India and China, you will encounter a wide network of family­owned
businesses that have been operating in the market
for years and years together," he said. "When a foreign com­pany
like ours wants to enter into the country, there are a
number of challenges to face, not only in terms of getting
government approvals, but also in terms of cooperating and
fighting the local giants." Those 'local giants: he said, often
have long-established relationships with the media, with
suppliers, and with those who regulate standards, which
they can leverage to create further market entry barriers for
foreign firms. The government in such countries does open
for multinationals but most prefer local companies.
In such cases, Singh suggested acquiring local expertise,
or perhaps, entering into a joint venture with a local firm,
where you own at least 51 percent of the joint company.
This facilitates incorporating global international standards on one hand
and learning local business practices on the other. But, he cautioned, you
should leave the local management team intact so as to leverage its mar­ket
knowledge and key contacts.
Singh, who did an internship with Bayer in Cambodia, termed South
Asia and Southeast Asia 'virgin territory: There are few well-established
stores and distribution channels, but in countries like Vietnam, which
has a population of 80 million, people have begun embracing con­sumerism
- and placing a premium on foreign brands. The challenge is
that Vietnam is still very bureaucratic; it also requires companies to pro­duce
most products domestically. Singh added that companies tend to
fare better when they place someone in-country full time. In fact, Bayer's
current country manager in Vietnam is also aT-bird.
When analyzing markets, other issues also come into
play. McDonalds must adapt menu selections to local tastes
and import nearly all its goods, until it can build supply
chains locally. Some companies find that selling single-serv­ing
sizes works well in countries with low per-capita
incomes. Others 'link' different products in a 'buy one get
one free' format in cultures that value bargains. Many must
also utilize in-store or event 'road shows' to demonstrate
key products when television, direct mail, and other pro­motions
aren't readily accessible.
"Expatriate compensation costs are quite high and they
must also be considered when calculating potential mar­gins,"
Singh added. "Because your local competitors will
54/2 / 200 1 WWW.T-BIRD . EDU
not be paying them, they can often sell for less. You must be prepared
for that."
For many, having good products and good market intelligence is the
Holy Grail of new product and market launch. You simply have to
understand your products' attributes, your potential dients, your com­petitors,
the country's laws and its supply chain systems. If you don't,
you're setting yourself up to fail.
Babs Ryan '81 is a stickler for market research. Now the vice president
for GE Financial Assurance's Home Services products, she learned the
importance of collecting varying types of data during her first post-grad­uation
job.
"I became completely enchanted with motorcydes while at Thunder­bird,"
she said. "So when I saw an ad for a marketing position with
Kawasaki in London, where I'd gone after graduation, I pretty much rode
up and asked for the job.
"I knew motorcydes, and I knew a lot about motorcyclists, since I was
one, so I was able to recommend some very targeted strategies for
obtaining data."
As head of the Marketing Department, Ryan first compiled a database
of 80% of motorcyclists in Great Britain, which induded the make,
model and purchase date of the bike, plus rider preference data. That
allowed her to run very targeted direct mail campaigns. Next, she used
her in-depth product and customer knowledge to get creative.
"Rather than just running ads in the leading motorcyde magazine,
we'd insert a 'performance' package of Kawasaki materials. And when
most of our competitors were lining up their bikes at trade shows, we
created themes. One year, for instance, our bikes were part of a Merry-go­Round
and carnival theme. The bikers loved it and all their kids were
walking around with balloons bearing our logo. Another year, we set up
a trade show stand made entirely of mirrors after realizing how bikers'
images of themselves on new motorcydes triggered sales. The mirrors let
potential buyers see exactly how they would look on our bike from all
angles. They loved it.
"As a result, we increased our market share to 65 percent on models
over l25cc - which was the highest profit segment for motorcycles -
and we beat Honda by a mile." Ryan also reduced prior year inventory
by packaging each bike together with a set of high-end, in-demand,
matching motorcycle leathers. "It all comes down to knowing who your
dient is and exactly what you can offer them," she said. "By under­standing
that most British riders used their bikes as their primary form
of transponation, even during the coldest months, we were able to use
that promotion to help clear out 6,000 bikes in just three weeks. We also
reaped the added benefit of getting bikers to ride around Great Britain
wearing our logo on their backs."
Today, Ryan applies that same zeal for client data to her work at GE
Financial Assurance. She even has four U.S. patents pending for busi­ness-
building innovations.
Timing market entry is another critical component of strategy. Chris
Curtis '97, manager of international strategy, helps make those choices
for eBay.
"When I joined eBay three years ago, we had less than so employees,
were not particularly well-known, and did not even have an internation­al
group or growth strategy," Curus said. "Today we have a site presence
in over 17 countries and we expect to be in 25 countries by 2005."
According to Curus, eBay does both Qualitative and Quantitative
analysis of potential new markets and panners, and the company's first
foreign foray was into two other English-speaking countries: the United
Kingdom and Australia.
"The UK was a complete 'build' operation. We simply customized and
localized a certain percentage of our site for the UK market," Curus said.
"In Austral ia, we set up a joint venture with a large local partner that was
YOU DONI HAVE TO BE BIG
Just Well Prepared and Wise
STORCH INTERNATIONAL INC. ISN'T A HUGE CONGLOMER­ATE.
But it is a multinational. The Wisconsin-based export­marketing
firm, which sells raw materials to fabricators of
window covering products, has a staff of just four people and annu­al
sales of under $10 million. Yet Richard Storch '75 has successful­ly
entered China, Hong Kong, and more than 30 other markets. His
company has also won Wisconsin's Small Business Administration's
Exporter of the Year 2000 Award.
"The majority of the money I've invested in my business has been
in travel," said Storch. "Yes, you have to read the preliminary reports,
but I never work with a prospect or market unless I take two or three
trips over to the country myself. I guess I believe in getting to know
the market by doing basic 'street market research: Then you know
your decisions are based on good, solid first hand information."
Storch also stressed knOWing your products and market thor­oughly
enough to find the proper fit - and in finding the right part­ner.
"You can't go in with the attitude that the first contact that
comes along will do. You have to pick the right partner from day
one:' If not, Storch believes,
you foster ill will in the mar­ket,
cause marketing delays,
and risk setting yourself up for
costly legal problems.
Although Storch's company
has successfully entered many
countries during its 14-year his­tory,
he is proudest of his
recent entry into China. That's
because he worked closely
with his Hong Kong-based
partners and invested heavily
to establish a local office of his company.
"Asia is one of our most critical areas for future growth and my
Chinese customers, in particular, are some of the most demanding
customers I have;' Storch said. "They expect outstanding quality and
service for the price:'
After interviewing college graduates in Hong Kong, Storch
believed it was important to bring his new-hire to the States for a
full year to really learn his products and strategies, visit his factories,
and attend trade shows. That investment has already paid off.
"The fact that I was committed enough to open an office there
and staff it with someone who really understood their culture and
language - as well as my business - made my Chinese clients real­ize
just how important they are to me;' Storch said.
p.5
p.6 WWW.T - BIRD .E DU 54 / 2 / 2001
in the media business." According to Curtis, both countries were logical
expansion targets because of growing Internet usage and other factors.
Lack of a language barrier also made the company's first foreign market
entries easier.
"Germany represented eBay's first entry into a foreign language market.
It was also our first international acquisition." That dedsion was prompt­ed
primarily by the fact that a Germany company had already launched
Alando.de, an eBay style site; eBay chose to purchase that company.
'These guys pulled an eBay on us before we could do it ourselves,"
Curtis said, "which is one of the factors you have to take into considera­tion
when developing your expansion strategy. You don't want to go in
too soon - before the market is there - but you also don't want to give
competitors too much time to establish their brands and build their
market share."
According to Curtis, eBay learned that lesson in Japan. Competitor
Yahoo launched its Japanese auction site in September 1999, while eBay
didn't enter that market until March 2000. As a result, 75 percent of
Internet users in Japan now sign on to Yahoo's overall properties at least
once each month and Yahoo's auction site regularly boasts over two mil­lion
items - compared to 15,000 on eBay.
Given that Japan is now the world's second largest e-commerce mar­ket,
eBay's entry delay there could prove costly. That's one reason com­pany
offidals elected to purchase iBazar, which has a strong presence in
the growing Brazil market, as well as sites in France, Italy, Spain, the
Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, and Portugal.
"The reality is that there really is a 'first mover advantage' in this
industry," said Curtis. "Assuming that it has a solid site, the first compa­ny
that builds a vibrant community in a marketplace creates a momen­tum
that makes it very difficult for others to catch up."
The challenge, of course, is knowing precisely when to enter each mar­ket.
And that's where good business intelligence proves invaluable.
While 'go/no go' criteria differ for each industry, some things are univer­sal:
companies must thoroughly research and understand the target
market's size, sodal economic structure, cultural nuances, and laws.
For eBay, that indudes things such as knOwing country-by-country
Internet usage rates and existing technology platforms, how frequently
credit cards are used, the impact of banking, import/export, and other
laws, and how people feel about buying 'used' vs. 'new' merchandise or
buying 'sight unseen:
"In Germany and France, for instance, 'hate propaganda' is outlawed
and we have to deal with 'filter' issues," said Curtis. "Then there are cul­ture-
spedfic buying attitudes. While a 'garage sale' mentality is prevalent
in the U.S. market, there is actually a stigma attached to buying things
secondhand in Asian cultures. As a result, people in places like Japan
tend to buy a lot - primarily unique, high-end designer goods from the
U.S., France and Italy - but they don't sell much."
And while e-commerce in Brazil is reaching critical mass, eBay must
work to create a full range of andllary escrow and import/export servic­es
that help eBay users there - and in other countries - exchange goods
and services across borders.
"I'd leave you with a simple rule-of-thumb," added Babs Ryan. "The
first step in analyzing potential market entry is knowing - then being
able to dearly articulate - exactly what your product does that no one
else's can. If you can't do that, nothing much else matters.
"Luckily, that's where we, as Thunderbirds, have a major edge in other
countries. We can apply everything we learned, not just in dass, but from
all those people from all those countries we befriended at the cafeteria
and Pub." •
THUNDERBIRD EUROPE
Thinking global?
Think Thunderbird •••
America's #1 Graduate School of International Business­Now
Full-Time in Europe!
.... Thunderbird students experience Europe first-hand. .... Students fram many cultures exchange insights and ideas.
Thunderbird is more than a business school -
its unique, multi-cultural community and global curriculum
are your t icket to an exciting new career!
The journey begins at Thunderbird! Whether you attend
our main campus in Arizona, USA or our fu ll-time Thunderbi rd
Europe si te, you can become a global business ci tizen.
Attending Thunderbird means immersing yourself in an Olympic
Village of faculty and students who come from more than 70
nations, from nearly every type of background, and who embrace
diversity. They provide a personal entree into every culture,
taking you far beyond stereotypes and into the heart of how
people in each country really act and feel.
Thunderbird 's unique curriculum consists of courses in World
Business, International Studies, and Modem Languages. So, in
addition to core business skills, students learn to truly understand
the unique language and culture of doing business globally.
Thunderbird students can now start-and complete most of their
courses-at our Thunderbird Europe, French-Geneva Center.
Located just minutes from Geneva, the French-Geneva Center
offers easy access to Europe-based global multinationals and
some of Europe's best internships and jobs.
Thunderbird also gives students the option of studying in nearly
30 countries each year through our Overseas Programs-where
they can experience the culture, speak the local language, and
learn about the country's business practices firsthand .
To become a global leader, co ntact:
• Cynth ia Zoubir, Director of European Admissions and Student
Services, at +33-4-50-31-56-63 or email zoubirc@t-bird.edu, or
• Judy Johnson, Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid, at
1-602-978-7596 or emai l johnsonj@t-bird.edu
Ranked #1 in International Business by The Wall Street Journal and U.S. News & World Report
Acc redited by: AACSB and NCACS
WWW.T-BIRD.EDU ~ ~::M~'~N~R:D~~~C~O~ ~ OF INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT
-P.s-------------11VIE WPOINT 1_ ________54_ /2_/2°_°1
WHAT'S MI~E IS MINE
AND WHAT 5 YOURS IS
NEGOTIABLE!
New market entry often involves negotiating strategic partnerships
or purchases. So, do you truly understand the process - the cultural
and emotional nuances - of global negotiations? If so, do you also
understand yourself well enough to negotiate successfully?
BY DR. KAREN S. WALCH, Assoc. PROFESSOR INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
Thoughts of the simple phrase that is
the title of this article can make people
want to run, fight or give in as a nego­tiator!
That's because negotiation isn't
for the idealistic or innocent; it's for those with
the discipline to confront their own internal
negative forces of destruction, scarcity, and sep­aration.
The journey from negotiation preparation to
accomplishment requires both intellect and
heart. It is not for everyone. After many years of
study and working with thousands of negotia­tors,
I can tell you that there is nothing more
profound than watching someone realize his or
her own innate, universal, and vital source of
negotiation power. Here's some of what I have
observed in my global negotiation and bar­gaining
courses at Thunderbird.
THE VALUE OF THUNDERBIRD
[n negotiation, we know that the notion of
self-interest deeply fuels the fire of frustration
- and fun - in the global marketplace. But
how do we appropriately define self-interest,
power, preparation and success in today's mul­ticultural
milieu? How do psychological and
spiritual sources of power - in addition to
their organizational, political, legal and eco­nomic
power base - impact the motivations,
mindsets, and effectiveness of each of us?
At Thunderbird, courses such as Internation­al
Political Economy, the Regional Business
Environment of Asia, Europe, Latin American
and/or North America, and Cross Cultural
Communication, go a long way toward prepar­ing
our students for global negotiations scenar­ios.
For instance, a Mexican T-bird recently
related how much his competencies in the lan­guage,
culture, and politics of the areas where
he does business positively impact his ability to
prepare and negotiate with confidence -
despite working for a very small Mexican com­pany.
He specifically credited his ability to
negotiate in 'intensely colloquial and unique
local business terminology' with helping him
prepare and negotiate successfully.
Thunderbird courses that highlight legal and
political differences throughout the world also
teach students that local legal systems often
cannot supervise the fragile and complex inter­personal
relationships that exist between fami­ly
members in firms, suppliers and buyers - or
management and labor - in many cultures;
that obtaining local political, legal, or econom­ic
clout can strengthen your position; and that
power is very much a function of perception -
in both what you believe can be done and how
another perceives your ability.
T-birds learn that negotiation in a political
environment can be rather like a rain dance. It
may sometimes have very little impact on the
weather itself, but it can make people who need
to believe that they're in complete control feel
a little better. As negotiators, we must often
work very hard to improve the dance itself -
not the weather - thereby achieving the type
of trust and feeling of mutual gain that is ulti­mately
productive in such environments.
Understanding this, as well as the language,
political, cultural and economic factors of the
players, then combining them with the emo­tional
competency of'enthusiasm', often takes T­birds
to new heights as negotiators. One female,
American T-bird, who speaks very good Japanese
and who truly understands the culture, was
negotiating a deal for an entertainment contract
on a cruise line that used a civil port that was
located in the far north in a cold area, difficult to
reach, and dismal in winter. The T-bird's negoti­ation
tearn members went in with a negative
view of the deal, but she confidently drew upon
her cultural and language knowledge to inform
and motivate, and ultimately, to close the deal.
She believes her positive attitude and emotional
resilience were so contagious that everyone even­tually
came to value the deal.
Students who take my class often assess past
negotiation experiences and come to realize
what really went wrong. A Swedish T-bird with
significant experience selling million-dollar
computer systems now realizes that the main
reason he lost business was his failure to effec­tively
communicate tangible and intangible
benefits, such as price, delivery, pay.ment terms
and service. Had he known more about the
'psychological' issues he had in not listening
enough and being more courageous, he could
have achieved substantially more.
Armed with such knowledge, the T-bird
negotiators I witness can go far beyond the pre­dictable
topics of power and process in their
preparations. In fact, they become very sophis­ticated
in their detailed treatment of both the
'egocentric' and 'sociocentric', 'structural' and
'psychological', and 'western' and 'eastern'
approaches to self-interest and power that are
inherent in a negotiation process.
SELF-INTEREST, POWER AND STYLE
Negotiators fundamentally negotiate for
what they want, but moving from an egocentric
point of view to a sociocentric one requires
preparing for what they - and others - need
from a negotiation. One way of describing the
interaction between east and west is to show
what T-birds have learned about integrating
western attitudes with what they learn from
eastern colleagues - and vice versa. For exam­ple,
many typical male, American negotiators
find that their strength is negotiating using
hardball tactics. However, T-birds have
achieved more success in international negotia­tions
by using the 'exchange' and 'reciprocity
54/2/2001 WWW.T-BIRD .EDU p .9
p. 1 0
and silence' principles that are common in
eastern negotiation styles. Conversely, female
negotiators from Asia, who tend to use a 'soft
talking' and 'yielding' style and 'wait and see
what we deserve' mindset, have learned to com­municate
and assert ideas more effectively.
Egocentric and sociocentric self-interest
issues affect a negotiator's ability to have an
open mind when examining political, social,
and cultural points of view. Negotiators actual­ly
have to practice opening their minds by
focusing on the intricacies of such relation­ships.
Great negotiators also utilize principles
from marketing. For instance, a sociocentric
notion of self-interest expands as marketing
negotiators move beyond seeing the world
from their point of view to understanding the
needs of the customer, to inventing options for
helping all sides achieve their goals.
Negotiators have to honestly assess their
own fear ofloss and pure self-interest in prepar­ing
for negotiations. An Australian T-bird
described his negotiations in the U.S. as a buyer
for a telecommunications company. From an
egocentric perspective, he believed that the
price, unit, and volume commitments he'd just
outlined with an equipment vendor were per­fect.
But when they reached an impasse, he
stopped to look at the deal from the vendor's
point of view and realized that they had over­looked
discussing shipping terms. That extra
effort helped finalize the deal - and launched
a long-term partnership.
Strategy negotiators also employ 'structural
power; which involves using business intelli­gence
and analysis, and utilizing political, legal,
and economic power sources. However, they
also explore the role 'perception' and 'values'
play in affecting how these resources can be
employed. One student works for a bank in
Peru where his customers often require various
letters of credit to conduct business. He is very
familiar with the factual information that
determines whether or not a company receives
such letters. He also understands the political
and social factors that can affect success. As a
result, he doesn't automatically accept rejec­tions
from his credit risk department; he also
uses his strong psychological communicator
archetype to negotiate with superiors and risk
group members - and in so doing, has earned
the long-term loyalty and trust of many clients
who have used the second chance he secured
them to go forward and succeed.
ARCHETY PES
A female T-bird in Eastern Europe found that
her 'warrior' archetype allowed her to establish
product lines in several markets - negotiating
with dealers and local marketing officers for
annual contracts. To accomplish that, she need-
WWW.T-BIRD .EDU
ed tremendous confidence, courage, and con­viction,
as well as the strength to 'stand on her
word: While, structurally, she knew she had
U.S. head office support and the legitimate
hierarchical power to influence local marketing
officers, it was her cultural savvy that taught her
that her real power in the market came from
knowing how to speak the language and how
to work at a pace - and in a way - that was
appropriate for Eastern Europe.
Another T-bird, from Venezuela, assessed his
struggle between the 'warrior' and 'servant'
archetypes when negotiating. The warrior arche­type
describes positive behavior - being active
and energetic in the face of rejection and chal­lenges,
possessing an internal sense of strength,
power, and wisdom that he uses for his person­al
development and growth. However, in his
Latin American culture, many negotiation issues
become highly personal. Through class, he real­ized
that whenever negotiation outcomes risk
affecting his family and relationships, his nega­tive
'servant' archetype often dominates. That
archetype motivates him to do for others and
accept what's offered without a clear sense of
what he personally deserves. By better under­standing
this contradiction between his servant
and warrior attitudes, and how it weakens his
negotiating prowess, he has learned to use his
emotional competency to identify his servant
attitude - which can make him resentful and
unproductive - then correct the problem.
A Chinese student had identified himself as a
positive 'emperor' archetype for believing that
all negotiation participants can share in an
abundance of resources. But he also possesses
the negative trait of silence, holding in feelings
54 / 2 / 2001
and not identifying emotions such as anger and
disappointment. This would require other
negotiators to try to perceive his feelings -
which could be disasterous. He has had to work
on becoming more conscious of being honest
and willing to communicate and reciprocate
during the negotiation process.
BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE AND
EMOTIONAL INTELLI GENCE TOOLS
My most significant revelation after working
with culturally trained negotiators is that they
have a dialectic and integrative (but practical)
view of negotiation. They use business intelli-gence
(B[) and emotional intelligence (EI) tools
to evaluate both structural power and the psy­chological
mechanisms of power when prepar­ing
for negotiations. Business intelligence is the
legal collection, analysis, and use of informa­tion
regarding the competitive environment -
including the vulnerabilities and intentions of
business competitors or partners. [n addition to
doing market research, negotiators should pre­pare
for market entry by determining the appro­priate
negotiation agenda and practices for each
market. For example, developing new business­es
in India would require negotiators to identify
market opportunities, packaging, pricing and
distribution partners before negotiation could
begin. They would also have to learn about the
cultural values regarding family, labor unions,
and local perceptions toward foreign compa­nies.
While determining the true value of goods
and services in international markets is funda­mental
to negotiation preparations, so too is the
systematic preparation and understanding of
emotional resources related to that culture.
54 / 2 / 2001
Emotional intelligence or competence repre­sents
elements of how well we manage our
intemal psychological states - our emotion~l
tendencies to reach goals, the awareness of oth­ers,
and our abilities to induce desired results in
negotiations. Let's look at an example. A Europe­based,
American female in the telecommunica­tions
field was promised that she would be
given a technical position. But, she felt neglect­ed
and passed over for prime technical posts.
Instead of focusing on her positive skills and
contributions, she let pessimism dominate.
Once she realized she could change her nega­tive
attitude into a positive one, she began to
get proactive - constructively negotiating with
her manager. Before then, she had felt frustrat­ed
and powerless. Afterwards, she found that
her manager remembered her promises. She
landed the company's Internet Web job - and
did it quite successfully.
By virtue of their backgrounds and course­work,
I have found that T-birds are unusually
aware of how many issues exist in the multicul­tural
and global marketplace and just how
important negotiation is a a problem solving
WWW. T- BIRD . EDU
and conflict resolution tool. They understand
that changes that occur in the financial, politi­cal,
and technolOgical environment of one place
are probably connected somehow to 'some­where
else: Increasingly, however, even T-birds
are discovering that the world is largely defined
and shaped by our imaginations - rather than
by the structural reality of limited resources.
That's because no one really knows what the
world is like; we all simply perceive relationships
and transactions in the context of our own intel­lectual/
emotional analysis, illusions, specula­tions,
and/or misconceptions about the market
and/or political structures.
PERCEPTIONS
A French T-bird was astounded to discover
that this Chinese and Japanese negotiation
team colleagues viewed his perceived strength
at leading others as a weakness. In the French
business culture, where he termed structural
power and hierarchy a 'big dea l', he had had to
'spend a lot of energy trying to dimb the ladder
and prevent others from getting there before
him: After talking with his Asian colleagues he
came to view that type of power as
a 'plague for human beings' when
working multi-culturally. He had to
begin acknowledging and admir­ing
his colleagues' competencies
and values so as not to be perceived
as aggressive - and ineffective -
in an Asian setting.
Not surprisingly, many people
now contend that negotiations are
shaped primarily by what negotia­tors
actually perceive as meaning­ful,
dangerous, and critical. Again,
Thunderbird students have a
tremendous advantage here since
their multicultural training and
experience have already taught
them that people act according to
the way the world appears to them
- not necessarily according to the
way it 'is'. They accept the fact that
'our consciousness' represents the
next great frontier - the critical
domain for negotiation and prepa­ration.
Thus, I've found a reso­nance
in T-birds to explore how
negotiators use various kinds of
mental models, as well as emotion­al,
and archetypal frameworks, to
analyze negotiation environments
and individual skills and attitudes.
I've also seen their awareness that
these psychological frameworks are
what drive us to respond to the
'objective' facts about any political,
economic and social situation.
p.1 I
HISTORIC 'MENTAL MODELS'
The traditional western, Machiavellian 'men­tal
model' was that humanity was by nature sin­ful,
wicked, driven by pure egoism, and fueled
by an instinctive lust for power and the desire to
dominate others. Therefore, negotiations were
seen as a struggle for power, a contest of wills,
and the unwavering pursuit of pure self-interest
and self-defense. That 'mental model' or philo­sophical/
psychological perspective prompted
negotiators to use manipulation or hard bar­gaining
strategies to ad1ieve an 'I win. You lose'
outcome. However, in the post-modern 21st
century, many question the efficiency, effective­ness,
and ethics of such a negotiation strategy.
Globalization - with its impact on workforce
mobility, corporate restructuring, diversified
and multicultural workforces, and complex
service/industry sector valuation - virtually
forces negotiation to function as a conflict reso­lution
tool. People have to analyze assumptions
and determine the appropriate approach to use
of power so they don't 'knee jerk'.
One male, American student termed realiz­ing
that there is power in simply listening, as
well as a need to educate others that they
shouldn't 'cut people off when speaking, as the
two key skills he learned in dass. The truth is
that even today, many negotiators still try to
intimidate others and make them feel weak. so
we teach reality-testing techniques and process­es
that counter Machiavellian-style negotiators.
In the end, our own behavior, emotions, dissat­isfaction,
and understanding of power are the
only real barriers we face. 'Win-Win' style nego­tiators
have to learn to take time to cool off,
collect their thoughts, and see the bigger pic­ture.
Once they do, they find it easier to side­step
the hardball negotiator and diffuse his or
her destructive style. And, if all else fails, win­win
negotiators realize they can always negoti­ate
with another supplier, partner, or manager.
THE THUNDERBIRD MODEL
The 'win-win' negotiation style - which
allows both sides to achieve their goals, 'save
face', and preserve long-term working relation­ships
- is the 'mental model' we teach in every
course at Thunderbird. Our negotiation students
learn that power must be understood in a psy­chological
and archetypal sense before a negoti­ation
can succeed. They recognize that emotion­al
and cultural currents are even more powerful
than thought and logic - thus, the more com­plex
the intemational social system, the more
psychologically flexible and adaptable they must
remain. Such self-awareness and suspension of
judgment provide the mental darity, optimism,
and self-efficacy that I believe will continue
prompting T-birds to seek out - and achieve -
tremendous goals in the 21st century. •
p.12 WWW.T-BIRD . EDU
From Real Options to Derivatives,
to M&As and FORAD
Finance courses make T-birds manage day-to-day
BY LINDSEY MICHAELS
Many people have heard of Thunder­bird's
famed FORAD finance course,
which requires student teams to
guide a simulated U.S.-based company, with
German and UK subsidiaries, through seven
grueling financial 'quarters'.
Forget quick case studies! At Thunderbird,
finance majors must actively manage their
firms each day throughout the term.
"We've developed two strong multinational
finance career tracks here at Thunderbird -
one that prepares students for corporate
finance positions and another that
prepares them for global investment
management posts," said Dr. Mark
Griffiths, an associate professor of
finance and area-coordinator. "All
are based upon a combination of
classroom learning and in-depth
application exercises."
FORAD, for instance, requires stu­dents
to strategize about when and
how to expand production facilities,
how to buy and bill between sub­sidiaries
to capitalize on country-spe­cific
taxation laws, how to hedge for
exchange and interest rate shifts, and
the impact of each decision on sales,
debt, credit ratings, and share price.
"FORAD is a very dynamic pro­gram
that forces students to make
operations, strategy. and finance deci­sions
in a very real world setting. one
where they are never quite sure how
economic and market conditions are
about to change," said Dr. Michael
Moffett, the associate professor of
finance who teaches the program.
In FORAD, the group achieving
the highest per share price at the end of the
'game' wins - although each group must turn
in detailed financial and supporting state­ments,
then defend its choices in front of a
four-person finance faculty panel. Those pan­elists
function as the Board of Directors during
a grueling one-hour defense where they 'drill'
students regarding their rationales and choices.
"My experience with this class was awesome!"
said Felipe Jens '00, who now works as a finance
associate for Enron. "Even though I had to invest
many hours preparing for the classes, then spend
even more hours during the weekends preparing
the FORAD Financial Quarter Reports, it was a
good cost-return experience."
By the end of FORAD, students have learned
to strategize through an entire series of critical
'what if scenarios they may have never even
really considered otherwise.
"I still use what I learned in FORAD." Jens
said. "In fact, I just had to prepare a business
plan for Enron focusing on the challenges and
opportunities of investing in several emerging
markets. I used Dr. Moffett's book and class
notes to prepare much of that material."
Thunderbird's latest curriculum 'coup'
involves obtaining the first academic site license
for PricewaterhouseCoopers' (PWC) award win­ning
ln$ider derivative-training CDs. PWC
developed In$ider to train its derivatives audi­tors;
Cargill Industries and Bank of America also
use the tool. The interactive, four disk In$ider
series immerses students in a real-world, 3D
learning environment where they have to make
hard choices - then live with the results.
At the end of the first disk. for instance, stu­dents
get 'fired' for leaving their company
exposed to a US$100 million counter-party risk.
54/2/2001
During the second disk, they must track down
unauthorized trading. determine the degree of
resulting exposure. then recommend security
procedures to prevent future occurrences.
PWC's In$ider program is part of Thunder­bird's
Financial Engineering & Derivatives
course - which is now required of finance
majors. That course teaches risk management,
how to modify uncertain cash flows, how to
hedge currencies and commodities, and how to
establish protective measures and manage
financial processes.
''Thanks to ln$ider, Thunderbird's students
now graduate already trained to professional
standards. That gives them yet another advan­tage
in the market place since their counterparts
from other world-class business schools need
employer-paid, supplemental training to obtain
that same skill set," Griffiths said.
"The In$ider software is the closest thing to a
real experience I have seen in education." said
Bego Urionabarrenechea '01, who works for
CEMEX in Mexico. "What I've learned from this
software will stay with me for a long time
because I've made mistakes and seen exactly
how they affect the company."
Because derivatives are now a critical man­agement
tool for hedging all types of financial
risk. those skills are used heavily in Thun­derbird's
other top-level finance course -
Global Portfolio Management (GPM). In GPM,
students optimize a self-selected, ll-item port­folio
that must include at least three assets each
from the world's various bond and equity mar-
54/2/2001
kets. They must also develop a plan to sell this
portfolio to investors and to analyze its per­formance
over a simulated lO-year period. "The
final report in this course should demonstrate
the student's mastery not only of basic invest­ment
concepts but also of modern risk man­agement
techniques such as value-at-risk,
Monte Carlo simulation, and stress testing."
Griffiths said.
"GPM was the most fast-paced and demand­ing
class I had at Thunderbird," said Armando
Urena '01 who works in Lehman Brothers'
Private Clients Services group. "The class
helped me gain a high level of comfort in ta lk­ing
about some of the more technical issues
related to portfolio management and has given
me a solid base of knowledge from which to
grow as a financial professional."
According to Griffiths, GPM's demanding
workload is one reason the current 3-credit
course will be expanded into three l.5-credit
ones: portfolio management, financial model­ing
and fixed income.
"At the SOOO-course level it's tough to tell the
difference between students with statistics
backgrounds and those with finance ones,"
Griffiths said. "That's because core quantitative
computations drive even qualitative choice,
which is why many of the finance recruiters
who come to Thunderbird still value good
'quant' skills heavily."
Not surprisi ngly then, Introduction to Real
Options, which is taught by nationally recog­nized
expert, Larry Chorn, always has twice the
WWW.T- B1RD.EDU
number of applicants as the class can hold. Real
Options teaches advanced financial engineer­ing
concepts, such as look-back and barrier
options. It also teaches students how to apply
those concepts to decision models related to
corporate investment and divestment strategies.
'The Real Options class opened my eyes to
the idea that in any situation with uncertainty,
there is a value in positioning oneself to take
advantage of opportunities if they arise," said
Eric Giauque '00, a senior financial analyst at
Intel. "For example, I'm currently working on a
project here at Intel using real options and
Monte Carlo analysis to determine the optimal
number of processors to build. The grounding
I gained in Real Options at Thunderbird gave
me a head start on this project that has been
extremely valuable."
Winterim on Wall Street is another course for
which students compete aggressively. Usually,
the course has three times as many applicants as
space. Held each January,
the program walks students
through a typical firm's
funding lifecycle. It also
takes them on site visits to
the Federal Reserve, the floor
of the New York Stock Ex­change,
the trading floor at
Solomon Smith Barney, a
professional money man­agement
firm, and the New
York Mercantile Exchange.
"From our vantage point,
which has traditionally
been inside Dresdner K1ein­wort
Wasserstein's corporate
boardroom at 7S Wall
Street, you can't help but
feel like you're in the heart
and soul of the financial
world," said Dr. Phil Drake,
an assistant professor of
accounting. who co-directs
the program with Griffiths.
"Our students meet with
alumni - such as then
Dresdner K1einwort Wasser­stein
North America CEO George Fugelsang
'63 - and other professionals involved in
everything from venture capital and handing
initial public offerings, to obtaining project
funding. and guiding companies through
bankruptcies," he said.
'They get to see first-hand the types of
finance that might most interest them. Many
also get internship and job offers." Winterim
on Wall Street is so valued by Wall Street invest­ment
banking firms that. in addition to spon­sored
receptions and lunches, companies such
as Citigroup provide travel grants. _
p . 1 3
partici­pant
knew, felt, or should have known at each
step along the way.
"Mergers aren't just about accounting and
finance, and they are so much a part of corpo­rate
life today that we want Thunderbird stu­dents
to live and breath a real merger - or at
least as close to the true experience as one can
get in academia - before millions of dollars
and thousands of peoples' lives are on the line,"
Drake said.
Students participate in two weeks of cases
and lectures then in a weeklong role-play case
study designed specifically for the cou.,.. The
recent MBA course was based upon the 2000
mega-merger between Glaxo ~e and
SmithKlein Beecham. Stude. had-to Jearn as
much about the actual ca~ bY players as
possible without actually ..t(nowing who they
were. They spent the final w
p. 1 4 WWW.T - BIRD . EDU 54 / 2/2001
MIMLA GRADUATES 2ND
DISTANCE LEARNING CLASS
The flags of Peru, Spain, Great Britain,
Colombia, Guatemala, and Mexico all
flew at graduation. Six flags, representing
six countries and the 111 working executives
who came from them - all of whom were unit­ed
by the common goal of preparing to work
effectively in the global economy. The graduates
were all awarded dual degrees on June 30, 2001
from Thunderbird and Instituto Tecnol6gico y
de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM)
- which teamed up to create a powerful
alliance that helps Latin America-based learners
cross borders and become enriched, economi­cally
as well as intellectually. That's because in
addition to teaching core business skills, the
program also introduces students to cultures
and perspectives that are much different from
those they are accustomed to.
Class of 2001 graduates were the second class
to receive a Masters in International Manage­ment
for Latin America degree from the
two top-ranked graduate business
schools. The new program, called
BY MAYELA TRAHIN
MIMlA for short, has been offered since 1998
and brings the best features and faculty of
Thunderbird and ITESM directly to students.
Potential students have been especially excit­ed
by the MIMlA option for two reasons. First,
Thunderbird is the top-ranked graduate school
of international business in the U.S., ranked #1
by The Wall Street Journal and u .S. News and
World Report, and ITESM, which is based in
Monterrey, Mexico, and has the #1 ranked MBA
program in Latin America, according to Ameri­can
economic magazines. Second, the program
allows high potential executives with at least
five years of work experience to obtain a quali­ty
graduate business education without having
to interrupt their careers.
In MIMlA, students throughout Mexico and
Peru attend classes 'virtually; receiving the bulk
of their instruction by satellite from Thunder­bird
and ITESM faculty. Classes, which are held
every other Friday and Saturday, are
transmitted via satellite from
Thunderbird in Arizona and
from ITESM in Monterrey. Students also com­municate
extensiveJy with instructors via the
Internet and videoconferencing.
According to Jose Ifiesta '01, a graduate from
Guadalajara, Mexico, 'The virtual education
practiced in this program is actually very bene­ficial
as it also trains us to work with the latest
technology our companies are using today."
But, he added, "Even though everything is vir­tual,
human relations and human contact are
always present."
One hundred and twenty-six Class of 2001
students began their studies in August 1999
with a weeklong seminar called "Leadership in
Global Business in the XXI Century" which was
held at Thunderbird. One hundred and eleven
- or 88 percent of them - returned two years
later to graduate.
This year's commencement ceremony began
with touching renditions of the Mexican and
American national anthems. Julio A. de
Quesada, president and managing director of
Citibank Finance Group of Mexico, was the
keynote speaker. After congratulating the grad­uates,
he also shared a few of his secrets of suc-cess
with them. His single most important
suggestion? "Always enjoy what you do, be
optimistic, be flexible, be prudent, take risks,
listen and learn, and never loose your sense of
humor."
Quesada added, "MIMlA contains all of
the factors crucial to a world level program
at its best; it certainly is an excellent com­bination,
especially because it gives
people who otherwise could not
adjust their personal lives or their
work agendas the opportunity to
take this master's course."
Dr. Ben Valencia, director of
MIMlA at Thunderbird, and Dr.
Antonio Dieck, co-director of
MIMlA at ITESM, observed proud­ly
as their special breed of T-birds
enjoyed all the fruits of their hard
work. From ITESM's perspective.
Dieck said, "This is a magnificent
alliance with an excellent partner.
This class now makes 215 gradu­ates
to date and all of them have
been very satisfied with the results
of their program. In fact, about half
54 /2/ 2001 WWW.T- BIRD .E DU p. I 5
"A LWAYS ENJOY WHAT YOU DO, BE OPTIMISTIC,
BE FLEXIBLE, BE PRUDENT, TAKE RISKS, LISTEN AND
LEARN, AND NEVER LOOSE YOUR SENSE OF HUMOR,"
JULIO A. DE QUESADA, CITIBANK FI ANCE GROUP OF MEXICO
of them have already been
promoted - even before
completing their master's
degrees. Many have also
begun their own compa­nies."
Dieck also said he
believes the graduates are
considerably different people
now compared to what they
were when they started the
program.
Unfortunately, this was
Dieck's last year as ITESM's
MIMLA co-director; Dr.
Mauricio Gonzalez '94 now
assumes that role.
As is the custom in His­panic
cultures, friends and
families of the graduates trav­eled
to Arizona to join and
celebrate with them. Among
the graduates who celebrated
with family members was
Class of 2001 valedictorian
Andres Rodrigo Garda
Morlel who said, "I'm very
satisfied with this graduate
program because it offers two
things. It gives you the
opportunity to obtain an
American education in Mex­ico,
and it doesn't interfere or
interrupt your professional
growth."
Thunderbird welcomed
145 incoming Class of 2003
MIMLA members to campus
August 1 to begin their pro­gram.
Those students are cit­izens
of 11 countries -
El Salvador, France, Hong
Kong, Mexico, Netherlands, Panama, Slovenia
and the U.S. - and will participate in the dis­tance-
learning program at nine ITESM sites in
Mexico and Panama. The MIMLA Class of
2003 is also 25 percent larger than the 2002
MIMLA class. One hundred and nine of the
115 Class of 2002 students are still actively
engaged in the program. _
FOR ADDITIO AL I FORMAno on the MIMLA
program, please contact Thunderbird's Dr. Bert
Valencia via email at valencib@t-bird .edu or by
fax at (602) 978-7729.
p.16 WWW.T- BIRD.EDU 54/2/2001
President of UPS International Speaks at Thunderbird
Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, UPS is the world's largest package
delivery company, carrying 13.6 million packages per day on its fleet
of 500 planes - which makes UPS the world's 11th largest airline.
The company posted revenues ofUS$30 billion last year and employs 350,000
people at 450 facilities in more than 200 countries and territories. UPS was just
named the "The World's Most Admired Company in the Mail, Package and
Freight Industry" by Fortune magazine for the third consecutive year.
So, you're UPS and you're already great,
global and extremely large. What's your
game plan for the new century? Ronald
Wallace, president of UPS International,
and Alan Amling, director of Electronic
Commerce, told students, staff, and faculty
February 20, 2001 at Thunderbird. The men
addressed three key points:
• UPS' vision as a global company
• The role e-commerce plays in global
business, and
• What qualifications managers need to
succeed in a global world.
They also took the incredibly impressive
step of bringing video testimonials from
Thunderbird alumni who now work for
UPS worldwide. One alumnus is the vice
president of Asian operations. The other
works on the Global E-Supply Chain team.
60th gave first-person accounts of what it's
like to work for UPS and why a Thun­derbird
education is so valuable.
flOur goal is to become the leader of
global commerce," Wallace said, explaining
that his company must, therefore, think
non-traditionally. That's why UPS' strategic
operations include a global finance and
funds transfer business, a customs house
brokerage that can often arrange for pack­ages
to clear customs while still in the air,
and a strategic enterprise fund that invests
in young companies in search of a 'knowl­edge
return:
According to Wallace, UPS began expand­ing
globally in 1975, expanding into
Canada, then into Germany the year after.
During the mid-1980s, the company fore­saw
the coming need for a seamless cross­border
European delivery
system, and so began
acquiring the first of its 16-European-based
companies. Today, it sees tremendous
potential in China, where it already delivers
to 95 percent of businesses.
''Within 20 years, the middle class in
China will exceed 1 billion people," Wallace
said. 'That's four times the entire U.S. pop­ulation.
Today," he added, "there are more
Chinese people studying English than there
are English speakers in the U.S."
Amling then addressed the group, saying
UPS launched its e-commerce site five years
ago. The site gets 40 million hits per day.
"We're at that critical intersection between
the virtual and physical worlds," he said.
"Today, things aren't going around the
world in 80 days; they are going around the
world in 30 seconds." UPS sees itself as
playing a critical role in helping companies
manage their supply chains efficiently. The
company tracks each package through 250
'data elements' as it ventures around the
globe, allOwing customers to track exactly
where things are and when they should
arrive. Its systems also he.lp facilitate cus­toms
clearance - saving time and money
for its cl ients.
Amling termed www.ups.com a 'work
site,' not a Web site, saying that
people "come here to get things
done." The site gets 3.5 million
online tracking requests per day.
In addition to serving business
clients, UPS now delivers 50 per­cent
of all goods and services
bought over the Internet. It pro­vides
UPS Internet Shipping in
34 countries, including an online
account set-up option. Saying
"returns can put you out of business,"
Amling told how UPS has pioneered an
online return program that costs about ten
cents per transaction, compared to a average
cost of $2.50 per transaction for telephone­based
return programs.
Wallace then told students that todar's
managers must be proficient in four key
areas: logistics, customer relations, technolo­gy,
and culture. "Forget 6-to-6 and 6-to-C,"
he said. "B-to-Me is just around the corner."
He stressed the importance of knowing the
local culture, saying, "No matter how bril­liant
you are, no matter how many degrees
you have, you won't succeed without cultur-smarts."
•
BY LINDSEY MICHAELS
L.L. ©. 20 0. 1 Door femes & C~~, , Itic. AU Rights
MONDAY, APRIL 30,. 2001 . .
*
• Hidden. gems
. • Corporations
: ·pay.to play· ;
• The top foreign
programs
. .
... S.ctlon R
p. 1 8 WWW.T-BIRD . EDU 54/2/2001
DEGREE PROGRAMS IN
"'" SAO PAULO AND ASIA
Thunderbird reaches out to
executives in their home region
BY GONZALO VALENZUElA '01
Sao Paulo, the industrial cap­ital
of Brazil, will play host
to Thunderbird's next MIM
for Executives Program that targets
high-potential managers through­out
the world. Already implement­ed
in Taiwan, the program will
bring the MIM to executives in
Brazil this fall.
was Chinese/Brazilian consultant
Robert Wong. one of the most
renowned headhunters in Brazil.
Wong is the MERCOSUR regional
managing director for Los Angeles,
Ca.-based Korn/Ferry International,
considered the number one head­hunting
company for executive level
positions including CEOs, CFOs,
and other senior level jobs. During
his address Wong stressed the rele­vance
of executive education for con­tinuous
professional advancement.
The event resulted immediately in
more than 60 requests for applica­tion
materials.
This groundbreaking initiative
is part of the School's multi-local
strategy to expand Thunderbird's
global brand recognition and pres­ence.
"This program provides
working executives in Brazil and
other regions with a chance to
earn a Thunderbird credential
without giving up their job, with­out
leaving their family for a long
period of time and having to come
into the United States," explained
Dr. Roy Nelson is the academic director of the MIM in Sao Paulo program.
The selection process for the MIM
in Sao Paulo is more rigorous than
that of the regular MIM offered in
Glendale, particularly in terms of
Frank Lloyd, Thunderbird's vice president of Executive Education.
The School has tearned up with the American Chamber of Commerce
(AMCHAM) in Sao Paulo to offer this degree to high potential executives
in Brazil. AMCHAM is a privately funded, independent, non-profit asso­ciation
that brings together almost 4,000 companies and their nearly
10,000 representatives.
"We are partners, we share the proceeds, and we are targeting their
4,000 member companies first before offering this program to anyone
else, said Jussara Philippet, program director of Thunderbird's Exec. Ed."
According to Lloyd, AMCHAM has a great deal of experience in pro­moting
educational programs to their members and it will provide
Thunderbird with valuable guidance in terms of which specific actions
to take in order to successfully approach the Brazilian executive market.
Another good reason for partnering with AMCHAM in Sao Paulo is the
support of the organization's president, alumnus John Mein '70. "We
want to prepare executives capable of performing in the global business
environment and there is a strong need for professionals with interna­tional
vision in Brazil," he said.
Philippet explained that the MIM is reaching the Brazilian market at
the perfect moment. "Brazil has a strong need for good education ... the
country is finally coming out of a recession and they do need people
with these skills," she said. "A lot of people leave Brazil to get executive
education, especially to come to the United States, and I think having
these courses at home will be a great advantage for them."
The entire program is taught in English by Thunderbird faculty and it
is based on Thunderbird's leading international business curriculum.
So far, the MIM in Sao Paulo has generated a great response among
local business people. Over 300 Brazilian executives attended the launch
of the program in Sao Paulo in March. The keynote speaker at the event
professional experience. The admis­sion
criteria require a minimum of eight years of full-time work experi­ence,
including three years in a managerial position. Moreover, appli­cants
should be currently in a management position at or above mid­level,
and they should meet the regular school requirements regarding
GMAT and TOEFL scores.
In order to help with marketing efforts in Brazil, Thunderbird has
engaged local advertising and public relations agency Paulo Andreoli &.
Associados, one of the leading PR companies in Brazil, which also works
for large clients such as America Online, Ericsson, and Embraer.
Several ads have been published in the business press and an exten­sive
article about Thunderbird and the MIM in Sao Paulo was published
in career-oriented magazine Voce. Other articles appeared in prestigious
local publications such as Veja and Exame.
The academic director for the MIM in Sao Paulo is associate professor
Roy C. Nelson, Ph.D., who lived in Brazil while researching the comput­er
and pharmaceutical industries and working for Pharmacia &. Upjohn.
"The Thunderbird MIM for executives prepares participants to build
successful international business careers," Nelson said. "Executives gain
a widely respected international business credential and become part of
Thunderbird's tightly-knit worldwide network of alumni."
Nelson is a three-time recipient of the "Outstanding Professor in
International Studies" award at Thunderbird and his publications
include the book Industrialization and Political Affinity: Industrial Policy in
Brazil, as well as numerous articles on Brazil and Latin America.
Other members of Thunderbird's world-class faculty will be teaching
the MIM in Sao Paulo.
The MIM in Sao Paulo starts October 15, 2001, when the executives
meet for the first of 10 six-day modules. Nine of those modules will take
place in Sao Paulo, and one on the Glendale campus. Between each
54/2/2001 WWW.T- BIRD .EDU p. 1 9
THOUGHT I KNEW NEARLY EVERYTHING ABOUT INTERNATIONAL
BUSINESS UNTIL I TO THUNDERBIRD'S MIM PROGRAM"
- jERRYW.T. WANG
p . 2 0 WWW.T-BIRD.EDU 54/2/2001
module students will have six weeks to contin­ue
with their daily jobs in addition to working
in group projects as part of the e-Iearning com­ponent
of the program. They wiIl tum in
homework and review class materials online,
in addition to using different school resources
for their group projects, such as access to peer
groups, chat rooms, and Thunderbird's Inter­national
Business Information Centre (!BIC).
ence and knowledge to not only grasp the occasional idea
which may be of value, but they also possess the ability to
discern between theory and application, between desire and
determination. "
The industries represented by executives in this class are
computer, semiconductor, information systems, trade, distri­bution,
manufacturing, engineering, and marketing.
Tang explained that Thunderbird decided to implement
this program in alliance with Taiwan-based Acer Group
because it is one of the world's premier high-tech companies
- which is precisely the focus of the program in Asia. Acer is
a leading worldwide PC maker currently expanding into pro­duction
of digital communication devices and e-commerce.
This learning model has proven successful in
Asia, where Thunderbird implemented the first
regional MIM for Executives, in alliance with
the Acer Group's Aspire Academy. Pauline Tang
'90, the associate director of Executive Educa­tion
responsible for the MIM for Executives in
Asia, explained that one of the most valued
aspects of the program is that executives have a
chance to apply immediately what they have
learned in class to their daily work.
The first Thunderbird MIM class for execu-
Frank Lloyd, vice president of
Thunderbird's Executive Education
Students attend classes at Acer's world class Aspire
Academy facilities in Taipei, where Thunderbird faculty are
flown in every six weeks to teach the different modules that
lead to the MIM degree - which is actually conferred in
Arizona. Some of those modules focus on global strategy,
global marketing, e-business and supply chain management.
The Academic Director of the MIM for Executives in Asia,
tives in Asia includes seven vice presidents and
CEOs, and four general managers from Hong Kong, Singapore and
Taiwan. Every six weeks they meet in Taipei for their learning modules,
which, they say, constitute enduring marks in their management careers
and everlasting learning experiences.
"An experienced international manager myself, I thought I knew near­ly
everything about international business until I came to Thunderbird's
MIM program, which opened my eyes to a new world of skills I still need
to know," said Jerry WT. Wang, Acer vice president.
Faculty members are equally impressed by the MIM in Asia experience.
Dr. Michael Moffett, who teaches Global Finance, termed the program
both a terrific opportunity and a great responsibility. "Rarely, as an edu­cator,
do you have the ability to truly influence or impact individuals who
are at the leading edge of their industry," he said. "The degree students in
our MIM-Asia program are in many cases people in positions of great
responsibility and leadership in their business units. They therefore pos­sess
a drive, which goes beyond that common among degree students;
they are keen to acquire knowledge for what differences it can make in
the competitiveness of their business units today and tomorrow."
Moffett also said that these students "individually possess the experi-
GLOBAL ISSUES 2001
Dr. Robert Moran, is a world renowned specialist in cross cul­tural
communications. Moran received the "Outstanding Professor in
International Studies" award at Thunderbird 13 times. His books have
been translated into Mandarin, Thai, Korean, Japanese, Portuguese and
French and are an industry standard.
As the first Taiwan class graduates in December 2001 a second group
is beginning - with an expected graduation date of May 2003.
An MIM for executives in Europe will be launched shortly and based
at the Thunderbird Europe, French-Geneva campus.
"Even though our executives get to stay at home and work during
most of their training, we plan on having students from each region
meet once all programs are fully operational," Lloyd said. "For example,
the Brazil class could have one of their modules in Taiwan, hosted by the
Taiwanese participants. Or Brazil and Taiwan could go to Europe to join
the European class for one of their modules."
As a result, MIM for Executives Program participants will begin
immediately experiencing the benefits of Thunderbird's famed world­wide
alumni network. •
EDITOR'S NOTE: Gonzalo Valenzuela '01 of Chile speaks three languages,
was the managing editor of DasTor, and interned with Global Sources.
Change Within Your
iIiI1'j1und.~rbird for this exclusive 2 1/2
:.iJI~rann. Designed specifically for
just prior to the Reunion 2007 we.ekE~nd
uses applied learning, global case
[se.ssicms. Learn to ignite change in
chain innovation, service
rnmlun;'cation and finance. All taught
here on the Thunderbird COInptlli
www.t-bird.edu/alumni/only (602) 978-7635 or (602) 978-7812 muellerj@t-bird.edu or otoolemj@t-bird.edu
54/2/2001 WWW.T- BIRD.EDU p.21
Alumni 'Brand Managers' Coach Their Fellow Thunderbirds
"W're on your side; we want you in our companies.
That's why we're all here."
That's why five alumni, working as brand managers for
General Mills, Proctor & Gamble, Nestle and Unilever's home
and personal care and Bestfoods divisions, said they spent
March 16th at Thunderbird. During their visit, they conducted
mock interviews with students and provided feedback regard­ing
how well Thunderbird had prepared them for their jobs -
as well as feedback on the students' mock interviews. The five
then participated in a 90-minute brand management panel.
Kay Keck, Thunderbird's vice president for Professional and
Career Development, moderated the discussion, posing ques­tions
before opening the microphone. To many, Keck's question
regarding 'essential skills' evoked the most surprising answers
from panelists. That's because all five panelists talked about
their need for good financial skills.
"You have to have a broad base of all functional skills -
budgeting. forecasting. working with an ad agency, strategic
planning and contract review," said Adriana Silva '00, a brand
manager at Unilever. She likened brand management to run­ning
your own business, stressing the ability to 'multi-task:
"The marketing side of what I do is actually much less than
the business financial side," added Kristine Bast '98, who
works for General Mills. "You need to understand how what
you do impacts your bottom line."
Karl Krawitt '99, who manages the Friskee's pet food brand
for Nestle, echoed that sentiment. "[ have to calculate RO[
[return on investment[ and break-even all day long." he said,
"because shareholders don't care about creativity; they care
about your bottom line." Krawitt said he also uses skills he
learned in Thunderbird's Business Intelligence class constantly.
"I never thought I'd ever use what I learned in Managerial
Accounting. but I use it every day," said Gail Gibford '00, who
also works for Unilever. The truth is that there's no class at
Thunderbird that you won't use somehow or somewhere as a
brand manager."
Katherine Bast '98, who is Kristine's twin and a brand man­ager
at Proctor & Gamble, added, "[ have to know exactly what
[ shipped yesterday, as well as what [ shipped to major clients
like Wal-Mart."
She - and all other panelists - also talked about the power
key distributors now hold over manufacturers.
"People think of brand management as consumer sales but
the bottom line is that I'm selling to companies like Wal-Mart.
Yes, customers remove the product from its shelves, but my
sales force has to convince each store to put it there. This is seIl­ing
B-to-B."
"I had a situation once where Wal-Mart didn't like my new
packaging and refused to carry it," said Krawitt. "That resu lted
in a $12 million loss per week until we could get it changed."
The panelists also spent time discussing their communal need
for good crisis management, analysis, persuasion, and project
management skills before taking student questions, then
adjourning to a reception in the World Business Atrium. •
- BY LINDSEY MICHAELS
,1tE TRUTH IS THAT THERE'S NO CLASS AT THUNDERBIRD THAT YOU WON'T
USE SOMEHOW OR SOMEWHERE AS A BRAND MANAGER:'
-GAIL GIBFORD '00
THE
MIMjMBA
DEBATE
By DR. JOHN SEYBOLT
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, ACADEMIC AFFAIRS
With the start of the Fall
2001 trimester, Thunder­bird
has entered a new
era. The institution has
never been static. It
evolved from the American Institute of
Foreign Trade - offering a Bachelor of
Foreign Trade (BFf) degree when founded
in 1946 - to the global institution it is
today. But perhaps no period of its evolu­tion
has been as dramatic as the past nine
to twelve months.
Thunderbird enters this era by inaugurat­ing
its one-year MBA program - making it
important for the School to define the dif­ferences
and the similarities between that
degree and our traditional MIM program.
Let's start with what the two degrees have
in common:
• Both are graduate business degrees;
• Both prepare the student for more
advanced business careers with companies
that do business on at least a multination­al,
if not fully global, scale;
• Both indude a core curriculum of basic
business disciplines, international studies
and cross-cultural communication courses;
• Both allow for deeper study of specific
business specializations;
• Both are taught in a thoroughly global
context and environment.
But beyond those similarities, each does
offer its own distinct set of advantages.
The MIM curriculum is designed to pre­pare
the student to do business in or with a
specific region of the world. Thunderbird's
54/2/2001
tradition is built around preparing ilS students
to take their careers oUlSide their home country.
The non-English language requirement, the
required depth of regional studies, and the spe­cializations
all focus on preparing someone to
go somewhere else in the world successfully.
Thunderbird's strength has historically been in
providing ilS studenlS with the skills they need­ed
to enter a different culture, to hit the ground
running, and to ensure a business understands
the risks and opportunities it faces as it enters
that market. As the comprehensive Thunder­bird
experience, the MLM offers both a solid
graduate business education and extensive
preparation for possible foreign assignmenlS.
The MIM also makes available, in addition to
the traditional business specializations of mar­keting,
finance and management, a specializa­tion
specifically designed for those interested in
pursuing a career in emerging markets, be it in
a corporate, governmental or NGO setting. The
MIM is also well suited for the individual with
a little less experience in the business world
and/or desiring more time to build deeper lan­guage
and cultural knowledge.
But in today's business world, global careers
don't necessarily mean leaving one's home
country on a long-term basis. The demand from
corporations for the expatriate businessperson,
while still present, has shrunk. And it is those
employer demands that shape the expectations
and demands of the graduate business student.
WWW.T- BIRD .E DU
To respond to these changes, Thunderbird
has decided to offer a one-year MBA in addition
to continuing to offer the MIM. The MBA cur­riculum
at Thunderbird will have a much deep­er
level of international studies and cross-cul­tural
communication courses than the MBA
offered by any other U.S. business school and at
least equal to that offered at any non-U.S.
school. It will be a uniquely Thunderbird pro­gram,
with a global context and multi-discipli­nary
approach woven throughout each course
- both the core curriculum of the Thunderbird
MBA and the courses included in each area of
specialization. The Thunderbird MBA curricu­lum,
which has been designed by a team led by
professors Caren Siehl and Bill Youngdah(;Uso
includes a required three-hour interim course
offered between trimesters. Thunderbird makes
a wide range of such courses available, most of
which are offered oUlSide the U.S. A non-U.S.
interim course is strongly recommended for
Thunderbird MBA studenlS. The Thunderbird
MBA is designed specifically for the individual
with substantial business experience and with
existing linguistic skills they feel fit the needs of
their projected career path.
The core motivation for most individuals
pursuing a graduate business degree is to
increase their career opportunities. In deciding
which Thunderbird program to pursue, each
student should evaluate what skills they need to
obtain their career and per-p
. 2 3
sonal goals. Laid out as a comparative chart, the
graduates of the two programs would guarantee
prospective employers the following:
THUNDERBIRD MIM
• Core global business skills
• Guaranteed level of post-undergraduate
experience
• Non-English language/cultural knowledge
• Regional Business Environment depth
• Four specialization options
THUNDERBIRD MBA
• Core global business skills
• Guaranteed level of business experience
• Solid cross-cultural and global business
foundation
• Three specialization options
Regardless of which program studenlS pur­sue,
each will share a core experience that is the
heart and soul of Thunderbird.
It starts within a dynamic multi-cultural
environment. With more than 70 nations rep­resented
in the full-time student body, and an
almost equally global faculty, it is a given that
every class, every project team, every social
event at Thunderbird has a global focus. Thun­derbird
students don't just study cross-cultural
communication; they live it virtually every hour
of every day. Global business issues aren't rele­gated
to a handful of courses or the study of an
international case or two, they are part of every
problem and every class at Thunderbird. •
p. 2 4 WWW.T- BIRD. EDU
WINTERIMS
AROUND THE WORLD
BY EMILY GIACOMINI '01
From Cape Town to Santiago, from Paris
to Havana, from San Diego to New
York City, adventurous Thunderbirds
take flight throughout the world each
August and January. Winterims and Interims
are popular two- and three-week courses that
explore specific business, social and regional
topics. They allow students to gain insight from
local alumni, government officials and corpo­rate
leaders in both business and social settings
- often while improving their foreign lan­guage
skills. Many students even interview with
companies and receive internship or full-time
job offers while traveling.
For many applicants, Winterims playa huge
role in swaying them toward Thunderbird,
since they are a feature many other leading
graduate business programs simply do not
offer. At least they helped sway
facturing Plant and Nando's, a local restaurant
chain. At BMW, cars were being assembled to
customer specifications, demonstrating the
plant's flexibility even as far as installing right­versus
left-hand drive. BMW cannot manufac­ture
vehides fast enough to meet demand, both
in South Africa and internationally, and many
of its Rosslyn plant cars are shipped abroad. A
short stop at a BMW motorcyde dealership
rounded out our understanding of BMW's
strategy in South Africa. The immaculate gar­dens
and enormous facilities that make up the
BMW campus, as well as the spread of cheese,
crackers, fruit, cakes, coffee, and tea that were
offered to plant visitors gave us the flavor of
what a successful multinational corporation in
South Africa might look like.
In addition, we met with leaders of a non-profit
organization to
me. These programs present
not only a beneficial hands-on
experience for the hundreds of
students they attract each year,
as well as continued learning
for the professors who dedi­cate
hours to planning and
conducting them, but they also
represent an extra 'value-add'
to the many companies that
recruit at Thunderbird specifi-
"• •• MY TIME IN
get another perspec­tive
on life and issues
in South Africa. Con­quest
for Life aims to
reach the community
of Westbury, located
outside Johannes­burg.
In Westbury,
three major problems
SOUTH AFRICA HAS
MADE ME EAGER TO
FOLLOW ITS CURRENT
EVENTS AND INVEST
IN ITS GROWTH:'
cally because its students possess the type of in­depth
business culture and language skills that
make them successful world business leaders.
Contrary to popular belief, Winterims and
Interims involve way too much work to be con­sidered
holidays! On Dr. Femi Babarinde's
South Africa Winterim, which I attended, stu­dents
earned three credit hours for a program
that induded a week in Cape Town, two weeks
in Johannesburg, and completion of a 15 to 50-
page paper analyzing the issues and industries
we visited. The program began with two thor­ough
lectures on the continent of Africa and the
Republic of South Africa, during which Babar­inde
covered the region's history, population,
geography, religion, political situation, social
customs, languages, education system, status of
business and other factors. Students then visit­ed
sites as diverse as BMW's Rosslyn Manu-are
gangster violence,
-EMILY GIACOMINI
drug abuse, and
unemployment. Sponsored by ASHOKA of
Washington D.C., Conquest for Life runs a vari­ety
of programs aimed at helping citizens of
Westbury learn skills which will enable them to
get jobs and earn money to support their fami­lies.
The organization offers programs in com­puter
training, and has an after-school program
for children who otherwise would be wander­ing
the streets. Its AIDS prevention programs
attempt to reduce the drastic rate at which the
virus is spreading in South Africa.
Glen Styn, Conquest for Life director,
explained that 45 percent of those who had been
through the computer and office skills program
by January 2001 had jobs, 30 percent were stu­dents
and 25 percent were at home. Even with
the necessary skills, some program graduates
have a hard time finding work because most jobs
are in the city 45 minutes away. Westbury resi-
54 / 2/2001
dents simply cannot afford transportation. We
were familiar with this problem from our visit to
the townships, and did actually pass many peo­ple
walking miles from the nearest grocery stores
carrying their goods on their heads or balanced
in their arms to save the money a minivan taxi
would have charged.
Personally, I most valued a visit to a winery
just outside Cape Town. Spier Estates made a
lasting impression on me because of the
unique story behind it. Owner Dick ·Enthoven,
a native South African, returned from Britain in
1996 to invest in his homeland, convinced that
involvement and support of local enterprise
was the only way in which South Africa could
develop. He fulfills a 'triple bottom line' which
reflects his desire to contribute to 1) positive
management of environmental issues 2) job
creation for people within 5 kilometers of the
estate, and 3) profit.
What most struck me was Spier's commit­ment
to the local community. He hires all hotel
employees from within 5km then trains them
from the ground up to run a first-dass service
organization. Everything possible, from bed
covers to hand-woven baskets and fresh vegeta­bles,
is purchased locally. I firmly believe that
the dedication of more individuals such as
Enthoven would do much to further progress in
South Africa, as well as to build the confidence
of locals who have much to add to the local
economy. At the same time, it helps them raise
their skill levels so they can better provide for
their families.
Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela had
been a political prisoner, was another mean­ingful
visit. Forced to dig rock by hand in a
limestone quarry, prisoners frequently suffered
severe eye damage and blindness from the dust
emanating from the rock. Standing in the quar­ry
at the entrance to a small cave which had
served as the prisoners' break room, lunch­room,
and bathroom, and then later holding
onto the bars of Mandela's tiny cell to peer
inside, made the reality of Robben Island hit
home for me. A lesson that will remain with me
for life is the forgiveness that Mandela
expressed and continues to live out in not seek­ing
retribution against his former captors and
against the apartheid regime that controlled
South Africa and its people for so long. I believe
his message of reconciliation was adopted by
the country at large, and greatly contributed to
the peaceful replacement of the Apartheid
regime by the African National Congress in the
1994 free elections.
Three days in Kruger National Park afforded
us a little break from the hectic pace of visits to
companies, embassies, and nonprofit groups.
We perched on the seats of the vans for hours at
a time, eyes glued to the windows to spot
5 4 / 2/2 001 WWW.T- B I RD . EDU p. 25
p . 2 6
impala, warthogs, and even the more rare lions
and hippopotamus. As a group we discussed
the implications of eco-tourism and how the
park could continue to offer tourists a d1ance
to see wildlife at dose range while still protect­ing
the animals in their natural habitat.
The impact of my three weeks in South Africa
wi ll remain with me forever. I was shocked and
dismayed by the estimates of managers we met
who put unemployment at 50 percent and
AIDS infection as high as 30 percent. A repon
by the World Health Organization says GNP
growth is diminished by .3- .4 percent a year,
meaning a total of US$22 billion or 17 percent
of the country's economy. We analyzed some
politicians' stances on the issues as well as the
feasibility of multinational corporations step­ping
in to help.
In spite of the many mallenges South Africa
faces, I believe the Rainbow Nation is indeed a
land of great opponunity. Although I will not
be working in South Africa or with it directly,
my time there has made me eager to follow its
current events and even invest in its growth in
the future, should I have the mance.
Professor Alfonso Sapia-Bosm's Winterim in
Latin America was also a hit with studen ts, who
went to Santiago, Chil e, Buenos Aires, Argen­tina,
and Lima, Peru. A former Central In telli­gence
Agency agent with 30 years of experience
in Latin America, Sapia-Bosm brought unique
perspectives to his program. "Because ofThun­derbird's
reputation, we also had access to peo­ple
and companies that others cannot access,"
he said. Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo
was one sum person. Sapia-Bosm was able to
arrange a private 11/2 hour visit for his students
with Toledo after meeting him at last year's
Americas Conference, whim Thunderbird co­sponsors
with The Miami Herald .
Other activities induded visits to a pharma­ceutical
company, a fruit company, a vintner,
banks, consulting firms, pension managers,
ponfolio managers, a business magazine, IT
companies, phone companies, a mamber of
commerce, a copper company, a mining com­pany,
and a grocery chain.
According to recent graduate Frederic
d'Auber '01 , one major reason for going on in­country
Winterims is gaining "some cred ibility
in the eyes of future employers." D'Auber, who
is from France, accepted a job offer with Bristol­Myers
Squibb, after the company promised to
assign him to Argentina within the year.
Thunderbird's network of 32,000 alumni in
more than 135 countries often play an active
role in Winterims and Interims. They routinely
speak to visiting students, give them insight
into how business really transpires in their
country and industry, and arrange for them to
meet key people within their companies.
WWW. T - BIRD . EDU
According to Sapia-Bosch, Thunderbird's
Winterim/lnterim programs are "an excellent
method for getting to know something about
people, countri es, possibl e employment oppor­tuniti
es, etc. - and it is all done in about three
weeks. If you need to learn someth ing about a
country quickly, this is about the most efficient,
effective method."
Silicon Valley saw 25 T-birds visiting compa­nies
across the ted1l1010gy spectrum: Sun,
Lucent, jamCracker, Xtime, Garage.com, Mauo­media,
the Silicon Valley Bank and eBay. Student
Mimael Rubel '01 described this unique Win­terim
as a "traveling dassroom where the stu­dents
were able to experience various corporate
environments and to examine the viability of
their business models." The session was spon­sored
by the e2v Club and led by students Brett
Grossman '01 and Matthew Fleming '01 under
the guidance of Dr. Mimael Woolvenon.
Dr. Carmen Vega-Carney, who teames Span­ish
Business Communications, took her 5th
group of students to Cuba this January. In addi­tion
to experiencing daily life in Cuba and seeing
people at work, patticipants are taught by top
54 /2/2 001
Cuban professors and meet with students at
their university. According to Camey, students
are always surprised by what they find. "First,
they are struck by Cuba's beauty. They expect to
see the poveny that is prevalent in other Latin
American countries, and Cuba is not that poor.
Second, they are held spellbound by the profes­sors'
knowledge and openness."
David Feige '02, who speaks Spanish and
English and is studying Russian said, "I was very
impressed with pretty mum all of the profes­sors.
All were Cuban nationals, so I expected to
get the party line. Instead, we got well-rounded
presentations and open discussions on Cuba's
government, and its international relations poli­cies.
I agreed with some, disagreed with others,
but was surprised at how knowledgeable the
professors were regarding what was occurring
outside of their country. One of the professors
who spoke with us had just won a major eco­nomics
prize."
Professor J. Scott Mathews led his fifth Win­terim
in Asia: Japan, China, & India. His course
focused on the automotive industry and stu­dents
visited the likes of Yamaha, Mazda, GM,
TOP LEFT Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo met privately
with T-birds. BOTTOM LEFT While Apartheid tried to destroy
the roots and culture of South Africans, people today are work­ing
to reclaim their identities. TOP Emily Giacomini '01, who
wrote this article, will be forever changed by what she experi­enced
in South Africa. ABOVE Dr. Carmen Vega-Carney (left)
celebrates with students during their last night in Cuba. OPPO­SITE
PAGE Europe's High Tech Marketplace program participants
visited leading computer, engineering and telecommunications
firms in Geneva and southern France.
5 4 / 2 / 2 001
Honeywell, Shanghai Eaton Engine Com­ponents,
Toyota, and Ford . Cultural visi ts
induded the Isukushima Shrine at Miyajima
Peace Park at Hiroshima, the 'Ancient Gardens'
in Suzhou, silk and jade manufacturers, the
Horticultural Center in Bangalore, and the
beaches at Chennai. Dr. Mathews said, "This
dass has a proven uack record of getting stu­dents
jobs. That is why I do it." This year, stu­dent
Eivind Olrud '01 got an internship with
Rolls Royce in Germany. Mathews also points
out the inexpensiveness of the program, "We
went to Japan, China and India for three weeks.
We uaveled on some of the best airlines in the
world. We stayed in first dass hotels .. . we ate
great food and had a lot of fun - and it only
cost about $4,000 plus tuition. There is no way
a casual tourist could have done it this cheaply."
Winterim in Paris focused on helping stu­dents
develop in-depth business cultural practice
and language ski lls. Led each year by Dr. Salva­tore
Federico '99 (EMIM), a Paris native who
holds both the equivalent of an MBA from the
Sorbonne and a Thunderbird MIM, the program
goes far beyond French business terminology
WWW.T-B IR D . EDU
uaining. It is a case-based business course where
students analyze French business practices on a
deparunent-by-department basis. Taught entire­ly
in French, the course prepares students to
work with French companies, subsidiaries and
key dients, and also provides valuable insight
into how to sell into the French market. Site vis­its
induded la Bourse (the Paris stock exchange),
Publicis, Elf Aquitaine and Peugeot. The immer­sion
program also afforded students the chance
to gain co nfidence in doing research and
expressing themselves in French, taking them
inside French businesses, restaurants and muse­ums
- ultimately enabling them to appreciate
how French language and culture are inexuica­bly
intertwined with French business.
Advanced Business Language and Spanish
Level III are both taught in Mexico and led by
Professor Dennis Corrigan. Level III students
faced a rigorous language program reinforced
by evening homework. Advanced students
spent a large part of their day working for local
businesses. The group spent two days in Mexico
City, visited numerous museums and sites of
historical interest, and engaged in conversa­tions
in Spanish at the local pubs and
dance dubs, as well as on weekend
excursions. "The highlight of my
experience was the easy rapport that
we developed with the well-informed
guides who led us on walking tours of
the city of Puebla each afternoon;
said student Matthew Rossini 'Ol.
The Washington DC Winterim,
directed by Professors Roe Goddard
and Linda Wetzel. ind uded visits to
the State Deparunent, several think
tanks, a few NGO's, and governmental
consultants. This particular Winterim
had a twist, in that blocks of time were
scheduled for students to work on
independent research papers requir­ing
at least two interviews with
Washington officials. Student Jeffrey
DeWolf '01 remarked on the value­add
of learning how the American
lobby machinery works: "U nder­standing
how to influence policy ... is
an indispensable skill."
A first-time offering, Europe's High
Tech Marketplace gave students a feel
for the uends of European develop­ments
in the high tech arena. Led by
Dr. David Hall, the course took stu­dents
inside Eurocopter, Cambridge
Technology Partn ers, STMicroelec­uo
nics, GemPlus, the CEA nudear
p . 2 7
facility, and other high tech and non-profit lead­ers
in Geneva, Grenoble, Lyon, Sophia-Antipolis
and Aix. Nicole Affeldt '01 a post MBA student
specializing in technology management and
e-commerce, termed the program "exuemely
useful as it provided the opportunity to directly
compare th e challenges and opportunities that
a high technology company in France faces ver­sus
those that a similar company faces here in
the U.S. " She said the program, "certainly
demonstrated that varying poli tical and eco­nomic
factors highly impact the business mod­els
of high technology, and modifications have
to be made to ensure success."
The Wall Sueet Winterim found 24 financial­ly-
oriented T-birds happily hosted by George
Fugelsang '63, then CEO of Dresdner Kleinwort
Wasserstein North America - who graciously
turns over the boardroom at Dresdner's Wall
Sueet office to program participants each year.
During the program, which is directed by Drs.
Mark Griffiths and Phil Drake, students work
through all phases of a typ ical firm 's financial
cyde, meeting with experts involved in venture
capital, private equity, IPOs, project finance, cap­ital
markets, equity research, derivatives, fund
management, e-commerce, risk management,
bankruptcy, mergers and acquisitions, private
banking, and institutional sales, as well as
investor relations for publidy-uaded companies.
The students also make connections with big
players in the indusuy, such as Fugelsang, who
addressed the group. Informal dlats with other
alumni led to further contacts and internship
offers, such as the one student Jamie Patterson
'01 was able to arrange with JP Morgan on Wall
Street this summer.
"Winterim provides a great opportunity for
us to show off some of Thunderbird's best
finance students to the invesunent banks and
fi nancial institutions," said Lindsey Korell. the
managing director of Thunderbird's MBA pro­gram
who uavels with the Wall Sueet group.
"Not only are banks impressed with our stu­dents,
they are also impressed with the fact that
the School has made it a priority to create an
entire dass - not just a 72 hour jaunt - to
Wall Sueet."
Thunderbird also offers Interim programs
such as Dr. Winter ie's travel course, which
examines supply chain management practices in
Thailand, Vietnam, and Singapore. •
EDITOR'S OTE Emily Giacomini '01 was a 'dual
degree' student, earning degrees from Thunderbird
and Arizona State University. She is a purchas ing
manager with Proctor & Gamble in Cincinnati,
Ohio, where she did an internship last year:
Alumni and the public can register for WlI1tenms on a space-available baSIS. Contact
Thunderbird's registrar James (Dusty) Scott '96 at scottj@t-blrd.edu or at (602) 978-7784.
p. 2 8 EYES AROUND 54 /2/2 001
THE WORLD
RESOURCES
THUNDERBIRD
Alumni use Thunderbird programs and services to propel careers
In May, another class of Thunder birds (myself included)
graduated and rejoined the world, adding to the growing
number of Thunder bird alumni worldwide. For most of
us, being part of the Thunderbird alumni community brings
thoughts of lifetime email, My Thunderbird, and First
Tuesdays - and the occasional funding drive. What many
may nOl realize, however, is that Thunderbird provides
other valuable professional resources to propel alumni all
t11roughout their lives.
Resources Tll!Inderbird highlights the wide variety of tools
Thunderbird makes available to today's global managers. As
a student, you may have benefited from programs such as
in-class or other consulting projects and recruitment.
However, there are many other Thunderbird-provided
resources that can give you - and your companies - an
edge. We're talking everything from on line market research
to visibility and sponsorship options.
CORPORATE RECRUITING & INTERNSHIPS
One of the most-used resources is the Career Management
Center (CMC), which manages campus recruitment efforts.
More than 32,000 Thunderbirds work in organizations
worldwide, with more joining them every day. At the same
time, finding and retaining high-quality employees is a
major concem for firms. Luckily, as a Thunderbird alumnus,
you know of a pool of potential applicants who can bring
their international experience and perspective - as well as a
solid grounding in business principles - to your company.
Your first contact for reo·uiting should be the Career
Management Center. Companies looking for experienced,
project-oriented interns or full-time personnel can post job
openings, view online resumes, and attend recruitment
events. Raimonds Dzelme, '99, a strategy associate,
explained why Eli Lilly recruits on campus every year:
"Multinationals like Lilly need talented individuals with a
global perspective, so it's important that we hire students
who are culturally sensitive, have diverse backgrounds, and
are able to easily adapt to a constantly changing environ­ment.
We know we can find that at Thunderbird, so it makes
recruiting easier for us."
The CMC's experience in helping companies find
time recruits is also reflected by the extensive
internship program. Says Dzelme, "Lilly has
a large summer internship program
because it is the best way for our company
to identify top talent in a rea l world, valu e­added
project as well as for the interns to
determine whether or not this is a
place where they would like to build
their career. This summer, we had six
Thunderbird interns."
BY JOSEPH I E GILMORE '01
Companies that use Thunderbird interns traditionally
extend full-time job offers to 40 percent of them.
As alumni, we can also post jobs targeted to even more
experienced alumni with CMC We can also seek out world­wide
jobs online by clicking on the Global Job Connections
link that's located on the home page of My Thunderbird as
well as by searching the more informal Job Exchange dis­cussion
board.
EXECUTIVE EDUCATION
Once companies find the right employees, they need to
ensure that they are prepared to meet the chal lenges of a
fast-changing global marketplace. Thunderbird's Executive
Education programs provide managers the opportunity to
learn solid business practices and cross-cultural skills while
creating lasting re lationships with faculty and other execu­tives.
For managers who are looking to take on new respon­sibi
lities, perhaps internationally, Thunderbird's globally
focused curriculum is the perfect choice.
Trad itional degree or certificate programs at Thunderbird
include the Executive MIM and the Global Leadership Cer­tificate
Program, which take place in Glendale. International
programs in Mexico and Peru (MIMLA), Sao Paulo, Brazil
(MIM for Executives), and Taiwan (Global Executive Devel­opment
Series) extend the MIM-style programs to the Latin
American and Asian markets. A Europe-based
MIM for Executives program will soon be
launched at the Thunderbi rd Europe,
French-Geneva Center.
In addition to these management pro­grams,
Exec Ed runs a series of open­enrollment
courses, called The
Global Management Series. These
are short seminars, ranging from
two days to one week, that take
a strategic and global look at
core business ski lls such as
finance, marketing. negotia­tions
and entrepreneurship.
Some of the courses cur-
54/2 / 2001
rently scheduled for the fall indude Mergers and Acquisi­tions,
Global E-Business Leadership, Merging Strategy with
Action, and Managing Cross-Cultural Relationships. Thun­derbird
also offers telecommunications and oil & gas indus­try-
specific programs that are open to the public.
One of the most unique aspects of Thunderbird's Exec Ed
programs is the range of customized options available. Cus­tom
programs can be short three-day workshops or long­term
training - at the company's site or on campus. One
particularly successful program has been the partnership
with Ericsson; others involved in Thunderbird's custom
education have induded such diverse organizations as
ExxonMobil, PfIZer, and Vitro Corporativo. According to
Marty O'Toole '96, senior program director for Exec Ed.:
"Often times, the original custom programs will lead to
other offerings. With Ericsson, in addition to its custom
two-week program, Thunderbird has also been called upon
to provide custom programs in the areas of mergers and
acquisitions, negotiations, and influencing."
Custom programs aren't limited to large, single organiza­tions.
The Thunderbird [nternational Consortia are three
different groups of eight to ten non-competing companies.
These companies work with Thunderbird's faculty and staff
to develop intensive training sessions that address common
business challenges each face while managing in a new
global economy. Several times a year, each company sends
five to 10 managers to Glendale for two weeks to attend lec­tures,
analyze case studies, and work on targeted projects.
The Consortia offer a unique opportunity for participants to
network with other managers, and for the companies to
develop long-term problem-solving ties with each other, as
well as with Thunderbird.
Finally, international managers need strong cross culture
and communication skills. For some, that means sharpen­ing
English skills; for others, it means becoming fluent in
the language and culture of key partners or dients. Thunder­bird's
Language and Culture Center can help develop a one­on-
one or small group program for each individual or firm.
CORPORATE CONSULTING & RESEARCH
Even with the right staff and training. not all projects can
be done in-house. Thunderbird's Corporate Consulting pro­gram
is a cost-effective way to access the skills of top-flight
business students from throughout the world. Those stu­dent/
faculty teams work on complex, sophisticated projects,
such as entry into a new geographic market. where their out­side
eye perspective or first-hand country or function expert­ise
prove invaluable. Students are selected from a pool of
applicants and projects can be short- or long-term.
Thunderbird also offers a variety of research tools to sup­port
your projects. The Thunderbird Case Series illustrates
business problems and practices that can be used for educa­tion.
To keep up with the most current practices and themes
in global management, the Thunderbird [nternational
Business Review is also a great value for alumni. But, per­haps
the most powerful tool for research is the Business
Information Service (BIS) offered by Thunderbird's Inter­national
Business Information Centre ([B[C). B[S can quick­ly
and inexpensively provide a wide range of extremely
comprehensive business or market intelligence data.
Research options from the B[S range from the flat rate
WWW.T- BIRD. EDU
Company Background and Business Abroad Packages to
customized research at a nominal hourly rate. The [BIC's
skilled research staff can help find information for such
areas as domestic and international marketing. social cus­toms
and cultures, economics, laws, and much, much more.
Once companies discover the value of B[S, they often return
over and over again to use its services.
Chris Merker '00, Principal at eVe Global Group is one
such repeat customer. "[ know exactly what B[S has, having
used the systems for two years. Also, cost is a consideration.
As an alum, I get a great discount. It would cost three times
the amount to use a local service here in New York. Why
would [ pay more for data [ know [ can get rapidly for less?"
CORPORATE VISIBILITY & SPONSORSHIP
The right employees, the right products - now you need
to get the message out. Corporate visibility and sponsorship
opportunities indude everything from providing corporate
scholarships, to helping sponsor a Thunderbird Global Busi­ness
Forum, to volunteering as a campus speaker, to under­writing
part of the cost ofWinterim travel trips, to advertising
in 'Thunderbird magazine. By getting involved in these pro­grams,
companies can target their messages directly to future
and current global leaders, and others who read these publi­cations
and attend Thunderbird's worldwide events.
"Thunderbird is a consistent source of talent for Citi­corp's
Global Management Associate programs," said Karen
Handwerker, of the Citigroup College Relations group. "By
making it possible for Thunderbird to attract top students,
regardless of financial need, Citigroup is able to contribute
to the Thunderbird community while helping its businesses
recruit and retain the best and the brightest."
While this artide certainly does not cover all of the ways
in which Resources 'Thunderbird can add lifelong value to
your career and life, it does hopefully show you a few. You
can learn more by checking out the Corporate Services sec­tion
of Thunderbird's Web site at www.t-bird.edu/corpo­rateservices,
or by contacting Paul Elstone, asst. vice presi­dent
of Corporate and Foundation Relations at elstonep@t­bird.
edu. or (602) 978-7406, •
EDITOR'S NOTE: Josephine Gilmore '01 was a post-MBA stu­dent,
technology consultant, and full scholarship recipient.
She speaks fluent French, spent a trimester at the Thunder­bird
Europe, French-Geneva Center, and will pursue a Ph.D
- most probably at Harvard, Wharton or [NSEAD.
p. 2 9
p. 3 0 LETTER FROM 54 / 2 / 2001
ELSEWHERE
FAMILY TIES
Four families. Sixteen T-bird graduates. One global connection.
By MELISSA CRYTZER FRY
Family. It's a familiar term at Thunderbird where we consider ourselves - despite nationality, gender or race -mem­bers
of one global family. There is also another kind of family drawn to Thunderbird. They' re blood relatives who
find their Thunderbird experience so exceptional that they recommend it to their siblings. • The Alcazars,
Campanas, and IohnsonjOlsons are just a few Thunderbird families who have passed along the good news to their sib-lings
- that Thunderbird is a great place for internationally-minded students serious about learning global business. They
come from different countries, hold different beliefs, and even walked away with different Thunderbird experiences - but
they all agree that Thunderbird offers a truly international environment with an unparalleled alumni network.
THE ALCAZARS
Antonio '93 was the first of four Alcazars to
attend Thunderbird, and he says it didn't take
much convinci ng for his siblings to follow in his
ANTONIO, ROCIO, foo tsteps. "In our fa mily, actions spoke louder
VICTOR, LOURDES than words as our younger siblings noti ced how
we referred to our Thunderbird experience when
(LATIN AMERICA) tal king with others - and by the jobs we got
upon graduatio n," he explained.
"Knowing how analytical my brother is, I was pretty confident that he
had completed extensive school research befo re making his own
choice," sa id Rocio '95, who wanted to specialize in fin ance with an
internatio nal approach. She credits Thunderbird fo r helping her achieve
that goa l, and was hired by Cargill, an international marketer, processor
and di stributor of agricultural, food, fi nancial and industrial products.
Rocio currently serves as the program manager for Latin Ameri can
procurement in Buenos Aires, Argentina. "The greatest thing about
Thunderbi rd is that you rea lly become a ci tizen of the world," she said.
"In the fi ve years after graduating from Thunderbi rd, I have lived in
three countries and have traveled on busi ness to another 10."
Victor '97, distribu tion sales manager for Motorola Semiconductors
in the Caribbean, Central America and the Andean Pact countries, was
immersed in Thunderbird's culture before he ever enrolled. As Antonio's
54/2 / 2001 WWW.T- BIRD . EDU p. 31
roommate at Counuy Gables Apart­ments,
he was exposed to get-togethers
at the Pub, athletic events and Thunder­bird's
rigorous academic program.
"Because the MIM proved to be such a great
launch board for my siblings, I wanted to join
the program too," Victor explained.
The most recent Alcazar graduate, Lourdes '00,
financial analyst for Mervyn's Headquarters in
Francisco Bay area, and says that Thunderbird was a
for her after hearing T-bird this' and T-bird that' for almost a decade
before enrolling. "I guess you could say 1 was a T-bird at heart way before
actually making my way to Glendale," she added. "Learning to under­stand
and appreciate the similarities, differences and the slight nuances
that exist between the many cultures present at Thunderbird has taught
me how to live and thrive in the business world."
Like all dose-knit families, the Alcazars manage to keep in touch
despite the distance - visiting at their parents' home in Tampico,
Mexico during the holidays. They aJso keep in touch with their extended
Monica, Gabriele, Roberto and Franco Campana
general manager, in charge of developing a new brand of power tools
geared toward the Latin American consumer.
Franco, an agronomy undergraduate major from Texas A&M, and now
the vice president of sales for $eminis, Inc., the world's largest developer
and producer of vegetable seeds, says that not only did he learn of
Thunderbird from his brother - who began the program six months
before him - but also from T-bird alumni he knew in Venezuela. The
choice to attend, he says, was dear since Thunderbird was highlighted in
Thunderbird family. "The Thunderbird network
really does act like a globaJ family," said Antonio,
who caJls himself a 'recent casualty of the dot
com bust~ His company, Venta.com, a B-to-B
information technology liquidation site, dosed
its operations this year. "Alumni have been very
responsive when I contact them regarding
employment options," he explained. Confident
of the skills that he has gained through his
schooling and throughout his career, the former
World Bank (Romania) employee and interna­"
Thunderbird is. the place ...
where I have met the most
people from different religions,
countries and backgrounds ...
I have T-bird friends in every
country I visit." -GABRIELE CAMPANA
numerous MBA publications and maga­zines.
"I am responsible for NAFfA sales,
induding Central America and the Carib­bean,"
said Franco. "Thunderbird gave me
an understanding of international business
and provided a sound base for my career."
Monica and Roberto, who were raised in
Italy, but bom in Venezuela where brothers
Gabriele and Franco grew up, were exposed
to various cultures and communities early in
life. Such culturaJ immersion, in addition to
tional project manager looks forward to his next exciting career oppor-tunity.
While fourT-bird graduates from one family is indeed impressive, the
family predicts that Lourdes may not be the last. According to Victor,
Guillermo - the youngest sibling - just might be the fifth A1acazar to
join Thunderbird's growing family.
THE CAMPANAS
GABRIELE, FRANCO,
MONICA, ROBERTO
(EUROPE)
How did this ItaJian family find their way to
Thunderbird from their hometowns in Rome,
ItaJy and Caracas, Venezuela? While Gabriele
and Franco - both from the dass of '85 -
were the first to enroll at Thunderbird more
than a decade before their younger sister,
Monica '96, they certainly weren't the last.
Gabriele credits a dassmate from Texas A&M
for introducing him to Thunderbird, which ultimately led to an interna­tional
career with Miami-based Trans World Marketing. He serves as a
the influence of older T-bird siblings, made Thunderbird the best option
for their international pursuits.
Monica, like many T-birds with entrepreneurial instinct, used her busi­ness
background to found a new business, SoulmateZone.com, a highly
interactive and multilinguaJ matchmaking site for single professionaJs on
virtually every continent. Before branching off on her own, she was a
project director for a Miami-based marketing research company speciaJ­izing
in multi-counuy and customized primary research. Her last few
months as project director involved assignments with Internet companies
- a catalyst for forming her company, she says. Before founding
SoulmateZone.com with T-bird Haim Badash '95, she also served as vice
president of business development for a new start-up in Miami.
Youngest brother Roberto '01 is about to graduate after being an
active T-bird student specializing in marketing and e-business. A Founda­tions
leader and a concert pianist for Global Sounds, his influence can be
felt around the campus, where he is an instructor for the Dance Club and
served on the School's student philanthropy committee.
p . 3 2 WWW.T - BIRD . EDU 5 4 /2/ 2001
Cheryl Johnson, Tara Olson, Deborah Johnson and 7l-acy Olson
THE OLSONS AND
THE JOHNSONS
TRACY & TARA
OLSON, CHERYL &
DEBORAH JOHNSON
(NORTH AMERICA)
While these sisters had much to do with influ­encing
o ne another's decision to attend Thun­derbird,
their parents might have played an
even larger role_
After taking an international business man­agement
course during her senior year of
undergraduate SdlOOL Tracy Olson '91 was in
search of an international master's program.
When her mother, then Barbara Olson, began
her position as Thunderbird's Internship Direc­tor,
the decision became obvious.
At the same time, Cheryl Johnson '91 - daughter of Thunderbird's
distinguished professor of global entrepreneurship, Dr. Paul Johnson -
was enrolled at Thunderbird. "My father was a professor at Thunderbird
It's no surprise that by the time sisters Deborah Johnson '94 and Tara
Olson '00 entered graduate schooL they knew as much about Thunder­bird
as possible. Deborah echoes the sentiments of her older sisters,
agreeing that Thunderbird is perfect for those with international experi­ence
and ambitions. Her international interest resulted in language
teaching assignments in Vienna, Prague and Madrid. Now a translator at
a ew York law firm , she has been accepted into law school in the fall
where she will further her global interest - specializing in internation­al
and business law.
Tara recalls that her parents would often invite students and guests of
Thunderbird to their home. "I loved their international perspective," she
explained. ''This ongoing exposure was all the recruiting I needed."
Employed by Ford Motor Company, San Francisco in marketing, sales
and service, Tara landed her job a year before graduation, with the help
whi le I was teaching Engl ish in China," said Cheryl. ''The of Thunderbird's Career Fair. She
program seemed a perfect way to combine my overseas expe­rience
with my past corporate and non-profit experience."
Tracy and Cheryl, who eventually became sisters when
their parents married in 1992, praise the School's interna­tional
curriculum . "My experience as a team member on
InterAd, and later as a T.A_, led directly to my career in brand
management with Dial and Kellogg," explained Tracy, now
the marketing director for the Personal Care Division of
Phoenix-based Belae Brands. A participant in the Paris over­seas
program, she says that the exposure to so many differ­ent
people, perspectives and experiences helped her develop
a more creative and open-minded approach to problem­solving
than she otherwise might have had.
"Thunderbird prepared me
to deal effectively with a
wide variety of people and
to quickly adapt to continu­ously
changing situations -
two skills critical in business
dealings as well as in
ci tes her overseas program experi­ence
in Geneva and Guadalajara as
invaluable. "Thunderbird helped
me gain a cul tural perspective and
unique outlook - very different
than I see in my co-workers."
"It's funny," she said, "my sisters
and I are all different people, but
Thunderbird appreciates these dif­ferences
without trying to turn
everyone into someone new. We all
still think differently, but that's
everyday life. " -TRACY OLSO indicative of the Thunderbird expe-
''The curriculum gave me a greater understanding of
international policy and the political economy," agreed Cheryl, who
works in the office of development at Stanford University and partici­pated
in two Winterims at Thunderbird - one focused on marketing
and the other, a CEO seminar.
rience."
The Thunderbird experience ... it is, without doubt, a nurturing envi­ronment
where difference is embraced, where global famili es are
formed, and where families feel comfortable enough recruiting their
own - year after year ... . after year. •
54/2/2001 WWW.T- BIRD.EDU p .33
TWO GENERATIONS OF T-BIRDS
The Warrens share interest in poultry, travel and Thunderbird
By MELISSA CRITZER FRY
When H. Robert '63 and Diana Macurda Warren '63
jumped on a Chilean freighter in 1963 - along with
Jim Warren '57 and his bride - they brought only their
dog Osito, cockatiel Paja and their pick-up truck as they steamed
toward a poultry partnership in Lima, Peru.
They had earned degrees from Thunderbird just months earlier
- Bob, the bachelor of foreign trade, and Diana, the Wives Cur­riculum
Diploma - a series of language and area studies courses
offered to wives of students in the 50s and 60s. Along with their
brother Jim, they were teaming up with classmate Juan Maurer
'63 in the poultry reproduction business.
All four Warren alumni celebrate Tito's graduation.
"Since we knew little about poultry, we did investigate some
facets of the poultry business before committing," said Diana. "We
flew baby chicks from the states and raised them in Peru. They
were the breeder stock for the broiler industry - designed to be a
cheap source of protein for an exploding population."
The adventure turned into almost a decade-long opportunity
where Robert and Diana also gave birth to son, Tito (Robert)
Warren '92, whose exposure to international living was a way of life.
FROM DES MOINES TO TUCSON TO LIMA
How did this Tucson family - originally from Iowa - make its
way to Thunderbird and enjoy such an enriching internatio