(GLENDALE, Ariz.) Feb. 18, 2008 — Thunderbird School of Global Management is hosting its annual Homecoming Feb. 29 – March 2 with a full weekend of activities including a student/alumni rugby match and business presentations by faculty members on workplace civility and business intelligence.

With more than 2,500 Thunderbird alumni living and working in Arizona, the annual event draws great interest from Valley alumni as well as alumni travelers from abroad. The general public and the media are invited to attend the speaker presentations on the afternoon of Feb. 29 and the rugby match, March 1 at 1 p.m.

Professor Paul Kinsinger, recent winner of the Frost & Sullivan Lifetime Achievement Award in Competitive Intelligence and a 20-year veteran of the CIA, will kick off the afternoon presentations speaking about the role of competitive intelligence in the corporate world. He will discuss how using classic intelligence practices in the business world can strengthen corporate strategy and arm decision-makers for greater competitive advantage.  He will also outline how basic CI skills needs to become a core competency for any high potential employees in today's fast-paced, globalized companies.  Finally, he will discuss the important differences between CI and industrial espionage.

“The need for competitive intelligence, combined with heads-up corporate security practices, is more important in today’s global economy than ever before,” Kinsinger says.

After Kinsinger, and drawing on a decade of ground-breaking research, author of “It Pays to Be Civil” and Thunderbird Professor Christine Pearson will speak on “Civility in the Workplace.”

According to Pearson, about one-fourth of workers polled in 1998 said they were treated rudely once or more per week; by 2005 that number had risen to nearly half, and an astonishing 95 percent of workers report experiencing incivility from their coworkers and bosses.

“American business has an incivility problem, and it’s getting worse,” she said. “Few business leaders take the necessary steps to stop incivility. Some don’t know how to do it, and most simply don’t understand how much incivility is costing them,” she said, explaining that when they’re treated badly, 98 percent of workers take action to try to get even.

For more information, call 602-978-7358. The deadline to register is Feb. 22.