Rotman Prof Talks MeToo Movement, and More – Toronto News
Professors and alumni from Toronto’s top business schools have been making headlines this week. See what they’ve been up to below.
The Corporate Climb: Women Locked Out of Old Boys’ Club in Misguided Me Too Backlash – Canada’s National Observer
The MeToo movement began as a way to shed light on the pervasiveness of sexual assault and harassment following the allegations against Hollywood power-producer Harvey Weinstein. Ideally, the MeToo movement would lead to more accountability for people in positions of power, and consequently, better boundaries in working and personal relationships. Unfortunately, progress often comes with backlash, which may be the case in Canada’s business world.
Instead of increased education about harassment and consent, many workplaces have taken to diminishing their liability via actions that hinder women. Because of this, some men in upper-level positions shy away from mentoring women or being in more intimate situations with them (e.g. a client dinner, or a business trip). However, Sarah Kaplan, professor at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, feels strongly that focusing on the backlash of the movement is counterproductive to the cause. In Canada’s National Observer, Kaplan says:
“It is just one more way that even an effort to lead to more liberation and equality has been co-opted. It is as if people don’t understand what they shouldn’t be doing. As long as you don’t grab someone or proposition them, you can take someone to lunch … It is completely obvious how to be professional.”
You can read more about the reaction to the MeToo movement here.
Tattoo Company Fosters a New Kind of Art – Ryerson Today
Braden Handley, a Ryerson University’s Ted Rogers School of Management Entrepreneurship graduate, co-founded Inkbox with his brother Tyler in 2015. Since then, the business has recently accrued $10 million CAD in funding. Inkbox offers semi-permanent tattoos made with organic materials, that last around two weeks.
Braden Handley (left) with his brother Tyler / Photo via ryerson.ca
“Ryerson helped me get into work mode immediately,” Handley tells his alma mater in a recent interview. “You were taught how to be an employee … We were given a lot of assignments that were real work assignments.” The company employs 60 people, who contributing to the distribution of 60,000 tattoos per month.
“Chase your dreams, but your dreams have to align with your natural abilities as well. Everyone has predispositions and skills.”
Get more familiar with Handley’s journey here.
Top 100 Corporate Social Responsibility Influence Leaders – Assent Compliance
Assent Compliance’s new list of the “Top 100 Corporate Social Responsibility Leaders” has arrived. The ranking analyzes those whose “efforts contribute to improvements throughout global supply chains, helping individuals and companies make a positive difference.”
The list includes notable people like Laura Chapman Rubbo, who helped create the human rights policy for Disney.
Dirk Matten, Professor at York University’s Schulich School of Business, lands 44th on the list. Matten, who holds the Hewlett-Packard Chair in Corporate Social Responsibility, serves as Schulich’s Associate Dean of Research.
Discover the full list here.
Schulich Alum Shares His Experience, and More – Toronto News
Toronto’s business schools have seen some exciting developments from students, alumni, and faculty this week. Let’s take a look at some of the high points.
Alumni Stories: Michael Zanella – MMgt – Schulich School of Business
A Schulich School of Business alum was recently profiled on his time in the school’s new 12-month Master’s of Management program.
Michael Zanella, a 2017 graduate, who turned his education into a role with Ceridian Dayforce as an Implementation Consultant Associate. You can watch his full interview below.
Wine, Beer, Spirits Brand-Builder WX Names Michael Lukan CFO – North Bay Business Journal
Michael Lukan was recently named the official new CFO of WX Brands, a company that creates wine, beer, and spirits. Lukan, an alum of Western University Canada’s Ivey Business School, co-founded Wine Hooligans in 2013. He has also worked at Purple Wine Company and Sonoma Wine Company. With news of the Lukan’s arrival at the company, WX Brands President and CEO Peter Byck says, “His well-rounded experience and entrepreneurial mindset will make him a great asset for WX Brands to continue to build on our tremendous growth.”
Regarding his new role, Lukan says, “Peter and the WX team have positioned the company for tremendous growth by delivering an exceptional customer experience and I’m looking forward to helping realize this opportunity.”
You can read more about Lukan and WX Brands here.
What Is Less Scary in the Dark? – Scientific American
Ping Dong, a Professor at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, and Chen-Bo Zhong, Professor at the University of Toronto Rotman School of Management, recently conducted a study that examined the, “impact of visual darkness on people’s perceived risk of contagious-disease transmission.” The researchers predicted that the darkness would make people feel more separate or insulated from one another, so they would be less squeamish about the germs of those around them. In fact, the study concluded that being in a darker environment would make subjects reduce their caution when it came to unethical behavior, of which might include cheating on one’s significant other and other acts of selfishness.
Their research showed that perceived risk of contracting airborne illnesses decreased when participants were in more dimly-lit rooms, as well as when they were wearing sunglasses. “In addition,” writes Scientific American writer Cindi May, “visual darkness increased participants’ perceived distance from the confederate, and this increase in distance mediated the reduction in perceived risk of contagion in the dark. Their fear of non-contagious diseases did not depend on the lighting.”
You can read more about the duo’s research here.
Seamless Shopping, Work Authenticity, and More – Toronto News
Professors at Toronto’s premier business schools have been making headlines this week. Let’s see what they’ve been up to.
Phasing Out the Checkout Line: Retailers Race to Make Shopping More Seamless – CBC News
Walmart’s scan-and-go shopping option, which allowed customers to scan items themselves and pay for them with a phone app, has been removed from U.S. stores. Retail expert and professor at Ryerson University’s Ted Rogers School of Management Steve Tissenbaum posited that scan-and-go was not actually more convenient for consumers, but felt it was important for businesses like Walmart to continue to innovate seamless shopping.
“They [customers] want it to be as quick and as seamless as possible when they’re ordering stuff online. Retailers certainly have to move forward. Otherwise they’ll be left behind,” Tissenbaum said in a recent CBC News piece.
The retail giant seems to agree with Tissenbaum’s view, and has launched the “check out with me” project, which will allow employees to use mobile devices to scan and charge customers for their items anywhere in the store.
You can read more about Walmart’s new project here.
How to Keep it Real at Work – Forbes
An HBR article from Wilfrid Laurier University social psychologist Vanessa Boute was recently featured in Forbes, highlighting whether employees feel authentic at work, and how this impacts their performance. Boute writes:
“One study found that the greater employees’ feelings of authenticity are, the greater their job satisfaction, engagement, and self-reported performance. We suggest, then, that the crucial point is finding a balance so that we can be true to ourselves while flourishing and finding success within the company.”
The Forbes article utilizes Boute’s findings while examining the balance between being genuine and making calculated, political moves in the workplace, and offers suggestions for leaders in the workplace to increase their authenticity. The advice included increasing transparency, truly listening to employees, being open about one’s own flaws and mistakes, and maintaining professional boundaries.
Read more about being authentic while advancing professionally here.
Choosing a Strategy for Your Startup – Harvard Business Review
The Harvard Business Review also recently interviewed Joshua Gans, professor at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, on its HBR IdeaCast. The Gans interview delved into the philosophy behind the HBR article Gans recently co-authored, “Do Entrepreneurs Need a Strategy?” Gans promoted researching strategic options before launching a startup, and choosing the strategy that best aligns with the company’s long-term goals. For example, entrepreneurs must decide whether their business will be collaborating or competing with existing businesses in the same market. Collaboration may allow a newer company to take advantage of the resources of more established businesses in the same market without being viewed as a threat, but competition leads to more autonomy for the fledgling company. The interview explored the merits and drawbacks of several entrepreneurial strategies. Gans says:
“One of the things we want to emphasize is that choice is choice. So, what we say is basically when you’ve done this process and you’ve got one or two, you know, got two or more options sitting there before you, you then go with your gut essentially, or you come up with a rationale saying why you are the right person; you feel better with one path and another.”
You can listen to the full interview with Gans here.
Rotman Receives $6 Million Endowment, and More – Toronto News
This week, some of Toronto’s most prominent business schools have seen a wealth of exciting news (including actual wealth in Rotman’s case, in the form of a sizeable donation). We’ve rounded up some of the most exciting recent news from Toronto metro’s business schools.
Private Donations Give Specialty Programs a Shot in the Arm – The Globe and Mail
Over 20 years since the University of Toronto received a $15 million donation from the Rotman family, changing its name from the Faculty of Management to the current Rotman School of Management, the philanthropic family once again returned a sizable gift to the Toronto business school.
The new $6 million donation will boost the school’s healthcare management programs, according to the Globe and Mail. As well, the family gifted the school an additional $1 million to help “the reach of an award-winning program for Indigenous entrepreneurs.”
“The latest Rotman family donation is earmarked for three initiatives: recruitment of three faculty research chairs in artificial intelligence, life sciences commercialization and health economics and policy; scholarships for graduate students in health care management studies; and support for a new global executive MBA for health care and life sciences.”
You can learn more about the Rotmans’ donation here.
Schulich Researchers Analyze Canada’s Multicultural Marketplace – yFile
A new York University Schulich School of Business study from professors Ela Veresiu and Markus Giesler—“Beyond Acculturation: Multiculturalism and the Institutional Shaping of an Ethnic Consumer Subject”—found that “that Canada’s market-based form of multiculturalism fosters marketplace inclusion without resource redistribution, and maintains ethnic divides rather than uniting diverse communities.”
“We bring sociological theories of neoliberal governmentality and multiculturalism to bear on an in-depth analysis of the contemporary Canadian marketplace to reveal our concept of market-mediated multiculturation, which we define as an institutional mechanism for attenuating ethnic group conflicts through which immigrant-receiving cultures fetishize strangers and their strangeness in their commodification of differences, and the existence of inequalities between ethnicities is occluded,” said Veresiu.
You can read more about Veresiu and Giesler’s study here.
Investing Insights: Lessons from Tom Russo – Ivey Blog
Last month, Tom Russo, managing member of Pennsylvania investment firm Gardner Russo & Gardner, spoke with professor George Athanassakos’ value investing class at the Ivey Business School about his company’s investment philosophy, which broke down into three principles.
Gardner Russo & Gardner managing member Tom Russo / Photo via ivey.uwo.ca
- The capacity to invest
- The capacity to suffer
- The capacity do nothing
“Despite the long-term unattractiveness of holding cash, doing nothing may sometimes prove to be the right decision to make,” HBA and Computer Science dual degree candidate Leroi Yu writes on the Ivey Business School blog. Sitting on the sidelines instead of compromising on quality takes character. It provides optionality and may prove to be beneficial in the long-run.”
You can read more about Russo’s advice here.
Rotman Prof Talks Theranos Fraud, and More – Toronto News
People affiliated with Toronto‘s finest business schools have been making the news. Below, we’ve laid out some of this week’s highlights.
How Board Diversity Might Have Prevented the Theranos Fiasco – The Globe & Mail
Andras Tilcsik, Canada Research Chair in strategy, organizations, and society at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management coauthored an opinion piece in The Globe & Mail with Chris Clearfield, Principal at System Logic. The article addressed the fraud charges lodged against Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes.
Holmes, who was listed as one of Forbes’ “Youngest Self-Made Billionaires” has been charged with “massive” fraud involving upwards of $700 million USD. Holmes has agreed to cede control of her company, which was boating more innovated methods of blood-testing to potential investors.
Tilcsik and Clearfield argue that Holmes’s mistakes might have been prevented had a systemic problem in businesses been addressed at Theranos: board diversity. All but two Theranos board members were white men over 60. According to the article, “… lab experiments show that while homogeneous groups do less well on complex tasks, they report feeling more confident about their decisions.”
Holmes’ equity stake in Theranos, the notorious blood-testing startup she founded, has been reduced to virtually nothing after being charged with large-scale fraud from the SEC.
Learn more about the importance of board diversity here.
YouTube Star Choreographs a Career Blending Bollywood and Business – The Globe & Mail
Shareen Ladha, graduate of York University’s Schulich School of Business, used her MBA to guide her in an unconventional career goal. She wanted to build success producing and dancing in Bollywood-esq videos on YouTube, achieving massive momentum when she did a Bollywood-style remix of Justin Bieber’s “Sorry.” The video quickly went viral, and now Ladha balances making YouTube videos with her career as a senior strategist with McCann.
“Through my MBA, I decided that this was the thing that made me unique and it was proof I could bring a creative aspect to strategy and consulting,” Ladha said in a recent profile with the Globe & Mail.
“It started getting woven into my daily life and daily conversations I would have with people. All my social media accounts were public, so if they ever looked me up or were friends with me, they’d know about it. There was such a positive response.”
You can read more about the YouTube star here.
Ivey Students Learn the Three Gs of Good Investing – News@Ivey
Multi-billion dollar Brazilian investment firm 3G Capital Management recently let students at the Ivey Business School at Western University Canada in on a simple secret: the three Gs to successful investing are “good business, good management, and good price.”
3G managing partner Pavel Begun spoke with professor George Athanassakos and his value investing class last month, further explaining what each of those three Gs (get it?) meant:
Good Business:
“’We define good business as one that is competitively entrenched, generates high return of invested capital and is in solid financial shape.’” Specifically, 3G looks at businesses that are industry leaders and show industry longevity in order to predict their future value. They also look to businesses that generate with ROEs, or return on equity, of 15 per cent and above. Finally, they look at the debt payback period of business to ensure it is no greater than three to five years, helping to determine their financial shape.”
To read the rest of the advice gifted from Begun, click here.
What Toronto MBA Can You Earn in the Least Amount of Time? – MetroMBA
Several of the most well-regarded business schools in Toronto offer MBA programs that do not take the typical two-years that a traditional full-time degree often requires.
For instance, the DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University has an accelerated program that takes just eight months to complete. Alanna Shaffer further explains:
“By exempting students from the required first year MBA courses, students can earn their degree quickly while also cutting their overall tuition expenses in half and accelerating their path to employment. The program is designed for students who have earned their undergraduate business degree in the last ten years, and have at least one year of professional experience. Students may start the program in either September or January.”
Check up on the rest of the fastest MBA programs in Toronto here.
Get Ready for these February MBA Deadlines
Don’t delay your future! Being timely when submitting graduate school applications can increase your chances of scholarships and other not-to-miss opportunities when applying for your MBA. Stay up to date with this month’s MBA admissions deadlines!
New York City
With a application due date of February 21, applicants to the the Columbia Business School EMBA program should be ready for the quickly approaching deadline.
Many other programs in the New York City metro have deadlines coming up in early March, so it’s important to remember that February is a short month! The Tobin College of Business at St. John’s University and NYU’s Stern School of Business both have deadlines within the first couple weeks of March. To see more information on upcoming events and deadlines in New York, click here.
Los Angeles
The Online MBA program at USC’s Marshall School of Business has a deadline approaching at the end of February, while three more schools in the Los Angeles metro have important deadlines quickly approaching. Students interested in applying to the part-time MBA at USC Marshall or both summer and fall starts for an MBA at Mount Saint Mary’s University in Los Angeles should be prepared to submit their applications by the first of March.
Click here for more information on important deadlines in the Los Angeles metro.
The first round of theUSC Marshall Online MBA deadline arrives Feb. 21.
Toronto
Two programs at the Rotman School of Management—the Morning/Evening MBA and full-time MBA—have deadlines coming up in late February. Another deadline quickly approaching for schools in the Toronto metro area is for Rotman’s EMBA program, which is in early March.
More information on Toronto deadlines can be found here.
Philadelphia
February is a busy time for business schools in the Philadelphia metro, with several deadlines approaching throughout February and early March. Programs with a mid-February deadline include the Villanova School of Business Fast Track MBA and EMBA, and it is also the last opportunity for applicants for the Summer Intake Priority Scholarship at Temple University’s Fox School of Business‘ Online MBA. The La Salle University Online MBA also has a quickly approaching deadline in early March.
For a deeper look at upcoming deadlines in the Philadelphia metro, click here.
Washington DC
While there are no upcoming deadlines for February in the Washington DC metro, there are a number of quickly approaching deadlines in early-to-mid March. Applicants to the R.H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland should be aware of a deadline on the first of March for the school’s full-time MBA, with other deadlines in mid-March for programs at the George Washington University School of Business and Kogod School of Business.
More deadlines for the Washington DC metro can be found here.
For updated deadline information in Chicago, Boston, Baltimore, Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Denver, San Francisco, San Diego, Seattle, and London, click here.
