Canada Trip Was A Recipe For Jeff's Success
Date published: 10th July 2001
What do yoga, Niagra Falls, marketing and the internet have in common?
The answer is the Richard Ivey Business School, based in London in the Canadian province in Ontario. Or to be precise, its marketing courses.
The Richard Ivey Business School is Canada's top business school, and I was fortunate to be one of just four UK delegates selected to attend a two-week intensive marketing course on the SD Southern Scholarship, funded by the Canadian utility and manufacturing conglomerate ATCO Group.
The timing of the course could not have been better.
As a director of Ipswich-based e-commerce industry consultancy A Recipe for Success, I knew we would shortly complete our e-KIS (e-Commerce Keep It Simple) toolkit.
I was also in the process of rewriting our business plan to secure external funding, and knew that North America was a potential target market.
An elite Canadian business school was the perfect place to assess the potential of the Canadian and US markets.
Getting on to the course was not guaranteed. Like the other UK delegates, I had to go through a tough selection process, which whittled down hundreds of applicants to a shortlist of 12, before selecting the final four delegates.
The basic criteria were simple: you had to work in a senior sales, marketing or business development role within a small or medium-sized company in the UK.
I knew I could satisfy the basic criteria, but having been previously short-listed only to be pipped at the post, I knew the selection process was very challenging.
Not only did I have to convince the selection panel that I would benefit from the course, I also had to convince them that it was the right timing for my company to benefit. Still, one application form and two interviews later, I got a letter confirming that I was on the course. I was over the moon.
So in late April I joined the other UK delegates, plus two Dutch delegates, to fly out of Heathrow to Toronto. Twelve hours and five time zones later, we arrived back in
London - this time London Ontario in Canada. Leaving the airport we drove along Regent Street, and crossed the River Thames, before finally turning in to Windermere Road.
The surroundings felt strangely familiar!
The next day we joined up with the other 35 attendees from North America and Europe to start the intensive two-week programme covering all aspects of Strategic Marketing Management, Innovations in Marketing Management, and particularly the impact of the Internet on Marketing.
As I had expected from a world-class business school, the material covered was of a high quality, and the pace of the delivery was fast.
A typical day started at 6.30am with a "wellness" activity - typically power walking, jogging, weight training, box-fit, basketball, football, volleyball, cycling, and of course yoga!
Classes started at 8am and apart from meal breaks and an evening wellness activity, continued until 10pm.
Thereafter everyone headed down to the bar for a quick pint before collapsing into bed by 11pm.
Next morning I was up again at 6.30am for more wellness, though I have to admit I didn't make it to the wellness activity everyday.
It wasn't "all hard work and no play" however. Between classes some of us managed to fit in some sightseeing at Niagara Falls, an evening at the Ol Chicago's night-club in downtown London, and a play at the Stratford Upon Avon drama festival.
As part of the scholarship the UK and the Dutch delegates were invited to spend the second weekend as guests of the ATCO Group and its chairman, Ron Southern, in Calgary, Alberta. This is something that I found particularly valuable.
During the weekend, we were coached for half a day by the ATCO board of directors on business issues, toured and dined at the world famous Spruce Meadows equestrian centre, and then spent a day in the beautiful scenery around Banff in the Rocky Mountains.
The answer is the Richard Ivey Business School, based in London in the Canadian province in Ontario. Or to be precise, its marketing courses.
The Richard Ivey Business School is Canada's top business school, and I was fortunate to be one of just four UK delegates selected to attend a two-week intensive marketing course on the SD Southern Scholarship, funded by the Canadian utility and manufacturing conglomerate ATCO Group.
The timing of the course could not have been better.
As a director of Ipswich-based e-commerce industry consultancy A Recipe for Success, I knew we would shortly complete our e-KIS (e-Commerce Keep It Simple) toolkit.
I was also in the process of rewriting our business plan to secure external funding, and knew that North America was a potential target market.
An elite Canadian business school was the perfect place to assess the potential of the Canadian and US markets.
Getting on to the course was not guaranteed. Like the other UK delegates, I had to go through a tough selection process, which whittled down hundreds of applicants to a shortlist of 12, before selecting the final four delegates.
The basic criteria were simple: you had to work in a senior sales, marketing or business development role within a small or medium-sized company in the UK.
I knew I could satisfy the basic criteria, but having been previously short-listed only to be pipped at the post, I knew the selection process was very challenging.
Not only did I have to convince the selection panel that I would benefit from the course, I also had to convince them that it was the right timing for my company to benefit. Still, one application form and two interviews later, I got a letter confirming that I was on the course. I was over the moon.
So in late April I joined the other UK delegates, plus two Dutch delegates, to fly out of Heathrow to Toronto. Twelve hours and five time zones later, we arrived back in
London - this time London Ontario in Canada. Leaving the airport we drove along Regent Street, and crossed the River Thames, before finally turning in to Windermere Road.
The surroundings felt strangely familiar!
The next day we joined up with the other 35 attendees from North America and Europe to start the intensive two-week programme covering all aspects of Strategic Marketing Management, Innovations in Marketing Management, and particularly the impact of the Internet on Marketing.
As I had expected from a world-class business school, the material covered was of a high quality, and the pace of the delivery was fast.
A typical day started at 6.30am with a "wellness" activity - typically power walking, jogging, weight training, box-fit, basketball, football, volleyball, cycling, and of course yoga!
Classes started at 8am and apart from meal breaks and an evening wellness activity, continued until 10pm.
Thereafter everyone headed down to the bar for a quick pint before collapsing into bed by 11pm.
Next morning I was up again at 6.30am for more wellness, though I have to admit I didn't make it to the wellness activity everyday.
It wasn't "all hard work and no play" however. Between classes some of us managed to fit in some sightseeing at Niagara Falls, an evening at the Ol Chicago's night-club in downtown London, and a play at the Stratford Upon Avon drama festival.
As part of the scholarship the UK and the Dutch delegates were invited to spend the second weekend as guests of the ATCO Group and its chairman, Ron Southern, in Calgary, Alberta. This is something that I found particularly valuable.
During the weekend, we were coached for half a day by the ATCO board of directors on business issues, toured and dined at the world famous Spruce Meadows equestrian centre, and then spent a day in the beautiful scenery around Banff in the Rocky Mountains.
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