Volume 2 Issue 2

December 18, 2006

CGE Newsletter

From the Director: World Class Program

The fall trimester is more than half way through and several new Center activities have occurred. The Center held its first annual Global Family Enterprise Conference at the Royal Palms Resort and Spa in Phoenix where family business leaders from Europe, Latin America, and the United States focused on such topics as succession, strategic planning, intrapreneurship (corporate venturing), global reach and family governance. Ernesto Poza, our new Professor of Global Family Enterprise oversaw the development and running of an exceptional conference which will be held again February 25-28, 2008 in the same location. Thanks Ernesto for a job well done.

I am teaching our first course on line in the Global MBA On-Demand program. The course entitled Global Enterprise has a one-hour web cast component every Tuesday evening where participants listen to a short seminar and then interact and discuss the material and the discussion questions previously posted. The discussion sessions are very lively and fruitful.

In the second trimester starting the end of January, Steven Stralser will teach the first section of our new required course for all MBA students – Global Enterprise – with sections of the course then occurring every trimester. In the third trimester, the first section of the enterprise course that fulfills a global requirement for all Thunderbird students – The Global Business Plan – will be offered for the first time. I am busy establishing relationships with professors, programs, and centers of entrepreneurship all over the world so that Thunderbird students so desiring can partner with a student from a particular country.

We also have our first Enterprise Scholars this trimester. They include: Matthew Arnold, Julie Lutz, Leah Malliris, Eli Mercer, and Poornima Narayanan. They are deeply involved with the Innovation Challenge, helping incubator companies, assisting in research projects, and other activities of the CGE.

As you can see everything continues to move forward in our development of a world class program and Center in Global Entrepreneurship. Let us know how you would like to be involved.

Robert D. Hisrich, Ph.D. Garvin Professor of Global Entrepreneurship and
Director, Center for Global Entrepreneurship

The Spirit of Chinese Capitalism, a family ordeal?

Author Gordon Redding explores the beliefs about society, family, business, and other matters, held by overseas Chinese businessmen. In his book titled The Spirit of Chinese Capitalism, he draws on interviews with 72 owners and managers from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore, and considers research on other Pacific nations. The book is a few years old (1990), but raises an interesting question, how will entrepreneurship in China evolve and what are its foundations? Redding claims that Chinese capitalism, based on Confucian values, is centered on the family and entrepreneurs in China have developed defenses to survive in an uncertain world; with one defense to keep information in the family. A copy of Gordon Redding’s book The Spirit of Chinese Capitalism can be found at the IBIC or purchased on Amazon.com.

Entrepreneurs Beware: The Second Internet Bubble
By Easwaradas S. Nair

These days one can’t escape reading or hearing about Web 2.0. Call it the second coming of the Internet. If you have tinkered with MySpace, del.ico.us, Flickr, YouTube, Guba and the like—you are already on to it. Though it lacks a precise definition, Web 2.0 generally refers to Web services that let people collaborate and share information online. In contrast to the first generation of Web offerings, Web 2.0 applications are more interactive, giving people an experience more akin to a native desktop application as opposed to a static Web page.

In the area of Web applications, the last two years have seen an explosion in Web services aimed at consumers or small businesses. Some examples are: online calendars, productivity application suites, email and collaboration, project management tools, and social software. VCs have been aggressively funding many start-up ventures in the Web 2.0 area and the frenzy quite resembles the dotcom boom. Entry barriers are low because of cheap sources of computing power and personal time, shared technical knowledge, easy access to funding and low risk in experimentation. Hence too many people are doing the same thing and a shakeout is inevitable. This would lead to the Web 2.0 Entrepreneur Bubble.

Read More >>

Thunderbird Incubator Hatches Business in Healthcare

Kevin Williams was the winner of the 2006 Thunderbird Business Plan with his model as a provider of patient support services for the healthcare industry. His company, Global Linguistics LLC (TGL) has created a captive CISCO-backed IP video system designed to instantaneously and wirelessly connect a patient/healthcare professional with a medical interpreter fluent in the designated language. The video model of interpretation, statistically shown to reduce clinical errors, conveys a greater level of nuance between patients, interpreters and healthcare providers. Further, the model reduces interpreter costs, vastly expands language availability and encourages hospital efficiency increasing bed turn rates. TGL has a fully functional, real-time demo of the technology and is currently presenting to angel investors and potential co-branding partners interested in expanding their healthcare presence at the point of service.

For the over 21 million US residents who speak limited English, the right to professional interpretation is established in numerous state and federal laws including the Civil Rights Act. TGL’s objective is to provide a high-quality, intuitive system that conforms to all legal requirements while creating efficiencies of scale for both their clients and the TGL operation. Kevin Williams can be contacted at: kevin.williams@TGLinguistics.com.

Welcome Recent Additions to CGE Advisory Board!

• Jack Lavin, President and CEO of Arrow Financial Services LLC
• Suzanne Sutter, President of Things Remembered

Thunderbird's Commitment to Family Enterprise

The Global Family Enterprise Program at Thunderbird represented a transformational experience for family business leaders from Europe, Latin America and the United States that were present. The program took place at the very private and inspirational Royal Palms Resort and Spa in Phoenix, Arizona. The program brought together family members (including the CEO and CEO spouse), key non-family managers (including a non-family CEO), directors and other shareholders of family-owned enterprises. As a keynote speaker, President Ángel Cabrera addressed the all-important theme of the development of the next generation of global leaders. Other presentations by Thunderbird faculty and family firm CEOs focused on topics like succession, strategic planning in the family-controlled firm, global reach, and governance of the family-business relationship.

Family business cases on family dynamics, leadership, and best practices for continuity across generations encouraged hearty conversations and lively differences among participants. The cases were taken from the field’s textbook, Family Business 2e, written by our very own Professor Ernesto Poza.

The date for the next offering of this program is March 4-6, 2008. Global Family Enterprise Program II will reach out globally to include recognized family business leaders from Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and the United States. After all, these firms are the engines of economic activity in the free economies of the world. Collectively family firms account worldwide for more than 80% of all corporations, between 64 and 75% of the GDP (depending on the country) and have created most of the new jobs in the last decade.

Thunderbird is committed to lending its expertise in this area and partnering with other educational institutions around the world to promote the creation and dissemination of practical and relevant knowledge that assists family enterprises in their meaningful efforts at growth and continuity. Check out and register for the spring offering of Managing the Global Family-Owned and Family-Controlled Corporation (GF5424-A3) taught by Professor Poza. The course will explore and analyze family business continuity challenges and best management, family and governance practices for the effective leadership of global family-owned businesses. Since the focus is on pragmatic, action-oriented, management, governance and family/business leadership skills, the course will be taught primarily through live and written cases, discussions, lectures and a study/consultation experience with a family business.

Thunderbird Sustainable Innovation Summit
March 21-24, 2007

The cutting-edge innovation competition will challenge teams of MBA and other graduate-level students to develop innovative and sustainable business concept plans that address current challenges faced by organizations.

Trans Global Linguistics LLC (TGL)
Winner, 2006 Thunderbird Business Plan Competition

TGL is a provider of patient support services for the healthcare industry. We have created a captive CISCO-backed IP video system designed to instantaneously and wirelessly connect a patient/healthcare professional with a medical interpreter fluent in the designated language. The video model of interpretation, statistically shown to reduce clinical errors, conveys a greater level of nuance between patients, interpreters and healthcare providers. Further, the model reduces interpreter costs, vastly expands language availability and encourages hospital efficiency increasing bed turn rates. Currently, TGL has a fully functional, real-time demo of the technology that we are presenting to angel investors and potential co-branding partners interested in expanding their healthcare presence at the point of service.

For the over 21 million US residents that speak limited English, the right to professional interpretation is established in numerous state and federal laws including the Civil Rights Act. Our objective is to provide a high-quality, intuitive system that conforms to all legal requirements while creating efficiencies of scale for both our clients and the TGL operation.

For more information contact:
Kevin Williams
kevin.williams@TGLinguistics.com
www.TGLinguistics.com

Toolkit for Entrepreneurs in China

• Obtain a deep understanding of the
  market and consumer behavior
• Be willing to use appropriate technology- often a good enough solution instead of an elegant solution
• Consider opportunities in 2^nd and 3^rd tier cities instead of going head-to-head in the big cities
• Be relentless in tenacity & persistence
• Takes the same skills to be an entrepreneur in China as anywhere else in the world, you must take risks!

-Dr. Mary Teagarden
Thunderbird Professor of Global Mgt

“Since entrepreneurs from all over the world are more similar than different with the biggest differences resulting from their home country, the best tip for doing business in China is to find the right partner. In order to find the right partner it is important that you establish a procedure for identifying and then screening potential candidates. You need to get to know each partner candidate as well as possible by having at least one meal together. And, of course, references and references of references must be thoroughly checked.”

-Dr. Robert D. Hisrich
Thunderbird Garvin Professor of
Global Entrepreneurship

From the Editor
Please direct any suggestions, comments or questions to: julielutz@global.t-bird.edu

The Center for Global Entrepreneurship at Thunderbird (CGE)
15249 North 59th Avenue, Glendale AZ 85306 USA
(602) 978-7251
(602) 439-1435 – fax
www.thunderbird.edu/cge
cge@t-bird.edu

The Center for Global Entrepreneurship at Thunderbird (CGE)
15249 North 59th Avenue, Glendale AZ 85306 USA
(602) 978-7251
(602) 439-1435 - fax