Ayesha Zaman is an MBA ’22 candidate with a passion for exploring the relationship between consumer behaviour and purchase decisions. Her professional background in the Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) sector gave her opportunities to work with global brands at Nestlé. Additionally, she provided category-specific strategic insights to brands such as General Mills and Lindt during her time working at AC Nielsen.
At Ivey, she is focused on her virtues of taking a customer-first approach, nurturing her leadership style, and solving complex business problems through creative thinking. In her article below, Zaman shares how Jeff Ehmann, a fellow MBA ’22 candidate and business owner, has implemented learnings from the program into his Calgary-based CPG business, Twigz Craft Pretzels.
Ivey MBA student Jeff Ehmann has certainly proven that a just-do-it mindset is important for an entrepreneur. After all, he has already founded three businesses, the first when he was only 14. Having grown from those experiences, Ehmann maintains that continual learning and personal growth are key to entrepreneurial success. That’s why he was interested in Ivey’s MBA program. Its focus on Case-Method Learning was appealing because he wanted to learn through real-world cases how decisions can impact a business. The learnings have come in spades. Here are some takeaways.
Purpose-driven brands grow at an expedited rate
While taking Ivey Lecturer Matthew Diamond’s Consumer Marketing course, Ehmann said one specific class had a lightbulb moment. Diamond brought in a guest lecturer, Dale Storey, the former president of General Mills. Storey spoke about the benefits of being purpose-driven, particularly how consumers value brands that tackle social problems.
Storey left the students with a data-driven insight that was rooted in his personal experience: Brands that connect with consumers on social issues often grow five times faster than those that don’t. Ehmann said hearing Storey talk about the financial benefit of tying in your brand’s purpose to a social cause was an eye-opening insight that he took to the Twigz team.
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Partnerships fuel a brand’s purpose
Growing up, all of Twigz’s co-founders were fortunate to have received a phenomenal education coupled with ample opportunities to join extracurriculars. As a result, they made it their mission to tie this purpose into the Twigz brand. Since hearing Storey’s insights on purpose-driven brands, Ehmann and the Twigz team have developed an initiative called Twigz Kids in partnership with the Boys and Girls Club of Canada, a non-profit organization that supports under-privileged youth through various programming.
With support from the Boys and Girls Club, Twigz plans to launch annual in-person events, such as Twigz Kids Day, which will allow Twigz and other local brands to come together, add value, and give back to the community. Garnering these lifetime partnerships will allow Twigz to hone in on brand. While Ehmann said this kind of work just “feels right,” he is also interested to see how it impacts the brand from a financial perspective.
Managing an MBA and a business
Although running a business is time-consuming, don’t sacrifice opportunities for continuous learning because they’ll only help the business in the long run. Ehmann shares three tips that helped him to juggle the MBA program while running a business:
- Approach everything with an open and positive mindset – Ehmann looks for the fun aspects in the grind and takes this approach with everything he does, regardless of the situation;
- Understand when to prioritize the MBA and when to prioritize your business; and,
- Look for a flexible program – Ehmann enjoyed Ivey’s digital delivery of the MBA through the pandemic. He said it was extremely well done and gave him the flexibility he needed to succeed in both business and the MBA.
Advice for those interested in entrepreneurship
Based on his own experience, Ehmann also has advice for fellow MBA students who are considering entrepreneurship: Start today. He cites how LinkedIn Co-Founder Reid Hoffman once said if you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.
“I strongly believe you should start today by putting yourself out there, talking to customers, and making progress,” said Ehmann.
