Rotman "Essential Business Books" Featured at Indigo and Chapters Stores Across Canada

TORONTO, September 24, 2002 -- Canadians seeking to expand their business horizons need go no further than their local Indigo or Chapters bookstore and browse through the "Essential Business Books" table. Throughout the month of September, the table will feature books recommended by some of Canada's top business professors at the Joseph L. Rotman School of Management. Surprisingly, not all of the books recommended by Rotman faculty are business books. They are drawn from a wide range of disciplines, reinforcing the School's cross-functional, integrative approach to business education.

The initiative is an outgrowth of the Rotman Reading Community, an initiative started by fourth-year Rotman JD/MBA students Jeffrey Torkin and Amir Sperling. The students asked Rotman faculty what books Rotman students would gain the most from reading. Recommended books included standard key readings from business gurus such as Peter F. Drucker and Michael Porter, but they also included varied selections from history, philosophy, sociology, and fiction.

"We received such an enthusiastic response -- first from faculty, and later from our fellow students and Rotman alumni -- that we decided these books needed a wider audience," says Torkin, JD/MBA'03.

"It was natural for us to partner with Indigo and Chapters, Canada's leading booksellers," says Sperling, JD/MBA'03.

In addition to the spotlight table in Indigo and Chapters stores throughout September, there are plans to include a sub-section within the 'business books' area on dedicated to selections by Rotman faculty.

To mark this new partnership, the Rotman School has become an Indigo/Chapters 'affiliate'. On the Rotman Reading Community's Web page -- www.rotman.utoronto.ca/readingcommunity.htm -- users can link directly to chapters.indigo.ca. When they order a book this way, a 15 per cent commission will go to the Rotman School.

"This is a great opportunity for the growing numbers of consumers who order books online to support the Rotman School's efforts to become one of the world's leading business schools," says Dean Roger Martin. "We encourage our supporters, the next time they order a book online, to take advantage of this opportunity to simultaneously give to the Rotman School."

Indigo is a Canadian company and the largest book retailer in Canada, operating bookstores in all provinces under the names Indigo Books Music & more, Chapters, Coles, SmithBooks, and World's Biggest Bookstore. Indigo operates www.chapters.indigo.ca, an online retailer of books, videos and DVDs. Indigo is a publicly traded company, listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the stock symbol IDG.

The University of Toronto's Joseph L. Rotman School of Management offers leading-edge research and degree programs, including the prestigious Rotman MBA, the Rotman Part-Time MBA, the One-Year MBA for Executives, a first-rate Doctoral program, the distinctive Master of Management & Professional Accounting program, the undergraduate Commerce program in partnership with the Faculty of Arts and Science, combined programs with the University of Toronto faculties of Law, Engineering and Nursing, and an innovative series of Executive Programs tailored to the current needs of businesses and individual managers.

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For more information or to arrange an interview with Alan Webber: 

Ken McGuffin  
Media Relations Officer  
Rotman School of Management 
Voice:  (416) 946-3818  
Fax:   (416) 978-1373 
E-mail:  mcguffin@rotman.utoronto.ca  

Greer Hozack, MBA’99 
Co-chair Unilever Speaker Series 
Rotman School of Management 
Voice: (416) 538-3886 
E-mail: Greer_Hozack@embanet.com