2016 was a notable year at McMaster University’s DeGroote School of Business. Not only did the school continue to foster interdisciplinary thinking and evidence-based management to transform business and society, but it also experienced quite a few accomplishments. Those accomplishments were summarized in the DeGroote 2016 Annual Report, with some of the most impressive outlined below.
New Groundbreaking Programs
One of the premier accomplishments of the DeGroote School in 2016 was the creation of the Executive MBA in Digital Transformation. The program helps students take the next step in their career by preparing them to be leaders in the rapidly changing digital landscape. It’s the first EMBA in the world that focuses on teaching students how to manage digital systems and how to use those systems to make data-driven decisions, lead complex and diverse teams in digital environments, and recruit exciting new talent.
Other new programs that DeGroote introduced in 2016 included the Health Leadership Academy, which is aimed at producing the best health leaders of tomorrow, and the Integrated Business and Humanities program, which was conceived to produce Canada’s next generation of business leaders.
New Building Space
In 2016, the DeGroote School finally completed the fourth floor of the Ron Joyce Centre. This floor offers more than 24,000-square-feet of space, and it houses the new Health Leadership Academy and the EMBA in Digital Transformation. It’s also home to The Director’s College, DeGroote MBA activities, a variety of classroom spaces and the Digital Transformation Research Centre.
MBA Stats
DeGroote MBA students participated in a record number of MBA case competitions and walked away with an unprecedented number of victories across Canada and beyond in 2016. MBA students took home seven first-place wins, two second-place wins and two third-place finishes. DeGroote also won the MBA Games in 2016, marking the school’s third national title in five years.
As for employment, “A remarkable 92 per cent of 2016 MBA co-op graduates secured full-time employment,” Len Waverman, dean of the DeGroote School of Business, explained in a news release. And for education abroad, 11 MBA students went on exchange around the world and 14 international MBA students were welcomed to campus.
Finally, 2016 saw a redesign of the DeGroote MBA program, which was explained in the Annual Report.
“DeGroote’s redesigned MBA offers a truly cutting-edge suite of programming. In 2016, staff and faculty combined best practices across North America and innovative curriculum design principles to enhance one of the premier MBA programs in Canada. Recent reforms—such as cohort classes, career development programming, integrated case studies, and five Foundation Weeks—were based on insights from current students, alumni, faculty, and key industry partners. 96 per cent of co-op students going through the new MBA curriculum were successful in securing their first co-op work terms.”