QUART E R LY
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FEBRUARY 2015
FROM COURT TO COURT WITH GLEN GRUNWALD The Man of the Hour on his experience with the NBA and his hopes for the McMaster Athletics Program
JEREMIAH BROWN
From Necktie to Olympic Medal
MATT SCHNARR
The Entrepreneurial Spirit
MARVIN RYDER
Words from the Wise
THE NEW DCS
Joseph Cruz
ACHOCOLYPSE Julia Din h
HOW’S YOUR GERMAN?
Imran Dhalla
GLEN GRUNWALD
THE ABUNDANCE OF SCARCITY Sehrish Khan
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F
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VOLUME 2, ISSUE 3
FROM NECKTIE TO OLYMPIC MEDAL
PAGE 14
Contents 5 LETTER FROM THE EDITOR 6 #TRENDING WORLDWIDE 7 #TRENDING ECONOMICS
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8 THE ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT: MATT SCHNARR 13 SHOULD THE TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS CARE ABOUT BEING COMPETITIVE? 14 DEGROOTE COMMERCE SOCIETY 25 ACHOCOLYPSE 27 TEN SIMPLE STEPS TO BECOMING A FINANCIAL GOLDEN GIRL 30 FROM NECKTIE TO OLYMPIC MEDAL: JEREMIAH BROWN
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37 THE ALLEN H. GOULD TRADING FLOOR 38 HOW’S YOUR GERMAN? 40 IN CONVERSATION WITH GLEN GRUNWALD 47 WHY ISN’T SOCCER AS BIG IN CANADA AS IT IS IN OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD? 49 JDC CENTRAL DEGROOTE 54 COPING WITH COMPETITIVE PEERS IN SIX STEPS
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56 WORDS FROM THE WISE: MARVIN RYDER 64 THE ABUNDANCE OF SCARCITY 66 GRADUATES: WHERE ARE THEY NOW? TIA TOKO (‘13) 68 GRADUATES: WHERE ARE THEY NOW? VIVIAN LEUNG (‘13) 69 GRADUATES: WHERE ARE THEY NOW? SANDI SIMOES (‘13) 70 DEGROOTE BUSINESS CHALLENGE
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72 THE COMMERCE INTERNSHIP PROGRAM 74 GET INFORMED OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM
Quarterly Profit
Letter from the Editor
FEBREUARY 2015 | Volume 2, Issue 3 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Joseph Cruz (‘16) MANAGING EDITORS Alexander Karpenko (‘15) Julia Dinh (‘16) CREATIVE DIRECTOR Sajid Ali (‘16) WRITERS Imran Dhalla (‘16) Kelvin Pau (‘17) Krish Puri (‘17) Lauren Zylik (‘17) Marco Coccari (‘17) Marryiam Khan (‘15) Rachel Mostert (‘15) Sehrish Khan (‘16) Taylor Browne (‘17) Tara Khudairi (‘17) DESIGNERS Anduen Sertolli (‘18) Florence Pau (‘17) Sasha Srinivas (‘18) Victoria Mangialardi (‘18) Xueqin Lin (‘18) PHOTOJOURNALIST Cory Bryck (‘16) MARKETING DIRECTOR Rebecca Snary (‘16) DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS Allan Chan (‘17) Contact us at: magazine@degrootecommerce.ca Visit us online: http://issuu.com/quarterlyprofit
The long wait is finally over! Our third issue is here and I couldn’t be more proud of the outcome of weeks of hard work that culminated to our strongest issue yet! The QP team has been working persistently during the past few weeks to provide you with another publication that you can truly be proud of. This issue is DeGroote through and through! In it you’ll find a wide array of articles that truly highlight what DeGroote has to offer. Starting from an alumnus who has made Canada proud in the Olympic world stage, to a brilliant professor who has become one of the faces of DeGroote in the media, to current students who are making a positive impact within and outside of the school, I can assure you that as you read through the pages of this issue that you would feel proud more than ever to be a part of the DeGroote community. Mentioned are just some of the amazing individuals that our team had the privilege of meeting and talking to and we’re ecstatic to finally share their stories with all of you! I am always amazed with the high caliber of talent present here at DeGroote. And I’m truly grateful to everyone who has contributed to the magazine’s growth during the last few months. As we enter the last stretch of this academic year, I hope to see more and more of you contribute to the magazine and become a part our journey as a student publication. Our team is always open for collaboration and contribution. If you are interested in contributing or would like to share your thoughts and ideas with us, please feel free to contact us at magazine@degrootecommerce.ca. We’d love to hear from you!
Cheers! Joseph Cruz, Editor-in-Chief
DISCLAIMER // All photos or logos used without sourcing are used in compliance with the Fair Use Law - for not-for-profit educational purposes. In no way do we assume ownership or affiliation with any images seen. If there are any questions or concerns, please contact us at: magazine@degrootecommerce.ca http://copyright.mcmaster.ca/Fair_Dealing
February 2015 | Quarterly Profit | 5
#TrendingWorldwide WORDS BY ALEXANDER COOPER
France is on high alert after Islamists in Paris carried out a series of terrorist attacks from Jan 7th to Jan 9th. Most prominent was the attack on French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, which killed twelve people after the magazine published cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad. Five attacks were carried out in total killing 17 and wounding 22. The horrific events sparked protests in France and across Europe in defence of free speech. Croatia elected their first female president, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic. The right wing president will attempt to drag Croatia out of its economic slump. A Russian-Ukrainian peace summit was cancelled after fighting intensified in South-Eastern Ukraine. The peace talks, brokered by the Germans and French, were scheduled to be held in Astana, Kazakhstan. A record ¥5 trillion yen ($42 billion) defense budget was approved by the Japanese government. Due to disputed territories, Japan-China relations have been tense. NATO combat operations have officially ended in Afghanistan. The coalition suffered approximate 3,400 losses during the thirteen year operation. Greek’s elected the left-wing Syriza party to lead the nation. The party has publically stated that they will 6 | Quarterly Profit | February 2015
attempt to renegotiate the terms of Saudi Arabian blogger Raif Badawi their bailout debt. This may lead to has been sentenced to be publicala Greek default and Eurozone exit. ly flogged 1000 times and spend 10 years in prison under Saudi Arabia’s The United States has made an ef- Sharia law. Mr. Badawi was found fort to normalise Cuban relations guilty of insulting Islamic figures. after a 54-year old trade embargo. President Barack Obama has said The Nigerian town of Baga was masthat U.S. policy toward Cuba is sacred when Islamist group Boko “long past its expiration date” Haram overran a military base that served as the Multinational Joint Debris of AirAsia Flight 8501 has Taskforce (MJT) headquarters. Hubeen found at sea by Indonesian man Rights Watch stated that, “the search teams. The jetliner crashed exact death toll in Baga and 16 surabout an hour after take-off from rounding villages is unknown” CaSurabaya, Indonesia en route to Sin- sualty estimates have ranged from gapore. 162 people were on board “dozens” to 2000 or more. the aircraft. The Kurdish people were not repreFor the first time in eight years, the sented during the recent Anti-ISIS Senate and House of Representa- conference held in London. 21 Cotives is under Republican control. alition members were invited to atNew Senate majority leader, Mitch tend, including Turkey, Saudi AraMcConnell has vowed to pass a bill bia and Iraq. Iraqi Kurdish leader that would authorise the Keystone Masoud Barzani stated that, “The XL pipeline. The White House pub- people of Kurdistan bear the brunt lically stated that President Obama of this situation, and no country or will veto the bill. party can represent or truly convey their voice in international gatherA Russian court found 26-year old ings.” journalist and human rights activist, Yelena Klimova, guilty of, The release of The Interview, a sa“propaganda of non-traditional sex- tirical film starring Seth Rogen and ual relations among minors” after James Franco, was briefly halted by creating the social networking site Sony Pictures due to a cyber-attack. Children404 which supported gay, The film portrayed the fictional aslesbian and transgender teens and sassination attempt on North Koyoung adults. The repulsive law rean dictator Kim Jong Un. North was signed by President Vladimir Korea affirmed that they were not Putin in 2013. responsible for the attack.
#TrendingEconomics WORDS BY ALEXANDER COOPER
After the European Court of Justice ruling, the European Central Bank (ECB) announced that it will embark on a €60bn-a-month QE program to reenergize the economy and combat deflation in the Eurozone. President of the ECB, Mario Draghi, stated that the bank will buy more than €1 trillion in, including government and private sector bonds by September next year. The program was heavily criticized by German politicians and institutions. The Swiss National Bank (SNB) stunned markets when it allowed the Swiss franc to float against the Euro. The SNB set a ceiling above which they would not let the franc rise. However due to the continuous depreciation of the euro, the ceiling was no longer justified. There may be a new champion in the smartphone market. The Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi, is estimated to be worth more than $45 billion after the latest fundraising effort. The Bank of Canada unexpectedly cut its overnight rate to 0.75% amid plummeting oil prices to encourage spending and stimulate the economy. Talks between Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, and Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, were held in Japan. Cooperative agreements were signed between the two nations and included increasing co-
operative efforts in in green energy, Eurozone finance ministers have defence and infrastructure. given Greece some financial breathing room by extending financial aid Russia’s credit rating was down- for an additional four months. Head graded to junk status by S&P and of the Eurogroup, Dutch finance Moody’s. The ongoing conflict in minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem, said Ukraine and decreasing oil prices that Athens plans to pay all its debt. are cited as the reason behind the downgrade. The low oil prices have The United States and various Eutaken a significant toll on the Rus- ropean nations have stated that they sian economy. Approximately half would like to see new and heaviof the Russian budget is derived er sanctions imposed on the Rusfrom oil revenues. sian government after increasing its direct military involvement in The price of iron ore continues to Ukraine. drop, which is currently trading at around $68.00 per tonne. The Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah bin growth of China’s economy has Abdullah has died. Many have been slowing, which has led to an speculated that the current oil glut oversupply of iron ore in commodi- has been intentionally orchestrated ty markets. China is the world larg- by Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s largest est consumer of refined-metals. producer, to damage the Russian economy and undermine the alterMcDonald’s is looking for a new native production of fossil fuels. CEO. Decreasing sales and profits The King’s half- brother Salman bin have led McDonald’s CEO Dom Abdulaziz has been coroneted. Thompson to step down, who was appointed to the position under Corporations such as Microsoft, three years ago. Pfizer and Procter & Gamble are beginning to worry about the negaThe IMF has cut its growth fore- tive effects of the dollar’s appreciacasts for several African nations. tion which may supress future profDecreasing commodity prices and its. The dollar hit an 11-year high the Ebola outbreak have negative- against the euro. ly affected the ability to pay down public-debt in countries such as India became the world’s largest Gambia, Zambia, Ghana, Malawi faster growing major economy. Acand Eritrea, which are heavily re- cording to new figures, the econoliant on revenues generated from my expanded 7.5 percent year-oncommodity exports and tourism. year during the last quarter.
February 2015 | Quarterly Profit | 7
The Entrepreneurial Spirit: Matt Schnarr Co-Founder and Managing Partner of AWAKE Chocolate Interview by Joseph Cruz 8 | Quarterly Profit | February 2015
“Creating a product that would compete with the likes of Red Bull and such didn’t seem realistic at first but then eventually that’s exactly what we did.”
Can you please tell us about yourself and your professional background prior to launching Awake Chocolate?
Can you please tell us a little about AWAKE Chocolate and your role as one of its Founder and Managing Partner?
primarily role is Head of Sales for Canada as well as much of the marketing. Up until a few weeks ago, our company was only four people so the three founders plus one other AWAKE Chocolate has four prod- person but we just expanded startucts: two chocolate bars and two ing with moving to a much bigger bites. Our products merge the great office and hiring several additional taste of chocolate with the pick me sales people. up coffee or as it is often described, “Hershey meets Red Bull”. Our fla- Although we have operations in vours are milk chocolate and car- the U.S., everything still runs out amel and each one of our bars is of our Mississauga office which we equivalent to one cup of coffee. Our jokingly refer to as the world headproducts are now sold across North quarters of AWAKE. Following our America and our target bull’s-eye recent hire of an EVP Retail Sales consumers are university or college for the USA (he was formerly VP students where we do very well in of sales for PepsiCo and Novartis that market regardless if it’s a new USA), my partner Dan is now head school that hasn’t heard about the of Foodservice Sales for the USA product yet, it just does very well while Adam manages pretty much with that cohort. We also do quite everything else. well in business offices and large format grocery retailers such as What pushed you to venture into Loblaw’s, HEB in Texas, Meijer starting your own company? in Michigan, Winn-Dixie in Flori- Have you always known that you da, and we’re currently testing with would eventually become an enWalmart U.S.A. so that hopefully trepreneur and start your own leads to big things. company?
I’ve worked in the Consumer Packaged Industry for about 14 years before I, along with my partners, decided to start AWAKE. I did my undergraduate degree in Business and Communication Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University. I then worked for Kraft Foods for about three and half years starting in marketing and then moving to sales and account management. Afterwards, I worked for ConAgra Foods Inc. and worked there for about two and a half years. I was the national account manager on Loblaw’s and was also part of sales strategy for about half of the company’s brands. I then worked for PepsiCo for seven and a half years while I worked on Loblaw’s team as well as being the team leader on Walmart for Pepsi QTG and eventually becoming the Sales Strategy Manager for Tropicana for three and half years before I and my partners, who also worked for PepsiCo and Kraft Foods, decid- In terms of my role within the com- I’ve always wanted to and the larged that we wanted to start our own pany, I’m one of the three Co-Found- est inspiration for that is the fact that company. ers of AWAKE Chocolate and my my dad has his own business February 2015 | Quarterly Profit | 9
for almost 30 years now. I’ve always felt like there was an entrepreneurial spirit in me but being in the Consumer Packaged Goods industry, it was tough to imagine what that would be. Creating a product that would compete with the likes of Red Bull and such didn’t seem realistic at first but then eventually that’s exactly what we did. We all decided that we were at the point in our career wherein we could go and try something new and that’s what we did. So yes, the three of us always knew that we wanted to start something but we just didn’t know what it was until we made the decision to do it and bring it to the next step of looking for the right product and creating it. Why the chocolate industry? How was the idea of caffeinated chocolate conceived? What was the thought process behind it? Unlike a lot of people who go into business, I think most have an idea of what they’re venturing into right away (aka if you went to Law School, you are likely going to become a lawyer). When you’re in the consumer packaged goods industry,
it’s not as obvious because you’re dealing with such a broad scope of categories. One of the things that we learned out of our career is that we needed something that we could differentiate. We didn’t want to be another energy drink trying to compete directly with Red Bull, Monster, or Rockstar. We wanted to create something different and one level down from that is the fact that functional products are driving the growth in many food categories. If you think about probiotics in yogurt and vitamin water, caffeine in soft drinks, lots of food categories are turning into that functional benefit in order to take the product a step further. This is the reason why we decided to create a product that offers a functional benefit and we felt that the best function that people would pay more for is caffeine. Caffeine is the one thing in which people have an immediate efficacy because you physically feel something when you take it so people are more likely to pay more for it. People don’t generally love the taste of energy drinks so we endeavoured to create a product that delivered both taste as well as the much desired pick me up. We looked at a bunch
of categories and we thought that nothing tastes better than chocolate and there was a major opportunity because it was a big category that didn’t have any functional innovation. From the day that we decided to start a company to the day we started shipping products took us about a year and three months.
“Convincing people to invest in our pre-revenue business wasn’t easy but after a lot of learning and hard work, we landed on a valuation and had enough money to get going.” Looking back to when you were just starting the business, what were some challenges that your team faced and how were you able to overcome them? I think one of the biggest challenges was making the product taste good because it wasn’t necessarily a new idea but it’s the first time that it had been done right. Snickers in the U.S. has a brand that they cre
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“ [You have to] be patient but still opportunistic because as an entrepreneur, you have to know when to move fast and when to move slowly. Sometimes it’s better to sit back and let things happen while other times you have to get things done right away.”
ated called Snickers Charged and it was intended to be a functional chocolate bar that had caffeine in it. But apparently, the product had 90 minutes of aftertaste and as we were taste testing for our own product, we had batches that just didn’t taste good enough to even be considered for human consumption. It wasn’t until we figured out that there needs to be some technical and scientific input that needed to happen to the caffeine in order for it to taste good.
“You have to be action and results oriented because you have to do it for a reason and you can’t sit back and wait for others to do the work for you.” The other big challenge we faced was raising money. With the limited financial resources that we had, we just couldn’t go and launch a brand and all the other things that come with it; such as supporting marketing, producing trial runs, designing packaging and how much you need
to buy – we couldn’t save enough money in a year to cover all these expenses. So we needed to go raise money. When it comes to raising money, banks aren’t really an option because they don’t lend money to entities that don’t have a cash flow yet. So we had to raise money through investors and sell equity in our business which was tough because we were only selling an idea at that point. The challenge really came in trying to persuade people that we can do it – that we can create such product, market it, find the right distribution channels and generate sales velocities. Convincing people to invest in our pre-revenue business wasn’t easy but after a lot of learning and hard work, we landed on a valuation and had enough money to get going. You participated in the Season 7 of Dragon’s Den. Can you please tell us more about your experience? How did your team prepare for the pitch and what changed after appearing on the show? The
experience
was
definitely
memorable and value added. We had the one pitch that was televised and since then we’ve had four follow-ups. The latest follow up televised February 18th of this year. The original pitch experience was certainly nerve-wracking but being on national TV has definitely been huge for us. Going in for the first time, my biggest concern was the risk of exposing our idea to current and potential competitors. None of us were actually nervous pitching our idea to them since we’ve done it plenty of times at that point. In terms of how we prepared for it, we set three objectives before appearing on the show. In order, our first objective was to get televised because lots of people pitch on Dragon’s Den but end up not getting televised so they can’t even claim that they were on the show or see the benefit of the exposure. Our next objective was to get good reception for the product because if you don’t get good reception from the investors, you probably did your product a disservice. Our last objective was to raise money and that’s last because it was way more im February 2015 | Quarterly Profit | 11
portant for us to get good reception and exposure for the product since we already have a few investors interested at that point.
What skills and qualities do you think are important for one to have if he or she would like to start his or her own company?
After the show, there was definitely a lot more awareness for the brand. We anchor back a lot of our stories to Dragon’s Den because people always like to hear about our involvement with the show. After appearing on the show, we definitely gained added trust, more brand awareness, a good story to tell, and having a very valued business adviser through David Chilton. What is a valuable lesson you have learned throughout your career?
First, you have to be action and results oriented because you have to do it for a reason and you can’t sit back and wait for others to do the work for you. I also believe that to be an entrepreneur, you need to be able to sell regardless of what career you’re in. Another important skill that you need to have is money management because as an entrepreneur, you’re taking on a lot of financial risk. The last one is to be patient but still opportunistic because as an entrepreneur, you have to know when to move fast and when to move slowly. Sometimes it’s better to sit back and let things happen while other times you have to get things done right away.
I’m actually going to quote David Chilton on what I’ve learned so far. He always says that entrepreneurship is tough. You really need the right mixture of product, people and luck in order to make a business succeed especially in the consumer packaged goods industry because you’re competing with big, seasoned companies across North America. 12 | Quarterly Profit | February 2015
Where do you see AWAKE Chocolate in 5 years? I would say widespread availability across North America and other countries as well. Our aspiration is
be available in places where energy drinks and chocolate bars are. We’re also planning to launch more flavours and brand extensions that would allow us to take our brand and apply it to products other than chocolate. So to put simply, more place, more awareness, and more product. Do you have any advice for aspiring DeGroote business students who are thinking of becoming entrepreneurs and venture into starting their own businesses? It all starts with the product and the people. If you have a good product, then you’ll be able to sell your product to companies who will do the design work for you or sell it to potential investors and retailers who would want to carry it. On the people side, nothing really happens if you don’t have the people pushing it along. In our case, we had three people with different skillsets and possessed complementary experiences that enabled us to move forward with our ideas.
Should the Toronto Maple Leafs Care About Being Competitive? Words by Taylor Browne
S
purred by the new Canadian media deal with Rogers Communication in 2014, the average NHL team value has soared to an alltime new height of $490 million. Ranked at the top of the valuation list sits the Toronto Maple Leafs with a healthy value of $1.3 billion, a considerable $810 million above the NHL average and $200 million above the runner-up team, the New York Rangers. Being the most valuable hockey franchise in the league, with so much money to throw around, one might intuitively presume that the Maple Leafs would be, well, to put it frankly: winning. However, as most of us are aware, this is not the case. The financial success of the Maple Leafs off-ice has not reflected their success on-ice since their resurgence in the early 1990s. In the past decade, the Maple Leafs have qualified for post-season play only once, which by most standards would be considered subpar or mediocre at best, and yet they remain at the top of the valuation list. This then raises the central question: should the Toronto Maple Leafs care about being competitive? From a strictly financial standpoint, if no correlation exists
between winning and franchise value, the answer would appear to be no.
the highest in the NHL at $572.58, exceeding the Boston Bruins cost index by $62.78.
The breakdown of the Maple Leafs valuation shows that of the $1.3 billion, forty-eight percent of it is attributed to its city and market size, twenty-six percent is attributed to its arena, nine percent is attributed to the sport, and only sixteen percent is attributed to the brand itself. This indicates that the franchise’s success is largely dependent on the market for hockey that surrounds the city of Toronto and the arena, the Air Canada Centre (ACC), which facilitates it. Therefore, regardless of how successful the Maple Leafs are on the ice, as long as they keep the doors to the ACC open a few times a week they are bound to make revenue in droves.
It is logical to believe that if the Leafs were to be more competitive there would be a higher demand for tickets, more tickets sold due to play-offs, and thus, an increase in ticket price and revenue, but this would be incidental at best to the overall valuation of the franchise. The Leafs have already reached their limit with sponsorships, ticket sales, commodities and other miscellaneous revenues that even, for example, a $100 million increase in revenue from increased ticket price would be negligible.
But what makes the Toronto Maple Leafs different than say the Boston Bruins in terms of revenue? The answer resides in what is referred to as the “fan cost index”. The fan cost index is the total cost of a night out at an NHL arena, which includes food and arena expenses in addition to the ticket price. The cost index for a Maple Leafs’ fan is
Although I am sure that the Toronto Maple Leafs would love to appease their weary blue-blooded fans by winning the Stanley Cup, no financial incentive exists to do so. That is not to say that the Leafs make no effort to be the best, as they have spent close to the salary cap each year and are known to dish out large sums to meet management needs, but simply put: the Toronto Maple Leaf franchise thrives and will continue to thrive despite the team’s on-ice plight.
February 2015 | Quarterly Profit | 13
DeGroote Commerce Soc Welcoming the 2015-2016 Executive Team 14 | Quarterly Profit | February 2015
ciety
INTERVIEW BY JOSEPH CRUZ February 2015 | Quarterly Profit | 15
YouR NEW
DCS
Pres
16 | Quarterly Profit | February 2015
Jenn
MaNNA
n
A
Can you please tell us more about yourself? My name is Jenn Manna and I’m a third year commerce student here at DeGroote. In terms of my past involvement with the school, I actually wasn’t involved at all during my first year, which was quite the opposite if I look back to my years in high school, wherein I was involved in a lot of extra-circulars such as student council. I think the reason behind my lack of involvement during first year was because I wasn’t sure how or if I even wanted to get involved. However, by the end of that year, I finally decided to apply for a DCS executive position of VP, Academic. I didn’t get that position, but I was selected for VP, Human Resources and Administration which turned out to be such a great opportunity and I’m grateful to the DCS President in 2013, Conrad Thompson, who took a chance and hired me to be a part of his team. This past year, I was fortunate enough to fulfill the role of Chief Operating Officer (COO) for the DCS and looking back to my university experience thus far, I think that I learned and grew the most in the COO role. Having the opportunity to work with a diverse group of people, enabling them to accomplish what they set out to do and seeing them succeed in their respective roles was definitely the highlight of my experience this past year. More than that, so many people that I had the chance of working with this year taught me a lot of things about myself and definitely helped me grow as a person and as a leader. Thank you to my current DCS executive team and President Mahmoud Al-Awawdeh, for all of there support this past year. In terms of my future aspirations, I am passionate about the field of Organization Behaviour. Ever since my first Organizational Behaviour (2BA3) class with Professor Teal McAteer, she has become a huge inspiration of mine and has become a mentor professionally as well as personally. After having the honour of working with her, it has led me wanting to pursue a consulting career in Organizational Development. So in the future, I definitely see myself working with people and similar to the positions that I’ve held during my stay here at DeGroote. With regards to the things I do outside of school, family is very important to me. I come from a large family who are all very supportive. Outside of school, I spend most of my time with family and friends. I also love to watch
The Bachelor, Gossip Girl, The Big Bang Theory, Two and a Half Men and Suits. I love sleeping, like everyone else, and I do enjoy running and reading although I haven’t done both as much as I would like to. In terms of reading, I love reading leadership books or books that challenge me to grow more as an individual. The most recent, impactful book would have to be The Leader Who Had No Title and one of my favourite quotes from that book says that, “the very things that make you feel afraid are the very doorways into your leadership best.” Lastly, the highlight of my DeGroote experience so far would definitely be my campaign period for the 20152016 DCS Presidency. The amount of people that I had the opportunity to meet during the campaign, as well as seeing so much passion from our students was truly amazing to witness. So you mentioned that during your first year at DeGroote, you weren’t really able to take part on any extra-curricular activities, but you did apply for the DCS VP, Academic position by the end of the year. What motivated you to finally take the step and try to be involved within the DeGroote community? The reason why finally decided to get involved was from the encouragement of a fellow commerce student. So part of the reason why I didn’t get involved in first year is because there was a little bit of an intimidation factor and also because I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to get involved in which actually ties in to my platform when I ran for presidency. Please remind us of your platform and the plans you have for the DCS for the upcoming year. The focus of my platform is increasing community engagement and opening more opportunities for students. As I mentioned above, the reason why I didn’t get involved in first year was the intimidation factor and of course not being sure of how and what to get involved in. For that reason, I decided to implement the First Year Orientation (FYO) planner to work in conjunction with the Greensuits Co-Planners, where greensuits will now be mentors to first year students. Mentors and mentees can still sign up after welcome week, as this is just one avenue of the program to encourage more first year involvement and support. One of the things the FYO Planner is responsible for, is wherein first year students are partnered with upper years during faculty February 2015 | Quarterly Profit | 17
day so that the upper year students can act as mentors that will guide and encourage the first year students to attend events and get involved. In doing so, it’s much easier to reach out to our first years and in return, that will make the transition for them much easier. The first years will now know an upper year they can reach out to for assistance finding a class, knowing which textbook to buy, and ask any other questions to help their transition. Another focus that I have for next year is bringing back the Elected Year Representatives. By bringing the representatives back, we will have more transparency between the DCS and the student body. Another reason is to have the student representation that will allow students to voice out their opinions and ideas and to provide them with more opportunities to get involved. This will help to provide more opportunities for students, as each Elected Year Representative position will have a council that will help him or her in reaching out to their peers, and planning events. The applications for the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Year Representatives are released on March 2nd, 2015 and nomination forms are due before March 14th, 2015 at noon in DCS drop box outside the DCS Office (DSB 131). If you have any questions please email recruitment@degrootecommerce.ca. I also plan to implement what I call a Job Preview Month in January. The purpose of this month is to provide students who are interested in getting involved with the DCS the opportunity to shadow current executives during their day-to-day activities to see if they are fit for the position. The length of the preview will depend on how many students apply to the program. Another initiative that I’m introducing for the external growth of DeGroote is to have Conference Ambassadors who will be responsible for promoting external conferences to the students throughout the year. The reason why I want to implement Conference Ambassadors is because it will ensure that our school will have representation in external businesses conferences. Another reason is to encourage students to get involved in these conferences because there’s value in attending these events and also because the DCS has a conference reimbursement program that helps students financially by shouldering 50% of the cost of the delegate fee, up to $300 per student. Another focus I have this year is to encourage more integration between the DCS clubs. This is a major 18 | Quarterly Profit | February 2015
feedback I received when I did my Comments for Cupcake event during my campaign period. As a side note, I would like to thank everyone who contributed and voiced his or her concerns confidentially during the event. Also, please feel free to reach out to me if you have ideas or anything DCS-related that you would like to discuss! What are some of the challenges that you faced in preparation for the elections (or during the election) and how were you able to overcome them? I think one of the biggest challenges I faced was taking the first step to apply. I don’t think I would have been able to do it if I didn’t have the encouragement from family and friends. Another challenge that I faced was to put myself out there because it definitely took a lot to always be around the school and having to be out there all the time. In addition to that, it was also a vulnerable experience for me that I was able to overcome with the encouragement that I received from family and friends and from people I didn’t even know. I am very grateful to everyone who supported me along the way. Another challenge that I faced was the very quick transition right after I got selected for the position. So a few hours after I received the confirmation, I was already doing some prep work to ensure that the turnaround process could go through smoothly especially for the hiring process for the rest of the DCS executive team for next year. Since then, I have done 45 interviews with 45 amazing candidates and have hired a wonderful group of people to be my team for next year. Lastly, another challenge I faced was balancing my responsibilities as the incoming DCS president, outgoing COO, and with all my other commitments such as schoolwork, meetings, and midterms. I definitely learned a lot about how to manage stress effectively and pushing forward even when it gets really stressful. What is key lesson or key takeaway that you gained throughout your experience as a candidate? The key lesson I learned throughout the whole experience is the importance of perseverance. I realized how important it is keep pushing through especially in times of difficulty and uncertainty. Another lesson is the importance of realizing and appreciating your supporters and encouragers because without their never-ending
support and words of encouragement, I don’t think my experience would have been as successful as it was. The whole process is really a huge rush of emotions because you start out nervous and scared and then once you find out the results, you’re shocked at first but then you’re overjoyed and then you realize the big responsibility that lies ahead. Lastly another lesson that I received, and I will quote Professor McAteer on this, is sometimes you have to break down in order to breakthrough. How has your involvement within the DeGroote community contributed to your personal and professional development? The people I’ve had the privilege to meet in the past 2 years have challenged me to do new things and have significantly contributed to my growth as a person. The DCS has been such a big part of my life these past couple years and I have learned so much from my every day interaction with people. In terms of professional development, one of the things I gained through my involvement is learning the ability to coach and be coached. I have gained so much as an individual by seeing the value in helping people but also allowing people to help me. I’ve also learned the importance of having a mentor who’s always there to help me in my personal and professional growth. In addition to all these, I have also developed skills such as effective time management and prioritization, stress management, and organization skills which are essential skills that I will definitely use during my term and in the future as a professional. Another one is being able to genuinely stick by my words, to be results-oriented and ultimately provide results to stakeholders, whether it’s the student body that I will be serving during my term or the people I will be working with in my professional career. I am thankful for all opportunities that arose through my involvement with the school; whether it’s through my roles with the DCS or the case competitions that I’ve had the opportunity to partake in. With that, one thing I want to tell our student body as a fellow student is to capitalize on everything DCS offers because there are so many opportunities for your personal and professional growth and development.
ecutive has to help students and contribute to the DCS is so evident. I can tell just after our first team meeting that we’re all on the same page to help DeGroote become a much stronger community. I’m excited to see all of you grow in your respective roles and I assure you that I will support you as an individual and the team to the best of my abilities. I cannot wait to watch your visions for your respective roles exceed your expectations. I’m excited to coach each one of you and to be coached by you. Congratulations team, I cannot wait for this upcoming year together! What is your message to the student body of the DeGroote School of Business? As the incoming DCS President and as a fellow student, I think the message I would like to tell the student body is to get involved and to not be afraid to be yourself! It may seem to be nerve wracking at first but do it anyway because the reward you’ll get in the end is so worth it. Also, one thing I’ve learned is to never try to mimic your peers because of their success, and to just be yourself and be true to that. Ideal leaders don’t exist – it’s the authenticity and your perseverance that truly matters in the end. I also encourage students to find a mentor and a support system that will challenge you to become a better you. And don’t forget to share your wisdom along the way and that you’re part of a bigger family, which is the DeGroote Commerce Society regardless if you’re involved or not involved. I’m very excited to meet all of you and I hope to make the next year the best year yet! Do you have any additional comments you would like to share? I would like thank my family and friends for your unending support! Thanks to the DeGroote student body for your trust and for voicing out your ideas and opinions during the Comments for Cupcake event. Also, a huge thank you goes out to my campaign team who played a significant role throughout the campaign period and to my success as a candidate! Thank you.
What is your message to the rest of the executive team for 2015-2016 academic year? We all come from such diverse backgrounds and each of us has our own story to tell. The passion that each exFebruary 2015 | Quarterly Profit | 19
Rachel Fernandes Chief Operating Officer
mie take advantage of the many op- to help them have a great university portunities that the DCS offers. experience and am always open to hearing new ideas and suggestions. During your term, what do you Here’s to a great year! hope to gain in terms of personal and professional development? Nirusha Sivanesan
Personally, I hope to develop my leadership skills on larger scale and to impact more people through my work. Also, I’m looking forward to learning more about people and working in teams, as well as dealing with conflicts, celebrating wins and coping with losses. Professionally Please tell us a little bit about your- speaking, I hope to gain the confiself. dence and apply the skills and experience that I would gain in my role A little bit about myself, I am going to my future profession. to be starting my third year here at DeGroote. I’m a go getter and I’ve What is your message to the rest of been involved with the DCS since your executive team? my first year here! I was part of the First Year Council and now I’m cur- I’m here to support the entire team rently on of the Co-Chairs for the so if you have any questions or conGrad Formal. I plan to specialize in cerns, you can always approach me. Marketing and pursue a career in I really want to foster positive team Marketing and Advertising or event dynamics and I really want to see all planning. I am a lifeguard and I used of us grow together and challenge to be a swim instructor, I also enjoy each other during the upcoming watching Suits, House and my most year! I hope that we all work togethrecent guilty pleasure is The Mindy er towards a progressive goal so that Project. I’m a big sushi lover, very we can see positive changes and big close to my family and I guess you improvements within the society could say I am a shopaholic! Lastly, and the DeGroote community by I’m very excited to be the COO for the end of our term. the upcoming year! What do you hope to contribute to the DeGroote School of Business for the upcoming year? As the COO, I hope to create a desire for students to get involved. I want students to see the true value of being involved - I want students to want to be involved! And so by becoming a more engaged and approachable student organization, I hope to see every DeGroote Com20 | Quarterly Profit | February 2015
Chief Financial Officer
Please tell us a little bit about yourself.
I’m currently completing an internship at Ford of Canada and will be returning to McMaster in September for my fifth and final year! I plan on pursuing a career in public accounting and obtaining my CPA designation. I first got involved with the DCS is my second year when I Co-chaired Commerce Formal! It was a great experience that gave me invaluable exposure to the DCS community. I consider myself to be an outgoing, driven and friendly person with a love for movies, pop What is your message to the stu- culture and fashion! dent body of the DeGroote School What do you hope to contribute to of Business? the DeGroote School of Business The DCS isn’t just there to be a logo for the upcoming year? on the bottom of your sticky notes or on the side of your pens. It is a group of people that are willing to spend their time and put in the effort to provide you - the students with a better university experience in every way possible. I hope to be able to show that I am more than willing
My overall goal is to work on designing and adhering to a budget wherein we can optimally utilize our funds in such a way that will benefit all committees, clubs and members as equally as possible. The DCS is here to support all Degroote
Students from both an academic summer, and get pumped for an exand social standpoint, I plan to en- citing year ahead! sure we stick to the most strategic financial planning and management Sean Pendlebury to make this a reality! VP External During your term, what do you hope to gain in terms of personal and professional development? Personally I hope to further develop my ability to work effectively within a team setting. I also hope to improve my leadership skills and to become more goal-oriented and focus on following through with the goals that we will establish as a team. Professionally I hope to further develop Please tell us a little bit about yourmy analytical abilities by exploring self. more creative problem-solving tactics on a larger scale. Being a part of the DCS is an absolute pleasure and it’s exciting to see What is your message to the rest of where hard work takes you. I’m curyour executive team? rently working towards an Accounting Degree in my fourth year at I’m thrilled to be joining the DCS McMaster. I went to high school at for the 2015/16 school year and I’m Oakville Trafalgar wherein I had my beyond excited to be working with a first exposure to business through group of highly experienced and dithe DECA case competition. Also, verse executives that have so much during those years, I received mento bring to the DCS community! torship from my teacher who taught me the skills to think strategically What is your message to the stuand communicate decisions effecdent body of the DeGroote School tively. of Business? As a DeGroote student each and every one of you should feel part of an inclusive community that extends well past your cubicles in Innis or a lecture hall. Your university years are the time to explore and challenge your abilities while developing valuables skills so be sure to take advantage of the endless opportunities the DCS has to offer! Feel free to reach out to me if you have any comments, concerns or simply would like to chat! We have a lot in store for you guys, so get ready, relax, have a great
During your term, what do you hope to gain in terms of personal and professional development? Personally and Professionally, I hope to work with new and existing sponsors of the DCS. By learning about their respective industries and the issues they face will allow me to relay this information back to the DCS and provide learning experiences for students and solutions for industry partners. What is your message to the rest of your executive team? Jenn has done an incredible job at developing a team that all have goals that are focused on making commerce students feel that the DeGroote Commerce Society has direct contribution to their success. Ivan Ieshu VP Marketing
What do you hope to contribute to the DeGroote School of Business for the upcoming year?
Please tell us a little bit about yourAlong with Jenn, I feel the most im- self. portant contribution we can make to the DeGroote Commerce Society I’m an incoming third year at the is to best position our students once DeGroote School of Business and they leave our school. It is through I plan to specialize in Marketing. I our clubs we are able apply the tools enjoy meeting new people and love we learn in our class and these are having conversations with them the skills that we will be able to which is what drove me to joining the DCS Executive team. Everyone leverage when we leave. is different and has a unique story to tell. I also like to stay physically acFebruary 2015 | Quarterly Profit | 21
tive. I enjoy playing soccer and and What is your message to the stulove to hang out with friends. dent body of the DeGroote School of Business? What do you hope to contribute to the DeGroote School of Business The DCS is run by the students, for for the upcoming year? the students. Everyone should feel free to contact any of us, as we are As the VP Marketing, I’ll be respon- here to make your school year as ensible for anything marketing-related joyable as possible. such as social media, website management, and mobile application Shizza Ahmed development. Through my role I VP HR and Administration hope to bring the DCS into a more technological position. There’s definitely a big room for improvement in terms of the technology that we can potentially use. My mission this year is to develop a stronger link of communication between the students and the DCS Executives. I think relationship management should be a focus for the society moving forward.
mittees next year. What I would like to see is more engagement from first years. During my first year, I didn’t involve myself much because truth be told, I was a little bit intimidated by the DCS but I finally decided to take the initiative this year to apply for an executive role and I got it! Other than the student engagement, I would also like to encourage more one-to-one interaction between students and peers. I’m looking most forward to facilitating in a more professional role and engaging with networks outside of the student body which will hopefully provide me with a learning curve and an experience that I can use when I enter the ‘real world.’ During your term, what do you hope to gain in terms of personal and professional development?
During your term, what do you I would like to successfully fulfill the Please tell us a little bit about yourhope to gain in terms of personal role and the responsibilities that I’m self. and professional development? given throughout my term. I hope to continue applying everything I’ve Personally speaking, I would like I’m an incoming third year student learned even after the end of my to further develop my skills in rela- and I will be fulfilling the position term, as well as continue building tionship management and commu- of VP Human Resources and Ad- relationships with the people that I nication. I believe those are skills ministration for the upcoming year. will meet during the next year. that you can take outside of the I’m considering of pursuing a caworkplace and can greatly benefit an reer in HR and Administration in What is your message to the rest of individual in the long run. Profes- the future. Also, post-graduation, I your executive team? sionally speaking, I plan to acquire plan on pursuing law and one of the a larger sense of technical skill mov- inspirations for that is the TV show I’m looking forward to working Suits and even though I’m fully with all of you and I will try my best ing forward into the position. aware that it’s nothing like what the to adapt to everyone’s unique perWhat is your message to the rest of show portrays, I’m still very much sonalities. I’m excited to work and looking forward to pursuing that in collaborate with everyone! your executive team? the near future. I can tell that this team has lot of heart, commitment and determination. These three traits will definitely help us to become successful in the upcoming year. I am looking forward to working with each and every one of the fellow executives. 22 | Quarterly Profit | February 2015
What do you hope to contribute to the DeGroote School of Business for the upcoming year?
What is your message to the student body of the DeGroote School of Business?
The message I would give to my felI will be working closely with the low students is to keep your options Chief Operating Officer in hiring open, know who you are, and keep the incoming Co-Chairs for com- learning.
ed amount of students who are involved in everything, I would like to encourage a variety of students to be involved in different aspects of the DCS. I also want to work with Jenn to create a lot more involvement in the mentor-mentee program, which means increasing the number of mentors and mentees involved, as well as facilitating more activities and events for the program. I am looking most forward to meeting a lot more students attending the DeGroote School of Business. I want to reach out and become friends with the people I have yet Please tell us a little bit about your- to meet and have them recognize self. me as someone from the DCS and to know what I stand for and what I I’m an incoming third year com- want to accomplish for the upcommerce student and will be taking ing year. on the role of VP Internal for the upcoming year . I plan to go into During your term, what do you Healthcare Management and I’m hope to gain in terms of personal currently minoring in Health Stud- and professional development? ies. I’m a fitness and sports enthusiast. I enjoy working on my own per- Professionally speaking, I would sonal fitness, and like to play soccer like to develop my networking skills regularly. which involves effectively speaking Greg Chrzan VP Internal
What do you hope to contribute to the DeGroote School of Business for the upcoming year? I would like to build student engagement through promoting various DCS events in order to build a much stronger network between the students, the faculty, and the DCS. I also want to build more opportunities for students to enhance their professional development such as sessions on proper LinkedIn setup, sessions on networking, conferences, among other things. More than that, I would like to take 80% of the students who are not involved in the school and have them come out to at least one event during the year instead of having just a concentrat-
dent body of the DeGroote School of Business? I’m excited to meet all of you and feel free to reach out to me any time if you have any questions or concerns! Allan Chan VP Academic
Please tell us a little bit about yourself.
I’m an incoming third year commerce student and I plan to specialize in Accounting and get my CPA designation in the future. I have and communicating to people and been involved with the DCS before also learning how to express my as the VP Academic in the 2014ideas clearly and effectively. Anoth- 2015 year; I am very excited to be on er one is developing my planning the DCS again! On the side, I also and organizational skills which will like to play Teemo on League of Legdefinitely benefit me in the long run. ends although I am in bronze league at the moment What is your message to the rest of your executive team? What do you hope to contribute to I’m very excited to work with each and every one of you. I’m looking forward to seeing the talent and expertise each of you will bring into the table to grow the DCS. I’m also excited to work and collaborate with all of you to create events and innovate on the ones that we already have. What is your message to the stu-
the DeGroote School of Business for the upcoming year?
I hope to accomplish academic transparency because during my experience last year, a lot of times, people didn’t really understand what my role entailed. I hope to improve on that for the next year so that people understand what my role is and how I can help and support them. February 2015 | Quarterly Profit | 23
One of the key areas of improvement would be working in unison between clubs, committees, and the faculty and I hope to definitely improve on that for the upcoming year. During your term, what do you hope to gain in terms of personal and professional development? Professionally, I hope to engage the academic faculty. Personally speaking, I would like to leave a mark in the school and really create a legacy or a positive change wherein I was really able to contribute to the school. What is your message to the rest of your executive team? I hope this is going to be a great year and this is the time to transform DeGroote! What is your message to the student body of the DeGroote School of Business? DeGroote isn’t just about finding the perfect job at the end of your four or five years here, it isn’t just about school or involvement, but rather, it is really about the entire DeGroote experience and the community within it.
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Connect with the DCS! Website: www.degrootecommerce.ca Facebook: DeGroote Commerce Society Twitter: @DCSatMac
Achocolypse Words by Julia Dinh
T
\\
rue chocolate lovers know that you measure your year by the holidays that give you the excuse to stock up on (more than enough) chocolate. However, mark your calendar on January 1, 2020 as this future year is expected to see a significant global cocoa shortage. Once used in creating a beverage exclusively for nobility, today cocoa is enjoyed by millions worldwide every day, transforming the chocolate confectionary market into an estimated $110 billion USD global industry annually. What happens when we have too much of a good thing? In 2013, the world consumed roughly 70,000 tonnes more cocoa than it produced.
According to two of the largest manufacturers of chocolate goods, Mars Inc. and Barry Callebaut, this gap between consumption and production could increase to 1 million tonnes by the end of the decade. For the consumer side of things, not only could this mean that chocolate prices will be on the rise; chocolate goods will be reduced in size (Cadbury has already taken this route) and contain less cocoa in favour of more filler ingredients as confectioners attempt to preserve cocoa supplies while keeping prices steady. What is contributing to the contrast between chocolate supply and demand? A number of various factors come February 2015 | Quarterly Profit | 25
The Cacao Tree into play. Affecting the supply front, pests and fungal diseases, as well as droughts brought by climate change have greatly decreased cacao tree cultivation. Also, political instability in producing countries and the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa has restricted the flow of goods in and out of cocoa producing regions. From the demand aspect, the rising incomes in the emerging markets of developing countries like China, India and Brazil have allowed people to consume more chocolate—Hershey Co. predicts that China will be its second-largest market, after the U.S., in 2017. Nonetheless, the western market for chocolate is still growing; there is a trend for “chocolate-covered everything”, be it cereal, chips, gourmet dishes and even fried chicken, making chocolate seem like a new food group. Moreover, there is increasing popularity for dark chocolate, which requires a high standard of 70% cocoa content, whereas the average chocolate bar contains a mere 10% in comparison.
ity, poverty in farming communities and fewer resources to invest in more efficient and modern farming methods. As the prices of food and production rise, many cocoa farmers have instead turned to producing more profitable crops like rubber or have moved to the city in search of a better livelihood. Simply put, less cocoa farmers means less chocolate.
Despite all of this, there is hope. Governments, international organizations and chocolate manufacturers have picked up on the importance of sustainability and have started taking initiative in promoting fair trade, certified farming cooperatives and agriculture education programs for farmers. Fair trade sales generate funds that ensure decent incomes for farming communities and support them in improving their facilities to increase productivity. In addition, even scientists in Central America are in the midst of engineering a new breed of cacao that is fungal disease-resistant, yields seven times more As a result, cocoa prices have skyrocketed from roughly beans than current strains, and, quite importantly, tastes $2,400 per tonne at the beginning of the fiscal year to significantly better than previously developed strains. $3,000 per tonne by the end of August. However, even as cocoa prices rise, farmers have not received their Now, we certainly don’t want to be the bearer of bad fair share. 80% of cocoa cultivation is concentrated in news, but considering this issue opens our eyes to 9 countries—headed by Ivory Coast, which produces the bigger picture behind what goes into bringing a one third of the world’s supply—largely by small fam- common product like chocolate from a plantation ily-run farms, providing livelihood to nearly 6 mil- across the globe and finally into our homes. The unlion cocoa farmers worldwide. Farmers in West Afri- derlying theme could be that all things are best in ca are likely to receive only 3.5% to 6.4% of the final moderation, as they say. In the meantime, snack revalue of a chocolate bar, whereas the manufacturers’ sponsibly; we’ll get through these next few years toshare has increased to 70% and the retailers’ to 17%. gether, as socially conscious consumers and companies. Low prices paid to famers result in low productiv26 | Quarterly Profit | February 2015
Ten Simple Steps to Becoming a Financial Golden Girl WORDS BY MARRYIAM KHAN
In the spectrum of high-caliber ideals, freedom should be the top priority for every female. In the arena of money, this means complete financial freedom. Despite student loans and expensive textbooks, financial freedom is possible in the long run. However, it is not for the weak hearted. Financial Freedom comes at a cost. Many comfort zones need to be broken to attain this freedom.
“Financial freedom comes at a cost.�
to splurge on makeup and jewelry and clothes and yada, yada, yada as opposed to males. They can get away with the same suit for literally every job interview. Even educated, well-paid and professional women can find themselves mired in debt if they are not careful. The mainstream Finance rules simply do not apply to women. In a society which functions on financial double standards, there is still hope. Women can attain financial success by unleashing their inner Financial Golden Girl. The FGG is not necessarily a finance major. Rather, she has made it her personal responsibility to take care of her financial situation. She considers debt her enemy. This Golden Girl is fierce when it comes to budgeting and saving. She knows when to say yes and more importantly, when to say no. She is fiscally literate and educated. She strives for the financial balance between her short-term needs, such as manicures against, her long-term goals of being richer in every way possible.
Finance is not just a course you take to meet graduation requirements. It is a hot topic, with growing works being published, year after year. Finance for women, is undoubtedly a different ballgame than finance for men. Why? Simply be- The starting resource for any Financial Golden cause we have different needs. We are more prone Girl is the Golden Girl Finance blog. This Blog
February 2015 | Quarterly Profit | 27
“Women can attain financial success by unleashing their inner Financial Golden Girl.” was founded by two of the most top notch Golden Girls: Susan L. Misner and Laura J. McDonald. The Blog has hundreds of articles, ranging from tips on getting out of debt, to the importance of discussing money with your significant other. You are bound to find something of interest in the numerous categories such as food, relationships and fashion. This blog will surely equip you with knowledge and skills required to be a Golden Girl. As for all the McMaster Golden Girls, here are ten tips to get a head start.
1. Skip the morning coffee line.
you are eating healthy and nutritious meals. I forgot to mention the Golden Girl is also a fitness expert.
4. Goodbye Pulse! To elaborate on my previous tip, the Golden Girl does not need to pay excessive gym membership fees to keep up her extensive fitness regiment. The Pulse is packed enough as it it, creating longer wait times due to the high volume of users. Instead, try doing leg, core and arm circuits at home while utilizing the free indoor track at DBAC.
Saving even $1.50 on coffee will add up over the months, giving you more leverage to cover other 5. Buy Used Clothes expenses. Instead, try bringing a home brewed cup. Judging by the huge line-ups, it is bound to Every Golden Girl has her image to maintain. take the same amount of time. She requires a unique sense of fashion to complement her charming personality. However, the Girl also knows that real beauty comes 2. Consider cheaper modes of Golden from the inside. She is willing to compromise. Transportation. She will try buying used clothes where possible to save money. What a fierce thing the Golden We are lucky to have an HSR year-round bus Girl is indeed. pass added into our student fees. Consider commuting or carpooling as opposed to using a car. 6. Manicures no more! Hey! I never said it was easy.
3. Remember the Two B’s: Brown Bag I cannot stress how important packing your own lunch is for your financial game plan. You will have the benefit of saving hundreds (maybe even thousands) of dollars, along with ensuring 28 | Quarterly Profit | February 2015
This is a tough one. While the Golden Girl does not want to compromise her glamour, she knows when to cut back in one area of her life in order to expand other areas. So, she is content with cutting back on the monthly manicures in order to meet her monthly saving quotas.
7. Remember the Rule of 1. When it comes to makeup, you really only need one of each thing. One eyeliner, One Mascara, One concealer and you get the picture. While you may want to bring variety into your lipstick and eye shadow collection, it is important to maintain a happy medium: Both on your face and in your wallet. While you are at it, consider switching to a cheaper brand where it doesn’t compromise the quality.
8. Boycotting Booze (In Bars) The Golden Girl is too smart to waste her money on bar tabs when there are cheaper options available. She would rather be pre-drinking or save on the calories by not drinking. Enough said.
9. Buzz off the Brands. Manolos or Mortagages? Take your pick.
10. Cutting Cellphone Costs Last but not least, every Golden Girl is well connected in an era marked by networks. However, she also knows how to pick an affordable provider, who still manages to provide her maximum calling and texting minutes. And possibly free data. Because the one word that is part of every Golden Girls’ vocabulary is free.
For more info you can check out more posts on how to be a Financial Golden Girl at: www.goldengirlfinance.com
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FROM NECKTIE TO OLYMPIC MEDAL:
JEREMIAH BROWN INTERVIEW BY JOSEPH CRUZ
Olympian, Author and Speaker McMaster University DeGroote School of Business B.Com (’07)
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Can you please tell us a little bit about yourself as well as your educational and professional background? I was born at McMaster Hospital and grew up in Northumberland County before returning to Hamilton to attend McMaster University. I enjoyed four years at McMaster completing my B. Comm and playing football as a (skinny) Marauder offensive lineman. My son was born before my third year began and if you dig through the Silhouette archives you’ll find an article titled Super Dad Balances Books, Sports, and Fatherhood. It was more survival than balance for his mother and me. My teammates nicknamed me ‘Angry Dad’ because I was grumpy at practice during the eight months it took my son to sleep through the night. When I joined the national rowing team a few years later, some local high school kids nicknamed me Xerxes after the Persian prince—I don’t know the rationale behind that one. Upon graduating with my B. Comm in 2007, I started a lawn aeration business while seeking out career opportunities. After a long recruiting process with TD Bank (I had missed the on-campus recruiting), I landed a job as a commercial banking associate in Victoria. From the associate role, I was promoted to analyst and worked on a portfolio of business banking clients on Vancouver Island. My role was to manage the Bank’s risk while providing creative credit structuring for our clients. A tip for recent graduates interested in commercial banking: the banks love mobility. Fun fact: When taking into account the various businesses of the bank (retail, securities, commercial, and wealth) a disproportionately high number of senior executives in TD bank started their careers in commercial banking, which is really one of its smaller revenue drivers. I enjoyed my time at TD and stayed in this role until taking a leave to train full time with the rowing team in 2011 and 2012. What pushed you to pursue an Olympic career? Has it always been a dream of yours?
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When I was eight or nine years old I remember seeing a huge picture of Canadian Olympic rower, Derek Porter, in the Toronto Star. I remember thinking, wow, that’s what an athlete looks like. But I didn’t consider the Olympics seriously until after injuring my shoulder while playing football at McMaster. I tore my labrum nearly in half in my third season. I had it surgically repaired, but in my fourth season the injury flared up again. I was surrounded by talented players like Kyle Koch, Jeff Robertshaw, Andrew Jones, Jason Pottinger and many more who went on to play in the CFL and I had similar ambitions to do more in sport. In my fourth year, we lost in the OUA semifinals to the Laurier Golden Hawks. The pesky Hawks fans with
purple and gold painted faces stormed the field after a last ditch incompletion ended the varsity playing careers of the seniors among us. I thought, this can’t be the pinnacle of my career as an athlete! How did you get into the sports of rowing? What inspired you to pursue this particular sport? I chose to pursue rowing because it matched my strengths as an athlete. First, I knew from dryland training runs as a hockey player growing up that I had an above average aerobic capacity. Rowing is a power aerobic sport that places huge demands on the aerobic system. Second, during offseason lifting as a Marauder football player, our strength and conditioning coach noted that I had good technique on Olympic lifts like hang cleans and snatches; rowing is essentially a sitting hang clean, so I figured I could learn the technique quickly. Perhaps the most important factor, though, was that rowing’s mind-numbing and physically grueling training requires a stubborn persistence that I knew I had.
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Failure was an option, but quitting was not.
Looking back to when you were just starting your career as a professional athlete, what are some of the challenges that you faced and how were you able to overcome them? The first thing to overcome was ego. I went from being a starting player on a good university football team to trying to learn how to row and falling in the wa February 2015 | Quarterly Profit | 33
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they pick the team—you will see this through. Failure was an option, but quitting was not an option. When I shelved the Olympic dream and just focused on every stroke of every workout I started having more progress than I could have foreseen.
ter over and over and over again. I felt so silly; there I was, a father, a career on the way and it was like the first day of high school all over again. Pushing through those first few months of looking stupid was as critical to my success as the training we did in the Olympic year. The second challenge was changing how I thought about motivation. In 2011, two months into full time training I was mentally and physically broken and I started wanting to quit every day. I came home from training one day and slumped over my kitchen counter on the verge of tears. I was living in the moment too much. There was no way I could continue until I changed my perspective from self-evaluation every minute of every day, to having the resolve to commit to a timeline no matter what. I said to myself, you’ve got a year and a half until that Olympic final. No matter what—even if you’re dead last three weeks before 34 | Quarterly Profit | February 2015
It was so strange to watch people laughing and playing so freely while I tried to prepare for a defining moment in my life. I think I lingered there because I wanted to remember what it was like to be stress free. I visualized elements of my childhood—hockey practices, outdoor shinny—to cope with the Can you please tell us more about boa constrictor tightening around your experience in the 2012 Lon- my chest. don Olympics? How did you prepare for it and what changed af- It was a huge relief when we qualter your Olympic experience? ified for the final in our second race, coming second behind the The preparation for London began British. The moments before and after Beijing. Olympians operate in during the Olympic final were 4-year cycles and though I joined completely different than how I the team late in the quadrennial, I imagined they would go. I’d always was able to earn a spot on a team pictured Olympic rowers as these of incredible athletes including machines; physically and mentally fellow McMaster graduate, Doug prepared and ready to execute like Csima. We trained three times per automatons. The truth was that day, six days a week, year-round. the moments before and during The only way to prepare for an the race were all too human: hope, Olympic race is to train so hard rage, fear, despair, trust, doubt. All that when you’re on the start line of these emotions churned inside you know that there was noth- of me, but the most intense was ing more you could have done. the fear of letting down my teamYou don’t win an Olympic medal mates, my brothers. It took every without obsession. In our first race ounce of every man in that boat we had a disastrous performance, to pull together the performance finishing last by 12 seconds. We of our lives, passing the British in got nervous and rowed out of the the last 10 strokes to win the silver gates at a higher stroke rate than medal. we could manage. The pressure to recover before our repechage What is a valuable lesson you race (second chance qualifying have learned throughout your race) was almost unbearable. The life and career as an athlete, aurowing, canoeing, and kayaking thor, and speaker? events were held outside of London in Eton Dorney. In the after- Writing my book, The 4 Year noon before our second race, I Olympian, has been an Olymwent for a walk into town. I came pic sized project two years in the across an ice rink, went inside making and I’m looking forward and sat watching skaters gliding to publishing it later this year. It’s around in the middle of summer. a memoir recounting my journey
If you have a dream, big or small, stop talking about it and take action. Show yourself what you’re truly capable of. from university to the Olympic podium. There’s a rule in writing that goes: Show, don’t tell. I think this is the lesson I would like to share, and it goes beyond writing. If you have a dream, big or small, stop talking about it and take action. Show yourself what you’re truly capable of. With your numerous accomplishments, is there a particular experience or achievement that you are most proud of? I am most proud of when my son won his first track and field race in grade three. It was the summer following the Olympics and my heart lurched into my throat as I ran beside the track cheering him on. My son has been a shining light in my life and I’m so thankful for him. As an athlete, what do you think are the key skills that can be gleaned from playing sports that is transferable to the business world? Not skills, but attributes. High level sport gives people the gritty perseverance and team-first attitude that organizations in all industries need. I learned to put performance above personality when I knocked heads with our demanding coach, Mike Spracklen, who trained us so hard that I thought he’d break us. If business is, in the end, about the bottom line then there is no better metaphor than sport. What skills and qualities do you think are important for one to have if he or she would like to pursue a similar career trajectory? More importantly, what is your advice to aspiring rowers? Who knows what your trajectory will be? Forge your way through life and then tell us what you’ve learned! If anyone reading this is interested in rowing, contact Carol Love in Ontario or Barney Williams in British Columbia. They are talent ID coaches for Rowing Canada and are hungry to turn tall, ropey individuals into Olympic champions.
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What is your message to the student body of the DeGroote School of Business? What is the most important advice you can give to students at McMaster University? Some of the speed in today’s society is an illusion. Real development still happens over years, so plan accordingly. The biggest lesson the Olympics taught me (and hardest to stick to) is to commit to a goal over a period of time measured in years—not months, weeks, or days. To link this back to the business world, I found it took two years in my job as an analyst before I was comfortable with any deal that came across my desk. Be brave and stay the course.
Any additional comments you would like to include in the article. Go Marauders! I’m so proud to be a McMaster graduate. Thanks for the opportunity to share some of my story. Please check out my website to get a hold of me for speaking engagements or writing opportunities: www.jeremiahspeaks.com
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THE ALLEN H. GOULD TRADING FLOOR WORDS BY MARCO COCCARI Do you have an interest in financial markets? Trading? Investing? If so, you have to visit the Allen H. Gould Trading Floor (GTF) located on the main level of the DeGroote School of Business. The GTF houses 21 stateof-the-art Thomson Reuters Eikon stations and three Bloomberg terminals. This facility provides students access to real-time data from all North American Exchanges for personal education as well as for a number of undergraduate commerce courses. The GTF has been graciously given to us by Mr. Allen H. Gould, an entrepreneur who lived by the mantra, “Do it now!� The Trading Floor is a one-of-a-kind environment which provides students of all faculties at McMaster the opportunity to use advantaged real world software. Currently, students have access to both Bloomberg and Reuters Eikon right at their fingertips, giving them access to industry professional software. Two televisions tuned into BNN and CNBC provides constant reports and updates from the Canadian and U.S. markets. Furthermore, students have access to various financial texts, such as CSC and CFA materials and student market reports available for their use in the trading floor. In fact, majority of the students who come back following
a term or two on internship say that they used the exact same software during their internship placements, and having access to it beforehand gave them a big leg up. If you are unfamiliar with the software or financial markets in general, the GTF holds seminars geared to help students learn more about the financial markets and familiarize them with the software. Every Tuesday starting at 3:30 to 7:30pm, students can drop by to learn more about Bloomberg, while you can drop on either Tuesdays or Fridays between 8:30 to 10:30am to learn more about Reuters Eikon. If none of these times work for you, you can email the GTF supervisors at gtf@mcmaster.ca and they will happily try to accommodate your schedule. The GTF also brings in McMaster alumni on a regular basis through its speaker series known as Trader-in-Residence to talk about their experiences and give students the opportunity gain insights from their careers as industry professionals. If you are interested in attending one of the sessions, you can check the GTF website regularly for updates at http://trading.degroote.mcmaster.ca/gtf/. February 2015 | Quarterly Profit | 37
How’s Your German? WORDS BY IMRAN DHALLA
If Germany can do it, why can’t we? That is the question every student in debt nowadays is asking. A few years ago, Germany’s Supreme Court declared that tuition fees are essential, after years of having no tuition for their post-secondary educational system. This paved the way for seven states to experiment with their tuition fee structure, many charging tuition at a modest €500 to €1000 which amounts to around CAD$690 to $1385, though waiver systems in some states meant that as many as a third of those students actually end up paying nothing. Recently, the German government reversed its decision to charge tuition fees for post-secondary education and completely abolished the system this past fall, thus, raising the question: “could Canada do the same”? And answering this question has led to a string of controversial debates on abolishing tuition fees in Canada.
“...people from the top quarter of the income distribution are roughly twice as likely to go to university as those from the bottom quarter.” >> Stephan Gordan, The Globe and Mail
There are various arguments supporting tuition fees for post-secondary education. Some suggest that there is not enough social cohesion in place in Canada to create a successful “tuition-free” system. Many believe that a free education system is a gift to the economically privileged and does very little to contribute to the lower
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classes. This view is shared by economist Stephen Gordon of The Globe and Mail, who suggests that tuition fees should be hiked, government money should be protected and a system of grants that offers financial aid to students who are less well-off and are qualified to attend post-secondary education should be established. This system would contribute to a redistribution of wealth and see the economically privileged subsidize the indigent. To dismiss this theory would be completely foolish. A further exchange on this point would however open the likelihood of some lacking presuppositions that led to this conclusion. Mr. Gordon argues that “people from the top quarter of the income distribution are roughly twice as likely to go to university as those from the bottom quarter”, trying to illustrate that the correlation between family income and university participation is fixed. There is obviously a considerable measure of explanations behind this other than the expense. A classist analysis arguably points out that there are a number of inherently practical mechanisms that prevent less fortunate students from pursuing post-secondary education. Practices such as ‘streaming’ - the practice of grouping students based on abilities only - officially ended in 1999, but is very much alive in our school systems today. This fortifies pragmatic and attitudinal hindrances to higher learning for average workers kids. In contrast to Germany’s views on education, “tuition fees are socially unjust” argues Dorothee Stapelfeldt, President of the Hamburg Parliament, as quoted in The Times. “They particularly discourage young people who do not have a traditional academic family background
“Tuition fees are socially unjust... It is a core task of politics to ensure that young women and men can study with a high-quality standard, free of charge in Germany.” >> Dorothee Stapelfeldt, President of Hamburg Parliment
from taking up studies. It is a core task of politics to ensure that young women and men can study with a high-quality standard, free of charge in Germany”.
tion would, but is that a better solution in the long haul? Universal access to education based on merit would change the overall demographics of post-secondary education over time. We have already seen the effects This is a view shared by many, including the Canadi- of gradually increasing tuition fees. The argument that an Federation of Students currently protesting a rising “we have never done this before, it might not work” $15 Billion student debt as of October 2014. Countries is a rather weak claim to a proposal that might alter like France, Finland and Norway all have a no tuition the landscape of post-secondary education radically. education system; in contrast to the United Kingdom which has been an example of “what could be” should Education is a public good and should be available Canada continue to raise its post-secondary tuition. to everybody, regardless of class, gender, race or staRaising tuition fees has ended up costing more than tus. An equal opportunity based approach would it brings in, with graduating students leaving univer- serve the purpose of narrowing the gap between sity with mountains of debt, gradual drops in overall the rich and poor, while providing a universal eduniversity enrollment and higher student loan defaults. ucation system that is preferred over the long run. Financial support for students these days are primarily in the form of student loans. It is not terribly surprising then that a student from a background of less privilege is reluctant to acquire large amounts of debt and essentially mortgage his or her future. Even those, who manage to cover their costs, end up choosing specializations that lead directly to jobs (engineering, pharmacy, accounting etc.) instead of studies in liberal arts for example. This creates a fine line between students who graduate as either ‘well educated’ individuals or ‘well trained’ individuals leaving our society overburdened in certain professions. This eventually narrows the debate to a point between the redistribution of wealth and the universal access to education as a long term solution. A system of providing grants to the less fortunate paid by the well-off would ideally have a similar effect on universal access to educa-
However, it is also critical to note that education is not free; rather the issue is who pays for it. For our previous generation, when post-secondary education was heavily subsidized by the government, a greater share of the cost was borne by future taxpayers since it was all debt-funded. Today’s student loans are not that different in terms of the total debt burden except for the fact that now the debt is held by individuals (and only those who attend university, and not paid for by high school dropouts) as opposed to it being a part of the government debt or charging higher taxes. In fact, the main imbalance today is that students have to pay for their personal education debt - and through their taxes - the historic public government debt from the previous generation’s education as well.
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SPECIAL FEATURE
IN CONVERSATION WITH
GLEN GRUNWALD INTERVIEW BY KRISH PURI
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A strong university education, such as at McMaster University, teaches students to better understand their purpose and helps them aspire to succeed. Young scholars are encouraged to become independent and develop their critical thinking, strategic thinking, communication and interpersonal skills. Yet, as students, we complain about classes that focus on textbook memorization and tests about trivial factoids since so much of this content disappears from our minds soon after we walk out of a final examination. We also embrace our education, since its many facets inside and outside the classroom are intellectually stimulating and place us on a lifelong path to be financially, intellectually, emotionally and socially successful. That success requires us to be versatile, tolerant, open to change, and broadminded so that 42 | Quarterly Profit | February 2015
we can drive innovation and our communities’ well being. To identify an example of the X-factor required for success, I spoke with McMaster’s Athletic Director Glen Grunwald to discuss his path. Grunwald has had a rich career in sports management, which is an expanding field about the education and business of sports and recreation. He has seen how the front offices for professional sports teams, each employing hundreds of people, are changing as the ways in we watch, broadcast, and analyze sports continue to evolve. A native of Chicago, Illinois, Grunwald won an NCAA national basketball championship with Indiana University, being coached by the legendary Bob Knight. He became Vice President and General Counsel of the Denver Nuggets NBA bas-
ketball team in 1990. From 1994 to 1997 Grunwald was Vice President for Legal Affairs and Assistant General Manager for our own Toronto Raptors, and became General Manager of the franchise in 1997. In 2006, he moved to New York as Vice President for Basketball Operations for the Knicks, and was named General Manager in 2011. Grunwald is responsible for signing big name NBA players like Vince Carter, Tracy McGrady, Carmelo Anthony, and Jeremy Lin. After a long career in professional sports, he became McMaster University’s Athletic Director this past summer where he focused on sports education and student recreation. We discussed the characteristics and experiences that enabled success for Grunwald in his field, and how his responsibilities changed over time.
What was your idea or definition of sports management when you were in college and upon acquiring your graduate and undergraduate degrees? How has it changed as your career progressed? GG: When I was in university in the late 70s and early 80s I didn’t really have much of a concept of sports management. I was a player on the varsity basketball team, and I knew that we had to sell tickets for the basketball games [at Indiana University], travel around with our trainer, and that we had a TV program that took care of the broadcasting. But outside of that I didn’t really have a good understanding of what was involved with sports management. Not only was it much more involved than that, I think the industry has evolved in the course of decades now since I was in university, and it has become much more sophisticated and much more involved in terms of its business operations. There were probably one or two major sports management programs in all of the United States when I was in university, so it wasn’t as common of a major as it is today. Where does your foundation of sports management come from and how did you know it was an area in which you could succeed in? From a sports management perspective I was working as a corpo-
rate lawyer for a corporate law firm in Chicago when one of our clients wound up purchasing the Denver Nuggets. I had gotten to know him so after the deal closed he asked me to join him in Denver to be sort of his lieutenant to oversee business endeavors. So I took the offer and my title was Vice President of Legal Affairs and Business Affairs which enabled me to get involved in all sorts of things. With that role, I had the opportunity to get involved with different areas of business. Sometimes I would be involved in marketing or sales while other times I would be doing work for the accounting department. And that’s essentially how I became exposed to professional sports management, and as I mentioned before, it was a lot different back then as it is now, because back then we had about a total 40 employees in the organization, and that number includes players and coaches, while today that number would probably be tripled if not more depending on what else is going on. Corporate Executive ranks in the top 10 for most stressful jobs. How did you focus on being successful while still having to manage the stress that comes with being a General Manager for an NBA team? As a General Manager, I was always involved either on the legal side or business operations. Although General Managers are sort of in charge for everything that takes
place, the day-to-day operations is mostly managed by the coach who is in charge of the players, making substitutions, dealing with injuries, and creating a winning strategy. As the General Manager, it gets really stressful in a sense that you’re responsible for something that you don’t necessarily have control of on a day-to-day basis. So when you’re watching those games knowing that the outcome is very important to your operations and to the success of your team, but you’re sort of like a fan sitting in the stands or watching the game on TV and you don’t really have control over it. I think that’s the most stressful part of being a General Manager in that you are one step removed from the decisions that are affecting the win-loss record, which is the most important thing. Are struggling teams like the Knicks, Lakers, and Washington Redskins still considered successful franchises today even though they haven’t won in recent years? What marks successful franchises and how are they able to maintain financial success despite disappointment in the win-loss column? Well I would say that the same thing could be said about the Toronto Maple Leafs for a long time now, it’s that they have a great brand and a great market in which they operate. It is in a sense a bit of a monopoly for that professional sports event in that particular market even though
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you’re technically competing with a whole bunch of other entertainment options, whether it’s other sporting events, concerts, television shows or video games, you’re always competing for people’s attention. But for a particular sports club at a professional level, you do have a monopoly. And I think it just reflects that Los Angeles and New York have great markets and great brands, so while success from year to year may vary, they have loyal and well-off fans historically. So similar to that old NBC commercial saying that “all sports are local,” a team being financially strong despite losing records reflects the value of the market they are operating in and the value of the brand that has been created over the number of year. So even when you have a poor stretch from a win-loss perspective you still have the fans and you still have the market and you still have the people that want to come and watch the team. In a Globe and Mail article you are quoted saying “in the NBA you’re an inch wide and a mile deep.” Here at McMaster that is obviously not the same, with our athletic program having many
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sports, events, programs, and extra-curricular than that of a professional franchise. Can you speak on that? Something about being successful at McMaster under a different management approach. Well yes, let’s just keep with the Knicks, even though Madison Square Garden had other teams like the Rangers and the Liberty and now they have an NBA D-League team that is also called the Knicks. As the general manager of a team, my responsibilities were totally focused on the basketball operations. I was creating a strategy and working that plan while my day-to-day operations were focused around the fifteen guys and everything that entails, so I really was focused on just one team. While here at McMaster each coach of our varsity sports is not only a coach but really like a general manager because they’re responsible for recruiting the players, scouting them and bringing them here, and they also even have some revenue generating responsibilities in terms of fund raising to cover the costs of operations in their respective sports. That’s why I would say that I’m even further removed from
each individual sport because my job is to manage our overall operations and make sure that we have the resources available to all the various sports as well as the recreation programs, including intramurals and the pulse, to make sure that we are offering and delivering great experiences to our students and to our student athletes. So, it’s really more of an overall management job than sort of a day-to-day operations job. Fortunately I have great people that work here that are in charge of the day-to-day operation that really are excellent and do a great job. Do you personally prefer having the one team to manage or do you prefer being an Athletic Director wherein you have a much wider span of authority? I don’t know if I have a preference, I would say that it’s just different. I’m more of a fan when it comes to most sports except perhaps for basketball where maybe I can provide a little bit of further assistance to the coaches there. But it’s really their job to manage their team and coach and develop their players. At the end of the day, I’m just here to help, and each sport is unique in its
“...in order to be successful, you still have to have good people, you have to have a plan, communicate that plan, ... measure the results, and act upon exactly what it is you’re trying to deliver.”
own way so I don’t want to presume too much. Would you say you have more responsibility here than in your other jobs? In a lot of ways yes, what’s different here is that the dollar signs and the decimal places are moved over a little bit from where I was before but it’s still dealing with people, defining what success is and what it looks like in your particular environment, asking what are your goals, what are your objectives and figuring out how you’re going to deliver on that plan to get the success that you’re looking for. So it’s still the same conceptually, but certainly much more hands off in terms of the teams or the operations of the team. In terms of having a “winning formula” do you take the same approach to being successful here as you did as a General Manager? It’s a little different just because my job is different, but in order to be successful you still have to have good people, you have to have a plan, communicate that plan, and then understand the results, mea-
sure the results and act upon exactly what it is you’re trying to deliver. But once again you still have to surround yourself with good people, and you’ve got to have talent, whether it’s someone that’s your marketing person or someone that’s your point guard, you still have to have high-character people with the skills and abilities to do the job that’s being asked of them. Working as the Toronto Board of Trade, how did this job help you understand what being a successful manager looked like? You’re always learning and you’re always trying to figure out what’s the best way to do something. The Board of Trade was a little different because it was more of an advocacy job, in terms of representing the business community to the public as well as to all levels of government. For me it was learning about public policy and city building and all the things that go into corporate governance and learning that what seems like a simple solution to a public issue is often much more complicated than the initial review that you take. So it’s a matter of trying to work with other people to find out
what their issues are and what they are trying to accomplish and fit that with your organization’s goals and objectives within the context of the situation you are in. It was a great experience for me and I think I learned a lot about public policy and how to work with the government. We were a diverse organization working with business people and lawyers, so I had to come up with initiatives that everyone can get behind. What is your greatest asset coming into professional career that led to success and what is your greatest liability that you needed to pay attention to in order to be successful? I think my greatest asset is having a great attitude and my willingness to learn. I didn’t assume that I knew everything and didn’t think that the people who came before me were incompetent and that I was there to straighten everything out. But rather, I came into that position with the attitude that I was there to do my best and with no assumptions of knowing everything. I also understood the importance of learning from the people that are already
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“The biggest lesson for me throughout my career is ... knowing how to properly react when things don’t go well and how to pick yourself up and keep going.”
there and to work hard in a high character fashion with honesty. I think those were my greatest assets when I joined the Denver Nuggets which started my professional sports management career. As for my liabilities, I think it was the experience that I simply didn’t have. I was still learning and didn’t have the full understanding of everything involved in sports management; whether it’s how the business works, the rules and regulations, or the relationships that you have to build in order to be successful. But I think those are things you have to overcome in any job especially when you enter into a new field and want to be successful. Similar to me starting at McMaster, there are different rules and regulations that I have to apply and different people that I had to meet and understand, and really work toward a different objective in a lot of ways. How do you maintain a culture of strong leadership at McMaster and teach others to lead in order to be successful as well as reach the goals of the organization? I think it’s about being open and honest about what the situation is
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and what we are trying to do. It’s also important to communicate what those goals and objectives are and then I think you have to have good people with high character who you can trust and provide guidance to. It’s really a matter of helping people become successful in their jobs versus making sure that you look good. And my approach is that I’m really here to help people and be a leader to follow through with the organization’s goals. With such a vast experience and prestigious accomplishments before joining the Athletics Department here at McMaster, would you say that you’re you still learning? Definitely, like I said no organization is perfect and you’re always trying to see constant improvement but you have to do it in a positive way. You have to build upon what’s happened before instead of tearing down everything that has happened previously. How are you promoting education-based athletics and how do you value it? How is that an agent of success?
I came from a student athlete background so I know the value that I garnered from being a student-athlete and some of the pressure that comes with it such as managing time, putting the team before yourself and the ability to work with many people from a plethora of backgrounds. The biggest lesson for me throughout my career is being able to understand that you’re not going to win every game, but more importantly, knowing how to properly react when things don’t go well and how to pick yourself up and keep going. I think that’s a life experiences that I think everyone have experienced or will experience at some point, but in sports it’s just a little bit clearer. The other thing is that it’s not just about the student athletes, it’s also about the people that are refereeing intramural games, or working as personal trainers down at the pulse or teaching classes. It’s not just the student athletes, but everyone that makes up the McMaster Sports and Recreation Program community. There are a lot of other things that I think we are helping to make such as new experiences for all of our students at McMaster.
Why Isn’t Soccer as Big in Canada as it is in Other Parts of the World? Words by Kelvin Pau
T
he sports world has served as a constant reminder that “In order to be the best, you have to beat the best.” In layman’s terms, it means that you are in the sport to win, and in the case of athletes, this serves as the underlying mantra they want to emulate. This quote also speaks to the fact that in an industry as volatile and unpredictable as sports and entertainment, an explicit winner and loser needs to be established, whether the teams like it or not. One such example of this notion would be international soccer and its marquee event: the FIFA World Cup. With this year’s winner and runner-up being Germany and Argentina, a country from Europe
and South America respectively who has their fair share of notoriety and history in association and international soccer, it begs the question: Why isn’t soccer as big in Canada as it is in other parts of the world? As per McGill University’s official web page, they listed three sports invented by Canadians: football, basketball, and hockey. While the former two has since gained more recognition to our neighbours south of the border, hockey has served as a symbol of Canadian heritage and by law (under the National Sports of Canada Act), is the country’s national winter sport. Having seven teams out of February 2015 | Quarterly Profit | 47
30 represent Canada in the National Hockey League further reinforces said statement and symbolizes the country’s storied heritage. Soccer, on the other hand, has been viewed as an afterthought despite many Canadians playing the sport and having a Major League Soccer affiliated club in Toronto FC. The country has not fielded a men’s World Cup team since 1986 and have long been in the shadows of their female counterparts, who as recently as the 2012 London Olympics, received a Bronze medal for their efforts in a victory against France. If history is to repeat itself, Canadians will be a hockey-first country with substantial diminishing returns for the men’s soccer team 48 | Quarterly Profit | February 2015
and maximized gains for an upand-coming women’s soccer team. When it comes to established countries in both association and international soccer, names like Germany, Brazil, Netherlands, and Argentina come to mind. Coincidentally, these same four teams represented the four finalists in last year’s FIFA World Cup. What makes these countries powerhouses is a testament to the weather conditions that the players play in. In the case of Brazil and Argentina, soccer has traditionally been played in sunny, often mild weather lasting throughout the year. The pitch is fairly smooth and allows for the movement of the ball to be free-flowing, requiring more
of a technical approach to the sport. As for European countries Germany and Netherlands (or Holland, if you will), they both face year-long moderate and temperate weather respectively. This poses a problem to Canada since the weather is not constant; four seasons allocated to 12 months means that every three months, we experience a new season, and its characteristics. As a result, Canadian soccer players often play the role of laggards in terms of getting players to develop into superstar-calibre players and having to deal with the sporadic weather only adds to the frustration of not being able to field top talent in domestic and international competitions.
DeGroote JDC Central INTERVIEW BY JOSEPH CRUZ
February 2015 | Quarterly Profit | 49
I had the opportunity to sit down with the Co-Captains of this year’s JDC Central DeGroote Delegation, Sushen Talwar and Lindsey Schneider, as they reflect upon their leadership experience and the victories and accomplishments that their team achieved during this year’s competition. Can you please tell us more about JDC Central and your role as participants and Co-Chairs for the DeGroote delegation? Sushen: Last year, I was part of the executive team for JDCC DeGroote as the VP, Charity. I started with that role because I believe in helping out and giving back to the community especially here at DeGroote. Having gone through that experience for one full year and seeing the rest of the team progress opened my eyes to how prestigious of a competition JDCC is. After that, I decided to take it a step further which led to me becoming the Co-Captain for the DeGroote delegation this year. Coming into the role, we were both warned that it was going to be a full time job because of all the planning and management that takes place prior to the competition which just made me more excited because I genuinely enjoy being busy.
ing a Co-Captain this year. Every now and then, I find myself reminding the delegates to always remember that just because you might not know the technical part doesn’t mean that you’re not valuable to your team. And I really enjoyed that part of being a Co-Captain because I had the role of encouraging the second year and third year delegates and reminding them that there are components to the competition aside from having the technical knowledge. There’s nothing that can really prepare you for JDCC. It’s a whole new world and something that I wish every student could do because it’s unlike any other experience. And being Co-Captain was definitely the best way to really experience it because more than your own self, you also felt for everyone else’s.
S: JDC Central has been running for 6 year now and it’s a business case competition for schools in central and eastern Canada. There are 14 schools that compete every year but there will be more joining in the next few years. It has different components, the first being the 8 academic cases in which delegates compete in a 3-hour case followed by a 20 minute presentation at the end. The other component is sports which is either traditional or non-traditional. Another part is the social Lindsey: Last year, I was an academic delegate and team that competes in 8 challenges that are completely competed in the Business Strategy category. Joining unexpected. And the last component is the debate team the team as a third year, it was interesting because I was who is assigned a certain topic and is given a limited working with two fourth year students who were both time to prepare their argument. just brilliant. It was tricky at first because they had so much knowledge but were both goofy at the same time L: This is DeGroote’s third year of competing so during so I think my role was to reel them in and remind them our first year in the competition, we only sent a half delwhen to have fun and when to get serious. From that, I egation instead of a full delegation which is comprised was able to relate my experience from last year to be- of sport, social, and debate 8 academic teams. In our 50 | Quarterly Profit | February 2015
second year, although we sent a much bigger delega- What are some of the challenges that you or your tion, we were still not considered as a full delegation team faced in preparation for the event and how so this year is actually our first year of sending a full were you able to overcome them? delegation. L: One of the biggest challenges we faced was timing in the sense of work versus reward. Throughout the enWhat has been the highlight of your experience? tire semester, you put in so much work and time and S: For last year, coming into a role that I had no idea you don’t see any tangible reward until the actual comwhat I was doing as VP, Charity, it was such a surreal petition. Sure you might feel like you’re growing as a moment to hear our school’s name be recognized as the person and learning a lot during the process but 95% school that had the most volunteer hours out of the 14 of the reward is during the competition. So one of the hardest things was keeping our delegates motivated. In schools that competed this year. terms of overcoming these challenges, we did a lot of As for being a Co-Captain, I think the highlight would pep talks and a lot of patience. One of the things that be being able to bring a full delegation on board. To see Sushen and I did that I think was very effective is when everyone happy and have a great time during the com- we first met our delegation, we gave them a cue card petition was probably the most memorable moment and an envelope and we asked them to write down why they are doing this and what they would like to get out throughout the whole experience. of it. We sealed them up and gave it back to them in L: The highlight for me when I was a delegate was be- January as a refresher of why they joined the team and ing able to learn and expand my knowledge outside of what they hope to gain from the whole experience. the classroom. It’s unbelievable how much you learn not just competing in the competition and doing the S: An underlying challenge that we faced is cohesivepractice work but from seeing how the other schools ness for the team as a whole. Since each delegate was practicing with their respective teams, there was huge compete as well. gap between each category. I think one way to tackle In terms of being a Co-Captain this year, the highlight that is to create opportunities for the delegates to inis seeing the delegates compete and greeting them af- teract prior to the competition by holding socials that terwards. My focus was the academic delegation and would encourage interaction between each delegate. it’s amazing to sit there and witness the culmination of hard work that the delegates put in during the months How did you prepare your team for it? prior to the competition. Also, to the teams that did place, it’s such an indescribable moment that cannot be L: In terms of the actual experience, you really can’t replicated when you walk with your team to go up the prepare for it. There’s a bit of a culture shock at first but you can quickly adapt and get into it because there’s stage to accept their trophies. February 2015 | Quarterly Profit | 51
so much going on and it’s just non-stop. In terms of preparing the team, the academic delegates did 8 mock cases; the debate team practiced mock debates among themselves which was a little hard to start because we’ve never sent a debate team before; for the social team, it was really a matter of getting their costumes ready and practicing being in character; and for sports, the team practiced twice a week for both sports. What is a valuable lesson or key takeaway you have learned since starting your term as Co-Chairs up to now that the competition has ended? L: I would say patience and support. Being a leader is extremely hard especially to peers and it’s a fine line that you walk not just as Captains but as delegates in terms of being supportive, empathetic, and motivating to the rest of the team. S: It’s a huge learning curve because at DeGroote, there’s not much opportunity to be a Co-Chair for something that has very little to do within the school but has a lot to do with representing the school externally. Another one is being able to learn from my peers and learning things that I either thought I didn’t need to know or that I thought I was already good at. Overall, it was really a non-stop learning experience and a full time job that I was really proud to do. Is there a particular experience or achievement that you are most proud of? S: There are two experiences that I’m most proud of. The first one is DeGroote being recognized as having the most volunteer hours which translated to 1900 hours out of the total 5000 volunteer hours was amaz52 | Quarterly Profit | February 2015
ing. Another one is coming in third for overall charity this year because I know that we were far behind during last year’s competition. When I first stepped into the role, the biggest thing that I wanted to work on was to get the brand of the DeGroote School of Business known because we were known as McMaster. At the end of the competition, about 6 different captains approached me and acknowledged the progression of DeGroote because we were so active on social media and other platforms. And not once during the competition did they refer to us as McMaster which is probably one of the proudest moments throughout the whole experience. L: Building on what Sushen said, the reason why being recognized for charity hours is such a big deal is because every single one of our delegates contributed to that. Another one that I’m really proud of is more personal which is being able to build relationships with 47 different people. Having the opportunity to meet all these amazing individuals and to see them grow and develop and see how happy and grateful they are is such a wonderful experience. How has JDC Central contributed to your personal and professional development? L: It has helped me develop all my soft skills such as communication, time management, emotional intelligence, leadership, and teamwork. It’s really all-encompassing. S: In addition to what Lindsey said, if I wasn’t part of JDCC, there would be no way that I would meet people from 14 different business schools across Canada.
Having the opportunity to meet such a diverse group of people and growing my professional network would be the biggest takeaway for me. What is your advice to students who are interested in participating in the competition next year? L: Do it! Don’t even think about it! You won’t find any other similar experience and you won’t regret it. Another unique aspect of JDCC is there something for everyone. If academic isn’t for you then you have social, sports, or debate to choose from, or even be a part of the executive team. More than that, you don’t need any prior experience because we teach you the skills you’ll need to compete. S: It’s the biggest case competition in Canada. It is also the only and the biggest full delegation that DeGroote takes a part of. The real question is why wouldn’t you do it? What is the application process? Delegate applications open in September and each category would have its own specific application. The sports category holds a try out based on whatever the chosen sport is for that year. For the social category, it’s a surprise but applicants should expect the unexpected. Academics do a mock case while the Debate team will do a mock debate for their application. Another requirement is to include your transcript in the application because JDCC requires a proof of enrolment to a business school. By the first week of October, the full delegation is confirmed. If you’re interested in getting involved on the executive level, the Co-Chairs will be hired during the next few weeks and the executive team is right af-
ter. No prior experience is required if you’re applying for an executive position and for the delegation. Where do you want to see JDC Central Degroote in the next 2-3 years? L: I would like to see JDCC DeGroote to increase its presence on campus, increase its applicant rate, bring home more trophies, and keep rocking it and having fun! S: A short, long-term goal would be to take home School of the Year. To have that and show other schools that although we jumped into the game late, we’re able to give our 110% in such a short time. Here are the results of this year’s DeGroote delegation. • Most Volunteer Hours Award • 3rd for Overall Charity • 1st for Entrepreneurship • 3rd for Marketing • 3rd for Business Strategy Do you have any additional comments you would like to share? S: We are so proud of our team! We hope that they enjoyed the experience and there wouldn’t have been anything without them - they are the experience! L: They gave me the best year I could’ve asked for to end my time here at DeGroote and I hope that everyone who reads this, please apply next year! And to feel free to reach out to the both of us!
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COPING WITH COMPETITIVE PEERS IN SIX STEPS
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Throughout your university career, you are going to meet people who may intimidate you immensely. They may start out as professors, TA’s or even upper years, but soon you’ll find that you’re sitting next to them in lectures, having lunch with them, and going out with them on weekends. That’s right, one day you’ll realize that your friends are starting to make the right academic and professional connections, are getting amazing grades, and inevitably, you’ll realize that they may start treating you as competition.
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A lot easier said than done, but definitely something to condition in you. When you’re being targeted as competition, instead of having hurt feelings over it, take it as a compliment. Someone deems you threatening enough to withhold offering their help in an assignment or even introducing you to a connection they have. This is your cue to take their advice and become the competition they seek.
Separate your personal friendships from your business alliances. A way you can avoid unnecessary drama, your own confusion and the risk of feelings getting hurt (yours or someone else’s’) is to fulfill this crucial step. There are two types of people you’re going to meet and keep in touch with in university: the first are your future life-long true friends, and the second are the schoolwork go-to’s or life-long business connections. Make a list of the people you’ve met at McMaster (or just scroll through your Facebook friends) and place them in either category. This will help you to have better control of what you project onto those people and what to expect. Some people you go to for fun times and life advice, and others you go to for test banks and potential business partnerships. This step is as important shortterm as it is long-term, because everyone
WORDS BY TARA KHUDAIRI
Competition among peers isn’t something typically common in high school, but is extremely common in university. The stress that accompanies this may be difficult to deal with initially, but the best thing you can do is to learn to cope with this sudden change and then learn the ropes. Here are the steps you need to take to become DeGroote’s fiercest asset:
Don’t take it personal.
knows not to mix business with pleasure.
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Be proactive. Nobody but you can get you to where you want to be in life. No one is going to hand you success on a platter. You need to go out
there and work hard to earn it. This includes going to class and studying hard to earn high marks. If grades are your biggest struggle, then know that there are many resources out there that work to help you. Going to TA or professors’ office hours is a great option as well – not only to help you succeed in the class, but also to become a familiar face. You’d be surprised, when you’re in need of a summer job (a research position perhaps?) or a letter of recommendation, that a professor might see you as the right fit. If your struggle is social situations, join a club like the DFA or the DOA, which offer networking opportunities to students. Grab a friend (only grab a business alliance once you get more comfortable with social situations), dress to impress and go to the networking events. It’s fine to have a few awkward encounters – the important thing is that you’re getting practice on making yourself a more confident and sociable person. Something that helps is to remember that this big-time successful career associate was once in your shoes – a student with a dream. So don’t get intimidated. Get your marks and make your connections – you are now a threat.
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Don’t get selfish. But now, since you’ve collected yourself, you may start feeling like all this hard work you’re putting in will go to waste if you just hand it to some other person. “I made all these notes myself, I can’t just give them away!” or “I can’t introduce my TD contact to him, what if they like him better?” may be the thoughts swarming through your head. It’s true that you should be conscious of the decisions you make in your career, but attitude is a key factor to your success. There is a time and place to be selfish, but now isn’t it. If you have notes, pass them on to the next poor student (if you’re okay with it). If you’re at a networking event, never neglect your peers.
What goes around comes around, and in the future, the friend whom you helped out may help you out as well, five times more. Worstcase scenario is they don’t return the favor, so you live and learn and move on. Push your peers to succeed as well – good karma will work in your favor. What would we be in a world where people only fended for themselves?
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Don’t drown [in your fears]. What’s that saying about killers in horror movies? That once you think you’ve defeated them, they always come back for one last scare. It’s the same thing in this case – even when you’re doing good, it’s easy to look at others and think that they’ve got it all together and that you’re a mess in comparison. The truth is that everyone is stumbling through university; some are just better at hiding it than others. Never compare yourself to others –have faith that you’re doing the best you can, which is always good enough.
You’re already who you want to be (The Secret). Hard work is very important, but attitude is the key to success. In your mind, you should already see yourself as the successful person you strive to be. You should believe that you’ve already fulfilled your dreams; that they’re already happening. This is called “The Secret” (I can’t take credit for this step – either read the book by Rhonda Byrne, or watch the movie). Positive thoughts attract positive things – not only will you put yourself in a better mindset to achieve your goals, but it will also project confidence and good vibes. Try this out for a while and see the changes it makes in your life. With a positive outlook, you can take on the world, DeGroote! February 2015 | Quarterly Profit | 55
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FACULTY FEATURE
WORDS FROM THE WISE:
MARVIN RYDER INTERVIEW BY JOSEPH CRUZ
Professor Ryder specializes in marketing, entrepreneurship, and business strategy. His interests include sports and entertainment marketing, not-for-profit marketing, new venture creation, business planning, and strategic management. He has taught courses in introductory marketing, marketing research, applied marketing management, business policy, and entrepreneurship. In fourteen years of eligibility, Professor Ryder was nominated eleven times for the McMaster Students Union Teaching Award.
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How did you get into the field of Marketing, Entrepreneurship and Business Strategy? You have an undergraduate degree in Chemistry and Mathematical Science, what spurred the decision to pursue an MBA and eventually join DeGroote as a Marketing Professor?
My father had a heart attack while I was in Carleton University and my mother really wanted me to go to Western University because I would be closer to home. But I thought I would be too close to home so I decided to go to McMaster and also for the reason that back then, the university was a little smaller and more intimate. During my MBA studies, I focused on Management Science because I had the Mathematical and Scientific background. I did take a couple of Marketing courses in the MBA program. I had no intention to teach but while I was doing my second year, my father passed away at Christmas time during my final exams, so all the time I had set aside for job hunting went away. I was then asked by the Chair of the Marketing department if I could stay and teach for a year and get everything else in order and then go look for corporate opportunities. That was 30 years ago and I’ve been here ever since. So how I got here is not a case of good planning and it’s not what I recommend anybody to do other than to be aware of the fact that along the way, life opens doors and you have to have it in your mind to either step through those doors or not, but once you make your decision, you can’t look back. When you get to be my age, you look back at life and you’ll see all these branch points wherein a door was open and sometimes I went through it and sometimes I didn’t, but you can’t look back and ask what if. You take advantage of some things and you don’t take advantage of other things and you make good and bad decisions and they play out. So I’ve never regretted my decision to stay because I have very much enjoyed it here.
I have two undergraduate degrees, one in Honours Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and one in Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics and I got both in Carleton University which I both obtained in 5 years. While I was in Carleton University, like students here, I was very much involved in extra-curricular activities and I also discovered that careers in statistics and chemistry with just a bachelor’s degree didn’t go very far. You could never control the lab and although you can analyze data for Statistics Canada, you can’t run the study because you don’t have enough credentials. More than that, I wasn’t really keen with either programs to get a master’s in Chemistry or Mathematics. And out of the blue, people suggested if I’ve ever thought about a career in business administration and get an MBA. From that point onwards, I wish I could tell you that it was good planning but it was truly an accident. The last sitting of the MBA I got in at the last minute and had no preparation at all. I hadn’t taken any preparatory courses and just wrote the little practice exam on the paper flyer which I scored 660 on and so I thought that that was a good score. My friends in commerce laughed and told me that I didn’t understand how hard the actual examination is but I still walked in in that examination room and wrote it and scored 710. So I ended up getting accepted to all the five business schools I applied to in Other than being a professor, you are also a consulOntario. tant, accomplished facilitator, prolific case writer, 58 | Quarterly Profit | February 2015
“...life opens doors and you have to have it in your mind to either step through those doors or not, but once you make your decision, you can`t look back.”
speaker, and consistently appear on CHCH to dis- pendent advisers whenever we do them. cuss top trending business topics. Can you please tell us more about these roles? My roles as a Consultant and Facilitator are more in the private sector. Most of the consulting I do is not comNick Bontis, Mandeep Malik and I are the face of the pensated and is in the not-for-profit sector, particularly school of business in the media. I do roughly 250 me- helping small and local businesses. As a Case Writer, dia interviews a year which is an average of one per I do not write as many cases now but the reason I first day between TV, radio and newspapers. Some of them started is because I felt that part of the problem we had are local such as CHCH or CHML but some days I do as a school was that all the case studies that we were interviews with CBC radio or TV interviews with CTV. using were either based in Boston written by Harvard The reason why we do these interviews is because academics or from London, Ontario written by academwe’re trying to raise the profile of the school. So yes, ics from Western University. Again, this sends a signal our name is mentioned and it’s our face they see but to students that the only problems in the world are in underneath all that is the school’s brand and that’s par- Boston and London. I think there are lots of Hamilton ticularly significant in places like Vancouver, Toronto, examples which is why I wanted to expose students to or Montreal wherein people are so used to hearing the Hamilton businesses and that was actually easier to do names of local individuals. To be included in the pot, 20 years ago because there were more Hamilton busiit help raise our profile as a school and to an extent nesses. Student nowadays would have no idea that at makes our degree worth a bit more. Now, I have done one time the city had Procter & Gamble, Levis Strauss, interviews for 30 years but I haven’t done this volume the Life Savers Company, Westinghouse Appliances, until recently. I think we can trace why we’re all doing Firestone Tires, and the list goes on. There was a wonthis much nowadays to the previous Dean, Paul Bates. derful diversity of businesses that we could expose stuWe went from having a mobile operation in the mid- dents to. Today, the economy has shifted quite a little dle of the hallway to a little studio now wherein we do bit. The drivers of the Hamilton economy today are the interviews. The more you do, the more they call to do not-for-profit sectors – the two big hospitals and the two even more. For instance, in the first half of 2013, I had big educational institutions, as well as the public and done no interviews with CTV, but by the back half of secondary board of educations and the City of Hamil2013, I’ve done four interviews. Last year, the number ton. So we don’t have quite as many examples right at increased to 26 and this year, although it’s still early our fingertips but I still think it’s important to show our in the year, we’re looking at an interview per week. students that all the problems in the world aren’t based So the volume has certainly gone up during the recent in Boston or London. years which is really good news to everyone. However, I should make it clear that professors do not get paid What is your stance on the revitalization that is for these interviews because we are essentially inde- currently happening in Hamilton? As a city, do you February 2015 | Quarterly Profit | 59
“... as professors, it is part of our job to tell students that they can do it [the workload] and that they can handle the challenge and that it’s been done before. From that, there are these little moments of growth that students have.”
think that we’re heading towards a much stronger medicine. No one of those things brings prosperity in future economically speaking? and of itself but it’s the combination of all these things which begin to feed on one another. About two years ago, there was a documentary produced entitled The Tipping Point and the question was Now the real concern is if we put all these together, if Hamilton was at a tipping point. First to illustrate a what kind of a city are we building? I think we can tipping point, I would say an example is when the Allies be a successful city but the real question is if we are a suddenly took control during the Second World War and self-sustaining city? Will we create enough jobs within it was inevitable that they were going to win. Now the the city to hire our own people? Today, many have choquestion is have we reached a tipping point? And my sen to live in Hamilton but the number of cars that leave answer is things are definitely better than before but we the city to work elsewhere is greater than the number haven’t reached the tipping point. In other words, we of cars that come in. So as a city, we’re really supplyhave to keep nurturing all the little things we’re doing ing labour to other cities which is the definition of a because it’s not inevitable at this point that great things ‘bedroom community.’ Now, we’re not completely a are going to happen here in Hamilton. One of my big- bedroom community but we are certainly going in that gest disappointments in coming to Hamilton and being direction and I worry that some of the things that we a residence since 1982 is unfortunately, many citizens in are doing to becoming a great place to live in, we also Hamilton grabbed on to what I call the ‘next big thing’ have to think about where we’re going to get the jobs to to become a successful city. So the message I try to get employ our people and that in my opinion is still quite across is that it’s not one thing that’s going to make the a concern. These things happen slowly and as much as difference but it is a hundred little things and the syn- we have to nurture and celebrate our victories, we can’t ergy between all those things that’s going to make the get too hung up on getting change right away. We are big difference. For instance, last year the Nations su- definitely going to a better direction than we were but permarket opened in downtown Hamilton, that’s a huge we still have a long way to go. improvement. We have so many people living downtown but we didn’t have a grocery store down there but What has been the highlight of your career as a Prosince it’s opened more people are going to want to live fessor at the DeGroote School of Business? there. In addition, we also have historic buildings being converted such as the former Canada Revenue building If I look back to my 30 years of working at McMaster, and the former Royal Connaught which has been con- for five years (1997 to 2002), I was the Chief Inforverted into a condominium and a boutique hotel. The mation Officer of the university so I was in charge of Hamilton Health Sciences is also currently building a computing, telecommunications, and printing, which new child and family practice centre while McMaster was a very interesting time. During my time there I had has built a building in the downtown core for family to make sure that the university was Y2K compliant 60 | Quarterly Profit | February 2015
which may not seem like much now. We now realize in hindsight that that was a lot of fear for nothing but nonetheless when you have a nuclear reactor on campus and you have to stand in front of the Board of Advisors and you have to say this is not going to melt down on January 1, 2000, I needed to be sure of what I was doing. Outside of the university, the highlight was in the year 2000 as well when I was Chair of the Transition Board that created the new City of Hamilton. We merged six municipal governments and a regional government to create the new city. We had a year to do that and the Province of Ontario has said that they thought that it was one of the most efficient processes they had and I take pride in that. Afterwards, I became the Chair of the Hamilton Health Sciences in 2001 which is the second largest hospital in the province and the largest employer in town employing 10,000 employees. Before joining, it had been put under supervisory powers by the province which means that the board and the CEO were fired because they couldn’t seem to balance the budget so they had to reassemble a new board and hire a new CEO which is when I got invited to be the Chair of the Board. During my time there, we were able to revitalize and rebuild the image of the hospital. Looking back, I am very pleased that I did have a positive impact in the healthcare system in Hamilton and that we were able to rebuild the image which resulted to a number of successes such as the new Juravinski Hospital on the mountain and the new David Brailey Heart and Stroke Research Centre and the new Rehab Centre.
ferent and each individual section has its own unique character. The interesting thing is to try to force people to grow and to change because students are very interesting individuals because they always say that they want more challenge but when you do give them more challenge, they would often say “I’m not so sure if I wanted that much.” So as professors, it is part of our job to tell students that they can do it and that they can handle the challenge and that it’s been done before. From that, there are these little moments of growth that students have. I think many students graduate and say that they feel like they haven’t learned very much and the reason for that is because they don’t feel it and yet I would say to them that if you’re in first year and I handed you an annual report from a corporation, I think that the way you would look at it in first year versus the way you look at it in fourth year would be completely different. But it’s no one moment that students are aware that it’s happened but it’s when I could get them to make that comparison that they soon realize that they have changed during the four or five years that they were here. And that’s how we make our impact as professors. As a Professor at the DeGroote School of Business, what do you hope to see happen in the school in the near future?
The general challenge for all universities in the next decade is people your age are becoming a smaller part of the population. What we’ve seen in the east coast of Canada is they are having a hard time filling their slots. Within the university, I’ve had a wonderful career here Here at McMaster, Social Sciences and Humanities for 30 years. I don’t know if I can say that there’s one sometimes have a hard time filling out their first year. specific highlight in teaching because every class is dif- Now here at DeGroote, we’ve been very lucky and February 2015 | Quarterly Profit | 61
have always seen our admission averages go up. We can fill all the spots that we have and in fact, we occasionally get the permission from the university to take a few more. The only worry that I have in the future is if we’re able to continue doing that. The demographics are not as bad in Ontario as it is in the east coast but the whole country will see a decline in university-age people which is why I think that the last major construction you’ll see being built in campus for a while is the Humanities building just to keep doing what we do. Another exciting development is the new E-MBA in Digital Transformation, sometimes called Big Data or Data Analytics. I think that’s something that the market is going to appreciate and it’s going to be interesting to see it launch and prosper. Sometimes just staying where you are when the market forces are going in the opposite direction is one of the hardest things out there. It’s like renting VHS tapes or DVDs in a world where everyone steals them off the internet, how do you continue to make your business prosper? In our situation, the number of student-age individuals are going to decline, keeping the seats filled is going to be an interesting challenge. One way that you could fill in the seats is to cut your admission standards. On one hand, people would say that if we go from 84% to 83.5%, when there’s a half a point difference, how much worse is the average student? The real concern is when you have to go from 84% to 74%, now are we getting the same quality? So we as a faculty do a number of different things to give us an edge against other universities. Competitive advantage for universities is harder to put your hands on 62 | Quarterly Profit | February 2015
because most commerce programs are virtually identical when you go from one university to another. So you do it partly by the little add-ons such as the Gould Trading Floor that is unique to us, no other university in Ontario has that. From the campus perspective, a lovely gym and a nuclear reactor make a difference. In terms of professors, we want to show the world that we’re engaged and one of the problems that we try to draw out of Toronto is there are three universities there – Ryerson, York and University of Toronto who often get quoted in newspapers and magazines. So as a faculty, we’ve been working very hard to get our name out there in the same way. The whole point of this is to become more visible as a school so potential students are more aware of our presence. So really there’s not any one thing you can do but a combination of things. Currently, we are well positioned but one thing I’m not clear about is how fast the demographics are going to turn against us given that universities in the east coast are already struggling, its seems to me that it’s sooner rather than later that Ontario is going to have the same problem. Of course, another way around this challenge is to appeal more to international students and that has its own interesting set of challenges as you try to familiarize students to a different culture. What is the most important advice that you can give to commerce students at McMaster? I have two pieces of advice to give: First off, if there’s a challenge I see with commerce students in general is they don’t seem to be plugged in to the world around them. Surely, they have smart-
“I encourage students to not always ask, ‘what’s in it for me?’ or ‘what am I going to get out of this?’”
phones with Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram among other things and they are plugged in in that sense. But as business school students, something that they should be doing is to be plugged in into the business world. So for instance, Target recently started their liquidation sale and will likely last four to eight weeks, if that’s news to somebody then they’ve got a problem. It was two weeks ago [approximately four weeks at the time of writing] that the Bank of Canada reduced their overnight lending rate from 1% to 0.75% which was totally unexpected. Now if you say that you don’t know anything about what they’re doing, then that worries me because you’re saying that you want to go into a career wherein in order to succeed, you have to be constantly gathering these little bits of information even if at that moment you don’t know how it’s going to help you but by storing that in your brain as background, suddenly four days or four weeks later it comes up and something clicks in. So it’s the sense of connectedness and I think our challenge as faculty members is to ensure that we engage and connect our students. More importantly, you have to remain connected even after graduation, staying connected doesn’t stop during your years in university. It’s a life-long commitment as business people.
where – you can think of your career path as a straight road ahead of you and here you are trying to be the best Accountant or Engineer or whatever it is you want to be. Occasionally, perpendicular to that road, you build a bridge. You do something for somebody with no expectation of compensation or return. This is what I believe is the spice of life, your career is the meat and potato but the bridges help bring in the spice of life. So if I look at my time at McMaster, as much as I have had wonderful achievements during my time here but some of the more interesting things I’ve done in my 30 years of being here have come from outside of McMaster. They’ve come because I’ve built a bridge somewhere, never expecting anything to come across that bridge, but lo and behold I get a phone call one day and I get an interesting project to do and that’s what made my life interesting. I encourage students to not always ask ‘what’s in it for me?’ or ‘what am I going to get out of this?’ It’s easy to ask these questions while you’re in university because you do all these extra-curricular activities to build your resume to get a job. But once you have the job, keep doing those things and being part of the community, helping the community solve its problems and there will be rewards coming your way but don’t expect them.
The second advice I can give, and again students do it while they’re here, is extra-curricular activities. All students see a need to round out their resumes to show that they’re not just academically oriented by doing all other kinds of work. But I think when you graduate, it should continue. Yes, students will have more commitment once they’re done school but doing things within the community is huge. I call it building bridges to noFebruary 2015 | Quarterly Profit | 63
The Abundanc
“Only two seats left!” “50% off on all items offered this weekend O How many times have you seen these statements plastered on the websites of retail stores or heard countless times from salespersons every time you visit a store to make a purchase? We see scarcity marketing everywhere. Many companies use scarcity in order to make their products more “valuable” in the eyes of consumers. When Apple announces a new product, there is more demand than there is supply of the product. We see customers line up for days to be among the first to get a hold of the new product. People are vulnerable to the scarcity principle. The thought of missing out can make you feel miserable. In fact, the effect is so commonplace that the Internet generation has coined the term “FOMO” which stands for “Fear Of Missing Out”.
Limited Numbers Recently, I was browsing travel sites for airfare deals to find a reasonably priced flight. On many of the websites, under the ticket price, I was often informed that there were only 2 seats left or that the promotional price was available for only a short period of time.
This is the ‘limited-number’ tactic used by marketers to influence customers to buy the ticket right away. It is not guaranteed to last long and customers want to avoid the risk of missing out on the great deals. These travel sites use the scarcity principle to increase the perceived value of the tickets. People clamor for scarce resources and companies use the scarcity principle to encourage the buying behaviour of customers. We see companies use scarcity principle all the time whether it is for any item or any experience. We see it everywhere because it forces an immediate action. In 1975, researchers carried out an experiment wherein participants were asked to rate the quality of cookies in two separate cookie jars. One jar was filled with ten cookies and the other contained only two cookies. Half of the participants rated the jar with the ten cookies while the other half rated the jar with only two cookies. In the end, the content of the jar that had a limited supply of only two cookies was rated more favourably than the ones in the jar with ten cookies. The scarcity of the cookies had remarkably led to a perceived superiority in its quality.
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ce of Scarcity
Words by Sehrish Khan
ONLY!”
“20% off on all items when you buy the rewards card today!” Limited Time
Online learning platforms such as Udemy use the ‘deadline’ tactic. I receive an e-mail from Udemy at least once a week with discounts on various courses available for short periods of time. The ‘deadline’ tactic influences customers to purchase right away because they do not want to pay a higher price later nor miss the opportunity to buy it at all. ‘Deadline’ tactics can increase traffic on your website and boost sales when you target people who have already expressed interest in your product or service. Another company that is designed around scarcity is eBay. There are many bidders for a single product and there is only one winner. There is a countdown for the auction and the person with
the highest bid during that period of time wins. But it is not enough to limit time or numbers in order to make the principle of scarcity work. The following two rules need to be considered as well:
1. The value of items that have recently become scarce is perceived to be higher than that of items that are in short supply all along.
2. We find items more desirable when we
have to compete with others to get them.
Dont Mess With Your Customers
Companies need to figure out a suitable way to apply the scarcity principle. Abusing this technique can result in loss of trust in a company and damage the company’s reputation in the long run. • • • • •
Make sure your product will help your customers Set expectations Have a reason for offering discount for a limited time Do not manipulate your customers by providing false information Be true to your customers and make them feel good about the purchase
Defense
As a customer, it is difficult to avoid the scarcity pressures because the principle of scarcity obstructs the ability to think and forces us to take an action right away. In such situations, we need to evaluate a few alternatives, pros and cons of the offer and the reason why we want the item. If there is a large gap between expectations and what we receive from the offer, AVOID IT! Originally posted on January 27, 2015 on https://sehrishsays.wordpress.com/2015/01/06/the-abundance-of-scarcity/
February 2015 | Quarterly Profit | 65
RECENT GRADUATES: WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
Tia Toko (‘13) Merchandise Planner, Walmart Canada
earn the trust and respect of my team and help guide us to our first official win. I learned a valuable lesson that I will remember no matter what career I end up in; no matter how young or new you are at a company, you were placed there for a reason and it is important to have confidence in yourself and know when to make your voice heard. What was the most valuable lesson that you learned while partaking in the program? DeGroote Involvement: • Teaching Assistant, 2013 • MARS Apprentice Co-Chair 2013 • MARS Apprentice Competitor 2012 • 5 Days for the Homeless Sleeper 2011 What is (are) the highlight(s) of your DeGroote Experience?
The most valuable lesson I learned is that true competitiveness is about self-improvement rather than trying to beat someone else. The best way to be positioned for success is to have a constant internal focus on self-improvement.
When I first joined MARS, my initial thinking was that the only competition I had to worry about was the other My most memorable experience at DeGroote was be- team. However, by the end of the competition our team ing a competitor in the MARS Apprentice program. realized that our biggest competition was ourselves and Presenting business solutions to some of the top busi- that if we wanted to win, we needed to improve on our ness leaders in Canada, as a third year student, was un- own weaknesses rather than trying to outperform the forgettable. Taking what I learned throughout my first opposition. At the final challenge our team presented three years of study and being able to have an impact one of the best solutions of the season because we foby Co-Chairing the program is also a memorable high- cused our energy on presenting the best solution we light that will always stand out for me. could instead of on what the other team was going to present. What was the highlight of your MARS experience? My personal highlight of the MARS experience was when our team won our first challenge. At the beginning of the week I was selected to be the Project Manger, which as one of the youngest team members, was very intimidating. By the end of the week I was able to 66 | Quarterly Profit | February 2015
At my current job we face competition every day, whether it is from new entrants or new formats, the retail industry is fiercely competitive. Despite competitors our strategy is to be the best Walmart we can be. Our mission is to save customers money so they can live better, so we remain focused on meeting our customers’ needs
“ ... true competitiveness is about self-improvement rather than trying to beat someone else.”
and helping customers save money every day. Understanding the importance of having this laser focus on serving the customer, and on trying to be the best version of yourself is something I learned from the MARS Apprentice program and it is something I see here at work every day.
The DeGroote School of Business gave me a well-rounded learning experience inside and outside of the classroom. The collaborative classroom environment prepared me for working with others that have conflicting goals. In retail, cross-functional teamwork is crucial and even though we work towards the same goal, different teams may have different metrics to achieve.
How did MARS it impact you as a student and as a future business leader? With the focus on collaboration each year at DeGroote, I came into my current position with a deep understandThe MARS Apprentice program had a tremendous im- ing of how to work cross-functionally and excel in such pact on me and I would not be where I am today with- situations. In addition, through the experiential learnout it. I became very self-aware of both my weaknesses ing programs, I developed confidence to challenge the and strengths, and I was able to gear my career path status quo and embrace newness. DeGroote taught me towards an environment in which I would thrive in. The the importance of adapting to change, which is a critiprogram also instilled certain beliefs that I will carry cal skill to be successful in my chosen industry. with me no matter what role I have. I will never forget sitting in Professor Malik’s office as he piled textbooks What is your advice to current and incoming DeGin my arms and said, “You don’t know what you don’t roote students? know.” At first his cryptic message was VERY frustrating; I later realized he was teaching us that solutions My advice would be to find something you are passioncan only be developed by understanding the root cause ate about and get involved! Whether it is a club, interof a problem. national exchange or experiential learning program, DeGroote offers numerous programs for self-developAt DeGroote I learned the difference between a quick ment and a unique opportunity to make your education solution and a meaningful solution, thus being able to your own. You are not restricted to just the traditional gain credibility and stand out more in the workplace. way of learning in the classroom and if you take adTo this day, whenever I am presented with a problem, I vantage of the opportunities at DeGroote you will set take a step back and try to understand the root cause of yourself up for greater success in the business world. a problem rather than the symptom of it. Find something that you are passionate about and that challenges you at the same time, and I think you will How has DeGroote helped you in the career path you see that the rewards of getting involved will extend behave chosen? yond your time at DeGroote.
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RECENT GRADUATES: WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
Vivian Leung (‘13) Business Management Analyst, Global Real Estate EMEA at Hewlett-Packard (HP)
same time. I get to work with amazing and unique individuals from everywhere. It’s like a walk down memory lane, taking me back to my time as an exchange student in France. Ever since my exchange, my mind has been stuck in travel mode and I’m always looking forward to the next trip. All of this would not have been so easy if I wasn’t involved during my undergraduate years. My time at the DeGroote School of Business enabled me to excel as a well-rounded leader. Being an integral part of the DeGroote Commerce Society allowed me to truly understand myself, my strengths and weaknesses, what I love or hate doing, and what works best for me. As a bonus, I got to do all of that in a lovely team setting. I do believe that the practical experience and self-awareness you gain from being involved is completely relevant and transferable to any path you choose. I’m now going through my second major corporate restructuring with a completely different perspective. I don’t believe this is something a lot of people in their 20s have experienced and it is all very exciting to me. I’m unsure what I will be doing or where I will be exactly 5 or 10 years from now but I am definitely looking forward to the next opportunity.
My DeGroote Experience vs. Where I am Now Advice to current and incoming DeGroote students Get involved! I highly recommend any opportunities that differentiate you from the rest. Try out different things such as conferences, competitions, clubs, committees, internship, or exchange. Our school has so much to offer! Also, connect with those around you and leverage all the support you can get. The network available to you during your time at DeGroote is valuable to you right now and in the future! Try your best to engage your peers and connect with faculty members and DeGroote staff. This is the best time to figure out what you After graduation, I jet set to Europe to pursue an in- are good at, what you like doing, or how best to work in ternational career. I was initially skeptical if what I a team. It is never too late or too early to get involved. have was enough to compete in the international job I guarantee that you will not regret being a part of your market today. I realized soon after that my experience school community. Best of luck! at DeGroote has well prepared me for this journey. I now live in Dublin, Ireland with a career that allows me to travel almost anywhere in the world and work at the I loved every moment of my 5 years at DeGroote as an active member of the DeGroote community. Getting involved from the get go with the DeGroote Commerce Society, travelling off to France for my BizX exchange at IESEG, and participating in a 12 months internship at BlackBerry were the best choices I have made during my undergraduate years. These are the highlights of my time at DeGroote where I met the most wonderful people that I will never forget.
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RECENT GRADUATES: WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
Sandi Simoes (‘13) Senior Sales Associate at Pepsico
of the competition was not the same as the person I was when I started the competition and that is something I am very proud of. One of the most important lessons that I learned during my experience in MARS Apprentice is that you learn the most when you are pushed outside of your comfort zone. That is something that can be applied in all aspects of your life, whether it’s personal or work, it is those challenging moments that will impact you the most.
During my four years at the DeGroote School of Business, my experience was shaped by a variety of different factors, whether it was academics, extracurricular activities, or part time work. Although I have learned plenty from each one of those, I would say my involvement in extracurricular activities was the most significant and held the most memorable moments during those four years. As part of my extracurricular, I was first involved with the DeGroote Commerce Society and the DeGroote Marketing Association before I began my most unforgettable experience with MARS Apprentice. I joined MARS Apprentice in 2012 as an eager third year student who was looking to learn more about marketing, absorbing and building relevant skills, and gaining a unique learning experience. Little did I know that by joining MARS Apprentice I would be propelled into a career in the marketing field. When I look back to my participation as a MARS Apprentice, as part of Team Enso, the one thing that screams out to me is the amount of emotions and different experiences you go through over such a short period of time. There would be moments where my team and I would be on the right track and really excited and confident about a case, and night where there would be hair pulling moments because we just could not figure out the best solution. All of these experiences not only helped drive our team to become better but also defined and shaped us as individuals. I believe that the person I became by the end
MARS Apprentice impacted me by building my perseverance, fostering my curiosity and teaching me to always look for ways to develop myself and others. I have to give a big Thank You to Professor Malik who has pushed us all to strive to be the best that we can be! Without him, there would not be this amazing experience for students to learn and grow. Through MARS Apprentice, I won an internship with Maple Leaf Foods as an Assistant Marketing Manager for the Bacon Category. Afterwards, in my fourth year at DeGroote, I made Top 25 in Canada’s Next Top Ad Exec with my colleague, Christopher Rosario. I am now a Foodservice Sales Representative for PepsiCo and still find myself developing and relating experiences and learnings to when I was in MARS Apprentice. My advice to students is whether they are in their first year or last, it’s to make sure to get involved because it’s through those experiences where you learn the most about yourself and where you meet wonderful people who will help you to become the best that you can be.
February 2015 | Quarterly Profit | 69
DeGroote business c I had the opportunity to interview this year’s Co-Chairs for the DeGroote Business Challenge, Chris Burgess and Tristan McLeod, as they reflect upon this year’s competition and their role as Co-Chairs.
After two rounds of training sessions, we had a mock case session wherein participants applied what they learned during the training sessions and presented in front of guest judges who were recent DeGroote graduates. What this does is to ensure that all participants Can you please tell us more about the DeGroote Busi- have the skills and knowledge to be successful during ness Challenge (DBC) and your role as Co-Chairs? the actual competition. The DeGroote Business Challenge (DBC) is an internal case competition that covers different areas of business such as Accounting, Marketing, and Human Resources. It aims to provide students with the opportunity to apply classroom concepts to real world scenarios. It’s a platform for students to highlight their skills and knowledge, and showcase them in front of an esteemed panel of judges.
With regards to the actual competition, first and second years were given their cases three days prior to the competition day while third and fourth year students were only given three hours preparation time in the morning of the competition. What has been the highlight of your experience?
The highlight of our experience was meeting the first What we did differently this year for the competition and second year students who we still keep in touch with is we implemented training sessions prior to the com- even now that the competition has ended. The relationpetition. These training sessions provided the students ships we built and the positive contribution we made to the opportunity to enhance their case presentation the DeGroote community is definitely the highlight of skills. One of the training sessions this year was hosted the whole experience. by Professor Linda Stockton who is known here at DeGroote as an expert in case writing and presentation. What are some of the challenges that you or your We also collaborated with MARS Apprentice to help the team faced in preparation for the event and how participants improve on their presentation skills. were you able to overcome them? 70 | Quarterly Profit | February 2015
challenge The biggest challenge for us was raising the awareness for the competition. As Co-Chairs, we both agreed that one of our biggest goals for our term is to reach new heights in terms of garnering interest for the competition. What is a valuable lesson or key takeaway you have learned since starting your term up to the end of your term as Co-Chairs? The key takeaway that we gained during the experience is the importance of team effort in solving problems and being able to trust and rely on our team to achieve our goals. Always remember that no man’s an island and you need your team to achieve great things. Is there a particular experience or achievement that you are most proud of as Co-Chairs for DBC?
competition is essentially a project that we needed to complete successfully by the end of our term. We had to create a strategic plan, a budget, a plan for our sponsorship initiatives, and build professional relationships with our network. What is your advice to students who are interested in participating in the competition next year? Our advice is to stay actively involved and in the loop through the DCS website! If you’re worried of participating because you haven’t experienced a case competition before, then DBC is the perfect opportunity to get started because we hold training sessions that will provide you with the skills and resources to succeed. DBC is the internal case competition that will set the foundation for students to join case competitions outside of DeGroote.
We are proud that we were able to bring it to a whole Where do you hope to see DBC two years from now? new level by increasing the awareness for the competition and getting companies more involved in it. In the future, we hope to see other business schools get involved in the competition so that the competition How has DBC contributed to your personal and pro- builds its credibility and become a high level business fessional development? competition. Being Co-Chairs for the competition has definitely enhanced our project management skills because the
Interview by Joseph Cruz February 2015 | Quarterly Profit | 71
THE COMMERCE INTERNSHIP PROGRAM WORDS BY PHILIP PALMIERI
eliminate a path knowing that it is definitely not what I would like to do or to realize that I really enjoy a certain area in business and pursue it. Figuring out what you would like to do for the rest of your life, career-wise, is extremely difficult and it is a process that takes experience, learning, and a lot of trial and error. There are many aspects of a job that a student needs to account for when deciding what job or career they would like to pursue. An internship makes that decision easier. The relationships you create will give insight on peoThe benefits of the program are immeasurable. Philip ple’s careers and how they arrived to that position. The Palmieri, is currently pursuing an internship as a Mar- tasks you are given will allow you to use your skills that keting Communications Co-op at Rockwell Automa- you’ve developed through previous jobs and through tion. He has shared his perspective on the value of this different classes at DeGroote. They will allow you to discover your strengths and weaknesses in a work experience. environment. The ultimate goal of an internship is to I decided to pursue an internship in the hopes that I discover what you enjoy, what your strengths are and would be able to find out about what career path I’d where you believe you can thrive in. Choosing a career like to take once I graduated. My goal was to either path becomes much easier once you know those things. The Centre for Business Career Development (CBCD) offers a competitive and highly rewarding internship program. Students in their third year have an opportunity to participate in the Commerce Internship Program (CIP) and complete for 12-16 month internship positions. In 2014, CBCD had 173 eligible students, competing for 203 positions from 69 employers. There are currently 105 Commerce students out in the field on internship.
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PHILIP PALMIERI
Marketing Communications Intern at Rockwell Automation Honours Bachelor of Commerce (‘16)
My internship at Rockwell Automation has been extremely beneficial for my growth and I’ve learned so much about what I may want to do after university. Before applying for a job at Rockwell Automation, I had never heard of the company before. After doing some research, I discovered many things about it and I learned how committed they are to being one of the most ethical companies in the world and are being recognized for their efforts. I discovered that they employ over 22,000 employees worldwide, serving customers in over 80 countries around the world. This sounded like a company I wanted to be a part of. Since then, I have met a number of extremely knowledgeable, helpful and resourceful people working at Rockwell Automation. They have been very supportive in my personal growth and in my hopeful forthcoming endeavours. The experiences that they have openly shared with me have been invaluable as I discover the path that I would like to pursue for my future career. The skills that they
have provided me will be fundamental in my success through the rest of my schooling as well as my career after graduation. From creating and altering images using Adobe programs to developing leadership skills through taking lead roles on different events and projects, the skills I have obtained from Rockwell Automation will surely contribute to my future success. I am extremely grateful and appreciative of the opportunity I’ve received from Rockwell Automation as it has been an enormous stepping stone in my life. For more information about the Commerce Internship Program please visit CBCD in DBS 112, or e-mail cip@mcmaster.ca. It’s worth competing for such a fantastic opportunity!
February 2015 | Quarterly Profit | 73
PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
GET INFORMED OUTSIDE BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS The Leadership Challenge James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner
available to all of us.”
“Leadership is not a gene and it’s not an inheritance. Leadership is an identifiable set of skills and abilities that are
into personal development literature. He studies two hundred years’ worth of self-help, popular psychology, and self-improvement writings, and identified two distinct philosophies of self-improvement. The seven habits he talks about in this book are as follows: 1. Be Proactive, 2. Begin with End Mind, 3. Put First Things First, 4. Think Win/Win, 5. Seek First to Understand… Then To Be Understood, 6. Synergize, and 7. Sharpen the Saw.
The book and its additional resources provide a framework for seeing how leadership fits together with all aspects of business. Jim Kouzes refers to The Leadership Challenge as a Emotional Intelligence Christmas tree; businesspeople have all sorts Daniel Goleman of thoughts and ideas about how they and their companies should operate, much like shiny ornaments and strings of bright lights just waiting for a tree on which to be hung. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Stephen R. Covey
“Emotional self-control--de laying gratification and stifling impulsiveness--underlies accomplishment of every sort.”
Emotional Intelligence presents a case that compels readers to reconsider a whole range The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is the outcome of Stephen Covey’s doctoral research of situations from work to home, containing
“Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.”
74 | Quarterly Profit | February 2015
THE CLASSROOM chapters on marriage, management, and ways The career advice you probably didn’t get to teach children about EI. For most, the mes- Susan Colantuono sage will be how to increase awareness of emotions, which results in making relationships healthier. For many, it will be hard not to see personal demons, past or present, in what Goleman describes. Source: The 100 Best Business Books of All Time by Jack Covert and Todd Sattersten
TED Talks Recommendations
You’re doing everything right at work, taking all the right advice, but you’re just not moving up. Why? Susan Colantuono shares a simple, surprising piece of advice you might not have heard before quite so plainly. This talk, while aimed at an audience of women, has universal takeaways - for men and women, new grads and midcareer workers.
Creative problem-solving in the face of extreme limits Profit’s not always the point Navi Radjou Harish Manwani
Navi Radjou has spent years studying “jugaad,” also known as frugal innovation. Pioneered by entrepreneurs in emerging markets who figured out how to get spectacular value from limited resources, the practice has now caught on globally. Peppering his talk with a wealth of examples of human ingenuity at work, Radjou also shares three principles for how we can all do more with less.
You might not expect the chief operating officer of a major global corporation to look too far beyond either the balance sheet or the bottom line. But Harish Manwani, COO of Unilever, makes a passionate argument that doing so to include value, purpose and sustainability in top-level decision-making is not just savvy, it’s the only way to run a 21st century business responsibly. February 2015 | Quarterly Profit | 75
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