Business Transitions research – Phase Four

Dr. Thompson used Research and Professional Development funds for a project examining B.C. and Canadian labour market needs and how it complements Royal Roads University’s MBA program.

This proposed research agenda will continue to complement my teaching of the Advanced Strategic Imperatives program (ASIP) within the Final Residency in the MBA program.
We have discovered that there are many attractive live case and/or OMP opportunities arising from this research as SME owners (and their professional support teams) realize the need to develop proactive succession development plans that can be completed by our MBA learners.
These applied research activities are closely aligned to the university’s mandate to actively and thoughtfully respond to B.C. and Canadian labour market needs, in particular the need to sustain business organizations which are facing generational succession challenges.
The significance of the project also relates to the importance of the SME sector in British Columbia and Canada in terms of job creation and as a driver of economic growth.
There appears to be a critical window of time where the next generation of leaders/managers in the SME sector have to be identified and placed in order to succeed the wave of retiring owner managers of the boomer generational cohort.