Dear Friends & Supporters of Business for Diplomatic Action,
I trust this finds you all well and weathering the challenges of the financial crisis. As for BDA, our mission now becomes more relevant than ever, given a new administration that wants to "reboot America's image around the world" and promises an "unrelenting desire to create a relationship of mutual respect and partnership with countries and people of goodwill." To create such relationships, our new President will need help from the private sector, especially from the U.S. business community with its proven record of success in building bridges of trust across borders. BDA's mission and programs could not be more in line with our country's now-stated national interests and intent.
The following is a brief update on our recent events and activities.
BDA WELCOMES NEW BOARD MEMBERS
This spring BDA welcomed seven major corporations - Boeing, Clorox, Coca-Cola, Google, PepsiCo, Time Warner, and Toyota - as well as a leading business group, the International Franchise Association, to our Board of Directors. They join 24 other companies and organizations that have demonstrated leadership in public diplomacy and global engagement. We welcome their support and contributions to our efforts and look forward to continuing to expand our corporate board membership.
BDA PROGRAMS HIGHLIGHTED AT UN ALLIANCE OF CIVILIZATIONS
This April in Istanbul, Turkey, two of BDA's programs, the Arab & American Business Fellowship and CultureSpan, were highlighted as best practices for global business at the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations conference. BDA Board member Dr. Mansour Javidan was on an expert panel discussing the release of a new report from the UN Global Compact Office and the UN AOC entitled "Doing Business in a Multicultural World: Challenges and Opportunities," which featured the BDA programs. Tom Miller, Vice President of BDA, and board member Andrew Susman also attended the event. For a copy of the report or more information, please contact Tom Miller at Thomas.Miller@ddb.com.
2009 ARAB & AMERICAN BUSINESS FELLOWSHIP LAUNCHES
This summer, Business for Diplomatic Action, in partnership with Young Arab Leaders and the U.S. Center for Citizen Diplomacy, announces the 2009 Arab & American Business Fellowship. This three-week business exchange program challenges every stereotype and misconception about engaging and working with the U.S. and the Middle East.
This year we are hoping to find sponsorship for twenty young Arab executives to visit the U.S. for three weeks in October. Sponsorship costs $15,000 for each "fellow." And while this is a challenging economic time, there really is no better investment for anyone doing business with the Middle East; this experience is not only a transformative one for participating fellows, but yields countless benefits to the companies who host them. Our partners at the Young Arab Leaders organization are raising the funds for twenty young American executives to go to the Middle East. We are accepting nominations now for high-potential young executives to participate in this outbound part of the program. For more information on the program, please visit our website (www.businessfordiplomaticaction.org) or contact BDA's Vice President, Tom Miller, at Thomas.Miller@ddb.com.
CULTIVATING A GLOBAL MINDSET - BDA LAUNCHES CULTURESPAN
Do You Have a Global Mindset? It is an essential question for global business today and the Thunderbird School of Global Management is at the cutting edge when it comes to developing effective cross-cultural skill sets that are critical to maintaining an edge in the global marketplace. In response to the growing demand for cross-cultural fluency and the development of a global mindset in business, Business for Diplomatic Action and the Thunderbird School of Global Management are pleased to offer CultureSpan: The Workshop on Global Corporate Diplomacy. This one-day intensive program will help U.S. multinational corporations and their executives develop more effective global teams, best global practices, and truly global mindsets. Based on the powerful GLOBE research system, it's the only cross-cultural workshop of its kind.
NEW WORLD CITIZENS GUIDE WEBSITE WINS AWARDS
This spring, thanks to the hard work and generous support of InSite Interactive in Dallas, TX, the World Citizens Guide website (www.worldcitizensguide.org), which was completely revamped and relaunched this past fall, won two prestigious web awards in addition to the Gold Webby won when it first launched in 2006. Awards are from the International Academy of the Visual Arts and the Verizon National Awards for Public Service. Both the passport-sized version and business executive pocket piece are now available for purchase online at www.worldcitizensguide.org.
BDA PARTNERS WITH NCIV AND PRSA INTERNATIONAL FOR SERIES OF GLOBAL CORPORATE ROUNDTABLES
As part of an effort to engage a broader cross-section of the U.S. corporate community in citizen diplomacy and private-sector-led public diplomacy initiatives, BDA has launched partnerships with the National Council for International Visitors as well as the International Section of PRSA. Various roundtables and town halls have already been conducted in Arizona, Nevada, Florida and Massachusetts, with more planned for this fall. The themes for the co-hosted events center around the issues of global engagement and business initiatives to promote cross-cultural understanding, public diplomacy and citizen diplomacy efforts. For more information please contact Cari Guittard at Cari.Guittard@sf.ddb.com.
We recognize that this is a challenging time for all Americans and the global community. It is natural to want to retreat in the face of such crisis and yet there has never been a more compelling time in our nation's history than now for each of us to resolve to help build bridges of respect and mutual understanding. How we come out of this crisis will be based in large part on the global relationships that we've nurtured and strengthened in difficult times. BDA is committed to finding ways business and the private sector can take the lead in public diplomacy efforts and we hope you'll join us.
Warmest personal regards,
Keith
