Why Ivey Ranked First Among Global MBAs

Ivey MBA students collaborating on a project

P&Q: You spent a decade teaching at Harvard and another decade at Ross, two of the world’s most outstanding business schools, before joining Ivey in 2013. What lessons did you learn about what makes a successful business school when you were there?

Kennedy: I would say a couple of different things. I was a junior faculty member, an assistant professor, and an associate professor at Harvard. A couple of lessons I learned there: They do a tremendous job of teaching, of coaching you up to be an effective teacher. Another thing: I started my career under John McArthur. Harvard really pushes you to shoot high. Your audience just isn’t other academics in journal articles. It’s interacting with the business world – doing things in a rigorous way that influences other academics and is accessible to managers. Harvard has a lot of resources, an incredible connection, and high expectations.

I went to Michigan because I had a rare opportunity to run a pretty large institute focused on developing countries called the William Davidson Institute. Michigan is a more traditional school where there is a higher weight placed on traditional academic research. And I worked with Bob Dolan, their former dean. When I went there, they had started this push into action learning. The program they use there is called MAP (Multidisciplinary Action Program). So I was involved with Dolan in really standardizing that. We went from a somewhat loosely coordinated set of projects to really the centerpiece of the MBA program that had a lot of emphasis on it. At Michigan, I was drawn a little bit more into the academic research or had a better sense of that and really learned a lot about the field learning. In my role at the institute, it was really about bridging that gap between theory and practice. We built a well-functioning institute that promoted top quality academic research but connected that with places like that U.S. Agency for International Development, the Gates Foundation, the World Health Organization, [and] the Rockefeller Foundation. We did a lot of work with those organizations, taking the business ideas and helping groups pursue their mission using our thought leadership. So the lesson [I gained] was, ‘how do you marry those things as a leader?’

So both were very good experiences. I wouldn’t be the administrator or academic leader I am today if I’d missed either one of them.

Ivey Dean Robert Kennedy

P&Q: Two years in, what do you see as your school’s biggest accomplishment? Two years down the road, what would success at Ivey look like to you?

Kennedy: I would say Ivey has traditionally had a student-centric strategy. We talk about the teacher-scholar model. We want people who can both. In the last 10 years, preceding me and at the beginning of my tenure, we’ve had some great success on the program side, not only with the MBA but also our undergrad side, along with our EMBA side. Those are all doing great. That’s really the public face of the school and our alumni. Most alumni interact with the school through the programs. I’d argue that we’re punching above our weight in that dimension…I don’t know if we’re the best in the whole world because Businessweek has two different lists, but we’re certainly in elite company there.

We also have a very good academic faculty, but a lot of the focus has been elsewhere. One of the things I’m working on in the next few years is balancing that out, keeping the program strong and innovating there, but also raising our profile for thought leadership. Some of that is better funding for research and using the lessons I learned at Michigan about building up an institute to have high impact in a field and really taking ownership of one or a couple of fields. That’s what the work in process is. So if I look forward in three or five years, I’d like to have a few institutes here that are really thought of as thought leaders as well.

P&Q: Make me a pitch. In 30 seconds or less, why is Ivey the perfect spot for talented and ambitious MBA applicants?

Kennedy: I’d say, look, it’s culturally quite similar to the U.S. We have a highly-ranked program with great classmates and has really strong relationships with top recruiters. Because it is a moderate international experience and because it is a one-year program and the Canadian dollar is down, it’s quite effective. On the benefit side, you get just about everything you can get at any other top school and it’s much more cost-effective and standard of teaching is very, very high. It’s an excellent value for the money.

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