Teaching

Making a difference, from the classroom out

Teaching and mentoring play a special role in my life. By helping students launch new ventures, learn research methodology or understand and apply strategy and entrepreneurship ideas, I hope to equip our next generations of change-makers to create positive impact – whether by answering their own research questions, founding their own innovative ventures or by finding clarity in their academic life and career path.

Courses

I view teaching as a process of empowering students to learn to take action for themselves through real-world practice, questioning and reflection. I believe in creating a learning community in the classroom, where students can think creatively and debate ideas.

Entrepreneurship

Cape Breton University MBA in Community Economic Development

This course takes a practice-based approach to launching new ventures. These new organizations can be large or small, for-profit, not-for-profit, social enterprises or intrapreneurial ventures within larger companies. Students work individually or in teams with a real-world venture idea to practically apply all of the concepts and principles to developing something new.

Strategy

Cape Breton University, Shannon School of Business

This course addresses the central issue in strategic management: why do some organizations outperform others? The concepts and frameworks in this course help students understand how organizations can effectively create long-term sustainable competitive advantage.

Social Entrepreneurship

Cape Breton University MBA in Community Economic Development

This elective course explores social enterprise business models and provides frameworks for understanding how social and environmental impact can be created in various ways along the entire organizational value chain. We cover examples and models from various sectors (health, agriculture, energy, etc.) and various types of organizations (for-profit, hybrids, not-for-profit) in Africa, Asia, Latin America and North America. View full course details here.

Teaching Cases

I publish classroom teaching materials and give presentations on effective teaching methods internationally. These cases have been downloaded more than 10,000 times by faculty from around the world and recognized with three international awards.

CASE: Sustainable Water Management

City Water Tanzania (A): Water Partnerships for Dar es Salaam
City Water Tanzania (B): Privatizing Dar es Salaam’s Water Utility
City Water Tanzania (C1): Striking a Deal
City Water Tanzania (C2): The Private Sector Experiment
City Water Tanzania (D): Things Fall Apart

CASE: Clean Energy

A Model of Clean Energy Entrepreneurship in Africa: E+Co’s Path to Scale
Clean Energy: A Tipping Point for Clean Energy Entrepreneurship (A)
Clean Energy: The Path to Scale (B)

CASE: Microfranchising

IRC in Sierra Leone: The Path to Scale for an Alternative Microfranchising Model

CASE: Employing Disadvantaged Workers

Wonder Workshop Tanzania

CASE: Sustainability Strategy

The Body Shop International

CASE: Renewable Energy Strategy

Suncor Energy