Beedie School of Business News

Donovan Woollard (right), new Director of RADIUS Ventures with Shawn Smith, co-founder of RADIUS.

RADIUS, the Beedie School of Business’ new interdisciplinary social innovation lab and venture incubator, has appointed Donovan Woollard as Director of RADIUS Ventures.

RADIUS Ventures aims to become a world-leading incubator and accelerator program for impact-focused ventures, nurturing the best and brightest ideas from SFU and around the globe. With financial support from Vancity Credit Union and SFU, it will seed the ecosystem with high potential social ventures, and help to maximize the collective impact of entrepreneurs, investors, and support organizations.

Woollard, who brings with him a wealth of experience in business development in the private, public and not-for-profit sectors, will be responsible for refining and delivering RADIUS Ventures’ offering to entrepreneurs and ventures in the impact space, and supporting its financial sustainability. Keep reading…

Tags: Beedie School of Business, Donovan Woollard, entrepreneurship, incubator, RADIUS, RADIUS Ventures, sfu, Shawn Smith, social innovation, Vancity Credit Union

Gervase Bushe (centre), Professor of Leadership and Organization Development at the Beedie School of Business, being welcomed to KyungHee University, Korea, for a series of lectures and workshops on leadership and organizational change.

Gervase Bushe, Professor of Leadership and Organization Development at the Beedie School of Business, recently touched down in Seoul, Korea for a series of talks and seminars on leadership and organizational change.

Bushe spoke to some of Korea’s most prominent academic and business leaders, delivering lectures and workshops at Kyung Hee University and to the Korean CEO’s Association of Multinational Corporations, as well as the leadership team of Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices Korea. Attendees heard about Bushe’s research on the Appreciative Inquiry method of organizational change and his collaborative leadership model, Clear Leadership.

Bushe was invited to Korea by Dr. Young-Chul Chang, Professor of Management, School of Business, KyungHee University. A long-time admirer of Bushe’s work, Chang first approached Bushe about transferring his leadership and organizational change theories to Korean business, and has been instrumental in translating Bushe’s book, Clear Leadership, into Korean.  Keep reading…

Tags: Appreciative Inquiry, Asia, Asian business, Beedie School of Business, Clear Leadership, Dialogic Organizational Development, Gervase Bushe, Ideas@Beedie, Johnson & Johnson, Korea, Kyung Hee University, Leadership, Nano Liquid Devices, organizational change, Peter Drucker Society, Seoul, sfu, Simon Fraser University, Young-Chul Chang

Experts on social inequality gathered at the Beedie School of Business to share research and engage in meaningful discussion on how organizations and institutions contribute to or mitigate inequality at the Inequality, Institutions and Organizations Conference.

The Beedie School of Business brought together some of the world’s leading experts on social inequality to share research and engage in meaningful discussion on how organizations and institutions contribute to or mitigate inequality at the Inequality, Institutions and Organizations Conference.

With social inequality remaining a profound issue for both developing and developed societies, the conference sought to further explore the increasing problem of inequality growing in developed countries in conjunction with the growing power of large corporations.

The conference, held at the Segal Graduate School from June 6 to 8, was organized by Tom Lawrence, W.J. VanDusen Professor of Management at the Beedie School of Business, John Amis, Associate Professor in the Department of Management at the University of Memphis, and Kamal Munir, Associate Professor of Strategy and Policy at University of Cambridge. Delegates in attendance at the conference included leading scholars from the Universities of Cambridge, Harvard, Stanford, Northwestern, and Cornell, among others. Keep reading…

Tags: and Cornell, Beedie School of Business, Cambridge, comparative inequality, General Motors, global inequality, Harvard, inequality, Inequality Institutions and Organizations Conference, Jerry Davis, John Amis, Kamal Munir, Northwestern, poverty, Segal Graduate School, sfu, social inequality, social mobility, Stanford, Tom Lawrence, University of Michigan

The following story was published by SFU News on June 10, 2013.

MBA graduate Zain Nayani has dedicated his career to social development — and his SFU education is helping him take this passion to the next level.

Originally from Pakistan, Nayani worked in the finance field in his home country before deciding that his career needed a new direction.

“I started to devote a lot of my time to working with developmental organizations, and it just clicked with what I was thinking,” says Nayani, who undertook some projects for the Agha Khan Development Network.

He eventually decided to quit finance and find a way to marry his business and financial skills with social-sector development. Keep reading…

Tags: Agha Khan Development Network, Beedie School of Business, experiential learning, First Nations, Kanaka Bar Indian Band, MBA, sfu, social development, Zain Nayani

Research from two Beedie School of Business PhD students has become a top paper on the subject of open innovation for 2013, with almost 500 downloads on the Social Science Research Network (SSRN), a leading repository of business academic papers.

The paper, “The Theory of Crowd Capital”, was authored by Beedie PhD students Prashant Shukla and John Prpić, and examines the increasing number of organizations using IT to engage dispersed populations of individuals for knowledge purposes. Through exploration of the theory of Crowd Capital, it generalizes a new theory to explain how and why rapidly growing IT phenomena such as crowdsourcing, citizen science, wikis, and prediction markets are occurring.

The research has garnered significant interest from both the practitioner and academic communities, being listed at the popular online innovation community IdeaConnection, and receiving positive feedback from academics across the globe, including blogs by scholars from both Harvard and Tufts. Keep reading…

Tags: Beedie School of Business, Crowd Capital, Harvard, IdeaConnection, John Prpić, Open Innovation, PhD, Prashant Shukla, sfu, Social Science Research Network, SSRN, Tufts

The SFU Surrey Campus

Simon Fraser University’s Beedie School of Business has announced another first with its MBA program at Surrey, one of Canada’s fastest-growing major cities and an important economic hub for the south Fraser region and British Columbia.

The part-time Surrey MBA program will meet the needs of a growing number of managers, entrepreneurs and business leaders seeking to enhance their business skillset without skipping a beat in their professional careers. Featuring the same curriculum as SFU’s full-time MBA offered in Vancouver, the primarily evening program is taught by leading faculty from the Beedie School of Business.

“The implementation of the Beedie School of Business’ part-time MBA program provides the City of Surrey’s growing business community a new opportunity for growth and progression, as well as reflects Simon Fraser University’s dedication to our City,” said Dianne Watts, Mayor of the City of Surrey. “The astonishing amount of new businesses that have started up in the City of Surrey over the past six years, over 13,000, is a testament to the spirit of ingenuity and hard work that resides here, making the establishment of the part-time MBA program a perfect fit.”

“The establishment of a part-time MBA for Surrey reflects SFU’s ability to respond to the changing requirements of the business world,” said SFU President Andrew Petter. “This development further demonstrates SFU’s commitment as an ‘engaged university’ to deliver programs that enhance the social and economic well-being of the communities we serve.” Keep reading…

Tags: Andrew Petter, Beedie School of Business, City of Surrey, Daniel Shapiro, Dianne Cyr, Dianne Watts, graduate programs, MBA, part-time MBA, SFU Surrey, Simon Fraser University, Surrey, Surrey MBA

The Beedie School of Business Surrey Board of Trade Top 25 Under 25 Award winners. From left to right: Spencer Toth, Manpreet Dhillon (SFU Health Sciences), Rohith Manhas, Alice Park, Madhav Goyal, Anam Hameed and Michael Dyatchenko.

The Beedie School of Business accounted for more than a quarter of the recipients at the Surrey Board of Trade’s Top 25 Under 25 Awards, with seven awards presented to Beedie students and alumni.

The annual awards, now in their third year, recognize business and community minded people under the age of 25 who are either working in Surrey or working on a related project in or for the city, and are considered role models for the community. The recipients were presented with their awards at a ceremony held at Eaglequest Golf Course, Surrey, on May 23.

The awards underscore the impact of the Beedie School of Business’ students and alumni in shaping the future of the City of Surrey, one of Canada’s fastest-growing major cities and an important economic hub for British Columbia.

“To have so many students and alumni recognized in these prestigious awards is testament to the entrepreneurial spirit at the Beedie School of Business,” said Rosanne Wan, Manager of Student Engagement and Recruitment at the Beedie School of Business. “The seven recipients of this award have all dedicated their time to community-driven initiatives, and we are extremely proud of them.” Keep reading…

Tags: Alice Park, Alumni, Anam Hameed, Beedie School of Business, Enactus SFU, Madhav Goyal, Michael Dyatchenko, Rohith Manhas, Saurabh Bangar, sfu, Simon Fraser University, Spencer Toth, students, Surrey, Surrey Board of Trade Top 25 Under 25, TEDxSFU

The Beedie School of Business APEX Business-IT Global Case Challenge team. From left to right: Carlos Hernandez, Robin Orford, Kyle Krystalowich and team coach Dr. Kamal Masri.

The Beedie School of Business continued its recent winning form in university case competitions by grabbing the silver medal at the high-profile APEX Business-IT Global Case Challenge.

The competition, hosted by Singapore Management University (SMU) from May 12 to 16, is regarded as one of the top management information systems case competitions in the world, and this year featured 24 top universities from as far afield as Germany, Denmark, Hong Kong, Australia, and the US.

The team’s second place finish in this year’s competition sees the Beedie School of Business go one better than the bronze medal achieved in the 2012 Apex competition. It is also the fourth time in this global-class competition’s five year history where a team from the Beedie School of Business has finished in the top four.   Keep reading…

Tags: APEX, APEX Biz-IT Global Case Challenge, Beedie School of Business, Carlos Hernandez, Case competition, case competitions, Kamal Masri, Kyle Krystalowich, MIS, Robin Orford, sfu, Simon Fraser University, Singapore Management University

Beedie School of Business alumna Salina Siu has been shortlisted for Tourism Australia’s The Best Jobs in the World competition.

Beedie School of Business alumna Salina Siu has been given an opportunity all graduates seek – the chance to land her dream job.

Siu is one of 150 people selected from over 600,000 applicants to advance to the second round of Tourism Australia’s The Best Jobs in the World competition. With six positions available, Siu is the only Canadian to make the 25-person shortlist for the Chief Funster position.

The Chief Funster position is based in Sydney and requires the winner to attend and review all the festivals and events the city has to offer over the course of the six-month assignment. The position comes with a $50,000 (AUS) salary, along with an additional $50,000 (AUS) to cover expenses.

“This is a once in a lifetime opportunity and would be a crazy adventure,” says Siu, who previously served as social media intern in the Beedie School’s marketing department as well as stints with Invoke Media and SAP. “I am so passionate about social media, and to work in this field in such a great environment would be an amazing experience.” Keep reading…

Tags: AIESEC SFU, Alumni, Andrew Petter, BBA, Beedie School of Business, best job in the world, Chief Funster, communications, entrepreneurship, Invoke Media, Marketing, Salina Siu, SAP, sfu, social media, Tourism Australia, YouTube

Brian Hill, CEO of Aritzia, being interviewed in front of a live audience at the Beedie School of Business by CKNW host Bill Good.

The spring series of CKNW 980’s “The Chief Executives” concluded with Brian Hill, CEO and co-founder of fashion retailer Aritzia, discussing his hands-on approach to the fashion retail industry with CKNW host Bill Good in front of a live audience at the Segal Graduate School.

The event was part of an ongoing partnership between the Beedie School of Business and prominent Vancouver radio station CKNW News Talk 980 to bring leadership and business insights from some of Canada’s top executives to SFU’s downtown Vancouver campus.

As a third generation fashion retailer, Hill grew up working in the family business, which Good assumed negated the need for him to ask what his first job was. Hill revealed however, that one summer he worked in a role that to this day remains his favourite job – a garbage man. Keep reading…

Tags: Aritzia, Beedie School of Business, Bill Good, Brian Hill, CKNW, CKNW News Talk 980, fashion industry, Leadership, management, MBA, retail, Segal Graduate School, strategy, The Chief Executives