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Quote for the day

Why appointing a business dean to the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council actually makes sense

“A focus on cost-cutting and efficiency has helped many organizations weather the downturn, but this approach will ultimately render them obsolete. Only the constant pursuit of innovation can ensure long-term success.”

— Daniel Muzyka, Dean, Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia (2005)

 

Industry Minister Jim Prentice today appointed Muzyka to the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, uh, Council. This gave me a start, because Muzyka is not a physicist or engineer, but the Council is a loose advisory body designed to bring broader societal wisdom, if any, to NSERC’s work. From that perspective, Muzyka’s appointment is actually quite clever because he’s thought more than most people about how to get bright ideas out of the lab and into factories and management suites. Sauder is nowhere near as prominent as the big Ontario biz schools, Rotman and Ivey, but Muzyka has worked diligently to position his school as the one that pushes hardest to keep Canadian business competitive in a highly-innovative global market.

If business is going to have an influence on what goes on in Canadian university labs, it might as well be somebody with a clue, and Muzyka qualifies.

Click here to read Maclean’s senior columnist Paul Wells’ blog “Inkless Wells.”

 

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