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Best-selling author Don Tapscott and Alan Webber, founding editor of one of the world's top business magazines, are among the leaders of the New
Economy who will speak at the tenth annual student-organized Rotman MBA Business Conference on Friday, January 28.
The conference, called Fast-Forward.ca: How We Will Win in the New Economy, examines the impact of new technology and widespread use of the Internet in business. Keynote speakers at the conference include:
Rotman Team Wins International Competition
In this fierce competition, the teams use their analytical and
communication skills to present a strategic plan of action for a
challenging business case to a panel of judges, made up of senior
executives. Teams are assessed on creativity, insight and real world
applicability of their solution.
The winning Rotman team had to crack 7 cases in 5 days, ranging from mining
in Colombia, to high-tech business development in China, to manufacturing
in Quebec, to non-profits.
Concordia hosted its first MBA Case Competition in 1981. Almost twenty
years later, the competition has grown into a prestigious international
five-day, 30-team competition, attracting leading MBA students from around
the world.
Rotman Takes Moncton Case Competition Crown
United Way Honours Rotman Students
Paul Koreen, MBA'00, and his fellow students raised $6,000 during the
fundraising drive - the first ever for the School. The Rotman community as
a whole raised $36,627. In 1998, all Greater Toronto College and
University students combined raised only $2,600.
"United Way's Spirit Awards honor people who have demonstrated outstanding
commitment and enthusiasm to our fundraising campaign. They are key to our
success. Without them, there would be no way," said United Way President
Anne Golden.
In all, 27 Spirit Awards were handed out in front of an audience of 2,000
volunteers and supporters at the Metro Toronto Convention Center on January
12. The 1999 United Way of Greater Toronto Campaign raised a
record-breaking $63.1 million for the community.
Unilever Speaker Series
Wiggens offered his keys to success: "know who you are and know where you
are going." Varadi then talked about his "Top 10 Entrepreneurial Lessons
Learned," and entertained the crowd with anecdotes about life in the toy
industry. He stressed the importance of being yourself, knowing what is
important and creating a strong network of business relationships.
Rotman Named World's Leading Finance School
Harvard Business School led in the rankings, followed by Wharton, Stanford,
Sloan, and Columbia. The top Canadian School was the Ivey School of
Business at the University of Western Ontario, which placed 19th.
Based on the alumni recommendations of the Class of '96, the survey ranked
Rotman #1 in Finance, ahead of Chicago and NYU. The survey also ranked
Rotman in the top ten for "aims achieved".
"Rotman is delighted to participate in the only truly global survey of
business schools," says Dean Roger Martin. "Our position at 41 out of 75 is
an accurate assessment of where we currently stand, and provides a good
starting point for our assault on the top ten. I feel confident that we are
making all the right investments to move into the next tier of the rankings
in the coming years. The truth is, we will have to be patient to see the
results of our hard work. The MBA Class of 1999 won't be surveyed for two
more years. I couldn't be happier with Ivey's strong ranking, which
demonstrates that it is doable for Canadian universities to rank among the
top business schools internationally."
The Financial Times ranking was based on a survey sent to the schools, an
assessment of research, and a survey of the MBA Class of 1996. A total of
106 schools were invited to participate in the ranking, of which 85
fulfilled the criteria for inclusion. Of those, only the top 75 were ranked.
AIM Funds Management CEO Speaks at Rotman
Profs. Baum and Hull Win Roger Martin and Nancy Lang Awards for Excellence in Research and Teaching
"Since excellence in research and reaching is at the heart of our mission
as a School, Nancy and I decided that this was the best way for us to
celebrate the achievements of the Rotman School's faculty," says Roger
Martin. "Rotman's program is distinguished largely by its research-based
approach to management education, and we are very proud of the achievements
of our distinguished faculty, who continue to achieve international acclaim
for their work."
Joel Baum, Canadian National Chair in Strategic Management and Professor of
Strategic Management, receives the Award for Excellence in Research for his
groundbreaking work in the field of organizational theory and his research
on the interaction of a firm's competitive interactions and organizational
ecology.
John Hull, Director, Bonham Centre for Finance and Professor of Finance,
receives the Award for Excellence in Teaching for his extraordinary
contributions to the MBA program. Hull is the recipient of the 1999
IAFE/Infinity Financial Engineer of the Year Award for his significant
contributions to the field of derivatives, especially in the area of
interest rate derivatives and management education.
Commerce Students Place 2nd in Case Challenge
New Chair in Business and Technology
Cooper, a U of T engineering graduate, Class of '45, spent his professional
career engaged in heavy engineering construction, both land and marine,
throughout Canada. Matched by the University of Toronto, the $3 million
fund will support research and teaching in this field in perpetuity. The
chair will assist in the delivery of the proposed Jeffrey Skoll BASc/MBA
Program, to be jointly administered by the Rotman School and the Faculty of
Applied Science and Engineering.
The new Chair will provide students with the technical and business skills
they require to succeed in the rapidly emerging and highly competitive
technology field. In this capacity, the chairholder's activities may
include: teaching students how to employ technology to enhance a company's
business strategy; researching the impact of technology and interactive
customer relations on product development, customization and marketing; and
furthering the on-going impact that connectivity (or the widespread use of
the Internet) has on business.
"While my first love is engineering construction, I place a very high value
on engineers being able to go to business school," says Cooper. "In the
past, too many engineers had to go elsewhere for business training. With
this new chair and program, we will develop in our graduates the kind of
integrative thinking they will need to be successful engineers and
entrepreneurs. Best of all, we can do this here, in Canada, at the
University of Toronto."
New Management Program Developed for Pharmacists
Through the program, slated to start later this year, pharmacists will gain
exposure to key management concepts taught in the Rotman School's first
year Executive MBA curriculum.
The new program was recently announced at an event at U of T's Koffler
Institute of Pharmacy Management, attended by staff and faculty from both
Rotman and Pharmacy, Murray Koffler, prominent businessman, pharmacist and
philanthropist, and representatives from medical institutions and the
pharmaceutical industry.
"Pharmacists are expected to do much more in management today," Wayne
Hindmarsh, Dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy, said at the launch. "It's
exciting that we can provide that knowledge collaboratively with the Rotman
School." He explained how this program will benefit pharmacists who want to
improve their strategic and day-to-day business practices.
Roger Martin, Dean of the Rotman School, said this collaboration will make
the "cluster" of healthcare industries in Ontario more competitive. He
explained how the new program will encourage participants to work across
traditional sector boundaries as a way to create stronger operations.
Rotman Professor Joe D'Cruz described how the program's content and
structure will encourage pharmacists to act as "missionaries for change"
within Canada's healthcare system. Professor D'Cruz said the program
evolved from the healthcare education initiative begun last year between
the Rotman School and Harvard University.
The need for understanding the impact of new healthcare technologies on
pharmacy was highlighted in a special lecture delivered at the launch by
Professor Alan Bernstein, a genetic research expert at the U of T and
director of the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute at Mount Sinai Hospital.
New Campaign Team
Also new to the department is Andrew Finn. Andrew comes to the School from
the London Health Sciences Centre and before that, the University of
Western Ontario.
If you have any questions about our Campaign, or would like to find out how
you can get involved, please do not hesitate to contact any of the people
listed below:
Kate Eccles, Assistant Dean Marketing & Communications
Christine Szustaczek, Senior Development Associate
Andrew Finn, Senior Development Associate
Part-time MBA Orientation
U of T President Robert Prichard, Dean Roger Martin, Associate Dean Peter
Pauly and MBA Program Executive Director Ramy Elitzur were all on hand to
welcome the students personally. Ann Armstrong, Lecturer in Organizational
Behavior, worked with the student groups to get them started as effective
teams.
Graduates from previous Part-time MBA classes helped to design the
Orientation, and led student tours around the building and across campus.
They also mingled with the students at a wine and cheese to give them an
"up close and personal" view of the program.
Twelve consultants from the Toronto area volunteered an entire weekend to
help each student group develop the solid foundation for becoming a high
performing team in the MBA program. The experience was so positive for
everyone involved that many of the consultants have offered to continue
helping their teams as the program progresses.
Staff Changes
Helen Kula, who replaced Public Services Librarian Halina Sultani while she
was on maternity leave, has joined the Business Information Centre as a
Business Information Specialist with InfoSolutions, Rotman's corporate
research arm. Helen has worked in such diverse environments as the Globe &
Mail, the Michener Institute for Applied Health Sciences, and Canadian
Parents for French. She can be reached at 978-1912.
John Mason joins Executive Education for a six-month contract as Marketing
Co-ordinator, overseeing marketing communications strategy and execution
for EMBA, EDP, and special projects in the Executive Education area. John
is an award-winning writer and creative director who has won, among other
honours, the Asia Pacific Foundation Award for outstanding reporting. A
1995 Rotman MBA grad, John has held senior marketing positions at Nestle
Canada, Laura Secord, and the Halifax Board of Trade. He can be reached at
978-1985.
Jack Thompson joins the Rotman community as Assistant to the Executive
Director, External Relations. Jack has worked with the Rotman community on
a temporary basis since last Spring, and in his new role he will provide
support to a wide variety of external relations projects, as well as
managing the alumni database. Jack can be reached at 978-0240.
Faculty News
Dan Ondrack, professor of organizational behavior, attended the inaugural
meeting of the Council of International Advisors of the European Institute
for Advanced Studies in Management in Brussels in October. He gave talks
on human resource management strategy to the annual conferences of the
Autoparts Manufacturers Association on October 28 and the Ontario Hospital
Association on November 22. Also in November, Professor Ondrack
participated in meetings of the North American Human Resource Management
Association at Monterrey, Mexico and attended the board meetings of the
Society for Human Resource Management in Washington, D.C.
Jack Mintz, Arthur Anderson Professor of Taxation, appeared before the
Senate Banking and Commerce Committee in November to discuss issues related
to capital gains taxation.
In November, Becky Reuber, associate professor of strategic management,
joined six scholars from the U.K. at a week-long workshop on Enterprise
Competitiveness and Public Policies in the Caribbean, sponsored by the
Commonwealth Secretariat and held in Barbados. She spoke on the role of
clusters and SME promotion in economic development and also on effective
mechanisms to deliver business development services for SME's in developing
countries.
Sridhar Moorthy, Manny Rotman Professor of Marketing, presented
"Advertising and Quality for Services" (co-authored with Ignatius
Horstmann, University of Western Ontario), at the University of Alberta in
November. In addition, he has had two papers accepted for publication
recently. "Advertising and Perceived Quality" (co-authored with Hoa Zhao,
Rutgers University), will be forthcoming in Marketing Letters.
"Advertising Repetition and Quality Perception" (co-authored with Rotman
associate professor of marketing, Scott Hawkins) will be forthcoming in the
Journal of Business Research.
The annual meeting of the Society of Organizational Behaviour was hosted
for the second time by Gary Latham, Secretary of State Professor of
Organizational Effectiveness, at the Rotman School in October. The
Society, founded in 1975, consists of 60 scholars who have advanced theory
in human resources management and organizational behaviour. Membership is
by invitation only. Topics discussed included: moderating effects of
national culture on human resource practices; similarities and differences
in leadership effectiveness across cultures; and stigma and discrimination.
Professor Latham addressed the application of psychological principles to
the presidency of the Canadian Psychological Association.
Rotman in the News
Roger Martin was on ROB-TV on December 9 discussing his views on brain
drain and Canadian competitiveness. He also gave a year-end interview to
CBC Newsworld Business News that was broadcast during the holiday season.
On January 25, he appeared on the CBC Morning News to talk about Canadian
competitiveness. On November 8, Len Brooks discussed business ethics on
ROB-TV, while Don Brean was ROB-TV's economist of the day on January 4. In
addition, Paul Halpern talked about the Capital Markets Institute on
January 10 and Ramy Elitzur commented on the Canadian bio-tech industry on
January 17. Peter Dungan was on 680 News, November 27 and 28 talking
about short-term and long term prospects for the Canadian economy. Robert
Herber was on Prime Business with Deidre McMurdy on December 7 discussing
the Dylex situation. On January 10 Joe D'Cruz appeared on the CBC Morning
News to comment on the viability of reviving Inter-Canadian airlines. Also
in January Eric Kirzner was interviewed by CTV and Laurence Booth by Global
on the Phoenix Investments situation.
Upcoming Events
Friday, February 4, 2000 2:00 - 3:30 pm
February 16, 2000 4:00-6:00 pm
February 16, 2000
February 25, 2000 10:30 to 12:00 pm
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