From turnaround to
T R A N S F O R M AT I O N ( 2 018 -2 0 21) Dear Thunderbird Global Family,
I
magine the year 2096 as we close out the 21st century. What will we as human beings have evolved into? How will our enterprises, societies, economies, and polities be organized? Will our planet not only be sustainable but flourishing? Will humanity have begun to inhabit space? Will the incredible potential of the 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th ... ‘Industrial Revolutions’ be realized? T-birds everywhere — join me and us in building the Thunderbird Intergalactic Academy of Leadership over the next 75 years. Together we can engender transformative progress and truly achieve sustainable and inclusive prosperity worldwide, into outer space, and beyond (see Thunderbird in 2096 article on page 38). This year, my dear friends, is the 75th anniversary of our beloved institution. We have come a long way from the founding of the American Institute for Foreign Trade in Glendale in 1946 to Thunderbird School of Global Management with the Arizona State University Enterprise. We will cherish those seven and one-half decades during our Global Reunion and new Global Headquarters Grand Opening in the first week of November 2021 (see the celebration details on page 14 and book your tickets!). We will especially celebrate the last three years during which we have engineered one of the greatest turnarounds in global higher education history. Thunderbird 4.0 @ ASU has risen from the ashes in Phoenix and we are once again the vanguard of the vanguard of global leadership and management in the world (see the breathtaking achievements of our first two years on page 6).
In fact, we have grown even faster and pioneered even greater innovation over the last year despite the manifold complexities, constraints, and challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic (see how Thunderbird innovated through COVID-19 on page 28). We have continued to blitz-scale an unprecedented worldwide network model — we are Thunderbird across the world with our most digitally advanced Phoenix global headquarters and 20 regional centers of excellence in every region by the end of 2021 (read more about our centers of excellence on page 46) .
4
THUNDERBIRD MAGAZINE SPRING 2021
T-birds everywhere should be proud, confident, and inspired — we have not just survived — we are thriving!
T-BIRDS THRIVE IN ADVERSITY Today, amidst the multiple associated pandemics ravaging humanity — anti-globalism and exclusionary-isms of all kinds, accelerating climate change and ecosystem destruction, COVID-19 and another global economic crisis, we T-birds are once again being called to duty. We do this amidst the greatest technological transformations ever witnessed — the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Just as when our founders established our beloved institution in 1946 to not only train a new generation of global leaders but to rebuild Europe with the Marshall Plan and fashion the post-WWII international system, we must ensure that 2021 is the start of an unparalleled decade of action, renewal, and transformation — to achieve the UN global Sustainable Development Goals and more, much more, for people, prosperity, and planet. From our founding as a professional institute dedicated to spreading peace through international commerce and diplomacy after the Second World War, through the eras of decolonization and the Cold War, Thunderbird soared. The 1990s should have been another decade for us to shine but we lost our way and entered our “Kodak moment.” The School declined further with the shocks of 9/11 followed by the global crisis of 2008-09 and subsequent worldwide recession. COVID-19 and associated pandemics have tested our fortitude and flexibility as educators and as a community, and in true Thunderbird fashion, we have risen to the occasion and adapted with creativity, conviction, and compassion. To name just a few examples, we safely transitioned to high-tech, high-touch hybrid modes of learning that accommodated the needs of our students and faculty, we launched innovative digital academic and executive programs, we saw first classes earn new degree offerings, and we delivered cutting-edge technologically enhanced commencement ceremonies for our graduates, among many other feats achieved during a period of turbulence that stretched many organizations to their breaking points.
WATCH VIDEO
