Dean's Message - Winter 2017
The world of business keeps changing, and so do we. The faculty and staff at Smith are always looking for new and better ways to meet the needs of our students and alumni. Strategic changes to both our advisory board and Smith’s Business Career Centre (BCC) are two recent examples of innovations that support our vision to be one of the world's most innovative and influential business schools.
To ensure a diverse range of viewpoints are represented, Benita Warmbold, Board Chair (BCom’80), Sharon Ranson, Chair of the Nominating Committee (BCom’80), and I have strategically repositioned the School’s Advisory Board. Among our priorities is a commitment to a higher representation of women — at least 30% — on our advisory bodies. Smith was the first Canadian business school to join the 30% Club, a global organization dedicated to accelerating the representation of women at senior levels in business. You can read more about our newest board members on page four.
In business education, career services are traditionally aligned by program, providing general career education and coaching services. With eight programs added to Smith’s portfolio in the last ten years and increasing competition for the best jobs, we needed to re-visit this model. Beginning January 2017, Smith’s Business Career Centre (BCC) will offer students specialized coaching by functional careers areas. This focused approach will enable deeper coaching sessions aligned with students’ career interests and majors, including access to leading experts-in-residence in finance, consulting and marketing.
For our corporate recruiting partners, the BCC has added relationship managers, tripling the number of industries with which we work. We are expanding options from the traditional banking, consulting and consumer goods firms to other industries such as pensions, insurance, investments, real estate, energy technology, telecommunications, pharmaceutical, healthcare, start-ups, manufacturing, transportation and others.
A more robust, industry-focused corporate relations team will increase the breadth and diversity of career options for all of our students and provide a more synergistic matching of students to each organization’s talent needs.
One of the key metrics of success for any business school is securing top-tier jobs for graduates, and we see our outstanding alumni as key partners in helping us compete more effectively in this area.
As always, please reach out to us at smithalumni@queensu.ca if you would like to get involved.
David M. Saunders, PhD
Dean, Smith School of Business
david.saunders@queensu.ca