Beedie School of Business News

As a director, your primary objective with the board is to create and protect value for the organization. This is accomplished by guiding strategy, monitoring financials, and overseeing the management of human resources and risk. In the process of fulfilling this role, however, directors are continually challenged by information gaps, time squeezes, and the social dynamics that can be encountered in the boardroom.

The ICD-Rotman Directors Education Program has been specifically designed to help directors overcome these challenges by introducing activities and processes that assist them in fulfilling their role. Below are the program details and dates.

Program Dates:

• Module 1 – Mar 9 – 11, 2012
• Module 2 – May 11 – 13, 2012
• Module 3 – Jun 22 – 24, 2012
• Module 4 – Sep 21 – 23, 2012

Application Deadline: January 12, 2012

For more information and how to apply:
http://www.icd.ca/dep/index.html

It has been an extraordinary year for the Beedie School of Business at Simon Fraser University – and the accomplishments of the school at SFU Surrey have helped to drive that success. As 2011 draws to a close, Beedie is celebrating such student accomplishments as SFU Student of the Year, the Surrey Green City Award, and selection to one of Canada’s most prestigious leadership programs for entrepreneurs.

Highlights include:

-Surrey BBA student Jessica Fan has been selected to the Next 36, a prestigious entrepreneurial leadership program that seeks out the country’s most promising and entrepreneurial undergraduates and challenges them to create their own ventures.

-This past fall, the SFU Surrey campus hosted a signature Beedie event: SFU Dragons’ Den. Jim Treliving and Bruce Croxon, members of the popular business television program Dragons’ Den, visited students as part of the special evening devoted to entrepreneurship and innovation. At the conclusion of the event, Treliving enthused on Twitter about SFU’s “fantastic students”, while Croxon’s impression from these young entrepreneurs, also tweeted, was that “Canada is in good hands.”

-Beedie BBA student Lauren Watkin, along with SFU communications student Sonam Swarup and Beedie alumnus Ashish Gurung received Surrey’s Green City award for their creative environmental efforts as members of the SFU Surrey-based Students in Free Enterprise club and their Banner Bags program. To date more than 800 banners no longer used by cities or community organizations have been turned into colourful reusable bags, produced by students in high school sewing classes led by the SIFE students.

-The student-founded venture called “Aspire” took the top prize at SFU’s Opportunity Fest, a Beedie School of Business entrepreneurship competition held at SFU’s Surrey campus in the spring. Judges from the wider business community, including academics and prominent industry leaders, named Aspire’s project as the best among more than 50 student projects at the marketplace-style exhibition. The venture leverages the characteristics of autism as a competitive advantage in the software testing industry, creating a suitable and nurturing work environment for those with ASD.

-Five projects by Beedie students from SFU Surrey — all social ventures aimed at creating positive change, including the aforementioned Aspire — were chosen from 10 finalists to win Ashoka Canada’s prestigious Be a Changemaker Challenge on November 23 at UBC Robson Square. The Beedie students are from instructor Shawn Smith’s Business 492 class in social entrepreneurship and innovation, which teaches the fundamentals of creating socially impactful ventures while coaching students through the process.

-This fall, Beedie Assistant Professor Jan Kietzmann and instructor Ashish Gurung led a unique class in social media for business at SFU Surrey. The class immersed students in cutting-edge social media practices and theory and connected students with industry-leading social media technology firms such as Hootsuite. Appropriately, the class also claimed its own Twitter hashtag (#bus495) – where students could communicate with eachother and the extended social media community about the class.

-Prof. Kietzmann, who carries out teaching and research from the Surrey campus, also won a noteworthy research award from the journal Business Horizons (along with co-authors Kristopher Hermkens, Ian McCarthy, and Bruno Silvestre.) His paper “Social media? Get serious! Understanding the functional building blocks of social media,” won the business journal’s Best Article Award for 2011, in great part for its industry impact and recognition.

-The December issue of BizEd Magazine, the leading voice of business education published by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), has recognized Beedie students for developing the Beedie iPhone app, which they began working on in the SFU Surrey class Foundations of Innovation (also taught by Kietzmann).

-Another Beedie undergraduate at Surrey, Matias Marquez, has won the honour of being SFU’s 2011 Student Entrepreneur of the Year, as selected by an annual competition in November hosted by Students in Free Enterprise. His company, Buyatab.com, is a “software-as-a-service” digital gift card processing technology that becomes embedded onto its customers’ websites.

-In December, as part of a class project, senior Beedie students helped support the United Way by participating in the annual Surrey Market on the Mezzanine which featured the work of local crafters, artisans and students along with a book sale, silent auction and baked goods.

In addition, first-year Beedie BusOne program students hosted an afternoon Christmas Market on the Mezzanine at the Surrey campus. This holiday-themed marketplace featured the exclusive works of BusOne students and included baked goods, candy apples, hot chocolate, bubble tea, photo booths, crafts and more. All proceeds from this holiday-themed market, which this year was an impressive $3,800, went to the United Way.

Tags: AACSB, Ashish Gurung, Ashoka Canada, Banner Bags, BizEd Magazine, Bruce Croxon, Business 495, BusOne, Buyatab.com, Dragon's Den, Jan Kietzmann, Jessica Fang, Jim Treliving, Lauren Watkin, Market on the Mezzanine, Matias Marquiz, Opportunity Fest, SFU Student Entrepreneur of the Year, SFU Surrey, Shawn Smith, SIFE, social innovation, Sonam Swarup, Students in Free Enterprise, The Next 36

Students in SFU’s Full-Time MBA program at the Beedie School of Business have garnered real-world marketing lessons that have taken them from social agencies in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside to a hospice society in Pitt Meadows to a seniors wellness centre in North Vancouver. In the process of helping these groups raise awareness or operating funds, they have enjoyed early-stage support from the likes of celebrated author Margaret Atwood and Vancouver hockey star Roberto Luongo.

The community interactions are part of the marketing class Business 702, taught by SFU marketing professor Leyland Pitt. Within the class, students are challenged to strategically design a social media marketing program for not-for-profit organizations in Metro Vancouver.

By working outside of the classroom with social agencies and community groups, the students have been able to broaden their perspective around business and society – and further integrate social entrepreneurship and sustainability into their marketing coursework.

A case in point is a group that worked with the Minerva Foundation for BC Women, which promotes community and workplace opportunities for women. The MBA students developed a successful “Leading by Tweeting” campaign – with the goal of raising awareness and support for the foundation via the microblogging medium of Twitter. They ultimately found online champions such as Patricia Graham (Editor, Vancouver Sun), Bridgitte Anderson (Vice-President, Edelman), and the aforementioned Margaret Atwood – and in the process guided executives at the foundation in the art of using Twitter and other social media channels. As MBA student Alice Longhurst noted, a retweet from Atwood helped put the organization’s message in front of over 280,000 Twitter users.

“As a business school, we believe that businesses can survive and indeed thrive by emphasizing sustainability and social responsibility,” said David Hannah, Academic Director of the SFU MBA program. “By involving our students in initiatives like this, we are preparing them to make this kind of impact.”

Another group of MBAs chose to support the Dugout, a local organization that provides daily meals and support services to Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside community. The organization, which positions itself as the “community living room” for people in that neighbourhood, has roots going back to the 1960s.

MBA student Colin Stansfield said his group was compelled to help the organization given that it is one of the longest-standing venues for Alcoholics Anonymous meetings in Vancouver, and serves many clients who are either homeless or live in Single Room Occupancies.

To support the Dugout, the student group created a new website, along with Facebook and YouTube channels designed to enhance fundraising efforts. Along the way, they added some sporting sizzle to their campaign.

Upon discovering that the Dugout has long welcomed locals into the facility to enjoy Vancouver Canucks hockey games – since the NHL franchise’s inception in 1970 – student Alannah Cervenko took the organization’s story to some of today’s players, including Roberto Luongo, Sami Salo and Kevin Bieksa at an official team function. The response from the Canucks players was very positive – with all of the Canucks canvassed signing a commemorative playoff towel geared to support the Dugout campaign.

Left to right: Vancouver Canuck Roberto Luongo, MBA student Alannah Cervenko and Canuck Sami Salo

Other student projects delivered social media marketing campaigns for organizations as the Greater Vancouver Firefighters, Ridge Meadows Hospice Society, Downtown Eastside Kitchen Tables Project, the North Shore Keep Well Society, Maplewood Farms and We Canada.

“Throughout this project, these students displayed a remarkable ability to leverage the power of social media to help these organizations achieve their marketing goals more completely – and by extension make a real difference in the community,” said Professor Leyland Pitt.

Though the marketing class concludes this December, many of the MBA students will carry on with their efforts with the organizations into the New Year and beyond.

Tags: Alannah Cervenko, Alice Longhurst, Business 702, Colin Stansfield, David Hannah, Downtown Eastside Kitchen Tables Project, Facebook, Greater Vancouver Firefighters, Leyland Pitt, Maplewood Farms, Margaret Atwood, MBA, Minerva Foundation, Patricia Graham, Ridge Meadows Hospice Society, Roberto Luongo, social entrepreneurship, sustainability, The Dugout, the North Shore Keep Well Society, Twitter, We Canada

Alumni from the Beedie School of Business at SFU have made a big impact on the recently-published Business in Vancouver Forty under 40 list for 2011. According to the British Columbia business publication, the winners represent a wide array of businesses, “but they all have one focus: an unstoppable desire to be the best in their field.”

Beedie graduates who made this year’s prestigious list include Robin Dhir (BBA), Benjamin Sparrow (Management of Technology MBA), Diane Stirling (BBA), and Joshua Zoshi (Management of Technology MBA).

Dhir, President and COO of Twin Brook Developments, has quintupled the firm’s annual project volume in the six years since he joined his father and became president of the family firm. Last year, the company was involved in a 150-unit project in India’s Punjab region, as well as a highrise residential project outside New Delhi.

Stirling is founder of marketing and design company OnTrack Media and Insider Trading Group. Her two ventures, along with a tourism venture in the Okanagan, now have 35 staff and revenues of over seven figures.

Sparrow and Zoshi, meanwhile, met in SFU’s Management of Technology MBA program – and later went on to found Saltworks. Their venture, focused on water desalination technology, has been described by the Economist Magazine as “ingenious”.

To see the full list, visit: http://www.biv.com/40under40-2011-ebook.pdf

Tags: Bachelor of Business Administration, Benjamin Sparrow, Business in Vancouver, Diane Stirling, Joshua Zoshi, Management of Technology MBA, OnTrack Media, Robin Dhir, Saltworks, Twin Brook Developments

With its booming economy, investment in national infrastructure and hosting of future global events like the Summer Olympics and World Cup, Brazil is poised to enjoy healthy growth in tourism in the years ahead.

Tourism boosters in that country and other emerging economies are likely to view associated entrepreneurship as a means to promoting inclusive economic growth, especially in underdeveloped regions. However, a new study from the Beedie School of Business shows that associated growth doesn’t always result in across-the-board gains for tourist destinations. In some cases, the commercial activity associated with tourism could actually backfire on some communities.

Slated for publication in the Journal of Management Studies, the research is entitled “Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Base of the Pyramid: A Recipe for Inclusive Growth or Social Exclusion?” The article was authored by profs. Jeremy Hall and Stelvia Matos from SFU’s Beedie School, along with Lorn Sheehan (Dalhousie University) and Bruno Silvestre (University of Winnipeg).

Tourism is one of the world’s largest and fastest growing industries and an economic driver in emerging economies. However, the researchers note, the industry has been recognized at times for causing detrimental economic, environmental and social impacts on local communities.

They analyzed different tourism entrepreneurship policies in order to improve the understanding of how some policies in underdeveloped regions generated positive outcomes, while others did not. Drawing on data collected from Brazilian tourism destinations with varying entrepreneurship, innovation and social inclusion policies, the researchers argue that weak institutions, coupled with alert entrepreneurs, encourages destructive outcomes.

“Although tourism entrepreneurship can provide the Base of Pyramid with opportunities to improve social welfare, it can also be the cause of wider social problems,” said Jeremy Hall. “Policies addressing both economic and social perspectives are likely to foster more productive entrepreneurial outcomes, although at the expense of a more constrained pace of economic development.”

A particularly interesting case is the development of naturally coloured, sometimes organic cotton by the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária, EMBRAPA) in Campina Grande, Paraiba, used in garments, hammocks and other textile products for tourists. With support from SEBRAE (the Brazilian Micro and Small Business Support Service, an industry sponsored agency to assist entrepreneurs through non-financial measures), informal and formal networks involving EMBRAPA, local cotton farmers, trade associations, co-operatives, textile workers and other participants have emerged, allowing for greater participation of BOP entrepreneurs and craftspeople.

The Social Science & Humanities Council of Canada (SSHRC) and the Brazilian National Counsel of Technological and Scientific Development supplied funding for the research.

Tags: Brazil, Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation, Brazilian Micro and Small Business Support Service, Bruno Silvestre, entrepreneurship, innovation, Jeremy Hall, Journal of Management Studies, Lorn Sheehan, social entrepreneurship, Stelvia Matos, tourism

Simon Fraser University student Jessica Fan is in elite company as a member of “The Next 36.” The prestigious entrepreneurial leadership program seeks out the country’s most promising undergraduate top young entrepreneurs and challenges them to create their own ventures.

A fourth-year student majoring jointly in business and interactive arts and technology at SFU Surrey, Fan will spend much of the next year working with cohorts at Queens University, the University of Waterloo and the University of Toronto – with a $30,000 advance from The Next 36  – to develop a start-up company.

Nine teams of four – 36 students in all from across the country – were recently selected from more than 1,000 students to form the program’s second cohort. A shortlist of 72 recently flew to Toronto for an intensive weekend of interviews with program founds and some of Canada’s top entrepreneurs.

They’ve already begun working remotely on their new businesses with the contest’s co-founders and CEO-level mentors.

Fan hopes to focus on a social enterprise that will help address a community-wide issue. She’s among a group of SFU classmates who earlier developed Home for the Heart, a Mandarin and Cantonese language home care service for the elderly to support their social networks and enable them to remain in their homes longer. They produced the business model as part of a social entrepreneurship course this fall.

“My interest is addressing the bigger social problems we face, such as the underfunding of healthcare. It’s a big responsibility we all share and I think creating social ventures is a more sustainable solution,” says Fan, who earlier set up the Burnaby Hospital Bedside Arts Program. It seeks to improve the experience of patients through art and music.

Fan’s ideas involve creating meaningful user experiences through new products and services. She is also working with Engineers Without Borders (and is co-president of the SFU chapter) to create a knowledge management system to be used by chapters across Canada.

A published illustrator, avid photographer, singer, and graphic designer, Fan has received multiple awards for her academic and volunteer achievements.

She’s looking forward to working with new colleagues, whose expertise in engineering and nano-engineering will mesh with her technology/business focus.

Championed by founders that include Jimmy Pattison and a long list of prominent Canadian business leaders, The Next 36 has been described as an intense “hot-house effort” to stimulate young entrepreneurship in Canada.

All candidates will return to Toronto in May for the Entrepreneurship Institute, an innovation boot camp, where they will build their ventures with guidance from the world’s top faculty and support from Canada’s top business leaders and entrepreneurs.

Tags: Beedie School of Business, entrepreneurial leadership, entrepreneurship, Jessica Fan, new ventures, School of Interactive Arts and Technology, Simon Fraser University, startup, The Next 36, young entrepreneur

Jeremy Hall, a Simon Fraser University Beedie School of Business professor, is leading the social science research component in a new project dedicated to significantly reducing forest pests in Canada, and ultimately globally.

Hall leads one of several research teams involved in Genomics-Based Forest Health Diagnostics and Monitoring, a new $4.2 million project funded by Genome British Columbia and Genome Canada. Stelvia Matos, an adjunct professor, and Vernon Bachor, a sessional lecturer, in SFU’s Beedie School of Business are on Hall’s team.

The project will use genomics to develop a DNA-based diagnostic test to detect and monitor pests that do $2 billion worth of damage to Canada’s forests annually.

Government and forest industry scientists and policy makers have been pushing for better ways of diagnosing forest pests for years because the conventional method of visual inspection can’t catch many microscopic pathogens.

Hall, an expert on radical technology development and sustainable development innovation, and his team will examine current public policies and societal issues around the use genomics in forestry management. The SFU team will also recommend commercial opportunities for outcomes of the research.

“In addition to overcoming technological hurdles, successful innovation also includes understanding the often complex interactions among commercial, organizational and social issues,” says Hall. “Understanding such issues is especially useful at early phases, when there are greater options in how the technology can be developed.

“Our role is to provide scientists with early knowledge about the way technology can be developed to make it more commercially attractive to users. We also help technology developers realize benefits from their investment and avoid detrimental social impacts and/or controversies that could hinder its diffusion.”

Richard Hamelin, senior research scientist at Natural Resources Canada, will lead the development of DNA-based diagnostic testing that is expected to generate annual economic benefits in the tens of millions of dollars. The testing will aim to stop potentially detrimental pathogens from spreading through forests and assist the forest and nursery industries with plant and product certification.

Tags: BC, Beedie School of Business, development, forest, forestry, Genome BC, Genome Canada, innovation, Jeremy Hall, Natural Resources Canada, pests, Research, scientists, sfu, sustainability