Bruce Lowe
DIRECTOR FOOD, DRUG AND MASS
IOVATE HEALTH SCIENCES INC.
IVEY EMBA GRAD 2008

• Liz Snelgrove
• John Gerow

A LEARNING EXPERIENCE THAT TRANSENDS THE CLASSROOM

Like most Executive MBA candidates, Bruce Lowe embarked on the Ivey Program with the assumption that he would graduate with improved business skills. Enhanced leadership, better judgment, and a toolbox of technical skills were all a given. Between his natural affinity for the case method and his friendly nature, he also fully expected to be engaged with his classmates. What he didn’t expect was how profoundly affected he would be by the intellectual and social stimulation of the Ivey learning environment.

“There were 20 nationalities in our class,” Bruce says, “representing disciplines from physicians to lawyers, accountants and engineers, to sales and marketing specialists. We sat with individuals at all different levels within their organizations, from managers all the way up to CEOs and Presidents.”

“They were people who’d been through the trenches; huge re-organizations, major brand launches and amazing life experiences. They brought things to the table that you’d never get in a lecture scenario. Hearing about business issues in the developing world has far greater impact coming from a Mumbai native than it does coming from a lecturer in front of a class. The lessons we learned from our classmates were every bit as valuable as what we learned from our professors.”

“I wanted to gain a broader national and International business perspective. Ivey was the catalyst that allowed me to move into a role that focused on North America. There’s a diversity of disciplines and nationalities represented in Ivey’s classes, and the highlight of my experience has been the relationships that I’ve fostered through the program. Many have developed into personal friendships.”

BEYOND THE EXPECTED

“The other thing I didn’t expect,” Bruce continues, “was how quickly the class’s interpersonal barriers came down. We all went into the program wondering how we’d fit in, or if we would be able to provide value. It didn’t take long, maybe by the third session, for the class to relax and realize that each of us had been selected for a reason. It was remarkable to know that we’d be able to rely on our classmates to get something special out of the experience. By the end, we trusted each other completely. We’d become a unit of 54 people.”

Bruce’s experience was the outcome of a carefully designed program. “The Ivey Experience,” Professor Glenn Rowe explains, “is an outgrowth of the selection process. Our objective is to create a class mix that encourages a richness of discussion; we want diversity, we want an environment that is exciting.”

HOW THE IVEY EXPERIENCE TRANSFORMS

“When you merge that classroom diversity,” Rowe continues, “with the team learning experience, the case method, the social activities, many of our participants form closer bonds here than they may have experienced for years. Our goal is to be transformative,” Rowe concludes, “and the class experience is a big part of that.”

Bruce also emphasizes the transformative effect. “At least half our graduating class talk about how the program has changed their lives; from the people we met, to the cases we grappled with, the professors we had, and the way our perspectives changed. So many of those things are intangibles. They’re things I never expected, but they were worth every bit of time, expense and effort I invested.”

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