Rotman Management

The Magazine of the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management

Rotman Management3 min read
Smart Power
UNTIL RECENTLY, THE MODEL OF INFLUENCE in society was based on the belief that the interests of those in power were connected to those of the broader public — and that if someone worked hard enough, it was possible to ‘climb the ladder’. But today, r
Rotman Management12 min read
SHAREHOLDER ACTIVISM: This Changes Everything!
ON THE EVENING OF OCTOBER 28, 2011, Canadian Pacific Railway Vice-President Paul Guthrie and a senior team were travelling across Canada, touring the company’s facilities, when Paul received a call. CP’s legal advisory firm had heard a rumour: activi
Rotman Management9 min read
Thought Leader Interview: Mark Wiseman
Along with McKinsey’s Dominic Barton, you have been closely involved in the quest to focus investors' mindsets on the long term. Describe how and why you became involved. It all started with an article Dominic wrote for Harvard Business Review [“Capi
Rotman Management11 min readDiscrimination & Race Relations
TACKLING INEQUALITY: The Challenge For Corporate Leaders
THE WORLD HAS NEVER BEEN MORE PROSPEROUS than it is today. People around the world live longer, healthier lives than ever before. In emerging markets, billions of people have moved out of extreme poverty, and in the developed world, we enjoy better m
Rotman Management11 min read
Walmart’s Journey To Sustainability
How did you come to see Walmart as a possible change-maker in the world? Let me start out with a pretty simple proposition that is, nevertheless, somewhat contentious: business exists to serve society. The question is, how do companies interpret that
Rotman Management13 min read
Investing For A Sustainable Future
IN GENERAL, IT IS ASSUMED that every company’s top executives and its board of directors possess a keen understanding of investor priorities. Indeed, most would agree that this is one of their key responsibilities. Based on their understanding of inv
Rotman Management10 min read
COLLABORATIVE INNOVATION: How to Avoid the Four Traps
MOST LEADERS RECOGNIZE that they need to take proactive steps to break down the silos within their organizations, so that people can work together more easily and innovate across departments. They also know that in today’s innovation-starved environm
Rotman Management12 min read
The End of Accounting? TWO EXPERTS GO HEAD-TO-HEAD
PROESSOR BARUCH LEV ON FINANCIAL REPORTING, THEN AND NOW: “Surprisingly, with all the advances in information technology, communication, and investment analysis affecting capital markets — as well as the substantial changes affecting the strategies a
Rotman Management12 min read
Managing Conflict Constructively
WHEN WE THINK ABOUT CONFLICT, what often comes to mind is war: factions diametrically opposed over a significant issue. But not all conflicts are struggles for power or property or people. Lines are often drawn at work, too — and just because a workp
Rotman Management10 min read
Winning the Brain Game: Fixing the Seven Fatal Flaws of Thinking
You believe today’s leaders should keep the following mantra in mind at all times: ‘What appears to be the problem, isn’t.’ Please explain. That’s the first part of a longer mantra, which goes on to say, ‘What appears to be the solution, isn’t. What
Rotman Management10 min read
IMPACT INVESTING: Tracking the Adoption of a Financial (and Social) Innovation
IMAGINE A WORLD IN WHICH it is possible for a financial innovation to generate solid returns alongside positive social and environmental impact. This is the promise of an emerging investment approach called ‘impact investing’ that is gaining the atte
Rotman Management12 min readSocial Science
YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT: Confronting The Elephant in the Room
IT’S NOT A GOOD TIME to be young and in the job market. After a period of modest improvement, the global youth unemployment rate worsened in 2016. Globally, joblessness among 15- to 24-year-olds reached 13.1 per cent, just shy of the 20-year peak in
Rotman Management8 min read
When Expertise Becomes A Liability
THE MOST CRITICAL FUNCTION of every board of directors — and more broadly, of every executive team — is to make decisions that benefit an organization in the long term. Therefore, one would imagine that the more domain experts involved, the better: t
Rotman Management4 min read
How Group Dynamics Affect Decisions
One big factor affecting the quality of decisions is whether a decision involves a group. That’s because group dynamics can lead otherwise sensible individuals to make (or agree to) decisions they might not come to on their own. At times the effects
Rotman Management11 min read
Introducing CATALYTIC GOVERNANCE
WITH THE OPINIONS of countless thousands only a tweet away, it has never been easier for decision makers to engage and consult. The like-minded can now organize with ease, and as a result, more groups and organizations are demanding a voice in govern
Rotman Management8 min readLeadership
Q&A
QUESTIONS FOR Jesse Sostrin, PhD, Leadership Expert, PricewaterhouseCoopers You believe that one of the most overlooked factors in effective leadership is capacity. How do you define ‘leadership capacity’? A leader’s capacity is the time, energy, res
Rotman Management8 min read
Q &A
QUESTIONS FOR Claude Lamoureux, Co-Founder, Canadian Coalition for Good Governance When you interviewed for the CEO’s role at Ontario Teacher’s Pension Plan, you told then-chair Gerald Bouey that if you took on the job, you would ‘run it like a busin
Rotman Management6 min readDiscrimination & Race Relations
Finance Salaries, Returns-to-Talent and Inequality
FACULTY FOCUS Claire Celerier, Professor of Finance, Rotman School of Management Many people believe that the finance sector is contributing disproportionately to income inequality in our society. Do you agree? I do. Ever since the 1980s, compensatio
Rotman Management7 min read
Institutional Investing 101
FACULTY FOCUS Craig Doidge + Alexander Dyck, Professors of Finance, Rotman School of Management KC: Describe how corporate ownership has been transformed over the last few decades by the emergence of institutional investors. Craig Doidge: In The Mode
Rotman Management7 min read
Q &A
QUESTIONS FOR Dan Pontefract, Chief Envisioner, Telus The importance of ‘having a purpose’ is not a new idea; it has been discussed since the time of the ancient Greeks. Why write a book about it now? Quite frankly, society has lost its way, and the
Rotman Management5 min read
Decision-Making for Complex Situations
POINT OF VIEW David Weiss and Ted Cadsby, Authors and Decision-Making Experts WHEN LEADERS FACE COMPLEXITY, ineffective deliberations and decision making are often the result. In our experience, this occurs because they fail to differentiate complex
Rotman Management6 min read
Q &A
QUESTIONS FOR Ann Kaplan (Rotman MBA ‘05), CEO, iFinance Canada What prompted you to launch Medicard Finance (now iFinance Canada) 20 years ago, and how has your business model evolved over the years? In 1996, the indications were that Canada would b
Rotman Management7 min read
The Economic Usefulness of Accounting
FACULTY FOCUS Ole-Kristian Hope, Professor of Accounting, Rotman School of Management In a recent paper, you examined the ‘economic usefulness’ of accounting for private firms. What did you find? For some privately-held firms, the costs of providing
Rotman Management8 min read
Q &A
QUESTIONS FOR Hatem Jahshan (Rotman MBA ‘10), CEO, Steeped Tea By many measures, Hatem Jahshan (Rotman MBA ’10, B.Eng, ’99) and his wife Tonia are enjoying stratospheric success. Their 10-year-old loose-leaf tea company, Steeped Tea, has 9,000 ‘cons
Rotman Management5 min read
Q &A
QUESTIONS FOR Ellen Auster, Professor, York U, and Lisa Hillenbrand, Former Head of Marketing, P&G Jack Welch once said of businesses, “If the rate of change on the outside exceeds the rate of change on the inside, the end is near.” Describe the sig
Rotman Management7 min readLeadership
Smart Power Personified
POINT OF VIEW Daniel Markovitz, Lean Enterprise Institute THE OCCUPY WALL STREET MOVEMENT. Donald Trump’s unexpected presidential victory. The popularity of the TV show Undercover Boss. The stunning pay gap between CEOs and front-line workers. What

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