London Inc. March/April 2023 - 32

COVE R
The 100th anniversary celebrations are centred on Global Ivey Day,
May 11, with numerous events planned worldwide
" If it hadn't been for the pandemic, I'm not sure we would
have gotten to where we are today, " she says, frankly. " We
had to stop everything during lockdown, and that gave us
a chance to start again, to change the structure of what we
were doing. "
She expanded the committee, inviting more faculty to
participate in the process. The result, concluded in March,
2022, is the ambitious Ivey Next strategic plan. The purpose
statement, " Inspiring leaders for a sustainable and prosperous
world, " hints at the overall goals, but three critical
issues identified in the plan give a better idea of where Ivey
is heading.
They are: evolution of work; sustainability; and Canada's
Francisco. She will continue to have a Bay Area connection.
Installed in 2019, she had ambitious plans for her tenure
and quickly began working to implement them. That's when
she discovered the many differences between academia and
the private sector. She'd spent six months on a " listening
tour, " meeting with faculty, students and staff and had
established a committee to begin crafting a new strategic
plan, what eventually would be known as Ivey Next.
But it didn't go as she had hoped.
Gandz could have told her - or any other dean for that
matter - how difficult it would be. " For the most part, you
come in and you can't fire or hire anyone. You can't tell
people what to do. You're working for them, versus them
working for you. It's a herding cats type of job, " he says.
" The smart ones figure out what they can do and what can
be left to others. They manage relations, understanding the
department is a living organism, and try to anticipate and
initiate change, rather than just being reactive. "
Hodgson likely heard something similar from Stephenson,
but it wasn't until she was in the job that she understood
what was needed.
32 | londonincmagazine.ca | MARCH / APRIL 2023
place in the world. Each area is huge and encompasses many
areas of teaching and research. They represent issues being
discussed by business, government and citizens. And those
are the crossroads where Ivey grads will be situated in the
coming years, with not just the opportunity to effect meaningful
change, but perhaps even the moral imperative.
" If we want to change the world, these are the areas where
things need to be implemented, where boards, CEOs and the
public are all looking for solutions. "
Hodgson cannot - and does not want to - instruct faculty
to direct their research projects to these areas. But in setting
long-term goals, the school can shift toward those areas over
time and perhaps connect ongoing research to new projects
and solutions.
Ivey Next also promises a new approach to case method
teaching, using technologies to present cases in new ways.
Since cases arrived 100 years ago, the model has been much
the same: Read the case, analyse the issues, discuss in class.
Rinse and repeat.
" What if we could use something like augmented reality
to present cases in a more immersive way? " Hodgson asks.
" What if students could virtually walk on the factory floor
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