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Thunderbird Alumni Lab
Thunderbird Alumni Lab Adventures in Santiago, Chile By Zaheer Ali ’19
It’s late, sometime around midnight. We can see the mountains that surround Santiago, silver-lined in the moonlight, framed like a postcard picture out the window of the hotel lounge. We are tired, running on adrenaline, and we need answers to tough questions. Arusha Goyal ’14, an IT consultant, and T-bird Executive Education graduate says, “Well guys, I’ve lined up a call with another classmate. This one is the Glob al Head of Sales for a mining company and has relationships in Mexico.” Arusha has been on her email and phone nearly continuously for the last several hours finding the right people. Her expertise in delivering outcomes to clients is the cornerstone of our group’s efforts.
“How many does that make?” I ask. “Five, five if we include Bill, that’s all of them” replies Ignacio Arabaeti, his leg shaking as he tries to maintain his focus. What he means is that every Thunderbird we have reached out to has responded. Decades, oceans, and continents apart, T-birds answer when called upon by each other; the fabled Thunderbird Mystique is strong. Nacho, as we call him, is perched on a high stool beside the tall table at which we are working. The laptops are all out, charts are being made, frameworks are being developed, and, well, there is beer. Most of the time Nacho is CFO of an Abengoa company, but right now, he, like the rest of us is just trying to stay awake and get stuff done. And then there is me… fading hard, but still powering through getting our charts set up and making tables for the deliverable report. As a research physicist turned manager, this experience is exhilarating and eye-opening – it is amazing how much value we can deliver in just a few short days.
Our client, Gaüss Controls, an IoT based Software as a Service fatigue management company, needs to grow or die and they are looking to us to help them find the right market and method to expand. It’s a hard problem, combining product management, technology, marketing, and all the issues of doing business across borders; in short, exactly the type of problem suited for and loved by Thunderbirds. Between the jet lag, T-bird dinners, and long days with our client, and it only being Wednesday, we are ready to drop, but we are loving every minute of it. Some of our fellow T-birds are working, others are out on the town, and some may be asleep. We will convene in the morning before heading out to another amazing day. This is Thunderbird Alumni Lab, oneweek, 4 clients, 10 T-birds, an amazing international destination, and Mystique on tap.
We arrived in Santiago Chile over the weekend. The week began with lectures by Professor Thomas Hunsaker, the Thunderbird professor leading the Alumni Lab, who framed Catalytic Growth for the consulting teams and an overview of the Chilean economy by Professor Patricio Mel lar of the Catholic University of Chile. Then we introduced ourselves to each other and the clients. As one expects from a Thunderbird event, the diversity was amazing.
Over that afternoon, and the coming days we would work not only with our client, Gaüss but also with each other to gain insight into the other businesses with whom our fellow T-birds were engaged. The challenges ranged from the preservation of culture and quality as a family-owned business triples in size to helping a social impact-driven non-profit understand their readiness to expand across borders. In five days, we pushed ourselves and the clients through engagement, discovery, assessment, solutions engineering and the beginnings of implementation. In between the work we found time to take in some of the sites, visiting local and national landmarks, sample local cuisine, and enjoyed ample quantities of red meat and red wine.
On the final Saturday, each team reported out to the entire group the plans of action we developed with our clients and described the deliverables we provided. What was previously a group of mostly strangers brought together by a shared desire to learn and grow, had turned into a community of people who grew together, not only in business capability and acumen but also as global citizens. In five days, we had come together to craft business strategies, create frameworks, develop expansion plans, and integrate emerging technologies – all in a foreign country most of us had never before visited. The Thunderbird Alumni lab created a wonderful way to mix alumni with current faculty, and even some executive students. It is a wonderful way for any T-birds to engage and also explore new lands, all while working for a good cause. For my part, I will join the team every year I am available. I can barely wait until they announce where we are going next year!
