First week of classes – The Ivey Difference:

Following is a quick recap of my first week of classes at Ivey. Looking back at it, it flew by in an absolute instant. 8 hours of classes a day did take some getting used to.
Monday we had a full morning of introductions to the program from faculty and staff. Following the introductions we had lunch break and then came a part we’ve been waiting for: LPO (Leading People and Organizations) team simulation.

I’ve heard from students in the previous cohort that Gerard Seijts was an excellent professor, but nothing prepared us for the eye opening case that we’ve got on Monday afternoon. Not to give it away for future students, it was a real treat, with professor expertly directing the discussion along the path for it to finally unfold into a beautiful story. The feeling most of my colleagues got was one of one of being a participant on an amazing journey. I personally, don’t think I will ever forget the lesson I’ve learned during that session. The four hour class flew by like a speeding train and at the end I was left yearning for more.

Tuesday we dove deeper into the actual process of learning with cases. And in the afternoon we came back to another leadership case discussion which expanded on leadership challenges that we’ve covered in the first class by providing new challenge situation.

Wednesday was another amazing class experience. We had a heated forum about Function of a Firm. The two speakers were Kevin O’Leary, founder of Softkey which in 1999 sold to Mattel for $3.7 billion, and his opponent Wade Oosterman, co-founder of Clearnet which was acquired in 2000 by Telus Corp. for 6.6Billion. It was unbelievable to have business people of such a high caliber answer our questions about importance of shareholder in a company and wealth creation in general.

The day continued with a warm welcome from Major and COO of City of London. Both of them talked about the important role Ivey is playing in community and later entertained our questions about business environmet in the city.

After a lunch break we had our first Career Management class with Lyn Purdy. This class places emphasis on helping us discover ourselves better with discussions around the reasons for choosing to pursue an MBA and particular career paths. We’ve also looked at a case of a person who followed traditional high earning jobs just to discover personal vacuum at the end.
I’m finding that case method is really effective in putting ourselves in somebody else’s shoes and trying to discover an effective decision for this situation. This particular Career Management case was also designed to help us think not only about the effective decision at that particular point but also to think through the decisions that would help us avoid ending up in the same situation of a personal “gridlock” in the future.

Thursday was a community action day. To illustrate the fact that Ivey not only talks about caring for community but also takes action when it comes to making positive community impact Ivey MBA studnets participate in Reforest London initiative.

Friday we had another special treat in form of a class with Dennis Shackel, an amazing communications guru recognized with multiple Teaching Awards. The communications class felt more like individual coaching session with professor helping each and everyone of us feel part of the discussion while helping us identify ways to communicate more effectively. Multiple times he engaged members of audience to drive his point home. The class experience felt really fluid, with Dennis pulling-in personal facts about class members from his memory and inviting students into the conversation.

The day concluded with presentation from Career Management group. Through the transition from two year to one year MBA format career management became much closer integrated within the curriculum. Director of Career Management group discussed the value that Executive Career Coaches play in the Ivey MBA experience and how their role differs from that played by a typical Career Councellor. We were also advised to take a more proactive approach to the career search and preparation through engaging in early conversations with Coaches/Relationship Managers responsible for our particular industry of interest.