In any mature industry, entrepreneurial firms looking for growth should seek out disruptive technologies that offer products or services that are fundamentally different than those of their competitors, advises Douglas Cumming, professor of finance and entrepreneurship at York University’s Schulich School of Business. “A good source of intelligence is products or services that customers say they really wish they could get,” he said in The Globe and Mail June 6. Even when companies have similar technologies in development, established ones may be slower to get them to market for fear of undercutting their regular product lines. Read full story.
Tell your clients the lengths you have gone to in gaining these qualifications
Strategically displaying your professional designations can help you build your business, said Alan Middleton, executive director with the Schulich Executive Education Centre at York University. “We live in a credentials-first world now,” he said in Investment Executive June 5. “If you have any of the well-recognized ones, you’d be silly if you didn’t draw people’s attention to it – but in a way that they will understand what skills you have that others might not.” Read full story
Blue Bridge theatre’s ‘Uncle Vanya’ strikes a modern chord
Calgary actor Duncan Ollerenshaw plays Vanya in Blue Bridge Repertory Theatre’s new production of Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya, opening tonight at the McPherson Playhouse, reported the Times Colonist June 5….Soon after studying theatre at Toronto’s York University, Ollerenshaw earned a berth as a member of the Shaw Festival, a repertory theatre. As well as acting in such George Bernard Shaw plays as Candida, he studied with the company’s academy for young actors. Over four seasons Ollerenshaw learned much about being an actor – in particular, meeting the challenge of how to communicate with audiences using Shaw’s heightened language. Read full story.
Overeducated and underemployed: the teachers college mess
Yuni Kim just graduated from teachers college. But her chance of getting a job in her field any time soon is remote. There’s a glut of her peers on the market, and nobody’s hiring. “A lot of us will be heading overseas because there’s nothing here for us,” the York student said in The Globe and Mail June 6….On Wednesday, the Ontario government announced it will cut teachers college enrolment in half, from 9,000 to 4,500, and double the amount of time it takes to get a teaching degree, from one year to two. Read full story.