ANNUAL REPORT ON GIVING - Thunderbird Magazine ...

programs: the Global MBA On-Demand, the
Global MBA for Latin American Managers,
the custom Executive MBA for LG Electronics,
and the Executive MBA in Global Management,
the Master of Arts in Global Affairs
and Management and the Master of Science in
Global Management. Thunderbird’s total fall
enrollment exceeded 1,100 students—a balanced
mix of 44 percent in the full-time MBA
program, 37 percent in the Global MBA program,
12 percent in the Executive MBA program,
3 percent in the master’s degree programs
and 4 percent in non-degree programs.
Corporate Learning
ALONG WITH diversifying its
academic offerings, Thunderbird
revamped its business model,
price points and offerings for
Thunderbird Corporate Learning,
which had steady growth over the years,
but was less profitable than it could have been.
The school began by raising the tuition for
its executive education programs, bringing
them up to a level commensurate with the
high-end executive education marketplace.
Even though Thunderbird’s executive education
programs were consistently ranked
among the best in the world by the Financial
Times and other publications, the programs
were often priced much lower than those offered
by schools with less polished reputations.
“Our corporate clients were getting a worldclass
education in global business management
but weren’t paying anything near world-
1,800
1,600
1,400
1,200
1,000
800
600
400
200
class prices, so we needed to rethink our pricing
strategy,” says Beth Stoops, who was
named interim head of Corporate Learning in
fall 2006 and promoted permanently to senior
vice president a year later.
The price increases, along with a restructuring
of the compensation structure for faculty
teaching in these programs, resulted in significantly
higher gross margins and revenue increases
for Corporate Learning, and this strategic
business unit now accounts for more than
40 percent of Thunderbird’s overall program
revenue.
As a testament to the value of Thunderbird
programs among corporate clients, the price
increases created no impediment in signing up
existing clients and adding new ones, Stoops
says. In June 2005, Thunderbird landed a multimillion-dollar
MBA contract with LG Electronics,
creating its first custom-designed
MBA for a corporation, to educate 150 of its top
managers over a five-year period.
This and other non-degree custom programs
for top global companies worldwide
continue to show strong growth at Thunderbird.
Corporate Learning ran 185 custom programs
in 2007, a nearly 16 percent increase
from the 160 that ran in 2005.
In fall 2004, Thunderbird partnered with
Bisk Education, one of the United States’
largest providers of online education, to offer
two online certificates—in global marketing
and in international management. The programs
distribute content from Thunderbird’s
faculty and provide significant revenues to the
School, Stoops says. They also advance the
school’s mission to be the leading provider of
Balanced body
Thunderbird no longer relies solely on its full-time program for students
MA/MS
GMBA On-Demand
GMBA Latin America
’99–’00 ’01–’02 ’03–’04 ’05–’06 ’07–’08* ’09–’10**
Source: Thunderbird Registrar, fall enrollment * Budgeted **Estimated
thunderbird annual report on giving 13
EMBA
Full-time MBA