Tag: JMSB

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JMSB talks about mental health

CASA Cares is responsible for spearheading the #TalksAboutIt initiative Photo by Alex Hutchins

Concordia students open up about mental health with the hashtag #TalksAboutIt

JMSB students have created a video series using the hashtag #TalksAboutIt as a way to encourage Concordia students to open up about their experiences with mental or emotional hardships.

The campaign was organized by CASA Cares, a non-profit organization of the Commerce and Administration Student Association (CASA) at JMSB, which promotes social awareness and inclusion. The student association is a volunteer-based organization with a mission to inspire students to get involved in their community and help destigmatize mental illness.

“The #TalksAboutIt campaign all started when one JMSB student approached us about an idea he had to help students affected with mental illness,” said Yasmine Ait Bihi, president of CASA Cares. The #TalksAboutIt campaign is a YouTube video series where students film themselves talking about their personal experiences with mental illness and depression.

“We wanted to create a hashtag on social media to encourage students to talk about the cause,” Ait Bihi told The Concordian. “Many times the issue is that students [are afraid] to talk about their struggles.” The campaign allows students to share their experiences in the hopes of helping others in a similar position, she said.

“One thing I’ve learned about depression is that you are not alone. We’re not alone,” said one Concordia student, Frankie Lee Sunnyshine, in a #TalksAboutIt YouTube video. “Speaking to other people who you can console with and talking to friends [and] family helps you to deal with the pain.”

“We want to empower students to make a difference in someone else’s life,” Ait Bihi said. “It’s a small action that can make an impact on a stranger’s or a friend’s life.”

CASA Cares invites all Concordia students to participate and send in videos of their stories, said Ait Bihi. Students can simply send their videos directly to CASA Cares or post a video themselves with the hashtag.

She said she and her team hope this year-long initiative continues in future years. “CASA Cares promotes social awareness and raises money for a variety of causes,” Ait Bihi said. Some examples include Movember, which raises funds for prostate cancer research, and an annual fashion show to benefit the Montreal Children’s Hospital.

Concordia University offers a variety of programs for students who need emotional guidance and help. The Everyday Therapy campaign, organized by Concordia Health Services, is among one of the many Concordia programs geared towards helping students with everyday personal struggles.

Everyday Therapy hosts four sessions throughout the semester to give students tips and suggestions for dealing with daily obstacles.

In addition, many Concordia students have been involved with this year’s Bell Let’s Talk campaign. On Jan. 25, Bell Let’s Talk will be launching its seventh annual conversation about Canada’s mental health. On the same day, Concordia will host “One in Five,” an event in conjunction with Bell Let’s Talk, from 10 a.m to 3 p.m. The event will feature different resources for students and will discuss internal and community resources to help deal with mental health said, Dale Robinson, Manager/Psychologist, Counselling & Psychological Services at Concordia.

Bell will donate five cents to mental health initiatives for every text or call on Jan 25, regardless of the topic. As well, every tweet of instagram post with the hashtag #BellLetsTalk, or every time someone watches a Bell Let’s Talk video on Facebook. In addition, five cents will be donated if a picture is taken with the Bell Let’s Talk snapchat filter.

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News

Wrapping Gifts for the ones in need

Overall, 500 gifts were wrapped with the help of volunteers. Photo by Nelly Serandour-Amar.

The Concordia community took the time to wrap up 500 gifts for families in need.

The Commerce and Administration Student Association and the John Molson School of Business (CASAJMSB) teamed up with the organization Christmas 4 A Cause to host the Santa Supply Chain on Nov. 24 at 10 a.m.

Non-perishable foods, books, clothing and money were collected in the lobby of the JMSB building, where volunteers helped wrap up the gifts for families in need. A bake sale was also organized, with all money raised going to different families.

Marketing professor Brent Pearce is the founder of Christmas 4 A Cause and has been organizing gift wrapping events for 17 years. The organization started when his then-students proposed they have a party to celebrate the end of the 2001 fall semester. Pearce decided to make the celebration profitable for those less fortunate. “We also organize Comedy 4 A Cause, where all the profits go to buy gifts for the families,” said Pearce. He also mentioned how Christmas 4 A Cause has helped 650 families and more than 1,700 children since 2001.

Arti Sadhwani, the vice president of marketing for CASAJMSB, said their goal is to reach over 100 families this year. “We got all these gifts sponsored and we are donating them to families across Montreal,” she said. The student association managed to receive over $350 in donations and wrapped 500 gifts.

Many students and teachers stopped by the JMSB Building’s lobby to help out for the cause. Photo by Nelly Serandour-Amar
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Concordia Student Union News

CSU takes a stand against potential tuition hikes

John Molson School of Business is home for many international students who are studying in deregulated programs. Photo by Nelly Serandour-Amar.

The student union opposes the university’s rumoured tuition hike affecting international students

The Concordia Student Union (CSU) revealed the Concordia administration has been planning—supposedly for three years—a perpetual tuition hike that will affect future international students.

A recent open letter posted on the CSU’s website last Friday said this tuition hike would be directed towards students in deregulated programs.

Most universities’ program fees are regulated by the provincial government, but since 2008, according to the open letter from the CSU, the government of Quebec has deregulated six programs of study for international students: business, engineering, computer science, pure sciences, mathematics and law. This means the university can charge international students in these programs any price they want.

The university will propose tuition increases through “cohort pricing,” which is a payment scheme that guarantees tuition fees for international students in deregulated programs won’t increase over the course of their degree, according to the open letter. This means that when an international student begins their program at Concordia, they will be paying the same fee for every year of study. However, their fee will be higher than a student who started in the same program the year before.

The university has yet to confirm how much higher the fees will be, which isn’t a good sign, according to Lucinda Marshall-Kiparissis, general coordinator for the CSU. “If the university is declining to provide some basic information about what they’re planning for cohort pricing, we are led to suspect that it’s going to be significant increases year by year,” she said.

The student union found out about the increase after Chris Mota, university spokesperson mentioned in an email, that the university has been exploring implementing cohort pricing for international students in deregulated programs for three years now. To follow up, the CSU has been directly asking the university about specifics of their plan, but the university has yet to answer their questions. “It’s unfortunate that we are running under assumptions since we are the accredited union for all students at Concordia,” said Marshall-Kiparissis.

Sepideh Zangeneh, an international student from Mexico studying business at the John Molson School of Business, said she can barely afford the current tuition at Concordia. She’s worried if the tuition increases drastically, she will have to drop out. “I love Concordia, but if I can’t stay here because I can’t afford it, I’ll have to change,” she said.

Zangeneh is not the only one worrying about these tuition hikes. Samuel Miriello, who studies Human Resources Management, is concerned about the possible tuition hikes, even though he’s not an international student. “The school environment will change for the worse if the tuition hikes occur,” he said. Miriello said if  tuition rises for international students, only the elite of the international students will be represented at Concordia. “This prevents us, the students, from seeing the world from a clear, fair, equality-oriented lens,” he said.

As a response to the supposed tuition hikes, he created a Facebook group, “Concordia University Against International Tuition Hike,” alongside Zangeneh and CSU’s External Affairs and Mobilization Coordinator, Aloyse Muller. The group’s goal is to bring students together who are against the tuition hike the university is imposing without the students’ consent. They are currently working on a petition and are also planning an awareness day once enough students are aware of the situation, Miriello said.

The CSU believes the proposal for the tuition hikes for international students in deregulated programs will be presented to the Board of Governors on Dec. 14. If it is approved, the proposal will be implemented as of the fall 2017 semester.

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News

Students demand BTM200 be economically friendly

Petition creater Samuel Miriello fights for lowered fees for him and fellow classmates in BTM200 course. Photo by Savanna Craig.

JMSB student creates petition in protest of high fees for mandatory BTM 200 course

In light of discovering a required fee of over $200 for the mandatory John Molson School of Business (JMSB) course, “Business Technology Management,” BTM 200, some first-year JMSB students are signing a petition to protest against what they consider costly fees.

Samuel Miriello, creator of the petition and first-year human resource management student, said he was not aware of these fees until he received an email from his professor mid-September prompting him to pay more than $200 for the class.

“Online classes are amazing and they give us access to tools that make learning easier, but it doesn’t warrant the school making us pay tuition and not giving us class sessions,” said Miriello. He said with his other online classes, there is a virtual classroom and the class meets once a week. However, this is not the case in BTM 200.“The professor never hosts sessions that we can attend where he does any live teaching,” he said.

Miriello said the different components of BTM 200 are distributed across three websites, each with their own fees—$90 to access the eConcordia website, $20.70 for LearningLab—a software providing grades and due dates, and $104.95 for Skills Assessment Manager Cengage (SAM)—a website which teaches students how to use Excel and Access.

“Every website has it’s own quizzes, it’s own material, it’s own modules and you kind of have to jump between them,” Miriello said.

Raafat George Saadé, an associate professor of supply chain and business technology management, and the creator and coordinator of BTM 200, said LearningLab has a low cost and helps to guide students through the 12 activities within the course.

Students express frustration over paying more than $200 for BTM200. Graphic by Florence Yee.

Saadé said LearningLab allowed him to consolidate all of the students performances into one location and to sequence their activities. He said the LearningLab provides reminders of the due dates for students and provides a report for Saadé on how much students achieved on each of their learning goals.

On eConcordia, only three per cent of the student’s grade is evaluated, said Miriello.

However, Saadé explained the three per cent accounts only for the quizzes on eConcordia—however, the final exam, worth 60 per cent, is based on the eBook available through eConcordia. Saadé said SAM makes up 20 per cent of the final grade. The activities on LearningLab are worth 17 per cent.

“When we take BTM, no one ever tells you that you’re going to have to pay so much money,” said international business student Saloné Prigent. “At least I’d like a warning that we’d have to pay this to take BTM, especially because BTM is a mandatory course.” She added, with three websites to keep up with, it’s hard to keep track of when assignments are due.

Sepideh Zangeneh, an international student from Mexico studying international business, said Miriello’s idea of making a petition was great, and though she may have financial support to pay the BTM 200 fees, not all students have this privilege. “There are people [who] are on their own in university—they don’t have the money to pay that,” said Zangeneh. “More than for me, I want this for people who really can’t afford stuff like this.”

Saadé said, after paying the required fee for SAM, it can be accessed until graduation and is officially used in two to three courses within JMSB. He said he is trying to make these fees valuable for students by implementing more courses where Excel and Access can be used, requiring students to use SAM.

“This is not new,” said Saadé, towards students complaining of the high fees required when taking BTM 200. Saadé said he has tried switching website hosts various times, but this is the lowest price he can get. “When I started, I looked at all the different softwares and at companies like Microsoft and other publishers,” said Saadé. He said all publishers range in price from $60 to $180. “Over the years I’ve experienced each one—one by one,” said Saadé.

Miriello said the website is still not up to par with his expectations considering the cost. ”It’s just ironic that our intro to business technology management is taught in such an uninspired, expensive and cluttered way. The complete opposite of what BTM should be,” he said.

Saadé said he has 1,500 students and asks them at the end of every class if the book was good, if they learned anything from the quiz, if there should be any improvements and what their opinions are on using SAM. “Over 90 per cent of the students, they say they see the value,” he said.

Saadé said in certain circumstances he has waived students either from taking the course or paying the cost of it. He said, in the past, he has contacted the program provider and they suspended the cost for SAM or LearningLab. Alternatively, if a student can demonstrate they know the material, they do not have to take BTM 200, he said. “If they really have financial problems, I can personally try to figure out ways to help” said Saadé. He said some semesters he is not approached, however others he may receive up to five students requesting financial help.

Saadé said many students in co-op, who gain job experience through paid work-terms, have told him that they felt they had not learned enough in Excel and Access. “They come back and say, ‘We need to learn more—we took BTM 200 and it’s not enough. Can we learn more advanced stuff?’” said Saadé.

The winter semester version of the course will have a brand new website, feature more activities and be more interactive, said Saadé. “Because of the nature of the course also, every two years I have to update the content,” he said, adding that SAM updates itself as well. Saadé is also in the process of creating a follow-up course to BTM 200 that will hopefully be released this year.

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News

Improving indigenous education

Panelists sit in JMSB to discuss the need for improvement to the indigenous education system in Canada. Photo by Ana Hernandez

Canada as a whole is still in denial of Aboriginal rights

On Thursday, Oct. 13 the John Molson School of Business (JMSB) hosted “The Role of Canadian Universities in the Development of Indigenous Communities,” a conversation that focused on the role of post-secondary education in indigenous economic development.

The conversation featured Ghislain Picard, the Assembly of the First Nations’ regional chief for Quebec and Labrador, along with Elizabeth Fast, a Concordia assistant professor in the department of applied human sciences and J.P. Gladu, the president and CEO of the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business.

The event, moderated by Francois Bastien, an instructor at both JMSB and the Kiuna Institution, a First Nations college in Odanak, explored a number of issues that affect Aboriginal students and communities across Canada.

In his opening remarks, Picard reminded the audience that while progress has been made in recent years, Quebec and Canada as a whole still have a “denial of indigenous rights and indigenous title … We have a lot of catching up to do,” said Picard.

According to the panelists, an area that needs improvement is Canada’s education system. According to the C.D. Howe Institute, the high school graduate rate is significantly lower among First Nations students compared to other Canadians. The dropout rate is 58 per cent for students on reserves, while only 30 per cent for others. Likewise, indigenous university students face multiple barriers including racism, according to Fast.

“Universities aren’t culturally safe spaces. There is a lot of racism [and] it doesn’t get talked about or acknowledged enough,” said Fast. She said often, some of the most unsafe experiences happen in the classroom, one of the reasons for this being many students are coming to university knowing very little about what the contemporary indigenous person’s reality has been.

Fast’s proposed solutions included seeking more Aboriginal representation in university staff and having First Nations communities and Canadian institutions work together to develop educational strategies.

“One of the things we need to do is educate everybody, be ready to learn, and come from a co-learning perspective,” said Fast.

Fast was not the only panelist to discuss the importance of working with indigenous communities to create solutions.

Gladu said that negative stereotypes about indigenous people still exist, and both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians must move past them in order to empower future generations. Gladu said in the past fiscal year, First Nations-owned businesses had contributed $12 billion to Canada’s GDP.

“It’s just a matter of time before [indigenous] communities start generating and managing wealth,” said Gladu. “There’s a big opportunity to do that together … but we need to see ourselves as successful in every part of society, and other Canadians need to see us as successful as well.”

While the panel was meant as a reminder that there is still progress to be made in Canada, the discussion focused more on solutions than on problems.

“We need to find a balance. We need to measure our failures, but we need to measure our progress as well,” Picard said.

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Student Life

Businesses love your mean reviews

Speaker Frank T. Piller (right). Photo by Alex Hutchins

JMSB hosted a talk on social media’s role for innovation in businesses

Concordia’s Luc Beauregard Centre of Excellence in Communications Research organized an event on social media’s role in business innovation on Oct. 4.

Professors, students and businesspeople attended the morning conference to listen to Frank T. Piller, associate dean, professor and chair of Technology & Innovation Management at RWTH Aachen University’s school of business and economics in Germany.

The event, hosted by Concordia’s John Molson School of Business, explored social media as a useful tool to improve the ways companies and individuals innovate.

Piller said that many of “the ideas that we get nowadays come from social media, and this leads to a better discipline for the communications profession.” He explained many big companies are now using innovative strategies to incite consumers to buy their products.  Piller used the drugstore brand Nivea as an example, to explain why their deodorant is successful.

“If you were the product manager of Nivea and wanted to innovate your business, what would you do?” Piller asked.

He said he would advise product managers to visit online forums where people discuss, for example, deodorants and their unwanted effects—such as a yellow stain on a white fabric.  “Agencies then dive-in, and look into these user communities to fix the problem by creating better products,” said Piller. “When it comes to innovations, it’s all about functionality.”  Companies also consider how factors such as the product’s shape or organic ingredients might excite users into buying the product, he said.

Piller added that, as a result, Nivea is one of the cheapest, most successful and popular brands in drugstores around the world, especially in Europe.

Innovation often starts on the periphery of the organization, he said. When companies are creating or improving a product, they look beyond product management—they look at online forums, for example. According to recent studies conducted by the Social Media Examiner, there has been a slight increase in forum participation in recent years.

Photo by Alex Hutchins

Piller said that frustrated customers often provide useful critiques or reviews about products in online forums. Companies just have to visit these websites and take the comments seriously, in order to find ways to improve their product and the consumer’s experience.

According to Piller, there are two main ways to innovate: with the help of frustrated users or dedicated firm activity.

He said there are three ways to profit from lead user inventions.  The online Business Dictionary defines a lead user as a “specific type of user of a product or service that is on the leading edge of significant market trends.”  Therefore, a lead user reflects and finds a way to make something better, before the mainstream has found that way.  They are able to think about how that product or service can work better to reach its full potential.

The first way to profit from a lead user is to search for lead user inventions either online or through contacts.  The second way is to observe users in online communities such as Facebook and Twitter, which is also known as “netnography.” The third way is to provide infrastructure for users to co-create. Co-creating involves developing collaborative skills, learning to engage, selecting the right participants and using creative problem-solving techniques.

“Our emphasis is to absorb the innovation that is out there in the market,” Piller said.

Piller said innovation revolves around customer co-creation and creating an interaction space for lead users, product managers and companies— where they can engage, use creative problem-solving techniques and give feedback.

He said that the ultimate goal is to have a more balanced approach when it comes to innovation—since there is not just one social media platform.

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Student Life

The app that could solve your parking struggles

Amin Dada, left, Aubrey Hansen-Barkun, right. Photo by Danielle Gasher

Montrealers can now rent out their vacant private parking spots

Thanks to a cousin from the South Shore, a well-situated apartment and a productive 14-hour flight, Amin Dada may have created a permanent solution to a problem plaguing modern-day life: parking.

A conversation about the struggles of parking in a big city usually turns around in the same circles as the cars looking for parking. Dada, a self-described “OCD problem-solver,” needed to fix the problem once he got acquainted to it. The 30-year-old Concordia graduate is the founder of City Parking, a mobile app that lets driveway and parking spot owners rent out their spots when they are not being used.

Dada got a taste of what the app would be like before even getting the idea for City Parking. In late 2012, he started lending his parking spot to a cousin who drove downtown during the week to get to Concordia. Dada—who lived right behind Montreal’s Bell Centre at the time, and had a parking spot but no car—was happy to do so. He started offering up his spot to more of his friends and family, until it became quite the annoyance.

“I was a virtual lot attendant taking reservations through calls and texts at work,” said Dada with a laugh.  The situation got Dada thinking about a permanent solution to people’s parking woes. On a long flight in December 2013, Dada wrote up his business plan for the idea. The app went live on July 20, 2016.

The app is pretty straight-forward.  Upon downloading the app, the user must simply sign up.  Users get an hour of free parking the first time they use the app. After the free trial, a driver can reserve or book a spot anytime, anywhere, in advance or at the last minute, for a flat rate of $2 an hour.  Dada explained that if a car is parked in the spot upon arrival, the driver can either call the owner using the app, or select the “report problem” setting in the app—which calls the City Parking team directly. From there, the team leaps into action and finds the next closest spot for the driver, and gives them 30 minutes free.

While the concept of the app may sound similar to the Uber app in terms of average people offering a car service, nothing makes Dada and his team cringe more than being compared to the company. While City Parking is decluttering the streets, and promoting public transport by suggesting spots close to bus stops and metro stations, Dada said, Uber is doing the opposite.

Screenshot of City Parking. Courtesy of Danielle Gasher.

The app has not been heavily advertised or shared with the media because the team wanted to give it a test-run with friends, family and people who stumbled upon it. City Parking currently has over 100 users and 20 parking spots. The official launch of the app will take place in late September—an exact date has not been set yet.

The City Parking team is still small, but hard at work and attracting big names. The team. All Concordia graduates, is composed of five employees, plus two investors, and two advisors—including one from Google. The team is also receiving support from the city, the details of which Dada is not yet able to disclose.

Concordia student Aubrey Hansen-Barkun joined the team last winter. The 23-year-old marketing student was looking for a project to get involved with—a start-up worthwhile.  He found Dada’s ad on Indeed and the two met up.

“First time we spoke, I was like ‘wow, this is an incredibly smart guy, and this is definitely something I want to be a part of,” said Hansen-Barkun, who is now the start-up’s marketing analyst.

The pair’s passion for the project is apparent in the amount of research they have conducted, and in the focused and energetic way they speak about their app.  Dada and his team have a global vision for the start-up.

“Parking lots are being taken over by condos—meters cannot be expanded. Where will you find parking when your city grows? If we can solve parking [problems] for Montreal, we can solve it for other cities as well,” Dada said.

On top of decongesting the streets, Dada explained, solving the city’s parking problems has the power to lower carbon emissions caused by the “cruising time” that cars take when looking for parking. A 2006 study on parking, conducted by UCLA professor Donald C. Shoup, found that drivers in a 15-block district in Los Angeles “cruised” for 950,000 miles, produced 730 tons of carbon dioxide and used 47,000 gallons of gas just searching for parking. While gas station lots are sitting empty all day, and townhouse driveways are generally vacant between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., cars are polluting the air as they drive aimlessly around, looking for something they may never find, said Dada.

In the large and bright conference room of the team’s office space, Dada and Hasen-Barken sit with their computers, a couple of notepads and a cardboard coffee cup— the pair looks small, hopeful and powerful all at once—just like their app does in the ever-growing, digital-sharing economy.

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Opinions

The flavourless flavour of business school

Photos by Marie-Pierre Savard.

Why you should think twice before attending JMSB

I pass through the heavy glass doors and feel the immediate urge to shed my identity and kowtow to the corporate overlords. I start speaking in a strange vernacular where I use the words ‘cash flow,’ and ‘capital,’ as dark visions of materialism and greed fill my mind.

Photos by Marie-Pierre Savard.

I observe my surroundings and see that everyone looks the same, adhering to a certain aesthetic. Their business uniform seems to be bought from Zara, as they reek of expensive perfumes and Gillette razors. Their phones constantly illuminate with LinkedIn notifications, while each student is constantly trying to think of something witty to write on the CASA-JMSB Facebook group (it’s essentially filled with memes).

This is my perception of John Molson School of Business, and after spending nearly two years at the prestigious institution, I can definitely say the environment was sterile, conformist and vapid.

I’ll never forget the day I received my acceptance letter to JMSB; it was comparable to when Harry discovered he was going to Hogwarts. Excitement filled my hollow soul as I naively imagined my new life as a business student.

Photos by Marie-Pierre Savard.

I should admit that I never truly wanted to study business, and I agonized to choose between the arts and business for months leading up to my acceptance. I knew that I always wanted to study history, but my parents kept telling me I’d be a poor arts student with no prospects after graduation.

One of my first memories in JMSB was in a class called business communications (the course was a complete sham). I remember the professor was giving the class advice on how to make your peers look stupid in a group interview setting. Initially shocked at this apparent ruthlessness, I turned to the girl next to me and shared my disbelief, to which she harshly replied, “business is not some fairytale, David.”

I also remember all of my professors telling me that I had to wear formal business wear for all presentations—which proved to be extremely uncomfortable. As someone who’s used to wearing muted all-black ensembles with bedhead hair, I felt like I was constantly being told to relinquish my identity and conform to the standards of the school. I even showed up to one presentation dressed in my everyday clothes and lost marks because I didn’t “obey.”

Photos by Marie-Pierre Savard.

To make matters worse, I despised all of my courses because they were so bland, and there was absolutely no opportunity to express any creativity whatsoever. Even when it came down to PowerPoint presentations, we weren’t allowed to push the boundaries without fearing academic consequences. My creativity suffered immensely during this period, as I suddenly felt like I wasn’t able to express myself properly. I began to experience a lot of anxiety due to this constant repression.

I’ll never forget the countless hours I spent memorizing volumes of statistics, accounting tables and business theories, just to regurgitate them on exams like a mindless robot. I was in pure hell.

I cannot deny that my grades suffered during this period, simply because I was stuck in an insipid environment that I grew to despise. I finally took the plunge after 18 months and switched to my true passion—the arts. Although I felt like I was giving up an opportunity to make money in the future, I knew I was better suited going down this path.

 

Business is not for everyone and it certainly wasn’t for me. I know I’m not alone in sharing these sentiments, so The Concordian conducted interviews with JMSB students to see what they thought. Check out the video below.

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News

JMSB hosts International Case Competition

Singapore’s Nanyang Business School wins first place

Through rain and snow, John Molson has played host to the International Case Competition (ICC) for 34 years. This year’s event was no different in persistence, but it was bigger, and it was better.

“In the MBA circuit competitions, it is the oldest, the biggest, and the most interesting in the world. It is one of the most cherished events of Concordia, at least on the international forum.” said Marketing and Sponsorship organizer/volunteer and JMSB student Roberto Blanc.

“Most importantly it allows us to develop our soft skills that don’t necessarily come in class: our public presentation skills, our speaking skills.”

“It provides an out-of-class experience,” he said, explaining how he along with his team were put in charge of organizing everything from the ground up: the funding, logistics, cost management, and scheduling. It was an immense competition with hundreds of participants and onlookers. The amount of planning involved means that arrangements for this competition started pretty much after the last one ended. Advisors helped and gave strategic support and vision, acting as executives would for an actual company. A board of governors that has stayed constant throughout the years essentially acted as a BoG of a corporation. Blanc said their mentoring gave organizers the motivation and confidence to deal with the immense amounts of pressure riding on their shoulders.

The ICC’s main leverage in terms of recovering some of their costs came from the chance for sponsors to observe the huge pool of talent showcased—talent that companies at home and abroad were very keen on assessing and courting.

“They [the international schools] consider this the Olympics of international case competitions.” For a full week, teams drilled or competed day and night in round robins, which winnowed out the participants and pushed onward the best, while banquets and cocktails gave them the platform to network.

“For the past few days, my email accounts and my Facebook and my LinkedIn have been boiling,” said Blanc.

This year’s theme was sustainability and all the case competitions dealt with it in one way or another. Blanc’s team took the message to heart. Every single decision the organizers took was built on it: from picking up the delegations in zero-emission cars and using biodegradable printer ink, to organizing banquets made exclusively of organic and local food sourced whenever possible from co-ops. They hope the efforts will push the ICC to a level four sustainability certificate from the Quebec government.

“We wanted to show that sustainability was more than a word, more than something that is in fashion,” said Blanc.

The event has also given him insight into the different approaches to business taken by different cultures. Asian teams, more often than not, emphasized teamwork and low-key comportment—though Singapore stood out in that regard, being more individualistic and heterogeneous as befitting an entrepreneurial and multicultural nation-state (Singapore went undefeated in every case competition and ended up winning the ICC). Germans were generally over-prepared, with larger support teams, while Finns cared as much about the social aspect as the competition. Then there were delegations like South Africa and the Netherlands which managed to stay happy and joyful throughout.

“To me, it was one of the best, if not the best, experiences I got from my MBA,” said Blanc.

1st place: Nanyang Business School, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore – $10,000 prize

2nd place: Porto School of Business, University of Porto, Portugal – $7,000 prize

3rd place: Moore School of Business, University of South Carolina, United States – $5,000 prize

Richard Outcault Team Spirit Award for enthusiasm and involvement: Graduate School of Business, University of Cape Town, South Africa

JMSB made it to the semifinals but ultimately lost to the Porto School of Business.

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News

JMSB to spend big on seeing if it’ll stay in the family

National Bank donates $1 million to family business research

Quebec is expected to see a pivotal shift in small business ownership as owners retire over the next few years without clear succession plans. Now, thanks to a generous $1 million donation from the National Bank, Concordia’s John Molson School of Business (JMSB) will be at the forefront of research and analysis on how small business perform their critical duties to the economy and what the shift will mean for Quebec.

The surprise announcement came at an event on Thursday, Nov. 13, and was attended by numerous university faculty, including the president and the dean of JMSB, local business figures, and bank representatives. It followed an earlier talk on family entrepreneurship by students. On hand to share their experiences in family business were Groupe Park Avenue Inc. President and CEO Norman E. Hébert jr., who is also on Concordia’s Board of Governors, and sports company Lanctôt President Diane Lanctôt.

The gift is going towards the creation of the National Bank Initiative in Entrepreneurship and Family Business. The initiative will bring in researchers and professors who will carry out their work on the topic, as well as mentor and provide support to students carrying out their studies in entrepreneurship and family business.

Undergraduate students will have the ability to apply for new bursaries through the program, while their graduate peers will be specifically eligible for awards. The other half will be reserved for researchers and their assistants.

“Out of all businesses, 70 to 80 per cent are family businesses. That’s the reality in Quebec and Canada and also around the world,” said Alexandra Dawson, associate professor in the department of management and the newly-appointed director of the initiative. She says CIBC predicted half of all business owners will cease running their operations over the next decade.

“This is the largest transfer of ownership that has ever happened in Canada, and it’s because all the baby boomers are retiring.”

For Dawson, this makes it a natural topic of focus for JMSB, banks, and other economic entities, all the more so when figures show only a quarter have clear succession plans.

“Transferring a business is not something you can do overnight.”

The academic research will be centred in Quebec, but due to the universality of the business experience it will be applicable to governments, other researchers, and think tanks.

Thursday’s announcement means it’s a bit too soon to be greenlighting specific projects, though a committee will soon be nominated to begin formulating criteria for researchers and their proposals. Dawson intends for operations to really begin at the start of next semester.

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Student Life

Concordia grad embraces entrepreneurship

JMSB alumnus rolls into the food industry with crepes near campus

From salty and savoury to sweet and decadent, Montrealers like a good crepe.

You may have noticed a new crepe shop on campus this summer. Montreal-based Rolopan opened a new location on Guy St. at the end of May.

The restaurant offers Japanese-style crepes, with just about every filling you can imagine, from warm mushroom and cheese to the classic Nutella and fruit. They’re made in front of you on a swirling hotplate, and served wrapped up so you can eat them on the go.

It’s quite fitting that the new location is in the heart of the downtown campus, as the co-owner of Rolopan, Manal Tarhini, is a graduate of the John Molson School of Business (JMSB).

Tarhini was a fresh graduate when she started working as a financial analyst. The growing demands of her family, and need for flexibility, led her to seek out a different avenue of work.

“I had to be more creative,” she said. “The food industry was something that really excited me.”

Food and franchising was always a topic of conversation at the family dinner table. Tarhini’s husband is well-versed in the area, owning many franchises himself.

Rolopan caught Tarhini’s attention at LaRonde. This is where founder Paul Kohli opened up the first restaurant in 2005. She and her daughters always looked forward to visiting.

“We were always excited when we saw them making the crepes in front of us, dressing it up like a piece of art.”

Tarhini saw that the Japanese-style crepes were a hit at the amusement park, so she approached the owner, and suggested partnering up and opening more stores in Montreal neighbourhoods.

Kohli welcomed the idea, and in January 2014, Rolopan was revamped. There are currently three outlets outside LaRonde: one on Guy, one on St-Laurent and one on Ste-Catherine.

Tarhini used her business education, which includes a Bachelor of Commerce from JMSB in Finance, completed level II in the Chartered Financial Analyst Program, and a Masters of Business Administration from the American University of Beirut, to create a new model for the restaurant.

“Basically what we have done is created this franchise as a great investment opportunity,” she said.

The team is working on marketing and hopes to open up more locations in the future.

Tarhini wants to have the community involved in the project as well. She recently visited classes at Concordia to speak about the business and invited students to give their feedback. Tarhini is currently working with JMSB to be the subject of a live case study for the winter 2015 semester.

“The best way to learn and to teach business now is through live cases,” she said. “You get to think, you get to really experience it from a real life sense.

She is looking forward to hearing what students think the restaurant can improve on.

Tarhini hopes to see more students take an entrepreneurial path after their studies. Her advice to aspiring business owners: be financially solid when opening, set aside money for marketing, and maximize your dollar.

“Have enough money to buffer your expenses for the first year,” she said.

Tarhini also hopes to see more women enter the playing field. She is happy to see that her 16-year-old daughter is already enthusiastic about the idea of entrepreneurship.

“She’s excited also to have her own business, and listening to her saying this, it is fantastic.”

A lot has changed since Tarhini completed her first degree in 2005, including the way businesses use social media to interact with customers.

“Embrace it, take advantage of it, don’t limit your choices [in] life, there’s no reward without risk.”

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News

JMSB on fire at Happening Marketing 2014

Unexpected conclusion sends participants to cloud nine

As the rankings for each competition at Happening Marketing 2014 were announced, team John Molson heard their names, again and again, but each time shy of a podium finish. Judging from the way things stood at that moment, one might have been satisfied with a bronze finish, as in last year’s edition. Yet when the final call was made, John Molson found itself all the way at the top.

“There was just confusion all around,” said marketing student and competitor Miyoko Fulleringer about those initial seconds during which their win hadn’t quite registered yet.

“The organizing committee told us we came fourth in almost everything,” she said about the event, held this year at University of Laval in Quebec City.

Smaller in scope and size than competitions like the Jeux du Commerce, (which can have over a thousand students), the Happening Marketing case competition focuses on creating a more intimate, collegial atmosphere. This year, it hosted 10 universities.

Like all case competitions JMSB delegates participate in, the culmination was paved with many months of training whenever their schedules would allow. Coaches and students sacrificed many an hour in what constituted perpetual case competitions in miniature.

“There were a lot of late nights, weekends. We were here every night of spring break,” said Fulleringer, adding that Christmas vacation was no exception.

For Salar Molaei, a third-year accountancy student participating as part of the integrated marketing communications team, first place wasn’t everything.

“I believe that the competitions are much more than podiums and it is important to keep the big picture in mind. I know that JMSB did their best to support other schools and we went in with the mindset of having fun and getting to know people. Every school excelled and showed us that we would have to do much better to even have a chance to podium. I applaud everybody.”

And this, he says, made all that commitment worthwhile.

“The person I am today is not the same as I was when I first joined the delegation. In the past year, I have been under tremendous stress, I have learnt more than I have in my academic career, and I have met many students who have each shaped me to become a better version of myself. The experience that you gain as a competitor is something that I will take with me throughout my life and I would not change it for the world.”

So how did JMSB manage first?

“As much as we’re all there to compete academically, [the organizers] really try to encourage sportsmanship and everybody getting together,” said Fulleringer of the sport and social activities which sometimes weigh more than individual cases.

JMSB’s marks for sportsmanship aided them in gaining first place.

“Honestly, I can say it’s one of the best organized competitions I’ve been to and I’ve attended seven […] as a delegate, two as a volunteer, [and] one as an organizer,” she added, echoing the general consensus from other JMSB participants.

Molaei, himself leaving the case world with an upcoming graduation, had some last words for curious readers.

“Participate. Get involved. Stress yourself out and beat the lazy student out of you. The competitions will change you and make you dig deep to bring out the best in you.”

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