Business students may automatically turn to the Financial Times or The Economist for their intake on recent market news. However, many may be unaware of Ivey Business Review (IBR), Canada’s leading student strategy journal written and managed exclusively by Ivey HBAs and MBAs.
I had the pleasure of speaking with Ariana Ghavami, current editor-in-chief, to learn more about IBR’s unique standing as more than just a club in the Ivey community. Through our Q&A, two themes became apparent: IBR’s student impact and IBR’s community impact.
Student Impact
IBR positions students of all years to develop and voice their ideas on business strategies. Ariana joined IBR as a 2nd-year researcher and fell in love with it because of how all her inputs and ideas were valued, even if she was several years younger than her senior peers. As a 1st-year researcher myself, my experience thus far has aligned with Ariana’s: IBR’s uniquely flat organizational structure has allowed me to work in tandem with a room of only 5th years during my first “blitz,” IBR’s term for a day of intense editing. Ariana emphasizes how the highly meritocratic club culture allows great ideas to be celebrated regardless of who puts them forward, leading to a highly tangible work output.
In this way, IBR impacts all contributing students with a powerful platform where their voices and perspectives are valued. Ariana’s vision for IBR is to further extend this in 2024: increase student engagement with podcasts and highlight student ideas with articles featured more widely on social sites. In the long-term, she hopes to grow the variety of perspectives IBR shares with MBA, MsC, and Exchange authorship, as well as expand the publication to 15 articles.
Community Impact
Although the entire multi-month article process for IBR is entirely directed by authors, editors, and researchers, articles are ultimately written for the community. Ariana curates IBR’s two annual publications to showcase the strategic thinking and student mastery of the case method to the broader business community, ultimately providing a fresh source of student perspectives on the news.
Moreover, the IBR process uniquely allows students of all years to be involved: 1st- and 2nd-year students can become Researchers, HBAs can become authors, and past authors can return to join the editorial board. This opportunity for the community opens doors to global executive attention and empowers the Western and Ivey students with a spotlight on the international stage: IBR’s work is often featured in outlets such as The Globe & Mail and The New York Times.
Ultimately, IBR’s untraditional structure for an Ivey club is what enables its excellence. As Ariana concludes, “by providing students with opportunities to explore strategic problem solving in a low-risk and highly creative environment, IBR is uniquely situated to complement and enrich the Ivey community.” To that end, IBR has achieved its goal with brilliance.