MBET Blog Post: ‘A Brave New World’

The following post appeared on the Conrad Centre for Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology student blog in a series of posts by students in the Master of Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology program.

Greetings!

Back in May 2009 I had the opportunity to attend the Berkshire Hathaway Annual General Shareholder Meeting in Omaha, Nebraska and listen to Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger, while I drank Coca-Cola, ate See’s peanut brittle and talked about the future of business and more importantly, the state of the North American economy. Their message of change was crystal clear. Business schools need to adapt to the fast-paced and changing times. Both Warren and Charlie firmly believe we all need to adapt our perspective on how we do business during these difficult times, and without a doubt we must innovate in order to cultivate a new, creative economy.

There are few other individuals out there that have their finger on the future of business as well as Mr. Buffett does. When he speaks, people listen. And for good reason, he’s rarely wrong. Just take a look at the class A share price of Berkshire Hathaway stock.

Around the same time, I was working at a major financial institution in Canada, and I found myself questioning a business model predicated on poor strategic decisions that seemed to be crumbling so quickly south of the border in the United States. Relatively speaking, we were fairly fortunate here in Canada. Some have even dubbed us as a model of how a financial system should be run. But even then, I realized that we must change our way of thinking, that was my tipping point, and there wasn’t a better time for change.

The MBET program here at the University of Waterloo offered everything Mr. Buffett said our economy should do to move forward. The choice for me was clear. MBET was the way.

The Centre for Business, Entrepreneurship, and Technology has crafted a program that is unconventional compared to most. Executive Director, Howard Armitage, said it best when he describes the program as a ‘unique adventure’, a journey unlike any other graduate program offers. More importantly, it’s a program that focuses on cultivating the leaders and companies of tomorrow, not the next mechanistic spreadsheet guru.

Since starting six months ago in September, I’ve met some of the most intelligent and talented individuals I’ll ever meet. People from all walks of life who push the boundaries of conventional thinking and thrive on working in a collaborative environment. People who work hard, and can have a fun time doing it. While we don’t always agree on the model, the question, the method or even whether you should buy a Mac or PC (I’m not even going to explain why the answer is the one with three letters). We are all working towards a different tomorrow. A tomorrow that Mr. Buffett urged his shareholders and supporters to pursue at a time when the World desperately needs something different, and a tomorrow that the region of Waterloo seems to do so well.

Over the next few weeks and months, I look forward to telling you what we’re all up to here and where we think tomorrow is headed.

Without a doubt, I’m sure Warren was referring to an environment that creates an adventure much like the one we work, live, and breathe here at CBET.

Maybe if he’s not too busy, we should try to get him here for our next Entre-nous?

Paul