There is a phrase that appears in the Alberta School of Business’s strategic vision that you don’t often see in a business school’s official documents: kindness. Not excellence, not innovation, not global impact – though all of those are there too. Kindness. It’s described as the benchmark that sets the school’s culture apart, the thing that “emboldens each of us to be confident risk-takers, knowing that we can count on each other”.
One of the most honest ways to understand the culture of a business school is to look at what its alumni say years after graduation. Ivey MBA graduates are consistent in what they say about their student journey: the relationships, the way of thinking, and the intensity of a year spent doing the same difficult thing alongside the same group of people. Culture is hard to measure during the application process. At Ivey Business School, the alumni record makes it easier.