Shelby Pike, AMBA’23

Shelby Pike never intended to join the family business. She had nothing against the heavy construction empire her father, Glynn, had co-founded in western Newfoundland; she simply felt the pull of different pastures. Until 2018—four years before she began her Smith Accelerated MBA (AMBA) studies—her plan was to leave the province to forge a career entirely of her own.

That’s when life had other plans. Glynn became ill, and Shelby shifted her thinking. “It made me reassess what was important to me, and where I wanted to be,” she says. “I’ve been surrounded by entrepreneurial people my whole life, and I began to feel how honourable it is to be part of that legacy.”

Shelby’s early days in a leadership role with Marine Group of Companies—which comprises a dozen business units spanning everything from heavy civil construction to commercial real estate—were both challenging and rewarding, especially as she navigated a new professional dynamic with her father (Glynn remains actively in the business today). But her business fundamentals were solid, thanks to her undergrad, and she was well-suited to the varied and sometimes overlapping responsibilities that come with working in a family business.

So, why enroll in an MBA? “I get that question a lot,” Shelby says. “Because I work for a family business, I didn’t necessarily need it to leverage up, career-wise. But I wanted to gain different thought processes and the ability to think more strategically. And I wanted the credibility of the credential.”

In researching programs, a few criteria were non-negotiable: virtual delivery (so she wouldn’t have to leave Corner Brook), work-friendly hours (so she could continue both her day job and her side hustle in real estate), and accelerated pace (so she could start applying what she learned as soon as possible). The Smith AMBA hit the mark: “It allowed me to continue to wear my 15 hats while also getting the skills I needed to propel forward in my role.” So, she applied, enrolled, and began classes in January of 2022.

It wasn’t quite the start she’d expected. Covid restrictions meant that her cohort was unable to convene for the program’s usual kick-off intensive in Kingston, meaning her initiation to the program felt a bit like logging on to a day of work. And she found herself nervous about the team-based structure, worrying about the risks of sharing such a substantial workload with people she didn’t know.

But within days, the value of the program began to manifest. Shelby’s team, an “absolutely phenomenal” mix of people from across Atlantic Canada, proved to be collaborative, keen, and prone to challenging her thinking in highly constructive ways. And nothing about the virtual delivery felt impersonal or transactional. “Smith created an experience that kept us both accountable and motivated,” she says. “We had all the tools we needed to succeed.” She was especially impressed by the efforts of faculty to connect meaningfully with students on screens thousands of kilometres away: “They were truly outstanding.”

Moreover, every time Shelby logged on, she felt her business acumen sharpen. She learned to embrace green-light thinking, which encourages judgment-free brainstorming. She became adept at operational strategy, which has since proved invaluable in advancing both Marine Group’s growth and her own progression within the organization. And—perhaps most valuably—she began making it a habit to think things through. “Prior to the AMBA, my instinct when I encountered a problem was to jump to a solution,” she says. “Now I slow down and think about it critically, because there are often answers in the thought process.”

Shelby’s AMBA made for an intense year, but—nearly three years after graduation—she feels the benefits of it in her work all the time. Perhaps more importantly, she has a new appreciation of just how much she is capable of. “My dad has always said to me, ‘What you think you can’t do today is always easier tomorrow,’” she says. “My AMBA is definitely a testament to that. Yes, it was a lot. But now that I’m on the other side, I realize the depths of my resilience.”