editorial report

ENTREPRENEURISM
G
His ship’s
coming in
While some undergrads
study business, Alex
MacLean created one –
a fast-growing apparel
and lifestyle company
that celebrates Canada’s
East Coast.
PAGE 8
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SECTION E
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Report on Business Education
EDITOR: JEFF BROOKE
DUAL DEGREES
The MBA will
see you now:
Doctors adding
business skills
to their practice
................................................................
DAINA LAWRENCE
................................................................
A
Homework can be a family affair in
the Bhura household, where
daughter Ava, 7, reads her grade
school books while her mother,
Rose, studies for her Queen’s
EMBA. But Ms. Bhura also finds solo
study time, sometimes as early as
5 a.m. and as late as 11:30 p.m.
DARRYL DYCK FOR THE GLOBE AND MAIL
you can’t do things on your
own,” she says. “You live in an
interdependent world. You can’t
do this on an island.”
That’s also the view of Gloria
Saccon, director of the Queen’s
executive MBA. When she
recruits potential candidates for
the $95,000 program, she asks
them all the same question:
What support do you have at
home and work?
“What I want to hear is that
the infrastructure is in place and
their house is in order to come
into the program,” says Ms. Saccon, adding that a successful executive MBA candidate requires
“solid” support from family,
work and school. “If one [of
them] is somewhat weak, very
quickly that [academic] experience will be compromised.”
s an adolescent in Edmonton,
Baljot Chahal noticed a shortcoming in Canadian medicine
when its practitioners treated his
family members.
“I sensed [the doctors] felt like
they were handcuffed by the system at large and there were so
many barriers in providing the
best care to their patients,” says
Mr. Chahal. “That made me think
about what I wanted to do with
my career.”
The 23-year-old is now in medical school at the University of
Alberta in Edmonton, but to help
combat the challenges Mr. Chahal
saw as a child, he decided to add
three more letters – MBA – after
his name.
Mr. Chahal is among a new wave
of students who are combining
their medical and graduate
health-care studies with MBAs,
with the aim of some day navigating and helping to streamline
Canada’s health-care system. Educators say the combination produces independent, nimble
thinkers, while recruiters see this
as a turning point for hospital administrative candidates in the
next decade.
When Mr. Chahal applied for
medical school he made sure the
university he attended had a
combined MBA and MD option. “I
realized that if I wanted a medical
career I wasn’t just interested in
being a clinician for the rest of my
career because I didn’t want to
feel handcuffed the way other
clinicians did.”
There are just a handful of these
programs in Canada at the
moment and most have emerged
in the past decade. The majority
are completed in five years, which
shaves a year off doing the
degrees separately and lowers the
cost that an MBA would traditionally add to health-care training.
The combined degree’s
demands are gruelling at times
for its participants, who are trying
to balance the requirements from
these two schools and shift between the often very different cultures. That’s why the
business-school element is slotted between the second and third
year of medical school, and not
simply tacked on the end.
“It is a little bit of an adjustment
coming over from medical school
because there’s a risk that you’ll
lose some very important information heading into your clinical
years,” explains Mr. Chahal.
EXECUTIVE MBAS
In this house,
mom has tons
of homework, too
...............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Having a core group of
helpful people is key to
balancing multiple
demands, says Rose Bhura,
who runs a Vancouver
production firm and raises
two children while she’s
taking an EMBA through
Kingston-based Queen’s
JENNIFER LEWINGTON
................................................................
A
s co-founder of a Vancouver
film and media company,
Rose Bhura relies on many people to put together a production.
The same holds true for her
pursuit of an executive MBA: it’s
not a one-woman show.
“You definitely need a core
group of people, which I call my
tribe,” says Ms. Bhura, 38, a married mother of two young children, and co-owner of Parvati
Creative Inc., with Canadian
actress Kristin Kreuk.
Now midway through a 16month executive MBA offered
by Queen’s School of Business
in Kingston, Ms. Bhura reflects
on the juggling act required at
home, school and work to make
the most of an intense education experience.
“You learn very quickly that
Balance, Page 6
Dual Degrees, Page 2
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EMBAs a rich vein, Page 6
Faculties collaborate, Page 2
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COLLABORATION
Walls between faculties crumble
Students in professional programs increasingly add business courses to their studies to broaden their skills and job market appeal
.....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
JENNIFER LEWINGTON
................................................................
K
athleen McAllister, a thirdyear chemical engineering
student at the University of Western Ontario, is looking forward to
a career where she can design
new products and processes. But
she also wants to acquire business skills to take her ideas to
market.
At Western, she is able to pursue both goals through a new academic collaboration between
the university’s engineering faculty and the Ivey Business School
– fortuitously just across the road
from each other at the London,
Ont., campus. While studying
engineering, she is also taking a
new certificate in engineering
leadership and innovation that
includes business courses and
case studies at Ivey.
“As engineers, we always have
ideas and like to create things,”
she said. “But even if you have a
great idea, it doesn’t mean it will
get adopted. Having the business
side really lets you learn how to
get those ideas adopted.”
Joint degrees and other academic partnerships between
business schools and the rest of
campus used to be rare, but not
now. With employers increasingly
keen to hire graduates with technical and managerial skills, oncampus co-operation is on the
rise.
“There has been an acceleration, no question,” says Peter
Pauly, vice-dean, academic at the
University of Toronto’s Rotman
School of Management. “There is
a need for all professionals to be
broader – to have a skill set that
allows individuals to function not
just in their primary domain but
to span different domains.”
To a growing list of joint and
combined degrees – first with law
in 1996 – Rotman recently added
a combined degree with U of T’s
Western engineering student Kathleen McAllister is taking a new certificate in engineering leadership and
innovation that includes business courses at the Ivey Business School. Darren Meister’s mandate is to strengthen
the natural bond between business and engineering. GEOFF ROBINS FOR THE GLOBE AND MAIL
Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy.
The first cohort taking the doctor
of pharmacy/master of business
administration are pharmacy students completing their second
year. If accepted by Rotman, they
would begin their MBA in September of 2016.
Prof. Pauly says the response of
students to combined degrees, in
general, is positive.
“They all recognize it opens up
new opportunities to them,” he
says. “The world out there is looking for talent that is not narrow,
but broad.”
At Western, Ivey business professor and engineering faculty
member Darren Meister embod-
ies the trend of academic crossfertilization. Last year, he was
named the inaugural holder of
the John M. Thompson Chair in
Engineering Leadership for a fiveyear term, with a mandate to
strengthen the natural bond between business and engineering.
Ivey and the engineering faculty already offer an undergraduate
dual degree – honours business
administration and a bachelor of
engineering science – that students complete in five years.
Along with the new certificate
introduced last September, Ivey
and the engineering faculty now
are developing dual degrees at
the master level.
“We see interdisciplinarity as a
good thing, so how do we break
down the barriers that are holding people back from what they
would like to do?” asked Western
engineering dean Andy Hrymak.
Having Prof. Meister with a foot
in both camps, added the dean, is
“critical” to his faculty’s efforts to
equip students for a changing
economy.
“The trend very much is that
the education component is
enhanced if you put the appropriate business courses alongside
the engineering courses,” said Dr.
Hrymak.
For his part, Prof. Meister observed that business and engi-
neering students benefit from
working together in the same
classroom. “They see problems
from radically different perspectives,” he said, with engineers
focused on design issues and
business students looking at ways
to bring an innovation to market.
Historically, business schools
had an arms’ length relationship
with the rest of campus.
“The trend [now] is much more
collaborative,” observed Saul
Klein, dean of the Gustavson
School of Business at the University of Victoria. “Business schools
have realized there is a lot they
can contribute as well as a lot
that they can gain.”
His school offers joint master
degrees with UVic’s faculties of
law and engineering. For the master of global business, Gustavson
turns to the university’s languages department to teach Mandarin and French, for example, to
business students.
Beyond dual degrees, Dr. Klein
cites initiatives in which Gustavson’s Centre for Social and Sustainable Innovation works with
researchers elsewhere on campus.
Those relationships, in turn,
help define his school’s strengths
as it seeks to stand out in a competitive market. Gustavson’s sustainability focus, for example, fits
with the university’s ambition to
be an internationally-recognized
campus that tackles issues of
consequence “to people, places
and the planet.”
On campus, as in industry,
breaking down the barriers between disciplines is seen as a positive development.
“There is a recognition that nobody has perfect knowledge and
understanding,” said Dr. Klein.
“Being able to collaborate allows
everyone to benefit.”
................................................................
Special to The Globe and Mail
FROM PAGE 1
Dual degrees: Health-care organizations seek both medical, business savvy
.....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
9
But he emphasizes that, for
him, it’s worth it because he
sees the advantages of having a
wide perspective on the healthcare system going back into medical school and his first years in
practice.
According to Christopher
Lynch, director of recruitment for
the MBA program at the University of Alberta, the MD/MBA program can put its graduates on a
fast track into health-care administrative roles. “What it gives students going through [medicine]
is a different way of looking at the
administration within a hospital,”
says Prof. Lynch. “It’s different
ways of looking at problems and
understanding the business or
the administrative, financial
mindset that goes into some of
the decisions before they’ve gone
out and had five years within the
health-care setting itself.”
Traditionally, hospital admin-
Baljot Chahal is adding an MBA to
his medical studies because he
‘wasn’t just interested in being a
clinician for the rest of my career.’
istrators were the business-minded MBA holders, while
health-care providers, such as
doctors, were left to tackle middle
management.
Lisa Kershaw, a health-care
recruiter and partner at Boyden
Global Executive Search, says she
sees the edge these joint program
graduates may have over other
future administrative candidates.
When hospitals and boards are
looking for their executive decision makers, they are looking for
candidates that “understand clinical enough and they understand
business enough.” In her more
than 20 years of experience, Ms.
Kershaw has seen hospitals and
health-care organizations headed
by medical professionals and
business people alike, and she
says the combined graduate level
training in these categories would
satisfy both camps.
“There’s nothing better as a
marker of your ability to understand than education,” she says.
“If you have an MBA then that
would check the box for business,
and if you have an MD then that
would check the box for clinical.”
These combined degrees include other members of the
health-care system, including several schools in North America
that combine the MBA with graduate-level nursing and pharmaceutical studies.
After his pharmaceutical degree
training in 1988, Zubin Austin,
who helped pilot the PharmD/
MBA combined degree currently
in its first year at the University of
Toronto, worked at the city’s
Mount Sinai hospital in a clinical
position. But as his career progressed, he explains, “I recognized that being a clinical
pharmacist wouldn’t give me the
administrative and managerial
background necessary for depart-
mental or hospital administration.”
He didn’t have the option to do
his degrees concurrently, so Prof.
Austin enrolled part-time at U of
T’s Rotman School of Business in
1991 and completed his MBA in
1994. But he speculates that with
these combined programs there
are more ideal options for graduates who want to pursue an administrative career.
“For many students there’s a
sense that while they’re in motion
and have the momentum of
being in school, it’s easier to just
stay in school rather than finish
one degree, work for a little while
and then go back to school.”
Students, like Mr. Chahal in
Alberta, are part of a unique
breed because they are thinking
about both their administrative
and clinical careers from the start.
................................................................
Special to The Globe and Mail
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Schulich School of Business, York University
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REPORT ON BUSINESS EDUCATION
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TECHNOLOGY
Schulich students see the future of negotiations
Experiments suggest Google Glass could give deal-makers an edge – or just an intimidation factor
.....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
GUY DIXON
................................................................
G
oogle Glass, that wearable
Web technology still in its
infancy, will inevitably become
as outdated as brick-sized cellphones. But cast your mind
back to not so long ago.
Think how vaguely intimidating it would have been to sit in
a business negotiation with
someone who wielded the brick
(and could justify the expense)
and could immediately call the
office to check on a contract
line item or an account balance.
Okay, it may be hard to
remember, but laughably basic
cellphones once had a certain
intimidation effect in business
deal-making. York University’s
Schulich School of Business has
taken early steps in testing that
effect in the case of Google
Glass.
Although wearing the small
Web device on the corner of
eyeglass frames shouts Star Trek
geekdom, its usefulness in business negotiations is obvious –
from instantly looking up documents and price comparisons
on the Internet out of the corner of one’s eye to recording
the negotiations (even broadcasting them) in high-definition.
But will it, as with any other
wearable technology, go down
as an enhancement or an
unwelcome intrusion?
“If someone has it, and the
other one doesn’t, it’s the fear
that the person [wearing Google
Glass] has more access to information. In a negotiation, access
to information, and quick
access, is quite important,” said
Kevin Tasa, an associate professor of organization studies at
Schulich.
The devices are used during
practice deal-making exercises
in Dr. Tasa’s class in negotiation
skills for MBA students. So far,
the students have used the
glasses only to record the negotiations to study how well they
did. They didn’t use the Web
function. That may come later.
But that may be a moot point.
Simply wearing the device may
be intimidating enough.
Jai lakhani, left, and Sydney Walsh were among the first Schulich students to experiment with Google Glass. The
technology’s potential, beyond simply recording classes, is being explored. KEVIN VAN PAASSEN FOR THE GLOBE AND MAIL
I do think it will serve as a
barrier to one’s own
temptation to deceive in the
context of negotiations.
Kevin Tasa
Schulich professor, on the impact of
wearable tech at the bargaining
table
“One of the things we are
going to be exploring down the
road is whether or not the use
of Google Glass actually curtails
deception,” Dr. Tasa said.
“Because if a person has the
ability to verify information
quickly – and even the perception that the other person has
the ability to verify information
quickly – we wonder if that is
actually going to have an
impact” on the outcome of
negotiations.
The point is that wearable
technology, even if not allowed
in the actual negotiating room,
could provide new means to
access information en route to
the meeting or during breaks in
negotiations. Ultimately, it’s a
question of unlevelling the playing field.
In negotiations, competing
parties try to get the best deal
by coaxing the others based on
how much or how little they
know. Yet, even the perception
that the other party has more
easy access to information could
conceivably act as a deterrent to
deceive. “I do think it will serve
as a barrier to one’s own temptation to deceive in the context
of negotiations,” Dr. Tasa said.
Some of the students told him
they found facing someone with
the glasses disconcerting. “I
don’t want to use the word intimidating. But it was a little
like they were being monitored,” the professor said.
“Because they were being monitored! They were being filmed.
So they had to be cautious
about what they said, because
they had to be upfront and
more honest.”
He found that the students’
mock negotiations using the devices tended to result in business agreements that benefited
both parties more. “Because in
negotiation, it’s not just about
harming the other person, but
creating value between both
sides,” and in that sense the
outcomes were better, Dr. Tasa
said.
MBA student Fahad Syed said
he would have liked to have
done more with Google Glass
than simply using them as a
recording tool. But what was interesting was how people’s behaviour could change if they
knew they are being recorded,
he added.
Schulich obtained the devices
through the Google program
Glass For Higher Education, in
which the tech giant gave the
school a two-for-one deal for
the $1,500-a-piece (U.S.) devices,
so long as the school paid for
five pairs. So, for the price of
five, Schulich got 10.
Mark Orlan, the school’s executive director of information
services and technology, put a
call out to teachers, asking how
they might use the units in
their classes. “It’s an experimental piece of hardware, and really
I had no preconceived ways of
using it,” Mr. Orlan said.
So far, Schulich has only
dipped a toe into the water with
its first use of the devices. For
in the business world outside
academia, Dr. Tasa said, “I can’t
imagine someone being given
permission in a labour-relations
context or an important business negotiation to keep the
technology on their head while
they’re negotiating.” But during
the time surrounding the actual
negotiations, the Glass or any
wearable technology could come
in handy.
Or you may not even have to
turn on the device. Just arriving
at a negotiation wearing Google
Glass (even if you then take
them off during the actual
talks) gives the semblance of
having fast access to information. Maybe that little dollop of
intimidation could be enough.
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INTERNATIONAL
McGill program empowers women in Japan
Montreal school’s Tokyo MBA helps students take on a culture where female leaders are scarce
.....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
DARAH HANSEN
................................................................
Y
o Omata is an ambitious
woman. At 36, she is a medical science liaison with a U.S.
pharmaceutical company in
Tokyo, a job that perfectly
complements her professional
experience as a scientist with a
PhD in dentistry.
Now, with a brand new MBA
from the Desautels Faculty of
Management of McGill University’s Japan program, her sights
are firmly set on the C-suite.
It’s a goal she feels is a real
possibility despite Japan’s stubbornly poor track record in promoting women to managerial or
executive positions.
“Wherever I go, I only see old
men, and it seems like they
don’t trust young women. In
meeting rooms or business trips,
it is just normal: only Japanese,
only old, only men,” Ms. Omata
said in an interview via Skype
from her home in Tokyo.
“But I think I am the exact
generation that can change
that,” she said.
McGill’s Japan program has
been operating in Tokyo for 16
years. For the most part, students there can expect a classroom experience that mirrors
that of their North American
peers. The 18-month program is
taught in English by many of
the same professors and to the
same academic standards as is a
traditional MBA at McGill’s Montreal campus. Professors travel
between campuses and stay in
touch with students electronically in between.
The biggest difference between
the Montreal and Tokyo programs is in the gender of the
students attending.
“We have a lot of women,
more than we do in our programs in Montreal,” said Philip
O’Neill, director of the Japan
program.
He’s not exaggerating. The
Tokyo program has experienced
year-over-year increases in
female enrollment, and the
school’s Class of 2016 recorded
its most impressive statistic yet:
an equal split between men and
Yo Omata is a graduate of Desautels’ campus in Japan, which consistently enrols a large contingent of women. The
Class of 2016, for example, is equally split between the genders, well above the average for business schools.
I do feel that change is
coming to Japan. It’s a matter
of time, but the new
generation, they are
changing things.
Yo Omata
Desautels MBA grad in Tokyo
women. By contrast, McGill’s
Canada-based MBA class has
about 30 per cent women while
the North American average is
37 per cent.
The Japan program also
employs confidence-building
strategies such as connecting
students with role models who
come to the class and speak.
High-achieving female alumni
act as mentors.
But those who keep an eye on
the Japanese labour market say
the program’s gender-diversity
success has more to do with
powerful social and economic
shifts happening in the country.
Qualified female business leaders, at least in theory, are a hot
commodity right now, said
Makiko Fukui, president of the
Tokyo-based recruitment firm
Harmony Residence. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has asked companies to fill 30 per cent of
senior roles with women by
2020.
And while many, including Ms.
Fukui, question whether the target will be met, corporate leaders are looking for qualified
female candidates.
“There is a movement starting
to grow in Japanese corporations, that companies have to
get women on the promotion
track,” Ms. Fukui said.
At the same time, foreign
companies operating in Japan
are seeking female MBA graduates such as Ms. Omata who
speak both English and Japanese, and they are offering
attractive benefits that go
beyond salary expectations.
“Sadly, Japanese companies are
slower in promoting women
within their companies compared to foreign affiliates here
in Tokyo,” Ms. Fukui said.
A recent survey by Torontobased Catalyst Canada found
that just 3.1 per cent of board
seats on Japanese companies
were occupied by women, the
lowest score among 20 countries
surveyed. Canada was ninth, at
20.8 per cent, while Norway led
the pack at 35.5 per cent.
Japan also scored poorly in a
2012 survey measuring the number of women in managerial positions, with 11 per cent. Among
American and Filipino companies it’s 40 per cent.
Gender-parity efforts in the
Japanese work force have stagnated since the nation’s economy took a nosedive in the
1990s, a slump from which the
country has yet to recover, said
Millie Creighton, a Japan specialist at the University of British
Columbia.
“The economy is bad, so gender equality goes somewhere to
the back of the closet,” she said.
Ms. Omata, who formally graduated from McGill in March,
said the degree is helping her
shape a business career with unlimited options. She has moved
to a U.S. company from a Japanese one in hopes it will allow
her to rise up the corporate ladder faster.
“I would like to be in a management role in a company.
That was an aspiration from the
beginning,” she said.
Ms. Omata said she has already talked two female friends
into enrolling in the McGill MBA
program, adding that if she can
serve as a role model for more
young women, she’s ready for it.
“I do feel that change is coming to Japan,” she said. “It’s a
matter of time, but the new
generation, they are changing
things.”
................................................................
Special to The Globe and Mail
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EXECUTIVE MBAS
Mining focus
adds to the rich vein
of EMBA offerings
.....................................................................................................................................
JENNIFER LEWINGTON
................................................................
O
ver the past 20 years in the
mining industry, engineer
Tamara Brown saw no reason to
add a graduate business degree
to her credentials.
But now the vice-president of
investor relations for Torontobased Primero Mining Corp. has
a new option: a mining-focused
executive MBA at the University
of British Columbia that would
enable her to continue working
while earning the specialty
degree.
“It is essential for me, if I am
going to take time and money
away from family and my day
job, that it gives me something
that combines mining operations
and business,” says Ms. Brown,
who expects to sign up for the
new program this fall.
For mid-career professionals
like Ms. Brown, executive MBAs
are an attractive alternative to a
conventional full-time MBA, as
they offer flexibility (usually a
blend of in-class and online
learning), academic rigour and
industry-relevant content without having to step away from
one’s day job.
“I am bullish and positive on
this space,” says Michael Desiderio, executive director of the U.S.based Executive MBA Council,
whose global membership of 232
schools with 332 programs in 40
countries is at an all-time high.
“We are going to continue to see
this market be very attractive.”
Most EMBA programs offer general management education, but
two new degrees in Canada are
sector-specific.
One is the executive MBA in
Strategic Mining Management
(tuition of $70,400) to be offered
this September by UBC’s Sauder
School of Business and the Norman B. Keevil Institute of Mining
Engineering, with financial and
in-kind industry support.
The 21-month program combines four residential components, each up to one week in
length, in Vancouver (twice),
Santiago and London. In between
face-to-face classes, students
work online independently and
in teams on industry-related case
studies and issues.
Another new program, also developed with industry support, is
an EMBA in digital transformation (tuition $78,000) at McMaster University’s DeGroote School
of Business, starting in April of
2016. The 15-month program features four on-campus study
components along with online
T E L F E R S C H O O L O F M A N A G E M E N T U N I V E R S I T Y O T TA W A
activities and group projects. One
module will be delivered in Silicon Valley, giving students
access to some of the biggest
names in digital commerce.
The DeGroote program is for
mid-career managers who need
to understand both the technical
and strategic management
dimensions of “big data.”
“As you go up the organizational hierarchy, digital literacy tends
to decrease,” observes Michael
Hartmann, DeGroote’s executive
director of the EMBA. “But the
ability [for senior executives] to
stop what you want to do [also]
increases.”
Closing the divide between decision makers and the technically
literate is a central theme of the
program. “It’s not just about big
data, but how a company learns
about innovation, invests in IT
[information technology] and
develops its digital capabilities,”
he says.
For many EMBAs, industry involvement is key. For example,
UBC’s mining EMBA responds, in
part, to industry concern about
attracting younger professionals
to replace a greying cohort of
senior executives.
A recent study by Stratum International found that 40 per
cent of Canada’s mining work
force is aged 50 or older, concluding “the demographic time bomb
is real and most companies are
not prepared for it.”
The warning is not lost on
Rohan Hazelton, vice-president
of strategy for Goldcorp Inc., the
lead industry partner for the
mining EMBA. “It’s not that there
are no people, but there is a lack
of bench strength at the senior
mining level,” he says.
Similarly, DeGroote’s EMBA
grew out of industry demand for
future leaders with technical
knowledge and strategy skills.
“The constant challenge we talk
about is how do we find the leaders of tomorrow – the ones who
are analytically savvy and who
will be able to bring data and analytics together to help serve our
clients,” says Brian O’Donnell,
chief data officer for Canadian
Imperial Bank of Commerce.
The bank is one of several corporate partners providing curriculum advice and other support
for the DeGroote EMBA.
As for Ms. Brown, she remains
hopeful about joining UBC’s mining program this fall and moving
closer to her ultimate goal – a
leadership role in her industry.
................................................................
Special to The Globe and Mail
FROM PAGE 1
Balance: Time management key
.....................................................................................................................................
9
C O N N E CTS YO U TO W H AT M AT T E R S
If what matters to you is to become a responsible and influential leader,
our MBA can help you.
MBA Hybride (2 ans, en français)
Intensive MBA (1 year, in English)
Professional MBA (2 years, in English)
Executive MBA (21 months, in English)
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telfer.uOttawa.ca
In Ms. Bhura’s case, she and
her husband, lawyer Salman
Bhura, both attended an information session in 2013 for the
Queen’s MBA to understand the
scope of the commitment. “He
has been rock solid for me,” Ms.
Bhura says. Her husband helped
set up a dedicated study space
for her at home and, especially
in the evening, attends to their
children, 7 and 2, so she can
study.
Ms. Bhura chose the Queen’s
program – a blend of video-conference classes in Vancouver
every other weekend and three
residential stints at the university’s Kingston campus – for the
course content and access to a
class of 85 students from a diverse range of industries. She
also had friends, as alumni, recommend the program.
Given the fast-changing media
landscape, she saw the executive
MBA as a way to expand her
business skills and apply best
practices to the development of
her and her partner’s six-yearold production company. “I am
a very big proponent of the pursuit of knowledge,” Ms. Bhura
says. “And for me, having the
opportunity to learn from the
best here, the professors and faculty and from my peers, is
knowledge I will take back to
my own industry.”
Still, she wanted assurances
that her media industry background was a fit for the Queen’s
program. At the 2013 information session, Ms. Saccon connected Ms. Bhura with a recent
alumnus from the same field
who offered encouragement and
insights into the program.
Ms. Saccon says she encourages students to “keep the conversation alive with the key people
at home and work,” so they feel
part of the education experi-
ence. For example, a spouse
could proofread an essay before
the student hands in the assignment.
One of the biggest challenges
is learning to manage time, with
an expected study workload of
20 to 25 hours a week.
“I say at the beginning: simplify, simplify, simplify and then
try to simplify some more,” says
Ms. Saccon, who urges participants to cut back on volunteer
and discretionary commitments
to squeeze in precious study
time.
Ms. Bhura invites members of
her Vancouver team to her
house on Monday nights for
study sessions around the dining
room table, creating an opportunity to build camaraderie over
relearning how to learn and to
write exams.
At especially busy times, Ms.
Bhura gets up at 5 a.m. to study
before joining the family for
breakfast. During the day, she
works on her production company business before picking up
her daughter from school in the
afternoon. (She has some nanny
help during the week for her
son.)
A family dinner together at 6
p.m. is “a sacred hour,” says Ms.
Bhura, to ensure consistency for
the children. After dinner, she
studies until 11:30 p.m.
Despite competing demands
on her time, Ms. Bhura tries to
strike a balance between school
and family.
“I want this to be an enjoyable
experience and integrate it into
my life,” she says of the executive MBA. “Modern life is so
busy but it is always going to be
busy. So this is a great time for
me to hone the practice of prioritizing.”
................................................................
Special to The Globe and Mail
T H E G LO B E A N D M A I L
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SPORTS
An NHL team’s next big prospect might be an MBA
Athabasca University adds a hockey specialty to its executive MBA program, recognizing increasing business complexity of the game
.....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
ADAM STANLEY
................................................................
C
raig MacTavish is a unique figure in hockey.
Not because of the numerous titles he’s had (four-time Stanley
Cup winner, broadcaster for TSN,
coach, front-office employee,
coach again). No, Mr. MacTavish
is the lone general manager of a
Canadian NHL franchise who has
an MBA.
After retiring from the game as
a player in 1997, he was accepted
to the University of Alberta in
Edmonton and the University of
Western Ontario in his birthplace
of London, Ont. But he declined
those offers when the New York
Rangers asked him to join its organization as a coach.
Mr. MacTavish later connected
with Queen’s University when he
was finally ready to go back to
school, and he completed his
MBA from the Kingston-based
school in 2011.
Within a few years, Mr. MacTavish might not be alone in having
an MBA and being involved in
hockey. Athabasca University, in
concert with the Business of
Hockey Institute, to which Mr.
MacTavish is an adviser, will offer
an MBA in hockey starting in
May.
The hockey-specific program is
made up of six courses that are
added to the existing executive
MBA curriculum. Students who
already have an MBA from another school can get what the St.
Albert, Alta.-based BHI is calling a
“professional hockey manager”
designation by taking just the six
hockey courses.
Mr. MacTavish, who’s been the
Edmonton Oilers’ GM since April
of 2013, says someone with this
degree would make a strong candidate for a job in the NHL in the
future.
“You constantly get queries
from people that want to get into
the business because it’s a
dynamic field to be in, and it’s
exciting,” Mr. MacTavish explains.
“This is an opportunity for hockey people, and people who have a
passion for hockey, to really differentiate themselves.”
Announced in January, the
Oilers GM Craig MacTavish, who has an MBA, says education helps athletes make the transition into business.
‘The people who handled it well were the people that got some other training.’ JASON FRANSON/THE CANADIAN PRESS
online program was positioned as
an elite hockey-specific MBA to
help “elevate the business side of
the game.” Registration for the
program, which is expected to
attract about 30 students and
have a total cost of about
$79,000, began Feb. 1. The first
cohort is expected to graduate in
late 2017 or early 2018.
“Hockey competes for people’s
time and money, and enough
wasn’t being done for the longterm sustainability of the game,”
says Chris McLeod, the director of
marketing and communications
at Athabasca, on online university. “There’s a lot that gets put in
to developing the talent side, but
nothing really is done to enhance
business and operations.”
The program, which comes
along at a time when the NHL has
grown into a $3.7-billion (U.S.) a
year business, is the brainchild of
NHL player agent Ritch Winter
and Calgary Flames president of
hockey operations Brian Burke.
Mr. Winter says it is focused on
helping drive the bottom line for
hockey, but is also part of a wider
trend of MBA-level programs that
are much more industry specific.
“We’re seeing a greater degree
of specialization in almost every
business. The technology and the
businesses people work with
have become more complicated,”
Mr. Winter says. “A hockey team
used to be just a hockey team,
now it’s got digital offerings,
advertising, and different gameday preparations. Without understanding each part of a business
specifically, and without getting
more specific academically,
you’re not going to get the best
graduates for the business they
plan to enter.”
Mr. Winter spoke to Mr. Burke
about his idea a few years ago,
and after a couple of false starts
with other schools, they landed
on Athabasca.
“Athabasca has the platform –
we’ve had an executive MBA for a
number of years, but we made it
clear we weren’t experts in hockey,” says Michael Mauws, Athabasca board of governors
member and professor of business policy and strategy. “The intention all along has been to
deliver the program with worldleading academics, combined
with leading people from the
industry.”
“You’d be surprised who has
called to see if they can be academics in this program,” continues Mr. Winter. “We forget that
some very talented people are
hockey people.”
The long-time agent says the
idea for the program came to him
when he was thinking, somewhat
philosophically, about the salary
cap on NHL team payrolls, and
how he could use it to the benefit
of his multimillion-dollar clients.
“In life, we all think about our
circumstances and how we can
improve them. I thought that the
really interesting thing about the
salary cap is that we can actually
force the owners to pay our clients more money,” he says. “The
game has improved so dramatically on the ice, and we’re in such
a competitive environment,
entertainment-wise, that isn’t it
foundational to provide a training ground for executives to drive
the business?”
Borrowing hockey vernacular,
Mr. Winter says the program will
become the source of “first-round
picks” for the executive suite of
NHL franchises.
“If we can bring in 20, 30, or 50
more talented people into the
industry and generate more money, and strangely enough, force
the owners to give our players
half of that, the program seemed
like a logical idea.”
According to Dr. Mauws, the
Hockey MBA is aimed at giving its
graduates an opportunity to take
their career to the next level,
within the industry they’re already working in.
“Ritch and Brian wanted to see
the game get shaken up,” says Dr.
Mauws. “They wanted to improve
the way the game was being run,
and ensure hockey has a longterm future in the face of all the
other entertainment options that
are available. They really want
the very best students coming to
the program.”
Mr. MacTavish, who oversees a
player payroll of $66-million for
an organization that Forbes magazine values at $475-million,
knows the benefit of an MBA in
an NHL front office, and why a
program like Athabasca’s could
be beneficial for soon-to-retire
NHL veterans who want to stay in
the game on the business side.
“The difficult thing is that
you’re 35 and you should be going
through a stage of your life where
there should be a lot of stability.
You should be settled in to a
career, with a home and a family.
But at 35, or even less than that,
you’re faced with a massive
career change,” he explains. “The
people who handled it well were
the people that got some other
training.”
................................................................
Special to The Globe and Mail
Dolly Kamdar
BBA (’07), MBA (’11)
Goals:
Become a CEO, CFO or COO.
Advance the bank’s objectives.
Our MBA takes you from campus to career path
The MBA experience at the Goodman School of Business takes you beyond the classroom. From our acclaimed co-op
programs, to our community-focused service-learning opportunities, experience the Goodman difference.
Just ask MBA alumna Dolly Kamdar. Her Goodman MBA led to a career as a senior financial specialist with one of
Canada’s largest financial institutions.
The Goodman MBA offers full-time, part-time and co-op programs. In addition to the accredited CPA stream, you can
also specialize in accounting, business analytics, finance, human resource management, marketing, and operations
management.
Located in scenic Niagara, just an hour from the GTA, the Goodman School of Business at Brock University offers an
MBA with a difference. Learn more about the Goodman MBA at goodman.brocku.ca/mba
For both sides of the brain.
Brock University | Niagara | Canada
E8
•
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REPORT ON BUSINESS EDUCATION
T H E G LO B E A N D M A I L
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ENTREPRENEURISM
Student’s brand puts hearts on sleeves
Nova Scotian Alex MacLean, 23, has seen phenomenal growth of an apparel line he created in an undergrad business class
.....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
JOSH O’KANE HALIFAX
................................................................
A
t 23, Alex MacLean has already mastered ubiquity.
It is impossible to walk the
streets of Halifax, Saint John or
Charlottetown without seeing
one, five or even 10 people
wearing his East Coast Lifestyle
line of apparel. In two years, Mr.
MacLean has sold more than
300,000 caps, shirts and hoodies
– that’s twice the population of
Prince Edward Island – to East
Coasters clamouring to show off
the brand’s rope-and-anchor
logo.
By giving Atlantic Canadians
the chance to wear their hearts
on their sleeves, the brand has
become a regional staple. Whole
families pose for pictures in
matching East Coast Lifestyle
shirts and hoodies. Hockey star
Sidney Crosby has been Instagrammed wearing the brand,
and musicians from James Taylor to Ed Sheeran have
embraced it as well. It’s stocked
in stores in Alberta, second
home to many East Coasters.
And plans are in motion for a
West Coast sister imprint.
“Whether you’re a Cape Breton fisherman or a Newfoundlander moving to Alberta, you
always love the East Coast,” says
Mr. MacLean, who in 2014 was
named Student Entrepreneur
National Champion by Enactus
Canada. “People here are very
proud of where they’re from.”
His is a distinctly 21st-century
business.
“The whole thing is mainly
run off this phone,” he says,
thumbing through product photos – tuques, caps, hoodies,
T-shirts, most with variations of
the rope-and-anchor logo. Instagram is a particularly important
tool for him, as is Twitter; by
showing real people wearing his
goods, the clothing practically
East Coast Lifestyle apparel founder Alex MacLean on the boardwalk in Halifax: ‘People here are very proud of
where they’re from.’ PAUL DARROW FOR THE GLOBE AND MAIL
sells itself.
When Sidney Crosby ran a
hockey clinic at a Halifax arena
in 2013, Mr. MacLean surreptitiously left a box of East Coast
Lifestyle gear in the locker
room.
When he found out Mr. Crosby
didn’t get any, he gave the Team
Canada captain the actual shirt
off his back.
Mr. Crosby is now known to
love the brand but rarely wears
it publicly to avoid compromising his Reebok sponsorship. No
matter to Mr. MacLean – he has
lined up plenty of NHL players
and prospects who wear it
proudly, including Boston Bruins
forward Brad Marchand and Col-
orado Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon.
East Coast Lifestyle was born
in 2013 in an undergrad venture-creation class at Acadia
University in Wolfville, N.S. Mr.
MacLean and his classmates
were given the choice to either
come up with a business model
or build a real business.
He thought of the X-Ring, the
iconic ring worn by graduates of
St. Francis Xavier University in
Antigonish, N.S., and wanted to
“create a brand for people to be
proud of where they’re from.”
So rather than fake a business
for a grade, he tried the real
thing.
With an $800 loan from his
father, Mr. MacLean bought 30
hoodies from a Halifax manufacturer, stamped an early logo
on them and asked friends to
be models. He littered the campus with East Coast Lifestyle
stickers. (It can be presumed
Acadia forgave Mr. MacLean,
considering his prominence in
the school’s recruiting materials.)
The first 30 sweatshirts sold
immediately, and he took the
profit to buy an additional 60.
Then came spring break, for
which Mr. MacLean made tank
tops. Within a few months,
hockey stars Mr. Crosby and Mr.
MacKinnon were spotted wearing the goods.
Brock’s B-school
adds dual degrees,
overseas options
................................................................
Shastri Ramnath, MBA
President and Principal Geologist, Orix Geoscience Inc.
Director, Canadian Silver Hunter
Traveller, Entrepreneur, Groundbreaker
Toronto, Ontario, Canada | Mining & Metals
I became an executive while I was learning how to be an
executive. AU’s online format made it possible for me to
complete my MBA as I pursued my passion for geology in
countries as far away as Guyana. As I learned, I applied
my newfound knowledge to my role as President and
Principal Geologist and it allowed me to expand my
career in ways I never thought possible.
The MBA that puts CEO within reach.
The AU online Executive MBA. business.athabascau.ca
The option to study and work at
home and abroad – and earn two
degrees in the process – has proven popular with undergraduate
students at Brock University’s
Goodman School of Business.
The school recently announced
plans to expand its offering of
dual degrees (with co-op work
experience included) this September, with new partnerships
signed with counterparts in
France and Ireland.
“The attraction of having a very
solid international experience in
your undergrad and having that
recognized with a dual degree is
something that has a lot of resonance,” says Goodman dean Don
Cyr, whose school is located in
Ontario’s wine-growing Niagara
region.
In 2008, Goodman signed a
dual degree partnership with EBS
Business School, in the Rheingau
wine region of southwest Germany.
Today, Mr. MacLean works
with one full-time employee, a
handful of seasonal pop-up
shop workers and a 12-person
manufacturing facility, all in
Halifax.
“He’s done great,” says
Michael Sheppard, the Acadia
assistant professor who taught
the venture creation class.
The course is the capstone to
the entrepreneurship and innovation program at Acadia’s F.C.
Manning School of Business.
Prof. Sheppard designed it to
focus on business models,
which come one step before
business plans.
“We really took it back to the
basics,” he says, using an
approach that draws on innovation and customer-understanding theories from thinkers such
as Eric Ries and Steve Blank.
“It’s so important to try to get
away from the theoretical,” Prof.
Sheppard says. “It’s an important way to have entrepreneurs
test their ideas without wasting
their own money and time – or
other people’s money and time.”
Mr. MacLean’s time is spent
mostly on the East Coast. He
grew up in Halifax and intends
to keep his business there,
though he has a warehouse in
Toronto to serve western
demand.
Mr. MacLean also plans to
flood the American East Coast
with his wares. And he’s slowly
rolling out a West Coast Lifestyle sister brand.
But first the Acadia student
has to graduate. He’s been taking online courses since making
East Coast Lifestyle his full-time
concern a year ago. He has one
course to go, but rushing to finish isn’t on his mind. He prefers
a relaxed – decidedly East Coast
– pace.
“It’s not a race,” he says. “It’s
fun.”
More than 300 Goodman students apply for 20 spots, with a
similar number coming from EBS
to Brock.
“We needed to expand because
of the demand,” Dr. Cyr says of
the announcement.
This fall, incoming undergraduate business students can compete for the chance to attend the
NEOMA Business School of
France (with one campus in the
champagne region of Reims) and
Ireland’s Dublin City University.
For 2015-16, just five spaces are
available at each location.
For the dual degree, a Goodman
student spends the first 2.5 years
in St. Catharines, the next 18
months abroad and then returns
home to wrap up the Bachelor of
Business Degree (while earning a
comparable degree from the
overseas school).
Tuition is the same as for an
undergraduate business degree:
$8,436 a year for domestic students and $22,458 for international students.
– Jennifer Lewington
T H E G LO B E A N D M A I L
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REPORT ON BUSINESS EDUCATION
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MENTORSHIP
For energy-bar maker, startup advice was invaluable
Entrepreneur-In-Residence programs help university students validate ideas – without wasting time or money
.....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
ADAM STANLEY
................................................................
S
ometimes, all it takes is a long
walk to spark the biggest idea.
At least, that was the case for
Mayank Chauhan, an MBA graduate from the University of Victoria and founder of nutTea, a
tea-infused, 100-per-cent organic
energy bar. The idea came to him
when he and his brother went for
a hike on British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast with only tea in their
thermoses and cashews in their
pockets.
While the five-hour hike may
have prompted the idea, Mr.
Chauhan, who was an IT manager
at the time, says nutTea couldn’t
have become the rapid success
story it is now without the help of
the Entrepreneur-In-Residence
(EIR) program available to University of Victoria students and
graduates.
“I probably wouldn’t have gotten to this point as fast,” he says.
“They helped me with a lot of
connections and gave me a lot of
knowledge.”
Programs such as the one at the
Peter. B. Gustavson School of
Business at UVic aren’t new, but
they are cropping up all across
Canada. A recent study by CIBC
says more than half a million Canadians started their own business since 2012, and no fewer
than seven business schools in
Canada now offer EIR programs
to align with this trend.
EIRs, essentially, provide guidance to students who are hoping
to start a business.
“I’ll be candid and say it’s trendy to be an entrepreneur right
now,” says Simon Fraser University’s Dave Thomas.
Mr. Thomas, who has participated in five startups in his career,
says although many university
students have numerous ideas,
not all of them can become viable businesses. That’s where the
mentorship programs come in.
“People underestimate how
hard it is to keep something
going and start a company. It’s
always good to have assistance to
start with,” he says. “Many university students haven’t worked,
or at least they haven’t worked at
Innovation
in retailing centre
opens at Sobey
................................................................
The dramatic retreat by Target
Canada, the demise of several
name-brand chains and the lowflying loonie have shaken up the
Canadian retail landscape in
recent months.
Amid the turbulence, one business school sees an opportunity
to shape the future of retail management.
This month, the David Sobey
Centre for Innovation in Retailing and Services opened at the
Sobey School of Business at Saint
Mary’s University in Halifax with
ambitions to be a “leading
source” of expertise on retail and
service management. David
Sobey contributed $3-million
toward the centre, according to
the university.
“We looked at the importance
of the sector, what our strengths
are and where we might be able
to contribute,” says centre director Ramesh Venkat, a professor
of marketing at Saint Mary’s.
“We thought there was a natu-
UVic MBA grad and nutTea founder Mayank Chauhan, here in Ingredients Cafe and Community Market in Victoria,
tapped mentors through UVic’s Entrepreneur-In-Residence program. CHAD HIPOLITO FOR THE GLOBE AND MAIL
People underestimate how
hard it is to keep something
going and start a company.
It’s always good to have
assistance to start with.
Dave Thomas
Mentor-in-residence,
Simon Fraser University
ral fit there.”
He says he expects the new
centre in Halifax will complement established retail programs
at Ryerson University’s Ted Rogers School of Management and
the University of Alberta School
of Business.
“We share some of the same
goals and we are in different
regions [of the country] so we
are not directly competing for
each other’s students,” he says.
Prof. Venkat says the Sobey
centre aims to produce industryrelevant research (in addition to
work published in academic journals), with eight faculty projects
so far on topics ranging from the
customer check-out experience
to small-business staff recruitment.
Prof. Venkat is eager for the
centre to make its mark.
“The hope is that our research
would improve outcomes for the
sector as a whole, improve business practices and help them
[retailers] innovate and improve
what they are doing, so they have
better outcomes and a strong
future for Canadian retailing,” he
says. “If we can make a small
contribution towards that, we
would have achieved our goals.”
– Jennifer Lewington
Microsoft for 10 years, for example. So they’re way better at the
technology part of an idea than
they would be at the business
part.”
Robin Milne, who previously
worked at technology giant Mitel
Networks Corp. in Ottawa and
had a few startups of his own, is
the EIR at UVic who helped Mr.
Chauhan with nutTea.
The Innovation Centre for
Entrepreneurs at UVic was originally open only to current students, but it was recently
expanded to include alumni.
That’s how Mr. Chauhan was able
to take advantage of the mentorship and counsel.
Mr. Milne says for every 100 students who make a quick contact
with the program, only about 10
will seriously pursue it. NutTea is
one of eight companies that have
fully launched from the program,
and eight more are getting close,
Mr. Milne says.
“There are 20,000 students at
Business
school
news
roundup
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website for
Jennifer
Lewington’s
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reports
on news
at Canadian
business
schools.
UVic, and let’s face it, people
drop in with nothing more than
something they and their friends
think is really interesting, and
then they go away,” he says. “But
if they’re serious and they come
back, then they pitch it.”
Victoria is, according to Mr.
Milne, a great city for entrepreneurs because it’s filled with retirees who are keen to give back and
help young people. After Mr.
Milne confirms a student idea is
legitimate, he reaches out to 50or-so volunteer advisers. Three of
them will then make up the client advisory board for the project.
For Mr. Chauhan, this was invaluable.
“My background was in IT, and
my undergrad was in computer
science, and I didn’t have any experience in the food industry.
That’s what I was looking for,” he
explains. “One of my mentors
happened to be the ex-VP of marketing for Sobey’s Canada. He’s
been really helpful.”
When Mr. Chauhan approached
Mr. Milne, he already had a prototype and had pre-sales from
retailers. He had left his job. Mr.
Milne knew he was fully dedicated, and according to Mr. Chauhan, his was the kind of business
they wanted to support.
“There’s a fundamental model
called ‘lean’ startups,” explains
Mr. Milne. “Lean doesn’t mean
cheap, it means minimizing
waste. We’re trying to help them
not waste time or money. We
want [the students] to get out
there and validate their idea.”
Doug Beyon, the EIR at the Conrad Business, Entrepreneurship
and Technology Centre at the
University of Waterloo, says that
city is full of students who are all
“learning and doing.”
As in Victoria, there is a large
community of support for student entrepreneurs in the southwest Ontario town. Dr. Beyon says
students have to be an entrepreneur at heart to get into the program.
“All the courses are designed
around taking students through
the normal business courses, but
in the process, are designed specifically for what an entrepreneur
would experience in the ‘valley of
death,’” he explains. “That’s
where you have no funds, no
product, no customers … but
you’ve got your idea.”
Dr. Beyon says upward of 50
businesses are started by MBAlevel students every year as part
of the course, with at least eight
becoming incorporated by the
end of each year.
“The students learn how to
think about a business from the
level of designing it, figuring out
resources, and the whole program, literally, develops that kind
of thinking,” Dr. Beyon says.
“They don’t think like MBA students. They think like entrepreneurs.”
Mr. Chauhan’s entrepreneurial
thinking spawned an organic
energy bar now available in 20
stores, with a hope of being in
close to 400 by year-end.
................................................................
Special to The Globe and Mail
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WHAT I’M DOING WITH MY MBA
Taking a sense of humour to business school
Louise Richer, founder of l’École national de l’humour, plans to take her new skills back to her Montreal comedy school
.....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
DEIRDRE KELLY
................................................................
L
ouise Richer laughs easily.
Her laughter erupts as suddenly as a summer shower, saturating a conversation about how
she, the director of a national
comedy school, recently returned
to the classroom to become a
student again. The born-andbred Montrealer thinks it’s hilarious.
“It’s funny,” she says, giggling
over the lilting cadences of her
French-accented English,
“because I am 62, the oldest person in the class. But in my head,”
she adds, pausing for the punch
line, “I feel young.”
That youthful exuberance has
steered Ms. Richer in the direction of the Desautels Faculty of
Management at McGill University
where in September she enrolled
in a 16-month executive MBA
program that will end in December.
The former comedian and
actress hopes to apply her business training to enhancing operations at l’École national de
l’humour, the acclaimed postsecondary institution she founded
in Montreal in 1988.
“I want to develop a more systematic approach to my organization,” continues Ms. Richer in
all seriousness.
“I think that will be my last legacy to a school I love so much
and to the young people there
doing all they can to realize their
dream of becoming creators in
comedy.”
Comedy to her is not entirely a
joke. It is deserving of serious
study.
“A lot of people think comedy
is easy, they think anyone can do
it,” Ms. Richer. “But a comedian
is a great observer; he is a chronicler of the times.”
The motto of her school, printed large on the wall and visible
to all who enter, is “Je pense donc
je ris.” I think therefore I laugh.
“Comedy is a mirror of society,”
she continues. “Tell me what you
are laughing at and I will tell you
who you are.”
Her first degree, perhaps not
surprisingly, was in psychology,
At 62, Louise Richer is taking an EMBA at McGill to help her bring a higher level of professional management to the Montreal comedy school she founded.
‘I think that will be my last legacy to a school I love so much,’ she says. CHRISTINNE MUSCHI FOR THE GLOBE AND MAIL
ON OUR WEBSITE
New series
This story launches a new series
called What I’m Doing With My
MBA. The continuing series,
which will reside on the Business
Education page of our website,
will feature students and graduates who are using their MBAs
and EMBAs in unique fields other
than traditional ones such as
finance and consulting.
tgam.ca/business-education
which she took more than 40
years ago at the University of
Quebec. Acting lessons at HB
Studios in New York followed later when, at age 27, the lanky redhead with a toothy smile decided
to change careers.
Returning to Montreal in 1983,
Ms. Richer started doing standup at clubs such as La Pleine
Lune and Club Soda, encouraged
by friendships with the comedy
duo Ding and Dong, and other
comedians encountered during
her university days.
She was determined to make a
career of it, but when she went
looking to improve her skills she
was dismayed to find that Montreal had no training to offer.
This galvanized her to make a
difference.
Ms. Richer approached Gilbert
Rozon, founder of Montreal’s
popular Juste pour rire comedy
festival, who then invited her to
launch a professional development program within his government-sponsored organization.
She eventually outgrew Juste
pour rire, moving first to a location on Jean Talon Street and
then an even larger building on
Sherbrooke Street East.
Students pay $14,000 for a twoyear individualized program of
study including political science,
French, history and practical
courses such as sitcom writing,
voice training and improvisation.
There are currently 36 students
enrolled.
Famous alumni include Mike
Ward, Lise Dion, Martin Matte,
and, perhaps better known in
English Canada, Patrick Huard
and Louis-José Houde, actorcomedians who appeared in the
top-grossing 2007 Canadian film,
Bon Cop, Bad Cop, opposite Colm
Feore.
As the person responsible for
having created these celebrities,
Ms. Richer is something of a star
herself.
When she entered the Desautels program in the fall, her reputation preceded her. It was
implicitly understood she would
be the class clown. Ms. Richer
has not disappointed.
“For sure I am unconventional.
I don’t leave my sense of
humour at the door when I come
in,” she says.
“But the open-mindedness of
the EMBA program has touched
me. I don’t feel judged, I dare say
I bring something unique to the
others in the class.”
And then she laughs again,
right on cue.
Will your first
business decision be
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Successful business leaders need to be able to think independently,
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At Odette, we don’t just rely on what has worked in the past. We are
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Admittedly, it’s not for everyone. But if you have the vision to create your
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uwindsor.ca/mba