Meet Ivan Hui, Market Research Consultant

As part of the NPO market research team, Ivan Hui is one of our Market Research Consultants. In this role, he contributes to an end-to-end project where the team conducts secondary research, develops a survey, contacts and motivates clients to complete the survey, analyzes the results, and develops recommendations.  Learn more about him...

Why did you join SFC? 
Why do you care about nonprofits?

What are your career aspirations?

Ivan Hui
SFC Market Research Consultant
and Ivey HBA '12

"I joined SFC to apply my business knowledge in a way that would make a positive social impact. Many nonprofits have strong goals and values that align with mine. I want to see more of them succeed with their goals and part of that success comes from having the right help - which I believe Social Focus Consulting is positioned to provide.

In terms of my own aspirations, I'd like to continue being able to contribute positively to organizations that are socially minded. Hopefully, I'll be able to make a big impact on an NGO or social enterprise whose cause I strongly support. Until then, I'll continue gaining valuable insight and experience working with SFC!"

Learn even more about Ivan on his LinkedIn page.

The B2B team gets fly like paper

At the end of our last meeting, the B2B team took a little time to get creative. The game was to make a paper airplane, develop a 30 second pitch for why yours is the best and then fly the plane. The winner of the pitch was decided by closed ballot votes. The furthest flown wins the latter challenge with slightly more weight considered for this portion.

Here's what happened:

Round 1: The Pitch

This is essentially a marketing challenge where each team member communicated verbally why his/her plane is better than the others.

First up was James. He emphasized the aerodynamic nature of his plane and how it was even tested in a wind tunnel prior to final production.

Shirley went next. As SFC team members are socially and environmentally responsible, we used recycled paper for this contest. As such, Shirley mentioned the aesthetics of the print on the paper in addition to the aerodynamics. She even pointed out where the little pilot would sit!

Catrina was third. She emphasized the features of the plane that made it less resistant to air drag. And then Catrina got really creative. She talked about the plane's lights for easy identification. Last but not least, she mentioned the plane's ability to write messages in the sky!

I (John) went last. Although I participated, I was not in contention as I've done this exercise before in the Queen's MBA program so I thought it might be unfair. With my pitch, I branded the plane "Air Social Focus Consulting." I mentioned how the plane was made entirely from recyclable materials and how 10% of every ticket sold on the plane goes to charity.

Winner: tie! between Shirley and Catrina although James was close behind. I inadvertently just made James sound creepy. Sorry James!

Round 2: The Flight

Catrina (left) watches as Shirley launches her plane.
James (not pictured) crosses his greasy fingers (inside joke).

furthest to closest: Shirley, James, Catrina, John

Winner: Shirley!

With Shirley tying in the pitch and flying her plane the farthest, she was the clear overall winner! The point of this exercise is to demonstrate that in business, marketing is very important to sell a product successfully, but your product also has to deliver on its promises and perform!

Meet Lily Li, Internal Communications and Engagement Specialist

Although she's one of the newest members of the SFC team, Lily has been doing a wonderful job already. She's helping us to improve our internal communications and engagement. Learn more about her...

Why do you care about nonprofits?

Why did you join SFC? 

What are your career aspirations?

Lily Li
SFC Internal Communications and Engagement Specialist
and Queen's Commerce '15

"The non-profit sector is a tremendous help to society, and I constantly support the non-profits by volunteering. 

When I first heard of Social Focus Consulting (SFC)’s business model, it sounded very innovative and unique to me. I like how SFC caters to the issues that non-profits constantly face: namely the lack of channels to receive funding. I feel that the quality service with affordable prices that SFC offers targets a very specific need of the non-profits at this time. I’ve always been an advocate that money follows those who provide a solution, rather than trying to find a solution that earns money.

The opportunity to work for SFC and make a difference in the consulting and non-profit world would be an absolute phenomenal experience for me as it stands for everything I believe in, both in assisting the non-profits and the problem-solving aspect of the consulting field."

Learn even more about Lily on her LinkedIn page and the SFC team webpage.

Meet the NPO market research team

This team is surveying nonprofit organizations so we can learn how to better serve them.

The project is led by Qasim, a Schulich MBA student. His teammates include Joanna (pre-Ivey HBA student), Amy (Queen's Commerce student), Ivan (Ivey HBA graduate), and Yuki (Queen's Commerce student). The team is supported by Brendan (Ivey HBA student) and Wenhan (Queen's Commerce student).

Random facts about the team members:

Qasim

Did you know Qasim once owned a pizza franchise?

Joanna

Did you know Joanna co-founded a youth leadership organization in high school?

Amy

Did you know Amy performed security guard duties while in school?

Ivan

Did you know Ivan is part of a dragon boat team that won a competition this summer?

Yuki

Did you know Yuki interned at the Royal Ontario Museum?

Brendan

Did you know Brendan was the captain of his ball hockey team?

Wenhan

Did you know that Wenhan is completing a dual-degree in Commerce and Geography?

Project progress:

To date, they've conducted secondary research, developed a survey and are in the process of contacting clients and collecting data.

Cow and forever

The B2B team met again last Thursday to go over our secondary research results and develop a decision framework to narrow down our target organizations. 

Once that was done, we took the last 10 minutes or so to get our creative juices flowing. As a lead-in to brainstorming for an SFC team slogan, we did the "Silly Cow Exercise" as recommended by Osterwalder and Pigneur in Business Model Generation.

On a small piece of paper, we each drew our idea of an innovative and novel business idea involving a cow. These are what we came up with:

From top to bottom:

1. James developed a self-sustaining farm where the cow's poop is used to grow the plants that the cow will eat. Money is made from the poop (fertilizer) and crops.

2. Catrina chose to leverage the cow in a really creative way by using a particularly large cow to motivate people to get healthier and lose excess weight.

3. Shirley had the best drawing and tagline which shows how a cow's dairy has versatile uses in producing food.

4. I (John) clearly had the worst drawing (my cow has shoes!) in the team. The little box on wheels is capturing the energy generated from the constant wagging of the cow's tail.

As you can see, we all came up with different ideas which underlines that we're all bringing different perspectives to the team. Ultimately, this will help us perform at a higher level and develop more effective results.

Big thanks to Adit for conducting a mean and frequency analysis on SPSS! Sneak preview (link below) but we are working to have it uploaded to our SFC Youtube site. Very excited. If the team wants to do more youtube videos. Please let me know!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LD9zCpjPAE8&list=PLC504640B6A68CF5B&index=1&feature=plpp_video

Meet the "recruitment" team

This team isn't recruiting for Social Focus, but instead looking at how we can use our consulting experience as a way to secure future employment.

The project is led by Anglea, a Schulich MBA student. Her teammates include Adit (Ivey HBA student) and Rose (Rotman Commerce student). More info on Angela and Rose can be found on our team page.

Random facts about the team members:

Angela

Did you know Angela loves golfing and wine? 

Rose

Did you know Rose plays badminton and volleyball?

Adit

Did you know Adit comes from a family of business professionals? In fact, his mom is currently an MBA student.

Project progress:

To date, they've conducted secondary research, developed a survey and are in the process of contacting clients and collecting data.