Students of business history appreciate that the business problems of the present day did not begin in the 21st century. Performance incentives, for example, are not a recent invention. Since the early days of marine trade, in order to be trusted with cargos of goods, traders, their officers, and crews had contracts setting out, amongst other things, their salary and “incentives” based on what and where they could sell; all of which was built into the deal, explains Dr. McWatters, who researches commercial and financial history as the Father Edgar Thivierge Chair in Business History (cross-appointed to the Department of History). “The problems and the decision processes seen in earlier eras of commerce — why did people invest, why did they not invest, how did they evaluate risk — were not so different from those evident today.”

Over the winter term recently ended, MBA students in Dr. McWatters’s electives on the history of business had an opportunity to discover that for themselves. They explored the emergence of capitalism, and in particular the role of entrepreneurs, government, financiers, and market players. In a second course, they examined the origins and development of business in Canada with a focus on the contextual factors that have shaped the economy and environment. The students came to appreciate that earlier business practices, trade networks, and credit networks that made commerce happen were often highly sophisticated.

Ethical questions

“The class enabled me to not only enhance my knowledge of business, but develop a number of transferable skills—critical thinking skills, research skills, and writing skills,” says Susana Lee, a student in the joint MBA/JD program.” Having the opportunity to debate the ethics of business decisions in the past in light of their societal impacts was also particularly valuable, she added. “Professor McWatters encouraged us to continuously question and re-examine some of our assumptions about the past.”

Dr. McWatters’s history courses are complimentary with other courses in the MBA curriculum designed to encourage students to examine the ethical issues buried in case problems, says MBA Program Director Michael Miles. They provide “tremendous context to explain why we struggle with some of the things we struggle with today.” He visited Dr. McWatters’s classes on a couple of occasions and came away “very impressed” with the high calibre of student presentations and “lively and informed discussions.” “The students recognized that knowing how business practices developed and being able to assess and debate their implications, good or bad, is tremendously valuable in a global business context.”

Dr. McWatters encourages her students to see how business people in the past made decisions based on the information that was in front of them. “That’s a different approach than telling people, ‘if you don’t know history, you will repeat the same mistakes.’ We may not think that they made the right decision, but they did make choices, and we can try to reconstruct and assess their reasoning.”

By assessing and synthesizing the evidence in this way, the students strengthen their ability to make informed judgments about strategic choices and their consequences, Dr. McWatters says. “All this helps them deal more effectively with the changing organisational environment that they will face as business leaders.” 

Dr. McWatters recently co-authored, with Yannick Lemarchand, “Credit and Debt” (2013), part of the series Oxford Bibliographies in Atlantic History. Read more about Cheryl McWatters’s research.

This series of articles focuses on the University of Ottawa's Telfer School of Management Executive MBA class trip to the Silicon Valley. The trip is part of the EMBA curriculum on "Innovation and Entrepreneurship," which includes a consulting project and holding meetings with Valley firms on behalf of client organizations, as well as special events and discussions at key Valley innovation centres, such as the US Market Access Centre, Cisco, IBM Almaden Research Center, Younoodle, Google, Singularity University and Stanford University.

Day one: The Internet of Everything… and Anything
Tuesday, May 14, 2013, by Nisha Cairo

Day two: The impact of disruptive technology
Wedesday, May 15, 2013, by Annu Vaidya

Day three: Telfer Executive MBA Students Explore the Benefits of Silicon Valley
Thursday, May 16, 2013, by Marc Pandi

Day four: Google Impresses and Inspires
Friday, May 17, 2013, by Melissa Olegario

Among this years’ nominees, eight are University of Ottawa’s alumni from which four studied at the Telfer School of Management. For this achievement, the Telfer School would like to congratulate:   

Luc Richard, MBA 1999
Anil Dilawri, BCom 1997
Lynda Joann Carter, BCom 2000
Charla O'Connor, MBA 2005

The Telfer School would also like to congratulate Tara Lapointe, Marie-Andrée Pelletier, Peter Paciorek and Hugues Boisvert, who all graduated from the University of Ottawa.

This year's Forty Under 40 awards gala will take place at the Hilton Lac-Leamy Hotel on June 20, 2013. The event will feature cocktails, fine food, music and dancing and is in part sponsored by the Telfer Executive MBA.

More information is available on the OBJ's website.

Sylvain Durocher examined the adoption timing decisions of private firms in relation to the new set of accounting standards for private enterprises published in 2009 in Canada, drawing on the theory of planned behaviour. The study was coauthored by Anne Fortin of Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). Professor Durocher also presented, with Claire-France Picard of Laval University, “Meticulous Professionals to Superheroes of the Business World: A Historical Portrait Of a Cultural Change In The Field Of Accountancy,” a study co-authored with Yves Gendron of Laval.

Walid Ben Amar and Philip Mcilkenny discusssed the link between board of directors’ effectiveness and voluntary reporting of climate change related risks in a sample of Canadian firms. Their study highlights the importance of the board of directors’ role in enhancing the transparency of climate change disclosures.

Research by Kaouthar Lajili and Sarah Ben Amor focused on developing a corporate risk tolerance level using the Canadian gold mining industry as an example. They analyzed the risk sources, risk exposure, and risk management strategies disclosed by Canadian listed gold mining firms between 2006 and 2008.

Tiemei (Sarah) Li of the Telfer School and Jeong-Bon Kim, City University of Hong Kong investigated the extent to which firm-specific information is capitalized into stock prices in offshore firms and non-offshore firms.

The project will explore a comprehensive systematic approach for the structuring of IHT that can be implemented in a variety of other domains. Moreover, this research integrates system design and behavioral research methodologies. The practical impact will be in improving the ability to develop systems to support decision-making, coordination and collaboration of healthcare teams as well as in teams from other domains.

The research builds on the doctoral and postdoctoral research of Dr. Andreev on developing methodologies and exploring organizational issues of collaborative environments.

To learn more, please visit Pavel Andreev’s profile page.

The Telfer MBA program strongly values the international dimension of our program experience. Each year, we sponsor an elective course to Europe to explore high-performance in a European context. The goal is to highlight the dynamics of doing business in an international business arena and to explore the complications of culture and politico-social elements that underlie effective business practice. Last year several of our non-Canadian international students suggested that coming to Canada was their version of an international experience. They asked: "Why don't we set up an ‘in-Canada international trip’ to help them explore business sectors in which Canada has strengths?" The same focus – high-performance organizations – could underlie the trip but the focus would be on examining the differences between doing business in their home countries and the Canadian context.

This year we brought this course alive. We have set up visits with exceptional companies in the "golden triangle" (Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal) that represent noteworthy Canadian business sectors. These include the entrepreneurial high-tech sector (Wesley Clover), retail (Costco), banking (TD Financial and National Bank), not-for-profit (Me to We), aerospace (Aero-Montreal and Bombardier), and international engineering products and services (Future Electronics). As we conducted the structured site visits, students were challenged to blog about their experiences. The following notes represent summaries of their experiences – what caught their attention and what learnings they walked away with.

April 29 to May 3, 2013