Thunderbird Magazine article on the Thunderbird School of Global Management Global Dialogue Conference Event held on 11-11-2011 in Glendale Arizona USA, Nico Posner
Thunderbird School of Global Management 11-11-2011 Leadership Lessons Global Dialogue Nico Posner
1. spring 2012
p g
magazine
To Mexico
and beyond
Thunderbird consulting
teams deliver results
in emerging markets
Interim Dialogue FORAD
President wisdom reborn
Ambassador Barrett 111 leadership lessons The hardest class you ever
to lead Thunderbird from historic event took gets a makeover
3. 111 Leadership lessons from the
Thunderbird Global Business
Dialogue on 11-11-11
Compiled by Daryl James / Photos by Tim Clarke
K
nowledge flowed from Glendale, Arizona, when more than
1,000 participants gathered to converse with 95 speakers
from 79 organizations and 48 countries at the inaugural
Thunderbird Global Business Dialogue. âThe world needs
global leaders,â Thunderbird School of Global Manage-
ment President Ăngel Cabrera, Ph.D., said during his welcoming remarks
at the Renaissance Glendale Hotel & Spa near campus. âWe need people
who can seize opportunities created by globalization, who can create
value, and who can contribute to a more sustainable and more inclusive
global economyâone that does not put at risk those who come behind
us and does not leave people out.â Panelists and keynote speakers from
government, business and social sector organizations shared ideas on
everything from global finance to social media strategy during the two-
day event Nov. 10-11, 2011.
thunderbird magazine 17
5. Thunderbird Global Business Dialogue participants attend a leadership panel that includes Thunderbird Trustee Merle Hinrichs â65.
INNOVATION â Technology is not the barrier; imagination isâShelly M. Esque â Solutions to
the complex problems of the 21st century will not be found in the mainstream, but rather in the
fringeâJed Emerson, Executive Vice President of Strategic Development, ImpactAssets â
Donât punish failureâMichelle Guthrie, Director of Strategic Business Development, Google
Asia PaciïŹc â Failure can be a badge of honorâMark Heesen, President, National Venture
Capital Association â Let the employees know that itâs OK to make mistakes, and itâs OK to try
new thingsâThor Hauge, Vice President of Business Development, Western Union â Failure
is not the worst thing. Itâs how you wear your failure and how you learn from your failure that countsâ
Caroline Casey â Let the ideas ïŹow to the topâR. Paul Kinscherff â Create a culture of col-
laborationâLarry Thomas â Donât overwork your team. Once you overload people, they will spend
all their time just getting their basic job done. They wonât have the bandwidth to innovateâSunder
Kimatrai â92, Senior Vice President for Asia PaciïŹc, Twentieth Century Fox International
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6. â The best way to foster innovation is through education, education and some more educationâ
Paul Huibers â90, General Manager for Central America, Caribbean, Andean Region and
Southern Cone, Eli Lilly & Co. â Challenge the old ideas; ask questions in a different wayâ
Tracy Bame, President, Freeport-McMoRan Foundation â You need to ïŹnd the synergy
between the public, private and social sectorsâWiebe Boer, Ph.D., CEO, The Tony Elumelu
Foundation â If you are the benchmark, you have to constantly improve what you have built to
LANGUAGES OPEN UNIVERSES
keep others
from getting
ahead of youâDanny Ayala, Executive Vice President, Wells Fargo Bank â There are no
complex problems. There are simple problems that we make complex. If you break every problem
down into smaller and smaller pieces, you solve them one step at a timeâRashid Skaf â93, Pres-
ident and CEO, AMX â Iâm a big fan of history. You canât reinvent the wheel every ïŹve minutes.
Youâve got to look at some tried-and-true solutions to thingsâLynn Sherr, former Correspon-
dent, ABC News GLOBAL MINDSET â A global mindset is the activity of reaching out, engag-
ing and being inclusive; it is not a destinationâMerle Hinrichs â65 â No leader today can afford
to be an ostrichâMark Penn â Immerse yourself in other culturesâYousuf A. Alireza, Director
and Partner, Xenel Industries â Be a continual learnerâFelicia Fields, Vice President of
Human Resources, Ford Motor Co. â When you travel, do less of the touristy things and im-
merse yourself in the local cultureâSonita Lontoh, Head of Marketing, Trilliant â You have
to be able to deal with paradoxesâMilind Sathe â91, CEO, Nidan Juices â Go beyond the
myopia of your own realm of affairsâIndu Shahani, Ph.D., Sheriff of Mumbai â A global
leader must function like a bridge. You must build connections between people, cultures, busi-
nesses and locationsâPeter Yam, Chairman, Emerson Electric â Connect, create and con-
tributeâĂngel Cabrera, Ph.D., President, Thunderbird â A global mindset has never been
more important as the developed countries experience slower rates of growthâJoseph Quinlan,
Managing Director and Chief Market Strategist, U.S. Trust, Bank of America Private
Wealth Management â If you donât speak a second language, you are falling behindâKevin
Sellers, Vice President of Advertising and
Online Marketing, Intel â Languages open
universesâAthanasios Moulakis, President
and Provost, American University of Iraq, Su-
laimani â Even if you share the same passport,
there are many different cultures and socioeco-
nomic differences in any one placeâSherry
Cameron â87, CEO, Bill Johnsonâs Big Apple
Restaurants â Expose yourself to new ideas,
and do it again and again and againâKatharina
Lichtner, Managing Director Capital Dynam-
ics â Negotiation can be a discussion, but ïŹrst
Thunderbird Global Business Dialogue participants mark their home
countries on a world map Nov. 10, 2011. you need to understand the frames of reference of
20 spring 2012
7. Retired Intel CEO and Chairman Craig Barrett, Ph.D., delivers the lunch keynote address Nov. 10, 2011, in Glendale, Arizona.
the people youâre having the discussion withâTerry Newendorp SOCIAL MEDIA â After China
and India, Facebook is the largest nation in the worldâĂngel Cabrera, Ph.D. â The communication
platform is different today. You cannot take the loudspeaker and pretend youâre going to have one-way
communicationâManuel SĂĄnchez, President and CEO BBVA U.S. â Naming and shaming in
social media brings the transparency necessary for us all to move forwardâSuhas Apte, Vice Pres-
ident of Global Sustainability, Kimberly-Clark â People come up with good ideas all the time.
The trick is, can you connect that idea with someone who can make it evolve into something? Today
with the Internet and Skype, LinkedIn, Facebook and all the tools we have, you can have an idea that
immediately becomes realityâIan McCluskey â82, Principal, Thought Leadership International
â Customers are now the content creators. They are deïŹning your brandâEkaterina Walter â08 â
You need to enable every employee within your company to engage online with your customersâ
Ekaterina Walter â08 â This world has been built on ïŹnancial leverage; now it will be built on social
leverageâHoward Lindzon â91, CEO and Founder, StockTwits â There are no social media
expertsâHoward Lindzon â91 â Delete âpersonal brandingâ from your vocabulary. Just be authen-
ticâBrad Feld â Egypt was overthrown with TwitterâBrad Feld â We are no longer millions of
people. We are individualsâMichael MĂĄrquez, Partner, CODE Advisors â Do yourself a favor,
every single person here who spends 30 minutes a day watching television news or reading the news-
thunderbird magazine 21