Business Needs Diversity Says Ivey MBA Student

While many MBA programs around the world tout their diversity, what does that mean for the students? Does a student from China really feel like they can be their self if they attend school in America? Or can a Canadian remain unchanged when attending school in London? These are the questions that Frances Guo, an Ivey Business School MBA ’18 candidate, asked herself in a recent blog entry.

When Guo first came to Canada from Beijing, she felt that she needed to “fit in” with mainstream North American culture. So, her first months in the country she observed the way people spoke, ate, worked and played so she could be “exactly like a Canadian.” She wanted to minimize her differences as much as possible, going so far as to hold back her opinions for fear that they would make her stand out.

“These beliefs and behaviors lasted for months and eroded my self-confidence bit by bit,” wrote Guo. “Then something happened that allowed me to regain a true sense of the significance of diversity.”

Ivey hosted a workshop led by Professor Martha Maznevski on Leadership, Diversity and High-Performance teams, based off of McKinsey’s 2015 study Diversity Matters. In the workshop, Maznevski revealed the truth about diversity: that diverse teams with great leaders outperform all other types of teams. In fact, it’s the variety of opinions that spurs debate among team members to improve innovation and encourage problem-solving.

“The workshop helped me to change my mentality toward being different from the majority surrounding me,” explained Guo. “Now I am more confident about my unique background. I am proud of who I am, and I am more than ever deeply convinced that I can be an asset as valuable as local people because of my diversity.”

Not only did the workshop help to change Guo’s perception of herself, but it also helped her become more valuable in class and more active in her career search and social activities. In the end, Guo discovered that by accepting herself and her differences, she was able to achieve better performance and find her best self.

regions: Toronto

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