Saskatoon is Canada's boomtown and Brooke Dobni sits at the centre of the economic surge based on oil, uranium and potash. At 50, he is acting dean of the Edwards School of Business at the University of Saskatchewan, and a veteran of 20 years of teaching and administration at the school. He is also a candidate for the official dean's position, left vacant last year and subject to an executive search that should wind up by late May. Whoever takes over will find a school dedicated to teaching, above all, business fundamentals.
Gordon Pitts: What's your story?
Brooke Dobni: I was born in Kindersley [Sask.], two hours from here. Dad was an entrepreneur and I played some hockey around the province. I'm a Saskatchewan guy through and through, and believe in the province.
Pitts: You have a number of masters programs at the school.
Dobni: We have probably the most successful masters of professional accounting program in Canada. That is targeted at people in industry who are articling for their [chartered accountant's designation]. Our students' pass rates are among the highest in Canada for the CA exam.
Pitts: Are you making changes in the MBA program?
Dobni: About two years ago, we switched back to a part-time option. Prior to that, if you wanted to do an MBA, you had to come for the full year, full-time, and it was not convenient for a lot of folks. So we went to a part-time offering, as well as full-time; you can do the MBA in one, two or three years. That allowed a lot more students to get access.
Our enrolment is growing and we will have our biggest MBA graduating class within two years. We're graduating about 30 students a year now and our hope is to graduate 50 a year going forward. Applications this year are up almost 50 per cent from last year.
Pitts: What is the MBA's niche?
Dobni: What we do well is focus on business. I've been around schools in the U.S., Canada, Britain and New Zealand and I've found a lot of them were offering all these boutique things - an MBA in non-profit or indigenous management, or in economic development. But in doing so, they got away from teaching the nuts and bolts of business.
We have a very tight program. Our core courses are extremely focused on business and the integration of those concepts and techniques to make value-added decisions. We make no excuses about that.
Pitts: What is the role of the new MBA building, which was donated by local entrepreneur Kay Nasser?
Dobni: By separating the MBA from the undergrad program and having a place downtown, it really builds a culture of business. The MBA cohort feels good about it because they have their own place. We've seen a real change in attitude with students becoming much more confident.
Pitts: Where do students go after graduation?
Dobni: Saskatchewan's economy is pretty good and a lot of them are staying right here in the province. There has been a lot of uptake of MBAs in some of the bigger organizations, but also in small- to medium-sized enterprises.
There are quite a few companies in Saskatchewan that employ 30 to 100 people. There are a lot of support businesses, machine shops and infrastructure support for the mining and oil and gas industries here, and they require that expertise.
We claim 100 per cent employment within three to four months - with the exception of last year, which was a little more difficult. We also have a student-based consulting group, and so we will employ our own students, if necessary. My background is private-sector management consulting, and that's the model we bring in for our MBA students. We charge for what we do and make money at it, and make no excuses for that, because we are ingraining that culture of business.
