Читать книгу Being Global - Gregory Unruh - Страница 8

Our parallel journeys brought both of us to the Thunderbird School of Global Management, our home institution. Thunderbird was founded in 1946 as an independent, nonprofit graduate school with a mission to train managers for the opportunities in international trade that were expected to grow in the postwar period. The school was located in Thunderbird Airfield No. 1, a decommissioned air base where pilots from the United States and allied countries had trained during World War II. The school's founders saw how people from different cultures had connected. Even in a time of war, people with very different backgrounds, beliefs, and languages could transcend differences. Looking forward, they believed international bridges through trade and investment could contribute to a more prosperous and secure world.

In the more than sixty-five years since its inception, more than forty thousand students have graduated from Thunderbird, and tens of thousands have attended its various executive education programs. Thunderbird alumni include successful international executives and CEOs, government officials, diplomats, development professionals, social innovators, and entrepreneurs. The school's faculty likewise includes world-regarded experts in global entrepreneurship, global management, global finance, global marketing, and international relations, among others. Its single focus on global management has earned it numerous awards, including a number-one ranking among international business school programs, by both the Financial Times and U.S. News and World Report. The Thunderbird approach to educating the next generation of global leaders is not perfect, but it is the best and most deeply focused we've seen for preparing leaders to thrive in a globalized world.

For both of us, arriving at Thunderbird felt like a kind of homecoming. We had each worked at other institutions, which all lacked the specific global focus we believe is so critical. Being global really needs to be part of an organization's DNA. We both feel that Thunderbird has a unique focus and dedication in educating and preparing students to be global.

The scholarship of our peer faculty members as well as the experiences of our diverse alumni provided us with a rich pool of evidence, examples, and cases to draw from as we were writing this book. Not every leader mentioned is affiliated with the school, but quite a few are. We are grateful for our association with them and the lessons they have taught us. In many ways, this book is not the product solely of our two minds, but of all the minds that teach, attend, and contribute to the institution's mission.

Thunderbird serves not only as a source for this book, but as an inspiration as well. Our students get the benefit of Thunderbird scholarship through the intensive curriculum. But not everyone who aspires to be global can schedule two years in Arizona. Our aim, therefore, is to share Thunderbird's knowledge and experience more broadly. In a way, we've set out to write the book that we wish had been available when we took our first steps toward being global.