The Navigating Disruption Podcast

He is a man of many cultures. Francis Pun came to Vancouver from Hong Kong as a child. After getting his engineering degree from UBC he traveled from Canadian forest to forest maintaining in a very traditional and old economy industry. He completed his MBA with me at Ivey Business School in 2000 and has been on the edge of innovation ever since. Working in tech and innovation in Japan, Singapore a...

Many people aren’t able to find their purpose in life. For those that are, often the journey is long and winding with many stops along the way. That was certainly the case for Dr. Jody Anderson. When she discovered the burgeoning field of Corporate Social Responsibility in the late 90’s, she thought she had found it. She invested in a graduate degree at Ivey Business School and she embarked on her...

In his teens, Ruben Dua watched his Dad watering trees and saw an opportunity. He also observed him taking the time to connect with people in every day interactions in his practice as a physician. This was the inspiration for how Ruben decided to spend his life and make his mark on the world. Ruben is the CEO and founder of Dubb.com, a frictionless video communication platform that transforms the...

What was a Canadian twenty-something pest control salesperson doing on a Belarussian subway with a backpack full of rubles? Listen to this interview with Tara Landes to find-out. While we both grew up in Vancouver, it took a decision to change our life direction for us to meet at our MBA program at Ivey Business School. For the past 12 years Tara has been the President of Bellrock Benchmarking, In...

In 1980 a child was born to a healthcare worker and a teacher in war torn Kabul, Afghanistan. That child grew up hearing stories about the "Golden Era"...what life was like before he was born. Instead of feeling resentful for not seeing those wonderful times, he decided to choose hope and equipped himself with the skills to help the people of his country get access to basic healthcare they needed....

When I first met Dean Mills in 2004 he was a strategic account sales professional at Purolator Inc. I watched as he calmly and methodically grew his customer base to become a top performer and President's Club winner. As he succeeded he not only maintained his humility, he developed his strong inclination to teach and coach his colleagues to also become successful. I watched him continue to rise i...

In late October 1998, I was walking from my apartment to business school in London Ontario. It was the first snowfall and my first extremely cold day in Ontario. I was prepared with warm clothing but one of my classmates, Neeraj Monga was not. He had just recently arrived from India. I ran into him on the way into the building. He was freezing cold in a sweatshirt as he walked to school that day....

What do you get when you take a self declared introvert, combined with self confidence, an open mind and strong desire to develop others? You get one of the only female IT senior executives successfully leading one of the largest IT teams in corporate Canada. In this second episode of the "Days of Future Past" mini-series, I speak to Alison James, the SVP of Technology Operations at one of Canada'...

In a mini-series I am calling "Days of Future Past", I am commemorating my 20th anniversary of graduating from the Ivey Business School by interviewing classmates whom I have not seen in 20 years. Most of my classmates are now in senior leadership positions across multiple sectors and I am curious about what they have learned in the past two decades that will be helpful as we navigate the next two...

Now is the time for customers and suppliers to collaborate and innovate to thrive during this time of disruption. It is not just about their companies' survival, it’s about all of us. Unless businesses can understand the shifting priorities and needs of end consumers, they will not develop solutions that are relevant to our changing lives. In this episode, I share an interview from a few months ag...

In the days following the declaration of the pandemic, tens of thousands of small businesses had to make crucial decisions under intense pressure. The most important of all decisions was how to set their mindset. In this episode I talk to two small business owners, Aliya Bhatia and Rahim Rajan, about how they faced this crisis in the first few weeks, what their mindset was and how they are now evo...

It is a challenging time for all job seekers right now. In this episode, I share a webinar where I gave advice to newly minted university graduates to help them answer the question: "So now what do I do?!". Even if you aren't a new grad, I think you will find it helpful as you navigate the months ahead. Send me a message - https://anchor.fm/shakeel-bharmal/message

Leading during times of disruption requires a capacity for ongoing learning, self reflection and self awareness. In this episode I share the power of personal memories of early life experiences in developing leadership capacity. Send me a message - https://anchor.fm/shakeel-bharmal/message