Thunderbird Magazine, Volume 57, Number 1 2004 Fall

              el Cabrera
t es over the reins
at Thunderbird
We don't just work in our community.
We work for it .
•
Intel is proud to collaborate
with the Thunderbird Management school
on their Global Supply Chain Management and
Global Sales and Marketing programs.
intet
©2004 Intel Corporation. Intel is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation.
Other marks and brands are the property of their respective owners. All rights reserved.
On the Cover
Thunderbi rd 's new
president. Angel
Cabrera, stands rock
sol id under the vast
Arizona sky on his
f irst (and seasonally
hot) day reporting to
work in August. The
photograph was shot
by Jeff Zaruba at the
Boulders Resort in
Scottsdale.
thunderbird magazine
thunderbird : fall : 2004
4 Agenda
At the Top Thunderbird again captures top rankings.
The Green Zone An alumnus struggles to electrify Iraq.
Superhighway IBIC celebrates 10 years of service.
Innovation Thunderbird considers an undergraduate program.
The Garvin Gift How to thank someone for $60 million.
Global Campus News from China, Archamps, Latin America.
Dedication to Education
Thunderbird's new president, Dr. Angel Cabrera,
is a transformative figure in the world of business
education. Now he brings those powers to
Thunderbird at an important moment of change.
The Roy Herberger Legacy
During his dynamic IS-year tenure as Thunderbird's eighth president, Dr. Roy A.
Herberger Jr. taught our community much about globalization as well as the value
of academic and corporate partnerships and risk diversification.
28 Value of an MBA
Having the competitive edge among the growing field of MBA grads requires more
than what business schools usually teach. And that's where Thunderbird comes in.
32 Into the Deep Blue
After a high-flying career as an international marketing manager, alumnus Paul
Sutherland became one of the best marine photographers in the world.
38 Doing it Their Way
Four Thunderbird women forge entrepreneurial success out of personal passions.
49 Chapter News
Swedish smorgasbord Thunderbird's Swedish chapter joins forces with other MBA
alumni groups for networking events and seminars.
Hong Kong sponsors student With help from Merle A. Hinrichs, the chapter has
collected enough money to sponsor a local student at Thunderbird.
52 Classnotes
Distaff T-birds meet in Germany Co-chaired by two Thunderbird alumnae and
attended by 11 others, a women's business conference is a success.
One man's junk is another's wine rack Alumnus Josh Dorfman has found a way
to turn junk into upscale goods, and he's making a good business out of it.
A passion for German Mimi Yoseloff Kirchgaessner loved German culture more
than anything. Now that love will benefit future T-birds in her memory.
64 Forum
Change is Our Only Constant Thunderbird's new V.P. and Chief Marketing Officer,
Ken Lambert, delves into the gestalt of change and transformation at Thunderbird.
1
letters
Thanks, work, and I think display. I understand stature raised, the
Sam that Thunderbird, your being very good things about
The Garvin School grateful for the our community
Garvin of International generosity of the preserved and
Management will Garvins, but please strengthened, and
r ELIEVE the new take its rightful consider naming the Thunderbird now
school name is place right alongside Glendale campus af- reaches out to and
very appropriate. Tuck, Goizueta, ter the Garvins and is recognized by a
Many great business Fuqua, Kellogg and not the school itself. much broader TRULY GLOBAL
schools have names other top "named" CHERYL BLY- public. Bravo!
associated with their B-schools. Thanks, Thunderbird CHESTER '84 SCOTT Magazine
founders or donors Garvins! SINGLETON '90 Volume S7, No. I, Fall 2004
(e.g. Wharton/Penn, DEVIN WRIGHT '95
Anderson/UCLA, Praise By guiding our Editor
D.J. Burrough
Marshall/USC). I'm That Sam took a for Roy school through the Art Director
even more impressed concept developed challenges posed by Pat Kenny
that Sam Garvin is during his studies at Herberger all the events around Photo Editor
Kristen Jarchow
not a remote histori- Thunderbird and 9-n, you have solidi- Production Manager
cal figure, but a rela- turned it into such a ITWAS a ple«u," fied T-bird's status Kathleen Jones
tively recent alum- successful organiza- to meet with you as an elite graduate Web Designer
nus. His gift is a tion-all the while on occasion dur- business school. Adam Kline
Web Production
turning point in the maintaining consid- ing my time at Thank you for being Belinda Gleason
history of the school. erable involvement Thunderbird; you so approachable.
Congratulations to with the School-is were always warm, My Thunderbird Publisher & VP, Marketing
Ken Lambert
the Garvins for remarkable. We are receptive and sur- experience is one VP, Institutional
taking us into the on campus for but a prisingly interested I'll always cherish. Advancement and Director of
21St century! short time, however in our discussions. BRANDON
Development
Richard Tollefson
JIM BUKOWSKI '78 we are T-birds for- You always have SCHNEIDER '01 Advertising Director
ever. Anyone who carried the School's Geoffrey P. Gougion
I am proud and doesn't honor and torch with grace, In the couple of Advertising Sales
extremely thankful invest in his heritage and we are indebted years I was at Thun- Alvaro Cadena
Ryan T. Wilson
to see that a fellow denies a big part of to you and your ex- derbird, I interacted Advertising Assistant
T-bird donated the who he really is. haustive efforts to with you many Kathleen Chance
largest gift of its HAZEM GAMAL '98 take this school to times. Some for a
Editorial Director
kind in U.S. history the respected level quick hello and oth- Roger Toll
to our school. I met we now enjoy. ers for an in-depth Design Consultant
Sam at the inaugura- But why AARON R. conversation as we Roger Black
tion of the new STEWART '94 solved all of the All editorial, sales and
Thunderbird Europe change world's problems. production correspondence
should be addressed to:
Center last Fall. its name? Under your As busy as you were, Thunderbird Magazine. 15249
I would not be sur- watch, Thunderbird you always took the N. S9th Avenue, Glendale,
AZ, 85306-6000. Editorial
prised at all if this Five~me became physically time to say hello, ask submissions and letters to the
gift leads to even changes in less less a dusty, vacant how classes were go- editor can also be emailed to:
editor@thunderbird.edu.
larger contributions than 60 years is lot and more the ing, and how life, in Advertising inquires should he
over the years to uncalled for. We inviting and vibrant general, was. I was addressed to: Kathleen Chance
chancek@thunderbird.edu.
come. teach branding in oasis of learning impressed by your Changes of address and
JENS STEIN- the schooL The ad- and understanding honesty, candor, other subscription inquires
can be em ailed [0:
HAEUSER '03 ministration needs it has always been and approachability. editor@thunderbird.edu.
to take that class. for us spiritually. I was impressed by Thunderbird Magazine is a
I am proud of the VIPON KUMAR '99 Innprovennentsin you, as an individ- publication of the Marketing
name change and the infrastructure ual, regarless of your and Communication
Department of Thunderbird,
the generosity of an You have deval~ have been dramatic position. I thank you The Garvin School of
outstanding T-bird ued the master's and benefit current for that, and I thank I nternational Management.
alum. It just demon- degree diploma that students. Our you for representing
strates the strength I have until now reputation has been us as a school.
of our alumni net- been very proud to enhanced and our JEFF GORMAN '03
2 fall 2004
from the president
T-bird network
larger by one
Nurturing the wide-reaching network of alumni is one of
incoming President Angel Cabrera's most important tasks.
EVER SINCE it was announced
that I was appointed the new presi­dent
of Thunderbird, I have been
running into alumni-and people
who know alumni-pretty much
everywhere I go. President Herberger had
warned me this would happen, yet I've been
surprised by how often it has occurred. No
matter what country, industry or institution
it is, the Thunderbird network seems to go
farther and deeper than I had anticipated.
The Thunderbird alumni I run into have a
fond memory of their Thunderbird days, of
the eye-opening experience of working and
living with students from all over the world
and of the intensity of the work and the per­sonal
enrichment. The network, as it turns
out, is not just large, but very solid as well.
Not a bad asset to have considering how
vital our alumni are for the future of a school
with the mission and vision that is ours.
Long before the term "globalization" was
even invented, our school was founded with
the goal of educating business leaders with a
global rnindset. Thunderbird always has
operated under the idea that cross-border
business is the best vaccine to prevent pover­ty
and war, and that effective international
business requires managers who not only
have a solid technical training but who can
thrive in a diverse world and leverage the
differences among cultures to create value,
rather than being set back by them.
Educating such individuals is not an easy
task. It requires bringing together people
from different backgrounds and creating an
environment that accommodates and even
celebrates diversity. It requires that those
individuals be strong-minded; they must be
open to receiving unfamiliar information
from all corners of the world, to listening to
differing points of view from around the
thunderbird magazine
globe, and to learning language and culture
as much as business affairs. Mostly, it re­quires
individuals willing to deeply reflect
on their own biases, spending hours upon
hours in introspection, so they can better
understand those around them.
Yet going through such an experience is
just the beginning. Learning to operate in a
complex, interconnected world is a lifelong
endeavor. A master's degree from Thunder­bird
is the best way I know to get the process
in motion. Then, being an active member of
the alumni network is the best way I know
to keep on learning. So, as I take the lead
from Dr. Herberger, I'm more and more
convinced that helping nurture that network
is one of the most important tasks that lies
ahead for me.
I will be seeing you around the network
and look forward to talking with you all!
PreSIdent Angel Cabrera
sees Thunderbird as a
truly diverse community
of strong-minded people
open to differing visions
from around the world.
3
Alumni
Weekend
A full menu of events
THE THUNDERBIRD Glendale
campus has changed a bit since
the class of 1954 was attending the
school, but those alumni will get
a chance to judge the changes for
themselves during Thunderbird's Alumni
Weekend. The two-day event, Nov. 5-6, at
the Glendale campus celebrates specifically
the reunion years 1954 (50th anniversary),
1979 (:~5th anniversary) and 1994 (10th an­niversary),
but the weekend is open to all
graduates of the school.
Alums can expect events that include a
meet and greet in the Thunderbird Pub,
Asia Night with current students, and a
Rugby Tournament that pits today's stu­dents
against former stars. There's also a
picnic with current
students and a gala
awards dinner and
dance. On Friday, a
CareerForum will
offer high-energy
presentations and
professional net­working.
Details and
registration are at thun-
Asia night derbird.edu/reunion.
4 fall 2004
Far East
and close
friends
I NOCTOBER,
hundreds of
T-bird alumni will
arrive in Shanghai,
China, from all
corners of the world
for the Thunderbird
Global Reunion at
the Portman Ritz­Carlton
Hotel.
A Shanghai street.
thunderbird magazine
The three-day
event, Oct. 15-18,
will include a two­day
business confer­ence:
How to start
or expand your busi­ness
in China. In his
first official alumni
event, Dr. Angel
Cabrera will give
the keynote address.
The conference
features a 20-course
Chinese banquet as
well as cultural
tours of Shanghai,
and optional trips to
Beijing, Guilin and
Xian.
The Thunderbird
Global Reunion is
hosted by Thunder­bird
Alumni Associ­ation,
Shanghai
Chapter, in coopera­tion
with the Hong
Kong and Beijing
chapters. The cost is
US $500 for both
business and social
events, or US $300
for just the social.
Details and registra­tion
can be found at
my-tgr.com.
Rankings place T-bird
at the top once again
U.s. NEWS e;- WORLD REPORT
magazine and the Financial Times
have again placed Thunderbird at
or near the top of their annual lists
of the best graduate schools. For
the ninth consecutive year, Thunderbird was
ranked first in the nation for international
business graduate schools by u.s. News e;­World
Report magazine. The listing appeared
in the online version of the magazine's April
12 edition.
For the second year in a row, the Financial
Times ranked Thunderbird's Executive
Education in the top 10, placing it at NO.9 on
the list of schools with custom programs
and No. 18 on the list of open enrollment
schools. The results were released May 17.
The Financial Times also ranked
Thunderbird's Executive Education
custom program highly in a number of
separate categories.
No.2 - Value for Money
NO.5 - Overall in the United States
NO.9 - Course Design
The U.S. News e;- World Report ranking is
based on a survey of school deans and pro­gram
directors, who nominate the top 10
programs for excellence in 12 speciality areas.
In the Financial Times ranking, Thun­derbird
scored far higher than any other
school for the percentage of international
clients and overseas programs. The custom
Executive Education program had 78
percent international clients, the most of
any school in the top 50.
5
news & notes
The
thinking
man's
reality
show
Innovation
Challenge
draws top
students for
$25,000
In prizes.
ON NOVEM­ber
19, a team
of MBA stu­dents
will be locked
away in a room on
the Thunderbird
campus. During the
following 24 hours,
those students will
argue, cajole, draw
Rorschach-like flow
charts, eat cold pizza
and come up with
an innovative idea
worth $20,000 to
them, and, perhaps,
millions of dollars to
the sponsor of the
event.
It's all part of the
second annual G lob­al
Innovation Chal­lenge,
which pits
teams of MBA stu­dents
from Whar­ton,
MIT, Carnegie
Mellon and Thun­derbird,
among oth­ers,
to find the most
innovative product,
service or strategy.
Ten teams of MBA
students, each with
five members, com­pete
in the finals.
"It's a very unique
competition," says
Joe Miller, Thunder­bird's
director of
Student Services
and an advisor to the
6
Global Innovation
Challenge. "As op­posed
to other MBA
competitions, where
they are asked to an­alyze
a case, this is
judged on true inno­vation.
It mixes
MBA skills with
creativity in a way
that you just don't
normally see."
Miller expects the
competition to draw
as many as 300
teams, twice the
number that com­peted
last year. Invi­tations
have been
extended to virtually
every top MBA
school in the world,
Miller said. The
winning team re­ceives
$20,000, sec­ond
gets $3,000 and
third $2,000.
The first round of
the competition, to
be held online in
October, will be
judged by more than
150 executives and
industry experts,
Miller said. The top
IO teams from the
online competition
are invited to Thun­derbird
for the final
round, when they
are presented with a
new problem and se­questered
until they
find a solution.
The Innovation
Challenge is the
brainchild of two
T-bird alumni, Anil
Rathi '02 and Robert
Lipton '03. They
founded San Fran­cisco-
based Idea
Crossing, a technol­ogy
provider of web­based
tools that
boost creative poten­tial.
The two also
were instrumental
in the creation of the
Thunderbird Inno­vator's
Circle, a
campus club known
as THINC, which
conducts regular
corporate brain­storming
sessions.
Last year's win­ners
were from
Brigham Young
University in Utah
and the final-round
sponsor was United
Parcel Service.
Just what that
winning innovative
idea was is not
something the or­ganizers
can talk
about. All the com­petitors
and judges
sign a non-disclo­sure
to protect the
idea for the sponsor­ing
company.
"The great thing
is that they are actu­al
problems compa­nies
are dealing
with, not just some­thing
the sponsors
dreamed up for stu­dents
to work on,"
Miller says.
For more informa­tion,
go to innovation
challenge.net.
Consul Max Haechler
Yodel at
the moon
SWITZERLAND
is the host
country for
this year's annual
Ambassador's Ball,
to be held at 6:30
p.m. on Nov. 20 at
the Scottsdale Hyatt
Regency Resort at
Gainey Ranch.
The theme of the
black-tie event is
"Alpine Splendor"
and features Swiss
culinary delights,
dancing, music and
folklore.
Max Haechler,
consul of Switzer­land,
is the host of
the evening.
The guest of hon­or
will be Switzer­land's
Ambassador
to the United States,
Christian Blicken­storfer.
The event will
mark the 22nd year
that the Consular
Corps of Arizona
has held the event to
benefit an annual
scholarship to
deserving Thun­derbird
students.
fall 2004
Living in
the Green
Zone
Thunderbird
alumnus puts
in the hours
to get electri­city
working
for Iraqis.
WHENsover­eigntyof
their coun­try
was handed back
to the people of Iraq
June 28, Steven
Madrid '01 was there
to see it happen.
Madrid was in
Baghdad's Green
Zone for much of
2004, serving as a
contractor to the
Department of
Defense (DOD).
He was working
with the Coalition
Provisional Authori­ty,
which had con­trol
over the country
until the June hand­over.
Madrid volun­teered
to be part of a
"skeleton" team that
stayed on for a few
months after the
handover to help
make for a smoother
transition. As of
press time at the end
of August, Madrid
was still in Iraq.
"Living and
working in this en­vironment
makes
the hours and days
morph together," he
says. "We all have a
hard time remem­bering
what day it
is." Time seems to
be irrelevant, he
says, because they
thunderbird magazine
are putting in so
many hours. "The
impact of what we
are striving to
achieve makes this
job a joy to work.
It really is the ulti-mate
rush."
Madrid had
responsibility for
achieving 6,000
megawatts of electri-cal
output at Iraqi
power plants by the
start of summer. He
was also responsible
for managing and
creating a database
that outlined what
operating units were
on the grid and their
schedule of mainte-nance.
His written
reports went directly
to the most senior
people, including
Paul Bremer, the for-mer
administrator
of the Coalition Pro-visional
Authority.
Beyond the much
publicized security
concerns, life in the
Green Zone was a
continual challenge,
he said. It took some
doing, but he se-cured
a trailer (the
size of his Thunder-bird
dorm room)
with just one other
roommate. "I finally
made it out of a tent,
where I shared bunk
space with 39 men,
mostly private secu-rity,
military and
some DOD,"
Madrid says.
The most tiring
part of life in the
Green Zone for
Madrid wasn't the
daily shellings or the
threat of roadside
bombs. "The only
news & notes
thing that bothered
me was the tremen-dous
amount of
dust," he says.
Madrid put in
15-hour workdays
but found time to
host a "social"
around a pool at one
of Saddam's palaces
for a dozen or so
other Thunderbirds
who also were work-ing
in the capital
city, along with
some friends he had
met along the way.
"I have met lots of
Iraqis who are so
grateful for what we
are doing," he says.
"I'm not certain
how things get re-ported,
but I'm
grateful I get to see
it firsthand. I look
forward to sharing
it with many people
once I return."
"Living and
working
in this envi­ronment
makes the
hours and
days mor'p'h
together,' he
says. "We
all have a
hard time
remember­ingwhat
day it is."
7
news & notes
Speeding reality. This year, it
down the celebrates a decade
of success as a lead~
su~er- ing center of infor~
highway mation, linking
Thunderbird stu~
IBIC fetes
dents and alumni
across the world to a
its tenth library of global
anniversary business resources.
as leading "Over time, the
research IBIC has proven to
center be both a functional
and appealing facili~
W HEN THE ty," says Carol Ham~
Merle A. mond, associate vice
Hinrichs president for infor~
International Busi~ mation services and square~foot founda~
ness Information IBIC director. "You tion cemented
Centre (IBIC) rarely get both in a IBIC's state~of~
opened June 13, 1994, beautiful building." the~art future.
the intent was to While the IBIC's "The IBIC was built
create a central hub semi~circular archi~ when technology for
for research on cam~ tecture takes advan~ libraries was chang~
pus that, by design, tage of natural light ing toward electron~
would adapt to ad~ and the moveable ic resources," Ham~
vancesininforma~ bookshelves con~ mond explains.
tion technology. serve space, the fiber "The goal has been
IBIC's mission has optic cable laid to buy less paper and
become a virtual under the 31,000~ more databases."
One of Dr. Roy Herberger's most notable achievements as president of
Thunderbird is the state-of-the-art International Business Information Centre.
8
In fact, the IBIC
has responded
quickly to explosive
changes in informa~
tion technology dur~
ing the past IO years.
Thunderbird stu~
dents in every cor~
ner of the world can
now access IBIC
online resources that
include 50 databases
with links to thou~
sands of internation~
al business journals,
periodicals, academ~
ic abstracts, market
analyses, invest~
ment firm reports
and corporate pro~
files. Students also
can search IBIC's
online "card" catalog
and request paper~
less reference assis~
tance from remote
locations.
IBIC's electronic
connections make it
a world~class gradu~
ate business educa~
tion library, but
onsite features also
give it the informa~
tion edge: 40 com~
puter workstations,
200+ laptop data
ports, four group
study rooms and an
extensive video
and DVD collection
covering business,
culture and travel
subjects in multiple
languages. In addi~
tion, its onsite re~
source collection
boasts 70,000 books,
1,200 journals, 80 in~
ternational newspa~
pers and maps from
every continent.
"The IBIC has
positioned Thun~
derbird to make a li~
brary available to the
world," Hammond
says. "It's truly an
international cam~
pus. We don't see
ourselves as a facili~
ty for two campuses.
Whether you're in a
dorm, an apartment
or living in France,
we have resources
for students located
across the globe."
What does the fu~
ture hold for IBIC?
"More of the same,"
Hammond says.
"We'll continue to
look at additional
technology products
thatmakeinforma~
tion access easier."
-Sally Clasen
fall 2004
news & notes
School too reliant on the
considers full-time program
revenues," he says. under- There appears to
graduate be a "perfect storm"
of demographics studies gathering that sig-nals
tremendous
D URINGmU,h growth in business
of last year, education at the un-
Thunderbird dergraduate level.
closely studied the A population bubble
concept of hosting is nearing college
an undergraduate age, undergraduate
program, but now enrollment is in-school
officials say creasing and more
there are no plans students want to be
on moving forward business majors. A with the idea. 26 percent increase Summer a group with faculty ty of the South.
"It continues to be in undergraduate en- fellows members and ad- Except for Kusari,
a topic of conversa- rollments is project- ministrators, includ- who graduated, all
tion," says Richard ed between now and test drive ing a lunch with the fellows were
Zbylut, vice presi- 2012, along with a 27 campus then-President between their junior
dent of business de- percent increase in Herberger. and senior years.
velopment and chief business majors. F ORTHES'" "This was one of Thunderbird
information officer "What that means time in many the best six weeks provided housing,
for Thunderbird. is that more kids years, the Glen- I've spent: learning, books and some of
"It's under consider- are going to college, dale campus was meeting new people the fellows' expens-ation,
but nothing is and more kids are homelastsunnnrrer and making friends es, including a trip
innnrrinent. The new pursuing business to undergraduate that I will have for- with the hiking club
president will have majors," he says. students who took ever," says fellow to Sedona. Their
to provide direction Meanwhile, budg- part in the first-ever Drenusha Kusari colleges offered a
on that." et cuts at most state Thunderbird from Occidental stipend as well.
Thunderbird had universities mean Fellows Program. College. "The class- "The fellows
an undergraduate fewer seats for the "It is part of es were thought-pro- mixed comfortably
program until 1971, growing number of Thunderbird's effort voking and unique. with the summer
and the idea to re- college aspirants. to market the School And I had never be- students and bonded
vive it surfaced last ''At least on the at colleges and create fore been in a class closely as a group,
year after a review surface, it seems to relationships and where Americans Miller says. "Our
of the School's pro- be worth exploring," linkages," says Joe were the minority." goal was for them to
grams, Zbylut says. Zbylut says. "It may Miller, director of To be considered have the fullest pos-
Currently, 75 percent fit who we are." Student Services. for the program, the sible Thunderbird
of Thunderbird's Thunderbird During their six- four students went experience during
revenue comes from could partner with week stay, the fel- through a competi- their stay with us.
the full-time MBA an existing under- lows attended cross- tive process on their I think it happened."
program,asegment graduate institution cultural communi- campuses. The other The program will
of education not or could initiate its cations courses and a students were continue next sum-expected
to grow as own program. "It's career management Kaloyan Kapralov mer with a larger
fast as others in the up to the new pres i- seminar. They also and Andy Wood- contingent. Miller is
coming decade. "It dent to determine were involved in a ward, both from in contact with a
told us we were way the mix," he says. number of research Colorado College, number of colleges
projects with faculty and Philip Mize, that would like to
members and met as from The Universi- sponsor a fellow.
10 fall 2004
EMBA
students
get close
fo change
in China
Positive signs
discovered in
privately run
orphanage.
T:!~~ST
day for a
group of
T-bird
Executive MBA
students on a trip to
China in March was
spent at a private or­phanage
two hours
outside of Shanghai.
"It was our final trip
looking at interna­tional
business as it
is applied in China,"
says Darin Long '01,
an EMBA student
who graduated in
April. "We wanted
to see what the
country is going
through as it
emerges as an eco-
Uncovering
excellence
T-BIRD students
took over the
campus last
spring, not with a
sit-in but with clip­boards
and comput­ers.
Working with
faculty, 35 students
surveyed more than
100 peers on what
they found excellent
with the School.
"Students decided to
thunderbird magazine
nomic powerhouse."
Long, who lived in
China for four years,
said that in some
textbooks the coun­try's
economic sys­tem
does not present
itself well, but what
they saw is working.
"A market economy
get involved because
they want to be part
of positive change,"
says James Brandon
Keefe '04, who led
the effort. "They
want to see their
beloved institution
succeed. This was a
way to channel that
passion."
Students found
excellence in the
personal touch and
patience showed by
the staff of Student
under the guidance
of a socialist regime
can feel like a thriv­ing
economy, and in
fact it is."
The group, which
included students
and spouses, split its
10 days in China
equally between
Services and in the
personalized con­sulting
of the Career
Management Cen­ter.
An excellent
faculty, they found,
is challenging, en­gaging,
organized,
accessible outside of
class and relates to
the real world.
The results serve
as benchmarks,
Keefe says, so that
Thunderbird can
continue to improve.
news & notes
Beijing and Shang­hai
listening to lec­tures
from some of
China's renowned
businessmen and
leaders during the
day and taking in
the culture at night.
The one-day serv­ice
project at a pri­vate
orphanage was
arranged by Hands
On Shanghai (hand­sonshanghai.
com),
a nonprofit organi­zation
established by
Richard Brubaker '01
that finds and con­nects
volunteers
with projects.
The privately run
orphanage is a sign
that China has
turned an economic
corner, Long says.
Until recently, an
orphanage that was
not state-run would
never have existed.
"H umanitarian
efforts follow a
healthy commerce.
People have a little
more money, and
they become more
concerned about
those less fortunate."
The orphanage is
home to more than
20 children, both
handicapped and
fully able. During
their time together,
the EMBA students
read to them, played
games, sang songs
and fed them lunch.
The group
brought badly need­ed
supplies with
them, including
antibiotics, cold and
asthma medicine
and gloves. The
group made a "run
on antibiotics" at
two Shanghai phar­macies
in order to
gather as much as
they could for the
orphanage, Long
says. "Everyone was
amazed by the
maintenance and
upkeep of the chil­dren.
It was the po­lar
opposite of what
many of my class­mates
expected. The
kids were well-fed,
happy and engaged
with us."
Judy Johnson in Admissions was lauded for her skill
11
news & notes
Garvins' and even the school
gift spurs itself, after a donor.
"That is the way a
change in lot of universities
name of raise money," says
Tim Propp, Thun-
School derbird's chief ad-ministrative
officer.
E TIQUETTE "You can go on
dictates that some campuses and
after receiving find a name on
a birthday or wed- every door."
ding gift you send a So when Garvin
handwritten thank approached the
you note. But what school with the $60
is the right response million gift, the ex-when
someone gives ecutive committee
you $60 million? already knew how to
That's the dilem- show their gratitude.
rna that faced the "Sam told us that
board of trustees putting his name on
nearly a year ago the School was not
when Sam Garvin '88 important to him,
and his wife, Rita, but not to have done
expressed interest in so would have been
making just such a unusual for such a
donation. gift," Propp says. "It
Prior to receiving was greater than the
the gift, Thunder- entire amount raised
bird's executive in the 1990s."
committee was ex- In February, the
ploring additional full board of trustees
ways to raise funds unanimously ap-for
the School. One proved the name
idea was to offer to change and on
name departments, March 9 made the
A Thunderbird by
any other name
194G-The American Institute for
Foreign Trade (AIFT)
19G8-Thunderbird Graduate School
of International Management
1973-American Graduate School of
International Management(AGSIM)
1997-Thunderbird, The American Graduate
School of International Management
2004-Thunderbird, The Garvin School
of International Management
12
public announce- already experiencing their gift. They
ment. News about a much more excit- tended to think that
the name change and ing dialogue with naming a depart-the
$60 million gift, alumni, corporations ment or a building
thought to be the and friends as a re- would have been
largest naming gift sult of this gift." sufficient.
ever to a business When news of the Some money has
school, were made gift and, especially, already been trans-simultaneously
in an the name change ferred to Thunder-effort
to garner more reached the alumni, bird, and the rest
publicity, Propp says. it prompted more will arrive over the
Articles appeared in than a hundred next few years. A
newspapers world- letters and e-mails. portion-$20 million
wide. At the same The responses were -is for strategic
time, Thunderbird "predominantly initiatives and other
placed advertise- positive," Propp priorities. The re-ments
in such publi- says, but many of maining $40 million
cations as The Wall them also expressed will be set aside as a
StreetJournal, South disagreement with permanent endow-
China Morning Post, the name change. ment. Some of the
Japan Times, Herald "They perceived it $20 million will fund
Tribune, and Times of as selling the name operations of the
India. of the school for a Garvin Center for
"We expect that tidy sum," he says. the Cultures and
the Garvin gift will "But it would have Languages of Inter-serve
as enormous been irresponsible of national Manage-leverage
for other us not to raise funds ment, as well as for
fund-raising initia- in this way when it's an endowed chair,
tives," says Richard a common process the Samuel L.
Tollefson, Thunder- in the industry." Garvin Distin-bird's
vice president Even the most ar- guished Professor-for
institutional ad- dent dissenters ship in Global
vancement and di- agreed that the Entrepreneurship,
rector of develop- Garvins needed to named in honor of
ment. "We are be recognized for Garvin's father.
fall 2004
Queen for
a night
NEITHER
clean-shaven
legs nor
estrogen-rich
hormones were
requirements for
contestants in the
Miss MBA Pageant,
the highlight of the
Americas and
Europe Cultural
Night heldJune 6 at
the Glendale cam­pus.
The evening
included food and
drinks from coun­tries
of the two re­gions,
a slide show,
music and dancing.
In keeping with its
rich culinary tradi­tions,
North Ameri­ca
was represented
by Kentucky Fried
Chicken and Krispy
Kreme doughnuts.
.. ' . ".
avigatel'il'ternallonahcom
..... I •
thunderbird magazine
news & notes
Following the
beauty parade, the
"talent" portion, and
questions and an­swers,
judges pared
the contest down to
a runoff between
Miss Communica­tions
and Miss
Modern Language.
Crowd response
broke the tie in favor
of Miss Communi­cations,
who prom­ised
to use "her"
title to help bring
about international
peace and harmony.
Navigate Opens The Door
To Global Markets ...
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• A team of 150+ consultants in 50+ countries speaking 30+ languages.
• Access to Intelligence, Insights and Insiders in foreign markets.
• Your source for Global Research, Analysis, Strategy and Development.
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13
news & notes
Master's Executive Education
certificate for Thunderbird.
The 2417 online
pro~ram availability of the
aval able programs will allow
students all over the
online world to utilize the
interactive courses T HUNDERBIRD anytime, anywhere,
is offering two with no campus at-online
Master tendance ever re-
Certificates, the re- quired, Couturier
sult of an agreement says.
with University "Our state-of-the-
Alliance Online, a art online technolo-division
of Bisk Ed- gy and distance
ucation, the nation's learning expertise,
top provider of on- combined with
line degrees. The Thunderbird's illus-
AboutU. I P, ... Room
ContactU.
I C8rM" I
Thunderbird has gO'le online with Bisk Education.
certificates will in­clude
a Master's
Certificate in Global
Marketing and a
Master's Certificate
in International
Management.
"Our partnership
with the University
Alliance allows us to
advance our mission
of being the leading
provider in global
executive education,
and a key contribu­tor
to the advance­ment
of the careers
of working profes­sionals,"
says Jerome
Couturier, senior
vice president of
14
trious reputation as
the world's leading
source of interna­tional
management
education, allows
business profession­als
the chance to
gain vital marketing
business techniques
while continuing to
work in their indus­tries,"
says Nathan
M. Bisk, chairman
of Bisk Education.
Enrollment for
the online programs
is now open, and ap­plications
currently
are being accepted
for the January 2005
session.
Student
crospects
°Neta
tas e of
campus
T EThUnde<-
bird Hospitali-tyWeekend
has been such a
success that the
fledgling program
has been expanded
to two weekends
during the Fall.
Prospective stu-dents
have been in-vited
to spend two
days on the Glen-dale
campus-on
Oct. 22 and 23 or
Nov. 12 and 13-to
get a better sense of
Thunderbird, says
Joe Miller, director
of Student Services.
Between 60 and 80
prospective students
Africa
Oceania
Middle East
are expected on each
weekend.
"There is some-thing
special about
the campus, a magic
that you can only
really understand if
you're here," he says.
"All they have to do
is get to campus and
we take care of
everything else."
Thunderbird
hosts the prospects,
along with any fam-ily
members, at the
on-campus Execu-tive
Inn and treats
them to all meals.
During their time
on campus, prospec-tive
students sit in
on a panel discus-sion
by the Interna-tional
Studies facul-ty
and a case presen-tation
by a faculty
member. They also
learn about Thun-derbird's
interna-tional
campuses and
global internships.
On Saturday night,
prospective students
are invited to enjoy
Regional Night, a
celebration of differ-ent
cultures with
unique food, drinks,
music and dancing.
A high percentage
of the prospective
students who have
attended Hospitality
Weekend in the past
have gone on to join
the School, Miller
says. The program
was launched with a
group of 50 prospec-tive
students in
October 2003.
"The feedback we
get is terrific," he
says. "They really
appreciate the open-ness,
are impressed
by the faculty and
bond quickly with
current students."
Totals don't equal
100 percent due
to rounding.
fall 2004
Future
knee
surgery
patients
gather
for rugby
tourney
Eighth Annual
Truly Global
Thunderbird
Tournament
attracts MBA
teams from
allover the
globe.
BRAGGING
rights as the
best MBA
rugby team in the
world will be deter­mined
this Novem­ber
at Thunderbird's
Glendale campus at
the Truly Global 8th
Annual Thunder­bird
Rugby Tourna­ment.
Dozens of
teams from around
the globe will de­scend
on the campus
$500,000
Gift goes
o School
F ORMER Thun-derbird
Presi-dent
Roy
Herberger was
toasted by more
than 600 admirers in
May, and they left
behind $500,000 for
the School.
The retirement
dinner for Herberger
thunderbird magazine
Nov. 5-7 to vie for
the Championship
Cup.
"The tournament
is truly global be­cause
teams come
from all parts of the
world and on each
team there are many
nationalities," says
tournament com­mittee
member and
T-bird player Nikola
Tchouparov '05. "We
expect a stellar field
of teams."
Invitations have
been extended to
more than 50 MBA
programs, nearly
twice as many as
last year. MBA
teams from pro­grams
in Europe,
Asia, Africa,
Australia, Mexico,
Canada, Ireland
and Argentina are
expected to enter at
least one team. An
additional day has
been added to the
event to accommo­date
the large field.
A welcome recep­tion
will be held at
was both a tribute
event and fundrais-er.
Gary and Jeanne
Herberger (no
relation) and former
chairman of the
board of trustees
Barbara Barrett and
Intel CEO Craig
Barrett were hosts
along with Jean and
John Berndt (current
chairman of the
board of trustees),
Rita and Sam
Garvin, Renee and
news & notes
.1 ' f '- ., " " \
~.~.~ '" . ~ <-
,/. .,;1 ...... 't'
~"1 \• .! \
:. ~ ie • ~
If tile Truly Glul),11 TlIlJlIc/t'IOliti TiIUIIUI))"llt ci()t'~,llt Illfllet ellol/gll ci,]lllagt'.
tilere's ,llways tile live LliIff ricillig colltest Oil S,ltulci,ly Illght ,It Mr Lucky's
the Thunderbird
Pub on Friday for all
team members and
friends. On Satur­day
night, each team
will select a team­mate
to be strapped
onto a live bull in a
bull-riding contest at
the nearby country
bar, Mr. Lucky's.
Thunderbird fin­ished
third in last
year's competition,
behind the MBA
programs from the
University of Texas
Jack Donnelly,
Dinky and Dick
Snell, and Cynthia
and William Turner.
Tributes came in
from Secretary of
State Colin Powell,
Justice Sandra Day
O'Connor, and
Steve Forbes, CEO,
Forbes Inc.
Funds from the
dinner will go to-ward
a scholarship
in the name of Roy
and Pam Herberger.
and Harvard.
The Truly Global
tournament comes
on the same week­end
as Thunder­bird's
Alumni
Weekend. One of
the highlight events
of the weekend will
be the Fruit Bowl,
the annual contest
that pits Thunder­bird's
current rugby
squad against one
comprised of alumni
players. Chuck
Hamilton '91, presi-dent
of the Thun­derbird
Alumni
Rugby Association,
expects a tough
match from the
current team.
"It's something
about youth and
practices twice a
week that does it,"
he says. "If we can
get some of the
more recent grads
to show up, we'll
field a fine team."
For more information,
go to tbirdrugby.org.
15
global campus
Nandani Lynton is
leading push into China.
T-bird
explores
ventures
in China
WITH THE
naming of
Dr. Nandani
Lynton, a renowned
Asia expert, as vice
president of Execu­tive
Education in
Beijing, the opening
of an office there and
hosting of informa­tion
seminars in the
region, Thunderbird
has established a
beachhead in
Greater China.
"Our operations
are expected to build
the Thunderbird
brand in China, sup­port
the recruitment
of top Chinese can­didates
for our MBA
programs, support
and coordinate
with alumni in the
region, assist the
CMC with place­ments
and market
executive education
programs in China,"
says Lynton.
Thunderbird Chi-
16
na also is looking at
forming alliances
with elite Chinese
business schools to
cooperate on specific
programs, conduct
joint research and
establish student ex­changes.
Lynton has
appointed a new di­rector,
Chen Li, to
help in the process.
The key to suc­ceeding
in China is
to form a strong
partnership with a
local university, says
Jerome Couturier,
Thunderbird's sen­ior
vice president of
Executive Educa­tion.
"We will not
partner with just
any university. We
want the very best."
Even though
China's economy is
rapidly expanding,
it is still too soon
for Thunderbird to
open a campus and
offer master's de­grees.
"We choose
to have much more
of a step-by-step
approach," he says.
"The common wis­dom
is to invest in
China for the longer
term. If you go too
quickly, you can get
burned. We have
made China a prior­ity
but have decided
to follow a gradual,
step-by-step course."
"Information
seminars in Shang­hai
and Beijing have
showed us that po­tential
students and
the local press were
most interested in
the stories of suc­cessful
T-birds,"
Lynton says.
East meets West
DR NANDANI LYNTON has been based in
China for more than a decade. She is
one of the preeminent experts in human
resources and globalization in the area.
Prior to joining Thunderbird, Lynton was
founder and managing director of Lynton John
& Associates Ltd. in Beijing, a leading
organizational and human resources consulting
firm. Lynton has consulted for Fortune 500
multinationals in Europe, the Americas and
Asia, assisting them in their globalization
efforts. In China, her consulting has focused on
helping companies align their systems and
culture with business goals, the evaluation and
development of managers and the restructuring
of enterprises.
Lynton has taught at Cornell University and at
the Universities of Cologne and Dusseldorf. She
was an adjunct professor at the University of
North Carolina at Chapel-Hill responsible for the
joint University of North Carolina and Peking
Union Medical College's five-year multi-phased
Quintiles Scholar Program in management
training. Lynton holds Master's and PhD.
degrees in cultural anthropology and
organization behavior from Cornell University.
Europe
campus
gets new
corporate
clients
THUNDERBIRD
Europe has
spent the past
few years preparing
for growth. It is now
arriving. In addition
to a complement of
full-time MBA stu­dents,
the campus is
receiving a wave of
corporate clients
from the Executive
Education program.
Legrand, a world-wide
leader in the
manufacturing of
consumer electron­ics,
has signed a
two-year agreement
with Thunderbird.
The $3 million con­tract
calls for the
School to provide
executive develop­ment
programs.
Thunderbird is
designing the final
module of a manag­er
development pro­gram
for the Euro­pean
Aeronautic
Defense and Space
Company (EADS),
best known as the
manufacturer of
Airbus. The three-module
program has
been held for high­potential
managers
onsite at EADS
plants in Munich
and Paris. The pro­gram
will culminate
at the EADS plant
in Atlanta.
3i, the British
venture capital
company, has given
Thunderbird Europe
the go-ahead to de­sign
a healthcare
conference in Prague
in December. In the
past, Thunderbird
has held a confer­ence
on the oil and
gas industries for 3i.
Partnering with
MIT, Thunderbird
Europe is designing
a program for
Serono, a leading
biotech firm, to train
500 managers over
the next three years.
The week-long
modules will be
taught in Archamps
and on the MIT
campus in Boston.
"It is a great com­plement
to our port­folio
that we have
such high-profile
European firms that
have been coveted
by other top-tier
schools," says Rory
Simpson, VP of
Executive Education
for Thunderbird
Europe.
In 2002, the
Archamps campus
expanded with the
opening of a new
building that has
four auditoriums
and 12 breakout
rooms, and includes
the latest technology
in A.Y. equipment.
fall 2004
global campus
Bien­venidos
a
Glendale
ONE-hundred
and twenty
Latin Ameri­cans
arrived on the
Thunderbird Glen­dale
campus July 17
for their graduation
from the Global
MBA for Latin
American Managers
program. The
students, who spent
two years in the
program, came from
nine different cam­puses
in Mexico,
including Ciudad
Juarez, Chihuahua,
Guadalajara, Meri­da,
Mexicali, Mexi­co
City, Monterrey,
Qyeretaro and Santa
Fe. Some of the stu­dents
came from
Miami and four oth­er
Latin American
campuses-Santa
Cruz de la Sierra,
Bolivia; San Sal­vador;
Panama City;
and Lima. The
program, which
began in 1998 when
Thunderbird part­nered
with Tec­nol6gico
de Mon­terrey,
the leading
business graduate
school in Mexico.
2004 class is the
fifth generation of
Global MBAs to
come through the
The seventh gen­eration
of Global
MBA students
arrived on campus a
week later to start
the course.
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With an attractive (PM and stunning new design, content and attitude, TImnderbird Magazine
is a must for any media plan that wants to reach a trury global audience.
For rate and schedule information, please contact us at tbirdads@t-bird.edu, or at 602-978-7583.
Truly Global
thunderbird magazine 17
R. ANGEL CABRERA HAD
every' reason to turn his back
on eaucation. From the time
he could read until he
received a master's degree,
Cabrera was part of an education system
that had no place for a student like him.
In elementary school, bored with the gla­cial
pace of die lessons, he needed an out­let
for his boundless energy. He became a
~rankster and was constantly in trouble.
Jbr the time he reached nigh school,
Cabrera was learning more on his own
than in the classroom. In European fash­ion,
Cabrera was forced to choose a career
track too early and was soon mired in a
six-year program that confined him to
engineenng courses only.
Thunderbird's new President, Dr. Angel Cabrera,
has spent his short life preparing for this job.
By D.J. Burrough
Such institutional rigidity and inattention might have caused
Cabrera to shun education forever. Instead, it helped him become
who he is: an educator.
Cabrera's journey to Thunderbird began in April 2003 when Dr.
Roy Herberger announced to the board that he would leave his posi­tion
as president in a year. By August, the search for his successor was
on and the list of candidates had grown to 2,000. It was pared down,
then pared down further, until only eight candidates remained.
Rounds of interviews winnowed the list down to two. Ultimately, it
was Cabrera's academic background, his skills as a communicator, his
remarkable achievements at Instituto de Empresa in Madrid, and his
proven ability to raise funds that won him the position.
"He was seen as someone with a lot of potential," says Tim Propp,
Thunderbird's chief administrative officer and a member of the
search committee, "a visionary and a transformational leader."
Cabrera, who is the first foreign-born president of the School, arrives
at a time when Thunderbird is at a crossroads. Competition to attract
the best students has never been fiercer, the School has just received a
AN GEL CAB R ERA has the potenti al to globalize Thunderbird even further.
thunderbird magazine
$60-million gift along with a new name, and
the skills that the international marketplace is
demanding of MBAs are rapidly evolving.
Born in Madrid in 1967, Cabrera was the
second of four boys. His father and uncle
both ran a number of small businesses and
restaurants, and his grandfather was a
schoolteacher. Cabrera went to school at an
especially early age alongside his brother, but
he quickly grew frustrated.
"I was bored," he says. "I got into trouble a
lot. I was always kind of a pain in the butt. I
was hungry for more. I needed more input,
but school didn't provide that, so I looked for
excitement elsewhere. I read a lot and found
myself getting involved in other things."
Unrelenting curiosity
CABRERA FOUND a better op­portunity
to learn during the
summers of his youth, spent
with his grandfather in Torno, a
small mountain town just out­side
Madrid. Cabrera and his brothers spent
their days hiking, swimming and sitting with
his grandfather. "He would teach us things.
It was more like learning at our own pace,"
Cabrera says. "I spent a lot of summers there,
and people recognized us as his grandchil­dren.
They would say, 'Your grandfather
taught me everything I know.'"
In 1985, Cabrera entered the Universidad
Politecnica de Madrid, one of the most pres­tigious
schools in Europe, and studied
telecommunications engineering. "I was a
very good student because I'm good at math
and good at science, but it didn't challenge me
intellectually," Cabrera says. "I knew
halfway through that being an engineer was
not what I wanted to do in life."
As frustrated as he was with the Spanish
system, he remained passionate about learn­ing.
He could always be found in the front
row of any lecture, closest to the professor.
And he graduated a year early.
"In class, he was able to construct the right
question at the right time; the kind of ques­tion
that we all had in mind, but we didn't
know," says Manuel Rincon, a United Na­tion's
development officer who attended the
Universidad Politecnica de Madrid and one
of Cabrera's closest friends. "His questions al­ways
made us understand the lesson better.
They even made the professor understand
better what he was trying to explain."
Even though the workload for the engi­neering
degree was demanding, Cabrera be­gan
sitting in on other classes, including phi­losophy,
anthropology, psychology, sociolo-
19
ONE ERA ENDS.
ANOTHER BEGINS
Like Roy Herberger
when he arrived at
Thunderbird in 1989,
Cabrera takes over as
president at a time of
much transformation in
the School's history,
20
gy, ancient Greek history and ethics. Though
he got no credit, they fed his growing curios­ity.
"This is not something the Spanish sys­tem
invites you to do," Cabrera says.
Just before graduation, Rincon and Cabrera
were enjoying an Italian dinner, fueled with
ample wine, when they got the idea to hike
across the Sahara Desert. "The problem was
that the next morning we still thought it was
a great idea," Cabrera says.
The two were soon off, with just small
backpacks and little else. They hopped a train
to the south of Spain, where they caught a
ferry that took them to Algeria. From there,
the two caught taxis until they ran out of
money. Cabrera used his wrist watch as pay­ment
to get a truck driver to take them fur­ther
south to the edge of the Sahara Desert.
"For days and weeks we walked over the
dunes from one oasis to the next," Rincon re­calls.
"We saw children carrying firewood on
their heads and Bedouin cities coated in mud
mortar. To live together with those natives
was a great lesson of cultural relativity and re­spect.
We exchanged Beatles songs for their
nomadic music."
For Cabrera, the trip was transformative.
The people who welcomed him into their
dusty camps and shared their meager rations
were the same ones who were often victims
of discrimination in Europe.
"We walked through the dunes to oases that
weren't otherwise accessible and stayed with
local people who didn't speak or understand
French," Cabrera says. "Unlike the Algerian
immigrants in Europe, we were received with
open arms and taken care of everywhere we
went. They shared their couscous, their lamb,
and their huts. We learned a lot about hospi­tality,
about development, about civilizations.
We came back very confused, our old as­sumptions
torn to pieces."
Not long after graduation, in 1991, Cabrera
won a Fulbright Scholarship to study for his
doctorate in psychology at Georgia Tech in
Atlanta. Free of the confining Spanish system,
Cabrera reveled in learning about psychology.
"You learn what moves people, how people
think, what motivates them. And it's really
learning about yourself," he says. "It takes a lot
of soul searching. I felt liberated when I could
finally study things I really cared about."
Cabrera was never a bookish, overly seri­ous
student even at Georgia Tech. He was
seen as urbane and funny as well as smart.
"One minute he would challenge the
teacher with a question the rest of us didn't
even understand and the next he would
make some comment that had everyone­teachers
and students-doubled over laugh­ing,"
says Elizabeth Cabrera of her husband,
whom she met as a fellow graduate student.
Passion for teaching
T HE WEEK before finals, when
everyone was hunkered down
in the computer room working
on their papers, Cabrera was
downloading music from the
Internet with a new "gopher" program while
he was also studying.
"When the music started playing, he
would grab me out of my chair, and we would
dance the tango while the rest of the students
laughed," says Elizabeth, who co-authored
more than half the academic papers that
Cabrera has published. "Many of our fellow
grad students agree that Angel helped make
quite a stressful time in our lives a lot of fun."
After a year-long stint with Andersen
Consulting, where he was one of the
youngest managing consultants, and two
universities in Spain-where he was found­ing
vice president of research at one and a vis­iting
professor at the other-Cabrera arrived
at the Instituto de Empresa (IE) as a profes­sor
of organizational behavior and human re­source
management. A year later, he became
director of human resource management. In
2001, at just 33 years old, he became the
youngest dean of any major international
business school. As he rose through the hier­archy,
Cabrera never stopped teaching.
"He does everything basically through a
Socratic method," says Greg Unruh, an IE
professor of business administration who co­taught
courses with Cabrera. "There is never
anything that resembles a lecture; it's more of
a dynamic conversation with students. He
can give as good as he gets." In 2002, the stu­dents
voted him Best Teacher of the Year.
fall 2004
As dean, Cabrera instituted sweeping
changes at the 50-year-old institution. He re­cruited
more than 30 new faculty members
from 16 nations, doubled the number of inter­national
students, strengthened the school's
ties to Latin America and focused on research
to such a point that today it is Spain's most
prolific research facility. In 2002, IE was one
of the first 10 schools to earn all three major
international accreditations. It is recognized
by a number of publications, including the Fi­nancial
Times and The Wall Street Journal, as
one of Europe's top five business schools.
"He was able to drive dynamic change a lot
faster than anybody else had done," Unruh
says. "He was very articulate, and his vision
of the school was very easy to see and accept.
He prefers to move toward consensus, but
he's not afraid to tell people the way things
should be. He can be very decisive and, if he
has to, tough. They chose Angel because they
wanted a leader who could overcome the
slow pace of change in Europe, but maybe
they got a little more than they bargained
for."
His leadership of I E and his critical views of
the education system garnered him increas­ing
public attention. In 2002, the World Eco­nomic
Forum (WEF) chose him as a Global
Leader for Tomorrow; and this year, Business
Week named him one of the "Stars of Eu­rope."
His leading role with the WEF's Busi­ness
Pledge Project, which aims to raise busi­ness
leaders' social responsibility through
higher education, set off an international de­bate
about what role business schools should
have in the development of their students.
"What underlies the oath is the vision of
business management as a true profession,
like medicine or the law," Cabrera says. "I re­ally
can't think of a profession that is more
important and that has a greater impact than
management and business. We send people
to business school and expect them to learn
just finance, marketing and strategy. We
should also give them understanding about
what it is they are doing and that they do
have a huge responsibility to society in terms
of managing people's financial resources.
You're playing with people's savings, people's
retirement, their dreams and their aspira­tions.
I mean, this is serious business."
Thunderbird is facing a number of impor­tant
issues, Cabrera says: competition from
other business graduate schools with interna­tional
aspirations, an ever-tightening market
for doctoral faculty, and the need to continu­ally
refine the Thunderbird experience to
keep the School the best it can be.
thunderbird magazine
"I don't think the answers are going to COMING OF AGE
come from some magic solutions I have. It's
more a question of team-building, leadership
and setting a vision for the School, getting
people to be part of that vision and do their
share toward achieving that vision," he says.
At 38 years old, Cabrera
is the youngest
president the School
has had. He also is the
first non-American.
Cabrera expects that as president ofThun­derbird,
his time will be in great demand. But
regardless of the added responsibilities, he
says, he will find stolen moments to return to
his passion. "I don't know how it's going to
work out, but one way or another, I'll find a
way to do some teaching."
A Deontological Oath for MBAs
Dr. Angel Cabrera envisions a day when all MBA
graduates recite or sign a professional code of
ethical behavior. Cabrera co-authored the pledge
with IE's faculty and the Global Leaders for
Tomorrow, part of the World Economic Forum.
As A MANAGER of a corporation, an advisor or an entrepreneur,
I pledge to fulfill, to the best of my ability and judgment, the
following covenant:
I will safeguard the interests of the enterprise's financial
claimants and will strive to create endurable shareholder value,
I will utilize natural resources in an efficient, sustainable way,
thus ensuring the rights of future generations to enjoy a clean and
resourceful planet.
I will respect the rights and dignity of the individuals working
for the enterprise, as well as the people that may be affected by
its activities,
In meeting my commitments with my clients, suppliers and
allies, I will engage in honest and transparent transactions,
respecting their rights and standing up to my promises.
I will remember that I remain a member of society, and that,
as a manager, advisor or entrepreneur, my actions may have great
impact on the well-being of others. I will ensure that the operation
of the enterprise contributes to the creation of wealth and progress
for society at large. I will assume the responsibility for my acts in
the execution of my duties and will respond to society for them.
If I do not violate this oath, may I enjoy life and art and personal
success. May I be respected while I live and remembered with
affection thereafter. May I always act so as to preserve the finest
traditions of business and may I long experience the joy of helping
improve the lives of my fellow human beings.
21
THE
ROYA.
HERBERGERJR,
YEARS 1989-2004
EXPANDING AND
IMPROVING
Herberger's tenure at
Thunderbird was
marked by significant
growth in nearly every
imaginable way, but he'll
be remembered most
for how he helped to
globalize the School.
thunderbird magazine
Thunderbird's eighth
president led the world's
most esteemed school of
international management
through 15 years of growth
in a tumultuous world.
Roy Herberger's grasp of
global business taught our
community much about
globalization as well as the
value of academic and
corporate partnerships
and risk diversification.
By Melissa Crytzer Fry
HEN ROY A. HERBERGER JR, TOOK
over the reins as president of Thunder­bird
in 1989, he began by painting a de­tailed
picture of what was to become his
legacy as president of the institution for
15 years: the globalization of a school
dedicated to international business.
"When I say globalization," Herberger said in one of his first ad­dresses,
"I mean that Thunderbird must take the lead among academ­ic
institutions worldwide. For me, that means we must be able to move
between continents-administratively, financially and otherwise. It
means the possibility of mergers, acquisitions or perhaps moving to dif­ferent
shores."
Indeed, 15 years later, that once blank canvas on which he
23
sketched out Thunderbird's future has now
become a realistic representation of the
School as it is: a Thunderbird with multi­shore
campuses, culturally diverse faculty
and academic and corporate partnerships
across the globe.
That Herberger's vision had prophetic
gualities is no surprise to those who know
him in business and academic circles. Only a
year after taking office, Herberger launched
his strategy with a groundbreaking ceremo­ny
for the International Studies Building, a
harbinger of numerous facilities improve­ments
to come.
"It is not surprising at all that Roy accom­plished
his goals," says Lattie F. Coor, chair­man
and CEO of the Center for the Future of
HERBERGER fostered Executive Education: attracted
more foreign stUdents: made the School the top
international MBA program in the world: bui lt new
faci lities equipped for the digital age: and brought to
campus such luminaries as Margaret Thatcher.
24
Arizona and president emeritus at Arizona
State University. "The attribute of a great
leader is clarity of vision and a commitment to
carrying out those goals." Warren Bennis, the
distinguished professor of business adminis­tration
at the University of Southern Califor­nia,
concurs: "Roy is an incubator, instigator
and initiator of new ideas."
"Roy has consistently demonstrated a clear
understanding of where business education
was headed during a period marked by accel­erating
competition, transforming technolo­gies
and changing student perspectives," says
John Berndt, Thunderbird's chairman of the
board of trustees. "That understanding, cou­pled
with his personal drive and ability to
forge consensus, were essential to Thunder­bird's
growth and success during his tenure."
Herberger's great strength was in applying
real-world principles of international busi­ness
to the School's strategic plan. "Roy has
always looked at the School as a business,"
says John O 'Connell, Thunderbird's C.V.
Starr Chair of International Risk Manage­ment.
"While Thunderbird is an academic
institution first, it's also a business and needs
to convey those principles."
In his classes, O'Connell stresses the im­portance
of awareness of risks and opportuni­ties
in planning. Herberger has continually
demonstrated that awareness, says O'Con-nell.
"His leadership over the past 15 years has
taught the Thunderbird community much
about business, particularly in the area of di­versification
strategy." For instance, the risk
associated with establishing a campus in Ar­champs,
France, was minimized due to Her­berger's
insight and awareness of the world's
business climate and needs.
"In 1992, Roy imparted his vision that
T-bird needed a European beachhead to pen­etrate
the emerging demand in Europe for
graduate business training," says Tom Hob­son
'79, a member of the Thunderbird Eu­rope
Board. Today, the Archamps campus,
fall 2004
Thunderbird Europe, welcomes more than
100 full-time students each year as well as a
dozen students from the Glendale campus
for Winterim experiences and hundreds of
European executives for custom programs.
Herberger's global diversification strategy
also included the establishment of partner­ship
programs and alliances with other aca­demic
institutions and organizations. The
development of a degree program for Latin
American managers in conjunction with
Tecnol6gico de Monterrey proved much
more valuable than the potential risk it pre­sented
when it was conceived in 1997. Today,
the Global MBA program serves 320 current
students and boasts 572 graduates; it is offered
at nearly a dozen campuses in Mexico and at
Herberger grew the Global
MBA program: expanded
the Glendale campus with
bui ldings like the IBIC: and
attracted greater alumni and
corporate donations. among
them the $60 million gift
from Sam Garvin.
sites in Bolivia, EI Salvador, Panama, Peru
and Miami.
"Faculty member Bert Valencia, in his
building up of the Global MBA for Latin
American Managers program, paid heavily
in trying to convince me and others of the
program's potential," says Herberger. "It has
proven to be a phenomenally successful dis­tance
learning program, established at a time
when that type of offering was not looked on
well by the industry."
By entering into partnerships with the
ability to deliver, Herberger reduced the de­gree
of risk by eliminating the need for
thunderbird magazine
Thunderbird to build new campuses or lease
buildings in overseas locations, O'Connell
points out. Other cooperative agreements
with Aspire Academy in Asia, the CMC
Graduate School of Business in Prague, and
the Center for Business Development in
China and Russia also became successful
pieces of Herberger's global partnership and
risk diversification strategies.
Herberger's desire to involve the interna­tional
business community in the School's
strategy was an important component of his
globalization efforts. During his years,
Thunderbird established four regional coun­cils
within the Thunderbird Alumni Associ­ation
(T AA). The councils represent Thun­derbird's
global community, covering the
Asia-Pacific, Latin America, North America
and Europe-Middle East-Africa regions. Ad­ditionally,
more than 142 chapters of the T AA
have been established around the world.
"Roy has been actively engaged with over­seas
alumni," says Merle Hinrichs '65, a
member of the Thunderbird Board of
Trustees, which has grown to a global body of
36 business leaders from a wide range of
countries during Herberger's tenure. "Roy's
skills to gain the collaboration of so many di­verse
groups were exceptional," he says
"Dr. Herberger made sure the T AA was
integrated into the strategic planning process
"Roy is an
incubator,
instigator
and Initi­ator
of new
l"ed as. .. "
" ... personal
drive and
ability to
forge con-
sensus ... "
" ... clarity of
vision and
commit­ment
to
carrying
out goals."
"Roy has
always
looked at
the School
as a
business."
25
by giving us representation within the Board
of Trustees," says Catalina Cisneros '97, for~
mer member of the TAA North America
Council. "He managed to change the struc~
ture to include many of the other regional
areas around the world."
The World Business Advisory Council, a
constituent group originally formed to advise
the World Business Department on curricu~
lar and faculty development issues, was ex~
panded in size and function during the Her~
berger years. Today, the Thunderbird Global
Council (TGC)-its present incarnation-is
composed of 85 members from 12 countries in
senior~level management positions at enter~
prises located throughout the world. Mem~
bers hold president, CEO and executive vice
president titles with companies such as FCB
Worldwide in Hong Kong, American Ex~
press in New York City, and Eli Lilly Inter~
national in France. Using its global expertise,
the TGC advises the School on issues rang~
ing from admissions and recruitment strate~
gy to marketing and branding initiatives.
Understanding the power of collaboration
and the insight gained from interaction with
the global business community, Herberger
also extended his outreach to business leaders
worldwide. Today, more than 500 corpora~
tions partner with the School in one or more
of Thunderbird's solutions~based programs.
Clients such as Intel, Honeywell Aerospace,
G E Capital and Microsoft have taken advan~
tage of the academic expertise and real~world
experience of faculty and students who com~
plete corporate consulting projects.
Hundreds of corporations benefit annually
as they hire student interns and graduates
through the School's Career Management
Center, attend global presentations and par~
ticipate in Thunderbird's Executive Educa~
tion programming, another diversification
strategy implemented by Herberger.
The global demand for executive~based
products and services came even before Her~
berger predicted. "When I began as presi~
dent, globalization was being constrained by
political processes," he says, "but you could
see it collapsing. I thought it would be anoth~
er three to seven years until globalization had
a real impact." Global events in the late '80S
and early' 90S proved otherwise: the massacre
at Tiananmen Square, Soviet social and eco~
nomic upheaval under glasnost and pere~
stroika, and the fall of the Berlin Wall.
"I saw globalization happen at a speed I
never dreamed of," he says, "I saw that most
corporations were not prepared to deal with
the true impact of globalization in their
26
FROM THE TOP
Herberger at a student
party; on the washboard
in Archamps; fishing
with friends; speaking
on campus, and with
past presidents.
firms." Thunderbird was perfectly poised to
be there at the moment changes in globaliza~
tion took place. "The combinations of those
external events, combined with our brand
and our reputation, made executive educa~
tion a natural step," says Herberger. "I got
lucky in getting Ed Barrett; he was the perfect
person to lead the growth of executive pro~
grams at Thunderbird."
Under Barrett and Herberger's leadership,
Thunderbird's top~ranked Executive Educa~
tion program has grown to a $16 million~plus
annual enterprise. More than 6,000 execu~
tives from corporations worldwide partici~
pate each year in various programs aimed at
developing the cultural and business skills of
executives in on~ and off~shore environ~
ments. Customized courses, open enroll~
ment, online certificate programs and Execu~
tive MBA degree programs offered in the
United States, Asia and Eastern Europe are
offered to thousands of participants annually.
Ironically, global events similar to those
that spurred the expansion of Thunderbird's
Executive Education program in the late '80S
have had an equally profound impact on the
School recently. "People are fascinated when
I say that September II and the SARS epi~
demic changed this institution forever," says
Herberger. Terrorism has caused a downturn
in B~school attendance in the United States
by foreign students. SARS, with its cata~
strophic impact on the global community,
has been a wake~up call also. With half of
Thunderbird's student population from out~
side the United States, and more than 40 per~
cent of that group from SARS~plagued Asia,
Thunderbird was reminded of the impor~
tance of flexibility and preparedness.
"These events have forced us to look at
how vulnerable we are as the world's most
global management education institution,"
says Herberger. In response to SARS, Thun~
derbird developed backup programs that
could be delivered on a distance learning ba~
sis in affected areas. "We have done what a
corporation would do. We are diversifying
revenues, shouldering up the products we of~
fer, and diversifying those products. Having
more than just a U.S. face is really important
and will continue to be."
Indeed, developing Thunderbird into a
school with more than a U.S. face is one of
the goals Herberger set out to accomplish as
a new president in 1989. His clearly articulat~
ed vision for the future-the globalization of
an international school-may be even more
valid 15 years later. It is this vision that will
likely propel Thunderbird into the future.
fall 2004
A personal letter to the
Thunderbird
Community
T SEEMS JUST LIKE YESTERDAY
when my family and I made the
trek from Dal1as to Phoenix in the
spring of 1989. Time has flown by
since we were thrown into the won­derful
world of Thunderbird just at
the moment globalization was kick­ing
into high gear. Sometimes you get lucky,
but our institution was built for the events
that would begin to unfold after the opening
of the Brandenberg Gate.
During the past 15 years, we have had our
model of education discovered, researched,
attacked, and copied by schools of business
al1 over the world. One has to appreciate the
founders of Thunderbird, especial1y General
Yount, for their vision nearly 60 years ago.
They got it right! I marvel that this wonder­ful
blend of culture, languages, and global
commerce has become a standard by which
international education is measured. Yes, we
are NO.1 for a reason.
When I look back at Thunderbird over the
past years, one of the key reasons we have
achieved worldwide recognition is due to our
alumni. They have been wonderful friends to
the school and to my family as well. Again,
there is no point of competitive distinction as
significant as the 36,000 alumni and their 128
nations of origin. Our alumni have shared
their time, resources, and encouragement
with me throughout my tenure at the school,
and I will be forever grateful for this relation­ship.
The best evidence of this alumni link­age
is the wonderful gift of Sam and Rita
Garvin to Thunderbird. This was an act of
love and generosity that is unparal1eled in the
history of management education.
I have been asked many times if I have any
regrets in stepping down from the president's
post. Yes, I have a few, but most of all I will
thunderbird magazine
In honor of his service, the Global Business Adminis­tration
Building has been renamed the Roy and Pam
Herberger Business Administration Building.
miss the commitment of our faculty, our
board of trustees, our Global Council, and the
staff of true professionals that support Thun­derbird.
Angel Cabrera is stepping into a sup­port
base that is truly excel1ent.
Finally, I am eager for each of you to meet
our new president and his wife Beth. They
represent an exciting new future for the
school as they bring a special international
flavor to the campus. Our students already
have endorsed the selection of Angel and
they are just as excited as I am about the en­ergy
that will mark his administration.
For Pam and me, it will mean some time off
to do a little travel that is not work related!
I have the privilege of sitting on several
corporate and not-for-profit boards, so I will
stay busy just trying to be a good board mem­ber.
We will remain a part of the Thunder­bird
family long into the future, and we will
occasional1y look back over a past for which
we are deeply grateful.
- Roy A, H ERBERGER
"I marvel
that this
wonderful
blend of
culture,
language
and global
commerce
has become
a standard
by which
international
education is
measured.
Yes, we are
No.1 for a
reason."
27
VALUE OF AN
An MBA provides a solid foundation,
but to successfully navigate global waters
you need even more on board.
thunderbird magazine
By IJ. Schecter
Illustration by Robert Case
~JIIIIIIIII HE CONVERGENCE OF TWO RECENT TRENDS
has produced a new point of differentiation in to­day's
business landscape. The first trend has to do
with globalization-or, more accurately, the esca­lating
need for global talent to manage it. In stretch­ing
beyond their own borders, many companies are
discovering that the academic stars they've always
recruited-usually hard-charging business school graduates-are not
necessarily the best equipped to be effective emissaries in new geogra­phies,
though they may well possess valuable business knowledge.
The second trend is that graduate business schools are churning out
a record number of eager MBA holders, approaching 120,000 a year in
the United States alone, according to the U.S. Department of Educa­tion.
Because of the sheer volume of graduates, the status of a conven­tional
MBA degree as differentiator has faded; instead, it has become
the common denominator.
The result of the intersection of these two trends is that job candi­dates
must distinguish themselves in new ways. The attribute most
h unted after today combines global knowledge, awareness, sensitivi­ty
and experience in a single package-globility, let us say.
''As companies become more international, global acumen plays an
increasingly essential role," says Ken Rich, vice president and global
co-head of A.T. Kearney's Executive Search financial services prac­tice.
"International skills and training position someone favorably
within virtually any organization today, whether that organization
has established global reach or just global aspirations."
With the ability to have an impact beyond one's country the new
discriminator, a pressing question arises: What constitutes true glo-
29
A DESTINY THAT'S
NOT SO MANIFEST
Companies are
beginning to recognize
that it takes more than
language skills to
successfully navigate
the often confusing and
sometimes dangerous
shores of foreign lands
and varied cultures.
30
bility, and just how much help does it confer?
Conversations with recruiters, global man­agers
and recent Thunderbird graduates re­veal
the five main ingredients in the recipe
that makes up globility and offer insights in­to
its value in today's marketplace.
Linguistic versatility
T HE BIBLICAL story of the
Tower of Babel, the mythic
building in which no one per­son
could understand any oth­er,
has a broad parallel in the
modern corporate world. Companies today
seek to branch outward to foreign markets
but often struggle to communicate in those
new settings. Had just one resident in the
Tower been able to bridge the linguistic gulf,
he'd have been worth his weight in gold.
Such is the case in most organizations today.
While English has become the language of
business at many multinationals, failing to
speak a parent company's mother tongue can
trip up progress both for the individual and
the organization. "Fluency, or at least compe­tence,
in a second language is an automatic
differentiator," says Bill Arlington, Human
Resources senior vice president for publish­ing
giant Wiley & Sons. "Without it, one is
at a clear disadvantage."
In a recent survey of Thunderbird graduates
from the past three decades, the majority of
the respondents-including men and women,
rookies and veterans, senior execs and junior
managers, those working in the United States
and abroad-claimed they derived at least
some competitive advantage from their for­eign
language skills. Languages other than
English cited as most helpful included, in or­der,
Spanish, German, French,Japanese, Chi­nese,
Portuguese, Russian and Arabic.
Naturally, greater fluency leads to greater
competitive advantage. However, sometimes
just making the attempt makes the critical
difference. As one subject in the Thunderbird
study said, "My language skills have never
been good enough to negotiate in, but they
gave me an understanding of the people I was
negotiating with. Even a few words of the lan­guage
gave people some comfort that I was in­terested
in them and their way of business."
Cultural sensitivity
ALTHOUGH THE value of lin­guistic
crossover is irrefutable,
transnational sensitivity may be
an even more important quality
in the eyes of many recruiters.
It's a good bet today that a company facing a
global merger or cross-border transaction
will assign a significantly greater role to the
person who can predict what nuances might
arise and suggest how to manage them. That
unique knowledge isn't something gained in
the classroom or from a textbook but comes
from having experienced them directly while
working alongside people from different cul­tures.
It is such a person, not one who has
merely studied language tapes, who will be
able to point out that blowing one's nose in
public is a weighty transgression in Japan.
Likewise, good-naturedly mentioning your
loyalty to the Yankees during a business
lunch in Boston might well deep-six a bud­ding
partnership.
''Although we devise an overall global strate-fall
2004
gy from the top," says Catherine Walker, head
of e-recruitment for world mobile telecom
leader T-Mobile, "it's crucial to find people
who understand local issues and sensibilities."
Wiley's Arlington concurs. "The single
most important skill for succeeding in inter­national
business is knowledge beyond your
own realm-how people in other parts of the
world make a living, which of their customs
affect the practice of business. People with
this kind of sensitivity are light-years ahead."
Thunderbird graduates have discovered the
market value of cultural sensitivity for them­selves.
The survey found that while more
than 80 percent of respondents indicated that
their foreign language skills benefited their
careers, nearly 90 percent said they gained a
clear edge from knowledge of other cultures.
Immersion over impression
EVEN THOUGH specialized inter­national
training at a graduate
business school provides a sure ad­vantage,
another level of distinc­tion
exists. Most recruiters agree
that people who have further laid the ground­work
for success by spending time in the cul­tures
they have studied in classrooms have an
advantage over those who have not. Direct,
intimate knowledge of foreign cultures will
only become an increasing advantage as busi­ness
becomes even more global.
A recent McKinsey & Co. report on global
retailing emphasizes the pronounced differ­ences
in tastes, habits and spending patterns
encountered by foreign market entrants. It
suggests not only that companies must devel­op
people whose global knowledge and expe­rience
transcend natural barriers, but also
that world-class talent in this regard is scarce,
making someone who can deliver on the
global stage a considerable asset.
"You can read about a foreign culture, look
at pictures, watch videos or study its history,"
says Debbie Foster, a vice president with the
HJ Heinz Co., whose brands rank first or sec­ond
in more than 50 international markets.
"But nothing compares with experiencing
that culture for yourself."
Instinct for movement
AT ONE TIME, the most valuable
commodity in business was the
employee who desired to work at
one company, in one role and in
one office for his entire career.
This notion has, like those same employees,
been left in the dust. Today, the coveted indi­vidual
is the one who wants to dive into the
thunderbird magazine
international fray and can hit foreign ground
running and who lives to forge new territory
or extend a company's reach. Senior execu­tives
haven't time to worry about whether
someone has the appetite for change; they
have time only to worry about whether he or
she can be on the next flight.
Thunderbird alumna Shweta Jain '03, a
senior internal auditor for pharmaceutical
colossus Pfizer, cites her enthusiasm for trav­el
as a key factor in landing her New York­based
role. "The company arrived on campus
seeking people willing to explore the world.
My education along with my desire to travel
put me on the global map."
The value placed on globility today ripples
throughout organizations top to bottom. Jet­hopping
between the boardroom in Dallas
and the factory in Jakarta is becoming par for
the course no matter what one's title is. Those
at junior levels who show nomadic zeal have
tremendous additional appeal; they can be­come
the standard-bearing explorers to help
chart new waters for their organizations.
Says Jane Lewis, HR manager for Procter &
Gamble Canada, "Today, employees at every
level require the skills to interact across bor­ders,
cultures and languages. And the need is
only increasing."
Friends in far places
T HE FINAL piece in the globility
puzzle, prized more and more
today, is that invaluable group
of friends and associates called
the personal global network.
Justifiably, recruiters seem to stop just short
of requesting a glance at a candidate's
rolodex. But the more global lines become
blurred, the more a worldwide network en­hances
one's value.
With this reality firmly in place, one might
argue that the most important advantage
gained by international management train­ing
is neither fundamental business expertise
nor indirect knowledge of foreign cultures.
Rather, it is the automatic global network of
friends and former classmates working in
other countries at parallel stages in their ca­reers.
Such a network evolves naturally with
the person at its hub, making it continually,
and increasingly, advantageous.
Former Thunderbird class president Abe
Jacob '03 puts it bluntly: "If you want to be­come
a global manager, your curriculum
needs to be global and so does your network.
You need to be able to pick up the phone, call
a friend or fellow alumnus in Brazil or Rus­sia,
and get things done."
"The single
most
imJ?ortant
skill for
succeeding
in interna­tional
busi­ness
is
knowledge
beyond
your own
realm.
People with
this kind of
sensitivity
are light
years
ahead."
31
LIFE IN A VERY
BIG FISHBOWL
Paul Sutherland has
gone to great depths to
capture images for
such publications as
U.S. News & World
Report. National
Geographic. Newsweek
and Sport Diver.
thunderbird magazine
Paul Sutherland's submersion into
underwater photography has led
him to the pinnacle of his profession
By Jessica McCann
T'S NOT FARFETCHED FOR PAUL SUTHERLAND
'88 to sit in a skiff in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, his
N ikon F 5 in hand, waiting for a humpback whale to swim
by ... for eight hours a day ... for weeks straight ... in the
rain. Few people understand the motivation of an artist
like Sutherland. But to him, it's pretty simple. "After
waiting for three weeks, suddenly the clouds break and a
beam of sunlight falls on the water," he says. "That calf will pop up
next to the boat and look you right in the eye and say, 'Take my pic­ture.'
And then it'll spend three hours right in front of you, and
you'll take the pictures, images that make a difference."
A unique blend of artist, adventurer and businessman, Suther­land
has found a way to earn a living doing something few people in
33
PLUNGING INTO
THE DEEP END
Sutherland quit his
"Thunderbird dream
job" as an international
marketing manager to
follow his two passions:
photography and the
undersea world.
36
the world have the talent and determination
to pull off. As an independent photographer,
he shoots editorial and stock photography of
marine life all over the globe. His work has
appeared in countless publications, includ­ing
Sport Diver, Smithsonian, National Geo­graphic,
Scientific American, Newsweek and
U. S. News C World Report.
"The photographer has to pay for the op-portunity
to make the image," he says. "The
longer the rain and the colder the weather,
the better the opportunity that follows. At
sometime in your life, you'll get payback."
Sutherland has chalked up more than
zsoo dives, which have taken him from
one exotic location to another. A fast-talk­er
who spends most of his time on dry land
in New Jersey, Sutherland has a passion
that can lure even the most ardent land­lubber
into his underwater world, day­dreaming
of the open sea and the pursuit
of some wonder of the deep.
UTHERLAND'S passion for
underwater life began in the
least likely of places: the Mid­dle
East. By the time he could
walk-or swim-Sutherland
was living in the Middle East,
where his father held a variety
of posts as a foreign service officer for the
United States. In Saudi Arabia, Suther­land's
mother would often take her children
to a place they called "the creek," an inlet off
the Red Sea. He was snorkeling there by the
time he was four years old.
"One day, there was a huge school of yel­low
fin tuna attacking an even bigger school
of bait fish," he says. "I climbed down the
ladder on the dock and stuck my head un­der
the water. I can still see pictures of it in
my head. The bait fish are swirling around
me on the dock, and three feet away are
these 60-pound tuna just screaming around
in a circle. It was unbelievable."
Though he began diving seriously by the
time he was half way through high school,
his undergraduate major was in African
and Middle Eastern affairs, not marine bi­ology.
"I didn't like science," he says. "I
liked general knowledge." Sutherland spent
four years at the University of Colorado at
Boulder, but soon returned to the Mideast
to work in the oil fields.
"It was a great life," he says, "physically
demanding, but the money was very good.
You worked long hours, but then you got
six months off."
After a few years in the field, a back in­jury
forced Sutherland to choose a new ca­reer
path. His first step was graduate school.
After earning his degree from Thunder­bird,
Sutherland worked eight years for an
engineering firm. The company's interna­tional
expansion gave Sutherland a shot at
what he calls the Thunderbird dream job:
international marketing manager. He trav­eled
the world negotiating international
deals and growing new companies.
After closing a $3.5 million deal in Japan
in late 1994, Sutherland and his employer
differed on compensation. "By 1995, I was
shooting underwater every spare minute I
had, anyway. So we agreed to part company,
and I haven't looked back since."
Sutherland launched his professional
photography career within months; and
the following year a shot of his appeared
in Sport Diver magazine, his first appear­ance
in print. Soon, other assignments
were coming in.
In March, Sutherland won a top award
in one of the world's most prestigious
photojournalism contests. His image was
also selected as one of the finalists for
"Picture of the Year" from among z6,000
photographs published by newspapers
and magazines in more than Z5 countries.
The image, "Empty Oceans," had been
published on the cover of U.S. News C
World Report inJune Z003. Complementing
a report that explored why the world's
seafood supply is disappearing, the photo
captured a school of southern blue-fin tuna
fleeing a fishing net off Australia's coast.
Photo editor Lauren Stockbower says she
selected the photograph from among hun­dreds
of images sent to her by dozens of
photographers, photo agencies and envi­ronmental
groups, but Paul's shot stood out.
fall 2004
"People who have the creative gifts and de­sire
that you need to be a successful inde­pendent
photographer don't always have
the business savvy they need," she says.
"But Paul is successful at both. He's creative
but he knows about business, and he aggres­sively
pursues the work."
Sutherland's eye for the image and his
networking prowess recently landed him a
grant from the Packard Foundation. It will
fund a major story on southern ocean con­servation
that will take him to the seas
around South Africa, Australia, New
Zealand,japan, Chile, the Falkland Islands
and the United States. "It's very exciting,"
he says. "Hopefully, we'll capture a species
never before photographed in the wild."
Getting the final image is only a small
fraction of the work that goes into being a
professional marine photographer. He's
currently coordinating with four govern­ments
on permits just to get permission to
work in their waters. Toss in the logistics of
traveling with a dozen cases of delicate pho­tographic
equipment, and the challenges
multiply. Increased airport security has
made his job that much more difficult. On a
return trip from Australia two years ago, he
was flagged by security at Los Angeles In­ternational
Airport.
"Here I am, by myself, with II bags full of
stuff on two carts moving through LAX,"
Sutherland says. "They stopped me and we
thunderbird magazine
had about a half-hour conversation. Then
you get the baggage handlers who open
your bags and go through your cases. I
mean, this is delicate stuff. So you just keep
your fingers crossed."
Sutherland carries his most critical
equipment on the plane with him, which
can include as many as six cameras, a hand­ful
of lenses and three flashes. On most
trips, his briefcase alone contains more than
$20,000 worth of equipment.
N THE END, Sutherland's suc­cess
has less to do with his educa­tion
and business expertise than
with his unrelenting passion for
undersea photography. On a re­cent
trip to Raine Island, off Aus­tralia's
eastern coast, the crew on a
local boat warned the visitors about all the
big tiger sharks attracted by sea turtles.
"So people drop off the boats in twos to
have a look around," Sutherland says. "I
hear them say, 'Be careful, there's a big
shark over there.' So I get my cameras,
jump in the water alone, and disappear for
an hour down at 75 feet. It's just great. You
go down there, park yourself, and wait. And
the whole world goes away. Everything
from the water level up just disappears. It's
another world, absolutely another world."
For a deeper glimpse into Sutherland's world,
go to sutherlandimages.com.
WE NEED A
BIGGER BOAT
Swimming with sharks
isn't a metaphor for the
business world for
Sutherland, it's a day's
itinerary. He often
works alone, at great
depths, with some of
the ocean's most
menacing creatures.
37
Four Thunderbird women
follow their personal passions
to entrepreneurial success
By Terrie LoCicero
thunderbird magazine
OST GRADUATES
with a newly won
MBA in hand follow
a well-worn path in­to
corporate life and a
secure future. Com­panies
needing new
blood dangle attractive offers with secure
salaries and corporate stability. But for some
MBA graduates, there is another path, one
that combines their entrepreneurial spirit
with a personal passion. The less-traveled
path can be a rocky route with pitfalls and
personal hardships. These four indomitable
T-bird women are living the entrepreneurial
ideals of Thunderbird in new, perhaps unfa­miliar
territory, all in the hopes of finding
their own paths to success and fulfillment.
Bringing Spain to Namibia
Not long after graduating, Kristin Brierton Dennewill '96 was working
in Madrid as an information technology consultant when she met her
future husband, Brendon Dennewill, who was living in Cape Town
at the time. In :WOO, the two began a long-distance relationship.
When he was offered a job in his home country of Namibia 18 months
later, she decided to join him, and they were soon married.
In Namibia, Dennewill soon met Ana Cuesta, a newly arrived
Spaniard who, like Dennewill, wanted to start a business. Not only
did they share a knowledge of Spanish, but they both loved traveling.
"Although tourism was a growing industry here," Dennewill says,
FINDING A NICHE
Tour companies in
Namibia didn't cater to
the Spanish speaking
market until Kristin
Brierton Dennewill '96,
here with husband
Brendon, created
Oipuka.
39
IN BLACK OR IN
PINK, SENATOR?
Selling lingerie to
Washington D.C.'s elite
was the answer for
Valerie Lucas '99 when
she decided to say "au
revoir" to the long hours
and constant travel.
40
"there weren't any tour operators focusing on
the Spanish~speaking market. So we put to~
gether a business plan."
Namibia, which broke away from South
Africa in 1990, is a large country with just 1.8
million people. An arid land, much of it is un~
inhabitable, but it offers a variety of climates
and a rich animal life.
Dennewill and Cuesta traveled throughout
the country and took classes on Namibian
ecotourism, flora and fauna. In late 2.002., they
started Oipuka, which means "animals" in
Oshiwambo, a Namibian language. The
company (oipuka.com) offers individualized
guided and fly~in trips, as well as travel plan~
ning for self-guided tours. Depending upon
the region, guests can see lions, leopards, rhi­nos,
elephants, cheetahs, giraffes, buffalos,
antelopes, hyenas, hippos, crocodiles and a
large population of bird life.
Tour guests travel in a VW Caravelle Syn­cro,
raised high to provide better game view­ing.
"Self-drive" guests use single~ or double­cab
4X4S. Groups stay in bungalows and tent
camps. The partners
do the marketing
and business devel­opment
and lead
tours. In 2.003, their
first full year in busi­ness,
they ran about
2.0 tours, with 90 per­cent
of their clients
arriving from Spain.
Dennewill credits
Thunderbird for
opening her to new
experiences and to
an international life.
"The people you
meet and the per­spectives
you hear
there all make you
see the bigger pic­ture,"
she says.
Hot lingerie in D.C.
After a few years as Teradata's worldwide
marketing manager, Valerie Lucas '99 had
grown weary of the long hours and constant
travel. "The first year was great going differ­ent
places; but after a while, I had no time to
do anything or to see anything other than my
hotel," she says. She daydreamed of opening
her own business.
"I wanted to do something gratifying to me
for a few years," Lucas says. "In my down
time, I thought about what would make me
happy, and I wanted it to be true in some way
to my French culture ... perhaps even some­thing
with a little shock value."
For Lucas, the answer was lingerie.
In 2.003, she said "au revoir" to her corpo­rate
job and threw herself into launching
Coup de Foudre, which means love at first
sight. She cut personal expenses, pumped up
her credit card limits and spent nine months
writing a business plan.
In March, the first pair of panties went out
the door in a discreet white bag.
"It was tough to make that jump because I
had a very good salary," she says. "But I
found that this market was underserved, and
I quickly recognized that there was a niche."
The 800~square-foot boutique is located
along heavily trod Pennsylvania Avenue in
the up-and-coming Penn ~arter in Wash­ington
D.C. She plans on having e-sales by
year-end (coupdefoudrelingerie.com) and is
scouting for other locations.
Lucas is working longer hours than she
ever has, but has no regrets about her deci­sion.
"I'm in this for myself, which is very
different," she says. "I get up every morning,
and I'm very excited about the business. I re­ally
enjoy it."
Hot dogs in New York
In 1997, Tammy McCarley '97 dreamed of
working in international sports, with the
Olympics as her ultimate goal. Although
well-educated-with a B.B.A. in Internation~
al Marketing from the University of Toledo
and a Master of International Management
from Thunderbird-she soon discovered that
landing a job in the field of sports marketing
was going to take a gold medal effort.
After interviewing with dozens of sports
marketing firms in as many cities, McCarley
accepted a $300-a-week, three~month posi­tion
at a sports marketing company in At­lanta.
Eventually, she got hired and, during
three years there, moved up the ladder.
In 1999, she moved to New York City to be
at what she calls the center of the sports mar~
keting universe. She accepted a marketing
job at the Princeton Review, the college test
preparation firm, and began teaching sports
marketing courses at New York University.
Soon, a new love entered her life: Sienna, a
golden retriever/chow mix. McCarley had
grown up surrounded by golden retrievers
and prize~winning show dogs.
When she took trips with Sienna, she dis­covered
how difficult it is to travel with a dog.
Few hotels allow canine guests, and a number
of beaches and parks ban them entirely. An
idea was born.
fall 2004
GOING TO THE
DOGS TOGETHER
She launched Blue
Sky Dogs (bluesky­dogsny.
com) in the
Fall of 2003. It is the
only dog-oriented
group travel compa­ny
on the East Coast
and only one of a
handful in the Unit­ed
States. The com­pany
offers both day
and weekend trips
that allow dog lovers
to travel with their
pets.
Blue Sky Dogs was
created after Tammy
McCarley '97 found that
pet Sienna wasn't
always welcome to JOin
her when traveling.
If McCarley's ven­ture
were to have any
success, she knew
she had to attract New York business, where
consumers respond more to word-of-mouth
or media attention than advertising. She at­tended
dog-related events, sent out press re­leases
and used an online public relations re­source.
A chance meeting with a New York
Times reporter at one event resulted in a men­tion
of Blue Sky Dogs in an April 2004 article
travel story. More than 100 people responded
and 50 became active, as well as very happy
and grateful, clients.
Before doing an organized tour, McCarley
goes on a trial run of each inn with Sienna.
"Some places claim to be dog-friendly, but
they make the dogs sleep in kennels," she
says. If she's satisfied, she books a weekend
for the group.
"I'm now using the skills I learned at
Thunderbird more than ever," she says.
A taste of France in L.A.
French-born Christine Splichal '83 made a
name for herself as a successful Los Angeles
restaurateur who, along with her chef hus­band
Joachim, created the celebrated Patina
Restaurant in Hollywood. Having been
brought up in a patisserie owned by her par­ents
in Biarritz, France, Splichal had restau­ranting
in her blood and was able to handle
the business end of Patina with flair.
The two formed the Patina Group in the
early 1980s. It soon expanded and by the 1990S
included a catering division, a mail order cat­alog,
seven restaurants and five museum
cafes. In 1999, they sold the company and,
while her husband stayed with the business
as a consultant, Splichal began contemplat­ing
her next challenge. It was then that a good
friend, Yugoslavian-born aesthetician Olga
Lorencin-Northrup, pitched the idea of open­ing
their own spa.
thunderbird magazine
In October 2002, the two launched Kinara
Skin Care Clinic Spa and Cafe in West Hol­lywood's
design district (kinaraspa.com).
Splichal manages the business end and runs
its distinctive restaurant while Lorencin­Northrup
oversees spa services and trains the
staff. The spa has become a popular destina­tion
for movie celebrities, including clients
Halle Berry, Ryan Seacrest, Christina Apple­gate
and Robert Duvall.
It is the restaurant that distinguishes Ki­nara
from other Los Angeles spas. Splichal
abhors obsessing about carbohydrates and
fats. Her philosophy is quintessentially
French: one should eat balanced, high-quality
food, including the occasional rich desert, as
long as it has fresh, organic ingredients. In
her view, good food leaves one satisfied and
provides the nourishment needed for clear
skin and good health. The meals served at Ki­nara
are carefully balanced and contain the
maximum amount of nutrients with mostly
certified organic ingredients. She also serves
wine and champagne, a rarity at spas.
"We offer a superior product, the best serv­ice
and an educational approach on skin care
and nutritional regimens," Splichal says.
All of this happened because Splichal came
to the United States in 1978, just before she
planned to attend college. She so enjoyed the
culture that she returned in 1982 to attend
Thunderbird, choosing it over Berkeley and
UCLA on the advice of a business teacher in
France. On her way to Thunderbird, she met
Joachim in Los Angeles.
"Going to Thunderbird really helped," she
says. "The culture of business in France is dif­ferent.
Thunderbird gave me a very smooth
transition into my work life. I took Spanish
at Thunderbird, and I still use it. Thunder­bird
was a perfect fit for me."
Christine Splichal '83
DON 'T WHINE,
THERE 'S WINE
Customers need not
obsess about carbs and
fat at Kinara, Christine
Splichal's spa and cafe.
Quintessentially French,
rich deserts, wine and
champagne are on the
distinctive menu.
41
Banking on change
Banks will dramatically expand into foreign countries
during the next five years, says Thunderoird professor.
DON'T PLAN on the financial
services industry in 2010 looking
anything like it does now. In­stead,
expect financial institu­tions
to have branches in remote
corners of the globe. Expect less merging of
brokerage firms, insurance companies and
banks. But don't expect to find too many
stand-alone insurance companies.
So postulates Dr. Robert Grosse, a profes­sor
of international business at Thunder­bird,
in his newest book, The Future of
Global Financial Services: Global Dimen­sions
in Business. The book was released in
July by Blackwell Publishing.
Even the largest financial service firms in
the world-Citibank and Hongkong Bank,
with many affiliates around the world­have
a presence in less than half of all coun­tries.
Moreover, neither has a leading market
share in more than a handful of countries.
But that could change in the coming years,
Storm. warning
Japan's wireless
tsunami threat
HOW HAS
Japan'sNTT
DoCoMo be­come
the world's
second-largest mo­bile
phone company
in just two years?
42
Dr. John Beck, an
adjunct professor of
global strategy at
Thunderbird for 10
years, and Mitchell
Wade, a strategist at
RAND, answer
these questions in
"DoCoMo: Japan's
Wireless Tsunami"
(Amacon Books).
The 24o-page
book explains how
Grosse says, as barriers to foreign competi­tion
continue to fall in many countries, and
technology allows entry even when a do­mestic
financial market is restricted.
The trend among banks, brokerage firms
and insurance companies to merge into one
firm-like Allianz and Citibank-may not
evolve any further, he says. None of the oth­er
major institutions has made a serious for­ay
into all three areas, and even Citibank is
spinning off some of its insurance business.
"Most banks and brokers may choose to
remain separate, despite the successful mod­els
ofj.P. Morgan Chase and Deutsche­Bankers
Trust," Grosse says. In the United
States, there is pressure to maintain a wall
between stockbrokers and lenders.
Banks may move into the insurance in­dustry,
Grosse says. "Most of the products
[of the insurance business] are fairly stan­dardized
and easily incorporated into a
bank's portfolio of financial instruments."
this spin-off has be­come
Japan's leading
success story. The
company has more
than 30 million users
in Japan alone.
DoCoMo, soon to
arrive in Europe and
North America, is
poised to dominate
the information age
in the same way that
giants Toyota and
Sony came to domi­nate
their industries.
With unprece­dented
access to
company executives
at the highest levels,
Beck and Wade are
able to reveal, in
detail, the surprising
strategies, people
and passions that
led to DoCoMo's
extraordinary rise.
fall 2004
faculty writings
The Middle
Eastern Context
By GILLIAN RICE AND MOHAMMED AL-MoSSAWI
HE DECISION
faced by multina­tional
corporations
to standardize or
adapt their adver­tising
strategies for
the Middle East has
been discussed for three decades.
At least one study of multina­tionals
that market consumer
goods and services found that
most managers tended to view
the Middle East as a region with
similar culture and beliefs and,
therefore, tended to follow a
standardized approach with
respect to advertising objectives,
positioning and the main
advertising theme.
But the multinationals that fail to go
through a learning orientation of specific
markets will find their standardized adver­tising
being challenged by local subsidiaries
or representatives. A strong familiarity with
local culture permits a manager at the head­quarters
to understand what should be done
in the creative aspect of advertising stan­dardization
to avoid cultural blunders,
particularly with regard to religious values.
This article, which focuses on religion,
describes the types of advertising messages
that might be appropriate for Muslims and
provides a managerial decision-making
framework that identifies basic Islamic
values and their advertising implications.
Muslims do not distinguish between the
religious and the secular and consider Islam
to be a complete way of life. Islamic law
(shari'ah), derived from the O!Ir'an and
sunnah (the recorded sayings and behavior
of Prophet Muhammad), governs business
relations between buyers and sellers. Activi­ties
are broadly categorized as lawful (halal)
thunderbird magazine
or prohibited (haram), as decreed by God.
Islam has 1.5 billion adherents worldwide,
and many have enormous and growing pur­chasing
power. Of the "Ten Big Emerging
Markets" targeted by the U.S. Department
of Commerce for export promotion efforts,
two are Muslim nations (Turkey and In­donesia)
and two have substantial Muslim
minorities (India and South Africa). The
trend in many countries with predominant­ly
Muslim populations is towards stronger
religious conservatism and commitment.
The O!Ir'an does not prohibit advertising,
but several Islamic values have important
advertising implications related to cultural
dimensions: relationships with people,
time orientation, human nature orientation
(self-concept) and activity orientation.
RELATIONSHIPS WITH PEOPLE
Communication Style: In Islam, communi­cations
between people should be polite,
kind and direct. Advertisers should strive for
excellence as an end in itself and be truthful
about products and services. Exaggeration is
regarded as lying, whether by metaphor or
embellishment, and permissible only when
the exaggeration is extremely obvious.
Religious terms may be used to reassure
consumers of the Islamic integrity of prod­ucts
and services. In addition, O!Ir'anic in­junctions
and words can enhance the mood
of the advertising communication to make it
more appealing to Muslim consumers: "Bis­millah"
(in the name of God; a phrase used
by Muslims before beginning any action) or
''Allahu akbar" (literally, God is greater).
Appreciation of Diversity: A striking fea­ture
of Islam is its diversity, especially in the
Gulf region that has large expatriate Muslim
populations. In advertising, this diversity
should be recognized, as in an IKEA adver­tisement
that showed people from varying
ethnic groups, some in traditional dress and
some in Western dress.
Justice and Fairness: Adherence to princi­ples
of Islamic justice and fairness results in
Gillian Rice
Since 1990, Dr. Gillian
Rice has been an
associate professor of
marketing at
Thunderbird. She
received her Ph.D. from
the University of
Bradford, England, and
in 1997 was a Senior
Fulbright Scholar at the
UniverSity of Bahrain.
Mohammed AI·Mossawi
is an assistant professor
of marketing at the
University of Bahrain.
He obtained his Ph.D.
from the University of
Manchester, England.
43
faculty writings
"With
respect to
message
develop­ment,
exec­utives
in
companies
advertising
to Muslim
consumers
would be
wise to gain
an under­standing
of
Muslim
values."
44
few overtly comparative advertising mes­sages.
Contractual obligations, according to
Islamic tradition, should be sanctioned by
God. Advertisements containing pledges,
other contracts with respect to business or
financial transactions include the conven­tional
phrase "in the name of God, the Most
Beneficent, the Most Merciful."
The Role of Women: According to the
~r'an and sunnah, the acquisition of
knowledge is a duty for all Muslims.
Women should be educated because of their
responsibilities in child-rearing and also
when it is permissible for them to work out­side
the home. Bahraini women are part of
everyday office life in Manama, the capital
of Bahrain and Oman has two female min­isters.
Yet, many banking advertisements
depict the husband as having the money­it's
not a woman's money or her decision­despite
the fact that women have their own
bank accounts and sign their own checks.
TIME ORIENTATION
Balanced Consumption: In instrumental
materialism, objects are valued for their
ability to aid activity. In terminal material­ism,
however, the objects are valued as ends
in themselves and possession is sought sim­ply
for the sake of having the objects. From
an Islamic perspective, instrumental materi­alism
is acceptable but terminal materialism
is not. Social responsibility is preferred to
conspicuous consumption and profit-seek­ing.
Appeals to household economy and the
opportunity to save are frequent.
Appreciation of Education/Science: Mus­lims
have a strong orientation towards tradi­tions.
They are especially proud of their sci­entific
and other intellectual achievements
in Medieval times and are strong advocates
of education. So advertising that stresses the
importance of education is well-received.
HUMAN NATURE ORIENTATION
Modesty: The ~r' an mentions that
women should not "show off their adorn­ment
except only that which is apparent."
Most scholars interpret the verse to mean
that women may show only their hands and
face to men outside of their family circle.
In Saudi Arabia, advertisers of cosmetics
refrain from picturing sensuous females.
Cartoon characters to represent women are
less likely to violate Islamic codes. Yet care
should be exercised. Shortly after MatteI
opened a new regional office in Dubai, an
imam imposed a "fatwa" on Mattel's Barbie
dolls. In Iran, the dolls were denounced for
their unwholesome effects on children.
Condom ads, whether in the context of
family planning or preventive health care,
can be sensitive in conservative societies. In
Bahrain, regarded as one of the more liberal
Gulf states, contraceptive ads are forbidden.
Other products may also be restricted be­cause
of a desire to maintain modesty.
ACTIVITY ORIENTATION
Care for the Environment: In Islam, every­thing
a person owns, even a person's body,
belongs to God and must be cared for, in­cluding
the environment. In the ~r'an,
wasteful behavior is condemned. Muslim
consumers respond to advertising that
stresses environmental friendliness,
cleanliness and health.
Muslims are forbidden from consuming
meat which has not been slaughtered in the
permissible or "halal" way, as well as intoxi­cants.
Many restaurants and fast food chains
in the Middle East advertise that their food
is "guaranteed halal."
In the Middle East, advertising spending
is rising, as are opportunities to place adver­tisements
in growing broadcast and print
media. In a global survey of attitudes to
advertising in 22 Middle Eastern countries,
Egypt was the only one in which respon­dents
were consistently anti-advertising.
The response was, in part, due to religious
extremism. With respect to message devel­opment,
executives in companies advertis­ing
to Muslim consumers would be wise to
gain an understanding of Muslim values.
The apparent acceptance of the symbols
of Western consumerism, however, does
not imply the acceptance of Western values.
Harnessing the sometimes conflicting
forces of tradition and exploration is there­fore
a strong challenge for advertisers across
the entire Middle East region.
Despite some research efforts, relatively
little is known about Middle Eastern Mus­lim
consumers' attitudes towards advertis­ing
messages. Further examination of the
relationship between religious values and
the response to advertising could benefit in­ternational
advertisers targeting the growing
Muslim consumer market, not just in the
Middle East, but also in Asia and elsewhere.
See the full article at Thunderbird.edu/magazine
fall 2004
faculty writings
Shareholders or
Stakeholders?
By ANANT K. SUNDARAM AND ANDREW C. INKPEN
HOULD managers
manage a firm
solely on behalf of
its shareholders, or
should they, in
addition, manage
on behalf of
stakeholders? The answer to this
question has long been the
source of intense debate. In light
of the corporate governance
scandals of the early 2.000S, such
as Enron and WorldCom, and
the resurgent anti-globalization
movement, the debate has again
assumed center stage.
We would argue that the sole purpose of
the corporation must be shareholder value
maximization, because it is unambiguously
the best among all available alternatives. We
would also argue that managing on behalf of
stakeholders could be detrimental to corpo­rate,
and indeed social, value creation.
For as long as the U.S. corporation has ex­isted,
its role in society, the goals it must
pursue and its accountability toward key
constituencies such as shareholders, cus­tomers,
employees, suppliers, creditors and
even the communities in which it does busi­ness
have led to contentious debates. Such
debates are much more than academic. Over
the past century-and-a-half, they have in­volved
the public, the media, and all three
branches of the U.S. government; these de­bates
have shaped the laws and governance
practices by which all corporate activity is
both enabled and circumscribed.
In the field of finance, the goal of all man­agerial
activity is asserted to be that of share­holder
value maximization. In fields such as
corporate strategy and organizational stud­ies,
the views are more nuanced, with one of
two overlapping views that often prevail: A
manager must juggle multiple goals serving
thunderbird magazine
different "masters" as the situation de­mands,
and the "stakeholder" view where
the shareholder is seen as only one of the
many constituencies on whose behalf the
manager must make decisions. Similarly, in
the fields of law and ethics, the intellectual
struggles on shareholders versus stakehold­ers,
contracts versus communities and pri­vate
versus public conceptions of the corpo­ration
continue to this day.
Put simply, the "shareholder" view sees
the corporation as an efficiency-seeking,
shareholder value-maximizing, economic
entity; it emphasizes contractual exchanges,
with the role of law and governments to pro­mote
contractual freedom; it sees as the
source of discipline the invisible hand, con­sisting
of a competitive market for products,
technologies, capital, managerial talent and
corporate control.
The "stakeholder" view, on the other
hand, views the corporation as a collective of
constituencies that comes together to
achieve a common purpose that can be situa­tionally
different, with the corporation
viewed as a political entity where power
matters as much as contracts and cash flows;
it emphasizes the multi-fiduciary duty of
managers to all stakeholders, and the role of
trust in embedded, repeated relationships; it
sees the role of government as that of ensur­ing
distributive justice and of combating
exploitation and
alienation of stake­holders
by corpora­tions.
For long stretches
of time, public poli­cy
and regulation to­ward
the corpora­tion
in the United
States was devel­oped
and applied in
a manner consistent
with the points of
view that stakehold­er
proponents might
Anant Sundaram
Dr. Anant Sundaram
(left) has been an
associate professor of
finance at Thunderbird
since 1996. He received
his BS and MS from
Madras University in
1976; his PGDM (MBA)
from Indian Institute of
Management in 1978;
and his Ph.D. from Yale
University in 1987.
Andrew C. Inkpen
• Dr. Andrew C. Inkpen
(right) has been a
professor of
management at
Thunderbird since 1994.
He received his
Bachelor of Commerce
from St. Mary University
in 1978; his MBA in 1984
and his PhD. in 1992,
both from the University
of Western Ontario.
45
faculty writings
"The share­holder
view
sees as the
source of
discipline
the invisible
hand, con­sisting
of a
competitive
market for
products,
technolo­gies,
capital,
managerial
talent and
corporate
control."
46
espouse. For instance, in the mid-to-Iate
1800s, corporations could not be set up for
private business purposes, and each instance
of incorporation required an act of the state
legislature to allow its existence. The corpo­ration
was simply another instrument for
the state to achieve its public policy goals.
Despite a famous ruling by the Michigan
State Supreme Court in 1919 in favor of
shareholder value maximization, (with the
winners in the case being the Dodge broth­ers
who, as minority shareholders, had
brought suit against Henry Ford over his
management style at the Ford Motor Com­pany
that seemed to favor employees and
customers at the expense of shareholders),
general acceptance of the "shareholder"
view did not become commonplace until the
1970s. Even then, a majority of the states
fought back by adopting so-called "stake­holder
statutes" that attempted to insulate
incumbent managers from unwanted acqui­sition
bids. Then, during the 1980s, the
"stakeholder" theories of management were
articulated, which developed the thesis that
the interests of key stakeholders must be in­tegrated
into the very purpose of the firm
and that stakeholder relationships must be
managed in a coherent and strategic fashion.
There are five arguments-both old and
new-which make the case for why share­holder
value maximization should be the
preferred goal in corporate decision-making.
First, it is the only rule that increases the
size of the pie for everyone, and it is thereby
manifestly pro-stakeholder as well. Why?
Shareholders are residual claimants-i.e.,
they get paid only after all the fixed and con­tractual
claimants are paid. It is only when
we manage on behalf of residual claimants
that we have the incentive to increase the
size of the pie, since fixed claimants (such as
creditors and employees) have no incentive
to increase value beyond the point where
their claims are assured.
Second, managing on behalf of stakehold­ers
leads managers to assume too Iowa level
of entrepreneurial risk. The basis of this ar­gument
is the notion of "total" versus "sys­tematic"
risks in the field of finance. Fixed
claimants worry about total risks and will,
therefore, be too risk-averse; diversified
shareholders, on the other hand, care only
about a portion of the total risks, known as
systematic risks, and are less prone to risk
aversion. They are more likely to invest in
new growth opportunities, in new markets
and products, in cutting-edge technologies
and so forth, all of which are imperative if a
firm needs to enhance its competitive posi­tion
in today's globalized economy. It is per­haps
no wonder that firms in shareholder­oriented
economies such as the United
States are far more innovative and lead in
the industries of the future, compared to
firms in stakeholder-oriented economies
such as Germany and Japan.
Third, having more than one objective
function is a recipe for confusion and paraly­sis
in managerial decision-making if those
objectives conflict with each other. While it
might be easy to say "stakeholder manage­ment,"
the question of which "stakeholder"
is not at all clear. For instance, managing on
behalf of employees could make non-em­ployee
stakeholders worse off; indeed, man­aging
on behalf of particular types of em­ployees
(say, unionized) could make other
employees (non-unionized) worse off. It is
wishful thinking to assume that "stakehold­ers"
represent an undifferentiated, homoge­neous
group. In real-life, goals among multi­ple
stakeholding groups often are in conflict.
Fourth, while it is easy for stakeholders to
become shareholders, the reverse is just not
possible. For instance, just because we own
shares in a firm, we cannot demand to be­come
an employee or supplier. But nothing
prevents concerned stakeholders from buy­ing
shares and demanding a seat at the
shareholder table. In the process, stakeholder
governance will necessarily leave out a key
constituency while shareholder governance
need not.
Finally, the law is good at filling judicial
voids for stakeholders, since their relation
with the firm is usually covered by contract
law, tort law and regulation-for instance,
employees have contractual provisions in
their favor covering antidiscrimination,
workplace safety, pensions, health and much
more. Courts will step in when contracts are
violated. But the shareholder's relation with
the firm is in the form of an "implicit con­tract"
and under the prevailing corporate
governance norms in the United States
(which rely on a principle known as the
"business judgment rule"), courts rarely will
second-g