Management Management 2012

Management Dalhousie University Faculty of

2012

inside:

it’s a game-changer How $15 million transforms a school

meet a new kind of grad Business acumen along with social consciousness

information storm

They have the data — but can you find it?

Business Administration · Information Management · Public Administration · Resource & Environmental Studies

management.dal.ca

Integrity · Diversity · Excellence · Action · Sustainability The Dalhousie University Faculty of Management is Canada’s leader in advancing values-based management because of our

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Offering management education for every stage of your career:

Executive Education Mid-Career Development Graduate Programs Undergraduate Programs

management.dal.ca

Transformative engagement

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en Rowe was adamant in ­announcing his $15 million gift to the School of Business saying, “Use this for transformative change only.”

His gift gives credence to the existing quality of the school as well as to its long-term potential. Over the next 10 years, the gift will be utilized to raise the bar, making the ­Dalhousie School of Business a leader in Canada and the world. E ­ ducating future leaders with s­ uperior management and leadership skills, technical savvy, global insight, and the ability to work collab­oratively across s­ ectors will enable Canada to s­ ucceed on the world stage and ensure a sustainable future for all.

Mr. Rowe’s vision for the future of our School of Business informs and inspires our broader vision for the entire Faculty of Management — to be an internationally recognized centre of values-based management delivering high quality undergraduate, graduate, and mid-career ­executive education.

Building on Excellence Values-based management helps the organization think about the values that are cherished and the mission that is shared. We put integrity, diversity, excellence, an action-orientation and sustainability at the heart of all we do. It supports a culture of collaboration where people focus on creating shared value for all stakeholders.

The structure and established excellence of our Faculty makes us uniquely suited to this approach to management. In addition to a large School of Business, we have three other schools – Public A ­ dministration, Information Management and Resource and Environmental Studies.

This enables us to be more multi-­ disciplinary than any other f­ aculty of management. We expose our ­students to issues and ways of thinking across sectors, thereby engaging them in holistic management thinking and best practices.

Attracting Excellence Our values-based philosophy a­ ttracts a different set of students – high achievers who are smart, peoplefocused, innovative and diverse. This pleases the firms that employ our ­students and makes us d ­ istinct in their eyes. Our students are sought by top employers across C ­ anada, particularly those who o ­ perate in regulated industries where managing with integrity is critical to success. Employers recruit our high performing students for the internships and work-terms that are at the core of many of our programs, as well as for full-time careers in their organizations.

One employer put it this way: “The reason we have been so pleased with hiring graduates from Dalhousie is that its programs create a different attitude among students… so ethical, a beautiful open attitude, approachable, consensusdriven and balanced.”

Engaging with Excellence This evidence has convinced us that we are moving along the right path and that we are modeling a new way to think about management education. I invite you to engage with us in advancing excellence and valuesbased management.

– Peggy Cunningham, Dean

Management Special Publication | 2012 · Editor: Colin Craig | Art Director: Fran Ornstein Designers: David MacDonald, Brenna MacNeil | Writers: Red Balloon Relations | Feedback/Suggestions: Colin.craig@dal.ca Contact: Faculty of Management, Dalhousie University · Kenneth C. Rowe Management Building, Suite 3050 6100 University Avenue · PO Box 15000 · Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada B3H 4R2 · Tel: 902 494 2582

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Management

The Corporate Residency MBA program was ranked #2 by Canadian Business magazine for return on investment.

Average entering salary = $33,000, ­Average post-graduate salary, 3 months out = $68,000.

Unique in Canada, the Corporate Residency MBA offers an eight-month work experience with one of Canada’s leading employers and a 22-month Personal and Professional Effectiveness program in conjunction with a rigorous academic program.

100% of the students have secured ­corporate residencies with the program’s public and private sector employer partners in locations from coast to coast to earn an average of $27,000 over eight months before graduation. dalmba.ca

Hannes Weiland: A new kind of grad Colette O’Hara

An Italian wool suit, slick leather shoes, and conversations that include words like core competency, leverage, and mission critical used to be dead giveaways of an MBA grad. But if Hannes Weiland, a 2011 graduate of Dalhousie University’s Corporate ­Residency MBA program is any indication, that’s changing.

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t’s not that Hannes, who originally hails from Germany, can’t sling business terminology with the best of them – and if you listen to him for only a moment, it’s not hard to tell he’s smart as a whip – but there’s something different about the way he thinks about business. There’s a warm, even inspired, tone to how he talks about the role new graduates play in the business world.

“The way we think is more human. We’re more self-aware and we’re more concerned with the impact we have on our community,” Hannes says. “We’re passionate and realistic about the problems we’re dealing with and we want to genuinely make a difference, particularly in the places where we live and work.

That’s why we need to be able to think global and local.”

“Glocal”, as Hannes calls it, is a defining factor in how new grads

are approaching business. It focuses on extrapolating what’s happening at the global level and applying it locally, and vice versa. No doubt this philosophy will play a considerable role in Hannes’ new job as a business analyst at CarbonCure Technologies.

The company, based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, uses carbon dioxide (CO2) to make green concrete. By ­injecting CO2 into the concrete production process, the company makes the world’s most widely used building material cheaper, stronger, and greener. And while it’s still in the startup phase – pilots with major North American concrete companies are underway – global growth feels like a very real possibility for the company.

“The feedback we get wherever we go is overwhelming. We’ve got a product that people are enthusiastic about,” Hannes says. “And selfishly, I’d love to see us grow into the European

Hannes Weiland, CRMBA’10 with Jennifer Wagner, Director of Strategy, CarbonCure Technologies, MBA’09

4 Management

market so that I could use my understanding of both Canada and G ­ ermany to help the company expand.”

Although European expansion excites this German import, it doesn’t mean he’ll be making the move back to his home country. During his time in the province Hannes has become a Nova Scotia loyalist and enthusiast, sitting on the Fusion Halifax board and proudly promoting the benefits of the province whenever he can.

His ability to speak so boldly came from his experience in the C ­ orporate ­Residency MBA program.

“It was the social aspect of the program that gave me the confidence to do things that I never thought I would be able to do. One of those things is to promote the province. We have a tremendous amount of natural beauty, incredible people and our creativity is secondto-none. I want to create the image that people should visit and that immigrants should move here.”

If it’s images that Hannes Weiland is looking to create, the one he’s creating for himself depicts a new kind of MBA grad — one that watches TED videos, celebrates creativity, and who may not only downgrade to a pair of loafers, but might just ditch the tie, too.

profile Ming Yeung, MBA Financial Services’07 Ming chose the MBA (FS) because of the opportunities of ­professional and personal growth in collaborative learning with like-minded ­seasoned ­professionals in pursuit of self-­ actualization in higher education.

“The ­instructional content was timely and the instructional ­delivery was dynamic. I was particularly impressed with the calibre of the instructors; many lessons were immediately applicable to real-life work situations.”

Ming is the Product Manager, Product Strategy at Scotia iTRADE Inc. (Toronto), a wholly owned

Hannes Weiland

­subsidiary of Scotiabank. In this capacity he acts as the business advisor and is responsible for product development, product management, and operational support of the online channels of Scotia iTRADE.

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Management

Dalhousie School of Business traces its origins back to the Department of Commerce in the 1920s. Today, it serves about 1,200 students in its i­nnovative Commerce Co-op and Corporate ­Residency MBA programs. Dalhousie first offered an MBA in 1967.

Game changer Going from good to great Laura Whitman

Over the course of an organization’s long history, there are ­often only a handful of moments that have a t­ ransformational ­influence on its path. The business community would call ­moments like these game-changers, and Dalhousie’s School of Business recently experienced one.

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Management

Management Career Services plays a key role in the delivery of the C ­ orporate ­Residency MBA and Bachelor of ­Commerce Co-op programs by directing and supporting the mandatory work ­experiences at the heart of each program.

Greg Hebb is Director of the School of Business and a P ­ rofessor of Finance. He is also Associate Dean (Strategy & Planning) for the Faculty of Management.

Education: Texas A&M (PhD), Dalhousie (MA), Queen’s (MBA), McGill (BA).

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business leader with more than 40 years of experience, has been hired as Executive Advisor to the Dean.

“Everyone’s ideas have been ­expressed differently, but an ­underlying theme is there,” says Greg. “There is a very strong message that we need to connect what we do and who we are more closely with the business community.”

The Rowe gift will be applied to achieving that connection in four key areas: student curriculum, faculty research, centres, and awareness.

Students will begin to see more business leaders as guest speakers, increased funding for participating in national and international competitions and challenges, and an increased use of leading technology in the classroom. Faculty will integrate further into the business community, potentially even completing short-term sabbaticals in a corporate setting. Centres, like the Centre for International Trade and Transportation, will become increasingly more sophisticated and offer a broader range of services, workshops and opportunities, including internships.

And finally, there will be a formal investment of funds and effort into raising international awareness of the school and building its reputation.

“Our School of Business is one of the best kept secrets in the country,” says Peggy. “We need to communicate our brand promise in order to attract the best minds. If you have a good company, people need to know you have a good company. Ken Rowe understands and supports that.”

n October 2011, the university announced that Ken Rowe, executive chairman of IMP Group International, donated $15 million to the school.

Dalhousie’s largest-ever donation by a Nova Scotian, the money represents both an opportunity and a challenge.

“Ken Rowe is an exceptional international business person,” says Peggy Cunningham, Dean of M ­ anagement.

“He believes business schools today aren’t doing enough to prepare students for competing on a world stage.

He wants Dalhousie to step up and achieve a higher standard. This is more than a gift; it’s a business model.”

While most gifts of this size are given in the form of an endowment, Ken Rowe has been adamant about one thing: he wants the $15 million to be spent within 10 years and wants the tangible improvements to begin in year one. In response, faculty and staff have spent the last several months formalizing plans with clear goals, definitions of success, measurable objectives, and action items – all

of which are intended to maximize the impact of the investment.

“Money is crucial to making a transformation, but money alone is not enough,” says Greg Hebb, D ­ irector, School of Business. “If we are to achieve the goal of transforming the business school, we need to have champions.

The only way we’ll have champions is to gain support, and the only way to earn that was to invite input.”

The school held discussion forums, open to faculty, staff and students, and asked: Where do you think you’d like to see the school in five years, and what do we need to do to get there?

Alumni and members of the business community were also consulted and Robbie Shaw, an accomplished

Continued

Management

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Certified Management Accountants of Canada (CMA Canada), world leader in shaping strategic management ­accounting professionals to lead successful ­enterprises in the global marketplace, has awarded a­ ccreditation to the Bachelor of ­Commerce Co-op program.

Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) recently renewed its ­accreditation of all School of Business programs. Only 5% of the world’s b ­ usiness schools hold this distinction.

profile Especially considering the quality and results the school is already achieving, the focus will be on positioning it as a destination school of international calibre and a go-to resource for the regional business community.

“There will be commitments made and plans that faculty and staff will need to put their names on,” explains Greg. “It is faculty, staff and students’ willingness to own ­initiatives and move them ­forward that makes things happen.”

It’s this commitment to action that will help to create incremental improvements, year after year. When asked what he envisions the School of Business looking like in five years, Gregory emphasizes the continuous learning and ongoing improvements that the annual gift will allow.

“I can guarantee you this: the plan we’re working on now will look different in five years. Where things are working, we’ll do more of them.

Where things aren’t working, we’ll do less of them. We’re setting out to do something special — to increase the ­value of our degrees for the benefit of graduates past, present and future.”

While the improvements and ­impacts are yet to be realized, one thing is already clear: the generosity and ­vision of an international business leader is putting the Dalhousie School of Business on the map. A good school will become a great one.

Kenneth C. Rowe, LLD’02 Mr. Rowe, prominent Nova Scotia businessman and executive chairman of IMP Group International, is no stranger to Dalhousie: not only was he the lead donor towards the building that brought together the Faculty of Management’s four schools, but he has served on the School of Business Advisory Council for more than 20 years – 10 of them as its chair. In the 90s when the very existence of the School of Business was under ­review, Ken Rowe held firm, ­insisting that the business school was truly important to Dalhousie and Nova Scotia and that it deserved continuing support and expansion.

Peggy Cunningham, Dean, Faculty of Management

8 Management

The Bachelor of Management is ­delivered by all four of the Faculty’s schools, providing students with inter­ disciplinary perspectives on management issues. It develops a­ daptable, innovative and creative professionals.

Choose your own adventure

If you had the chance to spend 12 months a­ dvancing your ­professional skills by working in a world-class organization on the verge of securing a history-making contract, would you take it?

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hat if you were guaranteed that after the year had passed, you could return to your prior ­commitments and pick up exactly where you left off?

An opportunity like this is something many professionals would like to experience, but few will ever get the chance. Third-year Bachelor of Management student Ben Valcour is one of the lucky ones.

He spent 12 months away from the classroom to supplement his learning with a full-time internship at Irving Shipbuilding in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Ben was a fully integrated member of the financial management team when, on O ­ ctober 19, 2011, the company received some game-changing news. It was selected by the National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy to negotiate the right to build Canada’s next generation federal combat vessel fleet.

“The job experience has been amazing,” says Ben. “I was quite lucky to get hired here when I did.”

But it was more than luck that landed Ben this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. In essence, the Bachelor of Management’s Internship Program made it possible for Ben to press pause on his studies. Being a standout candidate in the competitive ­application process made it reality.

Only 10 students were selected to participate and actually getting in the door at Irving took several months.

One of the benefits of being enrolled in the program is that career and recruitment specialists from the Faculty’s Management Career Services coach students on an ongoing basis, helping them craft their résumés, seek out work opportunities, prepare for interviews, and develop skills that will prepare them for a smooth transition into the workforce. If Ben’s experience is any indication, this level of preparation doesn’t go unnoticed by employers.

“When I first started at Irving, I had to rely on my colleagues to teach me things. Now we all rely on each other equally and I don’t feel any different,” he says. “We’re all part of a team. They really let me learn through experimentation.”

When his term at Irving concludes, Ben will still need to complete two semesters of full course loads before he’ll be eligible to graduate. But in exchange for taking time away from the classroom, he’s gained something equally valuable.

“I’ve bought myself time to discover and think about what type of job I might like to have when I graduate,” he says. “I now have the accounting experience I need to be employable, but the variety that my courses have exposed me to also means I’ll have the option of changing or broadening my focus as my career advances.”

Ben is confident that as a ­ graduate of the Bachelor of ­Management program, he’ll be on track to enjoy a prosperous and fulfilling career. Given that he has already worked in one of the region’s most prominent industries during a defining moment makes it pretty safe to say that he’s probably right.

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Management

School of Information Management (SIM) faculty member and Director of the Social Media Lab, Dr. Anatoliy Gruzd, has received a Leaders Opportunity Fund award of $150,000 from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and the Nova Scotia Research and Innovation Trust.

A new three-year P ­ artnership ­Development Grant from the Social ­Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada in the amount of $198,795 will provide a significant boost to the information ­research initiative headed by SIM’s ­ Bertrum MacDonald.

The American Library Association has passed a Memorial Resolution honouring Dr. Norman Horrocks, professor emeritus at SIM, former school director and Faculty of Management dean, recognizing the ­immeasurable legacy that Norman left to the field of information management.

Are oceans of information swamping us?

Graham North

We live in an age of ­information, where ­technology has enabled us to share research with unprecedented ease. But this newfound freedom has created an explosion of information and changed how we decipher the knowledge around us.

Bertrum MacDonald, professor of ­Information Management, heads up an interdisciplinary team.

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Management

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e are bombarded with an ocean of information that flows quickly and mightily, but we are rarely equipped with the time or tools to discern good quality from the useless. As a result, vital information can get lost in the storm.

The consequences of this ocean are enormous. Researchers spend years of their lives and millions of dollars of public money producing groundbreaking research, only to ­discover that their reports never reach the policymakers and stakeholders who would most benefit from that information.

This is something that Bertrum MacDonald is looking to change. A professor of Information Management, Bertrum has assembled an ­interdisciplinary team d ­ edicated to tracking the awareness and use of environmental marine research, as well as its influence on policies that help save our oceans.

“There is a huge volume of information from so many sources,” says Peter Wells, a marine environmental ­scientist with a public service background. “How do users surf the waves of ­information to use it appropriately?”

It’s a complex question without a simple answer. There is a wealth

of scientific information that tells us how we could mitigate the deterioration of our oceans, but the policies aren’t always making use of them.

So where is the momentum lost between research being published and that information finding its way into the hands of decision-makers?

According to the team, most of what is called “grey literature” – valuable non-commercial reports, often produced by governments – rarely speaks the same language as policymakers.

“Scientists will write in a technical language that’s understandable to them,” says Bertrum. “But for other people who work in policy, it can be difficult to understand.”

In addition, policymakers rarely have the time to sift through stacks of wordy reports, making it difficult for them to tap into the immense amounts of research available on any given subject.

Bertrum’s team brings together people from a range of backgrounds — from information management to public policy to environmental research. The team’s diversity allows it to approach every problem from multiple angles, which is vital when dealing with such complex and ­unpredictable flows of information.

profile

Charles Bloom, Master of Information Management’11

As a senior manager working in information management, Charles had a lifelong dream to earn a ­graduate degree in his field. Such a degree wasn't offered in Canada until 2008 when Dalhousie's School of ­Information Management launched the MIM program. Charles' deep engagement with distance and on-site classes, his public championing of this new program and voluntary role as Dal recruiter, along with his ­intellectual and personal support of fellow students from Vancouver Island to Nunavut, make him an outstanding exemplar of a mid-career learner.

“Too often we work with people who are in the same discipline,” says Kevin Quigley, acting d ­ irector, School of Public Administration, who brings experience with the inner workings of government. “But you can really put yourself in a position for great growth and great learning by putting yourself with people from different fields.”

Many research groups have a tendency to function in silos, says Quigley, where you work with people of similar backgrounds who think in similar ways.

The key to this group, says ­Quigley, is that every member brings a ­specialty to the team. Rather than having “focused and ferocious debate” on individual subjects, the team allows experts to bring their own perspective. Together, they track the influence of research and find ways to get high-quality information where it needs to go.

“The fact that we come from different experiences really capitalizes on our creativity,” says Suzette Soomai, an interdisciplinary PhD student with a focus on fisheries information.

The tools used in tracking information are constantly being reinvented and re-evaluated – from analyzing citations to interviewing the people that use them – with wide-reaching implications for anyone who needs to wade through the oceans of information to find something useful.

“Most of the people who graduate from the Faculty of Management end up in decision-making positions,” notes Bertrum. “They’re grappling with these particular challenges, and the findings that will come from this research are relevant to a much broader audience.”

The success of an interdisciplinary team is a testament to the Faculty of Management, where people from very different disciplines – in this case, ­information management, marine studies, environmental studies, and public administration – have the o ­ pportunity to interact to develop c­ reative solutions to emerging problems.

“As a junior academic, I was looking for colleagues to collaborate with, and I was attracted to the inter­disciplinary function of the group,” says team ­member Elizabeth de Santo, who comes from a background in environmental ­governance and the sciencepolicy interface.

That spirit of collaboration has ­become infectious, and Bertrum’s team has nurtured unlikely and ­unprecedented relationships with government agencies at the provincial, national, and international levels, including partnerships with the Gulf of Maine Council and United Nations agencies.

The Gulf of Maine Council, for example, was so impressed with the team’s work that it integrated information management into its newest action plan. It reflects the trust that Bertrum’s team has earned with its partners, helping to ensure that high-quality environmental marine information is making a valuable contribution to improving the state of our oceans.

The quantities of information will only continue to gain force and momentum as technology f­ urther encourages us to freely share ­information. Learning to harness the data will be critical to ensuring that the best information makes it from the researchers to the decision-makers.

For now, Bertrum and his team of surfers are on the crest of a wave that looks poised to set the standard for how we use this ocean of information to its full potential.

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Management

The School for Resource and ­Environmental Studies (SRES) started as the Institute for Environmental Studies in 1973. Its Master of Environmental ­Studies (MES) began in 1978 and the Master of Resource and Environmental Management (MREM) in 2004.

Planning for environmental health change

Miles Howe

Only the right q ­ uestions can get the relevant ­answers. Just ask the Mi’kmaq of ­Pictou ­Landing First N ­ ation about Boat ­Harbour and the ­surrounding landscape in Pictou County, Nova Scotia.

Aerators churn the pollutants in Boat Harbour.

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or thousands of years, long before the arrival of European settlers, this estuary has been a lifeline for the Mi’kmaq. The estuary now known as Boat Harbour had provided its people with food, medicine, ­transportation, and shelter for millennia. It is the inspiration for stories of the land and its people – a ­powerful spiritual c­ onnection that bonds the community.

For all its uses since time immemorial, the Mi’kmaq never thought of Boat Harbour as a dumping ground, but that’s what it has become. A pulp and paper mill has been releasing t­ oxins and pollutants into the water since the 1960s, with no signs of stopping.

Frustrated and concerned for their children’s health and their community’s well-being, the local women came together to find a trustworthy answer to a simple question: “Are we getting sick from Boat Harbour?”

Dr. Heather Castleden, professor of resource and environmental studies, recently began working with the Pictou Landing Native Women’s Association to answer this question.

The Dalhousie assistant professor has a strong track record of attracting funding for r­ esearching environmental health issues, with a special passion for fostering ethical relationships between researchers and the communities where they work. For Heather, the community is a vital contributor to ensuring that researchers are asking the right questions.

“We’ve ignored Indigenous issues for too long,” says Heather. “For these women, it’s more than a physical health issue. They’re concerned about

everyone in the community, and the disproportionate burden this places on their physical as well as mental, spiritual, and social health.”

Heather uses a research approach called “Two-Eyed Seeing” – a model derived from respected Mi’kmaq Elder Albert Marshall – that leverages the intellectual know-how and expertise of the researcher, while equally valuing the community’s intimate knowledge of the land, such as oral histories and spiritual understandings.

“Rather than the researcher coming at research questions purely from intellectual curiosity,” says Heather, “a participatory researcher spends a long time getting to know people in the communities, to understand the priorities and perspectives of these communities and their Indigenous knowledge-holders.”

Not a bad approach, especially considering the magnitude of that Mi'kmaq knowledge. While European settlers have only been around for about 400 years, the Mi’kmaq have spent thousands of years co-existing with the natural environment at Boat Harbour. They are emotionally and spiritually connected to the land in ways that science struggles to a­ dequately frame, making them particularly qualified to identify the full scope of environmental degradation.

The end result is that researchers like Heather are able to work with communities to ask the right questions and get real research answers that the community can trust.

It seems to be working, at least according to the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, which recently

Common Ground ©Basma Kavanagh

Graham North

The diverse thesis topics of MES students exemplify the interdisciplinary nature of SRES. They range from forestry ­sciences to cultural studies, government ­policies, e­ valuations of agricultural and fishery practices.

profile Stephanie Meyer, Master of Environmental Studies’95 Upon graduation, Stephanie applied the multi-disciplinary approach to environmental management from her degree to Nike’s Canadian ­manufacturing operations to ­develop and impleHeather’s research brings Indigenous and western knowledge-holders together.

awarded Heather’s Boat Harbour project $445,000 over three years to research reliable baseline data that will answer the community’s environmental health questions. The grant application was ranked #1 in its competition and is the largest of five awarded to Dalhousie researchers this year — a credit to the holistic approach that the research model embraces.

Such cooperation has helped shape mutually beneficial relationships between this Dalhousie researcher and Mi’kmaq communities across the province. Heather has established a one-week Graduate Field School where Dal students can bolster their classroom learning by living in Mi’kmaq communities and learning from elders, leaders, knowledgeholders, and resource-users to get a better understanding of the pressing environmental, health, economic, and policy issues facing their communities.

“I’m not the kind of person who takes a course like this, but I’m exactly the kind of person who should,” says field school ­graduate Tanya Koropatnick, MREM’11, a Dalhousie grad working with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, who surprised herself at how much she benefitted from her experience in Mi’kmaq communities.

All of these positive outcomes are a function of researching with communities instead of researching on them. It’s a simple idea – holistic in scope and forward-thinking in impact – and yet not nearly as common as you might expect.

“It's funny that people aren’t doing this everywhere,” says Heather. “There is value in basic science – research for the sake of research – but given the state of our environment, it makes sense that we’re drawing on the wisdom of the elders and the science of Indigenous knowledge-holders.”

ment environmental and health and safety ­management systems, phase out use of ozone-depleting substances, and reduce the volume of ­packaging materials and waste.

Today, she is one of the founding Principals of Stratos, a leading Canadian sustainability consultancy with offices in Ottawa and Calgary. Stratos’ work has positively influenced the sustainability performance and disclosure of many of Canada’s largest resource companies.

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Management

For eight consecutive years 100% of our MPA students have secured government internships. These paid internships provide invaluable experience that help launch their professional careers.

The MPA Management degree offers highly motivated mid-career professionals with a dynamic and flexible on-line ­learning environment. They learn the most advanced theories and best practices from their professors as well as their classmates.

360° Disaster Thinking Colette O’Hara

Disasters are, perhaps, the least predictable events that human beings experience. Even when we have w ­ arning, we have no idea what the exact impact will be, the s­ everity of the damage, or what unknowns we’ll encounter.

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espite that, there are two ­fundamental constants that ­happen in times of disaster, regardless of whether we’re dealing with a flood, hurricane, or terrorist attack: when ­disaster strikes, it will disrupt order and create chaos; and, out of that, human beings will seek first to survive and then to rebuild and re-establish order.

And so, in the midst of something so unpredictable there exists a cycle that has become remarkably predictable.

Over time, how we go about re-establishing order (the practice of disaster management and recovery) has become more and more sophisticated.

We know more, we’ve seen more, and we have superior machinery and resources that dramatically improve our efforts. But at the same time, recovery has become increasingly complex. To say that the world is inextricably interconnected is a ridiculous statement of the obvious. When considered in the context of disaster, however, this interdependence is critically important.

“There’s a web of connections that underpin our society. For the most part, people don’t understand the complexities of these connections and

14 Management

the vulnerabilities they create,” says Dr. Kevin Quigley, Acting Director of Dalhousie University’s School of Public Administration.

It’s this interconnection that Kevin and his research team, which consists of four other academics from Dalhousie and the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland, are exploring. The group has been awarded a $200,000 Partnership Development Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada to look at how the 10 critical sectors of the economy (banking and finance, transportation, power, information and communications, government, emergency services, law enforcement, fire departments, water supply, and food supply) can better work together in times of crisis and disaster. Called Critical Infrastructure Protection, this is an area of study that has become increasingly important.

“Traditionally, when you manage risk, you look at your own organization and focus exclusively on how you would respond,” Kevin says. “But that’s not enough. We have to think bigger than this. What if the roads are impass-

able, for example? How do doctors and nurses get to the hospital or how do we deliver food and medicine? Looking at disaster without considering every possible angle and without thinking about how each of the critical sectors impacts one another is simply irresponsible.”

It’s for this reason that the members of this transatlantic research project represent so many academic disciplines.

The team includes a psychologist, an accountant, an engineer, an actuary/ statistician and an anthropologist/­ sociologist. It’s also why they have invited 10 government and industry partners to the table to help shed light on the types of vulnerabilities that each of these organizations deals with and to identify areas of risk that might have a cascading impact.

Together the group is exploring five disasters – pandemics, supply chain failure, bridge collapse, offshore oil, and flooding – by looking at historical responses to them and how to individually and collectively do a better job of responding in the future.

“There’s no guarantee that our systems won’t fail, so we need to be ­resilient,” Kevin says. “We need to

As the leading School of Public Administration in the Atlantic region, we are the focal point for excellence in public management, research, and teaching. Our national and international faculty bring a broad perspective to students and community.

profile

Catherine Blewett, Master

of Public Administration’90 Catherine is the Deputy Minister and CEO of the Nova Scotia Office of Aboriginal Affairs and the Department of Intergovernmental Affairs. She is also a professor in Intergovernmental Relations in the Master of Public ­Administration program.

Since graduating from Dal, she

c­ reate a mutually agreeable system that allows us to respond and return to the original state as quickly as possible.”

But as the research was beginning to come together, it became clear that there were some significant challenges to address. Aside from managing the schedules of 15 busy people and creating an environment that allows participants to feel comfortable talking about the most sensitive vulnerabilities of their respective organizations, it was the geographical challenges that posed the biggest issue.

The solution? An online environment called Second Life where the group can engage in conversations, meetings, and workshops. If it’s a technology you’re not familiar with it, you’ll quickly learn that it’s entirely another world.

“In Second Life we literally interact as avatars, just like human beings would in the real world. We create a virtual space where the avatars can hang out, chat, and even gather around a sofa.

We facilitate meetings in this space and we can have side conversations. Once you get comfortable with the model, it doesn’t take long to realize how useful it

is and how quickly you can facilitate an international conference without leaving your office or home,” Kevin explains.

In the coming months, the group will convene to engage in several workshops focused on each of the five disasters they’re studying. Extensive research will be conducted prior to each session in order to inform participants and ensure everyone has the most current knowledge and information possible.

The outcome from all of this will be a unique cross-sector and interdisciplinary understanding of disaster management that hasn’t previously existed. So while the research won’t make disasters or when they strike any more predictable, the ultimate goal is to make the human response to them better and more efficient.

And that’s the best hope we have for a worst-case scenario.

has served with the Government of Nova Scotia in the Department of Finance and Intergovernmental Affairs and the Atlantic Canada ­Opportunities Agency. At ACOA she was the Director of Intergovernmental Affairs and Director of ­Infrastructure, with responsibility for a range of intergovernmental files and managing federal-­provincial infrastructure agreements. In 2009, she joined Citizenship and Immigration Canada as the Director of Operations for Nova Scotia.

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Management

Researchers at Dalhousie University, led by the Marine Affairs Program, are using a $500,000, two-year research grant from the TK Foundation and in-kind Dalhousie University support to identify a suite of integrated policy o ­ ptions for addressing modern day piracy.

Bridging the science and policy gap Laura Whitman

This year’s United Nations Rio+20 conference drew world ­leaders to Brazil for three days ­of discussions on the future of our global ­environment, ­covering topics such as how to protect the world’s oceans from overfishing, the ­destruction of m ­ arine ecosystems and the a­ dverse affects of c­ limate change.

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I

deas generated by Dalhousie ­students were among the possibilities they considered — ideas that were first shared at a mini-symposium jointly hosted by WWF-Canada (WWF) and the Marine Affairs Program (MAP) at Dalhousie University. Student abstracts were shared through poster and oral presentations and a select few were then prepared for publication in peer-reviewed journals and presentation at the Rio+20 conference.

This opportunity for students to apply their knowledge and foresight to issues facing the people, policies, and places of the world is only the beginning. A new endowment fund formally linking Dalhousie and WWF is making sure of that. Founded by Donald R. Sobey, the Sobey Fund for Oceans has been designed to bridge the gap between science and policy. It will foster solutions-focused leadership and create opportunities and inspire ideas that will have a tangible impact on MAP students, the WWF, and, eventually, the world.

“If you look at the amount of scientific knowledge the world has gained in the past five decades, it has increased exponentially,” explains Dr. Lucia Fanning, Director, Marine Affairs Program, Dalhousie University. “The curious thing is that meanwhile, the state of the world’s oceans have been declining exponentially. Currently, there are few appropriate mechanisms that get science into the decisionmaking process at the appropriate place and time. That’s something this partnership is trying to address.”

There are two endowed funds and the donor agreement for each references the other, allowing a unique long-term partnership to form. One fund will grant $10,000 scholarships to incoming students, encouraging the best and brightest future conservationists to make Dalhousie University their university of choice.

The second fund gives these students the opportunity to work at WWF in their specialty of choice and gain experience from a leading marine conservation organization.

“The interesting thing about the world of conservation is you can only be successful by being multidisciplinary,” says Dr. Robert Rangeley, Vice-President, Atlantic, WWFCanada. “We know the direction we need to go in. We tend to be rich at understanding problems and policies, but relatively poor at implementing solutions and realizing the benefits.

That’s where the students come in.”

profile Alexandra (Alex) Gagne, Master of Marine Management’09 Alex works as a policy analyst with the First Nations Fishery Council in Vancouver, where she grew up.

While at Dal, she became interested in co-management and, specifically, how Indigenous © Erling Svensen / WWF-Canon

communities – which often rely on marine resources for food and have strong cultural connections to these resources – are involved in fisheries management.

Now she’s helping BC’s 203 First Nations organizations on issues such

Dalhousie’s Marine Affairs Program functions like a hub on ocean issues.

Students spend time learning in a wide range of subjects, including macro ­sciences, social sciences, law, and public policy, which enables them to see solutions that are not sector-driven.

“Take, for example, the declining water quality in Halifax Harbour,” says Dr. Fanning. “If you bring together an interdisciplinary team of scholars and experts, each of those will see the problem in a different light.

It’s those differences that spark an innovative solution. Achieving change requires more than knowledge. That knowledge needs to be available at the right time, in the right way.”

WWF shares that philosophy and hopes students will be motivated by the opportunity to have their work be used to make a difference in the world. Together, WWF and MAP will be encouraging applicability over academic or theoretical advancement.

After all, an innovative idea is only as good as its implementation.

“The future of our oceans is linked to our future leaders,” says Dr. Rangeley. “Through Don Sobey’s endowment and ground-breaking teamwork, we are trying to provide the means, recognition, and financial incentives for those future leaders to help change our planet.”

as access, capacity to participate in management decisions, and developing a co-management framework to jointly manage their resources with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

Trisha De Graaf, ­ Master of Marine ­Management‘04 is ­managing the State of Maine’s A ­ tlantic halibut, ­scallop, and sea urchin fisheries.

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Management

Alumni of the Year award - provide some information here about the award...

The foundation of a Tower Nancy Tower (BComm’81) (FCA) is notably humble about her recognition as Dalhousie University’s Alumnus of the Year.

“T

here are so many people who give so much to this university — many of them more than I have,” says the senior-level Emera executive.

“I’m not certain that I deserve it more than anyone else, but it’s certainly a privilege to be amongst such distinguished company.”

Her humility is, however, ­unwarranted. The A. Gordon ­Archibald Alumnus of the Year award is given to someone who sets a high standard for volunteerism at ­Dalhousie, which N ­ ancy has most definitely done, having sat on the Commerce Alumni Board, the Board of Governors, and the Corporate Residency MBA Advisory Board at various points over the past decade.

It also recognizes an alumnus who helps to advance the school through their commitment to the v­ alues of the university. It’s the latter that makes Nancy abundantly deserving.

Dalhousie’s values focus on how the school and its students can positively influence the outside world.

Growth and achievement, delivering larger lessons through the acquisition of wisdom, making meaningful contributions, assisting in community building, and exemplary leadership round

18 Management

out the principles the school embodies.

During her time as a student and in the years after, Nancy has lived these values on a daily basis.

“I had such a positive experience at Dal. I was very involved, sitting on residence council for Sheriff Hall, as well as the student union. It’s a school that allows you to step up and be a leader and I’ve carried that foundation forward with me in my career,” Nancy says.

Given her executive position in one of the most professionally challenging industries, energy, it’s a foundation that has no doubt come in handy.

“When you come from a small town, as I did, being able to become involved in a relatively large institution helps you to realize that you can go out into the real world, be a leader and make a difference,” she says.

As the CEO of Emera Newfoundland (she’s also the Executive VicePresident of Business Development for Emera), Nancy is leading the Maritime Link Transmission Project, one of the company’s most significant initiatives.

Valued at $1.2 billion, it will connect Newfoundland and Labrador to the North American power grid for the first time.

With this much success under her belt it would be easy to assume that this top-level executive has lived her life knowing exactly what direction she wanted her professional career to go. But that would be the wrong assumption.

“When I was a student, I didn’t know where I would be at this point in life. In fact, I had planned to be an accountant and then dropped my ­accounting courses and studied French while I tried to figure out what I wanted to do. I was as uncertain as most students are at the end of their four-year degree.”

Turns out that a change in direction was exactly what Nancy needed to clear her head and determine her path.

“When I really started thinking about my career, I realized that being a CA was what I wanted. I wouldn’t have come to that conclusion without having had such a strong academic foundation. It goes to show that with the right academics, you can get to your destination, even if it is through a circuitous route.”

profile Niklas Rademacher, Bachelor of Management’08, University Medal in Management Nik is a product manager for Macherey-Nagel, a chemical company in Düren, Germany. Upon graduation, he played 1st division pro volleyball for that company, but a bad injury in 2010 ended his pro career. For Nik, the BMgmt Program provided a wide overview that “allows you to set your own focus points as you progress in your studies.” He also says that “Halifax and Dalhousie provide a great fit for the perfect student experience.”

Accolades, awards and accomplishments Colin Craig

A

ffirmation, in its many forms, can motivate those who receive it to aspire to even greater things while it attracts those who observe it to become involved. Each success achieved by the staff, faculty, and students of the Faculty of Management’s School of Business advances our vision of becoming an internationally recognized centre of values-based management. In the past year there have been many such affirmations of the Faculty’s approach to management education and its engagement with the private and public sectors, as well as the world of academia.

Here are some highlights: Global Business Education Award – Most Innovative Business School European CEO magazine has again presented a Global Business Education Award to Dalhousie’s Faculty of Management for being the Most ­Innovative Business School in Canada, two years in a row.

MBA Roundtable Innovator Award 2012 Our Corporate Residency MBA was among the finalists in the inaugural year of the MBA Roundtable ­Innovator Award Program, which was designed to recognize and promote educational initiatives that advance innovation in MBA education, and acknowledge the institutions that are driving change in the field.

Innovation in Practice Award 2012 – Education Progress Media Group has recognized the Corporate Residency MBA as a leading example of innovation in the public sector. The awards are ­designed to bring innovation any level of the public sector to the ­attention of business leaders, entrepreneurs, investors, universities, and other government leaders.

10,000 Co-op Successes Twenty years ago, Dalhousie’s School of Business introduced a mandatory co-op program where each student would require three completed work terms to graduate. Ten thousand ­co-op ­success stories later, the ­decision proved to be a good one.

Own the Podium Dalhousie business students are advancing their education and ­reputation of their university through an Own the Podium ­strategy to increase and improve their ­participation in case competitions.

Now in its second year, the strategy has produced a marked improvement over previous years.

Stay inspired. Get involved.

Left to right: Jim Wilson, MBA’87; Maurice Fares, BComm’09; Marianne Hagen, Alumni Relations Officer; Courtney Larkin, BMgmt’10

Being involved in the life of the Faculty of Management keeps Jim, Courtney, and Maurice inspired. They give of their time to enrich the experiences of students and their fellow alumni.

Whether it’s Dal Homecoming each September, a class reunion, invitations to speaking events, alumni receptions across Canada, or attending A Toast to the Coast to raise funds for breast

cancer research, alumni events build networks that enrich your life.

Giving back to Dal is a personal commitment to acts or gifts large and small.

Mentor one of our students, hire a s­ tudent for a work-term (see how at d ­ al/mcs.ca), or refer a student to one of our p ­ rograms.

There are many ways to make a difference.

Contact Marianne H ­ agen to talk about how you can volunteer.

Stay connected

Contact us Email: Marianne.Hagen@dal.ca Tel.: 902.494.7142 We can’t wait to hear about the great things you’re doing.

Update and win Visit our website, click on Update your Contact to give us info and you’ll be entered to win great prizes Update your email address to receive the latest information on how to get involved Follow Us

Bold Ambitions How can we reimagine the world around us for 21st century living?

Boldambitions.dal.ca Gifts: Robbie.Shaw@dal.ca

@DalFoMAlumni

Marianne Hagen dal.ca/mgmtalum