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Atrium's Winter 2010 issue!
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Shift Disturbing
Job Search Etiquette 101
Evolving Collaboration at WLU
Much More...
Inside:
Winter 2010
2
Contents4 Shift Disturbers: Innovation – The Answer for Canadian Business
Ginny Dybenko
6 “Fi-lan-tra-pee”? Become a Change AgentAbhishek Sarathy
8 Money (un)Well (un)Spent: The Inequitable Use of SBE Student Revenue Clark G. Chami
7 The Way Forward for ToyotaGourav Sathe
17 International School Visits LaurierJessica Tam
Etiquette 101 for Job Search 2.0Keturah Leonforde
19
18 SBE lbs.Lauren Neal & Gabriel McCrae
11 3D – Standing Out in a 2D WorldAamir Mirza
12 Leadership 101: What You Didn’t Learn in ClassEvan Thor
14 Evolving Collaboration at WLUDavid J. Smith
Enduring 5 Days for HomelessnessRobb Farago
15
16 Learning How to Read with Technology: Are You Ready?Antonietta Petrella
Abhishek SarathyPRESIDENT
Lauren NealVICE PRESIDENT
HUMAN RESOURCES
Gabriel McCrae VICE PRESIDENT
MARKETING
Clark G. ChamiEDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Aamir MirzaMANAGING EDITOR
Gourav SatheMANAGING EDITOR
Antonietta PetrellaDESIGN EDITOR
Naomi De MarchiPROMOTIONS
Rosalie EidPHOTOGRAPHY
Yi Feng YanPHOTOGRAPHY
Robb FaragoWRITER
Simar BediLAYOUT ASSISTANT
The views and opinions shared by some writers do not necessarily represent those
of Atrium Media Group
2Beijing’s Downtown Business District.
3
While life crises are commonly said to afflict an individual at their life’s mid-point, I am of the mind that these intervention ridden periods are time independent. Catalyzed by an unsustain-able trajectory, a future viewed as undesirable, or the inability to rationalize changes that leave
your life’s meaning uninspired, you begin to feel apprehensive, jaded, and even insecure. As the product of deficient or non-existent planning, needless rationalization, and a life wanting in critical thought and self-reflection, life is lived without a coherent, guided, or well-questioned purpose.
Your university experience is a phase where these crises are just as likely to be cultivated as they are to be stymied – it is up to you to foster a path that will lead to a crisis’ surfacing or pacification. Analogous to one’s life, the axiom that a chain can only be as strong as its weakest link is simply nonsensical: often-times you need to de-optimize the pieces of your life so as to optimize your life as a whole. Be comfort-able accepting trade-offs, and be questioning of the actions, commitments, individuals, principles, and decisions that pervade, and ultimately define your life. Live life with an open mind yet skeptical eye,
bring resistance to a crisis that needs it, and instigate resolution in a life that demands it.
Pictured on the magazine’s cover is a part of Beijing’s downtown business district. Perhaps not explicitly, China has been commended for economic planning that has embodied the very prudence and insightfulness earlier described, with 8.7 per cent GDP growth last year and claims from Chinese Premier, Wen Jiabao, that the nation’s economy is the world’s first to make a turnaround. Challenging conventional notions that see capitalism and communism as contradictory and incompat-ible, China has sought the non-obvious route to economic and public policy planning, propelling the nation to new heights of productivity. With five-year plans addressing topics ranging from economic structure to spiritual civilization, the na-tion’s comprehensive and judicious approach to planning can serve as a lesson to many.
Atrium Magazine’s Synthesis Issue aims to facilitate your situation analysis through the provision of concrete suggestions and tools by way of complete articles that are concurrently synthesized. Dean Ginny Dybenko discusses averting crises and inspiring innovation through the act of what she has described as “shift disturbing” (Page 4). Yet, for every crisis evaded is a crisis shouldered, – even for the most venerable – as highlighted by Managing Editor Gourav Sathe in “The Way Forward for Toyota” (Page 7). Laurier’s School of Business & Economics Students’ Society President Evan Thor sets down some ground rules for cultivating the conditionally sensitive leader within (Page 12), while Staff Writer Robb Farago implores you to put your life into perspective with his article “Enduring 5 Days for Homelessness” (Page 15).
As you enjoy every article that the Atrium has to offer, I encourage you to reflect deeply, and to think critically. Extract value wherever possible to help clarify whether your framework for life is existent, decided, and sustainable.
Clark G. ChamiEditor-in-Chief
From the Editor-in-Chief...
It seems as though our lives are a little more complete after witnessing our first Olympic gold medal on Canadian soil this past month. The greater Laurier community’s decision to fill the streets to celebrate our Olympic hockey win further underscores our patriotism for this great nation! It is moments like these that help us come together as a country, community, and school – labelling this semester as another one for the books. And, while we are coming to the end of what we consider to be another great year,
AMG will continue to look for ways to expand. Our group has evolved over the past few years to increase our presence and the opportunity for talented students to get involved in a niche club. Look out for our hiring blitz this semester for a chance to be part of our dynamic team.
This issue features new writers and interesting topics that will hopefully have you reading it cover to cover, and then passing it on to your friends, acquaintances, and even colleagues. By including varied content that appeals to our diverse set of readers, we wish to create more of a sense of unity within the school – much like what was witnessed over the 2010 Olympic Games.
Wishing you all a great rest of the semester and a fantastic summer!
Abhishek SarathyPresident
More Remarks...
Lauren Neal Vice President,
Human [email protected]
4
This summer a group of people on Twitter shar-
ing their negative re-action to GM’s latest SUV helped nix the release of that vehicle just weeks after it had been announced. A few well-placed tweets to a global audience and the still unnamed hy-brid was gone before it even made it to mar-ket. That’s the kind of power the Internet and social networking sites wield and that’s why, at least in part, the marketplace is chang-ing at lightning speed. Any business that
wants to stay relevant has to respond in kind. They have to shift disturb: to create a culture of innovation. If you are not innovating, you simply will not be able to keep pace with market demands. As we move out of recession and into recovery, the need to innovate will only intensify.
That said, when it comes to innovation, Canadian com-panies lag behind our global counterparts. The ques-tion is why? Canada has a highly skilled workforce educated in environments that foster creative thinking, so what gives? The answer is staring us in the face: We are not maximizing the potential of our greatest strength. There is so much creative talent and energy in our firms but it is not being used to full effect and part of the reason is our approach to managing change and how our businesses are structured. Everyone must be allowed and encouraged to innovate no matter how big or small the company — I call that shift-disturbing.
I’ve seen it up close and personal. I spent 25 years at Bell Canada and another six at a high-tech startup. These businesses were powered by highly creative, highly skilled knowledge workers who were largely treated as ‘tools of production.’ They were not includ-ed in strategy or design activities. Shift disturbing is a matter of breaking the back of that and creating an environment where ideas — both big and small— are actively sought and willingly given. It is a process, and one that I successfully established and used to good ef-fect throughout my career. I would like to pass along some of this ‘wisdom’ to you, Canada’s new business leaders in training:
•Shift disturbing starts at the top, with leadership understanding that change is necessary and has huge power. Change brings new, and new stimulates the customer and brings renewed energy and creativity to your people — if handled properly. In practice, how-ever, it is usually forced down people’s throats and when that happens, it becomes very threatening. As a leader you need to view change as positive and intro-duce it to your company in a positive way. Set a tone: Change is good.
•Hierarchical organizations are not innovative. Peer-to-peer organizations, where the boss becomes the facilitator not the task master, frees up the individual knowledge worker to contribute in as broad a way as possible.
•Respect engenders trust engenders loyalty engenders ideas. Sit with your knowledge workers, ask them about their issues and concerns and find out firsthand what you can do to help them increase their produc-tivity. The expert minds — skilled staff, technical staff — are your catalysts for change, but they tend to be unappreciated, underpaid, and disenfranchised from the core power group within the organization. Typi-cally, there is little career planning around these folks, and because they don’t see a future in the organiza-tion, they are unlikely to stay. I had a situation at Bell Canada where I had 1,200 engineers reporting to me
Shift Disturbers: Innovation – The Answer for Canadian Business
Ginny DybenkoDean, School of Business
& Economics
Shift disturbing starts at the top, with leadership
understanding that change is necessary and has huge power.
“”
They have to shift disturb: to create a culture of innovation. If
you are not innovating, you simply will not be able to keep
pace with market demands.
“
”
5
and we were losing one engineer a week. Telecommu-nications competition was building in Canada and we had to turn that around quickly. I visited them at their desks and spent a lot of time asking ‘What is prevent-ing you from doing your job? If you were the boss for the day, what is the one thing you would do?’
•As important as it is to listen, it is equally important to act. I listened and put a number of life enhancing plans in place for them, including high-powered train-ing (established online), recognition systems, perfor-mance-based bonuses, career-path strategies, and suc-cession planning.
•Inspiration comes from a strong, well-communicated vision. If the people connect with it, the vision will lift them above the frustrations of their daily jobs. While I was at Bell, new high speed technologies were flooding the market. We decided we were going to use them to build an Information Highway across Canada — that was our vision. Everybody in the group understood they were a key part in making a real difference in Canada and were hugely empowered by that. •Involve the knowledge worker, the catalysts for change, in setting strategy. Ask them for their ideas. The smaller the groups you can speak to, the more chance you’ll have of coming up with great ideas. It’s time consuming but worth it. We didn’t come up with the technology, somebody else did, but our expert minds figured out what we could do with it and left me to find the customer and the resources to deliver.
•Finally, give credit where credit is due. A lot of lead-ers don’t do this. They think it’s a form of weakness if the leader doesn’t take the credit for the success of the group but I have found the exact opposite to be the case. In fact, my own experience shows ensuring the true contributors get full recognition for their contribu-tions not only makes them feel appreciated, it builds respect in the team for you as leader. Recognition leads to engagement and engagement is a direct line to innovation.
My shift-disturbing work led to the creation of what was, in effect, a self-perpetuating innovation ecosys-tem. I used to joke that my only job at that point was walking around the office at seven o’clock at night tell-ing people to go home to their families. I had set up an environment that allowed people to do their best work. And even many years later, they tell me that it was the best experience ever.
Make shift-disturbing a big part of your own develop-ing leadership style.
My shift-disturbing work led to the creation of what was, in effect, a self-perpetuating
innovation ecosystem.
“”
Laurier Outstanding Business Leader Award of the Year 2009 recipient Peter Gilgan
Photographer Tomasz Adamski
6
Do you know what the meaning of “philanthropy” is? If not, don’t worry. Thank God for
spell-check, since I struggled a few times to even spell the word.
Many believe that in order to be a philanthropist, one must be a billion-aire who can make large donations to a hospital or a charity. The truth is, anyone can participate in this con-cept, regardless of financial status, or even age.
Earlier this semester, I had the opportunity to attend the Queen’s Conference on Philanthropy in Kingston, which brought together university students to interact with individuals from various community organiza-tions. The event’s theme, “It Starts With You(th),” dared young people to make a difference in their com-munities. The keynote speakers included Jennifer Rit-ter, who delivered inspirational insight into her role as CEO of the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Canada. To start, she denounced the term “not-for-profit,” and in-stead enjoys working in the “for-social-profit” sector. She also highlighted the opportunity for students with business backgrounds to pursue roles in this sector, just as she did. Many organizations within the indus-try lack the business acumen to remain sustainable and
support their causes, especially during harsh economic times. What keeps her motivated is her realization that “it’s not about the rat race; it’s about the human race.” There are several initiatives on campus and at SBE that allow students to engage in positive social change. An
apathetic attitude among our student body was what challenged fourth-year business major, Sue Banerjee, to create the Corporate Social Responsibility Board. The club connects students with individuals in the cor-porate world to volunteer for charitable initiatives. She felt that “privileged students like us often don’t un-derstand the social issues that exist out there, or don’t know how to help.” A similar purpose lies behind the annual 5 Days for the Homeless campaign organized
by the SBE Students’ Society. The week-long event brings awareness to the homelessness problems that exist in the Kitchener-Waterloo region, which much of the student body is oblivious to. SIFE Laurier also runs many programs that allow students to get involved in the community.
So, what is philanthropy? It’s the concept of contribut-ing to improving human well-being. It’s about under-standing and becoming passionate about social issues; then, taking a proactive approach to becoming change agents. Find your own way of being a philanthropist, and make it part of your everyday life.
“Fi-lan-tra-pee”?Become a Change Agent
Abhishek SarathyPresident
It’s not about the rat race; it’s about the human race.“
”
Privileged students like us often don’t understand the social
issues that exist out there, or don’t know how to help.
“”
It’s the concept of contributing to improve human well- being.
“”
7
More than 70 years since Ki-ichiro Toyota founded one of the largest conglomerates
of the world, Toyota Motor Corpora-tion, the company finds itself in finan-cial and operational turmoil – facing lawsuits, criminal probes, and senator reviews, to name a few. Just four years ago, Toyota was all set to surpass America’s largest automaker, Gen-eral Motors Corp., by announcing a massive global production target of 9.44 million vehicles, surpassing the
9.2 million vehicles GM was expected to produce. So what does it all mean now? Close to 5 million recalls has substantially dented Toyota’s financials – after re-porting losses of $1.8 billion in the last quarter, further
losses of $4.8 billion have been reported – well above the projection of $3.5 billion released by the company. More than the immediate financial impacts however, in the long run Toyota will be hurt by the shattering of customer confidence and trust that has resulted.
The very principles that differentiated Toyota from other automakers – its long-standing kaizen model, customer-oriented focus and operational excellence – are being questioned today. In the age of complex electronic engines and sophisticated car manufac-turing models, Toyota’s kaizen model, a tool for lean manufacturing, JIT, and other effective manufacturing strategies, has ultimately turned out to be a major weakness. The increasing sophistication and complexity of modern auto-man-ufacturing has overwhelmed the kaizen model, because by perfect-ing the bottom up assembly line manufacturing model, the company has lost the big picture of how the modern electronic engine works. Toyota’s immediate problems, such
as the braking system of the Prius, are engineering flaws that will be addressed in time. The fundamental problem however lies with kaizen which may be far too complex to adapt to the needs of modern day auto-manufacturing.
With losses expected to reach $5.3 billion for the fis-cal year through March 2010, Toyota’s future will be difficult and uncertain, but there is infinite opportu-nity for innovation and growth. What is important to remember is that several leading automakers have in the past recovered from major setbacks, such as Ford Motors, who suffered over fatalities owing to Explorer models in 2000. Automobile recalls have contributed to Toyota’s decline, but what has also cost them is their management’s inability to respond to the crisis in a timely manner and to clear up confusion surrounding the recalls. As David Dunne states in the Globe and Mail, Tiger Woods’ revelations of his scandalous rela-tionship led to his personal brand’s demise. In view of that, Toyota has at least been honest, if slow to re-spond.
The key for Toyota going forward will be to review their models – such as kaizen – to drive operational excellence, and to ensure that their management takes the necessary steps to respond to situations of crisis in a timely manner. A solid marketing campaign, priori-tization of consumer safety and service – and in other words, everything we’ve come to expect from Toyota in the last few years – will be crucial for their brand recovery. A car that is driven by one of six Americans can’t just phase out. It’s simply a question of time…
Gourav SatheManaging Editor
The age of complex electronic engines and sophisticated car manufacturing models...has ultimately turned out to be a
major weakness.
“
”
The Way Forward for Toyota
8
A student entering into the Hon-ours Bachelor of Business Ad-ministration (HBBA) program in
the 2008/2009 academic year in pursuit of five first-year credits paid nearly $500 more than their undergraduate peers in non-business faculties. Viewing typical HBBA students as individual income statements, between heightened tuition and provincial funding attributable to these students, a surplus of $1,088 per student exists. That is, an HBBA stu-dent generates nearly $1,100 in revenue
for the university above and beyond the expenses that they personally generate. Based on figures prepared by univer-sity administration, it was estimated that in the aggregate, nearly $3.6 million of such funds in the year ended April 30, 2009 were not spent on students of Laurier’s School of Business & Economics (SBE). Rather, these monies went to the cost of educating students in other faculties as well as to shoulder a disproportionate amount of the university’s non-academic costs. With a 12.9 per cent increase in student reg-istrants and a concurrent 8.8 per cent decrease in the number of full-time faculty, the SBE surplus is only expected to be larger in 2009/2010. Such administrative decisions could be explicated as simple fiscal mismanagement, if they were not so enraging.
In an exceedingly saturated undergraduate business school environment, Laurier’s SBE is presently classified as a ‘cash cow,’ whereby our thriving revenue generation is penalized by administration with an incommensurate financial re-source allotment. But with much room to advance the School of Business and Economics’ prominence – albeit within the confines of an ultimately competitive undergraduate busi-ness landscape – there is an immediate need for university administration to allow the SBE to retain a greater allocation
of its funding. Without such action, educational quality and student experience within Laurier’s School of Business & Economics will continue to deteriorate.
Under budgetary pressures in recent years, the SBE has responded by increasing class sizes and substituting part-time for full-time faculty. In the past four years, the average undergraduate class size has increased in the Economics
department by 50 per cent from 60 to 90 students. Over the same period, the Business department’s average undergrad-uate class size has increased over 20 per cent from 51 to 62 students, as observable in the graph to the left. The budget savings in the Business Department have relied even more heavily on the increased use of part-time faculty. From the 2005/06 to 2008/09 academic years, the percentage of under-graduate business courses taught by part-time faculty has increased from 35 to 47 per cent. In the 2009/10 academic year, over half of the second, third and fourth year under-graduate courses in business were taught by part-time facul-ty, with less than a third taught by tenure-track and tenured faculty. It is this combination of increased class sizes and part-time faculty that has created the SBE financial surplus at the expense of educational quality.
The changing composition of instructors within the HBBA program has resulted in course administration falling dis-proportionately on the shoulders of fewer full-time faculty members. An increase in the number of Contract Academic Staff (CAS) members has served as a challenge for full-time faculty who are charged with monitoring these instructors’ performance. Intensified difficulty supervising has led to a significant increase in the number of instructor complaints propositioned by students. Full-time academics are far from alone in being burdened with greater demands; part-time staff members have also been forced to teach more, while taking on additional responsibilities for unchanged pay. With a reduction in tenured and tenure-track faculty, ques-tions have arisen surrounding the absence of research orien-tation brought to the classroom, with many left wondering – from a pedagogical perspective – what is distinguishing the university business school experience from that of commu-nity college. Part-time instructors’ ability to bring industry experience to the classroom is absolutely indispensable, but research and practice should leverage one another to create
Money (un)Well (un)Spent:
Clark G. ChamiEditor-in-Chief
The Inequitable Use of SBE Student Revenue
There is an immediate need for university administration to
allow the SBE to retain a greater allocation of its funding.
“”
9
a synergy that would be impossible if deficient in either. As such, there is an obvious need to rekindle the appropriate moderation of each. Beyond concerns of a class instructor’s employment classification, the number of students herded into a classroom has become an equally – and rightfully – contentious issue, with an observable loss in ‘classroom intimacy,’ with alarming figures highlighted in the table above.A litany of problems has arisen from these trends: classrooms are more crowded and less engaging, more testing is done by multiple choice problems, there are fewer individually prepared assignments, and student feedback is slower and less detailed. An increasing workload for both part- and full-time faculty should further ignite fear in senior administra-tion, who could very well see their most marketable faculty members depart the university. Perhaps most distressing is that Laurier’s prestigious Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) accreditation is at risk, as the designation requires a minimum percentage of faculty who are actively engaged in research or at least very involved in SBE activities beyond the classroom. And so, if not out of rightfulness, objectivity, or the desire to improve, university administration must revise their resource allocations simply to reverse the declining quality of education that business and economics students receive.
The gravity of the situation becomes more apparent when evaluating the SBE’s departmental teaching situations. All 36 sections of required third-year HBBA marketing courses are coordinated by only one instructor – a limited term aca-demic staff member who is also laden with teaching nine courses. There is further only one tenured academic involved in these mandatory courses – a faculty member set to retire
in 2011. In the fall of 2009, one fourth-year marketing elec-tive was cancelled, owing to no faculty available to teach it, and all four remaining electives were oversubscribed, with 62 to 71 students in each. In the Organizational Behaviour and Human Resource Management area, four professors have been lost since 2008, and have not been replaced. Sev-eral others reigning from the OB/HRM discipline are heavily involved in time-consuming administrative posts, including Associate Dean and Associate MBA Director roles. Much like the OB/HRM area, the department of Accounting boasts significant administrative involvement, including positions
of Associate Dean, Undergraduate Business Programs Direc-tor, and two research centre directors. The Finance area has struggled to secure CAS with the capacity to teach higher level finance courses. The area describes their experience as having been fraught with problems, as a result of finance courses that require very technical skills to properly teach. Hiring difficulties are exacerbated by growing class sizes, and overall demand in the area: fall enrollment in third-year Financial Management I has escalated from 542 students in 2006 to 840 in 2009, and six fourth-year finance electives are either at capacity or oversubscribed.
Central to the university’s budgeting exercise is the decision to allocate finan-cial resources to the school’s dif-ferent faculties. Appreciating the competence of our university’s senior administration, it would be expected that the estimated $3.6 million SBE surplus is being spent prudently. Unfortunately ex-
Money (un)Well (un)Spent:
Article continued on page 10.
HBBA REQUIRED COURSES - CLASSROOM CAPACITY
TermNumber (%) of Sections at
CapacityNumber (%) of Sections with
Spare CapacityTotal Number of
Sections
Fall 2009 106 (97%) 3 (3%) 109 (100%)
Winter 2010 76 (87%) 11 (13%) 87 (100%)
Total 182 (93%) 14 (7%) 196 (100%)
What is distinguishing the university business school
experience from that of community college?
“”
ACADEMIC FINANCIAL METRICSFiscal Year 2008/2009 (In Millions)
FacultySBE Music Brantford Science Arts
Revenue $ 46.4 $ 4.6 $ 17.8 $ 30.5 $ 57.1 Expenses (Salary & Operating) 24.4 5.2 6.7 18.2 28.3 Contribution 22.0 (0.7) 11.1 12.3 28.8 Overhead 18.4 1.7 9.9 - - Surplus (Deficit) $ 3.6 $ (2.4) $ 1.2 $ (1.7) $ (2.2) Surplus (Deficit) Per Student $ 1088 $ (7732) $ 704 $ (647) $ (393)
10
Laurier celebrated its growing presence in Toronto in Sep-tember 2009 with the official
opening of an office in the heart of the city’s financial district.
More than 200 alumni, prominent guests, students, faculty and staff were on hand for a reception in which guest speaker David Miller, mayor of Toronto, thanked Lau-rier for strengthening its educational links with Canada’s largest city.
Miller specifically mentioned Lauri-er’s weekend format MBA program, which has operated in downtown Toronto for 11 years, and the 700 Laurier co-op students who work in the GTA each year.
Laurier’s new 2,500-square-foot of-fice occupies a prominent corner location at 130 King St. W., with a lobby looking out onto King and York streets and an entrance off the main-floor lobby of the Exchange Tower building.
The university’s new Toronto office will support a variety of initiatives, from Laurier’s co-op program and weekend-format MBA, to alumni relations, student recruitment, and government relations.
“Laurier already has a significant presence in Toronto through our many alumni and co-op students who live and work in the region, and through our successful weekend MBA program,” said Laurier presi-dent Dr. Max Blouw. “The new office will raise the profile of the university in Canada’s largest city and provide a base of support for our many initia-tives there.”
Laurier Public Affairs
Growing in the GTA
istent, however, is a plethoric re-direction of funds from business to other university faculties. Referring to the “Academic Financial Metrics” table on page 9, for every $1088 that an SBE student is in the black, a Faculty of Music student is $7732 in the red, amounting to a differential of $8820. While Lau-rier’s Brantford programs operate at a surplus overall, the faculties of Arts and Science operate at a deficit, albeit negligibly.
As a world-class music faculty, the program is set up in such a way that requires individual training of classical performance musicians. This is an expected cost of excellence that is understood and appreciated, but it is not without its consequences if coming at the expense of other faculties’ educa-tional quality. Requesting that other departments abandon their characteris-tic methods of instruction – whether the Faculty of Music, Arts, Science, or Business – would be unwise and hypocritical. Where the Faculty of Music differentiates through tailored, one-on-one instruction, the School of Business & Economics once had a value proposition predicated on intimate learning environments. The SBE should not be forced to desert a characteristic upon which our faculty’s appeal was once built in order to sustain the appeal of another faculty; both faculties’ cost of excellence should be impartially re-spected. The goal must be to arrive at a fairer means of distributing financial resources that enables all faculties to flourish concurrently. The idea is that no faculty should take precedence, and that all faculties should be held ac-countable, allowing for a more reasonable and responsible distribution of revenue.
Save the occurrence of reconciliatory behaviour on part of senior administra-tion, students should be very much concerned, as presently, administration is culpable of restraining the advancement of Laurier’s School of Business & Economics. With rivals Queen’s and the Richard Ivey School of Business charging incoming business students $11,225, and $20,265 in tuition respec-tively (as of 2009/2010), it would be asinine to suggest that tuition should be lowered to curb the surplus. It would be more sensible to alleviate the handicap under which we have been operating, and allow the SBE to become the principal beneficiaries of a surplus that we have engendered. If the SBE were allowed to retain even half of the $3.6 million surplus generated, ap-proximately 15 full-time faculty members could be hired, almost immediately remedying many of the operational challenges that have surfaced under bud-getary pressures. Paired with a stabilization of HBBA enrollment, class sizes could recede to manageable levels, allowing for the re-cultivation of engaging and inspired learning environments. In spite of insufficient revenue allocations, the SBE’s performance has surely
been admirable; but that does not exonerate university administration of de-cision making that has had damaging consequences for the education that business and economics students receive. Regardless of how you interpret, delineate, or frame the situation – as justifiable cross-subsidization, or the unfair redirection of resources – the reality remains unchanged: HBBA stu-dents are being short-changed. As our classrooms overfill, discussion and engagement become increasingly compromised, and our most appreciated instructors find themselves new academic homes, some of our undergradu-ate counterparts have been financially rewarded, in spades, by way of cross-subsidization that in its current state, should be questioned. It is time to en-gage in fiscal management characterized by answerability and equity. The implications will not just include greater revenue preservation for the School of Business & Economics, but as well and most importantly, resulting will be a university that may relish in its comprehensive excellence.
The reality remains unchanged: HBBA students are being short-changed.“
”
11
The past year saw the release of James Cameron’s Avatar which has gone on to become the first
movie to gross over $2 billion dol-lars. The movie’s photorealistic 3D coupled with Cameron’s return to directing helped to draw moviego-ers to theatres in throngs. Imitation is the best form of flattery and other movie studios have already hopped on the 3D bandwagon. 3D movies to expect in the future include the next installments in the Harry Potter and
Toy Story series. The alien world of Avatar has cap-tured the imagination of moviegoers and Hollywood is aiming to capitalize on this.
The success of Avatar could be a tipping point for 3D movies which have often taken a back seat to tradi-tional 2D movies. Post Avatar, movie studios view 3D movies as a lucrative opportunity as ticket prices for them are on average $3 higher than regular movies. Also, 3D movies cannot be pirated at the moment so Hollywood does not lose any potential revenue due to piracy. This may change in the future as Sony is heav-ily investing in 3D and have already partnered up with FIFA to broadcast the 2010 World Cup in 3D.
There are still several critics of 3D who believe that the technology needs to evolve so that glasses are not needed to watch the content. Also, filmmakers have been critical of 3D as they believe that it doesn’t add anything to a movie’s narrative. A bad movie will be bad regardless of whether it is in 2D or 3D. A good movie will be a good movie regardless of whether you watch it in a theatre or on your laptop.
Avatar’s box office returns are inflated by 3D ticket prices but the success of the movie is attributable more to James Cameron than anyone. Cameron’s goal was to augment the movie watching experience by using 3D rather than have it distract the audience. There are 2 billion reasons and countless awards to suggest he has succeeded. It remains to be seen whether other direc-tors are able to follow in his footsteps. The next few years will have a large say as to whether 3D will stand out or stick out in the eyes of moviegoers.
Standing Out in a 2D World
Aamir Mirza Managing Editor
Dr. Max Blouw and David Miller at the Grand Opening.
A good movie will be a good movie regardless of whether
you watch it in a theatre or on your laptop. ”
“
Laurier’s Toronto OfficeGrand Opening
3D
Photographer Tomaz Adamski
12
For thousands of years, we have been asking ourselves the same question: what makes a great
leader?
It’s commonly believed that there are specific traits that make people
leaders. Confidence, charisma, and courage are a few of these traits. But these personality characteristics are relatively permanent, chang-ing only slightly over long periods of time which implies that some
people are born to lead and some are born to follow.
I don’t buy it and I’m not the only one who thinks dif-ferently. True, many great leaders have similar sets of characteristics, but it’s not just these traits that make them good at what they do. Everyone has the potential to become a great leader, regardless of their personal-ity traits, because leadership is something that can be learned, practiced and perfected.
Over the past 50 years, a number of theories about lead-ership have emerged. My favourite of these is the path-goal theory. It states that a leader’s success depends on his or her ability to change leadership styles to match the needs of subordinates. The theory suggests that successful leadership is contingent on the performance and motivation of those who follow the leader.One very useful tool that emerged from the path-goal theory is the skill-will matrix. The matrix plots people by their level of skill and level of will (or motivation). Where a person lies on the matrix determines what type of leadership will be most beneficial for them and your ability to provide the right type of leadership at the right time is what will make you a great leader.
Consider an employee, Maria. Maria has low skill and low will. She’s not particularly good at her job and she lacks the motivation to take initiative. She needs a directive leader, telling her what to do, when to do it, how
to do it, and why to do it. Maria also needs incentives to encourage her to complete the work. A leader who can effectively direct and motivate Maria will help her learn and her skill level will rise. Now with high skill, Maria needs a new kind of leader. She still needs to be motivated, but not directed. Mo-
tivation can be done in any number of ways but one of the most effective long term motivators is to show Maria how her success is tied to the success of her co-workers and the company as a whole. Knowing how her work impacts others adds a sense of pride and belonging, increasing motivation and letting Maria know that she isn’t just another cog in the corporate machine.
With the right kind of help from her leader, Maria is quickly becoming a pretty good employee. But what happens when she gets promoted? Her promotion may increase her motivation, but her new job may re-quire skills that she hasn’t fully developed yet, putting her down into the low skill and high will quadrant.
Leadership 101: What you didn’t learn in class
Everyone has the potential to become a
great leader.
“”
A leader’s success depends on his or her ability to
change leadership styles to match the needs
of subordinates.
“
”
Evan ThorPresident, SBESS
13
Now Maria needs a coach. She needs a leader who ex-plains how to complete the job but isn’t overly direc-tive. Maria’s motivation will push her to learn as much possible and her coach needs to give her room to make mistakes, but not enough room to get too far off track. This way, Maria can learn from her mistakes and her skill level will start to increase again.
Now Maria is an absolute all-star and what I would call an ideal employee. When she gets a new assignment, she just needs to know the problem, the goal and the framework to work within. She needs a leader who can delegate problems and let her create solutions. Maria is highly motivated, she knows what she’s doing and she doesn’t need her leader stepping in to hold her back. Her leader needs to communicate clearly, outline high level issues and give her ownership of the job at hand.
We’ve seen Maria go through four different stages that require four different types of leadership. To compli-cate things, Maria isn’t the only person in her depart-ment and her leader will have a number of people in every different quadrant of the skill-will Matrix. Her leader needs to be able to recognize what type of leader to be and needs to be able to switch styles instantly de-pending on the situation and person. Any effort to lead Maria with the wrong style will be ineffective and her perception of her leaders’ ability is likely to be affected too.
If you try to delegate to a person that needs direction, they’ll feel lost. If you try to direct a person that needs a motivator, they’ll feel that you’re micromanaging them. If you try to motivate a person who needs a coach, they’ll feel that you aren’t giving them the help they need to grow. They’ll all think you’re a terrible leader and it’s not because you don’t care. It’s because you aren’t being the type of leader that they need.
Developing this ability to change leadership styles quickly takes years of practice. You need to actively think about who the people you work with are, who they need you to be and then you actually need to be that type of leader. You need to reevaluate what leader-ship style to use when someone new walks into your office. You also need to reevaluate where people lie on the matrix. People can move from one quadrant to another very quickly and if you can’t keep up, you’re going to have some trouble.
This all leads to perhaps the most important lesson in leadership: perception is reality. No matter how good you think you are as a leader, no one will follow you if they don’t think you’re a good leader. Your good inten-tions alone won’t make you a great leader. Your suc-cess will ultimately be defined by the perceptions of the people that you attempt to lead. If you really want to move into that corner office, be the kind of leader they want you to be, not the kind of leader you think you are.
Laurier Marketing Conference
14
Collaboration, the act of creating with the knowledge and assistance of others, is an intrinsic part of our
society as well as our institutions. Even the notion of the organization is built upon achieving goals through the collaboration of people and resources. Collaborating to achieve goals – university administrative staff members do this on a daily basis by working both within and outside their re-spective departments. Yet, when we look at the level of collaboration extending beyond
organizational boundaries, to other universities and busi-nesses, it becomes apparent that there is a need for improve-ment. The few examples of administrative collaboration outside of the university are a testament to how much value can be added to the student experience by this approach, but there still exists many opportunities in which collaboration can be used.
First, the good news: collaboration is nothing new to Lau-rier. In the 1990s, facing budgetary and space constraints, the University of Waterloo (UW), Wilfrid Laurier University (WLU), and The University of Guelph (UG) all began collab-orating administratively to share library resources through the TUG (TriUniversity Group of Libraries) project. This project currently serves 45,000 students and 1,700 faculty members, and is claimed to have saved millions of dollars in constructions costs for the three universities. Perhaps more important for students is that the initiative has simultane-ously increased library service levels while allowing access to an augmented stock of research materials, enriching stu-dents’ educational experiences.Collaboration also exists – albeit to a limited extent – within
Laurier’s academic programs. The Honours Business & Math (BBA/BMath) double degree program and a new Hon-ours Business & Computer Science (BBA/BCompSci) double degree program (expected to commence this fall) are two examples. BBA/BMath graduates armed with the business know-how from Laurier balanced with the analytical exper-tise of UW have skills that are in demand from Bay Street and Wall Street to graduate programs at Stanford University and the London School of Economics - no small feat!
Other prominent examples of external collaboration include the partnership between UW, the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), and WLU to build the Balsil-lie School of International Affairs, as well as corporate part-nerships with companies such as RIM and Rogers.
That said, there are still many areas in which collaboration can be used to improve the quality of education at WLU. Evan Thor, President of the School of Business & Econom-ics Students’ Society, gave the following example: “Each third year engineering student at the University of Waterloo has to complete a technical development project as part of their program. These projects are worked on for an entire year and many of the project ideas have serious potential to become value-add products in the future. The best of these projects go on to compete against other schools but often fall flat when they can’t adequately communicate the value proposition of their design. Engineering students are trained to engineer things, not make business plans.” Lau-rier business students could add significant value to these projects, bringing in strategic, marketing, and financial ex-pertise. Furthermore, the experience gained working with engineers and professionals outside of the business realm would teach students invaluable skills, useful in the work world upon graduation.
To get from here to there, well, that is a challenge. While relatively close proximity remedies obstacles arising from physical distance, negative stereotypes along with cultural and procedural differences between the two universities can hinder effective communication. Despite this, most would agree that the benefits are more than worth the effort, and past successes of UW-WLU collaboration truly underscore the rewards of such efforts. Dr. Refik Culpan, an expert on the subject of strategic alliances and joint ventures, even went as far as to write that strategic alliances with the goal of sharing and building knowledge can be used as a firm’s sustainable competitive advantage.
To overcome these challenges, we can learn from our previ-ous experiences with inter-campus collaboration. Looking back at TUG, events were arranged to bring staff together from both campuses to discuss the project, share ideas, and most importantly, create relationships – the impetus for working together.
It is not a question of whether or not collaboration should occur, but where it should be used and how. Evan Thor commented on the current state of affairs: “I believe there are an unbelievable number of untapped opportunities for collaboration between Waterloo and Laurier. I believe that we can take advantage of these opportunities to strengthen both our universities and if we ignore these opportunities, we condemn ourselves to a narrow way of thinking that is likely to get us into trouble.” We can only hope that the willingness of Laurier’s administration to cultivate relation-ships outside of our university in the interests of long-term prosperity exists, and that collaboration will be kept top of mind as a viable alternative for the institution’s future en-deavours.
Evolving Collaboration
at WLU
David J. SmithExternal
Contributor
There are still many areas in which collaboration can be used
to improve the quality of education at WLU.
“”
Five days living outside with noth-ing more than an old sleeping bag and a desire to make a difference. I
haven’t even started yet and I am already starting to wonder what I got myself into.
On March 14, I will be living my life as if I was homeless, cold, hungry, and scared – something I thought I would never have to experience in my life. I made the choice to do this, to participate in the 5 Days for the Homeless campaign, because I truly
believe that a difference can be made; to raise awareness and funds to help those in need.
5 Days for the Homeless is a charity campaign founded in 2005 by students from the Alberta School of Business at the University of Alberta. It is a five day campaign in which university students live homeless on campus to raise money and awareness for a local charity that supports homeless and youth at risk. After four successful years on the University of Alberta campus, the event has spread to sixteen business schools, raising nearly $175,000 in 2009 for charities across
the country.Last year, Laurier raised over $7,500 for two local charities, KW ROOF in Kitchener, and The Argus Residence for Young People in Cambridge. Laurier has set this year’s fundraising goal at $10,000.
The rules are simple. All participants must stay on campus and live outside for five days. We must have no income, can-not consume any food or drink unless donated to us, have no access to showers or personal communication, including our cell phones, and still attend all classes. To us, these are but temporary restrictions; to others, many of these are an unfortunate reality of life.
I got involved with the 5 Days campaign because, like many university students, I had a fairly good upbringing, a loving family, a safe home, and countless opportunities. I knew the issue of homelessness existed but it never affected me to the point where I felt I should do something. To be honest, I would see homeless individuals on the street, and
like the majority of people, purposely try to ignore them. It is something I am not proud of. I saw the homeless as prob-lems, rather than people. I thought that those who were on the street were the orchestrators of their own circumstances, and took little or no pity on their current situation.
It all changed when I learned that an old friend of mine had started living on the street. As her friend, I was familiar with her past before she became homeless. She had been sexually and physically assaulted and had a long history of difficul-ties with her family. But as long as I knew her she coped with those challenges and lived her life as best she could. When I went away to school, I lost touch with her and didn’t hear just how bad things got for her. She ended up leaving home and living on the street to escape her life. It was out of her control.
I realized then that those who were on the street were not there because they choose to be, they were out of options and literally had no choice.
There are people living homeless on the street just trying to survive. They are living with nothing but the hope that one day; somehow, things might get better. It is this hope that motivated me to get involved with the 5 Days campaign this year.
I wanted to be a participant in the 5 Days campaign because I realized that not everyone would be directly affected by the issue of homelessness as I was. By raising awareness through this campaign, I hope that I can make this issue into something real for every person that by sees me struggle to make it though just five days.
Obviously, the reality is that after the five days, we, the par-ticipants, can go home, have a hot shower, eat our favourite meal, and crawl into our respective beds. We can see the end of our struggle. However, there are people out there who can’t see the end of their ordeal, and they need our help. I am proud to be participating with fellow Laurier students Sarah Splinter, Jeremy Enns, and Michelle Fusco. Along with the rest of their organizing committee, their passion for the cause has been contagious and will help me endure.
Enduring 5 Days for Homelessness
15
Robb FaragoStaff Writer
5 Days for the Homeless participants will be in the quad in front of the Fred Nichols Campus Centre beginning Sunday,
March 14 at 5pm until Friday, March 19 at 5pm. Additional information about the campaign, how to donate, and partici-
pant blogs can be found at laurier.5days.ca.
There are people living homeless on the street just
trying to survive.
“”
The phrase curling up to a good book just does not have the same meaning when the book you are
reading is on a Kindle or an iPad. There is a certain comfort that comes from picking up a book, or any form of print media for that matter, that reading off a screen just cannot match up to. Yet these electronic devices designed to make reading easier and more portable seem to be the new and increasingly popular craze. New products such as
the Kindle Reading Device and the recently launched Apple iPad are designed to make reading e-books as easy and as natural as possible. With a large internal memory that allows you to carry around hundreds of books at once and download new ones instantaneously, their popularity is certainly understandable. However, reading anything from any type of screen – whether a Kindle or otherwise – simply does not compare to reading from a hard copy. These new technologies are changing the way people read and how they experi-ence the phenomenon of reading. It forces us to ask if people are ready for this change and more importantly, do they want it?
Books are not the only printed content that is available online. Unfortunately, for all forms of print communi-cation, the electronic path seems to be the one to fol-low. It is becoming more and more common for print media, such as magazines and newspapers, to publish their content on the internet. It is convenient, cheap, and almost instantaneously updated to keep up with a world that is constantly changing. Newspapers can even be delivered to these reading devices before they are available in newsstands, offering people no reason to have to purchase a physical copy from the perspec-tive of expediency. As more content becomes available online, less is available in print. As technology plays a steadily increasing role in our lives, less value is placed on old fashioned print media to a point where its sur-vival is questionable.
With every advantage that comes with these new read-
ing devices, there are plenty of downfalls. Many peo-ple already spend the balance of their day staring at a computer screen and working with technology both at work and at home. It seems unnecessary and tax-ing to have to use another electronic device for a task that does not require one. Many people like being able
to escape from this technological world that consumes the majority of their lives. People enjoy the simplicity of reading a book or magazine, skimming the lines and flipping the pages with their fingers and not by click-ing a mouse. There is also the stability that comes from print media. A book’s battery – or lack thereof – will never die nor will it break if you accidentally drop it. You will never have to buy a newer model or send it in for repairs. As great as the technology is in 2010, it is not perfect and cannot compare to the reliability of traditional print media.
Consumers can still choose between picking up their book or downloading it, but how much longer will these options remain? Is the future of print media head-ed down a path of extinction, and are we accelerating this process by choosing electronic versions of books over physical hardcopies? Technology has brought reading to a whole new level, but is society fully ready and willing to put down the paper for good and pick up yet another piece of technology for something as simple as reading?
Antonietta PetrellaDesign Editor
apetrella @sbeatrium.com
Learning How to Read With Technology: Are You Ready?
16
These new technologies are changing the way people read and how they experience the
phenomenon of reading.
“”
Is the future of print media headed down a path of
extinction?
“”
17
On January 28th 2010, Laurier In-ternational welcomed a group of 80 Beijing and Shenzhen
high school students and teachers from Concord College of Sino Canada in China. Their visit to Laurier was a stop in their tour across Canada, where they sought to preview schools and to learn more about the Canadian post-secondary education system. Laurier Ambassadors provided the Chinese students a tour of the Waterloo cam-
pus, showcasing our facilities, and allowing them to experience firsthand the unique atmosphere of our university in contrast to their home schools.
Their visit continued with a two-part workshop con-sisting of a skill-building activity and a case analysis exercise, hosted by The Link, a student organization within the School of Business & Economics. The group was divided into teams, led by volunteers from the SBE, who guided the student visitors through an in-teractive tower building activity aimed to promote teamwork and strategic thinking. The students and
volunteers were able to see how language differences could result in communication barriers as they chal-lenged themselves to find new ways to convey and communicate their intended messages. As an example, volunteers resorted to using props and gestures to ex-plain the activities. The case simulation, though modi-fied to accommodate the Chinese students’ level of English comprehension, was very similar to a typical Laurier first-year business case, demonstrating North American business practices to the foreign students. The case required them to use unfamiliar concepts and challenged them to apply their knowledge to a busi-ness framework that had them analyzing all of a busi-ness’ functional areas.
The volunteers received training in how to communi-
cate with the students during the case. One of the most effective ways to communicate was to leverage the stu-dents that understood English and to have them assist the others in the group that found it more difficult to understand or read the case. A second approach that was found to be particularly effective was to divide the casework based on students’ specific interests.
It was a great opportunity for the international students to receive an introduction of a North American busi-ness framework and to learn skills necessary to work in a group setting. The feedback from the students and teachers was extremely positive as to their experience at Laurier and interaction with our business students. The Link will be reconnecting with these students this coming summer – this time as visitors instead of hosts – during the International Business Conference at Con-cord College in China.
International SchoolVisits Laurier
Jessica TamExternal
Contributor
It was a great opportunity for the international students to
receive an introduction of a North American business
framework.
“
”
18
Trying to eat healthy on campus can be a challenge for some students, but with some strate-
gic planning it can be done!
The average student is usually pressed for time; they are running to class, studying late for a midterm they forgot about, or their day is filled with back to back classes. This time pressure often leads to unhealthy food choices as opting for what’s quick is more convenient
than standing in line. So what are the main challenges a student faces when trying to eat healthy at school? And what can we do to make sure that we’re not just mindlessly eating our way to gaining an unhealthy 10 pounds? These questions – and their answers – will help you to better understand your eating habits, and will inform improved decision making.
The Challenges
Late night snacking: When studying late for a midterm, it’s very easy to grab a bag of chips and munch away until you are fin-ished your readings. To try and eliminate this popular occurrence, drink water instead of snacking as it will reduce your caloric intake by making you feel full.The fast paced life of the university student: We all have too much to do and not enough time, how-ever, making time to plan your meals could save you those extra pounds come spring. Since many of the campus food options are loaded with calories, starting a routine of making your own lunch will help you to eat healthier. Even if you aren’t much of a cook, there are some healthy food options on campus.
Stress: Eating to cope with the stresses of university life is an-other common occurrence for many students. Most of the time you’re not actually hungry, but eating is your brain’s way of releasing stress. Instead of heading for the ice cream, grab a piece of gum. The chewing not only improves your memory, it can also help to reduce food cravings.
Campus Food: Let’s face it, campus cafeterias are not associated with healthy eating. Instead, they conjure images of cheese fries, pizza days, and the much feared “mystery meat.” At Laurier we are somewhat lucky as there are some healthy options that students can explore:
The Dining Hall: If you are eating at the dining hall you have two options: salad bar or the Asian stir fry station. The salad bar has a number of veggie choices to add to your salad, but beware of the pasta salads. These mayonnaise based, high carbohydrate salads are not healthy in the least. The Asian stir fry isn’t
as healthy as the salad bar, but if you’re in need of a full meal it may be your only option – just avoid adding too much high sugar sauce to your stir fry.
The Terrace: Luckily at the Terrace there is at least one healthy op-tion at Union Market, Mr. Sub, Pita Pit, and Harvey’s! If you’re eating at Union Market or Mr. Sub, a sand-wich with non-marbled meat, whole wheat bread, and low fat dressing – like mustard – is in order. At Pita Pit, opt for a whole wheat pita loaded with veggies and either chicken breast or souvlaki for your meat choice. Although you may not associate Harvey’s with healthy eating, their veggie burger and grilled chicken salad both have less than 10 grams of fat per serving. Making sense of it all:
Eating healthy is always hard, especially for students. However, with some knowledge and determination, eating healthy on campus can be accomplished. Fol-low our tips and use your best judgement to achieve success!
SBE lbs.
Lauren NealVice President
Human [email protected]
Gabriel McCraeVice President, [email protected]
Time pressure often leads to unhealthy food choices.
“”
Personal Branding has become a hot topic for job seekers over the past several months.
Marketers have long known the power of product branding and it seems that, with the proliferation of social media tools, determined job seekers are quickly catching on. Yet it’s interesting to note that as we tweet, link, blog and text our way through the 21st century, we appear to be moving further away from the basics that once defined preferred business protocols, com-munity interactions, and trustwor-
thy brands. We are so busy receiving, re-tweeting and responding to information that the importance of the reflective pause and the need to acknowledge, appreci-ate, and affirm one another – as an essential part of the networking process – seems to be forgotten. Bad move. Never mistake “social media savvy” for “excellent inter-personal skills.” One can simultaneously be viewed as a technical genius and an opportunistic jerk – the two are not mutually exclusive!
So how can you distinguish and enhance your brand as you launch your 2.0 Job Search campaign? Recall the an-noying words of your first grade teacher: “Use your man-ners.” From a strategic marketing standpoint – and that’s all a job search really is – here’s what happens when you leverage the power of “please,” “thank you,” and “how may I help you?” using the time-tested AIDA model.
Capture positive ATTENTIONImmediately, by the inclusion of courteous words in your cover letters, informational interviews, emails and, yes, even your precious tweets, you will distinguish yourself from the other self-seeking cads who rudely press forward with their own agendas, without thought or appreciation for the inundated recruiter or manager who is taking the time to consider their candidacy. I’m not talking about overkill – just a well-placed, original, and authentic (not canned!) acknowledgement can signal to the recipient that you understand their issue, you respect their posi-tion and, quite possibly, you are worth their time.
Fuel immediate INTERESTThere’s an old saying that goes something like this: “Peo-
ple don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.” Think about it. How do you respond when someone acknowledges or compliments your effort, attitude, or skill? Even among the most jaded of our so-ciety, somewhere there is that place deep inside that says “I kind of like/respect/hate you less for noticing that.” By taking the time to including a thank you statement and even an offer to somehow assist with one of their pressing issues, you may move a hiring manager or recruiter to wanting to get to know a bit more about yours!
Ensure ongoing DESIREPerhaps your interview was a flop or you failed to make a great first impression during that networking event. While it’s still true, “you never get a second chance to make a first impression,” you do have the opportunity to make a lasting impression by leveraging the power of eti-quette. Consider following up with an offer to introduce your contact to a professor or colleague conducting re-search in their organization’s area of interest. That could win you some points! How about sending a hand-written thank you note that expresses appreciation for a specific tip or piece of information that they shared with you dur-ing your initial encounter? People like to know not only that they added value, but how they added value. With this enhanced impression of you, they are much more likely to desire further, future connections
Aim for win-win ACTIONSWhether it’s a much- coveted job offer or an invaluable network referral, once you have politely distinguished yourself as a qualified and socially adept candidate, the ball is in their court, right? Not entirely. Your job is to ensure that you appropriately follow up to demonstrate ongoing interest and follow through to demonstrate in-tegrity. Barring other showstoppers – killer competition, mismatched technical skills, abysmal references, inap-propriate online images, etc. - it is very likely that your extra efforts will result in moving all parties to a mutually satisfying end position. And isn’t that the goal of any good marketing campaign?
And wait, there’s still one additional action that you can take to ensure your personal brand remains positive and memorable. Whether you land or do not land exactly what you want during this round of interactions, by pe-riodically and politely touching base with established professional contacts, you position yourself to be in the running for future opportunities and referrals. Job Search 2.0 approaches should compliment, not elimi-nate, Etiquette 101.
“Please” don’t let the omission of a few polite words get between you and your dream job!
Etiquette 101 for Job
Search 2.0
19
Keturah Leonforde MBA, CHRM
Career Consultant Graduate and Profes-
sional Programs
We appear to be moving further away from the basics that once
defined preferred business protocols.
“”
