Latest News
- Category: Community Engagement
The MBA Student Association (MBASA) at Telfer School of Management came up with an event that is the first of its kind – a small and medium-sized (SME) Consult-a-thon focusing on providing fast-paced, strategic solutions to businesses in the local community.
Over the course of the weekend from July 17th to 18th, 46 participants including students, business representatives, Telfer faculty and experts, put in a total of more than 170 hours of case-cracking to help these businesses prosper and give back to the community. “It truly represents what the Telfer School of Management is all about - bringing together the creative energy and expertise of students, local businesses leaders, and industry experts to focus on a business challenge faced by local organizations,” said Professor Catherine Elliott, Director of the Telfer MBA program.
Revisiting Case Competitions Framework
The event has completely redesigned the usual case competition framework, with an emphasis on collaboration, community value, and social good. “When we came up with this framework, we believed the emphasis should be on quick solutions and community value rather than competitiveness.”, stated, Karthik Chivakula Venkata, one of the 6 organizing members of the event and a Telfer MBA student. He added: “We also believed that this would provide participants with a sneak peek at real-world business challenges as well as an opportunity to put their course learnings and talents to the test.”
Developing the Right Challenge
Due to the pervasive pandemic, today's SME enterprises confront some very genuine and severe issues that require innovative solutions. To be successful, both businesses and students require assistance and direction from local business community supporters.
With many local businesses showing interest in being part of the Consult-a-thon, the MBASA organizing team had to interact with each of the business owners to understand the cases better. Following a thorough brief, the team collaborated closely with the business owners and members of the MBASA’s executive team to co-create case documents that showed extensive, accurate, and up-to-date market information.
Intensive Case-Cracking
The Consult-a-thon included 4 teams composed of 4 students that would come to know of the businesses and the cases only during the event. The team then had to work on the cases provided by each participating business at different time during the event.
The most anticipated part of each business case was the case cracking. Each team had 4 hours to tackle the business document. In the first hour, the teams got to discuss their questions and ideas with the business owners and consulting experts for a proper understanding of the situation and problem statement. By the end of the allotted time, the teams had to share their final ideas and solutions to the business owners and expert panelists.
At the end their presentations, the panelists will provide feedback on the teams' presentations and insights on how to implement their ideas better.
For its first edition, the Telfer MBA students had the chance to work with dynamic local start-ups such as:
- Shyne Eyewear, a small Ottawa social enterprise run by Enactus uOttawa which manufactures and sells sunglasses and blue-light glasses created from 100% recycled materials;
- Ekidna Sensing, a biotech startup located in Ottawa that builds technology solutions for the legal Cannabis industry;
- Empower'em is a grassroots social enterprise focused on providing a community and support to women of colour in order to help them develop their leadership skills, build confidence and achieve their personal and professional goals.
All in for local businesses
Since it was not a traditional case competition, the panellists evaluated the ideas qualitatively, not quantitatively. The rubric focused on the clarity of identification and articulation of challenges, level of thorough analysis, creativity and feasibility to provide feedback, and recommendations to the participants.
The real winners of the Consult-a-thon were – the local businesses, of course! Students gained valuable experience and received feedback on their ideas and presentation skills, but the businesses were the real winners, leaving the event with new insight and actionable solutions for their business challenges. Professor Elliott added: “It was a winning partnership for all, bringing innovative and practical solutions to these local businesses. Congratulations to the MBASA and the participating students! I was so impressed with the students’ initiative in launching this first-ever Telfer SME Consult-a-thon.”
A Successful Event
The event also got praises from the principal beneficiaries. “We needed a strategic direction and these presentations provided us with new creative ideas on how to tackle this problem. The recommendations the students provided were actionable and we are happy and excited about the entire event,” said Alexander Parsan, Project Manager at Shyne Eyewear, and Telfer BCom Accounting student.
Nicolas Boileau, CEO of Ekidna Sensing, also appreciated the outside expert view that the Telfer MBA students brought in. He looks forward to the next 6 months to one year to see where the company will move towards with the new ideas and strategy he collected over the weekend.
The committee is already planning the next edition of the event, which will take place in 2022 in a much bigger scale with even more local organizations. Any local businesses and students from all horizons with an interest in being part of this incredible initiative are invited to contact the MBA Student Association to discuss possible participation in next year’s competition via
Make Change: A Message That Resonates at the 6th Annual MBA Diversity and Inclusion Case Competition
- Category: Latest News
This year’s 6th Annual Diversity and Inclusion MBA Case Competition hosted at the Telfer School came to a close on March 5th, where 10 teams competed against one another. Held in close partnership with Export Development Canada (EDC), Deloitte and Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), the competition lasted over the course of 2 weeks, where participants had to examine emerging challenges and propose solutions pertaining to an assigned case on this year’s theme: Systemic Anti-Black Racism in the Canadian Workplace.
Throughout these two weeks, participants were periodically invited to attend interactive sessions with the competition founding The Deloitte Greenhouse team kicked off the opening day of the competition with an Interactive Live Session, adapted to the case topic, to engage participants intellectually, emotionally and physically and set them up for success in cracking this year’s case.
A week later and after submitting each of their executive summaries on the case subject, the teams were invited to a Diversity Experts Session hosted by EDC, an organization that leads by example when it comes to fostering an inclusive culture.
It was then showtime as the second phase of the competition took place when participants had to put together a video presentation. Each presentation would present the teams’ innovative ideas to tackle this important challenge of inclusivity in the workplace, in hopes to convince the expert panel of judges on the creativity, feasibility and pertinence of their solutions on:
How Canadian corporations can create an environment in which employees can thrive and reach the following targets:
• 3.5% of executive and board roles being held by Black leaders by 2025; and,
• at least 5% of new hires being from the Black community by 2025.
A Message of Fostering Change
As the case competition neared the end for another year, the closing remarks resonated with the attendees during the heartfelt speeches from this year’s year’s special guests from the The BlackNorth Initiative: the Executive Director, Dahabo Ahmed-Omer, and the Executive Chairman and Founder, Dr. Wesley J. Hall. The case question was directly inspired by The BlackNorth Initative pledge to end anti-black systematic racism.
“Bring us to a place where Black Canadian can prosper and are given an equality of chances,” said Ahmed-Omer, hopeful that a competition like the Diversity and Inclusion MBA Case Competition can help shape the roles of our future leaders.
Ahmed-Omer added her thoughts on systemic anti-black racism in the Canadian workplace: “In order for us to see the problem, we need to acknowledge it, for all of us to act on it."
From virtual to international
In the midst of the current pandemic, the sixth edition of the competition went online, opening the gates to yet another first for the competition: the world. This year’s case competition welcomed 10 MBA teams, including 8 teams from across Canada and 2 international teams: FIA Business School from Brazil and Barna Management School from the Dominican Republic. Even though the case portrayed a Canadian reality, all could agree issues around anti-black racism in the workplace are global and the judges all agreed on the overall quality of the strategies and presentations offered by all participating schools. Our Telfer Nation representatives, Sinatrio Raharjo, Krishna Venkatasubramanian, Roxy Lu and Sushant Garg, better known by their collective pseudonym Awesome Possum during the competition, was led by Coach Sylvie Albert, Lead of Internationalization and New Initiatives at the University of Ottawa.
At the end, Beedie School of Business of Simon Fraser University (Team InCahoots) brought home first place with a solution that was described by the judges as a compelling case for an important issue: “They showed a willingness to take a step ahead in developing a solution to restrict current gaps in the workplace, while presenting a strategy not just based on subsidies solutions, but filled with bold ideas.” stated Justine Hendricks, Senior Vice President of Sustainable Business & Enablement at EDC. Hendricks presented a shared $5,000 prize to Team InCahoots composed of Bessie Chow, Kelly Woo, Viksit Jain, Raymond So and Coach Shelley Graham.
1st Place - $5,000 | Beedie School of Business - Simon Fraser University |
2nd Place - $2,500 | John Molson School of Business - Concordia University |
3rd Place - $1,250 | DeGroote School of Business, McMaster University |
The steering committee is already planning the 7th edition of the event, which will take place in early 2022. Any organization with an interest in diversity and inclusion issues and topics is invited to contact the Telfer Graduate Programs Office to discuss possible participation in next year’s competition at:
- Category: Latest News
Successful in her career, Maria McKay (Telfer MBA, 2012) is a caring mentor and a true agent of change for her clients in the public sector and for the Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPOC) communities and beyond. Maria is a Senior Manager in KPMG's People & Change Advisory Services Practice. She grew up in an environment where differences of opinions and ideas were encouraged and seen as a strength. Throughout her life, she lived according to the values of promoting good, both for herself and others around her, by standing up for what’s right and supporting people to do the same.
Maria was adopted as a small child by two people she considers to be her original allies: “I am very lucky to have been raised by thoughtful, humanist parents,” shared Maria. Her late father was a United Church Minister who shared his beliefs about social justice and inclusion with her growing up: “My dad grew up in New Glasgow and told me about a teenage experience he had there when a Black woman refused to leave a Whites-only area of the local movie theatre, and the disgust he felt at the violence against her that ensued. I only figured out who this incredible woman was in 2016 when Tim Harper of the Toronto Star wrote a story about the heroine, whom he suggested should be put on our new $10 bill (Viola Desmond), which was the same story my dad had told me as a child. My dad would have been absolutely thrilled at the ultimate decision to put Ms. Desmond on our new currency! This early experience may have been part of the reason why Martin Luther King and the US Civil Rights Movement had such a profound influence on my father, and was why he chose to study in Boston, where my parents met me.” Despite hopes to the contrary, Maria’s parents were powerless when she was on the school ground, and she had many early, difficult personal experiences of exclusion and racism. However, this opened Maria’s eyes to observe human behaviour from many different angles and led to her interest in the study of groups and organizational values and norms, or cultural anthropology.
After completing her Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Cultural Anthropology and History, and later her Master of Library and Information Studies (MLIS) in Canada, Maria’s career took her back to the United States East Coast and the cities of Atlanta and Boston. She worked at McKinsey & Company as a Research Analyst and as a Strategic Market Intelligence Analyst at EY. Her strong strategic research and analysis capabilities combined with her interest in working with others made a career as a management consultant seem like a perfect fit. At least, that’s what Gregory Richards, Director of Telfer’s Executive MBA program, thought back in 2011 when Maria showed interest in pursuing an MBA.
Telfer MBA: A Life-Changing Decision
Maria decided to come back to Canada and pursue her Master of Business Administration (MBA) at Telfer. We have Gregory Richards, Cognos Professor of Performance Management at the time, to thank for it: “At the time, we interviewed everyone who applied to the MBA program. Maria had non-consulting experience at McKinsey and EY,” recalled Professor Richards. “After talking with her, it struck us that she had the analytical, interpersonal, and problem-solving skills to become an excellent consultant. I think we might have asked her why she hadn’t considered consulting before given her professional background.”
Maria shared how she chose to pursue her MBA at the University of Ottawa: “Greg Richards is a big part of the reason why I picked uOttawa. I wanted to study with an expert in strategy and performance management and my big brother strongly recommended Greg. I also did not have a long history of having had Black professors as I only had two as an undergraduate at U of T . In my MLIS I did not have any Black professors, but the school was incredibly supportive of my interests including my final project, a comprehensive bibliography that detailed the history and experiences of Black American librarians. I learned a great deal from all my professors at Telfer, and especially Gregory Richards and Gerard Brathwaite-Sturgeon, who is an expert in organizational behaviour and HR. And in the end, Greg was right, and I ended up doing very well in my consulting course.”
A proud mentor and teacher, Professor Richards saw Maria excel in the program: “Her work in the MBA program showed her capabilities to not only solve problems, but to work collaboratively even with people she found to be difficult sometimes. It is good to see that she has become an accomplished consultant post-graduation.”
Maria now has close to twenty years of professional experience. She helps people and organizations to identify desired outcomes and to determine how to realize value through structural cultural and operating model changes. She lives according to the spectrum of belonging that celebrates diversity and inclusion, and she also pushes for anti-racism, equity, and justice. Above all, Maria is passionate about serving clients and other people, and she’s been recognized for her ethics and support of students, professional peers, and newcomers to Canada. Her contribution to the Telfer MBA Mentorship program after graduating is no surprise to all.
A Passion for Mentorship and Coaching
Maria is a mentor in the Telfer MBA Mentorship program, providing useful advice to Telfer MBA students. The program allows current MBA students with the opportunity to interact with an accomplished professional to build their network and seek career advice. “A program like the Telfer MBA mentorship program couldn’t function without people like Maria,” exclaimed Caroline Hannah, Relationship Manager at the Telfer Career Centre. "Maria was a mentor before even joining the program. It all came naturally to her. Throughout her MBA, and following, she would welcome having coffee chats and meetings with students as she enjoyed those connections and guiding others. That’s passion for mentorship.”
Maria does indeed have a strong inclination for mentorship: “I am always on the lookout for somebody who needs my help as a mentor or coach: clients, colleagues, friends, strangers on planes, business school friends. If someone asks me for help, it may be just once or several times, I try to say yes if it makes sense and I have something of value to offer to them,” declares Maria. “I try to be a confidence lifter for others, and especially women and racialized people, as they build their feelings of self-efficacy and self-worth while also building a professional network.”
Mentees of Maria’s start with the end in mind by doing an exercise called ‘the life I want,’ and then they align their personal and career aspirations to their own desired future state. She helps to guide them on setting and achieving goals, and she engages in discussions with them about philosophies on management practices, work-life integration, and professional success. The mentor/mentee relationship might evolve from there, depending on the needs expressed by each mentee.
“A wise business leader shared with me her perspective on the difference between a mentor and a coach. When you are mentor, others learn by direct or indirect ‘osmosis’ when you share your own experiences and hope it inspires them. As a coach, you try to establish conditions for others to see what might be possible and what could be different through their own exertion of energy and effort and then support them as they build their own plan. What happens next is up to them in terms of how much they want to practice their craft and what actions they are willing to take, or which sacrifices they are willing to make to work toward their future life; so sometimes I am a mentor and sometimes I am a coach,” explains Maria.
She has enjoyed her experience as a mentor at Telfer, including helping students get started in their careers: “There is a component to my work at Telfer that involves communication training for newcomers related to learning how to do business in Canada and translating cross-cultural experiences. I have also been able to help some students make connections to employers and make decisions about job offers,” added Maria. “It’s an honour to help them with this, and to have others trust me enough to let me help them think about their future. I’m grateful for this experience, and I’m so glad Caroline Hannah brought me in with open arms.”
Standing Up for Herself to Help Others
With a successful career in consulting and dozens of mentees she has helped, it can be concluded that Maria has always found it easy to help others and advocate on their behalf. During her undergraduate degree she marched on campus and fought against discrimination in a group called ‘United Coalition Against Racism.’ However, it wasn’t until the tragic events surrounding the death of George Floyd in May 2020 that Maria rediscovered her activist roots and the courage to speak out more publicly again against racial injustice.
“One of the leaders at my firm told me last June: ‘You don't have to worry anymore about being labelled an ‘Angry Black Woman’ when you raise important issues – just be yourself,’" said Maria. “I honestly thought I would have to wait until I retired before I could voice strong opinions about racism, bigotry, misogyny, able-ism, and to loudly support Black Lives Matter, Indigenous Lives Matter, LGBTQIA2+, and Mental Health movements amongst others because I did not think the mainstream world would listen. What I realized in the last year is that there are so many people around the world who are as ready for change as I am and that if I speak from the principles of honesty, authenticity, integrity, and love for my fellow humans, there is nothing to fear from speaking the truth on any stage, private or public.”
Inside her firm, Maria is an active member of KPMG’s Black Professional Network and an ally in the National Indigenous People’s Network. She is also a change management leader who seeks to help organizations prepare for a future of work that is ‘inclusive by design.’ “The digital business transformations that were being planned or were underway before the pandemic are necessary to modernize how work is carried out to enable workers to do their jobs more safely and enable the large-scale shift to hybrid and remote work. However, when we introduce automation and AI to enable changes, many of the workers most at risk are women and BIPOC staff. If our guiding principle is to ‘leave no one behind,’ then we must use data and analytics to assess the impact of emerging technologies on workers by race, age, gender, and location before we change anything – and then build a people-centric path to the future for all, especially considering the differential impact of COVID by race and gender,” stated Maria.
According to Maria, without the support of others, it would not be possible to make changes in one’s personal life or career, and that is why she is so invested in being a mentor and coach to others. While she has experienced many challenging periods throughout her life, she has always had people who advocated on her behalf and helped her, so passing it forward comes naturally. It is also why she tries to live by the adage (exact origins unknown), ‘We are not put on earth to see through people – we are put on earth to see one another through,’ Maria concluded: “One of the greatest privileges in my life is to have mentees share their hopes and aspirations related to the life they want with me. It is fulfilling beyond words to serve others by helping them articulate their own vision, plan the required steps to get there, and then cheer them on as they make moves toward achieving their dreams.”
- Category: Telfer Announcements
By Dorra Jlouli, Ing, Agr, MBA
Part-Time Professor at the Telfer School of Management, uOttawa
Telfer School of management MBA’s students in the course Leadership & Management - MBA5636 – felt proud this semester about experiencing an interactive online simulation to acquire leadership skills preparing them to successfully lead change management process in their organisation!
« We are very proud to have been part of the first group in North America to complete Wallbreakers Leadership online simulation.! » said Vickie L. , Mireille N., Cherlande R and Charlotte K., candidates to MBA 2022, Telfer School of management. I warmly thank the University of Ottawa and Professor Dorra Jlouli for providing us with this rich experience as part of our MBA journey", added Mireille N.
Who had not faced challenges while managing one’s team resistance caused by a major process of organisation’s change ? Our recent context of COVID-19 is the best shared example.
Innovate in our way of teaching
The recent move to the online training in our Ottawa University was itself a significant change that had a major impact on the teaching methods we have been using. That said, this context was also a great opportunity forcing us to lead with innovative ways of teaching. The Funding Program for Pedagogical Innovation of Telfer School of Management supported our initiatives to innovate in our way of teaching. My certification for using and facilitating a workshop with Wallbreakers leadership simulation was supported by this innovation Fund. It’s an excellent example proving the efficiency of learning by action where the students enjoy the game while learning leadership skills.
"And honestly, I would r'ank this method at the top of the list for learning change management and leadership in general! ”, said Arlette G.
How does it work?
Prior to the two day simulation workshop, the students learnt the different theory related to leadership and change management that they need to practice during the simulation. We went especially through the Gauleman leadership styles, disc® 8 dimensions of leadership , Ungian-Inspired Personality Types, Rick Maurer approach to change management, Jand ohn Kotter’s Eight Accelerators.
During the workshop, the students are divided into 4 teams where every team represents the manager of one of the major four departments of the company who have to lead the change and overcome the resistance of their 10 employee who have recently heard about a fusion between their company and an unknown one. The buses, the game’s metaphor for the department, are presented with different colours (green, red, yellow and violet).
The students are competing and every team see simultaneously the way the other teams are managing their change process. What you see inside the buses are not pieces of Lego game, but the employee. The students have to move forward the buses from the first phase of the change process (The Start-up phase) to the last one (the anchoring one). They are challenged to keep as many employees as inside the bus during the hole process of change. That’s a continued challenge as the “virtual employee” resist all along the three phases of the change process.
The students have to manage both the gear they decide to use to move the buses forward (the speed of managing the change) and to take the suitable leadership action to manage their employee’s resistance. They immediately see the effect of their decision in terms of employee resistance as shown below.The only way to overcome their employee resistance is to choose the suitable leadership decision to bring their employee back to the bus “their department”.
“Through a practical case on managing a merger of two companies, I had fun using the Wallbreakers tool. This allowed our team to have real-time feedback from employees on our various decisions and to regularly adjust our actions in order to get everyone on board ” Said Pierre C.H.
The debriefing session following the simulation is as important, if not even more important than the simulation itself, as the students synthetize on their experience, share their lessons learned, realize and understand the consequences of their leadership decisions and comment on their own leadership style and how it affects the team dynamic. They make the connection between the theory and their active learning experience.
How does it benefit MBA students?
“The Wallbreakers simulation allowed us to exercise our different styles of leadership and to understand that the situational leadership was the one that best suited team mobilization and goal achievement. “ Said Charlotte K., candidate to MBA 2022.
For MBA Students, who have already an experience in management, the active learning methods such using simulations is suitable. Indeed, it offers them a similar environment of a real professional situation they might had experienced. This stimulates their learning capacity by helping them to make some connections with their own experience. They learn from their mistakes and capitalise on their success.
"The Wallbreakers experience allowed me to put the theoretical concepts I learned in the course into action immediately. We had the opportunity to have several important team discussions on change management and leadership that will be useful throughout my career path.", said Justin Thibault, candidate to MBA 2022.
“Wallbreaker simulation give us the opportunity to practice the concepts learned in class. We really experienced it as a real business situation, sometimes forgetting that it was just a simulation, so heated were the debates to reach a consensual decision within the group!”, said Arlette G.
To learn more about Wallbreakers simulation, the recording of one of the debriefing sessions following the simulation of the course MBA5636 is available here.
- Category: Telfer Announcements
Telfer School of Management MBA alumni, Soumi Sarkar, Anjaney Agashe, and Arun Subramanian performed excellently at the 8th annual Schlesinger Global Family Enterprise Case Competition (SG-FECC), placing second on the podium in the Graduate Studies category. SG-FECC is a case competition hosted by the University of Vermont, in order to prepare participants for unique and troublesome issues related to Family Enterprise. Participants are expected to solve complex cases as well as present their solutions over the course of four rounds of competition. The competition was exceptionally held online this year.
According to the team’s coach and Telfer Full Professor of Family Business and Entrepreneurship, Peter Jaskiewicz, despite Telfer’s first time competing in the SG-FECC, they were held in very high regards by the organizers of the event, stating that “our team rocked although we lacked the experience of prior SG-FECC competitions and the track record of a long-standing family business curriculum at Telfer.”
Moreover, business owners and consultants who worked as judges at SG-FECC, highlighted on many occasions how well the Telfer former students performed, which Professor Jaskiewicz believes is a good indication that the MBA program is performing well.
“It has been very rewarding for me to coach them because they are smart, hard-working, and fun”, stated Jaskiewicz. “I enjoyed seeing them excel at analyzing complex family business problems and offering intriguing solutions to address these problems.”
“Moreover, they have shown a great team spirit from the time they took my class ‘Advising Family Business’ to their final presentation at the case competition: they always worked smoothly as a team, behaved very professionally, supported each other, and had lots of fun along the way. Well done & chapeau!”, added Professor Jaskiewicz.
See the full recording of the award ceremony here.
For more information on the Schlesinger Global Family Enterprise Case Competition click here.
- Category: Student Voices
Like many students, the graduating class of the Intensive MBA program at the Telfer School of Management are facing unprecedented challenges and opportunities as they make the re-entrance into the job market during a world pandemic. Being an alumnus of the Telfer EMBA program and an MBA Mentor, Brad Smith, Principal of 96 West Consulting, understands the transition that students are facing and therefore wanted to help the new MBA graduates and fellow alumni by creating and facilitating a post-MBA workshop.
As a career coach and mentor, Brad is a leader in guiding professionals through career transitions, self-reflection exercises, and the development of action plans. On October 6th, 2020, he brought his expertise back to Telfer through a virtual post-MBA workshop that was focused on two goals: recognizing and respecting transitions, and reflecting on career ambitions and the development of action plans to attain those goals.
During the workshop, Brad connected with participants by sharing his experience transitioning from the EMBA program. He emphasized the importance of maintaining an awareness and respect for the neutral zone between the end of the MBA program and the new beginnings to come. Participants are looking forward to following up with Brad in the coming weeks as they take the time to reflect on the workshop exercises and develop their personal action plans.
“The workshop with Brad was a great experience that helped to justify and normalize the emotions and feelings that I had been facing since finishing my MBA in August. Transitions are difficult at the best of times, let alone during a global pandemic, and Brad provided tools to help ease the transition from student to professional. I look forward to applying this knowledge for both my personal and professional growth.”, said a graduate who attended the workshop.
2020 has brought its challenges, but with the help of the Telfer Nation community, workshop participants are able to focus on their goals with increased agility and resilience, as they pioneer the new and ever-changing reality.
Brad Smith graduated from the Telfer EMBA program in 2004 and has been actively involved with Telfer as an alumnus of the school and as an MBA mentor. Following a successful career at Canada Post, Brad founded 96 West Consulting Inc. with the mission to share experiences to help businesses scale faster and leaders grow. His focus on professional development and career coaching have provided an invaluable experience to his mentees and to the recent Intensive MBA graduates.
- Category: Telfer Announcements
Looking for a fresh perspective on a new or special business project or simply interested in working with highly motivated and qualified MBA students? The Telfer School is seeking organizations to engage our MBA talent in hands-on business challenges.
Telfer's MBA students are equipped with an average of 6-7 years of full-time work experience. This ensures a quality base of theory and technical skills that our students can utilize for success in an internship. All of our MBA students are supervised by a faculty member, and they have access to cutting-edge data to resolve even the most complex of problems that your organization may encounter.
There is no doubt that the experience will be valuable for both your organization and our students. The MBA Internship Program provides businesses with the chance to find qualified individuals and evaluate potential fit within your workplace without going through the traditional lengthy hiring process.
The MBA Internship Program Experience
In previous years, our business partners who have hired MBA students on their team have been pleased with what they were able to gain.
“The MBA internship program helped successfully fulfill a niche project role in our Finance department. Ultimately, we hired our intern into a full-time role, which speaks volumes on the quality of the program and the students” - Paul Richards, Director of Business Development and Commercial at The Ottawa Hospital.
"Happy Goat Coffee Company is a big fan of Telfer's "MBA Consulting Project"! The project helps us to find answers to questions and solutions to problems that we usually don't have the time or staff - or both - to deal with. The high qualification of the participants and the quality of the results of the projects carried out so far is self-evident. Happy Goat Coffee Company can do nothing but highly recommend this project!" - Dr. Hans-Juergen Langenbahn, Head Roaster at Happy Goat Coffee Company.
"I would like to offer my entire support for the internship program offered by the Telfer School. It is a tremendous opportunity for students to obtain knowledge of a more practical nature that will assist in their job search. The organization itself also benefits, not only from a mentorship perspective, but also in acquiring additional expert advice and counsel." - Elizabeth Kingston, President of the Canadian International Council, National Capital Branch.
Here’s how you can benefit from our program:
What constitutes an acceptable internship?
A challenging project that provides meaningful results for you. For example, current internships include market development, process improvement, and strategy process review.
How many hours can interns work?
There are two delivery options: part-time or full-time internships. The part-time internship represents 15 to 20 hours per week for a period of 6 months, starting in January. The full-time internship consists of 40 hours per week of work from September to December. The exact number of hours depends on whether the internship is sponsored by Mitacs* or OCE** or if the internship is directly funded by the organization.
What will it cost my organization?
The average hourly salary paid to the MBA intern ranges from $20 to $25 per hour. The total salary paid depends on whether the internship is supported by Mitacs or OCE or if it is paid directly by your organization. It is possible to offer an unpaid internship opportunity, but offering a salary increases your chances of a student ultimately selecting your organization for their internship.
What do I have to provide to the intern?
- A motivating and challenging project.
- Organizational and technical orientation as required.
- Time to discuss issues with the student, and to provide feedback on progress reports.
Find the Right Telfer MBA Intern For Your Organization
Contact the Telfer Academic Success and Student Experience Team:
Telfer MBA Internship Program
Phone: (613) 562-5884
Email:
Visit the MBA Internship Program page on our website.
* Mitacs is a not-for-profit organization that provides matching funding to companies that hire full-time student interns.
** The Ontario Centres of Excellence Talent Edge program provides matching funding for companies who hire graduate students.
- Category: Student Announcements
Telfer School of Management Bachelor of Commerce students Joy Xu, Leah Salzman, Lina Salama and Madison Woo, better known by their collective pseudonym “Employees of the Month” at the competition, brought recognition to the program by winning 1st place at the 5th annual Diversity and Inclusion Case Competition. In all five years since the competition’s founding, a Telfer team has won first place each time, with “Employees of the Month” representing Telfer at the fifth edition. The competition took place last Saturday, February 29th, at Export Development Canada (EDC), one of the founding partners of the event.
The group’s ideas, which the judges found to be refreshing and grounded in the reality of today’s world, earned them a shared $5,000 prize that was presented at the evening awards gala. This was the first year that the competition was open to not only MBA students, but also to third and fourth-year undergraduate students. The latter showed they were up for the task, as two of the four finalist teams came from undergraduate programs.
A new edition this year in the spirit of renewal and innovation, this fifth edition of the competition started on Friday evening, February 28th, at a networking launch event at Bayview Yards. An interactive activity hosted by second founding partner, Deloitte, was definitely the highlight of the evening, according to many participants. The Deloitte Greenhouse team offered the students who were present an opportunity to attend four workshops that were each as useful as the next. Participants were invited to discuss real diversity and inclusion issues both in the workplace and in everyday life.
For this year's competition, which could count on the support of Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) for the first time, the participants received the case analysis two weeks in advance, which marked a new direction for the case competition. Twelve teams from 10 different universities across Canada had to develop a strategy to recruit, retain, and develop employees of visible minority groups working for the Bank of Canada (the official author of the case study) by highlighting barriers to equal access.
According to Professor Catherine Elliott, Director of the Telfer MBA program, this new format enabled the teams to bring more depth in their analyses and increase the quality of the cases in the first round of presentations. “The bar keeps getting higher!” said Catherine; “Diversity and inclusion is now part of CEOs’ vocabulary, and is receiving more and more visibility as a topic in businesses. We can expect to host more teams and businesses involved in this subject, as a result, for the years to come.
The Competition
The purpose of the first part of this case analysis, which was presented before an audience for the first time this year, was to select four teams for the final round. This is where Joy Xu’s team stood out from the crowd, and this time the finalists had only 75 minutes to prepare before tackling a new problem posed by the Bank of Canada regarding employment equity data.
“Everything we learned in case resolution was really helpful to us, and each of us was able to put our own resources to work for the team, to determine exactly what employees needed”, Joy told us in the moments following the “Employees of the Month” victory. There was also the fact that two team members had to join the team just a few weeks before the start of the competition, and so the four of them were particularly pleased with this excellent outcome.
Another Telfer team, composed of Aditya Bhatkal, Allison Caverly, Camille Sigouin and Lisa Filter, all four MBA students, also performed well on the first round, but were unable to qualify for the final. The classmates were still happy to have had the experience and pleased with their presentation to the judges.
Competition Winners:
1st Place: Telfer School of Management, uOttawa, BCom
2nd Place: Schulich School of Business, York University, MBA
Tied for 3rd Place:
Memorial University of Newfoundland, Undergraduate; and
DeGroote School of Business, McMaster University, MBA
The steering committee is already planning the 6th edition of the event, which will take place in early 2021. Any organization with an interest in diversity and inclusion issues and topics is invited to contact the Telfer Graduate Programs Office to discuss possible participation in next year’s competition at:
- Category: Student Voices
Written By: Alexander Campbell, Telfer MBA Candidate
From January 3rd to 6th, a group of 17 talented MBA students from the Telfer School of Management travelled to Hamilton, Ontario to compete in the 2020 MBA Games. The MBA Games is one of the largest student-run competitions in Canada, where delegates come together from across Canada to compete in three areas: Academics, Athletics and Spirit.
In Academics, our “Wildcard” case competition team took on a case about Corporate Social Responsibility and advanced to the finals, placing them in the top four among all MBA programs across the country. The team was comprised of Candyce Yue Sun, Jason Tsang and Matt Gibbons. We also fielded teams in the Finance, Marketing and Strategy categories.
Wildcard Team
In Academics, our “Wildcard” case competition team took on a case about Corporate Social Responsibility and advanced to the finals, placing them in the top four among all MBA programs across the country. The team was comprised of Candyce Yue Sun, Jason Tsang and Matt Gibbons. We also fielded teams in the Finance, Marketing and Strategy categories.
In Athletics, our volleyball team played four hard-fought games but did not advance past the round-robin. Our basketball team notched a victory against the Haskayne School of Business (Calgary) but also was not able to advance.
In Spirit, we rocked some impressive dance moves at the opening ceremonies, found a creative way to crack an egg with our Rube Goldberg Machine, and came within a second of knocking the host, DeGroote School of Business, out of the Minute-to-Win-It competition.
Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, the team was able to raise a total of $870 for the MBA Games’ charitable partner, Empowerment Squared, an organization that empowers youth to realize their potential and achieve their dreams through mentorship, access to post-secondary education, information literacy, and sports and recreation.
All the team’s successes over the weekend were made possible by generous contributions from our sponsors: The Telfer School of Management, QMR Consulting, and Welch LLP.
- Category: Telfer Announcements
The Telfer MBA was a huge catalyst for change in the career of our graduate Mélanie Potvin, who is now project manager of the Orléans Health Hub at Montfort Hospital.
After graduating from the University of Ottawa with a bachelor’s degree in physical therapy, Mélanie began her career in the health care system. Following several years working in clinical services at the Montfort Hospital and in the Ottawa community, she landed a job in the field of occupational health and safety. This position exposed her to the administrative side of the health care system, sparking a desire to learn more about management. That’s when she decided that an MBA was what she needed to boost her career.
During the application process, the Telfer School of Management contacted Mélanie to determine whether she was interested in completing her MBA in French. The opportunity to benefit from scholarships for this program, but especially to use her mother tongue, really appealed to her and she jumped at the opportunity to do her graduate degree in French.
Thanks to her experience in the healthcare system, and Telfer’s MBA and MHA (master’s degree in health administration) courses, Mélanie has learned how to work on the system and its various challenges. Her educational and practical experiences have provided her with the skills needed to manage complex projects.
Beyond project management, Mélanie has also developed her skills in oral presentation, leadership, human resources, and other management disciplines that are important in her new role.
Mélanie can now proudly say she has what it takes to make an impact at work and in her daily life.
Learn more about the Telfer MBA.
- Category: Student Announcements
The Telfer School of Management, in partnership with Export Development Canada (EDC) and Deloitte, presents the fifth annual Diversity & Inclusion Case Competition. The competition will be hosted in our Desmarais Building and at the Export Development Canada office in Ottawa from February 28-29, 2020.
During this case competition, teams examine emerging challenges and propose solutions pertaining to issues of diversity and inclusion in organizations. This innovative competition exposes future leaders to business change and growth opportunities, due to the diverse nature of the Canadian workforce. Sixteen teams from universities across Canada will be competing to solve a unique case for the chance to win $8,750 in prize money.
While most teams participating will be enrolled in an MBA program, we also encourage 3rd and 4th-year undergraduate students in business/management to register. One team of 4 members is permitted per university. Teams will be registered on a first come first serve basis.
Register here to save $200 when you sign up before November 15th, 2019.
- Category: Student Announcements
It's time for a new school year, so we have created a checklist for our new and returning Telfer students to get you started.
- Set up your uOttawa Student Card: If you are a new student, be sure to collect your new student card in the University Centre building or online. If you are a returning student who has lost a student card, deactivate it and get a new card or check the University of Ottawa lost and found.
- Collect or renew your U-Pass: The U-Pass is a mandatory bus card for all full-time undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Ottawa. You can get or renew your U-Pass in the University Centre building (UCU) student lounge (located on level 0). To renew your pass, you must tap it at a recharging station in the UCU.
- Get your Gee-Gees Pass: The Gee-Gees Pass gives you access to 100+ varsity events and exclusive access at uOttawa sporting events. If you live in residence, it is already included in your residence fees.
- Attend a Mandatory Information Session on September 3: All first-year students need to go to a mandatory information session to learn important information about being a new student. You can also ask questions of our staff members at the session.
- Join a club(s) or activity at uOttawa: The University of Ottawa has a huge variety of clubs and extra-curricular activities for you to choose from. Watch out for Clubs Day during Welcome Week along University Private.
- Sign up for a Telfer student club(s): Telfer has 17 different student-run clubs and associations that you can join each year. During uOttawa Welcome Week, you can get to know these clubs on University Private, or in Morisset Library on the first floor at Clubs Day.
- Take part in intramural sports: A great way to keep up with a sport you enjoy while making new friends is to join or start your own intramural team at uOttawa.
- Try out for a Gee-Gees sports team: If you are more serious about a certain sport, you could try out for a Gee-Gees varsity sports teams.
-
Stay safe with the SecurUO safety app: The university has worked to develop a new app for students to keep you safe and informed of key security information. You can download the app to your mobile device to use while on campus.
The University of Ottawa and the Telfer School offer a variety of student services, career help, activities, sports, and volunteer opportunities. The Telfer Student Services staff are happy to help you learn about these opportunities.
- Category: Alumni in the Lead
Strategic leader, developer and builder, François Vaqué is an accomplished business pioneer whose career path was enriched by his MBA from Telfer.
With a Bachelor in International Commerce from Rouen and in Economics from the Université du Québec à Montréal, François chose to pursue his studies at Telfer because of the diversity of its students as well as its faculty expertise.
The MBA program gave François the opportunity to meet potential employers, which allowed him to work at Newbridge Networks and participate in the development of its marketing function. Later on, François worked as product manager at Future Electronics, before launching his own company named Marketingisland.com. His work experiences provided him with the knowledge necessary to become Vice-President of marketing and communications for KPMG and Davies Ward Philips & Vineberg. These prestigious positions strengthened his reputation as a business professional with a vast expertise in communications and marketing, and led him to become Vice-President of public relations and corporate affairs at Citoyen.
Even though François has a successful career, he strongly believes in the importance of achieving a healthy work-life balance. He explained that what matters most to him is working hard, having a good career and finding a balance between his personal and professional life. He developed this perspective during his studies at Telfer, because his cohort taught him that you could work hard while still having fun. François is inspired by social implication, which is why he gives back to his community through art foundations. Furthermore, he is engaged with his alma mater by organizing alumni events and being a speaker at Telfer conferences to show his recognition to the faculty that shaped him.
He encourages students to engage themselves, whether that be in nonprofit organizations, with family or at work in order to have a balanced and rewarding life.
- Category: Latest News
On Wednesday, May 8, 2019, senior government and private industry leaders filled the University of Ottawa’s Tabaret Hall for Telfer’s 3rd annual, full-day seminar dedicated to successful complex project execution.
Accomplished leaders from diverse organization including the Department of National Defence, IBM, the Canadian Space Agency, CHU Sainte-Justine, Accenture, and West Midlands Police delivered presentations on how they approach the challenges and best practices of some of their organization’s most dynamic and intricate programs.
Patrick Finn, ADM Materiel, DND opened the seminar with his insights on leadership in project delivery. Accenture’s David West, and West Midlands Police’s Alexandra Shariff collaboratively spoke on the ‘how and why’ the UK’s ‘West Midlands police 2020’ business transformation and reorganization were so successful. DND’s Isabelle Latulippe discussed how to manage a project when the technology needed, threatens to become obsolete due to prolonged project cycles. Other speakers included Col. Jeremy Hansen with the Canadian Space Agency who spoke on the complexities of human space flight, and CISSS Montérégie-Est - CHU Sainte-Justine’s nursing director Claude Fortin discussed practical elements of change management implementation and stated, “The healthcare system is a highly complex ecosystem composed of several elements eminently based on relationships with a high level of interdependence. A hospital, for example, is a 24/7 organism, you cannot shut down one part of a hospital to proceed with an isolated program".
The day highlighted winning business strategy and transformation techniques, as well as discussions on how to build integrated high-performance teams. Characteristics such as honesty, compassion, integrity, and empathy in conversations were needed in building strong lasting relationships and a positive working environment.
Originally the seminar, as part of Telfer’s MBCPL, was reserved solely for the program’s candidates. It quickly became, however, a popular knowledge sharing forum. The ability to deliver complex programs are increasingly sought-after skills that move beyond the iron triangle, especially when projects and initiatives no longer follow systematic lifecycle that is fixed and linear, have quickly changed the scope, and multiple stakeholders with different objectives.
More specialized training is needed to bring a Canadian solution to a Canadian context. The Telfer School of Management’s Executive Master of Business in Complex Project Leadership seeks to bridge the gap and connect candidates to what matters academically and professionally, enhancing their career and their value in their workplace environment, giving them the advanced skills and confidence to be successful leaders and deliver successful program outcomes. Candidates are exposed to a lifelong network of accomplished leaders and practitioners.
Save the date for next year’s seminar in May.
For more information about the program, updates and this event, please click here.
- Category: Telfer Announcements
THE UNIVERSITY OF OTTAWA
The University of Ottawa is part of the Ontario postsecondary system. It became a public university on July 1, 1965 with enactment by the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Ontario (Canada) of the University of Ottawa Act, 1965. Degree programs in business at the University of Ottawa are offered by the Telfer School of Management.
Ontario universities are authorized to offer Undergraduate Programs leading to a bachelor degree, Graduate Programs leading to master's and doctorate degrees, Continuing Education programs and certificates, including distance and part-time programs. Degree programs must be approved and are periodically appraised by the Ministry of Education. The Ministry does not impose specific admissions criteria: universities themselves have specific requirements for admission. The province funds universities and dictates conditions for tuition fees and increases.
The University of Ottawa is a member of the Council of Ontario Universities (COU), an association of all authorized academic institutions in the Province of Ontario. It also belongs to the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC), which is usually considered in Canada as the equivalent of an accrediting body.
The University of Ottawa is a bilingual institution offering programs in English and in French. The Telfer School of Management adheres to the university’s linguistic mission: students can complete their Honors Bachelor’s of Commerce in English or in French, and can take courses in either language. The School also offers its MBA program in both official languages. The EMBA, MHA and M.Sc. programs are offered in English. Student services are offered in both languages and active knowledge of either French or English, with passive knowledge of the second official language is a tenure condition for faculty members. While the bilingual nature of the School provides a rich cultural environment for students, it does impose additional constraints compared to other competing business schools.
THE TELFER SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT
Our Purpose
To develop influential leaders and create relevant management knowledge that transform lives, organizations and communities.
Our Vision
The Telfer School is the space in which you create your future through the competencies, confidence and convictions we help you develop and the knowledge, connections and support we provide.
Our Mission
To launch and accelerate management careers and influence sustainable organizational performance through the leadership of our graduates and the impact of our researchers.
The Telfer School of Management is a member of the Canadian Federation of Business School Deans (CFBSD) which is a lobby group for Canadian Schools of Business. There are 61 university-based business schools in Canada that are members of the Canadian Federation of Business School Deans. Eighteen are in the province of Ontario and they all offer graduate and undergraduate programs; nine of them currently offer Ph.D. programs.
All of the Telfer School programs are subsidized by the Province of Ontario, except the EMBA and Master of Business in Complex Project Leadership programs which are funded by tuition fees.
The Telfer School is one of only three schools in Canada with the triple accreditation. It is one of twenty-two AACSB accredited business schools and one of three that has received AMBA accreditation. Nine other Canadian business schools currently (October 2017) have EQUIS accreditation.
While it attracts students from across Canada and around the world, the Telfer School largely competes in two regional markets: Ontario and Quebec. In the Quebec market, its major competitors are HEC Montreal and Laval for French programs and McGill and Concordia for programs in English. In the Ontario market, the major competitors are Queens, McMaster, Laurier and Carleton.
Over the past decade, the Telfer School invested time, energy and resources in establishing solid foundations. We have hired research intensive new professors and developed our research capacity and profile. Our program revisions have focused on learning outcomes and improvement of the student learning experience. We have invested in external relations and fundraising, generated significant engagement with alumni and numerous corporations, and raised the School’s endowment to $43M. We have expanded our Executive Education portfolio. During our most recent strategic planning exercise, we realized that the next stage in the School’s evolution is to consolidate its activities and become more visible internationally. As such, the School’s strategy has been centered on the idea of building reputation and this will drive our strategic initiatives.
The Telfer School has seen a dramatic increase in its competitive position and reputation. Its new name, new building and its fundraising success have increased applications to its programmes from students locally, regionally and nationally. The School has seen a marked rise in the quality of incoming undergraduate students. Having increased entrance requirements and put forward programs to enhance program success, the school is also observing an increase in 1st year student success and retention. The School has also seen a marked improvement in the quality and productivity of the faculty’s research. It has also been making major efforts to increase its international student recruitment through participation in various international recruitment fairs and has been seeing success in this area.
As the School look ahead to the next decade, our direction will be to continue to focus on building the Telfer brand and reputation, nationally and globally, by promoting the leadership and influence of our graduates, the relevance and impact of our research, the quality of the School’s work and the value it creates for others. Such a focus was consistent with much of the input received by the Strategic Planning Team during the consultative phase of the process.
Furthermore, considering how competitive the business school landscape has become, it became even more imperative to differentiate the School, both nationally and globally. To do this, we will continue to build the Telfer brand around a strong student experience, our distinctive competencies (for example, our Strategic Areas of Expertise (SAEs) and our various research communities of interest), our unique location in a G7 Capital and the benefits of our location in Canada, our association with The University of Ottawa, our bilingual heritage and our broad, multi-cultural heritage.
The Telfer MBA Program
The Telfer MBA is designed to provide participants with grounded knowledge and skills related to management of business, with a focus on preparing graduates to lead high-performing organizations. This concept of leading high performance organizations represents a differentiating theme of the program in comparison with its competitors. The MBA program structure provides participants with increased knowledge of their own personal, interpersonal and professional skill profiles as well as knowledge and skills related to the world of business practice.
Position Description
Under the general direction of the Vice-Dean Programs, the Director of the MBA Program is responsible for providing strategic leadership, management and oversight for Telfer MBA Program. Responsibilities include community engagement, recruiting, admissions, program management and delivery.
- Lead the School’s MBA Program in line with its mission and goals.
- Represent the Telfer School of Management in interactions with other UOttawa campus units, the corporate community, alumni and to current and prospective MBA students.
- Drive program recruitment and enrollment of qualified students for the program to achieve annual goals as established by the Vice-Dean's office.
- Collaborate with the Administrator Graduate Office on the recruitment and admission of MBA students. Conduct open houses, meet with prospective students and serve as spokesperson for recruitment activities.
- Oversee faculty, budgets, operations, and manage financial performance of the program.
- Administer of the MBA program; lead efforts in policy development and execution that enrich the MBA experience.
- Collaborate with the School’s Accreditation Officer in the provincial assessment and external accreditation processes of the MBA Program. Support the officer in all rankings activities and work to strategically identify and use those metrics that will enhance our program’s reputation.
- Oversee and direct program management and deliver an outstanding MBA-level student experience from orientation through graduation.
- Collaborate with the Vice-Dean Programs and MBA faculty to facilitate curriculum and course development in the MBA program.
- Collaborate with Vice-Dean Programs, Graduate Office Administrator, directors of the School's other Masters Programs, faculty, members of the marketing group, Career Center staff to identify, develop and implement key initiatives and programs.
- Develop and lead the delivery of a comprehensive academic advising strategy that supports all MBA students’ personal and professional goals
- Lead collaborative efforts to provide experiential learning and international programs for MBA students
Required Knowledge, Skills and Abilities
- Knowledge of MBA markets, rankings, leading practices, and accreditation standards.
- Highly effective communicator, both in writing and speaking in English and French, with an ability to inspire students, faculty, and business partners.
- Proven marketing and networking ability.
- Ability to work collaboratively in teams with faculty, and staff, as well as with colleagues across the campus community and business community.
- Financial management knowledge desirable, as is experience in a highly dynamic and competitive environment.
- Ability to focus on actions and outcomes, with a strong level of energy and drive.
- Ability to work independently, multi‐task, and prioritize responsibilities.
Minimum Qualifications
- Master’s Degree required. Minimum of three (3) years of related MBA program experience with an AACSB‐accredited program –OR—five (5) years of business experience in senior management or consulting positions.
Preferred Qualifications
- MBA or other relevant post graduate degree and/or a combination of academic and senior program management experience such that the individual will have recognition and credibility with students, faculty, alumni, and the general business community.
- A minimum of three (3) years of experience in program development and administration preferably within a graduate business school/university environment.
- A strategic thinker with evidence of successful implementation.
- Proven marketing and networking talents.
- Exceptional communication and interpersonal skills.
Salary and Other Considerations
- Commensurate with experience
- Requires ability to work frequent weekends and evenings
- Requires periodic regional, national and international travel.
THE PROCESS
The Telfer School welcomes those who are excited by the prospect of building a world-class MBA Program in Ottawa, based on the following ambitions:
- To build the School’s competitive advantage around our most unique attributes: our location in a G7 Capital, our close proximity to Canadian decision makers, our association with uOttawa, our bilingual heritage and our broad, multi-cultural diversity
- To be a business school that is known for the impact of our programs, research and community engagement
- Our research drivers are truly strategic and drive the School - they provide distinctive, world class discovery and learning platforms, and they continue to strengthen the School’s international reputation;
- Our programs deliver a world-class, real-life, hands-on and relevant learning experience that is inspired by the research we do and supported by our engagement with the community;
- Our engagement with Canadian and International leaders drives our programs and research, and the relationships we have created with our community enable us to better understand the challenges they face and the value we can offer; and
- We are commitment to global standards of quality and excellence, and we achieve this through the process of continuous organizational improvement.
The search committee will begin considering potential candidates immediately and will continue until the position is successfully filled. A complete application which includes a letter of introduction, no longer than two pages in length, outlining the reasons why this position is of interest to you, your vision for the School’s MBA program and any initiatives you would like to put forward and undertake should you be selected, your curriculum vitae, and the name of three references (who will not be contacted without your consent) should be submitted electronically to:
The University Ottawa’s Telfer School of Management is an Equal Opportunity Employer advancing inclusive excellence. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age, protected veteran status, or other protected categories covered by the UOttawa non-discrimination policy.
- Category: Appointments and Honours
Telfer School of Management is delighted to announce that the recipients of this year’s MBA Student Leadership Award are Emily MacKay, Obinna Eze, Laurine Avallone and Sanane Guy Cédric Behi. These individuals are recognized for their leadership and for making exceptional contributions to the MBASA and/or the MBA program in general.
The award recipients elicited many comments, and the MBA class were effusive in their support for them.
The MBA class spoke to Emily MacKay’s non-stop contribution to the 2018 MBA cohort for all contingents, especially her “beyond expectations” involvement in the MBA Student Association, the MBA gala and the MBA games. Cited as an exemplary leader she elicited respect from classmates and professors, and was admired for her ability to excel in her academics while being highly involved.
Obinna Eze was commended for utilising his vast experience to ask the right questions to stimulate discussion and draw out information that was highly beneficial for the collective learning experience.
Students expressed their admiration for Obinna’s solid leadership and team player skills. He is referred to as a “hard worker with selfless intentions to help and motivate his peers”.
Laurine Avallone was recognized for “her strong will power and temperament to succeed facing lots of odds”. For her peers, she is an example on how a young international student can make the most of the program through her participation in events representing the Telfer School of Management, including at the MBA games and several other case competitions around Ontario and Quebec.
Sanane Guy Cédric Behi was applauded for his leadership as the French cohort representative in the MBASA, a leadership style described as “built on respect, humility and dedication”. His unifying spirit and his respect for his peers inspire everyone who works with him.
We expect great things from these individuals, and extend our warmest congratulations to each of them.
- Category: Telfer Announcements
All our grads would agree: internships and consulting projects are defining moments in their Telfer experience. Help us give the next cohort of students the same opportunity. Telfer is currently seeking organizations to engage MBA talent in real-life challenges.
There is no doubt that the experience will be valuable for both you and our students. All MBA interns and consulting teams are supported by a faculty member and have access to cutting edge data in order to resolve even the most complex problems that your organization may encounter. Equipped with, on average, 7 years of pre-MBA work experience, these future leaders will give you a fresh perspective thus helping you reach your goals. Sample projects include (but are not limited to), market development, process improvement, and strategic process review.
Beyond the scope of a specific project, if you are looking for new talent, this is your chance to find qualified individuals and evaluate their potential fit within your workplace without the hassle of painful interviews!
You think you might have a project for our students? Contact Nathalie Paré by e-mail at
Ready to propose a challenging project? Submit your proposal using the templates available online: MBA Internships or MBA Consulting projects.
- Category: Innovation and Entrepreneurship
MBA program Director Greg Richards talks about the current challenges in Business Schools today and how the MBA program at the Telfer School of Management will have to adapt to the changing world of business. Read the complete interview in the June 2018 edition of AMBA's Ambition magazine »
- Category: Telfer Announcements
The 2018 MBA Games have officially come to a close but the legacy of this 3-day event will live on with the 600 MBA candidates who travelled to Ottawa from coast-to-coast to participate from January 5th to 7th.
This year marked the 30th anniversary of the student-run MBA Games. For the first time ever, they were held in Ottawa, hosted by the Telfer School of Management.
“Meeting all of the passionate and talented competitors was so rewarding,” says Emma Azzi, Telfer MBA student and chair of the 2018 MBA Games. “It was amazing to see the months of planning come together.”
Despite the cold weather, all 17 participating schools brought a warm display of energy and skills to the academic, athletic and spirit events. Participants even braved an outdoor scavenger hunt in -20°C weather.
In total, $45,311 was raised in support of the Moose Hide Campaign, a grassroots Indigenous-led movement of men standing up against violence towards women and children.
Paul and Raven Lacerte, co-founders of the Moose Hide Campaign, said they were so grateful for all the efforts of the MBA delegations in raising funds for their organization and in spreading the message across university campuses.
Competition results:
- Schulich School of Business (York University) was awarded the Queen’s Cup as the overall MBA Games winner.
- Our own Telfer School of Management (University of Ottawa) took home the Schulich Cup for their top scores in Academics which included Finance, Marketing, Strategy, and Diversity & Inclusion case competitions.
- Beedie School of Business (Simon Fraser University) was the Titi Watul Spirit Overall Winner for their strong showing in the spirit components which included fundraising, social media, a video competition, a scavenger hunt and a case developed with the Moose Hide Campaign.
- DeGroote School of Business (McMaster University) took home the newly minted Telfer Cup for their top overall scores in Athletics which included volleyball, basketball, dodgeball and curling tournaments.
In addition, four teams took home $10,000 grants from the Moose Hide Campaign to fund the on-campus initiatives they presented to address violence towards women.
Here are Telfer’s academic rankings:
- 1st place Strategy case: Shariq Akhlaq, Akil Manasia, Kyle Ferguson and Laurine Avallone.
- 1st place Finance case: Rohan Vaidya, Kuntal Shah, Peter Narbaitz and Eric Goneau.
- 2nd place Diversity and Inclusion case: Tanya Roy, Jujhar Singh, John Wins-Purdy and Chinmaya Mohapatro.
- In addition, a special mention to our coaches Germain Aoun and Hantz Prosper who helped to drive these students to success.
The event was hosted in partnership with number of sponsors including Deloitte Canada, Export Development Canada, Canada Post Corporation and Esprit Whitewater.
The Right Honourable David Johnson, former Governor General and Executive Advisor to Deloitte Canada helped launch the event as the keynote speaker at the Opening Ceremonies Gala.
Congratulations to all participants! The 2018 MBA Games proved yet again that we really are #MoreTogether!
- Category: Student Announcements
In less than two months, close to 600 MBA students from over 20 schools across the country will descend on the Telfer School of Management to compete for the glory of the MBA Games 2018 Queens Cup.
The single largest gathering of MBA students in Canada, the MBA Games is a 3-day annual event, organized entirely by students, that brings participants together to network and build relationships while competing in series of academic, athletic and spirit competitions. The Student Association at Telfer is proud to host the 30th annual MBA Games over the weekend of January 5-7th 2018, for the first time ever in our nation’s capital.
The MBA Games is more than a competition. It is an opportunity for students with diverse backgrounds to come together to create lasting memories and innovate for a better future. To highlight how much more can be achieved in business when we create space for diversity, the 2018 Organizing Committee has chosen to mark this year’s games with the theme, More Together.
This year, the MBA Games has partnered with the Moose Hide Campaign, a grassroots, Indigenous-led initiative of men standing up against violence towards women and children. Participating teams have found creative ways to raise funds in their communities for this worthy cause: from bake sales and trivia nights to professional headshots. All funds raised will be donated to the Moose Hide Campaign’s Safe Spaces, Safe Places Initiative, which works to end violence towards women on university campuses across the country.
At the MBA Games, participating students will compete in academic cases sponsored by prominent organizations: platinum event sponsor Deloitte, platinum case sponsor, Export Development Canada (EDC) and Gold Case sponsor, Canada Post.
Athletic events will include volleyball, basketball, dodgeball, and for the first time, participants will get to try their hands at Canada’s other national sport, Curling at the Rideau Curling Club.
The spirit competitions will blend fun team-building with activities to get students thinking about social responsibility and the future.
The MBA Games 2018 Organizing committee is counting down the days until MBA students from across the country become More Together!
More information about the 2018 MBA Games is available at www.MBAgames2018.com
- Category: Telfer Announcements
On November 7, we had the honour of welcoming Calin Rovinescu, President and Chief Executive Officer of Air Canada and Chancellor of the University of Ottawa, to the Chancellor's Master Class. This class brought together all Telfer School MBA and Executive MBA candidates. Mr. Rovinescu shared his experience at Air Canada and discussed its turnaround in the global market.
As Telfer Executive MBA Director Sophia Leong explains, we have to learn from our successes, but especially from the successes of our Canadian companies.
“Air Canada’s transformation from near death to market success is a perfect example of active learning from M. Rovinescu” stated Ms. Leong. “He led the financial and commercial turnaround by making bold and risky moves to transform Air Canada to a global player. Air Canada is a live case of ‘The Art of the Possible’ and M. Rovinescu brought that reality to both the Executive MBA and MBA candidates.”
In his presentation, Mr. Rovinescu discussed the role of a president and CEO, who must make bold decisions when standard practices fail. He likened this approach to solving a Rubik's Cube. “To move to more sustainable business outcomes, Air Canada had to let go of former business strategies or practises despite the associated risks and difficulties” said Mr. Rovinescu.
“This created significant change management for Air Canada personnel and stakeholders. In addition to frequent and mindful communication, we had to emphasize on the importance of ‘symbols’ to instill pride in the workforce and stakeholders. By leveraging the maple leaf symbol, Air Canada is mindful it is branding ‘Canada’ by proxy.”
- Category: Latest News
My internship through the Telfer MBA program allowed me to work in a completely different environment than my previous work experience and helped me grow as a professional while allowing me to directly apply the knowledge I was gaining in my MBA classes. I worked in a sales and marketing capacity with a tech company still in its first few years of operations, which really left the space wide open for me to make an impact. My initial objectives for the internship were to develop, implement and manage an email campaign to boost lead generation, develop and refine marketing material, and look at updating the website and search engine optimization.
While starting from scratch removes a lot of the limitations that can occur when trying to revamp a legacy firm’s marketing strategy, it also leads to many challenges as you need to find consensus on many items that seem trivial to a company focused on meeting its initial monthly recurring revenue targets. However, there are pre-requisites any new company needs to establish that are vital to the overarching strategy and alignment that will drive sales and marketing for years. For any of my projects to make a lasting impact, I first had to gain consensus on the mission, vision and values as well as the unique value proposition of the company. From this, existing sales and marketing collateral could be aligned, new material and templates created and the messaging in the email campaign could be refined.
As much of my work focused on marketing initiatives, the skills and knowledge I gained from my Strategic Marketing Management course were critical in helping me. Although I had previously worked in a marketing environment, my background is as an engineer and I had always focused more on the technical side of product development. To take on a pure marketing role, I needed to use the theory of marketing that I was taught at Telfer to be able to propose a marketing strategy to the company’s CEO. I was also able to use the skills I was learning in my Strategy course, which I was taking at the same time as the internship, to look at the strategic grouping of the company compared to its closest competitors. I was able to help position the company’s messaging to showcase it as being in a completely new market compared to existing products, which helped set the overall voice and tone of marketing material. As our product was an application of the industrial internet of things, having taken a course on Global Trends and the Business Intelligence & Big Data elective gave me the introduction to analytics and machine learning that helped me understand the data scientists to translate their work into a comprehensive marketing message.
This opportunity enabled me to grow as a professional in several areas. The first was the chance to work in a startup environment. Having previously only worked in large bureaucratic firms, it was a new experience to work in a company that had less than 20 employees. This enabled me to take on more responsibility and forced me to be flexible and change what I was working on to focus on the firm’s more pressing priorities. It was inspiring to work with the people who founded the company, whose passion was the driving force behind the company’s growth. I also learned a lot about a completely new industry, one that focused on software development and the application of prescriptive analytics in a manufacturing setting. While I had worked in several different engineering environments before, this was by far the most cutting edge, and focused on the applications of a still evolving technology.
- Category: Appointments and Honours
From left to right: Phillipe Lamothe, Matthew Chesser, Emma Azzi and Jean-Claude Mukanya Cibumba
The Telfer School of Management is delighted to announce the recipients of this year’s MBA Student Leadership Awards: Emma Azzi, Matthew Chesser, Philippe Lamothe and Jean-Claude Mukanya Cibumba. These made exceptional contributions to the MBASA as well as the MBA program in general.
The award recipients elicited many positive comments, and the MBA class were effusive in their support for them.
Emma Azzi
Emma was recognized for her role in organizing the Telfer School’s team at the 2017 MBA Games, as well as her hard work bringing the MBA Games to Ottawa in 2018. Her peers said that her contagious enthusiasm and drive inspire all those who work with her.
Matthew Chesser
MBA students expressed their admiration for Matthew’s organization of alumni panels and many extra-curricular MBA activities. He was described as having a “quiet but cheerful leadership style in everything he did.”
Phillipe Lamothe
Philippe was recognized for his leadership as the MBASA President, including his support for and promotion of various activities, as well as his participation in a number of events representing the Telfer School.
Jean-Claude Mukanya Cibumba
Jean-Claude was lauded as a talented, inspiring classmate who always strives to give his best. He was recognized for making outstanding contributions as a leader, and for always giving constructive comments in discussions and presentations.
We extend our warmest congratulations to each of these outstanding students and thank the MBA class for their participation.
- Category: Alumni in the Lead
After a seven-year hiatus, the highly anticipated and revamped Canada’s Top 40 Under 40® gala is back to celebrate the exceptional achievements of 40 Canadians under the age of 40. Going hand in hand with the Canada 150 celebrations, the gala will highlight the new generation of leaders in Canadian organizations.
This year's honourees include three University of Ottawa alumni, two of whom are from the Telfer School of Management. We would like to congratulate the following alumni:
- Harley Finkelstein (MBA 2009): Chief Operating Officer, Shopify
- Alexandre Lefebvre (BAdm 2001): President, Lefebvre Group
We would also like to congratulate Katherine Telford, another University of Ottawa graduate who was also on the Canada’s Top 40 Under 40® list.
Click here to see the complete list of this year’s honourees on the Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 website. This year, the awards gala will be held on November 2, 2017, at the Fairmont Royal York in Toronto.
- Category: Latest News
“If I had to choose one thing I love most about Telfer, it’s the people,” stated Emma Azzi, MBA Candidate at the Telfer School.
After a remarkable undergraduate experience with Telfer, there was no question where Emma Azzi wanted to continue her studies. For her, Telfer’s commitment to excellence, their dedication to fostering a positive, friendly environment, and their strong sense of student community, were all key factors that influenced her decision to pursue her MBA at the University of Ottawa's Telfer School of Management.
Elected as the MBA Games Director in January 2017, Emma’s role was to organize a team of Telfer students to travel to Vancouver Island University to represent the University of Ottawa at the MBA Games. As a Canada wide competition that involves student competing in academics, sports, and spirit, Emma knew that her passion for challenges, adventure, and networking opportunities would be fulfilled.
After competing in the games with the small but mighty Telfer team of 16, Emma knew that she wanted to make her mark on the MBA games. “I just had to figure out how.”
The perfect opportunity arose when Vancouver Island University announced an open bid for the 2018 MBA Games Host. With the help of Professor Greg Richards, Emma submitted a proposal documenting why the Telfer School of Management would be the perfect candidate to host the next games.
“Ultimately, we won! I am now the MBA Games 2018 Chair, and am ready to take on this exciting responsibility of hosting over 20 universities in Ottawa this upcoming January for the 30th annual MBA Games. The Games have never been hosted in the capital city and knowing that I played a part in bringing them home is one of my proudest moments at Telfer,” said Emma.
Emma acknowledged that the challenges she faced throughout her undergrad led her to where she is today, but she wouldn’t have it any other way. She stated, “I know that every notion learnt during my Telfer training will make me a more confident professional, a stronger business advocate and a better team member. All these qualities and skills will be crucial in shaping my career.”
Connect with Emma here https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmaazzi
You can also follow Telfer’s LinkedIn activities here.
- Category: Latest News
We are proud to announce the creation of the BDO Canada Telfer MBA Aboriginal Scholarship.
"BDO believes in cultivating the talent of tomorrow. We also understand that for many deserving students, a post-secondary education is simply beyond reach. To ensure more students get the opportunity to excel, we’ve established a scholarship in conjunction with the University of Ottawa’s Telfer School of Management. Designed to inspire and support outstanding Aboriginal students in the Telfer MBA program, the scholarship includes monetary assistance in addition to a 4-month paid internship at select BDO offices. The goal of the scholarship is to provide an opportunity to an exceptional Aboriginal student interested in improving the economic well-being of Aboriginal communities." states BDO Partner, Harry Lake.
Since 2009, BDO has partnered with Telfer School to establish a public sector research fellowship, a public sector performance management research cluster and an MSc scholarship. BDO’s partnership with Telfer also includes scholarships and CO-OP placements for students in the undergraduate BCom accounting program.
When asked why this scholarship is so meaningful to the Telfer School, MBA Program Director Gregory Richards says, “We expect that our MBAs will have an impact once they graduate, and it’s great to be able to offer a scholarship that will provide assistance to students focused on working in our Aboriginal communities. We are so thankful to BDO for their leadership on this initiative”.
In order to be eligible for this $30,000 admission scholarship, students who apply to the MBA program at the Telfer School of Management must submit a 500-word letter explaining why they believe they are the ideal candidate for the scholarship. This letter is to be submitted with the program application. For more information, please contact the Graduate Studies Office by email at
BDO Canada LLP is one of many organizations who continue to stay connected with and give back to the Telfer School to support the programs and projects that matter most to them, while helping the School achieve its goals.
Across a diverse range of projects and programs, the top priorities for the Telfer School’s fundraising campaign are to transform how we learn; invest in globalization; generate new knowledge; foster experiential learning; support scholarships and fund emerging strategic priorities.
- Category: Telfer Announcements
CEO Magazine (London, UK) has just released its 2017 ranking of the top Global Executive MBA programs and has ranked the Telfer School of Management’s Executive MBA program #1 in the world.
Using a ranking system entirely geared and weighted to fact-based criteria, CEO Magazine aims to cut through the noise and provide potential students with a performance benchmark for those schools under review.
“Our program is honoured to be recognized by CEO Magazine. The Telfer Executive MBA focuses on a 'Global, Practical, Relevant' platform that accentuates 'Responsible and Effective’ leadership for optimal business impact in an increasingly competitive global market”, said Sophia Leong, Executive Director of the Telfer Executive MBA. “To be tapped by CEO Magazine as the premier Global Executive MBA program underlines the program’s value proposition and impact on the candidates’ transformation.”
“I would like to acknowledge the outstanding work of the entire Executive MBA team, led by Sophia Leong, and all the faculty members who have taught in this program”, said François Julien, Dean of the University of Ottawa’s Telfer School of Management. “In addition, our EMBA candidates and alumni, through their professional successes and impact within their organizations and communities, are making a tremendous contribution to their program and to the Telfer School. I congratulate them sincerely on this remarkable achievement and encourage them to continue their excellent work.”
The full ranking is available on CEO Magazine’s website.
About our Executive MBA
The Telfer Executive MBA Program accelerates value in three distinct ways: business leadership, organizational impact and value to the community. Our program offers professionals a ‘live’ and transformative learning environment, focusing on international market and leadership experience to excel in today’s global economy. The curriculum is anchored by the Signature Series of Six Business Consulting Projects, of which two are global in focus and involve two international business trips.
About CEO Magazine
CEO Magazine has been showcasing top business schools from around the globe since it first launched in 2008. In 2012, the publication launched its annual Global MBA Rankings, profiling MBA, Executive MBA and Online MBA programs.
This year CEO Magazine reached out to business schools across North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the BRICS, and received responses from over 160 institutions – a 20 per cent increase in submissions from 2016.
- Category: Rising Stars
On March 3-4, 2017, the Telfer School of Management, in partnership with Export Development Canada and Deloitte, hosted the second annual Diversity and Inclusion MBA Case Competition.
During this case competition, teams examined emerging challenges and proposed solutions pertaining to the frequently overlooked issues of diversity and inclusion in organizations. This innovative competition gives future leaders a better appreciation of the opportunities for businesses to change and grow because of the Canadian workforce’s diverse nature.
“Diversity and Inclusion is a survival issue for organizations that needs to be owned by the CEO and no longer a check box exercise for HR,” stated Kate Morican, Partner Human Capital, Deloitte Canada. “At Deloitte, we focus on developing leaders who practice inclusive behaviors each and every day to help our clients and our people excel. We are delighted to support this important initiative, in partnership with Export Development Canada and the University of Ottawa.”
The Telfer School of Management’s delegation proved their skills in leadership by winning the case competition. The winning team included Matt Chesser, Vikas Kumar, Abhijit Doiphode, and Taro Abarbanel-Ueumura. Here are the overall results from the competition:
- 1st Place - Telfer School of Management, University of Ottawa
- 2nd Place - Schulich School of Business, York University
- 3rd Place - John Molson School of Business, Concordia University
- Honourable Mention 1 - HEC Montreal, Universite de Montreal
- Honourable Mention 2 - Alberta School of Business, University of Alberta
“To harness the benefits of a diverse workforce, we are working to create a culture that is inclusive and welcoming to all employees”, says Robert Fosco, Vice President, Talent, Learning and Culture, EDC. “Sponsoring this competition for the second time provides us with an opportunity to demonstrate to future business leaders that diversity as well as inclusion are critical for the competitiveness of Canadian companies.”
“Beyond being the right thing to do, the business case for having a diverse and inclusive workforce is extremely compelling and backed by a growing body of research,” stated Matt Chesser, who was part of the winning delegation at the competition. “Reading recent research on inclusivity and sitting in on workshops by EDC and Deloitte - two leaders in diversity and inclusion - was fascinating. The fact that we won was just a pleasant surprise to end a great two days. We were fortunate to have a team with a diverse set of experiences that we could draw on for the case."
We thank all the schools for sending excellent representatives for this competition.
Written by Alexis Cawadias-McGeadie, assistant, Student Experience and Events
- Category: Latest News
by Gregory Richards
In 1990, the three biggest companies in the US employed 1.2 million employees to generate a combined revenue of $250 million. In 2014, the 3 biggest companies in the US generated revenues of $247 billion with 137,000 employees[1]. These 3 companies, all from Silicon Valley in San Francisco, generate approximately the same amount of revenue as the 1990 companies with 1,163,000 fewer employees. In case you hadn’t already guessed, the three biggest companies in 1990 were all in automotive manufacturing. While manufacturing will always be a significant part of the economy for both Canada and the US, with more technology being used to enhance human production, the types of skills needed by organizations will shift significantly in the future. Which jobs will grow and which will shrink? More importantly, what are educational institutions doing to prepare managers for the workplace of the future?
The World Economic Forum 2015 global survey of 371 Chief Human Resource Officers concluded that jobs in the following categories are likely to grow:
- management
- finance
- computers
- mathematics
- engineering
- architecture
- sales
- education and training.
By contrast, jobs in manufacturing, construction, extraction, administration, entertainment, and legal services are likely to shrink. Many of the jobs that are likely to grow, however, will still need to be rethought. This rethinking must consider the rapid growth of artificial intelligence and machine learning. Artificial intelligence algorithms for example, can process financial analysis faster and more accurately than most humans. Software advances for computer-aided design allow for virtual experimentation and simulation, thus reducing the time and effort needed for the design.
The good news is that this theme of technology substituting human labour is not new; therefore we should be able to anticipate the managerial skills needed in the future. For example, throughout history, new technologies have driven changes in the supply of labour. As Carl Frey and Michael Osborne[2] point out, deskilling was in fact the outcome of early inventions such as the assembly line and interchangeable parts. In other words, a production task that used be done by one craftsman could be done faster and more effectively by many workers each doing a small part of the job of the craftsman. Job specialization therefore required more workers with lower levels of skills.
The introduction of electricity, however, reversed the deskilling trend. Electricity permitted automation of some operations. Instead of many lower-skilled workers, fewer more highly-skilled workers were needed to ensure that the new machines did what they were supposed to do. This trend has continued with the growth of the digital economy. In fact, many see digitization as the “new electricity” because it is a general purpose asset that can be applied to many different types of tasks in an organization.
What happens to displaced workers? Well, in the past they would re-skill to fit into the new world of work. The same is happening now. But in addition, new jobs were created as technological shifts led to the creation of completely new businesses. Consider that companies such as Facebook, Google, Apple and Microsoft, were not possible before the computer age and the introduction of the Internet. With ongoing digitization, a similar process will occur: reskilling of labour and the growth of previously impossible new businesses.
The challenge for educational institutions is to anticipate and start to build skills now that will be needed in the future. MBA programs in particular, need to continually adjust courses to prepare managers for the digitized workplace of the future. What do these new managerial skills look like?
Consider leading the digital organization. What should a manager know about the use of data, machine learning and artificial intelligence? How should planning processes change to embrace a rapidly changing economy? How should a manager interact with employees who have “grown up digital”? What does the level of connectivity brought about by smartphones and social media channels mean for communication in organizations? What new opportunities for entrepreneurship exist given the mass connectivity of people and machines? While the basic functions of management (planning, leading, organizing) won’t change much in a digital world, the questions mentioned above suggest that the way in which many of the functions are carried out could change dramatically. The Telfer MBA program is aware of these changes and is continually adjusted to reflect this new world of work.
Telfer MBA Program
The Telfer MBA program is designed to connect you to course content that matters to employers in today’s competitive work environments. You can also personalize your learning to explore topics that matter uniquely to you. In addition, we share with you the close connections we’ve forged with the business community to help you build the networks you need to grow your career. Our out-of-class experiences hone the skills you’ve learned in class while creating lasting relationships with colleagues on whom you can count.
- Category: Latest News
From right to left: Erickque Plante, Shayan Obaidullah, Yvette Nakouzi Aoun (Assistant Coach) James Wilson, Derek Ovadia, Taro Abarbanel-Uemura, Germain Aoun (Coach), Philippe Lamothe, James Robert, Camelia Dubic, Anali Christina Stewart, Greg Richards (MBA Program Director), Emma Azzi, Keith Asare, Matthew Chesser, Goldwin John Guiang, Jayakumar Jayamanian. Two 2017 MBA Games delegates were not present for this photo: Curtis Haché and Jeremy Pluym.
On January 2, 2017, 16 of Telfer’s finest MBA students kicked off the New Year by travelling to Vancouver Island University to compete in the MBA Games against 18 other Canadian universities. Despite being one of the smaller teams present, they managed to vigorously compete in both the academic and sports components and exceeded expectations by winning multiple titles.
Thanks to the combined efforts of all its teams, the Telfer School of Management has gained second place in the academic rankings.
- The Finance Team landed second place in the competition. Members of the team are: Phil Lamothe, Shayan Obaidullah, Curtis Hache, and Jamie Wilson.
- The HR Team landed third place. Members of the team are: Matt Chesser, Keith Asare, and Camelia Dubic.
- Additionally, the Telfer MBA team would not have won second place if it wasn’t for the notable efforts of the Strategy Team (Jamie Wilson, Eric Plant, Camelia Dubic, and James Myers) and the Marketing Team (Taro Abarbanel-Uemura, Jayakumar Jayamanian, Goldwin Guiang, and Derek Ovadia).
The Dodgeball Team earned a well-deserved third place win. Members of the team are: Emma Azzi, Anali Stewart, Taro Abarbanel-Uemura, Jeremy Pluym, Jayakumar Jayamanian, Goldwin Guiang, Eric Plant, James Myers, and Derek Ovadia.
The Volleyball Team landed sixth place. Members of the team are: Emma Azzi, Shayan Obaidullah, Anali Stewart, Phil Lamothe, Matt Chesser, Curtis Hache, Jeremy Pluym, and Keith Asare.
Congratulations to the whole team for their outstanding effort and determination throughout the MBA Games!
Written by Emma Azzi, MBA student
- Category: Telfer Announcements
The Telfer School of Management is proud to announce that it has been ranked 31st of the Top 40 MBAs in the Corporate Knights 2016 Better World MBA Ranking, and is one of only 9 Canadian schools to make the ranking.
The Corporate Knights Better World MBA Ranking is the only major global ranking to evaluate graduate business programs on their integration of sustainability into the education of future business leaders.
“We’re very pleased to be ranked by Corporate Knights for our efforts to infuse social responsibility into our program”, says Greg Richards, MBA Director. “The Canadian MBA Oath that was developed here by our MBA students and the fact that we continually integrate material on governance and sustainability into our courses attest to the work we’ve been doing. The objective is to raise awareness that managerial decisions should place equal emphasis on people and on the planet, as well as on organizational success.”
Compared to traditional MBA rankings, the Better World MBA ranking is designed to help students and corporate leaders identify solid programs that have the infrastructure to support sustainability skills and knowledge. The rules-based ranking also recognizes those programs which best prepare graduates to solve business problems that intersect with larger social problems, such as climate change and inequality. The Better World MBA ranking evaluates the top 100 programs on the 2016 FT Global MBA ranking, and invites all other accredited (AMBA, AACSB, EQUIS) programs to opt-in. This year, Corporate Knights evaluated 123 programs in total.
- Category: Rising Stars
The Mining Association of Canada has selected Alexander (Al) Pritchard as the 2016 recipient of the Paul Stothart Memorial Scholarship in Mineral Economics, a $3,500 value. Al is currently a student in the MBA program at the Telfer School of Management. He also holds a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and Engineering from Queen’s University.
With this prize, Al is being recognized for his extensive work experience in the minerals industry and his strong academic achievements. Since 2006, Al has worked for Ottawa-based Sander Geophysics Ltd., presently in the area of Operations Management. He brings this technical experience in mineral exploration and development to his current MBA studies.
Al cites his early interest in natural resources to having grown up in Thunder Bay, Ontario. His vision essay on the future of Canada’s mining industry focused on the opportunities that the Ring of Fire presents to his hometown and throughout the region of Northern Ontario. He has a particular interest in the socio-economic benefits responsible mineral activity can bring to Aboriginal communities in the area and how it can lead to deeper, long-lasting relationships between mining companies and Aboriginal peoples.
Congratulations Al!
- Category: Latest News
Why do good people do bad things?
This is the question posed by Robert Prentice at a recent conference where he talked about Behavioural Ethics. The interesting point is that some studies have shown that business education increases rather than decreases unethical behaviour. Why might this be?
Behavioural ethics suggests that even the most well-meaning people can behave unethically in certain situations. This happens, according to Prentice, because of a few cognitive biases that include the following:
- Over-confidence bias - “I always behave ethically”;
- Conformity bias -“Everyone else is doing it”; and
- Respect for authority - “The boss says I have to”.
Business education might encourage unethical behaviour if the emphasis is placed on profitability above all. In other words, the MBA program might stimulate some of the biases mentioned above. Most MBA programs nowadays focus on a balance of results: people, profit and planet. In addition, many have introduced courses on ethics. The Telfer 2009 MBA grads went one step further to create an MBA Oath that outlines a set of values for how our MBAs will conduct themselves in the workplace.
All Telfer MBA grads sign off on the Oath prior to graduation, and many years later, Telfer MBA alumni can recall the ceremony that surrounds the signing and the commitment they made to ethical conduct. Harley Finkelstein, a member of the 2009 graduating class and a key proponent of the Oath points out that “other such Oaths were created in a number of American universities after the 2008 financial meltdown, but we wanted to create an Oath that would reflect Canadian values”. The focus is on “doing good” of course, but also on realizing that good people can do bad things if they are put in situations in which the ethical aspects are perhaps nebulous. Attaching one’s signature to a set of values instills a framework for making ethical decisions when faced with ambiguous situations.
MBA Director Greg Richards notes: “With the rapid changes in organizations these days, the proliferation of data, Internet of Things, and continual global connectivity, most of us now work in pretty fast-moving, complex environments. Sometimes, it’s not easy to maintain a focus on values in these situations. I think talking about ethics and values regularly and providing a framework, such as the MBA Oath, to help people focus their decision-making is a useful approach.”
Daina Mazutis, author of a number of papers on Ethical Decision Making and Endowed Professor of Ethics, Responsibility and Sustainability at the Telfer School of Management adds: “Many research studies have shown that making a public commitment to an issue can have a profound effect on individual behaviour. On top of anticipating, practicing and scripting responses in advance to the ethical dilemmas future managers are bound to face in the work place, the MBA Oath can serve as a sort of trip-wire that augments the moral intensity of the situation at the time a decision has to be made, especially if a visible reminder of the Oath is kept nearby.”
For more information on ethics in business, take a look at some of Professor Mazutis’s work in the Journal of Business Ethics or in Academy of Management Learning & Education.
Robert Prince and his colleagues at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin have created a series of videos and other educational resources at Ethics Unwrapped.
- Category: Rising Stars
Kevin Smiley is a full-time MBA student at the Telfer School of Management and a strong believer in social entrepreneurship. This year, he founded SuraiTea Inc., a social enterprise tea shop which employs mostly Syrian refugees in order to provide them with job opportunities in Canada, all while also raising money for settlement efforts.
Being in the Right Place at the Right Time
Having previously studied in environmental engineering at Queen's University and worked in renewable power and sustainable real estate development, and being actively engaged with the Professional Engineers Ontario / Ontario Society of Professional Engineers' Engineering Innovation Ecosystem, Kevin was inspired to create a sustainable business model which would benefit all parties involved.
In early February 2016, Stephen Daze, Telfer’s Dom Herrick Entrepreneur in Residence, informed Kevin about uOttawa’s Start-Up Weekend which carried the theme of refugee resettling. It was then that he shifted his focus to creating a business that would help with the Syrian resettling effort in Canada. “After seeing and reading many stories about the enormous strain on limited resources which not-for-profit organizations were experiencing, I began to think that there may be something that I could do to help,” he says.
The Project
SuraiTea Inc. is a corporation that uses the power of the markets to create positive change for the resettlement of Syrian refugees in Canada. It hopes to create high value employment for refugees and establish a sustainable source of corporate donations to the organizations that are active in the refugee resettling effort in Canada. SuraiTea Inc. is a social enterprise and a ‘Pending B Corp’ (start‐up) with B Lab Canada.
Why tea? Jasmine is the unofficial national flower of Syria and Damascus, the capital city of Syria, is also known as ‘The City of Jasmine’.
Kevin contacted a wholesale tea supplier in Toronto, which uses 100% USDA and Canada Organic certified organic ingredients and Ecocert certified facilities. He then reached out to World Skills Employment Centre, an Ottawa organization that finds jobs for recently-arrived immigrants and refugees and then put the two together. So far, SuraiTea Inc. has 20 Syrian refugees working on the project. “The more our customers support us by signing on to our online store and purchasing our teas, the more positive social change for refugees we can create,” he says.
Sustainability and Business
Kevin’s long term goal for SuraiTea Inc. is to eventually grow the corporation and add additional lines of teas from other areas of the world which have humanitarian issues, such as East-Africa, Sri Lanka and elsewhere. “The areas which produce some of the best teas, also unfortunately have some of the worst problems,” he says, “Syria has over 20 million refugees currently but there are actually over 55 million total refugees in the world so it’s not just a Syrian problem.”
Kevin says that the Telfer MBA program has helped him gain the knowledge needed in order to create his business from the ground up. “Telfer has truly been a transformational experience for me,” he says, “Telfer is where I learned about B Corps, where I learned that the truly successful business are the ones that solve problems, where I learned about intrinsic motivation and where the entrepreneurial fire was lit inside me.”
CBC News has covered SuraiTea Inc.’s story. Read the news article, or watch the TV clip (starts at 43:30 minutes).
- Category: Latest News
The Francophone MBA team from the Telfer School of Management has won first place in the 2016 HEC Montréal Sustainability Challenge. The competition was held on Friday, March 18, 2016 at HEC Montréal.
The Telfer team consisted of Jean-François Claveau, Mathieu Daoust, Majid Fassi Fehri, Hala Migahed and their coach, Mathias Kouassi.
This was the seventh time HEC Montréal has organized this event. The Sustainability Challenge is an international case competition that affords MBA students from across Canada and abroad a unique opportunity to put their managerial and analytical skills to the test, as well as expand their professional networks.
The objective for each team is to develop concrete solutions that apply to a current issue and present them to a jury made up of executives from large international corporations.
"I am very proud of this accomplishment by the Telfer MBA Team", says Mathias Kouassi, the team's coach. "This is a high level competition that includes many MBA programs from Canada and around the world, in which participants are invited to show originality and analytical thought to ponder emerging issues on sustainability and offer concrete solutions to these issues."
He adds: "Thank you to our champions for being such great ambassadors of our MBA program and to our professors and staff who contribute to students' well being and to the Telfer MBA program on a daily basis."
Congratulations to our team on this win!
- Category: Latest News
(From left to right: Carl Burlock, Export Development Canada; HEC team, Ben Mansoura, Amandine Michaud, Niki Parassidis, Abdelghani Zniber; Michel Brazeau, Deloitte)
On March 4th and 5th 2016, the Telfer School of Management, in partnership with Export Development Canada and Deloitte, hosted the first annual Diversity and Inclusion MBA Case Competition.
The rationale for this event, which addressed a topic not often found in typical MBA case competitions, was that despite the advances being made in promoting and integrating diversity in organizations, the fear of being different is still a common occurrence. This case competition was conceived to highlight and explore current issues and potential solutions related to Diversity and Inclusion in contemporary organizations.
The MBA case competition included the following teams:
- DeGroote School of Business McMaster University
- HEC Université de Montreal
- John Molson School of Busines Concordia University
- Lazaridis School of Business & Economics Wilfrid Laurier
- Odette School of Business University of Windsor
- Ted Rogers School of Management Ryerson University
- Telfer School of Management University of Ottawa
The team from HEC Montreal took home first place (pictured). Wilfred Laurier’s Lazaridis School of Business & Economics came in second and McMaster’s DeGroote School of Business third.
“Given our global mandate, having a diverse and representative workforce is a strategic business advantage that is critical to EDC's success – now and in the future,” says Justine Hendricks, Vice President Loans Value Stream Transformation, EDC. “Sponsoring this competition provides an opportunity to demonstrate to future business leaders that diversity is critical for a trading nation like Canada, and therefore critical for its companies.”
Kate Morican, Partner, Ontario Lead for Human Capital Services and National Lead for Strategic Transformation and Change Services at Deloitte, adds: “At Deloitte, our vision is to lead by building a culture through commitment and mutual accountability. A culture where all our people feel like they belong, feel free to live and work openly and understand that inclusion is core to who we are. Our Diversity and Inclusion journey is key to achieving this vision, and developing inclusive leaders is a key component of our journey. We commend our partners, Export Development Canada and the University of Ottawa for recognizing the importance of Diversity and Inclusion and taking the steps required to create a more inclusive and diverse community within their own organizations, while taking the time to educate others on diversity and inclusion and the tangible benefits which can be realized when one adopts a diverse and inclusive culture."
Abdelghani Zniber, member of the winning team from HEC Montréal, says: “This competition deals with a subject that has been getting traction recently. A competition on diversity and inclusion is a great initiative to further raise awareness about a topic that is unfortunately not taught in schools, but that MBA students will surely have to manage during their career.” Amandine Michaud adds: “The Diversity & Inclusion case competition hosted by the Telfer School of Management is one of its kind. It focuses on a strategic aspect of management that is oft forgotten and it prepares tomorrow’s leaders to help companies to survive and thrive in an increasingly competitive environment.”
In addition to the team competition, the event included a workshop on Unconscious Bias and a keynote by Bank of Montreal Senior Vice-President Justine Fedak on the practical issues along with her personal reflections related to Diversity and Inclusion in the workplace.
We thank all the schools for sending along excellent representatives for this competition.
- Category: Latest News
The Telfer School of Management sent two students to the Instituto Panamericano de Alta Dirección de Empresa (IPADE) case competitions held in Mexico City on February 5-6, 2016. Sponsored by Deloitte and Novartis, this competition is unlike any other. Students from a number of universities around the world are invited and placed onto teams. MBA students Mark Stuckless and Tavis Weigand were the Telfer representatives.
According to Mark Stuckless (second from the right), a member of this year’s winning team: “It was a wonderful experience in Mexico City. The campus was beautiful, the students were friendly and the sun was shining! Working with such a diverse group proved challenging, but interesting. Learning about different school's approaches to solving problems really opened my eyes and widened my perspective. Winning topped off an incredible couple of days and I am grateful for this opportunity to have come my way.”
It’s the second year in a row that our MBA students have done well in this international competition. Last year, MBA students Germain Aoun and Scott Bridgeman also took first place honours.
- Category: Latest News
This year’s MBA Games were held from January 2 to 4, 2016 in Toronto. Fifteen of Telfer’s finest MBA and MHA students travelled to York University to participate in academic case competitions focused around finance, entrepreneurship, marketing, and strategy. They also participated in sports, cultural and spirit activities, displaying excellence in teamwork, leadership, and engagement in every division.
The Marketing Team landed first place in the competition. Members of the team are: John Lachapelle, Ihor Bryden, Sarah Lag and Julio Chiong.
"Being part of the MBA Games was a unique experience that none of us will ever forget,” comments the Marketing Team. “It was an honour representing Telfer and going head to head against some remarkably talented people. Bringing the trophy back home with us was the icing on the cake!"
Other achievements at this year’s Games:
- The Spirit Team (Mariam Iqbal, Abeer Sami, Michelle Navarro) won one of the spirit events, in which they had to build a maze out of cardboard boxes with the theme of Outer Space for kids from the Ronald McDonald House Charity.
- The Dodgeball Team (Ella Cooper, Lianne Davies, Uyen Ta, John Lachapelle, Ihor Brydun) made it to the quarter finals.
“The MBA games is an annual competition of some 500 MBA students from across the country,” says Greg Richards, Director of the MBA program at the Telfer School. “I'm incredibly proud of the MBAs and MHAs who participated this year. We were a small team but made up in spirit what we lacked in size. Congratulations to all students who participated and to the marketing team for a great performance.”
Meet some of the members of this year’s delegation:
Mariam Iqbal was Telfer’s team captain for the MBA Games, which is her main task as one of the MBA Coordinators on the MBA Student Association (MBASA). She says she decided to participate in the sport section of the MBA Games because to her, it represented a great opportunity to meet and network with students from other universities. “It also allows us to display the skills we have learned, representing Telfer,” she says. Mariam says she chose to study at the Telfer School of Management because: “the faculty comprises of experts and well versed professors and mentors, allowing for maximum growth of [her] network and learning beyond classrooms.”
Julio Cam is also one of the MBA Coordinators on the MBASA. He wanted to take part of the MBA Games because he likes to take advantage of every opportunity he gets during his MBA experience to meet new people, to learn new skills and to have fun. Julio says his most memorable experience at Telfer so far has been taking a Marketing class with Professor Michael Mulvey as he says that his classes were not only interesting, but that he always tried to bridge the gap between theory and practice by giving students real life examples.
Uyen Phuong Ta joined the MBA Games to represent her team and school but most importantly, she says that she wanted “to make new connections, think critically and start the new year with a BANG!” Uyen’s five year goal is to work in the healthcare industry as an administrator and making a difference to Canadians by improving the system delivery.
This year is Michelle Navarro’s second year competing in the MBA Games. She says she signed up again, in the Strategy Case Competition, because she had so much fun competing last year. Michelle says that what matters to her is being able to conduct business in an ethical way, and in a way that benefits all stakeholders and employees: “Telfer has managed to show me that you can have a successful business or segment of the public service and maintain moral and ethical integrity at the same time!”
Hala Migahed took part of the MBA Games because she wanted to learn from and share ideas with other students across Canada with similar aspirations. She chose to do her MBA at Telfer because it is offered in French, because teachers have the practical and theoretical knowledge, and the schedule allows her to maintain her full time job. What matters most to Hala is learning from experience to improve herself on a personal and professional level. She says: “The school has helped me learn not just from a book but from real people with real stories and priceless experience.”
Congratulations to whole team for their determination and valiant efforts throughout the MBA Games!
- Category: Latest News
The Telfer uOttawa team took first place in the Social Media contest at the Degroote Case Competition, which was held November 13 and 14 at McMaster University in Burlington.
The DeGroote Case Competition, which was inaugurated in 2015, is an event focused around business transformation and digital innovation. MBA students from top Canadian business schools are challenged to adapt, collaborate and innovate in different ways, including a video contest, a unique competition and a formal business case.
Team member John Lachapelle notes that, "Our experience at the Degroote Case Competition was fantastic. The theme of Transformation in Business truly applies to the ever-changing landscape of business today. Innovation is rendering proven business models obsolete, while entire industries are being forced to transform due to disruptive technologies such as Uber and Air BnB. The Telfer MBA promotes understanding of this new paradigm in business and our team feels proud to have represented Telfer in Burlington."
The Telfer team had been practicing under the supervision of case competition professor Hantz Prosper.
Students (left to right)
Ihor Brydun (MBA Intensive program)
Sara Lag (MBA-JD Intensive program)
Hala Migahed (MBA professional program, French cohort)
John Lachapelle (MBA Intensive program)
- Category: Latest News
The CPA Ontario Intopia Strategy Simulation is an exciting and integrative learning opportunity for BCom students, as part of their 4th year Strategic Management class, and for MBA students.
From November 11 – 15, 2015, 39 BCom teams and 9 MBA teams participated in this simulation at the Telfer School of Management’s Desmarais Building.
Congratulations to the members of the winning BCom team
- Brandon Brown
- Euan Smith
- Kelsie Throop
- Andrea Howland
- Filipus Tjong
Congratulations to the members of the winning MBA team
- Alexandre Beaudoin
- Wendy Hopkins
The CPA Ontario Intopia Strategy Simulation has been a component of the BCom’s 4th year strategy course for close to 20 years. It aims to teach students the concepts of strategic management in a simulated online world known as Intopia. The simulation allows students to practice their skills in a concentrated amount of time where they can get immediate feedback on their decisions.
This capstone activity has recently been renamed to recognize CPA Ontario’s comprehensive contribution of $370,000 to the Telfer School to support students, teaching and research.
- Category: Latest News
For more information on the subject, we invite you to attend our next Telfer MBA Conference on November 21, 2015.
Register at telfer.uOttawa.ca
Gregory Richards, MBA, PhD, FCMC
Director, Telfer School of Management MBA Program & the Centre for Business Analytics and Performance.
A recent study by McKinsey Global Institute suggests that governments around the world can unlock $3 trillion in economic value by leveraging data more effectively. But most government organizations will tell you that they struggle with sharing data, with working through privacy issues, and with finding the time and skills to actually use data effectively. In this short article, I will address some of the successes and challenges facing public sector organizations. I’ll conclude with a brief overview of a case study demonstrating how to solve one of the core problems: integrating analytics into the “way we do business” in a public sector organization.
In terms of successes, some organizations have established analytic offices to crunch through data. In Canada, many organizations such as the Canada Revenue Agency and Service Canada for example, have fairly strong analytic practices in place. In the US, a variety of organizations have developed analytic approaches that improve program effectiveness and efficiency. The IBM Centre for the Business of Government in Washington has chronicled many of these efforts. These organizations have managed to solve data sharing issues and have been able to partner with universities and other analytic institutions to leverage data in new and interesting ways.
Despite these pockets of success, one of the key challenges is to mainstream analytics as a core process within organizations. Cultural resistance is still strong. Part of the issue of course, is that it is difficult to trust data if we are not sure of the source, and if we don’t understand how the data have been transformed. Furthermore, books such as How to Lie with Statistics have demonstrated that it is possible to confuse analysis with interpretation and tell almost any story with a particular data set.
So how might an organization overcome cultural resistance to integrate analytics as a core operational process? One provincial organization accomplished this task long before the term Big Data become popular. Here’s the important point: they did not set out to launch a Big Data program; they set out to improve program effectiveness and efficiency and found that evidence-based decision making helped. There were three keys to success. First, the organization had a clear mandate from the deputy head who insisted on measurable strategic goals. Second, the organization had reams of data with which to make informed decisions, but they made a significant investment in getting the data right. Third, the focus was on learning not on finger pointing.
The organization in question (who asked not to be named), was able to weed through the mission statements and other required planning documentation to focus on 3 high-level measureable goals. Clearly, a number of subordinate targets contributed to these goals, so the first step was development of a clear network of measures for each responsibility centre across the organization.
The next step was a bit of stumbling around realizing that the data they had were either not up-to-date and often contradictory. An investment of millions of dollars over a 12-month time frame helped to clean the data and install practices and procedures for managing data quality and data validation. Along the way, decision makers were provided education on the data stores, the use of data, and some of the analytic techniques. The organization was not naive enough to think that they could or should transform managers into analysts. But they knew enough to provide basic information so that their managers became data savvy. The managers understood enough to know how to critically examine reports and when to call in experts.
Finally, and this is a most important point because it speaks to the human aspect of the organization, the outputs of all this number crunching was used to stimulate learning and change. When a problem or opportunity was noted, managers would commission studies, conduct benchmarking exercises, and disseminate learning widely throughout the organization so that any action to be taken was fully understood by those who had to take it. It is easy to create toxic environments if we use analytics programs to point fingers at things that are going wrong. People will feel that they are always under scrutiny. They can become fearful of making mistakes and therefore, the analytics program could have the opposite effect of what was intended. When the program is focused on learning, however, the spirit of the organization emerges as a group intent on making things better and not being afraid to own up to mistakes and to learn from them. This does not mean that accountability is compromised, but it does mean that the hard number crunching side of these programs is wrapped within a more humanistic context.
In this brief article, I’ve highlighted some of the challenges, but I’ve also pointed out some of the successes being noted in the use of analytics in government organizations. Many departments and agencies have pockets of analytics, but it’s now time to think about embedding evidence-based decision making across the organization. The keys to success include a strong mandate from the top, ensuring high data quality, and wrapping analytics within an appropriate culture that balances accountability with learning and growth.
- Category: Telfer Announcements
The Telfer MBA has been ranked in second place in the 2016 Canadian Business Value Ranking, which ranks the ten best MBAs in the country on the value they offer and the return on investment they provide. Programs included in the ranking combine a few key traits: a recognizable brand name on your degree; a diverse mix of bright people in the classroom; affordable tuition; and a shorter duration so that you're not out of the workforce for long.
“This ranking attests to the hard work of a lot of people at Telfer who are focused on delivering exceptional value to our MBA students. We’ll continue this tradition as we add even more features to our program over the next few years,” says Greg Richards, Director of the Telfer MBA.
The Canadian Business Value Ranking’s methodology is based on a point system that awards points to schools based on a weighted ranking, including: 33.5% reputation, 20.5% classroom experience, 13% average GMAT scores, 13% tuition, 13% required work experience and 7% program length. The ranking only includes full-time MBA programs.
For full ranking, head over to the Canadian Business website
- Category: Latest News
Harley Finkelstein, JD-MBA 2009, will join the cast of the CBC’s Next Gen Den, as one of their new Dragons. Next Gen Den is an online show spun off from CBC’s Dragon’s Den, which looks to invest in young, up-and-coming entrepreneurs pitching start-ups and early-stage businesses. The new season that will feature Harley Finklestein premieres online on October 7 alongside the broadcast premiere of season 10 of Dragons’ Den.
Harley is an entrepreneur, lawyer, and the Chief Platform Officer (CPO) at Shopify. He started his first company when he was 17 and has been building startups ever since. Harley completed his law degree as well as his MBA at the University of Ottawa, where he co-founded the JD/MBA Student Society and the Canadian MBA Oath. Harley serves as a mentor and advisor to a number of accelerators of startup organizations, including FounderFuel, ExtremeStartups, InvestOttawa & CIPPIC.
Subcategories
Student Voices
The following article was written by a member of our student community. The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Telfer School of Management. For more information or to flag inappropriate content, please