Decrease font Decrease font
Decrease font Decrease font
Enlarge font Enlarge font
Enlarge font Enlarge font

Our flexibility helped Woodward Governor Company, a major supplier to GE and Caterpillar, turn a middle-America outlook into an anywhere-in-the-world mindset.


Cross Cultural Management

Situation

Woodward Governor Company is the world's largest independent designer, manufacturer, and service provider of energy control solutions for aircraft engines, industrial engines and turbines, power generation, and process automation equipment. A $1 billion company, it is a major supplier to GE and Caterpillar. Woodward is also a “middle-America” company with limited experience in the global market. As a supplier to global companies, Woodward came to the realization that it too needed to become more global and culturally sensitive in thought and practice. Its mission: expose its leaders to global ways of thinking – in business practices, cross cultural management, market reach, and diversity.

Thunderbird Approach

Flexibility, partnership, and willingness to customize quickly became the calling cards of success in the relationship between Thunderbird and Woodward. Besides offering Woodward world-class expertise in cultural awareness, cross cultural negotiations, and global leadership, Thunderbird demonstrated flexibility in the pace, nature, and development of its programs to meet the company’s needs. For example, Thunderbird built a delivery process that included both classroom-based and e-learning modules tailored to the company’s budget.

Woodward Approach

Thunderbird’s programs have:

  • Articulated the importance of ongoing cross-cultural leadership development. The Thunderbird “Key Leaders” training program is now a primary component of Woodward management development.
  • Created an ongoing awareness at all management levels of the need to be a more global organization. Woodward now understands that subsidiaries alone are not enough to maintain a competitive advantage in the global marketplace.
  • Confirmed the business need for developing and implementing a global strategy to compete effectively and enhance the value provided to key customers.

Bottom Line

No matter if your company is small or large, global or domestic, in today’s global business environment, cross-cultural skills are among the most important tools for global executives and companies to master – and Thunderbird is one of the best places in the world to help you build them, in whatever way your company needs.

Related Links