Business Essentials Alumni Talk Real World Results

Derek Hassay, PhD, RBC Professor in Entrepreneurial Thinking and Business Essentials Academic Director, recently facilitated a panel with Business Essentials alumni to discuss what their key takeaways were from the program. The panel included Karam-Ali Talakshi, Director, Legal and Business Affairs, QuirkLogic, Inc., Patrick Grogan, President, Gateworks, and Jeanine Vany, Senior Geologist, GLJ Petroleum Consultants. Here is what the alumni had to say . . .

Derek: Tell me about how the Business Essentials (BE) program helped change or alter how you think about business and how you now approach your role differently?

Ali: Three years ago I stopped being a corporate lawyer to join a startup as their internal legal counsel and it was the best decision I could have made. I quickly realized that as the company lawyer I was technically focused and didn’t have a  broad understanding of business operations.

Through Business Essentials I was able to develop the confidence to sit down with the founders and ask to take on specific business related projects and not just ‘legal’ projects. Having received buy-in from the organization, I was then asked to take on other similar type of projects. Business Essentials has given me the confidence and the ability to step out of my role as the “lawyer” and take on other business-type roles within the organization. For me, that’s a huge benefit.

Jeanine: I'm a geologist and I'm a technical person, and I always have these big ideas, and I hadn't a clue on how to get them done or get them out into the organization. That was what really drew me into this program because I was searching for a way to get my ideas heard. I learned useful tools to get my point across. In addition, I learned you don't have to be in a leadership role to be a leader.

Derek: Can you explain how the Business Essentials cohort influenced you and how important the cohort was to the overall program experience?

Pat: The cohort experience became quite an unexpected highlight for me.  After two or three sessions, there's an energy that comes out into the group that you start to feed off of. Through your informal conversations, you start to get an insight into what other people are dealing with. One of the things that was really powerful in our cohort was that we had a wide range of individuals with different experiences.

Being in a cohort gives you the privilege of watching your fellow learners progress over six months in their careers and work environment. You get to see how the program content becomes relevant immediately, and you get the opportunity to apply it and then hear other people's experience. For me, the cohort experience was something I was kind of nervous about, but it turned out to be one of my favorite takeaways of the program.

Ali: Piggybacking on what Pat was saying, we learned from the experiences of the cohort. Coming into the program you don’t appreciate how similar all of our situations are. You may feel you're on an island with what's going on in your own company, but really, when you talk to those in your cohort, you're all in the same position. You're all fighting the same challenges and trying to navigate the same situational waters, and it's really helpful to have those conversations and different perspectives.

Derek: The Action Learning Project (ALP) is an essential part of the BE experience. Can you talk a little bit about its relevancy and the impact it had upon you, personally, and your organization?

Jeanine: As the economy began to recede, our company had to do lay-offs for the first time in 40 years. We were now being asked, as the technical people, to put on business hats which is not a normal or natural process for technical people. The Vice President of Corporate Strategy sent me on this program with, "You need to do a project that's going to be relevant," so I tackled a massive project. It morphed over time, but basically I came up with a product that I wanted to sell. Now, what's come out of it is we're focusing on the workflows and trying to make micro-teams and become more integrated in order to offer this new product in the future.

Pat: I looked at doing the University of Alberta program. The reason I chose to come to this program was because of the ALP. Being my own boss, I can tell other people, I can delegate, and I can shrink away from challenging myself. The ALP keeps you on task. It's challenging. It's at times stressful, but it makes our learning journey real and aligned, and it's a great opportunity to take what you're learning and turn it into success in real life . It has transformed my business. We've taken some really important lessons learned here and applied it into our day-to-day activities. It's valuable from that perspective.

Ali: It was great. We all got to know each other’s businesses really well, and I think the ALPs really allowed us to see different sides of our cohort that we wouldn't have normally seen. People bared their souls just telling us what their challenges were, why they were having these challenges, and how the ALP really helped shape their trajectory within their own work environment. 

If you are interested in learning more about the Business Essentials program and how it could transform your career and your organization, RSVP for an upcoming information session.

For more information about the Business Essentials program click here.