What the heck is integrative thinking??

If you have been on the Rotman website or read anything Rotman-related you have probably seen it plastered all over the place and you are probably wondering what it is. Most of us had no idea when we started school. This qtr we are taking a class called “Integrative Thinking Practicum” (ITP for short) in which we are supposed to take the concept of integrative thinking and practice it in case studies.

Apparently there were a lot of complaints with how ITP was being taught last year so to figure out how to fix it, who better to teach the class then integrative thinking’s inventor (and the Dean of our school), Roger Martin! So Roger Martin is teaching us a class. Despite his stature in the business world, he is actually a super down-to-earth guy and of course speaks very well. Also, thus far, I really like how the class is being structured. First we did a few cases that happened in the past, so we could see how to use integrative thinking to come up with solutions. Then, we are given a bunch of cases of situations happening right now in the real world and asked to solve them. It’s cool knowing we can use what we learn in class to make an actual real world impact.

But now to answer the question in the title of this blog entry. According to Rotman’s website, integrative thinking is: “instead of choosing one (model of how to run your business) at the expense of the other, generate a creative resolution of the tension in the form of a new model that contains elements of the both models, but is superior to each.” I dare define it in a much simpler form: creative problem solving. That’s it. Basically instead of thinking in terms of very strict set of alternatives that are common in your industry, come up with some wacky new one that suits your needs.

Because I am naturally a pretty creative guy, this is not really news to me. I think like this every day. However, for people with backgrounds working/studying in fields that are very “black and white” I can definitely see the value in teaching how to be more creative problem solvers. So, people with creative backgrounds, this stuff should be easy for you. Engineers, accountants, etc, have fun expanding your problem-solving horizons!

One month of school…feels like a year!!

So today is October 1 meaning I have been at Rotman for 1 month. Although with the speed at which things go around here, it feels a lot more like it’s been a year. In undergrad, one month might involve a test, a group project and a social event. Here, that’s one week…every week.

As you may know, Rotman’s big thing is “Integrated Thinking” and I know a lot of you are probably wondering what that even means. None of us even knew when we started school! But now I have a pretty good sense of it….

The workload in our Integrated Thinking class is completely insane- 150+ pages of reading on a weekly basis, group projects due in a matter of days (i.e. 3) requiring use of software we have to learn on our own and then use to complete said projects, etc. I have also heard many horror stories about how the final exam is horrendous. Nonetheless, the class is incredibly interesting. It basically combines psychology, sociology and business together to help us be better managers (and people in general). You’ll have to spend the $90,000 to come to school and find out specifically what I mean though. ;-)

Something cool I forgot to mention in my last blog was I attended the first meeting of the latin america business club a few days ago. We opted to do the whole meeting in spanish. At 1^st I was a bit nervous as most Spanish accents I am fine with but some, I really have to focus to understand (i.e. Venezuelan, Cuban). So I was a bit nervous that I would miss some key points. However, 1.5 hours of presenters and I understood every single word! Woo-hoo!! So I guess I am bilingual?

2 more weeks of class and then exams. I am praying every day that I come out the other side alive!! It’s going to be nuts!

It's business time

Hi Guys!

Welcome to my MBA blog. I am writing this blog to help MBA outsiders get a better idea of what exactly goes on in a (top-ranked) MBA school. What are we learning about? How do we get better prepared for the exciting world of senior management positions? And for Rotman in particular, what exactly is “Integrative Thinking”? (Integrative Thinking being the core component of the Rotman MBA program)

I am thinking I will try to update this blog once a week with some of the cool and exciting things going on in MBA land.

A little bit about me: I was born in Ottawa (Canada) and did my undergrad at the University of Ottawa, majoring in marketing. I also got a chance to do a semester abroad, on exchange at the Hogeschool van Amsterdam. From my time abroad I became a HUGE fan of international business and travel. Since my exchange semester, I’ve been all over Europe, the US, Central America and the Caribbean (and will hopefully add to that soon…).

All of my work thus far has been focused on marketing, which is what I hope to continue doing. Once I graduated from my undergrad, I did an internship at RBC, then was at Dell for a few years and finally KPMG. All of my work though was very executional-based. I knew I wanted to continue in marketing, but marketing at a much higher level. i.e. I don’t want to be the guy making ads but rather the guy that decides if it is even worthwhile to do ads in the first place.

How to get such skills? Why, an MBA from one of the best MBA schools in the world, of course!!

So this gives you a bit of context about me, so you know where I am coming from as I write. Hope you enjoy!