UNIVERSITY OF VICTORIA | BUSINESS ALUMNI MaGAZINE SPRING/SUMMER 2011 Home Care Hero Alum Danny Birch takes nursing on the road Cable Guy Meet Our JR Shaw Entrepreneurs PM40065475 Shawn Burns, CMA President & CEO, Carbon Credit Corp GUSTAVSON SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AluMNI MagaZINE | UNIVERSITY OF VIctoRIA Contents SPRING/SUMMER 2011 Business Class is published biannually for: Peter B. Gustavson School of Business Features University of Victoria 3800 Finnerty Road Victoria, BC V8P 5C2 10 Health on Wheels Canada Grad Danny Birch takes senior care door to door. Phone: 250-721-8264 18 Website: gustavson.uvic.ca 14 Net Profit Secrets of success from three Internet moneymakers. EDITOR Krista Boehnert MANAGING EDITOR Kirsten Rodenhizer 18 Cable Vision CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Dianne George JR Shaw and the building of a Canadian media empire. ART DIRECTOR Scott Laurie CONtributorS Krista Boehnert, Marcus Campos, Robin Dyke, Pat Elemans, Andrew Findlay, Dianne George, Sonia Germain, David Herr, Rachelle LeBlanc Quiney, Julian Legazpi, Wendy Mah, Daniel McCombe, Bev Stevens, Departments Cherie Tong, Jessica Werb EditoriAL BOARD Dale Beckman, Krista Boehnert, Robin Dyke, 5 Message from the Dean Pat Elemans, Dianne George, Cristy Hartman, Gwen Page Let’s hear it for entrepreneurs. ProductioN MANAGER Suzy Williamson STUDIO MANAGER Kristina Borys 6 Biz Bites ASSISTANT STUDIO MANAGER Mandy Lau What to do about bad online reviews PRODUCTION SYSTEMS MANAGER Kim McLane and more. ADVERTISING PRODUCTION Allison Griffioen, Kate Hood, Chris Sherwood ELectroNIC IMAGING Debbie Lynn Craig, 8 Degree at Work Bernhard Holzmann, Laura Michaels A BCom finds his calling in the SENIOR ACCOUNT REPRESENTATIVE Karen Rice global teaching biz. 6 For advertising please contact Karen Rice at 604-205-1711 or [email protected] 9 Giving Back A new student award helps hard workers play hard. I’M USING FINANCIAL 17 In Conversation Lululemon CEO Christine Day talks brand-building. Canada Wide Media Limited 4th Floor, 4180 Lougheed Highway, 21 Global Outlook Burnaby, B.C. V5C 6A7 Exchange students get a knowledge boost. TOOLS TO BUILD A Phone: 604-299-7311 Fax: 604-299-9188 Email: [email protected] 22 Alumni in Profile Elton Pereira, Graham Lancaster, Alberio Bathory-Frota, CHAIRMAN & CEO Peter Legge, O.B.C., LLD (Hon.) Scott Garman and Erin Sullivan. BETTER PLANET. PRESIDENT Karen Foss VICE PRESIDENT ProductioN Corinne Smith As president of Carbon Credit Corp, Shawn Burns creates VICE PRESIDENT MARKETING AND DIGITAL MEDIA Samantha Legge 22 Class Notes VICE PRESIDENT EditoriAL Kathleen Freimond The latest alumni career moves and news. ways for other companies to make money in the new green VICE PRESIDENT FINANCIAL Farnaz Riahi economy. A tree, until now, was only worth something VICE PRESIDENT SALES Rebecca Legge when it was turned into lumber. Shawn develops ways 26 Reading Room for sustainable forestry and agriculture, among other Our top book picks for entrepreneurs. industries, to make money while leaving precious resources like trees still standing. It’s not easy being one of the Business Class is the alumni publication of the University of Victoria 27 Faculty Research pioneers of an entirely new economy but Shawn has the Gustavson School of Business. Your comments are welcome. Please write to us: University of Victoria, 3800 Finnerty Road, Victoria, BC V8P 5C2 Dr. Josh Ault mines the realm of microfinance. CMA mindset to make it happen. The CMA Program will gustavson.uvic.ca Tel: 250-721-8264 Fax: 250 721-6613 Business Class magazine is published biannually by Canada Wide Media strengthen your Strategy, Management and Accounting Limited for the Gustavson School of Business, University of Victoria. No part of this magazine may be reproduced without written permission of the publisher. 28 Faculty News and Notes abilities, allowing you to make things happen. To learn more, Phone: 604-299-7311. Fax: 604-299-9188. We catch up with team ENT. contact Shannon Thompson at [email protected]. Mail: 4th Floor, 4180 Lougheed Hwy., Burnaby, BC V5C 6A7. Canadian Publications Mail Product Sales Agreement No. 40065475. Plus: we’re AASCB-certified! Create Possibilities.TM 30 Back of the Class 21 The first MGB class pipes up. ®/™ Registered Trade-Marks/Trade-Marks are owned by The Society of Management Accountants of Canada. Used under license. COVER PHOTO: venturi+karpa BUSINESS CLASS | PETER B. GUSTAVSON SCHOOL OF BUSINESS 3 CMA of BC.indd 1 27/04/10 9:28 AM Message from the Dean Hooray for business enterprise In this issue, it’s hats off to entrepreneurs. We’re chatting with alumni, members of the business community and faculty about their ventures. The timing couldn’t be better, because we’ve just launched our Graduate Certificate and Diploma in Entrepreneurship. Our first cohort started this May and our second intake will commence in September. The graduate certificate is modelled after our award-winning bachelor and master’s in entrepreneurship specializations and is open to students from all areas of study. The three-month program focuses on the key theories, concepts, thinking and behaviours needed for a successful venture. We’re very excited to be helping people pursue their entrepreneurial dreams. The sky is the limit for such dreams and no one exemplifies this better than our 2011 Distinguished Entrepreneur of the Year Award recipient, JR Shaw. The Shaw Communications Inc. story is a testament to the power of pursuing a vision. In the company’s first 10 years, JR’s vision—to give people choice—laid the foundation for what would become the largest cable company in the country. An entrepreneur has to be able to adjust to rapid change and solve problems quickly and effectively. Our article on e-entrepreneurs (“Net Profit,” p. 14) highlights several alumni who successfully face the challenges of staying ahead of the e-business curve and differentiating themselves from the rest of the pack. More and more businesses are becoming social enterprises. Our cover story, “Health on Wheels” (p. 10), features Danny Birch, who combines his business acumen and passion for elder care to make life easier for senior citizens. Also in the social enterprise realm, alumnus David Frey has successfully made education his business, bringing teachers to the classrooms of the world (Degree at Work, p. 8). And speaking of global classrooms, our first Master of Global Business cohort is on the cusp of graduation. It’s been an incredible journey for Best regards, these students. They are currently on four-month global internship placements before they graduate this fall. The internship companies include, among many others, 8th Estate Winery in Hong Kong, L’Oreal Canada and Uniglobe Travel International in India. Prior to the work Ali Dastmalchian placements, the group spent a semester studying in Victoria, as well as Professor and Dean ervices one in Kaohsiung, Taiwan and one in Linz, Austria. Three members of the [email protected] S inaugural class tell us about their experiences in Back of the Class (p. 30). I am always excited to hear what alumni are up to. Their adventures Vic Photo Photo Vic U and business ventures are the stuff of which dreams are made. I’d love Photo: Photo: to hear your story, too. BUSINESS CLASS | PETER B. GUSTAVSON SCHOOL OF BUSINESS 5 | Biz bites visit every year, and alumni are eligible to attend many of these events. It’s a great way to meet employers and other alumni, and learn what’s happening in Let’s face it: mistakes happen. Whether the marketplace. it’s a consulting decision that just didn’t work out, a service transaction that went Volunteer opportunities awry or a product that didn’t quite measure Thinking of volunteering? A full range up to a buyer’s expectations, a bad online Opening of short-term, long-term, local and review can be the unfortunate result. international volunteer opportunities When it comes to online reviews, it’s can be found on the volunteer board. Beating bad buzz the customer’s point of view that gets doors Piggy’s proverbial conch. Why? Because A tutor registry How to deal with negative online reviews clearly, you—the company—are biased. UVic’s new career portal Know someone who needs a tutor? Want Of course, the customer may be too, but By Bev Stevens, career educator to offer your expertise to a struggling By Rachelle LeBlanc Quiney, MBA ’10 in the online world, it doesn’t matter. student? Register as a tutor or browse the Here’s the upside: a negative customer listings to connect with the right people. review is an excellent opportunity to demonstrate your commitment to Whether you’re an employer looking Jobs, jobs, jobs Casual work listings customer service. Avoid knee-jerk to hire a grad, or an alum looking for Employers can post on the job board for The casual job board is where local reactions and hurt feelings and seize the your next job, UVic’s newest career free by registering through the portal. Since homeowners can post casual work (lawn opportunity to make it right, publicly. resource, learninginmotion.uvic.ca, is the site launched in October 2010, more maintenance, child care, etc.). Interested Being seen accepting your mistakes sure to turn up a few options. On the than 1,100 employers have posted around students contact the homeowners directly. and, more importantly, fixing them, can site, you’ll find job postings from the 2,025 jobs. do even more for your reputation than Business Career Centre board, and you The career portal is free: just sign in providing good service in the first place. can book a one-on-one appointment Event info using your netlink ID and password. But before you rush to respond, check with a career educator. It’s also a great Check out what’s happening on campus.