John Gerow
Executive Director of Innovation
AstrazenEca Canada
Ivey EMBA Grad 2008

• Liz Snelgrove
• Bruce Lowe

AN ROI THAT TRANSENDS NUMBERS

John Gerow typifies the type of bright, creative individual with the smarts to leverage talent, timing and insight. New products, evolving markets and a sales force of 160 people provided the stimulus to keep his creative mind energized. Words like “exciting”, “rewarding” and “passion” lace his description of industry and career.

That said, like so many other individuals that end up in an MBA program, John felt there was something lacking. While his experience at AstraZeneca was certainly fulfilling, he felt pigeonholed as “the creative guy”. What John lacked was the analytical background to support his intuition; thus, his application to the Ivey program.

“Sitting in meetings over the years, I realized I didn’t have enough discipline in business training. Too much of what I would bring to the table was gut instinct. I had creative ideas but much of my success was based on feel. I never had a really disciplined way of breaking a problem down.”

Told by his employer that he didn’t need the degree to change jobs or be promoted, he persisted. Eventually, he was given the go-ahead on the condition that, each term, he would provide a value-add for his organization by engaging in one or two assignments for the firm.

“I wanted to develop a more disciplined way to tackle business challenges. The Ivey case study method gave me the approach I was looking for. It’s been one of the best things that I’ve done for myself and for my career. The courses that intimidated me the most at first, such as accounting and analytics, are the same ones from which I’ve learned the most. It’s been an experience that will benefit me for the rest of my career.”

WHAT CAME NEXT

During one of the projects, John realized that the changing demographics of his firm’s key customers provided a huge opportunity, both in terms of cost savings and increased efficiencies. As Ivey professor Murray Bryant states, “The project was going to fundamentally change the way AstraZeneca would access their market.” The President of Gerow’s firm explains the significance of the proposed changes: “When adopted,” he says, “this project has the potential to deliver more to our global revenues than the Canadian division contributed in all of last year.”

The outcomes for the firm were clear. For John, a new title and corporate visibility followed almost immediately. Deeper than that, however, the Ivey Executive MBA was the vehicle that broadened his creative thinking to encompass a full array of business strategies. He graduated with the ability to engage the analytical and financial tools he’d felt he’d been missing the last 25 years.

THE BOTTOM LINE

“For me personally, it’s been the opportunity to take my creativity and use it in a way that’s disciplined from a marketing and business perspective,” he says. “It allowed me to step forward and bring something radically different to my career and apply it in a way that’s had an incredible impact.”

In retrospect, the outcomes may seem obvious and maybe not surprising at all. The fact is, however, that great ideas need a catalyst. In this case, it was a project conceived as a term assignment and fuelled by creativity and intuition. The combined effect of Gerow’s talent and Ivey’s project backed learning paid off in spades.

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