Spring 2021

Rotman Management

The Magazine of the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management

Rotman Management1 min readInternet & Web
Rotman Management
Editor-in-Chief Karen Christensen Contributors Ajay Agrawal, Angèle Beausoleil, Mark Britnell, Brian Golden, Sarah Kaplan, Eric Kirzner, Mara Lederman, Anita M. McGahan, Renante Rondina, Laura Rosella, Dilip Soman Marketing & Communications Officer M
Rotman Management2 min read
From the Editor
IF THERE WAS EVER ANY DOUBT that successful economies depend upon a healthy population, it has likely been erased in the past year. COVID-19 has shown us that societal issues are not just legitimate areas of concern for business — they are sources of
Rotman Management11 min read
Leading the Way to Recovery THE CREATIVE DESTRUCTION LAB’S MOONSHOT
IMAGINE A WORLD where a wristband alerts industrial workers whenever someone is less than two metres away from them; where a pay-as-you-go app for small medical providers in sub-Saharan Africa identifies patients who are susceptible to serious COVID-
Rotman Management5 min read
CDL Recovery Alumni
The following, 28 ventures have graduated from the CDL Recovery program. AccuroLab has developed a service that acts as an intermediary between cellphone users and Trusted Health Organization (THO) sources, allowing users to assess the accuracy of in
Rotman Management8 min read
Thought Leader Interview: Anita M. McGahan
You recently analyzed the policies put in place to fight the global pandemic. What were your key findings? We looked at the effectiveness of 11 policies that have been implemented at various levels in 40 countries since the pandemic’s onset. My co-au
Rotman Management13 min read
The Next Normal: Trends That Will Define 2021 and Beyond
BUSINESSES HAVE SPENT MUCH of the past 12 months scrambling to adapt to extraordinary circumstances. While the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic is not yet won, with vaccines in hand, there is light at the end of the tunnel — along with the hope th
Rotman Management10 min read
Managing the Most Complex Organizations on Earth
Healthcare represents a huge and growing sector. But it faces unique management challenges that you believe have not been adequately addressed. Please summarize them. Brian Golden: In most systems, healthcare is seen as a cost rather than an investme
Rotman Management10 min readLeadership
Learning While Leading: The Digital Leadership Challenge
SEEMINGLY OVERNIGHT, digital tools, models and platforms have emerged from their traditional back-office function to become an unstoppable strategic force, revolutionizing every industry. The global pandemic has only accelerated this transformation,
Rotman Management7 min read
The Unstuck Mind and the Power of Not Knowing
Most people love the comforting feeling that they are right. Why is that so dangerous right now? Jay Gordon Cone: Everyone likes to be right, but the fact is, we find it much easier to notice and accept things that are consistent with our underlying
Rotman Management4 min read
The Path to Better Decisions
Catastrophic decisions live on in the business lore as testament to the perennial difficulty of making good decisions. From the AOL-Time Warner merger to Blockbuster rejecting a partnership with Netflix, from J.C. Penney eliminating coupons to the de
Rotman Management12 min readGender Studies
Gender Analytics: HOW GENDER-BASED INSIGHTS CREATE VALUE
WHAT DO SNOW PLOWING, car safety, investment management and face-recognition technologies have in common? While it isn’t obvious to most, they all have impacts that are gendered. Take snow plowing: Most municipalities focus on getting the roads clear
Rotman Management12 min read
CRISIS MANAGEMENT: Lessons From the C-Suite
I WATCHED WITH INTEREST how the financial industry handled the COVID-19 crisis that emerged in late 2019. It was truly a challenging time in every way as leadership had to balance grave health issues with the potential collapse of the economy. What m
Rotman Management11 min readPopular Culture & Media Studies
Managing Mental Health: A Behavioural Approach
WORKING FROM HOME and staying home all day long. Staring at screens. The blurring of work-life boundaries. Inability to meet up with friends and family. Anxiety about one’s future and financial worries. Uncertainty about when — or if — we will ever r
Rotman Management8 min readLeadership
Unlocking Employee Potential: A FRAMEWORK FOR SUCCESS
FOSTERING THE WELL-BEING and resiliency of employees has long been an important element of the best business models. Now, in part due to the devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has become even more of a necessity. Encouragingly, business
Rotman Management14 min read
POWERING A STRONG RECOVERY: An Economic Growth Plan for Canada
FOR CANADIANS, the COVID-19 pandemic is a once-in-a-lifetime health and economic emergency that has exacerbated long-standing structural weaknesses in our economy. Policymakers therefore face a dual challenge of considerable magnitude: They must lay
Rotman Management8 min read
Macro Disruptors: 7 Themesthat Could Reshape The Global Economy
AS I WRITE THIS, early in 2021, it’s fair to say that the global economic outlook seems more stable than it was last March amid the COVID-19 pandemic: Vaccines are gradually being made available around the world, central banks have brought stability
Rotman Management5 min read
Your Post-COVID Business Plan
Right now, every company in the world is facing the same question: What’s going to happen when this pandemic is over? Over the last several months, we’ve been working with management teams in a variety of sectors, including retail, entertainment, fin
Rotman Management10 min read
Rewriting The Rules Of Corporate Governance
SINCE THE ONSET OF COVID-19, corporate boards have faced a string of difficult decisions. Take the question of dividend payments: Ordinarily, the decision would be a relatively straightforward matter of applying a stated dividend policy, following pa
Rotman Management7 min read
Q&A
How do you define ‘common sense’ as it applies to organizations? In the workplace, common sense is the ability to see an issue from multiple points of view and form an opinion based on that. Most companies only see the world from one point of view —
Rotman Management7 min read
Q&A
You have said that no group in society has been more profoundly neglected for an extended period of time than our elders. Please describe the current state of affairs. We live in an aging society, and yet it’s a society that doesn’t respect its elder
Rotman Management7 min readLeadership
Q&A
How would you describe the billion-dollar ‘diversity business’? In writing the book (Diversity Inc.), I wanted to explore the tension between the constant rhetoric about diversity and the billions of dollars that are spent annually on consultants and
Rotman Management4 min read
Navigating a Shifting Corporate Landscape
Many people still believe that shareholder interests are at odds with stakeholder interests, but that is a false dichotomy. Most enlightened businesses view the interests of shareholders and other stakeholders to be largely aligned from a longer-term
Rotman Management2 min read
10 Characteristics of Heathcare’s New Reality
Digital front door: The only front door. Hospital out-patient and general practitioner appointments across the world have been transformed with as much as three-quarters of all consultations now taking place virtually. ‘Clean’ and ‘dirty’ sites (Gree
Rotman Management1 min read
How to Tackle the Health Workforce Crisis
1. Reframe and reposition the debate about workforce planning to one about productivity, health and national wealth creation. 2. Encourage governments to become more entrepreneurial, stimulating health worker supply through a host of measures ranging
Rotman Management6 min read
Q&A
The global pandemic has led to some tectonic changes in the realm of healthcare. Please describe them. Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, recently said that the digital transformation of healthcare has led to more change in the last six months than
Rotman Management8 min read
From Hierarchy to Holacracy
IN A DISCREET STUDIO on gentrifying Front Street West in downtown Toronto, a group gathers to eat lunch amid an assortment of brown bags and compostable takeout containers. In the group are a professional musician, a competitive ski racer, an art his
Rotman Management6 min read
Seizing Opportunities: Lessons from Digital Health
IF NOTHING ELSE, the past year has shown us that when faced with adversity, Canadians rise to the challenge. This continues to be most evident in our healthcare ecosystem, where governments, healthcare professionals, first responders, and industry le
Rotman Management6 min read
Q&A
It’s been quite a year for the public sector. What has impressed you the most about the Canadian government’s response to this pandemic —and what has disappointed you? In the first wave last March and April, the response to the pandemic itself as wel
Rotman Management6 min readSelf-Management
How to Make Healthier Choices
A DIETER IS OFFERED CHOCOLATE CAKE at a party. Someone trying to save money stares longingly at a fancy new smartphone. A student trying to improve her grades considers skipping her studies to watch a binge-worthy TV show instead. These are all examp
Rotman Management7 min read
Q&A
GE’s lines of business range from power to aviation to healthcare. How would you summarize the pandemic’s effect on them? As a company that supports essential services like hospitals, power generation and airlines, our priority has been the health an
Rotman Management6 min readInvestments & Securities
Deconstructing the GameStock Debacle
HOW DID THE PRICE of GameStop — an unprofitable company — go from $15 a share to $483 a share in January 2021? As I will explain, the price action was a classic showdown of Wall Street shorts vs. Main Street longs. First, some background on short sel
Rotman Management6 min readSmall Business & Entrepreneurs
Q&A
Tragically, most of Canada’s COVID-19 deaths have occurred among seniors living in congregate settings. Your leadership team assembled an independent Advisory Panel to study the situation. Please describe its key findings. We convened a panel chaired
Rotman Management7 min read
Q&A
For those who aren’t familiar with Tenera Care, please describe what your product does. What we initially intended our TeneraWear bracelet to do and what it does now are two different things. We designed the bracelet to serve as an automated call for

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