Focus!

'Focus' seemed to be the keyword of today although I am not sure that was the intention. Entrepreneurship professor Benoit Leleux kicked off the day with session on 'Opportunity Overload' in start-up companies. The case was about a company who had developed a natural alternative to the chemical compounds used for water treatment. It could just as well have been any one of the companies that we are working with on our start-up projects. My start-up group is no different. We are working with a software company that is facing an abundance of possibilities, but little clarity on the direction. 'Focus, focus, focus', as Benoit said in his usual direct style, 'if you try to do everything then you are dead for sure'.

Whether intended or not, Operations Professor Nikos Tsikriktsis had the same message. Focus helps improve the quality and efficiency of the operational processes within the company. The case was on Canadian Shouldice Hospital that for decades had specialized in surgery of hernias. The case may be an example of the extreme, but the point was clear: The fact that they had had such a narrow focus for so many years had allowed them to optimize their internal processes to the benefit of patients, employees and the hospital itself.

In between these two classes Accounting professor Stewart Hamilton swiftly took us on a journey through the complexities of international accounting standards and why it is so difficult to reach agreement on these. There was also just enough time to run through an example of how multinational companies must deal with taxes across national borders and across different business units.


Naoto Tsushima [Japanese] and Vahid Khamsi [Swiss/Iranian] getting some work done in the foyer.


David Rohan [Australian] and Valeria Pavlyukovskaya [Russian] in the dungeons organizing the piles of paper that we are plowing through every day.