Médecins Sans Frontières brought business innovations to charitable giving
MĂ©decins Sans Frontières (MSF) introduced a new business model for charitable giving. “We were the first ones to create the regular donation model," said Dr. Joanne Liu (MDCM'91, IMHL'14, DSc'16), an emergency physician, a professor at the School of Population and Global Health at Ď㽶ĘÓƵ, and the 13th President of MSF (2013-2019). “One of our first fundraising campaigns was 1 euro per day,” Liu said in an interview with Prof.
Business leaders now operate at the intersection of business operations and global trends
Politics has pervaded the world of business, writes Prof. Karl Moore in Forbes.com. Environmental, social and governance (ESG) and equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) are both changing corporate practices.
Chef Rich Francis revives Indigenous culinary traditions
Rich Francis, owner of Seventh Fire Hospitality Group in Six Nations in Ontario and Alberta, never set out to be a chef, but leveraged his time on Top Chef Canada to launch a prominent culinary career. Francis focuses on the precolonial culinary traditions of Indigenous peoples, but there are limits on what he’s able to do. “Most of my work is in First Nations communities,” Francis told Prof.
Montreal EdTech company Paper aims to address educational inequities
When a parent pays a tutor directly, they are helping their own child succeed. But not every parent can afford to do that, and Montreal-based EdTech company Paper has a vision to address this inequity. The academic support platform, a finalist in the 2014 Dobson Cup, sells its services directly to school boards, so that all students in a district are able to access them.
The Ras Al Khaimah Economic Zone pitches Canadian businesses on the advantages of the UAE
Dubai and Abu Dhabi are household names in the west, but there are five other emirates in the United Arab Emirates vying to establish themselves on the world stage. One of the fastest growing is Ras Al Khaimah. It’s home to RAKEZ—the Ras Al Khaimah Economic Zone, a major business and industrial hub, which claims to be home to over 15,000 companies in over 50 sectors.
War in Ukraine exposed how far green energy is from meeting electricity needs
The war in Ukraine jeopardizes the European Commission’s bid to become climate neutral by 2050, according to Eric Reguly, the European Bureau Chief for The Globe and Mail. “This crisis in Europe exposed the shortcomings of renewable energy,” said Reguly in an interview with Prof. Karl Moore for Forbes.com. “There just was not enough of it around to make up for the gas shortfall when Vladimir Putin turned off the taps.
Strengthening communications networks will require many thousands of satellites
About 11,000 satellites have been launched since the Sputnik went in to orbit in the 1950s, but less than a third of them are currently active. The coming years will see a proliferation, with an estimated 70,000 satellites going in to orbit – largely to bolster communications networks, writes Desautels Prof. Karl Moore in an article for Forbes.com.
Solfium app makes it easier to understand the costs and benefits of installing solar panels
Solar energy has a great deal of potential – but the areas where it is produced are not always the same places the energy is needed most. That’s a barrier to widespread adoption, and Canadian-Mexican startup Solfium wants to accelerate solar’s adoption by making it easier to understand the economics of installing solar panels. The company’s mobile application is a one-stop shop for a quick estimate of the benefits and costs associated with installing solar energy.
GSoft’s new onboarding platform aims to improve employee retention
Competition for top talent is fierce, and effective onboarding is key to employee retention. It is especially challenging to get this right in a digital-first environment. “If you miss your onboarding, there's a good chance that the person will leave much earlier than expected,” says Simon De Baene in an interview with Prof. Karl Moore for Forbes.
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.
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.
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.
At-work interactions can help build trust that transfers to remote work environments
Nearly 90 per cent of Americans would choose to work remotely, and the trend holds true among different occupational categories, demographic groups, and geographical locations. But there are still advantages to in-person contact, according to Kira Newman the editor of Greater Good Magazine. When Newman got the job, she moved to California to develop relationships in person. “It makes it easier to work together and cooperate remotely once you know someone better,” Newman told Prof.
Indigenous women are fastest growing group of entrepreneurs
There are about 60,000 Indigenous entrepreneurs in Canada, and Indigenous women are the fastest growing group of entrepreneurs. “They are outpacing all other segments” says Monica James, a member of the Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation and the regional manager for client diversity at the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC). Indigenous women have been in business for many years, said James in an interview with Prof.
