Carol Stephenson is one of the few women B-school deans around the globe. She has been the dean of the Richard Ivey School of Business in Canada since 2003. Stephenson shares Ivey’s India plans with BW Online’s Chetna Mehra and speaks about women in leadership roles and the great future for woman entrepreneurs in Canada and the world. Excerpts.
The key to building a successful small business is the same as building a lasting marriage: Careful planning, a flexible strategy for growth and good communication skills are all important, but without a passionate devotion both endeavors are doomed.“One of the first things I talk to my students about is passion and pursuing what they’re passionate about,” said Robert Mitchell, professor of entrepreneurship at the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario.
If you are in the market for new equipment and are not sure whether it makes more sense to buy or lease, you are not alone. “There’s no easy answer,” says Simon Parker, director of the Ivey School of Business’s Driving Growth Through Entrepreneurship & Innovation Cross-Enterprise Leadership Research Centre.
You don’t know what you don’t know. And as an entrepreneur starting a business, what you don’t know can stop you before you get going. That, says David Simpson, a teacher in the entrepreneurship program at the Richard Ivey School of Business, is why mentors are critical to getting a business going and growing.
Be wary of pitfalls associated with learning from other industries. “The risk is in looking only at the surface attributes and not understanding the business economics of a strategy,” said Stewart Thornhill, entrepreneurship professor at the University of Western Ontario’s Richard Ivey School of Business.