Corporate Learning:

Capture the Business program presented in Singapore

Thunderbird faculty and staff members Keith Bezant Niblett, Andrew Inkpen, Yeong Lee Khoo and Michael Reinmann presented a “Capture the Business” blended learning program in Singapore to Cisco APAC on March 24.

The program was for 13 directors and senior managers of Cisco APAC working with 15 senior executives from four of their major partners: Datacraft Asia, Eccom Shanghai, Nantian Beijing and NEC of Singapore.

The task set for the Thunderbird team was to have five partnering business strategies for market capture about 80 percent complete by the end of the four-day workshop. These strategies addressed complex issues, such as the airport industry in Vietnam, the media and communications industry in Singapore and the financial services industry in China.

The workshop was developed three years ago by Niblett and Inkpen. Joy Lubeck, key account manager for Cisco, said additional “Capture the Business” workshops may be scheduled for Mumbai, Toronto and Eastern Europe.

Thunderbird Learning Consulting Network provided advanced industry and country research for the participants and will continue to mentor the teams as they work to get plans in place by the end of April for the developing business of Cisco in Asia Pacific. Key metrics will be tracked over the next year to ensure a solid return on investment for Cisco.

Participants said the ‘learn-do’ engagement was a success, thanks in part to the ability of the Thunderbird team to help two groups develop plans in their native Mandarin.

Program engages students in cultural dinner experience

Thunderbird Corporate Learning has engaged students to provide cultural experiences for top corporate clients. While at Thunderbird for professional development, business executives share ethnic meals at cultural restaurants with Thunderbird students from specific regions of the world.

Most recently, Corporate Learning hosted a global culture dinner for a group of 71 executives from Cisco Systems Inc. Approximately 30 Thunderbird students representing Asian, Middle Eastern, African and other world regions joined the Cisco team. The experience, which included music and singing, was a great learning experience for Cisco. Cultural experiences have been a part of the Corporate Learning experience for the past seven years.

Consulting Network grows its business and reputation

The consulting arm of Corporate Learning has more than doubled its revenue in this fiscal year and is receiving repeat business from a very credible client base.

“A year ago we were trying to grow with ‘one-off’ assignments with smaller and starter businesses,” says Professor Paul Kinsinger, managing consultant. “After a segment audit of the potential market need for our core competence of Business Intelligence, Competitor Intelligence and Go to Market Strategy, we decided to raise our game to target medium-size, family-owned businesses and selective Blue Chips. This customer- development strategy is just starting to work.”

Well-known organizations that now appear on Thunderbird Learning and Consulting Network’s client list include Bayer, ING, Intel, Cisco, Mayo Clinic, SAP, Precision Valve and Emcor.

“This year of extremely hard work has enabled us to collect substantial amounts of data in many key geographies, industries and verticals and has also enabled us to develop a number of unique key solution frameworks, which gives us a powerful asset when prospecting for future business,” says Keith Bezant Niblett, associate vice president of Corporate Learning.

One major piece of work recently undertaken was to design, develop, research and propose strategic alternatives for the global business and marketing strategy for Precision Valve, the world’s biggest supplier of spray can applications and delivery systems based in New York. This plan was accepted by the company’s board without revision and has led to further strategic plans for the development of Russian business, and for growth and expansion in India.

Precision Valve also intends to use TLCN to develop its global business planning for the next fiscal year. This series of projects for Precision Valve shows the capacity of TLCN to win repeat business by providing a superior service that also benefits TLCN’s knowledge base in global manufacturing, supply chain and the business-to-business elements of global retail.

Another TLCN project was for New Mexico-based Emcore, which is developing a commercial solar panel business. Emcore has established an organization in Spain and commissioned TLCN to discover the market potential for solar power in Italy and Greece. The client is satisfied with the recommendations made and has enabled TLCN to test macro-environment business intelligence and competitor intelligence templates in the complex world of European Union electricity generation regulations, country and state laws and local market conditions.