By all accounts, Quebecers have had it with Bombardier, and they showed it during the company’s annual meeting last week. After months of bad news, culminating in government bailouts and 14,000 jobs hitting the chopping block, the word that top execs were getting an almost 50-per cent pay raise made many throw up their hands in disgust.
In response, the founding family doubled down on the executive compensation in the name of retailing top talent.
As late as Thursday morning, it was still not clear whether Pierre Beaudoin would be able to hang on as Chairman of Bombardier’s board of directors. Even though the founding family’s Class A shares give them over 50 percent of the voting power, the investor revolt that is currently raging is a clear indication that there is a real appetite for change.
Desautels Professor Karl Moore says that, though the board must pay attention to governance issues, Mr. Beaudoin is a valuable asset.
A research paper authored in part by Desautels Professor and Canada Research Chair in Technology, Management, and Healthcare Samer Faraj compared the traditional management style (where the most experienced person is in charge) with the more self-driving teams that are a hallmark of agile systems development.
The fallout from Bombardier’s executive compensation scandal isn’t over yet. After the company’s recent bad-news cocktail of layoffs, ballooning C Series development costs, and a heavy taxpayer payout, the executive pay issue has raised eyebrows. Several high-profile institutional investors have had enough, and noted that they would be withholding their support — including, but not limited to, the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Quebec.
Wesdome Gold Mines Ltd. has announced the slate of 2017 director nominees to be voted on at the annual meeting, which will be in Toronto on June 21, 2017. Among the list of nominees is Charles B. Main (BCom’79), who has three-decades of mining and finance experience, including positions at Yamana Gold, Normandy Mining, TVX Gold and PriceWaterhouseCoopers.
This year’s X-1 cohort has been announced. It’s a diverse group, and one that boasts participants from the McGill Dobson Cup and the McGill Lean Startup Program, as well as a higher number of women than men.
The Graduate Certificate in Professional Accounting (GCPA) program is delighted to have welcomed 49 new students, along with a returning cohort of 45 that will write the Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada (CPA) Common Final Exam (CFE) this September.
The CFE is three-day examination that requires candidates to demonstrate the depth and breadth of their abilities in accordance with the CPA competencies, which includes an understanding of leadership, teamwork, communications, and strategy.
McGill University is on its way to becoming a global centre for retail-management training, thanks to a $25-million gift from Aldo Bensadoun (BCom'64, LLD'12) via the Bensadoun Family Foundation.
The goal is to launch an inter-disciplinary school where students can come together with researchers and industry insiders to develop solutions for the ever-changing modern retail landscape.
J. Pearce Bunting (BCom'52) grew up during the Great Depression, then rose through the ranks of his father’s brokerage firm to become president in 1967. Ten years later, he became president of the TSX and modernized the operation by introducing a computerized trading system.
The technology was immensely unpopular with old-guard floor traders, but times were changing—and Mr. Bunting is now remembered as having been good for the exchange. Patrick Mars, who ran Bunting’s old company, said that “Under his watch the exchange prospered and did well.”
Lebanon native Fady Dagher (EMBA'12) has lived in Montreal since 1986. When he took over from Denis Desroches as chief of the Longueuil police in February, many on the south shore force didn’t want another Montrealer in charge.
Back in January, Karl Moore took a group of Desautels students to meet Warren Buffett at his Omaha offices. Mr. Buffett is known to be an introvert, and his conduct during the visit bore that out; rather than expounding on everything that came up, Mr. Buffett stuck to speaking on subjects he knows well. He also avoided working the crowd, rather staying with a small group of students and having a full-on conversation.
In a recent op-ed, Financial Times editor Andrew Hill takes issue with the methodologies of the MBA programs offered by the Harvard Business School and other schools worldwide. In this, he aligns himself with The Golden Passport author Duff McDonald and Desautels Professor Henry Mintzberg, who says that the HBS doesn’t train its MBA students to be good managers, but is rather “putting them on a fast-track they don’t deserve to be on.”
Rima Qureshi (BCom'87, MBA'96) knows all about learning to adapt. In an interview with Desautels Professor Karl Moore, she says that as a highly analytical, self-contained decision-maker, her position as senior VP and North American head of Ericsson has taught her the importance of listening, getting others involved in decision-making early, and finding a common position to build on.
Deron Triff (MBA'98) has had an enviable career; he’s worked for PBS, TED, and Scholastic. Now, he’s founded a new media incubator with another former TED executive, June Cohen.
Wait, What? specializes in creating VR series, apps, and video for social media. The company’s latest creation is a 10-episode podcast called Masters of Scale. Each episode sees host and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman explore the ways that iconic founders grew their companies into major players, often from nothing.
