What is Integrative Thinking?

In the competitive field of MBA education, the Rotman School has one key advantage: Integrative Thinking™. The rigorous curriculum of the School empowers our students to find creative solutions in the face of multiple and often conflicting perspectives.

We provide you with a solid grounding in all the business fundamentals — Marketing, Strategy, Finance, Accounting, Economics, Operations and Organizational Behaviour — but go beyond these traditional ‘silos’ to see how they interrelate to form the big picture. You gain a set of tools and processes that unleash innovation and lead to superior decision making. It’s a groundbreaking approach that can shape your business — and the world — for the better.

Business Design

To thrive in a world of rapid change, business people have to out-imagine the competition by learning how to think — and act — more like designers. To promote the principles and practices of design thinking, the Rotman School launched its Business Design Initiative in 2006, as part of the Desautels Centre for Integrative Thinking. In collaboration with Stanford University’s Institute of Design and other industry leaders, the Initiative is working to bring design thinking into the Rotman classroom.

The School offers two elective courses on business design, as well as a summer offering, the Business Design Internship program, which puts MBA and design students to work on real-world  challenges. The Business Design Club at Rotman, established in 2007, boasts a growing membership of over 80 MBA students. More than 100 Rotman alumni currently work in the design field, including David Aycan ’05, Senior Designer/Project Manager, IDEO and Terry Huang ’09, Business Designer, NBBJ LP.

Thought Leaders

At Rotman you will gain exposure to some of the world’s leading business thinkers. In the classroom, our top-ranked faculty give students access to the latest research before it filters into consulting firms and major corporations. Outside of classroom hours, some of the greatest minds in business share their insights at conferences, seminars and speakers series, and in articles for Rotman Magazine.

Our 113 faculty members have built a stellar reputation for their groundbreaking research, published work, and their authoritative insight into an exceptionally wide range of management issues. The Rotman faculty is currently ranked 16th in the world by the Financial Times for its research output. They will be your teachers, mentors and team builders, spurring you to think in ways you never imagined.

A Global Context

The Rotman MBA reflects the reality of doing business in the global economy, and the School’s location in Toronto, the world’s most multicultural city, is a major asset. Rotman boasts one of the most international faculties of any leading business school, and our students are exposed to a global perspective of management, choosing from a range of elective courses dealing with international management.

In your second and third years, those who have the opportunity to take a leave from work may participate in exchange programs for one full term. In 2010-11, our MBA students visited 23 leading universities worldwide, including ones in Milan, London, Paris, Singapore and Hong Kong.

International Study Tours are designed to help MBA students understand the opportunities and risks associated with the emergence of important markets in the world economy. The trips include stopovers in major cities where students will learn firsthand what it is like to do business while participating in a number of cultural and tourist activities Site visits to local, Canadian and international companies provide students with a well-rounded overview of the specific country. In 2010-11, Rotman offered four international study tours, each two weeks in duration, to the following locations:

- China
- India
- Latin America
- Middle East

Toronto: Centre of the Action

The Rotman MBA program is located in downtown Toronto, Canada’s financial, commercial and cultural capital. As the third-largest centre for financial services and communications technology in North America, and the site of major clusters of innovation in industries ranging from aerospace to biotech, it’s obvious why in 2011 Toronto was ranked one of the top 26 ‘cities of opportunity’ by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Rotman students are trained just blocks from Bay Street, and the School takes full advantage of its strategic location by drawing on a rich pool of business and political leaders as teachers, mentors and speakers. A wide variety of academic and research partnerships exist between Rotman and the corporate world, making this an ideal place to learn a new way to think about business.

The University of Toronto

Established in 1827, the University of Toronto is recognized worldwide as Canada’s pre-eminent research university, a reputation that will add value for students, especially those who aspire to careers with global dimensions. Home to 74,000 students and 20,230 faculty and staff members, U of T has produced six Nobel Prize-winning graduates and the highest number of Rhodes Scholars of any Canadian university. It also boasts:

• An annual economic impact of $5.4 billion
• 108 spin-off companies with
• 4,000 employees and revenues of
• $800 million

The University of Toronto’s strong academic and research performance ranks among the best in the world in two prestigious international rankings:

• #9 in the Higher Education Evaluation and Accreditation Council of Taiwan.
• #19 in the 2011 Times Higher Education's World University Rankings (In both rankings, U of T leads all Canadian universities).

The Rotman Building: Room to Grow

The School is housed in a bright, modern building that comes with state-of-the-art classrooms and user-friendly study spaces and breakout rooms. In September 2012, the School will open a new $91.8-million building that will double its available research, teaching and study space. The new structure, which will be fully integrated with the current building at 105 St. George Street and a heritage home at 97 St. George Street, provides the Rotman School with a home worthy of its ambitions to become a global leader in innovative business education.

The building is designed to meet the exacting standards of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Canada Green Building Rating System. It includes state-of-the-art classrooms, a new café, green roofs, a sunken garden, and a dramatic 400-seat event space. For the first time, most of the School’s programs and activities will be brought under one roof, allowing for a richer academic environment for faculty and students.

“By reaching a certain scale, we gain competitive advantage in the global business education market,” says Roger Martin, dean of the Rotman School. “We also achieve a critical mass in terms of training the next generation of future business leaders for Canada and the world.”