Achieving the next step

Rick Hiltz enrolled in the Business Essentials program with a clear mission – to grow his skills and advance his career. Six months later, Rick has realized his goal and surpassed his own expectation for personal and professional growth.  Rick states, “I enrolled in Business Essentials because I was struggling to find the next step in my career. The program lined up really well with the struggles I was experiencing in the workplace. Now having completed Business Essentials, I have been given a major promotion. My participation in the program directly impacted this promotion, and I now have more of an ear with the executives because I can speak their language. My confidence has really grown.”

Rick was also surprised to see the impact that his participation had back in the workplace; “Before the program, I would push myself to excel but not my team. During the program, I realized that if I am going to change and develop, then I have to develop my team too. After every session, I would take what I learned and shared it with my team. This shared learning sparked up my team, so it’s like we all developed together. This has helped two other team members get promotions as well. I have changed my thinking and our team’s thinking. We are creating new processes and are more motivated than ever before.”

Rick’s Action Learning Project (ALP) was also a huge win for his regional office. “We developed purchasing software which is realizing between 5 – 40 per cent savings on material purchases. The system acts as a complete ledger and decision making tool. Moving forward we will be able to use the system for forecasting and will be able to purchase raw materials when market prices are lowest.” Rick believes that without the program, the new system would never have achieved such performance. “The program content was very valuable in completing my project. The topics I found most useful were change management, negotiations, presentation skills, leadership, strategy and data analysis, but it was the overall program integration that has the most impact. The faculty made clear connections between topics and how everything works together in a business. At the end of the day, my company loves the new system and they are looking to implement it company-wide. It’s amazing! The program gave me the development profile I wanted and needed.’

“Business Essentials was fantastic. One of the best decisions I made regarding my career. I would recommend this program to anyone who is trying to find their way to the next level.”
Rick Hiltz, Senior Project Manager, EllisDon Corporation

If you are interested in learning more about the Business Essentials program, please attend one of our upcoming information sessions.

To speak to an adviser, call 403.220.6600 or email execed@haskayne.ucalgary.ca