More guns and drugs on the street fuel perception of increased violent crime in Quebec
Quebec’s homicide rate is lower than it was a decade ago, but a slight majority of people that live in cities aren’t feeling as safe as they used to. This rests in the public’s perception that there is a lack of organization, according Fady Dagher (EMBA’12), Chief of Police in Longueuil, in an interview with TVA’s Le monde à l’envers.
Delve: How Cities Can Make Ride-Hailing Services Environmentally Sustainable, with Animesh Animesh
What if using a ride-hailing app like Uber or Lyft could help decrease a city’s carbon emissions? Combined with public transit use and municipal policy changes, that’s beginning to happen. However, the bigger, less understood question is what motivates people to choose their cars over the bus, or Uber over walking to work.
Alberta politician who is spreading conspiracy theories could become premier
Danielle Smith is running for the leadership of Alberta’s United Conservative Party, and could become Alberta’s next premier. But Smith is campaigning on a platform that includes internet conspiracy theories. In a newsletter, she cautioned that Canada’s currency could be replaced with an international common digital currency, and the federal government could use it to “punish and reward” Canadians.
Aspire Food Group is making pet food more sustainable with insect protein
Insects have always been part of the diet of cats and dogs – but they haven’t always been a part of the pet foods that we feed them. That’s changing, and a company with McGill roots is helping drive a transformation in the industry. Aspire Food Group cultivates crickets to produce high-quality protein with a low environmental footprint.
Negotiators can leverage shared interests to the mutual benefit of all parties
Barry Nalebuff has advised the National Basketball Association in negotiations with the league’s players union, and provided consulting advice to over 50 multinational companies. But the professor at the Yale School of Management doesn’t advise negotiators to project aggressiveness. “You don't have to be a jerk to succeed,” Nalebuff told Prof. Karl Moore for an article in Forbes.com.
Desautels MBAs make Poets&Quants list
Our fantastic students are receiving some well-deserved recognition yet again! Congratulations to Scott Brereton and Yehya Siddiqui for being named to the Poets&Quants 2022 MBAs to Watch list, which highlights outstanding individuals from across 75 top full-time MBA programs.
Delve: Lessons on Economic Growth from the Informal Economy, with Robert Nason
What does the word “entrepreneurship” immediately bring to mind? Risk and reward, innovation and hard work, funding and financial growth, filling gaps in the market? In truth, that answer looks different around the world, in both formal and informal economies, depending on how the local, state, and national economies function and on how the culture views business ownership.
AI-driven automated checkouts are coming soon to Couche-Tard’s Quebec locations
Over the next two years, Alimentation Couche-Tard is installing more than 7,000 automated check-outs that use artificial intelligence to recognize the products that customers want to purchase, without having to scan each item individually. There are already more than 500 of these point-of-sale units in place – including at the Bensadoun School of Retail Management’s Retail Innovation Lab, where Alimentation Couche-Tard tested the technology.
After unionization, corporate foot-dragging is a challenge to contract negotiation
Unionization is having a moment. Employees at Amazon, Starbucks and Apple have all held successful union drives. But forming a union and negotiating a contract are not the same thing. In a 2008 study, Desautels Prof. John-Paul Ferguson found that union election victories resulted in first contracts only 56.3 per cent of the time. “It’s even harder now,” says Ferguson.
Inflation is a major challenge for seniors on fixed incomes
When food prices rise, seniors on fixed incomes pay a heavy price. Seniors living on federal pensions have lost $1,600 in purchasing power, according to Pierre Lynch, the president of the Association québécoise de défense des droits des personnes retraitées et préretraitées. And it’s difficult to predict when those costs could come down, says Associate Professor of Finance Sebastien Betermier.
To stay ahead of the game elite athletes and business leaders must embrace change
When Tim Murdoch played lacrosse at Princeton in the 1980s, his coaches were prone to yelling and screaming. And Murdoch brought that coaching style to McGill’s lacrosse team, but when he had a group of underperforming athletes, he found it just wasn’t working. So, Murdoch re-evaluated, and began focusing on the positive. It paid off. Over the next decade, McGill won most of its games and two national championships. “I focused on strengths instead of weaknesses,” Murdoch told Prof.
Montreal’s new professional women’s hockey team will feature Desautels alum Ann-Sophie Bettez
Montreal is getting a new team in the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF), a professional women’s hockey league – and it will have Desautels representation. Ann-Sophie Bettez (BCom’11) is a forward for the team, and was the 2011-12 CIS Player of the Year. The Montreal Force will be playing its home games across Quebec this year, and Montreal, Gatineau, Quebec City, Rimouski, Rivière-du-Loup, Saint-Jerome, and Sept-Iles are all possible host cities.
Rio Tinto Aluminium hopes new smelting process can reduce emissions from smelting process
To generate and store low-carbon energy, we will need large quantities of minerals and metals. Aluminum is among the most important. Its production accounts for 2% of human-produced emissions, and demand for the lightweight metal is predicted to increase. New technologies could help, said Ivan Vella, the Chief Executive of Rio Tinto Aluminium in a Forbes.com article written by Prof. Karl Moore.
GM plans to use dealerships to upgrade charging infrastructure, accelerate EV adoption
GM plans to eliminate all tailpipe emissions from light-duty vehicles by 2035 – but right now, we don’t have the electrical grid we need to power all the electric vehicles (EVs) that we would need to replace the existing petroleum-powered ones. That’s a big barrier to EV adoption, especially in rural and remote areas. But GM has a plan to overcome this.
CCHL Renews Strategic Alliance with McGill / Le CCLS renouvelle son alliance stratégique avec McGill
The Canadian College of Health Leaders (CCHL) has once again awarded LEADS certification to the Desautels Faculty of Management’s International Masters for Health Leadership (IMHL) program and initiated a new strategic alliance with the Graduate Certificate in Healthcare Management (GCHM), offered jointly with the McGill McGill Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences.