ACADEMIC PROGRAMS:
"Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, and never dream of regretting."
The Once and Future King
To share your global business words of wisdom, e-mail: insider@thunderbird.edu
Full-Time Programs
Students compete in Microsoft case competition
Business consulting students at Thunderbird garnered real-life experience March 18 and 20 in a case competition judged by a Microsoft consultant.
Professors Mary Teagarden and Mary Sully de Luque, who teach Business Consulting Tools, introduced the case study to their students about two weeks into the trimester. The challenge was to help Microsoft U.S. Small & Midmarket Solutions and Partners (SMS&P) improve the quality and relevance of its annual process and develop tools for business and solution planning with about 1,000 managed partners.
“Ken’s Team,” composed of Ken Duffy, Pranay Goel, Patricia Neira Velez, Joseph Upchurch, Mykola Komarevskyy and Jon Wilson, won the competition. The focus of the teams’ solution was to help Microsoft partner account managers and business partners satisfy each other’s needs in full.
“In addition to gaining the professional knowledge, I have also obtained reassurance that specific and down-to-earth solutions are what the consulting customers look for,” Komarevskyy says. “I believe the thoroughness of our solution was the key reason why the team won the competition.”
The team suggested that Microsoft and its managed partners conduct quarterly planning meetings, simplify the plan data entry process, facilitate opportunity exchange through profit-sharing arrangements, and provide feedback about performance and trends.
“The winning team clearly understood the problem most deeply, had the most comprehensive solution, had done a great deal of Microsoft and partner research to make their recommendation more relevant, and used external sources very effectively to lend credibility to their recommendations,” says Peter Fox, judge for the competition and general manager for centralized sales and operations for U.S. SMS&P.
The competition was also judged by Teagarden and Sully de Luque. Each team, comprising of five or six classmates – also known as consultants for competition purposes – was allowed 20 minutes to present a solution and 10 minutes to answer questions from the judges.
“The students spent six weeks working on this project and put a lot of effort into their presentations,” says Sully de Luque. “Mary Teagarden and I were quite proud of the teams and the job they did on this project.”
This is the second year that Fox was brought in to challenge the consulting class with a problem. Fox says the students’ intelligence, preparation and perspective have impressed him.
He says Microsoft is in the process of reviewing how to improve partner business planning for the coming fiscal year and will take the student recommendations into consideration.
Microsoft must follow many steps to implement a new solution, Fox says, including working with corporate staff groups at the global level as they devise solutions that will be used across the world.
Fox says the Thunderbird competition is a highlight of his year, and he hopes to return next year. The competition is one of two group projects that students in the consulting class use to practice their skills.
Each project benefits the students, who gain consulting experience, and the business partners who gain access to valuable solutions.
EMBA
EMBA students to meet in Prague
Executive MBA students from Glendale are planning a trip to Prague to attend classes with the Executive MBA-Europe cohort from May 30 to June 7 at the Czech Management Center.
There will be 74 students on the trip, including 52 from Glendale and 22 from Europe. The classes will be taught by Professors Christine Pearson and Karen Brown. This will be the first time the two groups will meet face-to-face, though they are enrolled in an online course together.
Applications due soon for EMBA program
Applications for the EMBA-Glendale program are due May 15. If anyone knows any potential candidates, please contact Lora Wilcomb at (602) 978-7384.
Information sessions for the program will be May 10 from 10 a.m. to noon on campus and May 14 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Camelback Inn, a J.W. Marriott Resort and Spa at 5402 E Lincoln Drive in Scottsdale.
The 16-month program begins in August. Planned program revisions will further enhance the global experience and the connection between the EMBA students in Glendale and Prague.
Career Management Center
Career conferences and TREKs bring results
During the 2007/2008 academic year, Thunderbird students traveled around the nation on career events from San Francisco to New York. They attended national career conferences for groups such as the National Association of Women MBAs (NAWMBA) and Net Impact, a social responsibility conference. The students participated in network-building industry TREKs, resulting in several job interviews and offers.
TREKs are student-led trips that provide an opportunity for current Thunderbirds to increase their understanding in specific industry or functional areas while networking with executives in top companies. Hotel and airfare costs for TREK excursions are paid for by the Career Management Center.
One of the most notable national career conferences, National Society of Hispanic MBAs (NSHMBA), saw the participation of more than 200 Thunderbird students this year, resulting in 274 interviews with more than 80 companies, many of whom do not recruit on the Thunderbird campus. Companies included Goldman Sachs, Procter & Gamble, American Airlines, Target, Bank of America, Pepsi, Dell, Con Agra, and General Mills.
The success of NSHMBA and other national career fairs resulted in 18 accepted job offers by students from the class of 2007. Although the final results are not in, 14 students of the class of 2008 have already reported offers as a result of these MBA consortia events.
In addition to national career conferences, CMC-sponsored TREKs also served as a source of career opportunities for Thunderbird students. TREKs in 2007/2008 focused on finance and private equity, international development, consulting, corporate social responsibility, marketing and pharmacy and healthcare.
These excursions provided students with access to corporate executives they otherwise would not have had, and led to employment positions for several T-birds. Gallup Consulting extended an offer as a result of the San Francisco consulting TREK, while November’s finance TREK netted another position for a student and a promise to return to Thunderbird for further recruiting from Cisco’s finance team. Cisco’s finance team previously had not recruited at Thunderbird.
While campus recruiting at Thunderbird remains strong, national career conferences and relationship building TREKs play an important role in enhancing Thunderbird’s status among employers, and add to the bottom line – a higher job acceptance rate. The opportunities opened up for Thunderbird students by this year’s events are great success stories. Next year promises to build on these successes, as the CMC accompanies students on another round of career excursions across the nation.
Faculty News
Webinar will feature distinguished Thunderbird faculty
On May 29, Professors Bill Youngdahl and Bob Moran will discuss leading global projects in a webinar sponsored by Alumni Relations. Participant information will be available from Alumni Relations in early May.
