Latest News
- Category: Latest News
Every few years, a new program director is appointed to each of Telfer’s graduate and executive-level programs. Following the favourable recommendation of the selection committee, Dean Stéphane Brutus announced Professor Walid Ben Amar as the newest PhD Program Director at the Telfer School of Management who will serve a mandate of three years from July 1st, 2022, to June 30th, 2025.
Meet the New Program Director
Walid Ben Amar is an Associate Professor of accounting at Telfer with a Master of Accounting from Université du Québec à Montréal and a PhD in Business Administration from HEC Montréal. Professor Ben Amar teaches both financial and managerial accounting courses at the undergraduate and MBA levels. He also serves on Telfer’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee, driving forward Telfer’s goals for creating more inclusive and diverse programs.
History of the PhD Program at Telfer
For over 40 years, there were ambitions for Telfer to launch a PhD program under Dean François Julien’s leadership. Professor Barbara Orser stepped in alongside Danielle Bennette under the support and guidance of Dean Julien to go through the stages of creating this program. After years of dedication and considerable effort, approvals were reached in 2013 and the program was launched in 2016.
The program’s first director, Professor Silvia Bonaccio, was integral to the program’s success, after spending two years helping to build the program prior to its launch. Professor Mirou Jaana took over as program director following Professor Bonaccio’s mandate. Professor Jaana was credited with launching the first revision of the PhD program, resulting in the addition of a new field of study: Strategy and Organization.
Today, the PhD program has six key fields of study: Accounting and Control, Entrepreneurship, Finance, Health Systems, Organizational Behaviour and Human Resources, and Strategy and Organization.
We celebrated the successful first Telfer PhD graduating cohort when Vusal Babashov was the first to complete his PhD in Management after successfully defending his thesis in 2021. Vusal shared that the experience of completing his PhD at Telfer made him a better person, a self-motivated leader, and an avid problem-solver.
Thank you Professor Chreim
The most recent and former PhD Director, Professor Samia Chreim, had a huge impact on the program. “Under her leadership, the progress of students in the program was remarkable, despite very difficult circumstances,” shared Dean Brutus in his announcement of this leadership change. Among other things, Professor Chreim implemented more flexibility for our PhD students, provided mental health support to students during the pandemic, organized countless information sessions, and established the PhD student lounge. Thank you to Professor Samia Chreim for her hard work and dedication to our doctoral program and its students.
- Category: Latest News
Every few years, new program directors are appointed to each graduate and executive-level program at Telfer. The selection committee recommended a program director to take on the Master of Science (MSc) programs, formerly two separate directors. Dean Stéphane Brutus announced Professor Lavagnon Ika as the newest MSc Program Director for both the Health Systems and Management programs at Telfer. He will serve a mandate of three years from July 1st, 2022, to June 30th, 2025.
Meet the New MSc Programs’ Director
Lavagnon Ika is a Full Professor of Project Management at the Telfer School, a former Program Director for the MSc in Management, Faculty Leader for the University of Ottawa’s partnerships with African Universities, and the Founding Director of the Major Projects Observatory at Telfer. Professor Ika also holds a joint affiliation with the uOttawa School of International Development and Global Studies. Prior to joining the Telfer School, he earned an MSc and PhD in Project Management from the Université du Québec, where he also held his first positions as a course lecturer and a professor for 11 years.
History of the Telfer Master of Science Programs
In 2008, the Telfer School launched two MSc programs in Management and in Health Systems. Over the past couple of years, the MSc in Management has improved and developed considerably with newer concentrations like Innovation Management and the introduction of a program, the research project MSc in Management. The research-based program helps students develop applied research skills to a relevant business topic, preparing them for an exciting career in their field or industry of choice. The project-based program is only one year, so it is a fast way for students to position themselves as experts immediately after their undergraduate degree. Furthermore, students can also register for this program with a CO-OP option, providing them with real-world workplace experience in their field of study.
Students can also now apply directly to the Bachelor of Commerce + MSc in Management (Research Project) program prior to beginning their undergraduate studies. This allows them to transition from their BCom to MSc program with ease and no disruption, and to complete both an undergraduate and graduate program within 5 years at the Telfer School.
The Future of the MSc at Telfer
Professor Lavagnon Ika expressed his excitement for his new position at the School and working with various stakeholders including professors, staff, and students who are involved in these programs. He was highly involved previously as part of the initial ideation of the project-based MSc in Management program. Professor Ika shared some of the objectives he hopes to focus on over the next three years: “actively promoting the program inside and outside Telfer, establishing more connections with industry partners, working with the Research Office to facilitate Mitacs funding for professors and students, especially those in the project-based MSc, increase the quality of the student experience, and targeting and recruiting top students from abroad.” Professor Ika will surely provide a positive impact on these programs through his leadership.
Thank you to Professor Patrick and Professor Lapierre
Thank you to the former directors of the MSc program, Professor Jonathan Patrick and Professor Laurent Lapierre, for their positive impact on each program’s growth and success over the years. Under the guidance of Professor Patrick, the Health Systems program flourished, despite the difficult role of managing the program during the pandemic.
Additionally, Professor Lapierre was able to make great strides for the Management program as well. Professor Lapierre has the distinction of launching three new concentrations, Finance, Accounting and Organizational Behaviour & Human Resources, as well as a research-project edition of the program.
Dean Brutus shared his gratitude towards each program director in an email announcement to all staff and faculty at Telfer: “As a result of the hard work of our two colleagues, our MSc programs are now more popular than ever. I would like to thank both Professors Patrick and Lapierre for their outstanding contributions to the MSc Programs in Heath Systems and Management.” Big thank you to both former directors for their hard work and dedication to these leading graduate programs.
- Category: Telfer Announcements
On June 23rd, the Telfer School of Management held its Annual Excellence Recognition Assembly. Hosted for the first time by Dean Stéphane Brutus, this annual summer meeting is an opportunity to highlight the efforts and exceptional work of the Telfer faculty and staff members with awards assigned through votes by their colleagues and peers.
Revamped Telfer Awards
The Telfer Awards (“Telfie”) recipients include staff and faculty members who have distinguished themselves through excellence in service and dedication to their work, while showing leadership and initiative that has greatly benefitted the Telfer community. For the first time since its creation, the Telfer Awards ballot was open to part-time faculty members, creating 3 additional awards recognizing the contribution of part-time professors. The 2021 Telfer Awards winners are:
Support Staff Members
- Marielle Brabant, Financial Analyst
- Rania Nasrallah-Massaad, Research Advisor
- Nathalie Paré, Specialist, Academic Success and Student Experience, Graduate programs
Full-Time Faculty Members
- Wojtek Michalowski, Full Professor Health Informatics and Decision Support and former Interim Dean
- Jane O'Reilly, Associate Professor and Telfer Fellow in Workplace Wellbeing
- Shantanu Dutta, Vice-Dean (Research) and Telfer Fellow in Global Finance
Part-Time Faculty Members
- Jasmin Manseau, Parti-Time Professor on Long-Term Assignement, PhD Candidate
- Marc Tassé, Corporate Ethics and Financial Crimes Expert & Part-Time Professor
- Dorra Jlouli, Founder and CEO, Green & Smart Alternatives & Part-Time Professor
Patricia Ann O’Rourke Award for Excellence in Service
Created in 2014, this award honours Patricia Ann O’Rourke, an individual who provided exceptional service to one and all over the course of her career, for the greater benefit of the Telfer School and its stakeholders. She personified service excellence and was an inspiration to each of her colleagues, faculty and support staff alike. Patricia retired the same year after 32 years of service.
This annual award recognizes an employee (either faculty or administrative staff) who has demonstrated a strong desire and ability to help others, and in doing so, advance the interests of the School and contribute to the development of a culture of service excellence.
The 2021 Patricia Ann O’Rourke Award winner is:
- Jeff Lanthier, Senior Manager, IT Support
Congratulations to all 2021 winners who, in their own and unique way, embrace the Telfer vision in building a Better Canada through their work and dedication to our School!
- Category: Latest News
Lavagnon Ika is a Full Professor of Project Management and founding director of the new Observatory on Large-Scale Projects at the Telfer School of Management, who makes a difference at the school and beyond when it comes to his research, teaching, and practice. His research interest focuses on the evolution of complex projects that have developed around the globe. He is also affiliated with the uOttawa School of International Development and Global Studies. Ika holds both a MSc and a PhD in project management from the Université du Québec.
Mastering Hurdles in Life
Last year, Professor Ika came across Bruce Feiler’s bestselling book Life is in the Transitions: Mastering Change at any Age: “It resonated with the story of my life as a Black faculty member of African descent in Canada.” Almost twenty-five years ago, just after the ice storm crisis, he arrived in Canada to pursue a master’s degree. That transition was not always easy as he faced a number of hurdles to prove his academic excellence. These obstacles did not deter him from pursuing his dreams. A few years later, Professor Ika found himself doing his PhD.
“As a project management scholar, I was well aware that project planners and managers end up underestimating the times, costs, and challenges of such big endeavours, only to sometimes ‘stumble into success’ as Albert Hirschman, the late economist and social scientist said,” shared Professor Ika. Ironically, his own PhD turned out to be a very complex project to manage; first, it was not easy to gain access to the data around World Bank funded project management. Finding researchers who were experts on international development projects proved to be another struggle to form his thesis committee. Financial challenges forced him to commute to the National Capital region for a part-time teaching position while having to attend classes in Montréal. However, his hard work and excellence were rewarded. Professor Ika was proud to receive two prestigious competitive doctoral scholarships. After stumbling on many difficulties that delayed the completion of his doctoral studies, he defended his thesis and won several academic awards. Before his long-awaited defense, he got a tenure-track position at the Université du Québec, then he later joined the University of Ottawa.
Valuing Inclusion in Academia
Professor Ika also overcame challenges of being different in the academic environment in Canada: “As a Black faculty member, I am well aware that we have a long way to go in terms of equity in Academia.” A 2017 study has recently shown that discrimination remains a complex phenomenon in higher education in Canada. Reflecting on many situations that were personally discouraging for him, Professor Ika says that we need to have these difficult conversations in a constructive manner: “The representation of BIPOC in the students, faculty and staff communities is a work in progress at Canadian universities.”
One positive example that he notes is called Dimensions; it is a government-led initiative that supports post-secondary institutions that are collectively seeking to drive cultural change and increase equity and diversity within the research ecosystem. Professor Ika believes that it is also important to implement these strategies into actions. “Equity Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) is a long-term transformation that requires changing behaviours and tackling bias and prejudice at all levels,” he says.
Mentoring Others and Conducting Impactful Research
Professor Ika champions equity and inclusion in his teaching, research, and leadership activities: “Some of the challenges I faced made me more understanding of the hardships that many students and colleagues go through.” In class, he works hard to integrate students into diverse teams so that they can learn to work with people from different backgrounds. Professor Ika has also mentored several BIPOC graduate students, including a very bright young man who was struggling to establish himself in the job market. Professor Ika helped the recent graduate to secure a very well-paid job, became a close friend, and still advises him today.
When asked what he would advise to junior colleagues who arrive from other cultures, Professor Ika focuses on the importance of persistence and mentorship. “Always tell yourself that you can make it, tap into your creativity to that end, and never stop fighting.” He has encountered many supportive colleagues who opened their doors and offered insights and advice. “Find a mentor to help you navigate the complexities and uncertainties of academic life,” he adds.
Professor Ika is also proud of having become a well-established researcher in the area of project management in Canada, Africa, and other global economies. Beyond his many recognized research contributions in the field, he is also an engaged scholar who is having an impact: “I was motivated to study projects in the global South because when I was younger, I always wondered about how these large international development projects had varying degrees of success,” he shares. He collaborates with several African universities to expand the knowledge of project management and to improve education programs offered to academics and practitioners. Ultimately, these investments can help address issues pertaining to project management capacity and infrastructure development.
Professor Ika is an academic leader whose research, teaching, and practice contribute to advancing our knowledge of project management are recognized across the world. As a result, he was recently invited by the Minister of Higher Education in Guinea to share his knowledge on project management. He also worked with the African Capacity Building Foundation, to evaluate and enhance capacity building standards. He is currently a World Bank Research Fellow, sharing research insights to help the organization strengthen its project management systems.
Professor Ika is not only excelling in his field and pushing the frontiers of impactful research, but he is also inspiring the next generation of academics to push all frontiers.
- Category: Business Analytics and Performance
Big-data analytics investments don’t necessarily mean big impact. Two of our researchers from Telfer are exploring how to get more value from big data.
Telfer Professors Ajax Persaud and Sandra Schillo want to know if small and medium-sized enterprises (SMES) are ready to take advantage of the deluge of data at their disposal, in new research funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).
Mastery of big-data insights was supposed to enable SMEs to punch above their weight. By acquiring the right deep data and analytical skills, SMEs will be well in their way to making better decisions in the new digital landscape. That at least, was the chant small-business leaders were hearing for years. But with more than half of big data projects failing to achieve their objectives, what are Canadian SMEs to do?
“A lot SMEs are proceeding with caution on big-data analytics (BDA), and you can hardly blame them,” professor Schillo contends. The path to achieving value from BDA initiatives is far from clear. “It’s a big concern right now because Canada needs these organizations to stay current on BDA in order to remain globally competitive.”
Professor Persaud observes that “BDA is fast becoming a major focus for corporate executives with the main concern being how to extract maximum value from big data. It will transform corporate governance and decision-making” The transformation is so rapid that Canada’s Big Data Consortium has predicted a massive shortage of employees with the right mix of big data skills. “In a few short years, the ability to store, capture, process, analyze this information became of strategic importance to firms,” explained Persaud. “Every firm today wonders, how can I use it to my advantage?”
But he adds that BDA is still a gamble for most small businesses, even for companies with an appetite to chase big-data insights and resources to put behind the effort. “Capturing and mining the data does not automatically lead to value or better decisions – the right people with the right skills are needed to generate valuable insights and management needs to act strategically to harness the value of the insights.”
With their research, the Telfer researchers will use quantitative and qualitative methods to gauge the readiness of SMEs to leverage big data. Where most of the research in this area focuses on the technologies of big data, professors Persaud and Schillo are interested in BDA management processes, strategies and resources. Along the way, they’ll also contribute towards the development of frameworks, scales and indicators which, again, would illuminate the managerial aspect of big data. They expect to generate practical insights for Canadian SMEs, the academic management field, and the entrepreneurship public-policy community.
The researchers say that, as with any initiative designed to prepare SMEs to exploit big data for competitive advantage, their study will venture into uncertain terrain. But this much appears certain: given SMEs role in the economy, and considering the promise of big data, now is the time to help them unlock the value of big data. “One side, there’s a lot of euphoria about how SMEs might benefit from BDA, and on the other, there are those who say that only a wait-and-see approach will avoid business losses,” says professor Schillo. “But neither extreme is probably very realistic,” professor Persaud adds. “Our hope with this research is to make it a lot more realistic.”
- Category: Appointments and Honours
Professor Daina Mazutis has received an Honorable Mention for the 2016 Page Prize for Excellence in Sustainable Business Education awarded by the Darla Moore School of Business. Professor Mazutis was recognized for her undergraduate course “Leadership, Strategy and Sustainability” (ADM 4317).
This fourth year Bachelor of Commerce course focuses on corporate social responsibility and sustainability at multiple levels – self, others, the organization and society. It covers topics such as social entrepreneurship, carbon-negative enterprises, regenerative business models and the circular economy, instilling within undergraduate students and business leaders a keen understanding of the importance of sustainability in business.
This recognition underlines Professor Mazutis’ expertise in the field of sustainability and CSR. She holds an endowed Professorship of Ethics, Responsibility and Sustainability at the Telfer School, through which she focuses her research on the path to more socially and environmentally conscious organizations. Her research lies at the intersection of strategy, leadership and corporate responsibility, approaching environmental and social issues facing organizations today as critical strategic issues that require a broader understanding of business' role in society.
We would like to congratulate Professor Mazutis on this remarkable honour.
About the Page Prize
Now in its 10th year, the Dr. Alfred N. and Lynn Manos Page Prize for Sustainability Issues in Business Curricula is designed to encourage and support efforts to introduce or substantially upgrade sustainability courses or associated course work into the curriculum of business schools, both nationally and internationally.
The Page Prize is awarded annually for the best submission based on the integration of sustainability into business curricula. Submissions are welcomed from faculty, doctoral students and others related to innovative approaches to teaching sustainability to business students. Previous applications have covered a wide range of disciplines including accounting, entrepreneurship, finance, international business, management, marketing, operations and supply chain management, and organizational behavior.
For more information on the Page Prize or on the recipients, please click here.
- Category: Health Systems Management
A first-of-its-kind Canada-wide survey of seniors’ health technology-related behavior.
Project title
IT Innovation and the Elderly: Technology Acceptance and Use in the Community
Researcher
Mirou Jaana, Telfer School
Grant supporting this research
SSHRC Insight
Period
2017-2020
Professor Mirou Jaana has launched a new study, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), which will provide national data on seniors’ attitudes and behaviors towards health information technology solutions.
Telemonitoring (aka telehomecare) technologies have been around for decades, but little is known empirically about the factors that lead to the acceptance and use of these solutions by seniors. Professor Mirou Jaana says having a better understanding of these factors would assist healthcare providers and policy-makers to develop guidelines that support the integration and optimal use of these solutions for the greatest benefit of patients.
In the first part of her study, she and her colleagues are conducting a Canada-wide survey of seniors that assesses their technology-related attitudes and behaviors. The survey will consider a variety of general e-health applications, as well as specific home-based technologies, that have gained increased attention in recent years, such as smart watches. In the second part of the study, professor Jaana and her team will investigate the factors that affect the acceptance and use of telemonitoring technologies by seniors.
While the features and convenience of these technologies continue to evolve, their basic telemonitoring functions actually haven’t changed all that much, says professor Jaana. “Their essential purpose is to connect a healthcare provider or case manager to a patient who lives in the community (e.g., at home or in a retirement home), and requires close attention and monitoring.” As an example, a patient being monitored for a heart failure condition may use telemonitoring to transmit information such as a change in her or his weight. The nurse could potentially consult with the patient’s physician, and adjust his/her medications accordingly. This early detection of deterioration in a patient’s condition presents important benefits by preventing risky complications and avoiding unnecessary time-consuming hospital visits. This is especially relevant in the case of elderly patients.
Professor Jaana’s new study, focusing on technology acceptance factors, will build on the findings of her previous research which revealed that telemonitoring had significant positive impacts on senior patients’ self-care skills and it benefited them in relation to their chronic disease management. “By focusing on acceptance factors related to these technologies, our research is uncovering potential barriers/facilitators that may enable more effective use of telemonitoring among senior patients with unstable conditions.’’ Identifying in their health status, which they often would not notice on their own, supports timely intervention before complications arise requiring a hospital visit.
“The field of telemonitoring is maturing, but what’s still missing is the empirical insight into how these technologies should be incorporated as part of care guidelines,” professor Jaana contends. “With the continuously growing population of elderly living in the community, it is our responsibility to understand their needs, and leverage existing tools and technologies, like telehomecare applications, to support them in the community.”
- Category: Latest News
When it comes to sustainable development, small and medium-sized enterprises innovate in many subtle ways, says Martine Spence. (Photo: Andrea Campbell / University of Ottawa)
Be it for food, fashion or services, today’s consumers are leaning more and more toward products that are organic, locally produced, reusable and responsibly sourced. Sustainable development is no longer an abstract concept; it has infiltrated every area of daily life.
Is this just another fad or a genuine awakening? In any case, companies can’t ignore it, notes Martine Spence, a professor of marketing and entrepreneurship at the University of Ottawa’s Telfer School of Management.
For the past 10 years, Spence has studied the structure and analyzed the social engagement and sustainable-development practices of small and medium-sized entreprises (SMEs). “These companies contribute heavily to national economies, and they create the majority of jobs out there, so their impact on the environment and on society in general is significant,” she explains. “I grew up in the south of France, where there were many small entrepreneurs. When I studied business, large corporations seemed too abstract to me, and too political. But SMEs are led by individuals who have a true passion for their craft, and that’s always intrigued me.”
So how do SMEs implement sustainable-development practices? What prompts them to do so, and what obstacles must they overcome? Martine Spence examines their behaviour on three fronts: respect for the environment, respect for individuals and respect for the community.
“We observed that the level of involvement depends on the entrepreneur’s own conviction. Those who lend importance to these issues in their private lives are the ones who take their business’s social and environmental responsibility to the highest level,” she says.
In fact, SMEs readily adopt green practices, from shutting down computers at night and installing energy-saving thermostats to choosing active transportation and opting for energy-efficient technologies. “SMEs are particularly innovative and flexible; they don’t have shareholders and can quickly adjust their strategy,” says Spence.
She points out that investing doesn’t frighten them either, and that when SMEs buy in, they innovate a lot because they know it will lead to a good return. She adds that for most of these entrepreneurs, making money isn’t the primary goal; it’s more a question of being part of the community and of pursuing their passion.
What is the situation in other countries? Are the same challenges at play? As a member of the Observatoire international du développement durable en PME (Université de Montpellier) in France, Spence also studies the internationalization of SMEs, and she recently compared those in Canada, in Cameroon and in Tunisia. She found that “sustainable development isn’t yet ingrained in the mindset of the South, even if some Tunisian entrepreneurs see in it an opportunity, as it can help them do business with European nations.”
That said, SMEs are nonetheless engaged in their communities, remarks Spence, with some donating a sheep to the community at Eid, for instance, because social engagement is an intrinsic part of their lives, mostly driven by religion.
In the era of globalization, Spence’s findings show that the widespread adoption of sustainable development will be achieved only if sociocultural contexts are considered, and that inspiration for that ideal can come from everywhere—from the North and the South.
by Marine Corniou
- Category: Latest News
Women have been making steady gains in the traditionally male-dominated health care field. They make up over 50% of medical school students across Canada and over 80% of the health care workforce. Yet gender disparities remain. Women lead fewer than 20% of hospitals, and hold relatively few leadership positions overall.
On June 12, efforts to shatter the glass ceiling and empower women leaders in the health care sector received a major thumbs up. The Canadian College of Health Leaders and the Canadian Health Leadership Network, working with University of Ottawa Telfer School of Management professors Ivy Lynn Bourgeault and Barbara Orser, the Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvements and the Centre for Research and Education on Women and Work, received $400,000 to advance gender equality in health care, health sciences and indigenous health. The funding was awarded by Status of Women Minister Maryam Monsef as part of the Canada 150 project grants.
The team’s project, Empowering Women Leaders in Health (eWoLIH), aims to transform the health care, health sciences and indigenous health system by increasing participation, visibility and advancement of women in leadership positions. “Our goal is to build a strong and supportive community of established and emerging women leaders, helping them transform the health care system by drawing on women’s unique leadership skills, experiences and contributions,” says Bourgeault, the project lead. “This network will support community outreach initiatives, build partnerships and work to bring down the systemic barriers that contribute to gender inequity in health care, health sciences and indigenous health.”
The project, which will begin in Ottawa, Toronto and London, will first identify the unique systemic barriers limiting women’s participation in leadership roles. Working with partners, the team will develop and put in practice a set of action tools and resources and promote measures to remove these barriers.
By the end of the project, the team plans to have implemented these activities and evaluated their effectiveness. “Women’s leadership in health sciences is critical to advance research on issues specific to women, encourage female scientists and generate new knowledge to improve health and health care. It will also help shape the next generation of health workers and the leaders of tomorrow,” adds Bourgeault.
- Category: Latest News
(clockwise from left): Carolyn Montague of Perfocus Management Inc.; professors Jonathan Calof and Stephane Tywoniak; Jake Jacobson of Babcock Canada Inc.; James Maloney, MP; Joe Armstrong of CAE; and Yasmin Ratansi, MP.
The Telfer School of Management continues to shape the future management of mega projects with forward-looking research and thought leadership. The latest example: an eye-opening panel discussion on complex project leadership, organized by the Pearson Centre for Progressive Policy and featuring professor Stephane Tywoniak as the keynote presenter.
With a cross-section of attendees from government, companies and industry associations present, Tywoniak said there is a global consensus about the need to reset traditional approaches to contracting for mega-projects and major procurements, as they have become ever-more-complex challenges for governments at home and abroad. He went on to present a report on a series of roundtables on complex project management with some 300 government and business leaders in Australia, Canada, the U.K. and the U.S.
Tywoniak’s talk set the table for a wide-ranging panel discussion involving MPs as well as executives from CAE, Babcock Canada Inc. and Perfocus Management Inc.
Held in the parliamentary precinct on May 18, this event was part of the Pearson Centre's Economy for Tomorrow Series, which is chaired by another professor at the Telfer School, Jonathan Calof, and by Yasmin Ratansi, M.P., the Vice-Chair of the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates.
For more information: http://www.thepearsoncentre.ca/platform/managing-mega-projects-may18/
More about Complex Project Leadership at the Telfer School of Management
- Category: Latest News
On May 9, in commemoration of the 10th year anniversary of the naming of the Telfer School of Management, over 50 Telfer alumni, staff and friends will be teaming up with Junior Achievement Ottawa (JA) for JA Delivery Day, to promote financial literacy, entrepreneurship and work readiness skills to Ottawa Grade 8 students.
“Youth who participate in our program go on to save more and borrow less than the average Canadian adult,” says Albert Wong, JA Ottawa director. “The real world skills they acquire through the program can be applied to their lives immediately. Budgeting, investing and aligning their financial choices with their goals are a few of the things our JA volunteers are able to teach youth through the program.”
JA graduates are also more likely to launch businesses and create jobs. According to recent research, JA graduates are 50% more likely to open a business. What’s more, 65% of graduates said that JA has had a significant impact on their decision to stay in school and enrol in postsecondary education. Simply put, students who participate in JA programs gain the skills and confidence they need to succeed in life. JA programs prepare them to innovate, take on leadership roles and pursue their dreams.
“We are proud that Telfer comprises 20% of the yearly volunteers that participate in the JA workshops,” says Alain Doucet, Assistant Dean (External Relations) at Telfer. “The May 9 Delivery Day will increase that amount to over 30% for this year. It is evident that our community understands the importance of teaching real-world skills to our youth.”
For more information on Junior Achievement Ottawa, email Albert Wong at
Learn more about JA Delivery Day.
Learn more about the Telfer School of Management.
- Category: Latest News
Professor Samir Saadi will represent the Telfer School on a team of top researchers examining merger-and-acquisition (M&A) practices at a Joint Israeli-Canadian Research Workshop. Interdisciplinary and inter-university, this workshop will focus on the necessary elements for the success of M&As in Canada and Israel at a moment when both nations are looking to derive more value from these and other forms of corporate reorganization. It will be funded by the Halbert Centre for Canadian Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Professor Saadi, an Associate Professor of Finance, brings a background in research on M&A activities in the high-tech industry and on the role of CEO power on M&As. With this project, his expertise will contribute to a better understanding of the potential barriers to successful transactions within the Canadian and Israeli contexts. This initiative comes at a time when firms from both countries frequently find themselves as targets, and therefore, improving the outcomes associated with these deals has consequences for business productivity, for employees, and for the potential adoption of new technologies or expertise
- Category: Latest News
On March 13th, Professor Greg Richards spoke at the conference, “Smart cities: Imagining the future National Capital Region,” held at Library and Archives Canada (LAC). Key figures from the academic, public and private sectors exchanged their views on the future of the National Capital Region at this unique event organized by LAC in collaboration with the University of Ottawa and Ottawa 2017, and in partnership with Invest Ottawa and the City of Gatineau.
Professor Richards took part in the opening panel discussion on the smart economy (“Innovation, Social Entrepreneurship, and Citizens’ Participation”). He commented that the National Capital Region, with its strong concentration of knowledge workers, high level of urbanization, and robust technology sector, was well-positioned to develop as a smart city and seize new opportunities to make life better for its citizens. Richards was joined on this panel by John Smit, Manager, Policy Development and Urban Design at the City of Ottawa; Martin Lajeunesse, City Councillor with the City of Gatineau; and Eme Onohua, Vice-President of Global Government Affairs, Xerox Canada.
- Category: Latest News
For the last decade, Welch LLP has been a loyal partner of the Telfer School, with representation on the Dean’s Advisory Board, hiring coop students, interns and alumni, and supporting a number of initiatives on and off campus.
Welch has extended their financial support with a commitment worth $57,500 over the next five years. They will continue supporting the Welch LLP Accounting Scholarship, which recognizes an accounting student who is actively involved in the campus community. In addition they will sponsor five events, including the annual Top of the Tower Alumni reception in Toronto that is so instrumental to us in helping us connect alumni to each other in our largest market outside Ottawa and the Telfer Donor and Scholarship Reception that celebrates achievement and introduces scholarship recipients to those who fund their awards.
The other activities they sponsor help Telfer offer the best possible student experience: the Entrepreneurs Club’s annual Toast to Success Business Dinner; the Telfer Academic Excellence Breakfast and the Telfer Internal Case Competition, a new interdisciplinary case competition which is open to all students but is aimed at engaging first- and second-year students.
Read more about Engagement with donors in the Dean’s annual report.
- Category: Latest News
Ottawa stands poised to develop into an important player in healthcare innovation. And it can get closer to the goal by connecting the region’s clinical innovators to business acumen, and thereby drive better patient care.
That message was a key theme highlighted by Wojtek Michalowski, Vice-Dean of Research and professor of health informatics at the Telfer School of Management, in his presentation at the “I3” – Industry, Issues and Insights – lunchtime event at the Château Laurier on February 7.
Organized by the Ottawa Chamber of Commerce and the Ottawa Business Journal with support from the Telfer School, the event featured a keynote presentation by Ontario chief health innovation strategist William Charnetski, who spoke about efforts by his office to champion the province as a leading centre for new and innovative health technology.
Professor Michalowski took the podium first, and commented that with its large talent pool in healthcare, abundant resources and strong high-tech ecosystem, Ottawa has strong potential to become a national leader in healthcare innovation, provided that other elements are also in place.
One of those elements, he said, is the need for an intrapraneurial mindset. “Innovation in healthcare is like a start-up that is being developed inside the organization or the system. Thus, people who lead it must have knowledge about intrapreneurship, or how to be an entrepreneur on the inside. This means knowing what are the forces that will drive innovation, what are the forces that will kill it, what kind of skills does it require, what are the best practices and processes to follow.”
Another important element, Michalowski said, is greater coordination among healthcare practitioners and health systems researchers. He gave as an example the Telfer Health Transformation Exchange (THTEX), a meeting point for dialogue and learning for healthcare innovators and management and engineering faculties.
“I really believe that Ottawa is in a unique position, with the right size in terms of human capital and scope and a really innovative and talented workforce. There is a lot of enthusiasm on the part of multiple players to innovate, but there is not always coordination, and our hope with the THTEX is to contribute to that coordination.”
An interview with Michalowski following the event was live streamed on the Chamber of Commerce’s Facebook page. You can watch the interview here: https://www.facebook.com/ottawachamberofcommerce/
- 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
Professor Ivy Lynn Bourgeault of the Telfer School of Management, holder of the CIHR Chair in Gender, Work and Health Human Resources, has won the 2016-2017 Award for Excellence in Research from the Association of Professors of the University of Ottawa (APUO).
Policy-relevant and impactful research
Her research fosters a better understanding of the sociology of health professions. Her work has a particular focus on the impact of gender on work and the types of tasks assigned to different health professionals. Related to this, she also examines the need to modernize healthcare “scopes of practice” to support new models of care.
She studies the mobility of healthcare workers and the issue of regional workforce planning. Her studies in this area provide insight into the migration of health professionals to and from different countries, including Canada.
She also established a strong reputation for her research on women's health services. Her studies have delved into the healthcare provided to women in rural and remote locations; regional differences in maternity care systems; and the role of midwifery in the provision of primary maternity care.
Professor Bourgeault is an internationally recognized leader and champion in these areas and particularly in health human resources. Her innovative studies put Canada at the forefront of this relatively new field that has developed rapidly in response to critical health workforce challenges.
Leadership in health policy research
Professor Bourgeault has had considerable success working at the research – policy – practice interface. She has been a consultant to various provincial Ministries of Health, Health Canada, the Pan American Health Organization and the World Health Organization. She also brings exemplary leadership to influential communities of practice such as the Ontario Health Human Resource Research Network and the Pan Canadian Health Human Resources Network.
Professor Bourgeault is a sought-after mentor and educator. She has supervised a large number of graduate and postdoctoral students and also mentored a number of younger colleagues, demonstrating a strong commitment to creating the next generation of academic health policy and health systems leaders.
- Category: Telfer Announcements
Samia Chreim has been named the Ian Telfer Professor in Health Organization Studies. Her research provides new insights into the dynamics of organizational change, integration across organizations, and collaboration among professionals. Professor Chreim recently sat down to discuss the evolution of healthcare organizations and noted that transformation will increasingly require coalitions of professionals, with complementary skills and resources.
What sets healthcare organizations apart from other types of organizations?
SC: The healthcare system is currently under a lot of pressure to perform better. Healthcare professionals are frequently asked to adjust or modify the way they work in order to provide better care to patients. But healthcare professionals need to meet different professional goals; they have different roles, cultures and interests. Conflicts are inevitable.
Suppose a health authority grants one group responsibility for a particular procedure, and it was previously the sole responsibility of another group. Any side that perceives a loss of autonomy or authority is likely to strongly resist the change.
But other kinds of changes may encounter opposition simply because they disrupt the normal and accepted way of performing a given task. Take the example of incident reporting for patient safety. If the primary care unit in a hospital has implemented an effective incident reporting system, the hospital might wish to have another unit, for example the mental-health team, adopt that system. However, differences in the culture and professional practices may be incompatible with the new reporting system and prevent its adoption by the mental-health team.
What can managers do to ensure that the required change can be implemented?
SC: One of my studies concerned a collaboration across healthcare organizations in a primary care context. The study showed that to be successful in implementing the change, managers needed to build a winning coalition of professionals and staff who have complementary skills and resources. But to build such a coalition, time needs to be invested in finding common ground across professionals and staff, in putting together trust between professionals and staff involved, and in building the credibility of the change process.
Therefore, there needs to be somebody whose job is to manage the change process. That approach is ultimately going to bring more success than asking busy healthcare practitioners to take on additional change-management tasks. When you don’t have a person that owns and manages the change process, you are likely to see a dilution of change focus and a loss of momentum.
What type of management style or approach should be encouraged, given the need for professionals and staff to coalesce around significant change?
SC: The research provides evidence about the benefits of having a small number of individuals (e.g., managers, professionals) with complementary competencies and resources in bringing important organizational changes to fruition. But this approach might create a lack of clarity. There might be ambiguity about who is responsible for what, which can lead to duplication of efforts or to one or more tasks falling through the cracks. I have also studied situations in which intractable conflicts developed among the members of a management group, and the teams working under them deteriorated as a result.
The risks of these scenarios are at the heart of a big debate about how leadership should be organized. In particular, when and how to share or distribute leadership. Shared leadership happens at different levels, for example, within teams, organizations, and inter-organizational collaborations. Change-management processes, such as the need for integration between healthcare teams, sometimes point to the need for shared leadership. On the other hand, for the reasons I mentioned, shared leadership isn’t necessarily a panacea. Without doubt, understanding when and how leadership can be shared, and what type of collective leadership is appropriate in different change-management settings, will continue to be a hot topic for any healthcare organization for the foreseeable future.
- Category: Latest News
Congratulations to Professor Richard Clayman who will be awarded the Part-Time Professor of the year award by the Association of Part-Time Professors of the University of Ottawa. The presentation will take place on Friday, November 25 at 2:30 p.m. in FSS 4004.
The Part-Time Professor of the Year Award was created in 1996 in recognition of the contribution of the members of the Association of Part-Time Professors of the University of Ottawa (APTPUO) to university education. Sponsored by the University of Ottawa, the Alumni Relations Office, and the APTPUO, the Award consists of a $2,000 honorarium to be conferred during the special lecture given by the recipient.
- Category: Latest News
The University of Ottawa is pleased to invite students and faculty who have created startup ventures to participate in a competition that will result in up to five companies being selected for an exclusive trip to Silicon Valley in the spring of 2017. Each selected startup will receive $4,000 (CAD) in financial support for the trip.
- Category: Appointments and Honours
Congratulations to professors Craig Kuziemsky, Morad Benyoucef and Pavel Andreev who have been shortlisted for the American Medical Informatics Association’s “distinguished paper award” at its annual conference in Chicago, November 12-16. Their paper contributes to a deeper understanding of the connectivity challenges involved in the design of social information systems in healthcare. This is the second time in three years that a Telfer School paper made the list of 10 top papers at AMIA, chosen from among 400 papers presented.
From the article: “Social information systems (SISs) will play a key role in healthcare systems’ transformation into collaborative patient-centered systems that support care delivery across the entire continuum of care." Read the full article abstract
The research was undertaken by Professor Kuziemsky, who holds the University Research Chair in Healthcare Innovation, Pavel Andreev, Telfer School, Morad Benyoucef, Telfer School, Tracey O'Sullivan, University of Ottawa, and Syam Jamaly, University of Ottawa.
- Category: Telfer Announcements
The Telfer School welcomes professor Mohamed Chelli as a new professor in accounting. His teaching areas include financial accounting and his research interests include topics related to socio-environmental performance indicators. He obtained his PhD in accounting from Université Laval and Université Paris-Dauphine and he was previously a professor of accounting at Toulouse Business School in France.
Professor Chelli said governments, policy-makers, stakeholders, and companies are keeping close watch on the development of socio-environmental performance indicators. CDP, formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project, has operated for the past 15 years, while more recently the Financial Stability Board (FSB), chaired by Bank of England Governor Mark Carney, created the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), Chelli noted. Led by Michael Bloomberg, the task force is working on developing more effective climate-related financial disclosures for use by companies; the group’s members include the head of sustainable investing at the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. In a separate step, France last year introduced mandatory climate change-related reporting for institutional investors, a move which ESG Magazine called “one of the world’s most comprehensive shifts to public sustainable finance data.”
Professor Chelli noted: “There are many efforts underway to improve and standardize climate change and environmental disclosures, and my particular focus is on the legitimization practices of socio-environmental performance measurement bodies that oversee corporations. My work also provides analysis of the way the measurements produced exercise a certain pressure both over the corporations under scrutiny and the stakeholders.”
- Category: Innovation and Entrepreneurship
The University’s Co-operative Education Programs and the Entrepreneurship Hub have teamed up with RBC Royal Bank to launch an innovative CO-OP program designed to develop an entrepreneurial mindset. Read the complete article in the Gazette »
- Category: Appointments and Honours
Congratulations to Ivy Lynn Bourgeault on becoming a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (CAHS). Fellows elected to the academy are recognized by their peers nationally and internationally for their contributions to the promotion of health science. They demonstrate leadership, creativity, distinctive competencies and a commitment to advance academic health science. Professor Bourgeault and 35 other Canadian researchers were welcomed as CAHS Fellows at the induction ceremony in Montreal on September 15, 2016.
Ivy Lynn Bourgeault is a Professor at the Telfer School of Management and is the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Chair in Gender, Work and Health Human Resources. She has been a consultant to various provincial Ministries of Health in Canada, to Health Canada and to the World Health Organization. Her recent research focuses on the migration of health professionals and their integration into the Canadian healthcare system.
Professor Bourgeault is the Scientific Director of the Ontario Population Health Improvement Research Network and the Ontario Health Human Resource Research Network, both housed at the University of Ottawa with funding from the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-term Care. Professor Bourgeault also leads the Canadian Health Human Resources Network (CHHRN) with funding from Health Canada and the CIHR.
The Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (CAHS)
CAHS provides timely, informed and unbiased assessments of urgent issues affecting the health of Canadians. These assessments, which are based on evidence reviews and leading expert opinion, provide conclusions and recommendations in the name of CAHS. More about CAHS
- Category: Latest News
Barbara Orser was the keynote speaker at Startup Canada’s Canadian Entrepreneurship Institute, which took place on September 1, 2016. The event, titled “Unlocking Feminine Capital: Canada and the World”, explored how public policy can be better leveraged to support women entrepreneurs in Canada. Barbara Orser currently co-chairs a grassroots committee, comprising 18 leaders from women’s enterprise centres, networks and SME support organizations. The mandate of the Ontario Women’s Enterprise Committee is to improve business support infrastructure for Ontario women entrepreneurs.
Full Professor/Deloitte Professor at the Telfer School of Management, Dr. Orser is the Canadian representative on a team of 13 international scholars examining SME policy associated with women’s enterprise. Collaborative entrepreneurship studies in development focus on financial literacy, technology literacy and the efficacy of public procurement policies. Professor Orser is the author, with Professor Catherine Elliott, of Feminine Capital (Stanford University Press, 2015).
- 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: Latest News
The Executive Committee of the University of Ottawa’s Board of Governors has approved the renewal of François Julien’s mandate as Dean of the Telfer School of Management. Dean Julien’s new mandate will be for a period of five (5) years and will begin July 1, 2016.
“On behalf of the University, I wish to congratulate François and express my appreciation for his leadership and commitment to the Telfer School of Management” said Allan Rock, President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ottawa.
François Julien has been a professor at the Telfer School of Management for over twenty five years. He was the Associate Dean (Programs) and Vice Dean of the Telfer School of Management from 2005 to 2010. Over his tenure, he oversaw the creation of the School's first two research-based programs, the M.Sc. in Management and the M.Sc. in Health Systems, led the curriculum revision of all programs offered by the School, and contributed significantly to the quality of the student experience through initiatives such as the creation of the Personal and Leadership Development Program. François Julien was named Acting Dean of the Telfer School on July 1, 2010 and named Dean of the Telfer School on January 1, 2011.
- Category: Latest News
In the spring of 2016, the Telfer School launched a video competition. With the intention of building a promotional video that would feature key aspects of our undergraduate program, we thought who better to unveil what we have to offer than our very own students?
Created by Sharanya Tharmarajan and Conor O’Doherty, both of whom are in their third year of Accounting in the BCom program, the winning video showcases our connection to our brand, to our student experience, and to our target audience. It also demonstrates the hard work and dedication of our students and is a prime example of what defines our student body at the Telfer School.
How does Telfer connect you to what matters? Let us show you.
The Student Services Centre
The Student Services Centre
- Category: Latest News
Jonathan Calof, professor of International Business and Strategy at the Telfer School of Management, has been appointed as Leading Research Fellow of the Research Laboratory for Science and Technology Studies at the Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics and Knowledge (ISSEK) at the National Research University Higher School of Economics in Moscow, Russia. This is a continuation of his involvement with HSE which started with his appointment on their International Advisory Board.
Ranked as one of Russia’s top universities, the Higher School of Economics is a leader in Russian education and one of the top economics and social sciences universities in eastern Europe and Eurasia.
Professor Calof was also named Extraordinary Professor at the North-West University in South Africa, in their School of Business and Governance, to work on an African research program in competitive intelligence.
North-West University is one of South Africa's biggest universities, with three campuses in two provinces. It upholds the promotion of multilingualism as a core practice, with key innovations in place to meet the needs of its diverse student body.
More information about North-West University
- Category: Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Given the recent surge in entrepreneurial activity on the University of Ottawa campus, it is appropriate to recognize and celebrate the culmination of each annual cycle of teaching, competitions, workshops and hard work that lead to exciting start-ups.
In the fall of 2015 and early 2016, we conducted the 2nd annual search for the Top 5 Start-ups on the uOttawa campus. This is a collaborative effort between the Telfer School of Management, the Faculty of Engineering, Startup Garage and the uOttawa e-hub.
“Each year the quality of start-ups on campus is improving” says Stephen Daze, the Dom Herrick Entrepreneur in Residence at the Telfer School. “Student interest, faculty programming and an increasing culture of entrepreneurship is contributing to this rise in quality and it’s encouraging to see our next generation of leaders creating their own opportunities”.
The Top 5 uOttawa start-ups, in no particular order, are:
Helix (Powered by MicroMetrics)
- Cofounders: Andre Richards, CTO (Honours Bachelor of Science 2011, uOttawa) and Artem Abramov, CEO.
- MicroMetrics is a software company with a focus on customer experience innovation. Working together with TripAdvisor, they’ve developed Helix – a robust guest experience management platform that empowers hotel staff to conduct real-time service recovery. Since its introduction, Helix has helped brands like Starwood and IHG deliver memorable guest experiences, improve occupancy rates and outperform their competitive sets at premier properties across North America.
GymTrack
- Cofounders: Lee Silverstone, CEO and Pablo Srugo, COO.
- Gymtrack is a platform that brings personal training to all exercisers through their gym and impacts the $80BN gym industry. Gymtrack provides gyms with virtual coaching that automatically tracks everything in an exerciser’s workout, from weight lifting to cardio and helps gyms reduce churn.
Go Give-Back
- Cofounders: Lemuel Barango, (Bachelor of Science 2015, uOttawa) and Liora Raitblat (Telfer BCom 2015, uOttawa).
- Go Give-Back (GGB) is providing a solution for charitable causes by offering a mobile donation platform that accepts donations, catering to the “in-the-moment” factor. GGB will include detailed demographics for the organization with “on the go” analytics used to retain and engage donors.
TruReach:
- Founder: Jeff Perron, MBA (Clinical Psychology PhD Candidate, uOttawa), Clinical Lead: Dr. Joti Samra, PhD, C. Psych.
- TruReach provides instant access to scientifically proven cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). It eliminates the stigma associated with mental illness and helps people get better, faster. TruReach cuts costs associated with the management of mental illness and their analytics give organizations data to prove it.
Spectrafy
- Cofounders: Richard Beal, CEO and Viktar Tatsiankou (B.A.Sc., M.A.Sc. in Electrical and Computer Engineering, uOttawa).
- Spectrafy has reinvented the way we measure sunlight and the atmosphere. Spectrafy’s solution, the SolarSIM, combines simple hardware and breakthrough software to slash the cost of measuring sunlight and the atmosphere by over an order of magnitude.
How were the Top 5 start-ups on campus selected?
A working committee of the 4 leaders on campus who run the various entrepreneurship activities select possible candidates from the start-ups they see in their programs. In addition, a public web-based call for nominations allowed start-ups to show their interest. The nominees were then evaluated by the committee and an initial long list of top start-ups was selected.
Feedback from various alumni and entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley was obtained before a final list of five “Top Start-ups” is selected. From the Top 5, selected start-ups will be invited to visit Silicon Valley for a learning and business development experience. The exact number of start-ups who are invited to go to Silicon Valley will be a function of available funding.
Photo: Liora Raitblat, Go Give-Back cofounder, at Startup Weekend 2015 (Feb 27 - March 1)
- Category: Latest News
Part-time Professor Paula Sauveur has recently published a new book entitled Ethics and Professional Deontology: Laws and Regulations in Engineering (Thomson Reuters).
Ethics and deontology are the heart of the concerns of the Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec and the Association of Professional Engineers of Ontario. Their public protection mandate forces them to require a behavior that meets the highest ethical standards and codes of deontology applicable to the practice of engineering by their members.
This book is intended primarily for engineers who wish to know the ethical requirements and other standards that affect and govern their professional activities. It also aims at helping students in their admission process to Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec and/or the Association of Professional Engineers of Ontario. It lists the official, bilingual versions of laws and regulations in strengths in Quebec, Ontario and Canada pertaining to ethics and professional conduct in the practice of the profession of engineers. The laws and regulations are presented intuitively in a format easy to navigate.
Paula Sauveur, C.Med, LL.M-ADR, LL.M, J.D., LL.B., MBA, MEng, BSc, is a lawyer, mediator and arbitrator with a bi-juridical legal education (civil law and common law). She teaches the course Engineering Law at University of Ottawa where she is a part time professor at the Faculty of Law (Civil Law Section, Common Law Section), Faculty of Engineering and at Telfer School of Management. She is also a PhD candidate in Law at the Law Faculty of Université de Montréal as well a PhD candidate in Electrical Engineering at the Computer Vision and Systems Laboratory of Laval University.
- Category: Telfer Announcements
The University of Ottawa’s Telfer School of Management has received EQUIS re-accreditation from the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD). The Telfer School remains one of only two business school in Canada to achieve the triple crown of business school accreditations. There are only 73 schools worldwide, as of September 2015, that have obtained this prestigious recognition.
The Telfer School of Management was initially awarded the accreditation in November 2009 and it was renewed in December 2015 for a period of 5 years.
“As Dean of the Telfer School of Management, I am delighted and proud that our School has been conferred the EQUIS accreditation label for a further period of five years. This is a remarkable achievement which confirms that our triple-accredited School meets the highest international standards of excellence,” said François Julien, Dean of the Telfer School. “I am grateful to EFMD for the advice and guidance they have provided since we were first accredited in 2009 and which allowed us to develop and improve.”
“We owe this success to the outstanding work of our professors, the dedication of our academic leaders and administrative personnel as well as the quality of our students and the commitment of our alumni and members of the community at large who have supported the School on its path towards continuous improvement and excellence,” he adds. “Congratulations and thank you to all for this accomplishment!”
EQUIS is the leading international system of quality assessment, improvement and accreditation of higher education institutions in management and business administration. EQUIS is managed and run by the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) and its fundamental objective, linked to the mission of the EFMD, is to raise the standard of management education worldwide.
Institutions that are accredited by EQUIS must demonstrate not only high general quality in all dimensions of their activities, but also a high degree of internationalisation. With companies recruiting worldwide, with students choosing to get their education outside their home countries, and with Schools building alliances across borders and continents, there is a rapidly growing need for them to be able to identify those institutions in other countries that deliver high quality education in international management.
- Category: Alumni in the Lead
While the media are considered to play an influential role in business, very little research has been done on the relationship between firm-specific media coverage and corporate decision making. The Telfer School’s Shantanu Dutta is helping to change that with a new study on how business reporting shapes firms’ merger and acquisition decisions.
“Our preliminary evidence suggests that the media do influence deal outcomes, independently of the market’s response to a given M&A play,” notes Dutta, an associate professor of finance at the Telfer School. “In particular, the press has something of a ‘corporate governance’ role, one that has not been explored much empirically.”
Dutta and his team seek to understand better how reporting in reputable newspapers might affect the probability of making a deal – and the degree to which negative coverage has a restraining effect. But they are also looking into the impact of coverage on other strategic decisions in M&A, “such as the acquiring firm’s payment method, and the impact on future acquisitions.”
The 2008-2009 global financial crisis sparked interest among finance researchers in the role of the press. After the financial crisis, traditional measures of firm performance no longer appeared adequate. In response, some finance researchers began to examine how verbal information contained in media reports provides information over and above the traditional performance measures.
The findings from the study will encourage a better understanding about the linkages between media coverage and M&A decision making processes among investors and managers, says Dutta.
“We recognize that business reporting is not the only factor that influences major corporate decisions, but it certainly has the potential to play a significant role in shaping managers' and investors' perceptions.”
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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