Roger Martin

Bianca Andreescu a model for Canadian success, U of T's Roger Martin writes in the Globe and Mail

perry.king — Mon, 09 Sep 2019 14:59:09 +0000

Bianca Andreescu a model for Canadian success, U of T's Roger Martin writes in the Globe and Mail

perry.king Mon, 09/09/2019 - 10:59

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(photo by Tim Clayton/Corbis via Getty Images)

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Our Community

Global

Roger Martin

Rotman School of Management

Mississauga-born Bianca Andreescu’s win at the 2019 U.S. Open championship was a historic moment for Canadian tennis. And Professor Emeritus Roger Martin, academic director at the Martin Prosperity Institute and a former dean of the Rotman School of Management, says it provided a blueprint for Canadian organizations seeking greatness.

In a Globe and Mail op-ed, Martin argues that if Canadian corporations, non-profits or public sector entities aim high and makes distinctive choices in pursuit of their goals, they can succeed globally just as Andreescu did on the tennis court.

As a past chair of Tennis Canada, Martin forged a strategy to elevate Canadian tennis players. That included hiring world-class coaches to find and develop young players and equally funding high-performance athletes who used their own coaches or Tennis Canada’s, “as long as they met our development standards,” he wrote.

“Perhaps most importantly, we unflinchingly enforced adherence to the strategy through the successive three-year chairmanships of Mr. [Jack] Graham, Mr. [Tony] Eames and myself,” said Martin. “As Ms. Andreescu knows, winning takes commitment by the athlete, and we were determined to be as committed to our strategy as they were to their training.”

Read Roger Martin’s op-ed in the Globe and Mail

TDSB students tackle problems in transit, zoos and more at U of T

geoff.vendeville — Fri, 20 Jan 2017 20:27:53 +0000

TDSB students tackle problems in transit, zoos and more at U of T

geoff.vendeville Fri, 01/20/2017 - 15:27

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A student tries on a pair of virtual reality goggles during the event (photo by Yana Kaz)

Geoffrey Vendeville

Author legacy

Geoffrey Vendeville

Topic

City & Culture

Roger Martin

Rotman School of Management

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Rotman School of Management hosted event for Toronto elementary and high school students

Elementary and high school students, their teachers and parents came to U of T’s Rotman School of Management this week to unveil projects they completed using an innovative problem-solving technique coined by business strategist and former Rotman dean Roger Martin.

Called integrative thinking, the method is meant to help anyone wade through enigmatic choices by weighing different ideas and coming to a “creative resolution of the tension” between them.

It may sound complex, but teachers at the Toronto District School Board had apparently no trouble explaining it to students ranging in grades from 2 to 12. Students used integrative-thinking to solve an array of problems.

Jade Mantadee and her classmates in the combined Grade 4 and 5 class at Fairbanks Public School tackled the question of whether to keep animals in captivity.

“We were trying to see if we could make both sides into one solution so we came up with virtual reality,” she said.

Becky Zaimi, a teacher at Fairbanks Public School, uses a virtual reality headset, which was part of her students' class project, looking at whether there should be zoos (photo by Yana Kaz)

Their teacher, Becky Zaimi, a graduate of U of T's Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, said her class came up with the idea themselves after they read a collection of persuasive texts by fourth graders entitled Should There Be Zoos? and a book about cyberspace.

They used a pro/pro chart, an integrative thinking tool, as opposed to the traditional pro/con chart to arrive at a solution.

Another group, the Grade 1 class at Park Lawn Junior Middle School, analyzed problems of racism and sexism raised in the children’s book, Amazing Grace, by Mary Hoffman.

Students at Park Lawn Junior Middle School explain their project to grown-ups. Their project was based on the children's book “Amazing Grace” by Mary Hoffman (photo by Yana Kaz)

“It’s about a girl, Grace, who wants to be Peter Pan in the school play. But the other students say Peter Pan is a boy. He’s white, and you’re black,” said a volunteer and recent OISE grad at the school, Kathryn Bryce.

After a discussion about racial and gender stereotypes, the class – including Deandray Spencer – concluded that Grace should play Peter Pan anyway.

“It’s awesome because they’re so young, and yet they were still able to think in a good and productive way,” Bryce said.

Deandray Spencer presents a class project on the children's book “Amazing Grace” by Mary Hoffman (photo by Geoffrey Vendeville)

Mitzie Hunter, Ontario’s minister of education and a Rotman graduate, came to the event to tell students that integrative thinking has applications outside the classroom.

Speaking about the pro/pro chart, she said it was useful because it helps her balance the interests of many different stakeholders: teachers, principals, boards and labour unions.

“When I use pro/pro, I try to find elements of common ground where we can work towards an outcome, taking the best ideas from both sides,” she said.

Ontario Education Minister Mitzie Hunter spoke to students at Rotman about using integrative thinking in her work (photo by Yana Kaz)

For Grade 12 students at John Polanyi Collegiate, integrative thinking helped them take on a challenge posed by Metrolinx.

The students were asked to find the best way to build “employee resource groups” within the transportation agency's workforce as part of a new diversity and inclusive intiative.

One group suggested organizing a "discovery fair," where employees could set up booths, showcasing their hobbies so they can find co-workers with similar interests.

The Grade 12 business leadership class at John Polanyi Collegiate brainstormed ideas for building "employee resource groups" at Metrolinx (photo by Yana Kaz)

A first-year Rotman commerce student and former intern at Metrolinx, Kate Azizova, helped arrange the partnership.

She had once learned about integrative thinking in Rotman's business leadership class. Martin is now the academic director of Rotman's Martin Prosperity Institute.

“This class is very different from any other you take in high school,” she told ��οNews. “There are no tests. Everything is based on whether you choose to speak up.

“The biggest thing I learned was to take initiative.”

Social entrepreneurship explained

sgupta — Mon, 02 Nov 2015 12:59:44 +0000

Social entrepreneurship explained sgupta Mon, 11/02/2015 - 07:59

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These talking stickers that aim to boost literacy in impoverished communities were developed by the social entrepreneurs at U of T's Team Atollo (above photo by Eugene Grichko – Rotman School of Management

Noreen Ahmed-Ullah

Author legacy

Noreen Ahmed-Ullah

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Startup

Skoll Foundations

Rotman School of Management

Roger Martin

Martin Prosperity Institute

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Roger Martin and Sally Osberg bring clarity to the concept that's taking off across North America

If you’ve heard the term “social entrepreneur” and wondered what it means, you’re not alone.

The latest book from business innovation and strategy guru Roger Martin, institute director of the Martin Prosperity Institute and former dean of U of T’s Rotman School of Management, offers more than a primer for lay readers.

Martin also provides aspiring social entrepreneurs with guidelines on how to transform their ideas into action and become agents of large-scale change. And the book is already winning accolades, including the Social Enterprise Award from Thinkers50.

“Because the world has problems that governments and businesses are finding hard to solve, this other, new kind of character has entered the scene,” Professor Martin says. “The social entrepreneur seems to be able to tackle some of the problems that neither government organizations nor businesses have been able to. Now a field has taken shape by the name of social entrepreneurship.”

Getting Beyond Better: How Social Entrepreneurship Works was co-authored by Sally Osberg, president of the California-based Skoll Foundation. That foundation, founded by alumnus Jeff Skoll, has invested more than $500 million worldwide in social entrepreneurship ventures.

The book could be the first to define social entrepreneurship and lay out best practices – while identifying the challenges social entrepreneurs must overcome to trigger global change. Martin, who has written award-winning books and articles for the Harvard Business Review, says the book can also be used as a textbook for classes on social entrepreneurship and even to help apprehensive parents.

“Lots of parents hear their children say, ‘I want to be a social entrepreneur,’” says Martin (pictured below). “Now they can see what they’re talking about.”

Social entrepreneurship is definitely generating buzz. Getting Beyond Better includes a foreword by Arianna Huffington and cover quotations by Melinda Gates and Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus. Here at U of T, where alumni include Craig Kielburger, co-founder of Free the Children, courses are offered in social entrepreneurship along with a wide range of supports. And examples of social entrepreneurs abound. Professor Yu-Ling Cheng of Engineering was awarded a $2.2-million grant from the Gates Foundation to work on a waterless, hygienic toilet that is safe and affordable and Professor Cynthia Goh co-founded Pueblo Science with Mayrose Salvador.

And, this past summer, Rotman’s Team Attollo, which created “talking stickers” to help improve literacy in the developing world, was among six finalists for the Clinton Global Initiative’s Hult Prize. (Read more about Team Atollo.)

Martin’s book looks at social and business ideas that helped transform the world, beginning in the 15th century with Johannes Gutenberg’s printing press, which greatly expanded access to information. Another breakthrough was Thomas Edison’s electric light bulb, which not only transformed a candle-lit world but boosted productivity by extending work hours. Philanthropist Andrew Carnegie opened a door to knowledge with the creation of free public libraries.

Social entrepreneurs from modern times include Yunus, who has worked in Bangladesh with microcredit programs; Nandan Nilekani, who helped trigger India’s technology revolution and is considered the “Bill Gates of India” because he started a national identity project to ensure services and benefits get to India's poor; and Molly Melching, an American who has tackled joblessness, poverty and the practice of female genital mutilation in rural Africa.

Much social innovation today, Martin says, comes from Silicon Valley. ��οEngineering alumnus Skoll joined Pierre Omidyar to build eBay and went on to create the Skoll Foundation. The Hewlett Foundation and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation are important California institutions. Martin says India is also emerging as a new home for groundbreaking social entrepreneurs.

“People are seeing some early successes and saying, ‘Wow, why can’t we do more of that?’” Martin says. “Part of the purpose of the book is to help clarify what this thing is, because people are talking about it.

“When you get greater clarity, you can study it more, measure it more and, hopefully, get more of it.”

Interested in Entrepreneurship at U of T? Visit the Banting & Best Centre for Innovation & Entrepreneurship

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