Our Resident Fayez Quereshy: Valedictorian of Rotman MBA Class
Fayez Quereshy, his wife Nariman Malik, son Faraaz and daughter Raniya
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General Surgery resident Fayez Quereshy describes the two years spent completing
his MBA at the Rotman School of Management as "a terrific experience that differed
by 180 degrees" from his prior education. The first year was an intensive immersion
in business management courses and concepts. The second year included more health-related
topics such as health economics and a service industry survey course covering Italian
hospitals and bottlenecks in patient flow in cardiovascular surgery. Fayez conducted
research on organizational decisionmaking with Brendan Calder, who has been a mentor
for six months and continues to advise him even now on the clinical services. Brendan
is a passionate and inspirational leader who pushes action as well as strategy.
Fayez worked with Brendan and Robert Bell on UHN's "strategy to implementation"
project, using the "balanced score card" method to implement the priorities of the
institution in places selected as the best targets to focus energy. The score card
measures the institution's progress and identifies where attention is required,
like MRSA and C. difficile infections. It applies the scientific method to gauging
progress: testing hypotheses, finding best practices, setting targets, then measuring
and reporting outcomes.
For one summer, Fayez worked with Mike Guerriere, former CIO at UHN, and the "Courtyard
Group" on Alan Hudson's wait times project. He looked at the impact of the project
on other surgical specialties like General Surgery and Gynaecology and helped identify
priority procedures within them. This was a great experience in practical Health
Policy Research.
David Beatty, Fayez's teacher in the High Level Managers course, steered him to
Brendan Calder. David is "extensively connected to the business community" as a
member of 12 boards of trustees. David teaches "the manager's perspective from 5000
feet". Fayez is committed to working on communicating some of these lessons to our
clinical services. He has learned that you can't engraft medicine onto a business
model, but you can transfect management ideas and skills into medicine. Fayez describes
his selection as class valedictorian as a tremendous honour which caught him by
surprise. He is currently on the General Surgery service at Toronto Western with
Jaime Escallon, Todd Penner and Alan Okrainec. The following is an excerpt from
Fayez's valedictory address:
"The experience at Rotman has been life transforming. For many of us, that is what
has been so shocking: we expected two years of networking peppered with a few classes
and a couple of tests. Talk about your model clash! From the beginning, Rotman has
been busy with reading, writing, journals, reflections, cases, exams - it has been
busy surviving. However, this program has helped us do more than memorize formulas,
learn a few theories, and realize that Harvard Business cases have way too many
exhibits. Rather, it has set us on a process of self-development and life-long learning.
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Orientation Camp was an incredible 72 hours! The difference between expectation
and outcome was staggering! Initially, I inferred that orientation would be sterile
with presentations, suits, MBA lingo, and laptops - that could not have been further
from reality. Rather, camp was raw, real, and rugged... it was an unparalleled opportunity
to get to know people. Moreover, it was the first time that I realized that the
next two years could really work out.
Each person seemed successively more impressive than the last - from owning their
own businesses to speaking five languages to managing with four kids. I remember
asking myself: do I really belong? I would be lying if I said that the first few
weeks were not filled with uncertainty and confusion. Specifically, graphs left
and right in managerial economics, financial accounting cookie jars, and the TAO
model in FIT - what were they all talking about?
My second realization at the MBA program is that business is not about strategy
or finance; rather, it is about people. And the corollary, Rotman is not about the
curriculum, the four walls, or even about Integrative Thinking (even though all
of this may sound sacrilegious). It is about people. It is about struggling through
cases with your study group.
As a class, we have been incredibly active: we have successfully competed in case
competitions at home and in the United States; we raised unprecedented funds for
the United Way; hosted 70 Grade 11 students in She Biz; founded Rotman's Business
Design Club; printed the Inaugural edition of Rotman's newspaper Integrate This!;
expanded the study tour program to include South Africa in addition to China and
India; and supported a record number of students on international exchange. As future
leaders, we are committed to social responsibility and promise to strengthen the
link between business and society.
So if ever asked the question: "Why did you do an MBA?" feel free to use the following
statement containing as many buzz words and acronyms as I could muster: "Well...
after deconstructing the macroeconomic environment, conducting a personal SWOT analysis,
and completing a Porter's 5-forces on my preferred industry, I realized that I needed
something to provide me with a long-term sustainable competitive differentiated
advantage. However, I also knew that I needed an ROI that could justify this decision.
A DCF analysis yielded a positive NPV with an impressive IRR that suggested that
Rotman's IT curriculum was for me. Close to the TTC within the heart of the GTA,
Rotman would ultimately make me... an MBA."
Key to acronyms
SWOT - Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats
ROI - Return on Investment
DCF - Discounted Cash Flow
NPV - Net Present Value
IRR - Internal Rate of Return
IT - Information Technology
TTC - Toronto Transit Commission
GTA - Greater Toronto Area
MBA - Master of Business Administration
M.M.
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