Ivey is once again partnering with Mitacs to deliver the Business Strategy Internship (BSI) program. The program provides Ivey student interns at a reduced rate to work on recovery-based projects for organizations that were disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Through the program, the organization and Mitacs each contribute $5,000 for a total of $10,000 to be used for a student stipend.
The BSI program launched in June 2020 and had a successful first year. We reached out to three organizations –TopSpin Technologies Ltd., Anova Fertility and Reproductive Health, and LGM Financial Services Inc. – to learn about their experiences with an Ivey intern.
TopSpin Technologies Ltd.
TopSpin Technologies addresses a common need for sports organizations: reducing the risk of concussions. But during the pandemic, many sports programs were cancelled or had their budgets cut or frozen and there was less demand for the specialized neck muscle training that TopSpin Technologies provides. The organization needed a sales and marketing plan focused on the individual athletes that were still training and playing, but it was short on resources. Enter an Ivey intern.
Theo Versteegh, Co-Founder of TopSpin Technologies, said the intern helped TopSpin Technologies to pivot quickly and rebuild a customer base.
“The program helped us fund a key position on our sales and marketing team when we didn’t have the resources ourselves due to the slowdown in the market. This allowed us to continue our online presence and contact so that when things (hopefully) open up we will be quickly back on the budget,” he said.
Anova Fertility and Reproductive Health
When COVID-19 hit, there was an ever-changing set of guidelines and restrictions. Communication was critical to keep Anova Fertility and Reproductive Health’s community informed, educated, and confident in future steps.
One of the main mandates for Claire Sandor, VP of Growth, was to create a consistent digital presence across multiple channels to engage with current and prospective clients. Her goals included creating a refreshed online presence, increasing engagement through high-quality social media content, and introducing more communication channels with the patient as well as physician community. Unexpected financial pressures and resource limitations made this challenging, but fortunately she had help from an Ivey intern. Among other things, the intern created a content calendar and provided support on post design.
Sandor said these initiatives helped the organization to strengthen its brand presence and gain new contacts.
“Having an intern with us gave us another set of hands (and brain!) to share the workload, and keep the different initiatives moving forwards,” she said.
LGM Financial Services
When the pandemic forced many organizations to shift to a work-from-home model, LGM Financial Services was ready. It had previously invested in cloud services and digital remote work tools, which made the pivot quick and easy. The next step was to help its customers do the same.
Goran Kulenovic, Senior Manager, Data and Analytics, worked with an Ivey intern on a project to assist dealer partners in monitoring and analyzing their finance and insurance operations. This included providing specialized help and advice from LGM Financial Services’ dealer development managers on how to optimize finance and insurance office operation both during the crisis and in the long term.
Kulenovic said the Ivey intern helped to create the foundation for this project and brought a fresh perspective.
“Innovation is a process where having different perspectives is valuable. Collaborating with Ivey allowed us to benefit from having a student’s fresh perspective, enthusiasm, and creativity applied to this problem,” he said.
Hire an Ivey intern
Ivey Career Management is now accepting applications from organizations that are interested in hiring a student for a four-month internship, running May to August. The deadline to apply to hire a candidate is February 26, and those interested should contact recruit@ivey.ca.
