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Corporate Residency MBA

Interviews with students and alumni

Category: Alumni

Stay Hungry, Stay Humble

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From Ryan Baker and Andy Dennis of Coburg Consultants

 

Last Friday, the Dalhousie CRMBA’s first-year students completed their last exam – the culmination of their first academic semester here in Halifax – and can now comfortably sit back and examine the world they will soon enter when they embark on their residencies in just a few short weeks.

Similarly, the second year CRMBA students are about to enter their final academic semester before (fingers crossed) all walking across the stage together in May to proudly receive their MBA degrees.

With this final blog of 2013, we want to take the opportunity to look back on our CRMBA experiences but also to look forward and examine in one small way the world we’ll be stepping into come residencies and graduation.

Our brand ambassadorship here for the Dalhousie MBA began with a simple thought. Young, bright, and talented, each new cohort of CRMBAs enters the Rowe building every year, “and then a beautiful identity crisis happens.”

From our perspective, we say bring it on.

Why? Because it is exactly the things you miss when bogged down in heaps of midterms that are the objects of reflection later on.

Take the innovative new venture launched this fall semester called the Make a Difference Project. A combined endeavor through second year Strategy and Personal and Professional Effectiveness classes, the objective of this open-ended project is to identify an issue in the community, formulate a strategy to address that issue, and implement that strategy in order to make a lasting difference in the community. It is easy to get absorbed in the day-to-day of academic life but it is critical to take a step back when we can and ask, “how do we use what we have learned to make the world a better place?”

This question is at the core of the CRMBA program and the road to answering it begins on day one. As a young man or woman, you walk into the Rowe School of Management Building and the world may seem like an extremely daunting and big place. Take the time to learn the skills and build on your natural abilities here, and you’ll be that much more prepared to make difference out there.

There are countless opportunities to do so.

In November, Dal took to the national stage, hosting the inaugural Scotiabank Ethics in Action. Part conference, part case competition, the weekend long event focused on what it means to be an ethical business leader and the ethical challenges that will face the future of Canadian business leaders.

With the extra time we now have on our hands, we can reflect on these and other experiences we’ve had as CRMBA students. These case competitions, conferences, classes, projects, friendships and networking opportunities are incredible tools to for us as students and professionals. However, we must remember that they are just that – tools to harnessed by our ambition and employed towards a greater goal.

Napoleon Bonaparte once said, “Great ambition is the passion of great character. Those endowed with it may perform very good or very bad acts. All depends on the principles which direct them.”

It is our belief that we have been educated with excellent principles.

As we look outward on the world of commerce and business we will soon join, we here at Coburg Consultants believe that Napoleon was absolutely right but did not say enough. Just looking at a list of the CRMBA’s employer partners can show you why. Many of these firms are industry leaders in CSR, community involvement and environmental sustainability, adding to the rounded foundation CRMBA students receive throughout their education.

Our peers and alumni have gone on to work with major banks, huge CPGs, entrepreneurial incubators, and green-tech firms. They brought with them the tools for success in business, but they chose these firms based on much more than that. They retained their idealism, they remained confident in their ambition and their ability to use these tools to change the world in a real and idealistic sense. We pray they never lose this motive.

Looking back on our time with the Dalhousie CRMBA, we urge each and every candidate that passes through this program to understand the power of their ambition, the strength of their education, and the foundation they have now built to guide them.

Do not confuse dissent with disloyalty, strive for perfection, and leave a legacy of trust and honesty in your wake. Find your passion, and use all the tools you will learn to bring your dreams to fruition.

 

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year

Incubators: Accelerating Entrepreneurship

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From Kyle Palantzas & Luke Armstrong of Coburg Consultants 

 

The recipe is pretty simple, really. Find a bunch of motivated entrepreneurs who are similar enough to get along but different enough to learn something from each other. Put them all in one place with the tools they’ll need. Stir, stand back, and watch the innovation bubble over.

Business incubators, also known as accelerators, are “group offices” where multiple companies work simultaneously. The companies that use incubators are small and generally in the start-up stage. The hallmark of an incubator office is a large, open workspace that promotes collaboration and the mixing of ideas between people and between companies. Beyond the physical space, incubators provide access to business equipment, legal resources, mentorship, and network assets.

Incubators are often profit earning companies themselves, and sometimes take the role of a venture capital firm in the companies they incubate. By bringing the companies they invest in literally within their walls, the incubator venture capitalist is able to provide mentorship support and funding while reducing risk. The entrepreneur, usually at the cost of some equity, gets guidance from experienced business people, access to other startup owners around them, and does not have to worry about conventional office administration.

Government organizations may also be involved in business incubation in some capacity, as policymakers see the potential for spurring entrepreneurship in their polity. The concept remains the same – bringing motivated and skilled entrepreneurs under one roof to speed up innovation and increase the likelihood of success.

Incubators get a lot of attention from the business press. It’s no wonder why, as the success stories seem to pour out of these entrepreneurial hubs. The Y-Combinator in Silicon Valley, probably the most esteemed tech incubator in the world, is responsible for nurturing the growth of Internet giants like Reddit, DropBox, Scribd, and Airbnb.

Not all incubators are for flashy Silicon Valley startups. Canada’s own MaRS Discovery District houses a number of young cleantech and biotech companies. The entrepreneurs at MaRS’s beautiful Toronto campus work on everything from new solar panel designs to high-throughput genetic testing equipment.

Halifax has an incubator too. Innovacorp is an early-stage venture capital firm that supports and invests in potential high-growth companies from Nova Scotia. Dalhousie CRMBA student Kimberte William worked with Innovacorp through 2013 while developing a social app. William sees the value of incubators for budding entrepreneurs:

“Incubators aid entrepreneurs in accelerating towards commercialization by being in an environment conducive to innovation. Perhaps the greatest benefit to the entrepreneur is being surrounded by their peers. Incubators help entrepreneurs develop meaningful relationships that can be leveraged in the future. Moreover, this environment is a support system for entrepreneurs going through the growing pains of building a business.”

Even if you’re not an entrepreneur and not in one of the typical incubator industries, you should still pay attention. Big companies like GE, IBM, and Microsoft are funding incubators and even creating internal innovation-accelerators, trying to harness the power of collaboration for their own product development. Although we may not all be founding a new biotech startup, one thing’s for sure – no matter where you work, cubicle walls are coming down.

Residency Chronicles – Training to Learn on the Fly

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From Andy Dennis of Coburg Consultants

 

One month from now, the CRMBA class of 2015 will begin their eight-month corporate residency.

Eight months can seem like a long time. For those of us who entered the MBA program directly from undergrad, this could be the first time in our lives that we set our sights on one thing for eight consecutive months.

Questions like ‘What if I don’t fit in?’… ‘What if I don’t like what I’m doing?’… and ‘How do I make the most of my opportunity?’ are likely flying through the minds of many getting ready to embark on the hallmark experience of Dal MBA. The element of uncertainty is often met with nervous excitement, but one thing is for sure – the corporate residency is one of the most valuable experiences of our young careers.

So how do you make the most of this experience and what will it take to succeed?

“It is important to get comfortable with ambiguity,” says second-year MBA student Laura Fougere, who completed her residency with Bank of Montreal. “The workplace is constantly changing and if you are willing to adapt, you’ll be successful.”

Inevitably, something unexpected will happen during your corporate residency. Don’t panic. Embrace it. You never know what opportunities a new challenge will present.

The corporate residency is a truly unique opportunity. You have an extended period of time to show an employer that you can add value to their organization. In some ways it is like an eight-month interview – for both you and your residency company.

It’s not every day that you get the opportunity to immerse yourself in an organization and experience it’s culture first hand before taking on a permanent position. The best way to learn about an industry and an organization is by talking to those already in it. Especially for larger organizations, it will be impossible to fully understand the different lines of work available to you without branching out and meeting new people. Be eager and ask questions.

All of this may sound intimidating – but remember, you’re not alone. Your coworkers, fellow MBA colleagues both past and present, as well as Dal’s award winning faculty are all there to help. Again, all you need to do is ask.

“We are lucky to have such great resources during our residency, the second year students as well as the faculty, who are always so willing to offer advice and share their experiences”, says Nick Macarthur, a first year MBA student preparing to go on residency. “This allows us to approach our workplace with a greater sense of confidence.”

Finally remember to have fun. Social events can be a great way to get a feel for your organization’s corporate culture. So make sure you soak up the full experience. Eight months may seem like a long time but it will be over before you know it. Get out of the gates early and make the most of your time.

 

“This Is Not Invest And Giggle”

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From Ryan Baker of Coburg Consultants

 

How would you like to spend a lot of someone else’s money? You could buy land or a house, you could buy gold, or stocks, or a priceless piece of art. If you can make it bright and early on Tuesday mornings, Chris Mckenney and the Dalhousie MBA Hedge Fund can show you how, albeit with a little new lingo.

Each week, first and second year CRMBA students meet to manage their portfolios – fixed income, commodities, energy and utilities, foreign exchange and financial markets. With second years as portfolio managers and first years as associates, the Dal MBA Hedge Fund allows new students to utilize investment and risk management techniques in ways they would never see in the classroom.

“The purpose of the fund is to educate anyone interested in financial markets,” says David D’Cruz, first year MBA candidate, and next year’s chairman of the hedge fund.

“From active versus passive management, to growth versus value stocks, to risk identification and mitigation, the fund does an excellent job of really trying to bridge academic theory with practical application.”

That may be exactly what employers are looking for says Rick Nason, MBA finance professor . “Most finance careers are now in risk management or alternative assets. Having the group operate a paper hedge fund allows them to be more meticulous in their trade management.”

“When life gives you no money, you can still make lemonade,” says Dr. Nason.

After three years the Dalhousie MBA Hedge Fund has grown from modest roots. Kareem Sobaih, one of the founding members of the fund and current analyst for BMO’s Bank Credit Group recounts,  “It was literally just a bunch of students throwing around investment ideas, but it has transformed over the course of years from casual investment banter to an organized and complex paper fund.”

More than just talk, the hedge fund helps students prepare for a life in finance. This year, the Rowe School of Business introduced 12 new Bloomberg terminals to the investment and risk lab and offers free training for students to become Bloomberg certified.

While it has a modest past, there are high aspirations for the fund moving forward. In an effort to gain notoriety and maintain full transparency, next year’s fund managers will be publishing a monthly newsletter showcasing their investment strategy. This not only builds the reputation of the current and future fund managers, but allows the Dal MBA Hedge Fund to potentially expand into marketing, public relations and sales activities.

All in all, the Dal MBA Hedge Fund has been a venture built and run by CRMBA students, seeking to take their own education to the next level. Current fund chairman Chris Mckenney is excited about this ‘passing the torch’ mentality.

“This year, we were successful in earning positive returns, and most importantly, getting a very strong group of first year CRMBA’s interested in taking the fund to the next level. It is my hope that this will be something that future MBA students can use to differentiate themselves and the Dalhousie CRMBA program.”

Title quote attributed to Richard Nason, Ph.D

 

 

Creativity & Business: Looking to the Horizon

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From Luke Armstrong of Coburg Consultants

Here they were, strewn about, lying out on their backs on the lawn in front of the iconic Henry Hicks building. The second-year Dalhousie CRMBA students were watching clouds, and it was weird.

There is a tectonic shift in society taking place that many are painfully unaware of. Of course, we see symptoms of the shift, mostly in the form of neo-luddist battle cries, “the machines are taking our jobs!”

Indeed they are, agrees bestselling-author Dan Pink in A Whole New Mind, but not all the jobs. They’re just taking the jobs that don’t require the uniquely human capacities of design, story, symphony, empathy, play, and meaning. Even some writing, something most consider to be a human task, is now moving to the portfolio of machines. This year, Yahoo Fantasy Football and Automated Insights rolled out a feature that automatically generates accurate and entertaining written recaps of the week’s gameplay from the data. The writing isn’t just good – it’s perfect.

Where MBAs in the 20th century were trained to conduct advanced numerical analyses and assess returns, the task of 21st-century business leaders will be to tackle complexity in an increasingly interconnected world. The curriculum-makers of the Dalhousie CRMBA program have identified this eventuality and addressed it in a number of ways. Reframing problems as opportunities, capturing creative insights from a team, making the space for creative practices under deadlines and pressures and exploring the diverse nature of creativity within and outside the business are some topics covered in PPE II.

Keith Westcott, a mechanical engineer and second-year CRMBA student, sees value in creativity. “Math and logic are essential to evaluating ideas and plans, but it’s creative thought that conceptualizes the ideas in the first place.”

In the most watched TED Talk of all time, Sir Ken Robinson explains how the traditional education system may be killing creativity and the dangerous consequences that could bring. He says, “our education system has mined our minds in the way that we strip mine the Earth, for a particular commodity, and for the future, it won’t service.” He suggests that the education system has over-selected for outdated metrics of intelligence such as memory and simple logic while ignoring or even stigmatizing creative processes.

Which brings us back to our CRMBA students on the lawn. That sunny afternoon, the students began to break down some of the barriers to creativity and engage the modes of thought proposed by Dan Pink. Uninhibited by classroom walls and rules, the second years played and watched clouds before strolling campus to identify design flaws and the opportunities therein. Original and valuable ideas for campus gardens, rainwater collection, walkways, and student services abounded.

Tomorrow’s business leaders will wrestle with seismic shifts of global power, demographics, and technology. The Dalhousie CRMBA program prepares graduates to enter a world where the rulebook is rewritten daily and the future is cloudier than ever.

Sometimes this preparation looks like a group of suit-clad students huddled around a whiteboard. But sometimes it looks like cloud watching, and the value is no daydream.

Embracing the Unknown: The Integrative

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From Andy Dennis of Coburg Consultants

On the afternoon of November 1st, the first-year CRMBA class was asked to meet in the Rowe building and await instructions.

The first-year cohort had heard stories of late nights, heated negotiations, and the anxiety of not knowing what would happen next. So far, at least the latter was true.

Prof. Rick Nason waked into the room, randomly handed each team of three students an envelope, and wished them good luck. The teams opened their envelopes to reveal the task at hand.

With 48 hours on the clock…was a transaction with Blackberry possible?.?

The Integrative had begun.

The Integrative is a weekend-long, live business simulation formulated around a real-world business case. First year CRMBA students are broken up into small teams and randomly assigned a role.  This year the MBAs were tasked with representing Blackberry, a potential buyer (Fairfax, Facebook, Lenovo, etc.), or an advisory firm. It was then their job identify the problem, formulate a solution, and pitch their bid to the ‘Board of Directors,’ all while adapting to real time changes to the business environment.

Integrative weekend is fueled by competition but framed on collaboration.  Ultimately the winning team will be the one whose bid is accepted by the board, but no team can succeed without both competing and cooperating with the other teams.

On-the-fly learning, stress reduction, adaptive thinking, and relationship management are skills that are rarely developed in class-based learning, but are essential for dealing with complex business problems.

“The integrative made us realize that there is more to business than what is taught in a textbook. It really made us think outside the box,” says Amir Toulany, a first year CRMBA student. “Not knowing what to expect made us remain aware of any uncertainties and adapt to those events accordingly.”

 

The first-year integrative presents students with a truly unique learning opportunity.

“[It] allows students to experience dealing with ambiguity, having to learn what the problem is rather than having it given to you,” says Prof. Nason, the coordinator of the integratives since their inception.

Prof. Nason outlines three key advantages of the weekend-long simulation:

1)   It allows students to compete.  This motivates participants to push themselves beyond what is easy, and towards that which will allow them to succeed.

2)   It requires students to “make it rain” – in essence create something out of nothing – be it defining a problem when there isn’t one or working through a complex scenario (See Dr. Nason’s TEDx talk ‘It’s not complicated’).

3)   It shows students that interpersonal skills are often more important than technical skills.

The importance of interpersonal skills and learning about how both you and your peers deal with intensity is often what resonates the most with students having completed the integrative.

“The integrative illustrates how important some basic skills are,” says Eric Fleming, a second year CRMBA student and integrative veteran. “Both communication and honesty were integral to effectively working together. Once these were embraced by groups, partnerships were formed and solutions were created.”

The integrative is an opportunity for students to learn about themselves, their peers, and the complexities of real-world business problems. Technical skills will be crucial throughout one’s careers, but it’s this type of learning that will truly set Dalhousie CRMBAs on the path to success.

CRMBA Giving Back

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From Kyle Palantzas of Coburg Consultants

Inside Ride 2013

With the warmth of Thanksgiving top-of-mind, and our turkey hangovers behind us, Coburg dedicates this week’s blog to highlighting the efforts and giving spirit of Dalhousie’s CRMBA students.

“Giving back is extremely important for our program, especially as it matures,” says second year candidate Becky Rogez. “The more that we can get out there in the community, the more that we grow our name and our brand and the more valuable our degree becomes. Giving back also helps people become entrenched in the community that they want to live and work in.”

CRMBA students, better known as “Rowebots,” gain energy from coming together and donating their time and efforts for good causes and community betterment. From selling 50/50 tickets to participating in food and clothing drives, running marathons to hosting charity dinner galas – the Rowebots take pride in promoting good.

On tap next for these go-getters is A Toast to the Coast.

This Friday marks the 9th year of the black tie event, a great milestone for the gala fundraising dinner that supports the Breast Cancer Foundation. Since its inception, the MBA-run soirée has raised over $60,000, with every penny staying in Atlantic Canada. This year’s goal is to raise $12,000 – an ambitious target for the ambitious Rowebots.

“Everyone who has ever participated in the event is always more than willing to help; it’s a community in and of itself that spans over 9 generations of Dal MBA grads,” says Rogez, who is co-chairing this year’s festivities. “It’s really a legacy of the program, as it stands for hope and camaraderie.”

Supporting a similar cause, the CRMBAers poured out their sweat and tears and laid it all on the line last week during The Inside Ride fundraiser – an indoor cycling challenge that raises money for children living with cancer.  Joining forces with other programs across campus, the Rowebot’s energy and enthusiasm helped raise over $12,000 for the worthy cause.

“Opportunities like these give our grad students the chance to give back to the community, promote our program, and have some fun outside the heavy course load,” says CRMBA candidate and Inside Ride Leader Irina Bojinescu. “We look forward to getting geared up in the coming months to support this great cause at other events and venues.”

However, the Rowebots don’t have to go far to make a contribution. Giving back is also engrained inside the classroom, as the CRMBA curriculum supports, encourages and even evaluates this drive to help others.

This year the program launched the Make a Difference (MAD) project, a cross-course integrative that requires students to think about how they can make a meaningful difference in the community – and then go out and actually do it.

“The Make a Difference project is a stand-out feature for the second year of our CRMBA program,” says Chaired Professor Jim Barker, who helped create the initiative. “Our students can showcase their value-creation talents and business acumen by taking a project from concept to execution, leaving a legacy they can look back on with pride.”

From ethics conferences to bottle drives, cleaning the streets to safe sex campaigns, the Rowebots are knee-deep in the planning stages of this 8-month initiative. Next week, the teams are putting their ideas centre stage and pitching to a select group of faculty and employer partners.

On an even bigger stage, some students in the Strategic Management of International Business Operations are putting together their social business ideas to compete in the annual Hult Prize. The Rowebots are going up against other students from across the globe, attempting to establish a sustainable and scalable social enterprise to combat non-communicable diseases – with the winning team taking home $1 million in seed capital.

Personally, I’m honoured to be part of this group. I applaud all our efforts, welcome new ideas and encourage positive change.

 

A View From the Top – The CRMBA’s New Director, Dan Shaw

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From Andy Dennis of Coburg Consultants

 

This week we had the opportunity to sit down with Dan Shaw, the new Director of Dalhousie’s CRMBA program.  No stranger to the Rowe, Shaw brings energy, business savvy, and a motivating presence to the CRMBA leadership team.

Ladies and Gentlemen, without further ado, Mr. Dan Shaw:

Coburg Consultants: What do you like the most about working with the CRMBA program?

Dan Shaw: I like working with bright and engaged students, and we’ve got very bright and very engaged students. I love sitting down with students and talking about their careers and figuring out what they have to offer the world and identifying what their passions are. It’s important for MBA students to explore their strengths and weaknesses and our program is uniquely positioned to help them realize their goals and find that role that fits them perfectly.

CC: How has your role changed from the director of undergraduate BCOMM (Co-op) program to director of the MBA program?

DS: Even though I only moved down the hall, it’s a drastically different role. I find at the MBA level students are completely engaged and focused on their career and personal development. This role is different in that we advise students and manage the curriculum, but we are also quite externally focused. We do all of our own marketing and recruitment for the program. There is also a lot more employer engagement just because of the nature of the program and the residency. While the change was initially a little bewildering, and the difference in the roles significant, I think it aligns well with my strengths and I am enjoying the role immensely. It is a real challenge.

CC: The corporate residency is considered by many one of the competitive advantages of our program. In addition to that, what else do you think differentiates Dalhousie’s MBA program from others?

DS: It’s hard not to think about PPE [Personal and Professional Effectiveness]. I’ve got a fairly extensive corporate background working with big management consultancy firms, multinational packaged good firms, and software firms and I’ve never seen the kind of career developing training and experiences that we offer anywhere else. It’s quite remarkable, really.

CC: In one of our recent blog postings we touched on the challenges of developing a personal brand.  What is your personal brand, Dan?

DS: I’m a motivator and I’m all about career development. That’s what I get the most fun out of and what gets me out of bed each morning. I love interacting with students outside of the classroom, setting them at ease, and getting to know them more on an equal footing. I think my personal brand is intermeshed with the Dal brand. I basically grew up on campus so Dal is a part of my blood even though I never went here.

CC: What’s Dan Shaw like outside the Rowe?

DS: I lead just as busy of a life at home as I do at the office. My wife and I both have busy work schedules (she is Director of Fundraising, Marketing & Communications at Pier 21 Canada’s National Immigration Museum), but our home life is also fast paced. We have two boys (Matthew, 10 and Anthony, 7) who play just about every sport under the moon. I am passionate about sports and I coach basketball and baseball teams, in addition to volunteering in the classroom. Last year I helped lead a sex education class with a group of twenty 10-year-old boys – you can imagine what that was like.  As a family we love to travel. Our favourite destinations are Florida (where my parents have a golf condo near the beach) and Spain (where my wife’s family is from). We are an animated and social group and get together regularly with friends and family, and love to entertain in our newly renovated house.

CC: What is something interesting about you that most people don’t know?

DS: I haven’t gotten very far in life; I grew up a 2 blocks away from the Kenneth C. Rowe building. A lot of people don’t know that about me.

CC: What advice do you have for students trying to discover their career path for either a corporate residency or post-grad employment?

DS: Follow your energy level and think about what you’re passionate about. Ideally you can combine your passion with your employment.  Have you ever done something that felt easy or “effortless”? I believe your goal is to make sure you are spending 80-90% of your time working to leverage your strengths. You should definitely spend time trying to be well-rounded and work on your weaknesses, however, you could spend your whole lifetime nudging those weaknesses, and not get very far. But if you cultivate those strengths, you can move mountains.

Coburg Consultants wants to thank Dan for sitting down with us. If you want to keep up with the conversation you can follow Dan Shaw on twitter @DShawMKTG_Prof and the Dal CRMBA @dalmba.

Your Undergrad is Perfect for This

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From Luke Armstrong of Coburg Consultants

 

Every July, a group of top-calibre young leaders from a wide range of academic backgrounds enter Dalhousie’s Corporate Residency MBA program.

And then a beautiful identity crisis happens.

MBA programs arose in the early 1900’s as industrializing nations sought out a more scientific approach to management. As organizations became larger and more complex, seniority in a company ceased to be recognized as sufficient management training. Management itself became a profession. Mechanical engineers, journalists, chemists, and lawyers sought out MBA training in addition to their technical training to assume leadership roles in their organizations.

There is no ideal undergraduate degree for an MBA. In fact, Dalhousie’s CRMBA celebrates the multidisciplinary nature of the degree and the benefits of a broad experience in tackling complexity. Management Without Borders, the innovative interdisciplinary course in second year, places MBA students in teams with students from other management disciplines to consider real issues with regional stakeholders. Students learn to leverage their diverse experiences to produce the best solutions possible in the face of complexity.

Personal and Professional Effectiveness further teaches CRMBA students to leverage their unique knowledge sets. This core course runs throughout the two-year program with themes such as innovation, design, creativity, and complexity. The theme in first year is “Self-Management and Engagement,” giving students a deeper knowledge of themselves as a leader, a manager, and a thinker.

This is when the identity crisis resolution begins. Rather than try to reconcile a split-image as a chemist and a businesswoman, Irina Bojinescu believes the CRMBA actually expands on skills she developed in her undergraduate degree.

“My chemistry background has provided me with a reliable foundation of analytical, logical, and conceptual reasoning skills that have served me well in the business environment,” says the second-year student.

Dalhousie’s CRMBA doesn’t build over your background, it builds on it. Megan Maltby took a B.A. (Hons) in English before coming to the program. Reflecting after her residency with the First Angel Network, she now recognizes her background in research and information synthesis gave her an edge in the classroom and when considering new ventures at First Angel.

“My research and writing skills from my undergrad have been a huge help in managing the fast pace of MBA classes. On residency too, the ability to read extensively, and then consolidate a succinct business briefing was invaluable.”

Students with scientific or technical backgrounds make up 45% of the class of 2015, including biochemists, engineers, and computer scientists. About 18% of the class hails from the arts, with history, music, and fine arts represented. The remainder of the students studied commerce or management in their undergraduate programs.

This program produces the most competent businesspeople around, yes, but it goes deeper than that. The CRMBA takes one’s current skills and interests, from any discipline, and develops the individual into a confident, values-driven leader prepared to take on global issues.

Not “just another business degree” – A message from the editors

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Hirtle.JordanWhat really stands out, and allows me to say confidently that applying to the Corporate Residency MBA program has been one of the best choices I’ve made, is the fact that I’ve developed so much on a personal level. Coming into the program I had minimal experience presenting, interviewing and networking. During my undergraduate degree I simply went to class, wrote exams and received my grades. There was very little personal or professional interaction. However, to be successful in business, soft skills are essential. It is often these skills that set you apart with your network to get you the job. Dal’s unique CRMBA starts developing your personal skills from day one through networking events with employers, classes such as PPE (Personal and Professional Effectiveness) and many mock interviews.

Additionally, the group of people that I’ve been able to work and study with and ultimately call my friends is exceptional. Being from Halifax, I never expected to spend the amount of time I have with other students in the program. I imagined that I’d continue spending time with my regular friend base and occasionally see my classmates outside school. I was completely wrong. In only six months, I made some great friends. I still talk to most of them daily. Having these relationships really helps with succeeding in school, on the job and in life in general.

– Jordan

 

Bannerman.EvanDuring my residency at GE Capital, I have had the opportunity to work and network with employees throughout the entire organization—those in entry level positions all the way up to C-level execs.  These employees, now my colleagues, have been instrumental in my professional growth. When meeting people for the first time, educational background is often one of the first topics to come up during introductions as it is instantly relatable. At GE there is a wide range of educational backgrounds, from undergrads to MBAs and CFAs.  During one such conversation I learned that someone had received an MBA from a local university. Wanting to learn and compare his experience to mine, I inquired about the difference he perceived between a business undergrad and MBA. He shrugged off the question and casually told me that it was “just another business degree”.

This was not a response I had expected, as I too have an undergrad in business, and my experiences so far with the CRMBA program have been quite different. Not that I wasn’t challenged before, because I was, but at this level of education you are held to a higher standard, and are expected to dig deeper into complex problems. The different business “silos” such as marketing, finance and government relations, often separated by classes in a business undergrad, are integrated as much as possible in the CRMBA program to make it as practical and useful as possible. To top it off, the pace is faster and the workload is heavier, so time management is essential. It is not an easy road by any means, however we also have a lot of fun, and are a tightly knit group that helps each other out. It is for these reasons that I was surprised by my colleague’s comment.

The CRMBA program is a modern degree for a new type of young professional. The stories posted on this blog speak to the diversity of the students’ backgrounds, and their reasons for choosing Dalhousie. For any prospective student reading this, the best way to find out about a program (or any type of organization) is by talking to its people. We have tried to bring their experiences to you through this blog, but we encourage you to reach out to students, faculty and alumni to really get a sense of what this program is about. This is definitely not “just another business degree”.

This is the last blog of the season, and Jordan and I would like to thank everyone who offered to share their stories with us. Stay tuned for more in 2014!

– Evan

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