Leader

Alumni News

We are excited to announce the date and location for this years Alumni Event!

2010 LEADER Alumni Event!

Location: Century Room 580 King St. West

Date: Friday March 26, 2010

Time: 8pm

It is exciting to announce that The 2010 LEADER Alumni Event will be held at Century Room. Our team is excited for the opportunity to host this years event and we are hoping for an even stronger Alumni turnout than last years 140. In addition, this year’s team hopes to top the $8,000 raised in our previous best year of 2008. Come out and celebrate yet another year of LEADER and help us make this year as successful as in the past.

LEADER Endowment Fund

Thanks to terrific work by Executive Directors of the past few years and increased support from LEADER Alumni, the Project has been able to set aside $50,000 to create the LEADER Endowment Fund.  A committee of the Board of Advisors has been struck to discuss how to grow the fund, and best how to use it.  Should it be saved for rainy days?  Used to expand our reach? Pursue special projects? Build to support a scholarship for a student? We are looking for a volunteer from the LEADER Alumni community to join the committee to help us form the direction for the Fund – please e-mail us at leaderproject@ivey.ca if you’re interested in joining.  Fundraising experience is preferable…

LEADER Purpose

LEADER has changed its focus over the past few years to become more entrepreneurial in response to the demands of our partner institutions.  This has caused us to really think about what LEADER is trying to accomplish.  Can MBAs, HBAs and PhDs with no entrepreneurial experience be credible when teaching budding entrepreneurs? Our answer to this is yes, as long as we understand our limitations.

Can we coach an entrepreneur to be better at cash flow management, marketing planning and analyzing results?  Absolutely.  Can we teach them how to come up with great entrepreneurial ideas?  Probably not.  The distinction between coaching and teaching is important, and as long as we have a coaching mind-set we can have tremendous impact.  Last year, we piloted a program with the Macedonian Chamber of Commerce and a Canadian organization called Macedonia 2025. Four LEADER instructors travelled to Skopje, Macedonia to teach a classroom comprised entirely of local entrepreneurs.  The response was instructive: entrepreneurs often struggle to take an idea beyond the start-up phase, and our Macedonian pilot participants told us that the topics we coached helped them to better understand their business, allowing them to make decisions faster.  Critically, they think this will sharpen their focus on the core of their businesses, and free them up to spend more time on the most important tasks.  In an entirely entrepreneurial setting, LEADER instructors were able to add value.

The key for LEADER to pursue this approach will be to identify the right groups of entrepreneurs to offer this learning.  Over the next few years, we plan to slowly transition the Project to work with more of these groups.

Geographic Focus

LEADER has almost exclusively been about Eastern Europe, with a brief and successful stop in Cuba.  Our poll of a few years ago showed some support for staying with that, and some who thought we should help wherever we can.

Last year’s trip to Macedonia showed us that a well organized group can deliver the perfect teaching base for our entrepreneurial curriculum.  Last March, the Board opened up the possibility of looking at other regions, as long as a similar organization existed to help smooth the way.  All seven sites remain in Eastern Europe for 2009, but we are open to looking at other opportunities.  If you know of any exciting opportunities, let us know!

All the best,

Jon Shell

Advisory Board Chairperson – The LEADER Project