Coburg Consultants

Originally posted by Scott A.E. Smith.

For this week’s interview, we sit down for a Q&A with James Ewart—the only member of the Class of 2013 who comes from an engineering background—and let him tell his own story. Enjoy!

Tell us a little bit about yourself. What is the James Ewart story?

I’ve moved around a lot in my life. I grew up in England, living there from 1993 to 2000 before coming back to Canada. Since I’ve been back, I have lived in Oakville, Ontario, where I went to high school. Since I was always strong in science I decided to go into Engineering. I attended Queen’s University where I completed a degree in Chemical Engineering and majored in the biomedical aspect of this field. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to participate in original research in the field of biomaterials, by completing a senior thesis project centred on a specific polymer used in controlled-release devices.

Originally my intention was to try to become a doctor or get a Master’s in Engineering, but I found as I progressed through my undergrad and various summer jobs that my skills were better suited to the business world. Hence, I now find myself at Dalhousie in the Corporate Residency MBA program.

What are your personal strengths? What sets James Ewart apart?

I would say that my world experience and my technical background give me very solid grounding. I think my Engineering education gave me a very good tool set to learn and integrate new information, not only of a technical nature but also in the world of business. I also think that growing up in Europe allowed me to better understand divergent cultures and viewpoints.

Those who know me have heard me speak at great length about my experiences as a SCUBA diver. Apart from being a very enjoyable hobby, it has taught me some very useful skills. Being able to remain calm and level-headed in stressful situations is truly invaluable, not only in the world of academia but also in the workforce. Also, on a personal level, I would consider myself very persistent, patient and driven. I always want to try and be better; I don’t believe there is a cap to a skill and one should always be striving to improve. At the same time, I understand not rushing into things and would consider the ability to not make snap decisions very valuable.

You’re the only engineer in the Class of 2013. Tell us how this background has prepared you for your MBA, as well as any advantages or disadvantages it’s had.

I think the strong grounding in mathematics gives me an edge because it allows me to concentrate more on the concepts rather than getting the mechanics right. Certain areas in the business world can be very technical and I think that coming from a technical background allows me to excel in these areas. The one disadvantage is that by spending the last several years thinking primarily about science, I did not have a strong grasp of some purely business-related subject matter. Engineering at Queen’s did include business in the curriculum but the level of detail was nowhere near a pure undergrad in business.

Tell us about your work experience. What do you want to do in your career?

My experience has been limited to summer jobs. I worked for two summers at the Molson/Coors brewery in Toronto in their fermentation department and spent last summer at a contract manufacturer for the cosmetics industry called Cosmetica.

For a career I want to leverage my engineering skills in the business world and combine those with the new skills I am learning from my MBA.

Where will you be for your corporate residency? What will you be doing there, as far as you know?

For my corporate residency I will be working at Aon Reed Stenhouse in Toronto in their risk management division.

What are your thoughts about the curriculum so far? What has been your favourite class?

So far the curriculum has been great. It has been very refreshing to start learning subjects that are 100% new to me and so far have been very interesting. My favourite class has definitely been finance. The reason: I get to utilize my mathematical and Excel skills as well as learn concepts I find to be very interesting and useful.

What extra-curricular activities have you gotten involved with? How has this contributed to your MBA experience so far?

My main extra-curricular activity has been my part-ownership in Coburg Consultants. I have found this to be a great experience because I get to apply what I learn in class. I think the ability to put concepts into practice while learning them has helped solidify my knowledge in these areas.

What would you say to an engineer who might be thinking of applying to the Corporate Residency MBA program?

I would say: go for it! Coming to business school adds a whole new range of skills that sometimes Engineering graduates lack. I think that regardless of whether you decide to go down a purely science route or a purely business route, the skills learned through both engineering and an MBA complement each other. A person who decides on a pure science route could definitely benefit from knowing how to be a more effective manager and how the science fits into the strategic plans of their corporation. I also think that someone purely in the business route can benefit from understanding the more technical nuts-and-bolts of how some companies design and manufacture products.

Originally posted by Jordan Fujiwara.

That’s me, by the way. That’s right, this week’s blog is about my experience with this program thus far! People have been asking when I was going to blog about myself so I figured I’d dish one out. They’ve also been wondering when a prof might show up here; that is also in the works! So, about me: I’ll be 24 in exactly one month. I grew up in Eastern Passage, a then-small but now-bustling fishing town just northeast of Halifax, right across the harbour. I’ve been going to school in this neck of the woods for pretty much my whole life, receiving my BSc in Psychology from Dal (2009) and now, of course, the Corporate Residency MBA at Dal.

I’m doing something a little different for my Corporate Residency. While my peers have all gone off to work, I am working for me. The program’s flexibility allows for entrepreneurial residencies provided you put together a solid case for a business. For me, the opportunity was obvious. For decades there have been MBA student–owned consulting firms operating out of Dalhousie’s School of Business. Traditionally they were run full-time in the summer months by MBA students entering their second year and sold to fresh students around April. However, the new CRMBA curriculum has all its students off to work for 8 months, starting in January… tossing a wrench into those decade-long traditions.

Like I said, the opportunity was quite clear for me. I’d buy one of the firms and do that as my residency, and be able to work for myself for 8 months while learning the ups and downs of running one’s own company. It was a good choice for me because, despite having a BSc and starting a master’s degree, I was one of those classic students who didn’t reallllly know what he wanted to do. I knew I liked psychology (but not lab work, so much), and I knew I was interested in marketing or advertising or PR, and that was about it. Quite a broad scope. I felt the whole sandbox situation with the consulting firm would be a great way for me engage with the local business community and test many pieces of the business world at once to help guide me towards that narrower scope. So I went ahead with the plan. Randel Madell and I purchased Coburg Consultants Limited. Randel is an equal owner but works part-time. She is also a Corporate Residency MBA student with a full-time residency; can you say ambitious? You’ll meet her in the weeks to come.

Here’s the cool part: three months in and I’ve achieved that narrow scope! Yep, I know what kind of career I’m aiming for. The story goes like this: one of our first contracts was with Dal itself, to help market and promote the Corporate Residency MBA program. As current students who work in the building and are constantly accessible and have genuine connections to the rest of the class, Randel and I (and consequently, the company) were viewed as a huge asset. Part of the marketing contract involves a social media campaign. In fact, this blog is a part of that campaign, as well as the new Twitter feed and revamped Facebook page. Before rolling out all those shiny toys, I had to do a lot of research into social media and social marketing. And I kind of got hooked. Like a lot of us 20-somethings, I grew up as the Internet did and was around to see the birth of Google and Facebook, so I was pretty knowledgeable about how to use social media… but I had never truly looked at it through the lens of business and especially not with the tools and techniques that the program had provided me with.

What I found was mystifying. The entire landscape of marketing is being transformed at an unprecedented pace by the explosion of Web 2.0 tools and online communities. It’s changing so fast, in fact, that tons of companies find they can’t or can barely keep up. I want to ride that wave, since as long as the Internet is around, it won’t be stopping. Social Media and its applications to business / marketing is my narrow scope, and now I have 5 months in this “sandbox” as well a bunch of elective courses in the 2010/2011 school year to actively position myself to land a tremendously inticing career upon graduation. All thanks to Coburg and the Corporate Residency MBA.

I could write a lot more, but this blog is long enough as it is. If, as a prospective student or a curious individual, you have any questions about Coburg and how it’s been going, feel free to get in touch with me! You can find my email through the Coburg website (linked above) or ask a question on the Facebook fan page wall (also linked above). Cheers, and see you next Thursday (or earlier)!

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