As
a
first-year
student,
I
viewed
Science
and
Business
(SCBUS)
workshops
as
nothing
more
than
a
series
of
program-specific
courses
that
I
had
to
take
every
year.
Why
not?
Accounting
and
Financial
Management
(AFM)
students
take
AFM
courses,
Applied
Mathematics
(AMATH)
students
experience
AMATH
courses,
biology
students
spend
3-6
hour
in
labs
every
week,
and
SCBUS
students
get
their
SCBUS
workshops.
About
three
quarters
of
the
way
into
my
final
workshop
of
the
program,
I
realized
the
whole
is
greater
than
the
sum
of
its
parts.
Collectively,
these
workshops
helped
me
develop
skills
necessary
to
run
a
business.
Professor
Memon
introduced
us
to
the
program
in
SCBUS
123
and
223.
In
those
two
early
courses,
he
vigorously
drilled
into
us
the
ways
of
doing
environmental
scanning
properly.
He
then
passed
us
on
to
Professor
Richardson,
who
taught
us
to
examine
organizational
behaviours
critically
and
trained
our
product-development
skills.
Professor
Igboeli
then
finished
the
program
by
connecting
everything
that
we
learned
in
a
strategy
course.
I
learned
to
think
of
running
a
business
like
sailing
a
ship
and
we
are
the
captains.
The
ship
must
have
a
destination,
which
Kashif
taught
us
to
set
when
he
introduced
concepts
such
as
vision
and
mission
in
our
first
day
of
classes.
As
the
captain,
we’d
observe
our
environments
and
surroundings
constantly
to
identify
threats
that
would
slow
down
our
ship
or
opportunities
that
would
help
our
ships
sail
faster.
Are
we
in
a
blue
ocean
or
a
red
ocean?
What
type
of
ships
do
we
have?
Do
we
have
an
aircraft
carrier
or
a
sailboat?
Sound
a
little
bit
like
the
SWOT
and
Porter’s
Five
Forces
environmental
analysis
frameworks
yet?
You
bet.
Yet it’s not enough to just observe our surroundings, we also must manage the crew and everything that goes on inside the ship because we can’t sail the ship by ourselves. How do we motivate the crew? What about the grape vine? What are the techniques that enforce trust? This is then about understanding management and organizational behaviour, which we learned in SCBUS 122 and 225. We must understand how to use the resources at hand to achieve our goals. It is often not a good idea to go all out on just a concept, so we would have to prototype, pilot, and come up with a minimal viable product before full-scale operation. All these processes require funding, so pitching to investors, managing the books, and avoiding the red line become incredibly important. SCBUS 323 covered these topics.
Lastly, all these factors must align with each other in order for the ship to sail. Having sailors who want to go east while we sail west is just not going to work! As captains, we must come up with a strategy that aligns with our surrounding environments, resources, the capabilities of our crew, and the preferences of our crew. This then becomes a discussion of strategy, which we explored in SCBUS 423.
SCBUS has also taught me many important lessons throughout the last five years.
SCBUS
has
taught
me
to
actively
trust
my
team
members.
When
I
was
in
Israel
with
Okey
and
taking
SCI
230,
my
team
and
many
other
teams
worked
until
1AM
or
2AM
in
the
morning
of
the
day
that
we
had
to
hand
in
our
final
project.
I
still
remember
the
five
of
us
sitting
in
one
hotel
room
and
just
frantically
typing
away
on
our
laptops.
Around
11PM,
I
asked
one
of
my
teammates
to
double
check
the
definition
of
supply
chain
and
she
came
back
with
something
that
I
disagreed
with.
I
was
overtaken
by
fatigue,
so
I
showed
my
frustration
until
she
said,
“it
was
from
the
internet.”
Immediately,
I
knew
that
I
could
have
handled
the
situation
better.
It
is
the
night
before
the
final
project
is
due,
my
teammate
has
gone
through
everything
in
the
course
just
like
I
had,
I
should
have
simply
said
“thank
you,
I
trust
you”
and
nothing
else.
This
is
much
easier
said
than
done.
To
trust
someone
means
you
are
willing
to
accept
the
consequences
of
their
actions,
and
no
one
wants
to
get
a
bad
mark
for
another
person’s
mistake.
Yet,
the
project
must
be
completed,
and
you
can
never
do
everything
yourself.
To
complete
a
project
as
a
team
and
avoid
the
unfortunate
situation
where
one
person
does
everything,
you
must
trust
each
other
and
be
willing
to
accept
the
consequences.
There
is
that
famous
proverb
that
says
“give
a
person
a
fish
and
you
feed
them
for
a
day,
teach
them
how
to
fish
and
you
feed
them
for
their
lifetime.”
I
feel
that
SCBUS
has
taught
me
skills
that
will
help
me
succeed
in
the
workplace.
I
can
apply
the
organizational
behaviour
concepts
at
work,
use
the
Diamond-E
framework
in
my
personal
life,
set
SMART
goals
for
myself
to
complete,
and
instill
a
sense
of
urgency
to
avoid
procrastination.
I
am
genuinely
thankful
for
everything
that
the
program
taught
me.
I
am
thankful
for
the
mentorship,
the
friendship,
the
camaraderie,
and
countless
shared
stories
and
experiences.
When
I
look
back,
I
can
confidently
say
that
I
am
glad
I
chose
SCBUS.