The P&Q Interview: Ivey Dean Julian Birkinshaw Has Global Ambitions For Elite Canadian B-School

After 25 years away, Julian Birkinshaw returned to Ivey Business School at Western University in Ontario, Canada last summer with a clear priority: Get Ivey the worldwide respect he believes it deserves.

“Ivey is a great school, but it’s not as well known internationally as it should be,” he tells Poets&Quants. “I was enticed (to return to Ivey) to take a school I knew well, one that gave me my start, and give it a chance to do something transformative.

“It is a great opportunity to make an impact at an institution I am very fond of.”

AN IMPACTFUL QUARTER CENTURY AT LBS

Though he grew up in Great Britain, Birkinshaw earned both his MBA (1991) and PhD (1995) from Ivey, in the city of London, Ontario. It’s also where he met his wife.

Upon returning to the UK, he spent 25 years at London Business School, serving most recently as vice dean. He is a professor of strategy and entrepreneurship.

During his time at LBS, Birkinshaw led the launch of new graduate programs, spearheaded online learning initiatives, and expanded executive education. His research, which focuses on innovation, digital transformation, and organizational agility, has earned him recognition as one of Thinkers50 list of global management thinkers. He is also a Fellow of the British Academy and has authored 15 books and over 90 scholarly articles.

IN CASE LEARNING, ‘WE NEED TO BE AT THE FOREFRONT OF APPLYING GENERATIVE AI’

To raise Ivey’s international profile, Birkinshaw aims to build upon the school’s strong foundation in case-based learning and its world-class case publishing. He sees digital tools like generative AI as a way to spread Ivey’s case method approach to regions and students who might not otherwise have access while keeping business education relevant for both students and employers.

“We need to be at the forefront of applying generative AI to learning in general, but case learning in particular. And hopefully, we’ll create something the rest of the world can make use of as well,” he says.

Eight months into his first term as dean, P&Q caught up with Birkinshaw to talk about his strategic priorities, the role of technology in business education, and turning Ivey into a global player. Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

What was so enticing about the chance to come back to Ivey after so many years away?

I stayed in touch with everyone at Ivey through the years, and a lot of my background, and my belief in the case method was very much from Ivey. Fortuitously, the headhunter called about the Ivey opportunity just as my youngest of three kids was heading off to university. I was already exploring future possibilities, and since my wife is from Canada, it all came together beautifully.

Ivey is a great school, but it’s not as well known internationally as it should be. In other words, I knew the education was first rate – arguably better than most schools – and yet, as an internationally recognized brand, it’s quite small. It’s certainly not in the top tier in the way that London Business School is.

I was enticed by the opportunity to make a difference. To take a school I knew well, one that gave me my start, and give it a chance to do something transformative. It was a great opportunity to make an impact at an institution I am very fond of.

What are your big-ticket goals for the school?

It starts with building Ivey’s global reputation. One of the key lessons from London Business School’s success is that, despite being relatively young compared to many North American schools, it made a deliberate decision to globalize. It could have gone the way of many other regional schools in the United Kingdom, but when George Bain became dean, he said, “We’re going to compete with the very best in the world.” That meant hiring international faculty and bringing in international students.

If you look at the big success stories in business education over the last few decades – schools that moved up in the rankings and so on, schools like Bocconi, IESE, HKUST, NUS in Singapore – they’ve all grown by becoming global. They didn’t limit themselves to their home markets. I’m not talking about Oxford, Cambridge, or Yale. They’ve always had very wealthy parents. I’m talking about schools like HEC Paris who decided they wanted to play in the major leagues.

Ivey has always been the best business school in Canada. People can debate whether it’s better than Rotman, but it’s certainly in that top spot. The issue is, it’s never really expanded beyond Canada.

The other part of the story is leaning into digital technology. As a leading proponent of the case method, Ivey has to respond to the way generative AI is fundamentally challenging how students learn. We can’t afford to be disrupted by someone else. We need to be at the forefront of applying generative AI to learning in general, but case learning in particular. And hopefully, we’ll create something the rest of the world can make use of as well.

Are there any models you’re experimenting with right now?

Yes. The biggest risk with generative AI right now is that students no longer read the case studies. They just plug the case into a chat AI, and it spits out a few talking points. Some students have become so distracted that they don’t even bother to look at the case at all. But that’s lazy. It bypasses the actual learning process.

So, we’re building a product called AIBEL (Artificial Intelligence Boosted Experiential Learning) which simulates a case discussion. As a student, I enter a simulated classroom and I’m joined by an AI professor and three or four AI students. The AI professor asks me questions about the case. I respond, and the professor prompts me for more. It may ask the other students questions, too. I’m forced to interact with the AI professor to dig into the case, especially parts I might have skipped.

So rather than letting students use AI to shortcut the case method, we’re using it to enrich the learning experience.

In terms of technology, AIBEL is the most exciting product, but we’re also using generative AI in other ways. For example, we’re applying it to improve the quality of individualized assessment at the end of the learning process. We’re using it to help monitor group breakout sessions and also behind the scenes in various ways.

I’m trying to practice what I preach: when a new technology comes along, you have to actively use it across multiple areas to get the most value from it.

When you talk about raising Ivey’s international profile, what does that look like?

Ivey is already about 40% non-Canadian in terms of faculty. My view is that we should continue hiring the best faculty we can afford, from anywhere in the world.

When it comes to students, particularly in our master’s programs, we want a mix, probably even a majority of non-Canadian students. The higher the quality of international students, the more attractive Ivey becomes to top Canadian students as well.

We also have a large undergraduate program. It is our biggest single program with about 800 Honors Business Administration (HBA) students. Like most countries, our undergrad program is mostly domestic. So when I talk about international expansion, I’m really focused on bringing more international students into the MBA and MSc programs.

So, hiring more high-quality international faculty, bringing in more high-quality international students, and launching other initiatives to build Ivey’s global reputation.

Do you think what’s happening in the U.S., and even in the UK, will help you compete for top international students?

I believe it will. Like the UK and Australia, Canada has been introducing caps on international students as well, but not at levels that hurt us at their current levels. Canada, for various political reasons, managed to get into a bit of a spat with India a couple of years back and with China a few years before that. So at the moment, our international applicant pool isn’t as strong as it used to be.

But with the U.S. turning inward, I’m absolutely confident that it will benefit Canada. And, let me put it this way, we’ll be actively promoting Canada as a safe, democratic country espousing liberal values, diversity, and high-quality English-language education. We’ll be telling the world about that. As things continue to unfold in the U.S., I think more students will pick up on it.

We’re even working to attract more American students. For example, we’re going to a college consultants fair in Detroit next month. These consultants advise families and students on where to apply, and we’re putting up a big sign: “Come to Canada’s Best Business School.”

In light of U.S. policy shifts – tariffs, visa changes, DEI rollbacks – should international business schools like Ivey be responding in any way, beyond being open to international students?

Absolutely. We have to uphold our values. Most U.S. business schools likely still believe in diversity, inclusion, and accessibility, but many aren’t as vocal about it anymore.

In Canada, we’re fortunate. Regardless of the upcoming election, both political parties are committed to supporting DEI, taking climate change seriously, and upholding these values. So for us, it’s relatively straightforward to keep pushing forward on diversity, inclusion, and doing the right thing for the planet. It’s always been part of what Ivey stands for, and we’re going to continue to build on that.

What other initiatives are you planning to raise Ivey’s international name recognition?

For Ivey to take its place in the world class of business schools, we’ve got to start with what we’re already good at. Yes, we’ve got 35,000 alumni around the world – that’s why I’m in San Francisco at the moment, meeting our alumni. But actually, this thing we’re best known for is our case publishing.

The most unique thing we can do is actively promote more people to both create and buy Ivey cases around the world. What is not actually that well known about our case publishing is that while Harvard is the largest case publisher in the world (Ivey is the second largest), Harvard requires Harvard professors to be on their cases. We do not.

That’s an important difference because we are an open publisher. If you are at a management school in India, where there is huge growth in case writing right now, you are welcome to publish on the Ivey platform. Obviously you have to pass the quality threshold, and we revise cases with the authors.

This is the most immediate and impactful way to build Ivey’s name globally – ramping up the production of high-quality cases and building on regional growth. Markets like China, India, and the Middle East want homegrown cases, not just North American ones. We can be the mechanism to provide that.

Beyond that, we have an executive education business already active in Hong Kong and the Middle East. We also participate in international exchange partnerships, though that’s something most business schools do.

Another effort is our outreach initiatives, where we bring Ivey’s case method, case publishing, and case learning to underdeveloped regions.

Finally, we’re launching Ivey Online, a platform to deliver Ivey courses internationally. We were a little late to online learning partly because we were concerned about compromising the quality of the case method learning. But now, with generative AI, we can do some truly creative things. For example, the simulated case study experience can be delivered anywhere in the world.

Our goal is to leapfrog the current state of online learning. Instead of just streaming recorded lectures, we want to offer interactive, AI-powered content that’s more engaging, cutting-edge, and available in multiple languages.

How does raising your profile through case study publishing translate to raising your profile with students?

It’s a slow process, and sometimes a bit indirect. When I talk to prospective students about why they chose Ivey, sometimes I get the ideal answer: “A friend told me it’s a really great business school, so I applied.” But other times, I hear: “I hadn’t heard of Ivey before, so I looked it up online or checked the rankings.”

That’s what we’re trying to change. I want Ivey to be top of mind, not just a school you stumble upon while researching Canadian programs. I want it to be the Canadian school people have actually heard of.

Case publishing helps with that. When we produce high-quality, globally relevant cases, it builds awareness of the Ivey brand within the global business community. That presence then trickles down to students, especially when they hear about Ivey through their professors, peers, or employers.

I recognize that rankings matter. After word of mouth, family, and friends, rankings are probably the next most common source students use to evaluate schools. So a big part of my strategy is building Ivey’s reputation through those rankings – Bloomberg, Financial Times, Poets&Quants – all of them.

Every initiative I’ve mentioned plays into some ranking criteria. It will take a couple of years, but gradually, we’ll move up.

You have said that you want to make business education more accessible. What does that look like?

The vision statement we’re going with at Ivey is Reimagining Experiential Business Learning for the World. Accessibility is part of that.

Accessibility means more than just physical access for people with disabilities. It also means making business education available to people from different socioeconomic backgrounds, those who might not otherwise be able to afford it. It’s about global access, and it’s about access at different stages of life. Instead of thinking of business school as something you do only in your 20s, we want to embrace lifelong learning.

That means looking at different price points, different types of programs like certificates instead of full degrees, and ultimately serving more than just the small group at the top of the pyramid. Expanding who gets access to business education is going to be a huge part of my priorities.

What is the 39-Country Initiative?

That’s a really good example of accessibility in action. My colleague Paul Beamish created it to give away Ivey’s entire case catalog to business schools and students in countries where the average GDP per capita is less than $2,000 a year. So far, we’ve reached 1,000 business school professors in these countries, and hundreds of thousands of students through the initiative.

But it’s expensive. It’s not enough to just give the materials away, you have to train people on how to use them. And that’s a retail sport. You have to go university by university in each country and run sessions on how to use the case method effectively. One of our goals is to put more resources behind it.

In a similar vein, we also have the LEADER Project which is an alumni initiative where about 50 Ivey grads each year travel to developing countries and emerging economies to teach entrepreneurship and business fundamentals. They’re essentially taking the Ivey way of learning – the case method – and applying it on the ground. The alums get an incredibly valuable experience, and they also make a real difference in the communities where they work. It started in post-Soviet Russia and has since expanded to places like Nepal, India, and Macedonia.

And finally, we have the Ubuntu Experience for current students. It’s a full-credit course created by a colleague, where students travel to one of three countries in Africa and teach other students using the case method. It’s not just about doing good in the world. Our students gain just as much as they give. They come back more rounded, with a stronger sense of what it means to be a global citizen. We want as many Ivey students as possible to have opportunities like this.

What do you think the future of business education looks like? Certainly with the rate of change we’ve seen since the pandemic, there may be some seismic shifts.

Generative AI is going to be transformative, and it already is. The cat is out of the bag. As faculty and program designers, we have to rethink how we teach in a world where basic business knowledge is a commodity. That means a much greater emphasis on experiential learning, on doing, on self-reflection and awareness, and on critical thinking as opposed to rote learning.

And then, in terms of market dynamics, we all know the MBA market is mature. Master’s in Management programs are growing. Undergraduate business is still expanding. But I do worry a bit about the long-term future of the traditional MBA. I don’t think it will go extinct, but it will continue to evolve.

What surprised you most when you stepped into the Dean’s role at Ivey?

This is me being completely honest: I’ve been blown away by how excited our alumni are about supporting Ivey’s next chapter. There’s a real sense that they know how good this school is and they’re eager to help the rest of the world figure that out too. That’s been a genuine and positive surprise.

The other surprise has been adjusting to life within a university system. At London Business School and a few others, we were independent. At Ivey, we’re part of Western University. That means learning how to work in partnership with all these other parts of the institution, which has its pros and cons.

Do you already see exciting interdisciplinary relationships at Ivey?

Yes, and every business school says this, but most admit they’re not tapping into it as well as they could. When it comes to areas like climate change, sustainability, or AI, we’ve got amazing expertise across the university. Interdisciplinarity is going to be a key feature of Ivey.

Sustainability, entrepreneurship, and leadership are big focal points for us. One of our key initiatives is expanding those to the rest of the university. For example, we now offer entrepreneurial leadership courses as a certificate that any student, regardless of faculty, can take.

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