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Calgary is emerging as a world-class business city but will it have a world-class business school? That's the challenge of Leonard Waverman, a 65-year-old economist who on Jan. 1, 2008, will become the fourth dean in the past decade at the University of Calgary's Haskayne School of Business. Mr. Waverman, a Canadian who has spent 10 years at London Business School, knows something of Calgary -- he started his career as an energy economist. In recent years, his research has focused on the economic impact of communications technology. He talks about his new job, his age, and what's wrong with Canadian productivity.

Why does the Haskayne school have trouble keeping deans?

I think it's just circumstances. The underlying quality of the school and its people is there. But [deans] came and left for good reasons -- to go somewhere else or back to the private sector. People have not left because there is something wrong with Haskayne.

Can you provide stability?

My contract is for 4½ years from Jan. 1 and, if they like me, there is an option for another five years.

But at 65, you are a bit long in the tooth.

The new business dean at Georgetown [University] is 67. If you look around, you see a variety of deans. Some have long track records, with the wisdom from doing a number of things -- and a lot of them are young. So there are two different models.

There is no reason that we people with a little grey hair and who still have boundless energy can't continue to do these things for years and years. That's the way society is going. The University of Calgary has no age discrimination. I thought that was important.

Is the Alberta energy boom sustainable?

When I was writing in 1975, I said the high oil prices were not sustainable. That was then and they weren't sustainable, but now I think they are. The growth of demand, the whittling down of supply, and potential for political instability means I see the oil price staying above $50 (U.S.) for a long time.

That would be good news for a university dean raising money in the oil patch.

The answer to raising money is to have ideas of what you want to do -- important ideas -- and then see if other people think so too.

What will be your most important idea?

It would be very interesting to have an MBA stream which is more focused on global natural resources management -- not so much on energy issues or economic issues but really on management issues with a global vision. That is something that could be done at Haskayne.

You could look at what's happening at BP and how they are assessing risks now. You could look at negotiating for contracts around the world, working on reserve estimates or thinking about how IT can help the sector. All these issues can be made into a globally important program.

What's your current research all about?

It's about the forces driving the New Economy and the big productivity advance -- the fact that computers can interact over very large data transmission networks. It looks at various countries, showing what part of Canada's productivity gap with the U.S. comes from computers and telecom.

What did you find?

Something like 55 per cent of the [Canada-U.S.] productivity gap is due to the gap in computers and communications. When you look at the data on computers per capita, Canada really lags the U.S., but the gap is not at the residential or consumer level -- it is basically at the corporate level, and in government.

Is it because we are still hewers of wood and drawers of water?

Well, the energy sector is one of the greatest users of computer power in the world. But if you look at pulp and paper and mining, it's not clear how much they are using this new technology. Some firms really are, but others are behind in thinking about how this new world can alter the way they do things.

So Canadians are not early adopters of technology?

I think we are early adopters because if you look at broadband and Internet use, we actually are ahead of the Americans. The problem is not in the home, but in business.

So what can we do about this gap, if it exists?

My work says Canada has about a 20-per-cent productivity gap with the U.S., and I think a lot of the reason lies in managerial practices.

We all have the same computers, and information technology is information technology. But the technology needs to be combined with complementary assets and skills so that you can reconfigure the enterprise and how it functions. That will be the next stage of my research, to look in more detail at the managerial side.

But aren't management practices the same on both sides of the border?

I don't think so. I don't think IT is embedded as a strategic way of reconfiguring the firm on both sides of the border. There could be a lag in Canada and that could be one thing to explain the productivity gap. We buy these IT systems in Canada and they become shelf ware. They're not really implemented. I want to study this.

Time after time, the U.S. leads the world in productivity enhancement. A lot of studies say it is because Americans are just more competitive. It could be there is a greater degree of risk-taking in the United States. It could also be that U.S. entrepreneurs and managers are kind of more 'techie.' Think of all the Googles and AOLs and where they all come from.

Are U.S. managers more techie because of the different training in business schools?

It's not so much the training, I think, as how we view IT.

So Canadians don't have a flair for applying this technology?

What flair means in this case is rethinking everything you do in a company and how you do it. A guy at MIT, Erik Brynjolfsson, coined the phrase "the digital corporation." In his study of companies, he found that firms that just buy IT have lower productivity than if they didn't buy it. But then there are those companies that buy IT and engage in complete process rethinking -- that's where you get real productivity enhancement.

You may be a good scholar but are you a leader?

I think I am. Everyone who knows me would say I am forthright and personable and I am a visionary. I can articulate a vision and I think I can get people excited by it.

I would lead more by working well with others. I'm not the kind of guy who would say, 'Charge that machine gun, I am leading you.' I don't think that is what leadership is these days, particularly in academic institutions. I think what excites people is how they can make managers better through education.

Haskayne is not listed among the world's top 100 MBA schools in the recent Financial Times rankings. Do you have a target?

I don't like those goals because it kind of makes it like role playing. You look at the FT and try to figure out the easiest way to get up the list. For example, should I have more international students?

I think the strategy should be to make Haskayne better by figuring out its competitive advantages -- where we can be strong and drive those things. Then I think we can go up in the rankings naturally. If we target excellence as a goal, the rankings will come.

Leonard Waverman

Title: Incoming dean, Haskayne School of Business, University

of Calgary

Born: Oct. 18, 1941 in Toronto.

A citizen of Canada and France.

Education: BCom and MA from the University of Toronto; PhD from the Massachusetts Institute

of Technology.

Career highlights: Thirty years

in the department of economics

at University of Toronto, including

a period as director of the Centre for International Studies.

1997: Joined London Business School, where he is now chair of the economics department.