Beedie School of Business

Beedie School of Business News

Simon Fraser University’s Beedie School of Business has launched the Beedie Endowment Asset Management (BEAM) fund. With a value of $5 million, it’s the largest undergraduate-student managed investment fund in Canada. The BEAM fund is second in size overall after SFU’s $10.8 million Student Investment Advisory Service, which is managed by SFU graduate business students. Students participating in BEAM will be allowed to manage $5 million of the Beedie School’s endowment fund, created in 2011 […]

Beedie School of Business News

On November 22, 2011, Wideman Education Foundation (WEF) hosted their third annual Project Management Career Speaker Event to high school students at Simon Fraser University’s Surrey campus. Among the speakers was Rich Brodowski, Project Manager with the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. He described his PM experience that involved providing governance to Bell Canada’s Olympic Program, ONE that involved, voice, data, logistics and business functions for the winter games. Joan Vincent, President of the Wideman Education Foundation, […]

Beedie School of Business News

Beedie School of Business BusOne students at Simon Fraser University’s Surrey campus will spread some Christmas cheer for the United Way on Friday, Dec. 2. The students, all in their first year of study, are putting their business creativity to the test to raise money, doing everything from photos with Santa to a “Rent-a-Biz-Kid” opportunity, during the special United Way event on the Mezzanine from 2:30 – 5:30 p.m. Among other ideas, shoppers can purchase prize-popping […]

Beedie School of Business News

5 projects by SFU students—all social ventures aimed at creating positive change—were chosen from 10 finalists to win Ashoka Canada’s Be a Changemaker Challenge Nov. 23. In October, SFU, UBC and Ashoka also ran a boot camp to train students how to build and fund sustainable ventures.

The contestants were eligible for up to $1,000 each in seed funding to launch their social ventures, in addition to incubation support through Ashoka Canada and Ashoka’s Youth Venture. Most of the entrants were from SFU Beedie School of Business lecturer Shawn Smith’s BUS 492 class in social entrepreneurship and innovation, which teaches the fundamentals of creating socially impactful ventures while coaching students through the process. “More than just community engagement I think it is entirely critical to instill a sense of responsibility, and possibility, in our emerging leaders,” says Smith.

Beedie School of Business News

Last week, when Cervenko was invited by a friend to a private “Cocktails with the Canucks” function in downtown Vancouver, she hastily grabbed her playoff towel on her way out the door not knowing what to expect of the event.

In the back of her mind, she had big plans for the white space on the towel. A Simon Fraser University MBA student, Cervenko needed some star power for a social media project.

The assignment: partner with a local non-profit and create a social media strategy with the objective of raising financial support or awareness for this organization. Cervenko and her group chose The Dugout — a drop-in centre on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside that hosts one of the longest-running Alcoholics Anonymous programs in Vancouver.

“The reason I thought about The Dugout was because in the 1970s and ’80s it would stay open late so that their clients could have a warm and safe place to watch the Canucks games,” says Cervenko. “But because of a lack of funding they don’t have the resources to stay open late anymore.”

Beedie School of Business News

SFU’s Beedie School of Business hosted “A Candid Conversation with Walmart Canada about Sustainability” on Monday, November 21 at the Segal Graduate School of Business in downtown Vancouver. The event was co-sponsored by SFU Beedie’s CMA Centre for Strategic Change and Performance Measurement and SFU Beedie’s NetImpact Chapter. A diverse and engaged audience — consisting of SFU MBAs and BBAs, plus students, faculty and industry professionals from across the Lower Mainland — joined the Beedie School to learn more […]

Beedie School of Business News

The founder of a burgeoning online instant gift card company is Simon Fraser University’s newest Student Entrepreneur of the Year. Matias Marquez, an undergraduate student in the Beedie School of Business, took the honour at the Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) annual competition held on Nov. 19. His company, Buyatab.com, Canada’s leading digital gift card processor is a “software-as-a-service” digital gift card processing technology that becomes embedded onto its customers’ websites. According to Marquez, thousands of merchant locations across […]

Beedie School of Business News

Vancouver Startup Weekend, sponsored by the Beedie School of Business and hosted at the Segal Graduate School in downtown Vancouver, brought together entrepreneurs from across the region to develop their business ideas from early-stage conceptualization to real-world viability. A panel of local entrepreneurs and investors awarded first place to “My Best Helper” at the Vancouver Startup Weekend. “My Best Helper” is a web-based service that matches caregivers with people who need their services.  Nannies, babysitters, […]

Beedie School of Business News

That was the case for the Beedie School. A team of five SFU computer science and business students created Beedie’s app as a 13-week project for an interdisciplinary course, “Foundations of Innovation” in 2010.

Jan Kietzmann, who teaches the course, planned to make iPhone app design a general focus for the course. But he says it was a “natural progression” to shift the focus to creating a Beedie School app. The team was guided in the project by Kietzmann; Moscato; Dan Shapiro, the dean; and Andrew Gemino, associate dean of undergraduate programs and associate professor of management information systems. After the course ended, Moscato continued to work with the students to perfect the app before its release five months later in spring 2011.

“Although the project was introduced to the students from ‘up top,’ the students really loved the idea and took it upon themselves to identify where and how an app could help improve their lives as students,” says Kietzmann.

The students decided that the Beedie School app should be an information hub. They wanted it to integrate the school’s Twitter and Facebook feeds with links to announcements about current research from school faculty and graduate students, says Justin Lee, a member of the student team.

Beedie School of Business News

(Vancouver) November 11, 2011 – Ashoka Canada, in partnership with the University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University, will find the top student changemakers at the end of this month. The two schools co-launched the Be A Changemaker Challenge, powered by Starbucks, to find the best student-led social initiatives coming out of Vancouver. The components of the Challenge are a bootcamp, which took place at SFU on Oct. 1st and a venture pitch selection […]

Beedie School of Business News

Watch UBC and SFU students pitch their social ventures to win up to $1,000 in seed funding! We invite you to The Be a Changemaker Challenge Selection Panel to watch the top teams of SFU and UBC students pitch their ideas for creating their own social ventures. The Selection Panel will bring together six business and social entrepreneurs who will select the winners. Panelists include: James Tansey (ISIS, Sauder School of Business, UBC), Tom Lawrence […]

Beedie School of Business News

BY JANAYA FULLER-EVANS, BURNABY NOW Ads on Naps co-founders Jag Manhas and Phil Chow entered the Dragon’s Den voluntarily, and survived. Manhas, a British Columbia Institute of Technology student and Chow, a Simon Fraser University alumnus, took part in a mini Dragon’s Den at SFU’s Surrey campus on Sept. 9. The advertising company sells high-definition ad space on napkins, which are supplied free of charge to businesses in Canada. The Ads on Naps team went […]

Beedie School of Business News

CBDC issues call to action to replace retiring directors with diverse candidates TORONTO , Nov. 16, 2011 /CNW/ – Some disconcerting findings on the lack of diversity in the boardrooms of Canada’s largest corporations were released today in the Canadian Board Diversity Council’s Second Annual Report Card, produced in partnership with the Beedie School of Business. While 73 per cent of corporate board members feel their boards are diverse, the reality is that women are […]

Beedie School of Business News

The following was originally published on Invoke’s blog and authored by Justine Yu. Ashish Gurung teaches an undergraduate social media course at SFU Beedie School of Business. He is also involved with a bunch of other stuff ‚ some startups, some consulting and lots of non-profits. Find him@ashishgurung and http://www.ashishgurung.ca Tell us a bit about the social media course you created. What motivated you to create an entire course about social media at SFU’s Beedie School of […]

Beedie School of Business News

The Beedie School of Business at SFU has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the India Institute of Management Indore (IIM Indore). The agreement will allow the two institutions to explore additional research programs and exchanges and pursue consulting and project opportunities.

Collectively, the India Institutes of Management are the premier business schools in India, and IIM Indore has been ranked #4 in the country. Established in 1996, the institute was chosen to be set up in Indore to give an impetus to management education in central India and has ever since been acting as the pioneer in the field of management, interfacing with the industry and government sectors.

Faculty at IIM and SFU currently collaborate in areas such as sustainable supply networks, market segmentation via remanufactured products and profitability of co-operatives in emerging markets. According to Daniel Shapiro, Dean of the Beedie School, the MOU will cover the exchange of students and faculty, and facilitate joint research between IIM Indore and Beedie.

Beedie School of Business News

London, Ottawa, and Vancouver, November 15, 2011—A growing number of municipal governments across the country are aiming to become beacons of sustainability in their communities, but many are struggling to lead by example. A free new report released today, Embedding Sustainability into the Culture of Municipal Government, promises to help municipal change agents advance sustainability in their organizations and become role models for others in the community. Developed as a collaboration between the Network for Business […]

Beedie School of Business News

Interested in learning more about the Beedie School’s newly-launched Business Technology Management Certificate? Beedie School of Business Professor Dianne Cyr, along with professors Jan Kietzmann and Nilesh Saraf, will be on hand at the MISA Mixer on November 16 to discuss the BTM Certificate. The event is also a great opportunity for Management Information Systems (MIS) undergraduate students and young professionals to mingle and build relationships with leading companies. The MISA Mixer brings forth an opportunity for […]

Beedie School of Business News

In the wake of the announcement from Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi that he will be stepping down from his post, recent Beedie School of Business research points to his exploits as having a major impact on the image and reputation of his country. As national brands go, it has historically been hard to beat that of Italy’s. The country is renowned for its rich cultural life, one that attracts tourists, investors and migrants from […]

Beedie School of Business News

The management journal Business Horizons and Elsevier have awarded Beedie School of Business researchers Jan Kietzmann, Kristopher Hermkens, Ian McCarthy, and Bruno Silvestre with the Best Article Award for 2011 for their paper, “Social media? Get serious! Understanding the functional building blocks of social media.”

Beedie School of Business News

The Nuu-chah-nulth community of Tseshaht is the first aboriginal community to pursue funding under a system developed by the Aviva Insurance Company which involves online voting to select finalists for community grants.

Tseshaht has proposed the a project to build an ocean-going canoe and a canoe shed, thereby reviving important traditions within the community (carving, paddling, visiting its traditional territories, interchanges with other coastal communities) and engaging its young people. Although Tseshaht was a whaling community in the past, for the last generation or so, Tseshaht has not had a canoe that is seaworthy enough to take on the ocean. This is an opportunity to renew that tradition.