New initiative: the AmCham Academy

We are proud to announce an exciting new educational initiative and invite you to the first session of the AmCham Academy. This new initiative offers members, non-members, young professionals, their colleagues and guests - practical, relevant and highly focused education, tailored to the needs of the International business community in the Netherlands. The AmCham Academy offers seminars every 4-6 weeks on multiple topics, and each functional topic is discussed with the added perspective of cultural differences  in managing and implementing the subject. We hope you will take advantage of this opportunity and attend the first AmCham Academy seminar:

 

“Inspiring Management of Mixed Local and International Teams”

How to:
• Keep your best people
• Motivate different national teams
• Eliminate energy-sapping beliefs
• Recognize and value individuals’ strengths

 

Speakers:
Christine Fitzgerald (Webster University), Huib Wursten, and Tom Fadrhonc (ITIM)
 

Date and Place:
1st seminar - “Inspiring Management of Mixed Local and International Teams”:
Thursday, April 15 from 9:00 – 17:00 @ Webster WTC Amsterdam, Tower D Mezzanine level/Main level, Strawinskylaan 57, Amsterdam.  
Please also mark your agenda for the 2nd seminar - "Turbocharging Change Across Cultures":
Thursday, May 27 from 9:00 – 17:00 @ Webster WTC Amsterdam, Tower D Mezzanine level/Main level, Strawinskylaan 57, Amsterdam.
Directions.  

 
Program:
08:45 – 09:00   Registration
09:00 – 17:00   Seminar
17:00 – 17:30   Drinks

 
Malcolm Gladwell,
from his bestseller Outliers:

 “Cultural legacies are powerful forces. They have deep roots and long lives. They persist, generation after generation, virtually intact, even as the economic and social and demographic conditions that spawned them have vanished, and they play such a role in directing attitudes and behavior that we cannot make sense of our world without them.”
 

 
Jack Welch on the ultimate manager’s profile:

“People who can identify best practices everywhere, and who can translate these practices into the local culture.” 
 


Peter Drucker

“WHAT  Managers do is the same the world over. . . . HOW  they do it is embedded in their tradition and culture.”   
 
 

Multicultural Critical Theory. At B-School? 
New York Times, January 9, 2010
 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/10/business/10mba.html

"Two years ago the Graduate School of Business at Stanford made a sweeping curriculum change that included more emphasis on multidisciplinary perspectives and understanding of cultural contexts."
 

The AmCham Academy is developed by the American Chamber of Commerce in the Netherlands together with Webster University - the only American University in the Netherlands offering accredited Bachelor's and Master's degree programs, and providing functional excellence in the teaching of predominantly  Anglo-Saxon  management theories. Webster’s Study Abroad program ranks in the top two percent of the more than 1,400 colleges and universities surveyed in the 2010 edition of U.S. News & World Report.  The AmCham Academy was co-developed with Itim International, the advisory organization based on prof. dr. Geert Hofstede’s research.  

 

Future 2010 seminar topics: 

  • Implementing successful organizational change across cultures.
  • Changes in leading international meetings: from board room to virtual meetings across the globe.
  • Recruitment, compensation and motivation across cultures.

Please feel free to submit any suggestions for potential future seminar topics to amcham@amcham.nl.

 

Attendance of 3 seminars plus paper approved by Webster Faculty may be applied towards credits for MBA degree.

 

Why the AmCham Academy?

  • The American Chamber of Commerce in the Netherlands provides a unique service for the U.S.-Dutch business community.
  • The Netherlands is home to more American regional headquarters than any other country in Europe. AmCham members in the Netherlands hold these regional positions -  managing offices across  Europe and the world. 
  • Europe spans many countries and cultures, providing a wide variety of intercultural management challenges. 
  • The Netherlands is the number-two destination for U.S. FDI (ahead of Germany, Canada, and  Mexico).

 

Price: 

€ 450 for AmCham Members & Young Professionals, € 795 for non-members
Lunch and refreshments included

 

Registration:

You may register yourself and your guests via your personal account on our website: http://www.amcham.nl/user . If you have not yet received your password or if you have lost it, you can very easily request a new password via our website. Please use the following link to request a new password: http://www.amcham.nl/user/password . Alternatively you may use a fax form, click here to open this form.

Please register before noon on April 1, 2010. We will send you a confirmation via regular mail upon receipt of your (online) registration.

Should you have any questions or if anything is unclear to you, please do not hesitate to contact us directly at: 020 – 795 1845.

 

Cancellation policy:

Cancellations until April 1st will not be charged;
cancellations after April 1st, 50% of the participants fee;
after April 8th, 80%; 3 days or less before the event, 100%.

 

Speaker Biographies:

Christine Fitzgerald has been Professor of Psychology and Management at Webster University since 1985 and was head of the department of Behavioral and Social Sciences from 1992 until 1999 and from 2000 until 2003. In early 2007 she also joined the faculty of the New Business School in Amsterdam where she directs the coaching programs  and courses in Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management. She served for nine years as Assistant Professor of Marketing at Nyenrode University and has been a faculty member of Echelon University and the Hotel School of The Hague. Her corporate experience includes Chemical Bank in New York City where she worked in corporate training and strategic long-term planning. A magna cum laude of Pace University, she received the MA in developmental psychology from Columbia University. She is the recipient of the Prince Fellow Award for Distinguished excellence in teaching, the Pace University Award for Excellence in Psychology, the Percy H. Johnson Award for Academic Excellence and was two-time nominee for the William T. Kemper Award for Excellence in Teaching (2004-2005 and 1999-2000).  Ms. Fitzgerald is an independent consultant and has provided business education in North America, Europe and Asia.

 

Huib Wursten was one of two managing partners of ITIM International. He is specialized in advising companies and supra-national organizations in how to manage global teams. He is experienced in translating international and global strategies and policies into practical consequences for management. Since 1989 he has advised Fortune 1000 companies including IBM, 3M, McCain, Nike, Vodafone, Quest, Telenor, and ABN AMRO bank. Since 1994 he has conducts courses and advises the IMF in Washington, and since 2000 he has consulted for the Organization of European Central Banks. He has also advised the Russian administration on the influence of culture on political and economic behaviour.  Mr Wursten is the author of an award- winning paper for Nyfer, a Research Institute of Nyenrode University  (Mental Images. The influence of culture on economic policies, 1997). He graduated from the University of Amsterdam with a degree in educational psychology.

 

Tom Fadrhonc  worked 14 years for Nike in the U.S. and Europe,  initially to start the Football division in the U.S., and subsequently as  General Manager  Benelux and member of the EMEA Leadership Team.  He merged, restructured and relocated country organizations and divisions and managed Nike’s extensive  involvement in the EURO 2000 Football Championships. Most recently he started the new Brand Protection division in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. During his career at Nike, his passion was the challenge of managing  multinational management teams and coaching and educating others on that subject, both inside and outside Nike. Before joining Nike he worked in New York and Washington, D.C. for MCI Communication as Director of International Marketing  and as VP/Management Supervisor for NW Ayer Advertising, where he managed the AT&T account.  He also founded and sold an in-flight publishing company. Tom is a former board member of the American Chamber of Commerce and the Nike Pension Board. He currently serves on the board of Webster University in the Netherlands. Born in the Netherlands to Czech parents, he studied at Nyenrode Business University and holds an MBA from Thunderbird University in Arizona, having graduated with a degree in International Finance and International Marketing.

 

About Webster University:

Founded in 1915,  Webster offers undergraduate and graduate degree programs through a global network of more than 100 campuses with students representing  150 nationalities. Since opening its first overseas campus in Geneva in 1978, Webster has expanded its international presence with campuses in London; Vienna; Amsterdam and Leiden, the Netherlands; Shanghai, Shenzhen and Chengdu, China; and Bangkok and Cha-am, Thailand, in addition to  partnerships with universities in Mexico and Japan.