Category Archives: Curriculum

Courses, majors, electives

The Capstone Course at Rotman

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Michael Moses - Assistant Director, Recruitment & AdmissionsThe final six weeks of the first year of the Rotman curriculum is what we call the “Capstone Term.” In this term, firms come to Rotman and present our students with a real business challenge they are facing today. For the Capstone Course in this term, our students are then tasked with coming up with solutions and presenting them to the firms facing those business challenges. In other words, our students participate in live cases with firms who in the past have included Labatt (AB InBev), the Bank of Montreal, among others.

Through these live cases, our students get the opportunity to showcase their skills in front of employers and get comfortable tackling real world, messy, ambiguous problems, much like what will be expected from them from the first day on the job post-MBA.  –This is in stark contrast to the “prepackaged” cases that one downloads from a website from other business schools which are designed to take students down one particular line of thinking to arrive at one specific conclusion (and of course, the real business world is not quite as neatly packaged !).

We’ve received a lot of great press about the Capstone Course so what follows are some handy links to help you better understand it and how it helps our students become better problem solvers:

From the co-designers of the Capstone Course, Professors Mara Lederman and Bernardo Blum:

From our students who have participated in the capstone course:

Students presenting in Bank of Montreal Boardroom

Hopefully this gives you a sense of the huge benefit the Capstone term gives our students to  help them stand out from their peers across the world!

Why a Rotman MBA is like competing in the World Cup

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Michael Moses - Assistant Director, Recruitment & AdmissionsTomorrow marks the opening of the 2014 FIFA World Cup and while 32 teams play for world soccer (football 😉 ) supremacy, something very similar is happening right here at Rotman- 350 students working towards their Rotman MBA!  Here’s why:

Multiculturalism

The world cup features 32 countries participating. The Rotman student body features 31.

Global Recognition

Competing in the World Cup opens doors for soccer players to play around the world. Similarly, a Rotman MBA opens doors for you to management roles around the world (as Rotman’s Professor Bova alludes to at 1:20 in this clip).

Nike Brand Presence

Nike is everywhere during the World Cup: They outfit 10 teams in it and the company has a 90% global market share for soccer shoes. Similarly, with Rotman as a core hiring school for Nike, come recruiting season the “swoosh” is quite prominent on the Rotman campus as well.

Group G

In this year’s World Cup, Group G is considered the toughest. Making it out of that group successfully will give teams the confidence and momentum to be strong competitors in the knockout round. Rotman’s Term 1 in the first year of the curriculum is considered our students’ Group G. Term 1 includes:

  • The following courses:
    • Statistics
    • Strategy
    • Finance 1: Capital Markets and Valuation
    • Accounting
  • Preparation for summer internship recruiting
  • Case competition season including
    • Stock Pitch Competition
    • McKinsey Case Competition
    • Rotman Risk Management Association Case Competition
    • Rotman Healthcare & Biotechnology Association Case Competition
    • Investment Banking Competition
    • Labatt Marketing Case Competition
    • Venture Capital Competition

….All at in the span of 9 weeks!

While it is challenging, come January (post-Term 1), our students too, have the confidence and moment to power through the rest of the year and land great summer internships!

Team Spirit

Soccer fans are famous for their dedication and creative costumes in support of their teams. Rotman students are no less dedicated to their school:

Rotman students cheering each other on in crazy costumes

To see this team spirit in action, check out Rotman at the MBA Games in this video.

Bonus Money

Many players earn hefty bonuses if they win the World Cup. Similarly, as you can see in our latest Employment and Salary Report, upon graduating and landing a full-time job, the average signing bonus for our newly graduated students was $13,352! And that is on top of base salary.

While we might not all become FIFA World Cup champions, our students and alumni can certainty feel that way!

Enjoy the tournament!

 

Missed the Open House in October? No problem!

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Michael Moses - Assistant Director, Recruitment & AdmissionsThis past October we invited prospective students to come to Rotman for a serious of sample lectures and information sessions on doing an MBA and doing so at Rotman.

We realize that many people who might be interested in Rotman weren’t able to attend while others who did attend may wish to review the lectures they sat in on during the open house. So we now offer lectures from the day (along with the slides from the lectures) to you for free online!

 

To view any session, click on each of the links below. The sessions are as follows

Self-Development Lab

-Dr. Maja Djikic, the director of the Self-Development Lab, speaks on what it is and the services it offers students (for free!). Click here to learn more about the lab as well.

The Value of the MBA

-Niki da Silva, Rotman’s Director of Recruitment & Admissions talks to the benefits of doing an MBA generally, and the benefits of doing an MBA at Rotman, specifically.

DesignWorks

-Mark Leung, Director of Rotman DesignWorks, explains how business design works and how it can be leveraged to solve real-world business problems. Click here to learn more about DesignWorks and here for more on business design in the Rotman curriculum.

The Capstone

-This is the final term of the first year of the Rotman MBA curriculum where students participate in “live cases.” Professor Mara Lederman explains how these cases work and how they are integrated into the Rotman curriculum.

MBA Current Students Panel

-Students in their first and second years of study talk to their experience at Rotman and answer questions. This session was moderated by Claire Gumus, one of Rotman’s Assistant Directors of Recruitment & Admissions.

So if you are doing your MBA school research over the holiday season, take a look at any of the above sample classes- they will be sure to help in your decision making process

As Niki noted in her blog post last week, we are closed until Jan 5 2014, reopening on Jan 6 2014 at 9am. Have a wonderful and safe holiday season and see you in 2014!

What does a great [MBA] Education entail?

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Everyone has high expectations from an MBA education. It is a highly sought after degree and everyone wants to get the maximum return. To get the most out of it, you need to examine all the variables that factor in to make up a great education. This high-in-demand education should provide you with opportunities that will go beyond an undergraduate or a strictly academic master’s degree. At least that is what we aim for here at the Rotman School of Management.

The Rotman School combines education with great extracurricular activities. Our student body consists of accomplished individuals with good academic and professional performance. They are self-motivated. They want to invest their time, energy and money in their MBA education to advance their careers. It is our job to provide them with the tools necessary to help them get one step ahead of the game.

Our curriculum

[Integrative Thinking] is the idea behind our cutting edge curriculum. I discussed this approach in detail in my previous post “How do we teach Integrative Thinking?” Instead of teaching you the current trends, we are trying to equip you with a working thought process used by successful industry leaders. Any trend can become outdated overnight, however the thought process will always remain fundamental in any business matter.

Career Services

Two resources at your immediate disposal are the Corporate Connections Centre and the Business Information Centre .

  • Corporate Connections Centre is our career centre. Internship and fulltime opportunities are facilitated through our CCC. They bring employers on campus for industry days, help you with your resume and your interview skills. They are there to support you with your job research.  One thing they do very well is to establish connections in the targeted industry. Through the tradeshows and conferences they attend, they definitely raise awareness of Rotman’s brand. (If you are interested in attending any of the conferences, the school will support you financially as well.)
  • Business Information Centre is the in-house library for business and management information where we can service our business school community with research expertise in company, industry and market research information.

Like most places, Toronto has a hidden job market as well. Rotman will bring you the resources to tap into this hidden job market, however you will have to show initiative as well.

International experience

Those of you who have already read my post “Rotman in Global Context” will realize how much the school is trying to help students gain international exposure. We have study tours, international exchange programs and also internship opportunities in London, England.

Rotman Clubs

At Rotman, we promote networking as much as we can. You will enjoy many public speaking series and panels held at Rotman.  Further to these, our students also enjoy our Rotman Clubs. We have three types of clubs: Industry Clubs and Associations, Regional Clubs and Associations, Social Clubs and Associations. Students who participate in these clubs find their experience highly enriching.

These clubs are organized by the Graduate Business Council . If you want to form your own club, you can work directly with them. Joining one of these clubs or participating in one of them or all of them will show your commitment to your community. You will cultivate lifetime friendships and develop good future contacts.

The Rotman School undertakes all these initiatives to provide you with the best student experience possible.  As you can see, a business education is not always all about the curriculum.

At Rotman we believe our success is based on a combination of four elements:

  • [Reputation]  Top MBA in Canada!
  • [Location]  Downtown location rocks!
  • [Curriculum]  Integrative Thinking!
  • [Career Services] 90% of our students find jobs within three-months of graduation!

 

 

How do we “teach” Integrative Thinking @ the Rotman School?

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One of the many things that distinguishes the Rotman School of Management from other business schools is [Integrative Thinking]. I have been getting a lot of questions during prospective student interviews and at MBA fairs about this concept. Today I decided to write about it.

[Integrative Thinking] is a concept initially developed by our Dean, Roger Martin, based on his insight into how successful industry leaders solve business problems. Roger interviewed  more than 50 senior business people to understand how these successful leaders think. He discovered a pattern that he believed could be mapped out and taught, so that students could learn how to be fantastic problem-solvers too. Based on this insight, the Rotman School is transforming its curriculum to give you those tools. If this topic interests you, read Roger’s book the Opposable Mind . It is wonderful!

One very popular question is “How do you teach Integrative Thinking?” The answer is simple; we teach you how to think differently. At the end of the day, regardless of the type of industry you are in, you are working towards the same goal; to build, grow and sustain your business. Simply telling you how to solve a specific problem that is constraining a business’s ability to grow, for example, is not that helpful because you may never encounter that specific problem again. Business problems are rarely ever the same. So single-problem answers aren’t all that helpful. But providing you with a set of tools to diagnose a problem, to understand what caused it and then to generate creative ideas to solve it – now that is useful. That is the heart of integrative thinking.

You might be thinking about the admissions process and [Integrative Thinking]

What the admissions team is looking for in a candidate is a healthy mix of analytical and soft skills. You will need the analytical skills to crunch the numbers in the program. Like every business education, our program is revolves around numbers. Accounting and finance are not the only two functional areas that require basic math. When you study marketing, you will review profit and loss (P&L) statements. When you study operations, you will be calculating various costs such as overhead, transportation and inventory. When you study HR, you will be calculating indirect costs.

In terms of soft skills, we are looking for individuals who value excellence in whatever they take on, who are collaborative and open minded, who take accountability for their work and for whom integrity is important. We are also looking for individuals who are aiming to set the trend rather than follow the trends, and who see value in hearing diverse opinions. Your competitive edge will be your ability to balance analytical and soft skills wherever you go in life.

When you look at our curriculum, you will see that [Integrative Thinking] is woven in to the first year with an opening course called Foundations of Integrative Thinking and a closing class called The Integrative Thinking Practicum. In the second year, you can take further electives in business design and integrative thinking regardless of your major.

So at the end of the day, [Integrative Thinking] is a methodology that will be useful to you throughout your career. If you decide to come to Rotman, we will try our hardest to make you a problem-solver for the world! A new way to think awaits you.