The year didn’t start with a lecture. It started with a phone call.

A few days into January—still in that mid-December-to-second-week-of-January “reset window”—my phone rang with the kind of recruiting update that makes your stomach drop before your brain even catches up.

I didn’t get the job.

No dramatic buildup. No gentle landing. Just a clean, unromantic “unfortunately”—delivered right when I was finally starting to feel human again.

And the timing was almost ironic because I’d spent the holidays doing something Rotman loves to talk about, but you only truly understand once you feel it: community.

THE BREAK THAT ACTUALLY REFILLED MY CUP

Winter break was good to me. I spent time with friends and family. I laughed properly. I ate well. I played.

My people from the Rotman African and Caribbean Business Club even ran a little FIFA/FC tournament—noise, competition, pure nonsense in the best way. We crowned a champion with a name that still makes me laugh: The Ghanaian Starboy.

And I’m not even being dramatic when I say that those moments poured back into my cup. When I was researching MBA programs, I kept hearing how the Rotman School of Management had a strong community. During the holidays, I didn’t just “see” it—I leaned on it. Not in a formal way. In a human way.

Then the call came.

BAD NEWS BEFORE THE TERM EVEN RESUMED

That rejection hit hard partly because it wasn’t just about one role. It came with the bigger question that shows up when you’re tired: What if this MBA thing doesn’t work the way I planned?

And here’s the thing—Term Three was already shaping up to be intense. I knew the academic load was heavy. I knew recruiting pressure was real. I knew people were already getting offers.

So that call, a few days into the year, a few days before resumption, could’ve easily kicked off a spiral.

But something had changed since earlier terms: I had started learning to treat feedback like data, not like a verdict on my identity.

Because the feedback I kept hearing in interviews was painfully consistent:

“Komi, we love your story… but there’s no structure.”

Ouch. But also… useful.

So before classes even resumed, I booked time with my career coach. I practiced. I rebuilt my approach. I stopped trying to “perform” my story and started learning how to frame it.

And when the disappointment felt too heavy to carry quietly, I did something simple that saved me from overthinking myself into a corner: I asked for help.

I dropped a message in my case competition group chat: “SOS. I’m in trouble. I didn’t get the role.”

A couple of them jumped on a call immediately (Yucheng Candas and Melanie He) and walked me through the interview process. Not pity. Not motivational quotes. Practical reps. Clear feedback. Tightening the narrative. Making sure my story landed with the clarity recruiters can actually work with.

That was the real beginning of Term Three for me—not the first lecture, but the decision to rebuild my structure before the term even started.

WHEN THE TERM RESUMED, EVERYTHING MOVED AT ONCE

Once we were back, the pace was… disrespectful. (MBA students will understand.)

Recruiting pressure didn’t slow down. Classes were content-heavy. Assessments were frequent enough to blur the weekdays. And in the middle of all this, I decided it was also the right time to step up in leadership.

Because I like challenges that come in threes.

CAMPAIGNING: THE FIRST TIME I HAD TO SELL MYSELF OUT LOUD

I had gotten so much from clubs and societies that I felt it was time to give back—properly. So I ran for executive positions.

For the first time in my life, I was campaigning and talking to people. Asking for trust. Explaining my value proposition without hiding behind “I’ll work hard” and “I’m passionate.” Real leadership pitch stuff.

And yes—because I enjoy stress with extra seasoning—I was campaigning for three different clubs at the same time.

It was exciting. It was humbling. It forced me to get very clear about what I actually bring, how I lead, and why people should choose me over other brilliant candidates in the room.

And strangely, it connected to what I was learning academically: in interviews, in leadership, in business—Clarity is currency.

THE CLASSES…

This term didn’t just tire me out; it also came with more “software” that upgraded me. These included my three classes, recruitment and my leadership development as a club leader and Leadership Development Lab fellow.

And the common thread across all this was: ‘structure’—in stories, in decisions, in markets, in capital, and in leadership. Among my three courses, I came away with several epiphanies that better structured how I thought and responded.

1) MANAGING CUSTOMER VALUE: MARKETING STOPPED BEING “CREATIVE” AND BECAME PRECISE

Coming from a marketing background, I understood the basics: create value to capture value.

But this course did something subtle and powerful: it flipped the lens.

It made me see that customers have value propositions too—and different segments value different things for different reasons. So, strategy isn’t just “build a cool campaign.” Strategy is knowing who you’re speaking to and why your message should matter to them.

What stuck with me most:

* Segmentation isn’t demographic—it’s economic and behavioral. Who drives profit? Who drives volume? Who churns? Who sticks?

* Customer lifetime value thinking changes everything. You stop treating every customer like a trophy and start treating retention, loyalty, and repeat behavior like the real game.

* Positioning becomes sharper when you anchor it in value. If you’re selling a watch, you’re not selling “a watch.” You might be selling status, identity, durability, nostalgia, aspiration, or convenience—depending on the segment.

That class made marketing feel less like guesswork and more like strategic disciplined targeting: Who is the customer? What do they value? What do they cost? And what story makes them stay?

It genuinely changed the way I think about campaigns—because it taught me to respect the customer as an economic unit and a human being.

2) CORPORATE FINANCE: THE FLASHY LINKEDIN PHRASE THAT FINALLY BECAME REAL

Before Rotman, “corporate finance” was one of those titles I see on LinkedIn that feels important but vague. I’d done Finance I, but this course finally made corporate finance feel like the operating manual of real companies.

The professor framed it around three questions:

1. How do companies raise money?

1. How do they assess projects?
2. How do they give money back to capital providers?

That framework made everything click.

What I walked away with (in practical, entrepreneur-brain terms) was the following:

* Capital structure is not just math—it’s strategy. Debt can amplify returns but also amplify stress. Equity buys flexibility but can be costly in the long term. There’s no “perfect ratio,” only tradeoffs you must understand.

* Project evaluation is a discipline. The habit of asking, “Does this create value after considering the cost of capital?” is the difference between growing or just expanding.

* Returning value is part of governance. Dividends, buybacks, reinvestment—these choices say a lot about how a company thinks about maturity, opportunity, and accountability.

Also: Fridays.

By the time Friday arrived, many of us were running on fumes and stubbornness. Our professor, Redouane Elkamhi, would show up with coffee for the class. It sounds small, but it mattered. It said: “I know you’re tired. I’m not ignoring that.”

And yes, the professor’s African heritage added a warmth that felt familiar, like an African uncle teaching you serious things while still keeping the room alive.

3) STATISTICS FOR MANAGERS: CONFIDENCE WITHOUT DELUSION

I’m not going to lie—statistics tested me.

At the beginning, I kept asking myself, Where exactly is the point of this class?

Then the point became unavoidable: managers make decisions under uncertainty every day, and stats teaches you how to be confident without being reckless.

Over time, several concepts became real (not just exam content):

* Hypothesis testing is a managerial discipline. It forces you to separate “I feel” from “I know.”

* P-values and confidence intervals are decision tools. They help you quantify how strong your evidence is—not in vibes, in probability.

* Correlation isn’t causation, but analysis can still guide action. With the right design and assumptions, you can say, “We can be X% confident this effect is real,” and move with accountability.

* Error matters. Understanding Type I and Type II errors (false positives vs false negatives) made me think differently about risk—especially in business contexts where the cost of being wrong isn’t symmetrical.

* Standard deviation isn’t just a formula—it’s uncertainty made visible. It helped me see why “average results” can be misleading when variation is the real story.

Stats didn’t give me certainty. It gave me something more useful: a structured way to make decisions when certainty is impossible.

WHAT TERM THREE REALLY TAUGHT ME

Term Three began—before resumption—with disappointment. I felt it. I didn’t pretend otherwise.

But the bigger story of the term wasn’t the rejection call. It was what happened after it.

I learned that structure is not a personality trait. It’s a practice.

• You practice it in interviews.
• You practice it in leadership.
• You practice it in customer strategy.
• You practice it in finance decisions.
• You practice it in analytical thinking.

And when your structure slips, the community can hold you long enough for you to rebuild it.

I’m walking away from this term with something I’ll carry far beyond the University of Toronto: the confidence that I have people to lean on—friends, classmates, teammates—who don’t just celebrate wins but show up in the messy middle.

Term Four has its own story. And yes—there’s good news coming.

Stay tuned.

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Komi Onipede is a second-year MBA student at the Rotman School of Management and author of the “Coffee, Komi, Rotman” column. Before joining Rotman, he led strategic marketing communications at global platforms, including COP28, New York Climate Week, and the World Economic Forum, reaching audiences across multiple continents. Most recently, he worked as a Global Partnership Marketer at Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment with the Toronto Raptors (NBA), Toronto Maple Leafs (NHL), and Toronto FC (MLS), managing and executing partnership marketing campaigns for brands like Google, IBM, and Molson alongside NBA and international soccer players. At Rotman, he’s sharpening his expertise in strategy, leadership, and business development while building the kind of network and skills that turn ambitious ideas into enduring impact. Connect with him on LinkedIn.

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COFFEE, KOMI, ROTMAN: 2ND TERM IN B-SCHOOL — HOW I LEARNED TO STOP PANICKING

COFFEE, KOMI, ROTMAN: THE LANGUAGE OF TRANSFORMATION

COFFEE, KOMI, ROTMAN: QUEST FOR ENDURING IMPACT

 

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