INTEGRATIVE THINKING AND YOUR CAREER IN...
Consumer Goods

In the competitive world of business education, Rotman has one key advantage that no other school can match: an innovative approach built on Integrative Thinking. Our students receive a solid grounding in all the functional areas of business: Marketing, Strategic Management, Organizational Behaviour, etc. But they also learn how to think beyond them to consider the big picture, approaching each challenge with creativity, a willingness to consider multiple perspectives, and the ability to build new and better models.

Our groundbreaking approach can help you shape your business — and the world— for the better.Currently, more than 360 Rotman alumni work in Consumer Goods. Meet some recent graduates who are putting Integrative Thinking to work in this area:

Diana Palacio (MBA), Associate Marketing Manager, Old El Paso, General Mills Canada: "My Integrative Thinking training has prepared me to face business challenges with an open mind. I have learned how to analyze problems from different perspectives and instead of choosing one ‘solution’ over the other, I take the best elements of each and integrate them into a superior solution. For instance, when tasked to improve margins on our portfolio of products, we could have either reduced costs OR sold more of the most profitable products. Instead of choosing one over the other, I encouraged my team to find a way to reduce costs AND sell more profitable products. This led to a greater margin improvement than if we had done either/or and allowed us to deliver superior results.”

Chris Matthews (MBA), Global Marketing Integrations Manager, Specialized Bicycle Components, Morgan Hill, California:
“Integrative Thinking is a way to achieve‘also/and’ instead of settling for ‘either/or’. There is no tool more powerful than one that rejects a compromise and simultaneously turns it into a solution that is better in every way. By looking at problems through an integrative lens, I am able to lead projects and teams to successes that were previously unknown or merely thought to be impossible. Frankly, 'impossible' isn’t in my vocabulary.”

Consumer Goods firms recruiting at Rotman in the last few years include: