Entrepreneurship

Javier Ojeda: Helping Businesses Become More Energy Efficient

February 22, 2022 denisehinds Leave a Comment

“Making this world more sustainable, one kilowatt at a time”.

Javier Ojeda, MBA(L) Candidate, (Class of 2022)

Javier Ojeda, MBA(L) Candidate, (Class of 2022)
Photo Provided

Javier Ojeda’s shares his experience in starting a new business in sustainable engineering and becoming self-employed after sixteen years of work experience in the industry.

Javier is currently in his final year of Dalhousie’s MBA, Leadership program through CEGE. With experience in Engineering, Project Management and Business Administration, Javier will have plenty to offer for his business and in growing his network.

Javier Ojeda

“Start where you are with what you have, knowing that what you have is plenty enough” – Booker T. Washington

After sixteen years working in the industry in different roles, I’m starting a company focused around sustainable engineering. I have plenty on hand which include an office in my basement here in Halifax, my old laptop and a PC that I assembled myself. Of course included are my experience and knowledge of 16 years on renewables (especially in hydroelectric power plants), energy efficiency, and the support of a growing network. Factor in my learnings from the MBA program here at Dalhousie, and the many people that support me and help me in making this world more sustainable, one kilowatt at a time. What I know are engineering and project management, what I hope to gain is a business that can make a difference.

Earlier this year I have been very excitingly putting my MBA skills and experience to the test by signing a collaboration agreement with a fellow local consulting firm, and several independent consultants, locally and abroad. I’ve been having meetings with potential clients, old school coffees, virtual ones with old and new friends, attending several virtual events, reading several RFPs, starting to prepare proposals, building teams for those proposals, reaching people here and outside here. There will be plans to grow the team as I recognize that by no means is this a solo job. As I balance out my MBA learnings this year while taking on the challenges of starting a new business, I’m reminded how great the CEGE program is with its flexible/blended delivery. In the meanwhile I’ve been renewing my safety certificates, purchasing PPE, preparing the budget for the year for tools, equipment and software, preparing the budget, revising the budget…and revising the budget 3 more times!

With my confidence to pursue this entrepreneurial venture, I’m really excited for what is coming. I trust in the support of my network, the community and my experiences to thrive as another small business.

Dr. Kyung Young Lee: Unveiling the cloak of deviance – Linguistic cues for psychological processes in online fake reviews

May 26, 2020 rbudd Leave a Comment

Kyung Young Lee, PhD, MBA
PhD in Management
Associate Professor,
Department Coordinator of Technology, Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship (TIME)

As user-generated online reviews have recently gained more popularity, online reviews as word-of-mouth communication play a crucial role in affecting the product/service selection of consumers as well as the financial results and new product/service development of, which results in unexpected incentives to generate fake reviews.

Fake online review is considered one of the most serious online deviant behaviors, since fake reviews not only mislead individuals to make misinformed decisions but also reduce the credibility and value of online reviews themselves. In order to contribute to the literature on online deviant behaviors and improve extant fake review detection algorithms, the present study aims to (1) identify the four linguistic (i.e., affective, cognitive, social, and perceptual) cues related to a reviewer’s psychological processes embedded in online reviews for restaurants and examine their relationships with the fake reviews identified on Yelp.com and (2) investigate the question of whether time distance and reviewer’s location are related to the occurrence of fake online reviews.

This study is one of the first attempts to investigate the relationship between psychological cues and fake online reviews as well as the impact of time distance and reviewer location on these reviews in a comprehensive manner.

The results of logistic regression analysis of 43,496 reviews from Yelp.com suggest that affective, social, and perceptual cues are significantly related to fake reviews with the presence of the significant effects of time distance and reviewer location. Further, the results of post-hoc analysis confirm that the effect of photos on fake reviews is limited.

The result of our study can provide practitioners with implications on how to better identify fake reviews in online hospitality and tourism platforms with the linguistic cues proposed in this study on top of fake review detection factors currently in use and ultimately provide more valid and trustworthy user-generated content regarding restaurants and places to visit.

Kyung Young Lee, PhD, MBA
PhD in Management
Associate Professor,
Department Coordinator of Technology, Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship (TIME)

Rowe School of Business, Dalhousie University

Professor Lee’s research interests include electronic word of mouth (eWOM), smart applications, smart tourism and corporate use of social media. His work contributes to the academic literature on the impact of eWOM on consumers’ behaviours, the impact of smart applications on organizational performance and the role of smart devices in the tourism industry.

Treyman Burrows: Going Small but Thinking Big

November 19, 2019 rbudd 2 Comments

“But in my heart, I knew that my entrepreneurial spirit wanted to seek new challenges. As much as I enjoyed the support of a big bank, I missed being a part of a small dynamic team. Earlier this year I was presented with an opportunity to leave the bank. While I had previous offers, this time was different.”
Treyman Burrows
Director, Sales & Partnerships at Prefera Finance

Treyman Burrows Director, Sales & Partnerships at Prefera Finance

Treyman Burrows MBA(FS) Class of 2020

Treyman Burrows is currently in the MBA(FS) program and will graduate in the Class of 2020. In a virtual interview with CEGE Connection, Treyman shared his thoughts on how his academic journey has influenced his career choices and strategic direction going forward.

Treyman Burrows:

My first job out of university was for an independent (~300 employees) non-prime automotive financial institution. I was drawn to working for a smaller company, which offered an opening to build my skill sets within a collaborative framework. Two years later, the company was acquired by a top 5 Canadian bank. Because our office was in midtown, rather than in downtown on Bay Street, we were able to keep some of our small business culture in place. Over the next 10 years, I moved from a sales role into a sales leadership role and finally two product management roles, gathering knowledge and experience through each transition. The bank invested in my learning and rewarded my hard work with promotions and awards. Working at the bank was amazing and fulfilling.

But in my heart, I knew that my entrepreneurial spirit wanted to seek new challenges. As much as I enjoyed the support of a big bank, I missed being a part of a small dynamic team. Earlier this year I was presented with an opportunity to leave the bank. While I had previous offers, this time was different. The offer was to join a small (13 people) financial institution with a mandate to grow and expand rapidly. In this role I would be given the freedom to make the changes I wanted to make at the speed I wanted to make them, within a cultural environment that reflected my values. I would be a part of a remarkable team that was building something from the ground up.

I had to weigh my options: Should I stay at the bank where my job and the company’s future is certain, or should I leave security behind and take a chance on a new exciting company?

After much reflection, I decided to complete a risk analysis (thank you Dr. Rick Nason!) to help in my decision-making process. In the end, I decided that the upside risk of staying at the bank was small, given that I would likely continue to have a successful career, but at a slow and steady pace. The upside risk of joining a small company in a rapid growth phase is immense. While being a financial investor could be fortuitous, the greatest draw was the invaluable experience that I would gain in participating within a team that would build a fledgling company. The downside risk to leaving the bank was losing my tenure at the bank and a stable job but it was a small downside compared to downside risk of not joining a new and upcoming business. My entrepreneurial spirit was aligned to this prospect. To let it go would be a significant risk to me.

Fast forward, I am two months into my new role. Only time will tell if I made the right decision, but I took the risk….one thing I know for sure is I have no regrets.

Editor’s Note: CEGE Connection is delighted to advise that Treyman has graciously agreed to be a repeat contributor on CEGE Connection. We wish him the very best in his new role as Director, Sales & Partnerships at Prefera Finance.

Duane Jones: Atlantic Fashion Week & the Art of Information Management

November 22, 2018 rbudd 3 Comments

Duane Jones MIM Class of 2014

Duane Jones MIM Class of 2014 (Photo Date & Credit 2016 Sinead Dubeau)

Duane Jones (MIM Class of 2014) is a visual branding, graphic design and information management specialist. Our first meeting was at the 2018 ARMA Conference held in Vancouver, which gave me the opportunity to invite him to join the CEGE Connection conversation. Duane is an artist and the fashion designer of his clothing brand, Art Pays Me. His competitive advantage comes from a unique ability to bring together information management with the creative world of art and graphic design. His clothing collections are featured at Atlantic Fashion Week and recently, in a successful solo fashion and art show at the Halifax Central Library.

Duane is one of the co-hosts and creators of a podcast called, Changing the Narrative, which discusses race, culture and the challenges creative entrepreneurs face while growing their businesses. He is a guest speaker at events such as Canadian Conference on Medical Education, Podcamp Halifax and Social Media Day Halifax.

Changing The Narrative

Michelle Hunter and I are pleased that Duane will be sharing his insights on building a social media presence, branding and how information management has transformed the way in which we live, learn and work.
Rebecca Budd
Editor & Blog Coordinator
CEGE Connection

Duane Jones:

I will be presenting a clothing collection at Atlantic Fashion Week for the third time. I started my clothing brand, Art Pays Me while I was in the early stages of the Master of Information Management (MIM) program studies. At the time, I was a graphic designer for Dalhousie’s Faculty of Medicine and looking for a career transition to information management. While in the program, I learned a lot about myself and how important visual communication is to information management so instead of making a complete transition, I began following multiple paths in art, information management and business.

Art Pays Me, Atlantic Fashion Week Finale

Runway (Photo Credit: Brent McCombs)

Running a clothing brand can be expensive so I try to be strategic when deciding which products to produce and release. Most of my products are graphic t-shirts that I rely on my creative instinct to develop; but I decide what is produced through calculated means. I consider shirt colour, size range, fit style, manufacturer, fabric and the design embellishment process. Once I have done that, I create realistic product mock ups to post on social media to gauge the public’s reaction to the design. I use the data from the social media to inform my decision-making process.

My favorite social media network is Instagram for a number of reasons – one of them being the analytics they offer people with business accounts. I can see where my top followers are based, how many users view my posts and how many people take it a step further by liking and commenting on posts. I can also see who of those users visit my website where they can purchase a product and or subscribe to my newsletter.

Fashion shows used to be the only way that clothing brands did this, but I am using Atlantic Fashion Week in a different way. I plan to reveal my products on social media leading up to the show to generate interest in the product and hopefully get sales from eager followers of my brand who want to be the first to see the products offline. I decided to try this method based on anecdotal data I collected from a fashion show that I did earlier this year. I revealed all of my new designs on the runway to some positive reviews but little sales. When the show was over, people wanted to buy what was on the runway, but I was not prepared and did not have product ready for purchase. I hoped that they would go to my website and buy the items later but that did not happen. This was a critical lesson that human reaction does not always predict human behaviour.

Another way that I am using web analytics to change how I do business is through targeting new customers. I started my brand with the intention of being rooted in Nova Scotia but having a global outlook. I am very active on social media and have used search engine optimization (SEO) in my website to the best of my ability to generate traffic far and wide but despite all of that, my data collection tells me that the vast majority of my web and social media traffic is based in Nova Scotia. My goal is to make Art Pays Me a global brand so, based on my analytics, I know that I must do a better job of targeting non-local customers.

The “free” data collection tools available to us today are incredibly powerful – especially when partnered with artificial intelligence. However, AI is not capable of creativity and creativity in all forms is art. As resource information management (RIM) professionals, our job is not just collecting and reporting data. Our job is to use strategy and creativity to interpret data so that it becomes useful information for our organizations. Acting on data without interpretation runs the risk of killing innovation. I encourage all resource information management professionals to embrace technology and creativity and see the art in information management.

CEGE Connection is delighted to advise that Duane has graciously agreed to be a repeat contributor on CEGE Connection.

Randy Coutts: Fourteen Years Later

June 13, 2017 rbudd 2 Comments

“In 2014, my wife Cathy and I sold all of our possessions and moved to Africa with all we owned in two suitcases each.” Randy Coutts, Fixer. Builder & Operations Specialist

Randy Coutts

October 2003

Graduation MBS(FS)

The class of 2003 was celebrating, basking in the “mission accomplished” feeling. The glow of walking across the immense stage to collect our diplomas was still fresh in our memories. We took turns at the podium to say thank you to our families, professors and the ever-supportive OEGP (now CFAME) team. There was even talk of a reunion in 2004, in a location where there was sun, sand & sea. It was a great idea, but we all knew that this night would never have a repeat. It was both an ending and a beginning. Or as T.S. Eliot wrote many years ago, “What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from.”

June 2017

Randy Coutts was in my graduating class of 2003. Now, fourteen years later, we reconnected over the phone and shared the stories that came after graduation. Randy’s interests center on social responsibility, international business and entrepreneurial endeavour. His message is “I’m an ideas guy, a coach, a student and a runner. If you want to change the world, give me a call.”

One Acre Fund (OAF) allowed him to explore his core values and participate in creating entrepreneurial opportunities in Africa.

Randy & Cathy Coutts

“In 2014, my wife Cathy and I sold all of our possessions and moved to Africa with all we owned in two suitcases each.” Randy recounted. “We travelled East Africa together for 18 months, spending a lot of time in Western Kenya, Nairobi and Rwanda, but also touching down in Burundi, Uganda, Ethiopia and Tanzania. We stayed in accommodations ranging from a dormitory style convent to fancy, world class hotels and logged enough air miles to get to the coveted “priority” status with our local airline. Along the way we had many adventures, saw many strange things and met people from all corners of this earth.”

One Acre Fund was my opportunity to combine my business skills, with my philanthropic mindset and a passion for travel. I had always wanted to join an international microfinance organization, but I also wanted it to be one that had an entrepreneurial spirit. OAF, which is a US based charity, runs most of its African operations under a social enterprise (SE) model, where they charge people a fair price for extraordinary value. I spent two years in charge of the finance function for this fast-growing social enterprise, where we went from an annual budget of $40M USD to $100M USD and from 200,000 clients to 500,000 clients across 8 East African countries. The implementation of a world class SAP Business One accounting system, the preparation to centralize all African finance functions to Kigali, Rwanda and the introduction of the first Financial Services Advisory team to our country leadership, were my greatest accomplishments.

I used virtually all my MBA (FS) teachings. Perhaps even more importantly than the technical skills I carried forward, Dalhousie instilled within me a sense of wonder and an appreciation for learning that did me well in this chaotic, incredibly fast paced and risk filled atmosphere. My greatest takeaway: Keeping my eyes and ears open, my mouth somewhat more closed and being open to possibilities and opportunities.

Changing the world begins with creating communities of learning wherever we go.”

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