Why getting involved in academia is important for Adviso
Adviso was born from a desire to transform acquired knowledge into technological support for companies wishing to start and grow their digital presence. Following the completion of our Masters in E-Commerce at HEC in 2002, Simon and I were determined to stay close to the source by giving back to the community that inspired our work as marketers and digital leaders.
15 years later, Adviso is proud of its continued involvement in university institutions in Quebec. Teaching pushes us to renew ourselves and fully assume our expertise, while situating students in a practical reality that is not always accessible in an academic context. To do this, we ask students to take on the role of consultant by pairing them with small businesses and organizations that are facing digital challenges. In 10 years, more than 100 companies have taken advantage of this hands-on teaching method! Teaching also allows us to identify top up-and-coming talent and future industry leaders, as many of our students become peers, colleagues and even competitors.
Adviso's faculty, now made up of 6 lecturers , continues to grow in step with the company. Since 2015, our involvement has also gone beyond teaching thanks to the Adviso Excellence Scholarship , which recognizes the academic achievement of students enrolled in the Master of Science in e-commerce. To mark the start of a new school year, our teachers share their experiences in the classroom and explain the value of involving industry players in academic networks.
SIMON LAMARCHE – PARTNER AND CO-FOUNDER
Course & institution: Introduction to electronic commerce – HEC Since: 2013 Why did you decide to start teaching? I have always loved teaching. When I was in university, I worked for Well Connected Students. We gave lessons on the Office suite, but also on the Internet, which was beginning to take up more space in 1999-2000. We had a course on search engines where we showed how the web of Quebec, Altavista and Yahoo work. The course has gotten pretty simplified with the launch of Google! Why is teaching important as an industry professional?
Teaching allows you to try different ways of explaining a concept to see which is best understood and easiest. We can test slides, workshops or assignments and see the ways that allow students to better assimilate. It helps me a lot in my mandates too because I am confident that an explanation is clear when 30 students have understood it well. Has a teacher influenced your academic career? I was lucky to have Jacques Nantel as a teacher, so it's definitely remarkable. We are fortunate to still have him close to us at Adviso on our advisory committee, so I still draw inspiration from him regularly.
What is a defining moment as a teacher? The 1st question to which you don't have the answer gave me a lot of stress. Indeed, giving master's courses often means that several people in the class are very advanced and that sometimes they are more advanced than me in certain areas. I learned quite quickly to say that I didn't know everything and that the objective was for everyone to come out of the session with something learned.
FARES ALDIK – ANALYTICS MARKETING DIRECTOR
Course & institution: Digital Analytics & Targeting ; Internet Business Analysis & Optimization – McGill University
Why is teaching important as an industry professional? It keeps me up to date on all the advances in the field since the students are always very well informed and motivated to learn more. Even if it's work, I find it extremely motivating to discuss and share with future specialists and business leaders. It's also a great way to structure your own knowledge while sharing what you know and what excites us as industry specialists.
How have you adapted your teaching style over the years? Even if I had to adapt the material taught mainly because the field is constantly changing (phew! what an effort to update its slides every year), I also had to adapt my way of teaching. Always with a view to continuous improvement, my way of teaching has evolved to highlight certain very important elements of our field but not so well known. I am talking in particular about the business skills aspect but also all the skills related to the presentation and the sharing of knowledge between peers.
How does working with clients translate into teaching? I always try to involve funny or inspiring anecdotes so that what I teach crystallizes well in the minds of students. Thus, all my experience with clients becomes a source of stories and illustrations that put perspective and simplify the assimilation of knowledge.
JEAN-FRANÇOIS RENAUD – PARTNER AND CO-FOUNDER
Course & institution: E-commerce (Bac.); Electronic Commerce (M.Sc); School of leaders – HEC. Digital course – Beauce School of Entrepreneurship
Why did you decide to go into teaching? The proximity to the university has always been essential for me. It's also a way to give back to the institutions and individuals who have marked Adviso's journey.
What is a defining moment as a teacher? I have already had the feeling of creating a future competitor before my eyes, but this never stops me from being generous with information and being as transparent as possible. I also sometimes have the pleasure of teaching my employees, or seeing students come back as customers in the synthesis workshop.
How have you adapted your teaching style over the years? I now leave more and more room for discussion because it is through this that the real questions and issues emerge.
ELIZABETH HENRY – MARKETING DIRECTOR AND CONSULTING GROUP
Course + institution : La Marque Innovante – HEC Since : 2017 Why did you decide to start teaching? I was picked up for this course and I accepted the challenge without a second's hesitation. It is an honor and a privilege for me to have the chance to be in contact with the next generation and to be able to influence, I hope, their career. Over the years, by adding the role of manager to that of specialist, I have developed skills in coaching and developing my teams. It's really natural for me to want to pass on my experience as much as I can. Why is teaching important as an industry professional?
We do a job that certainly requires certain basics of theory, but we only understand it by really living it. Being a full-time industry professional, I allow myself several parentheses with the students on certain concepts, concrete cases, situations experienced with customers, consumers, brands. All this in order to prepare them for real life, to ask themselves the right questions and to try to form a bright new generation, capable of forming their own opinion of the profession and really understanding the role they have to play.
Has a teacher influenced your academic career? Yes, Jean Sébastien Marcoux, who at the time taught the consumer behavior course at the BAA at HEC. It was the teacher who made me aware of the consumer, the importance of understanding him well, of respecting him in the profession that we do. It's really with this course that I understood that this was the key to relevant and effective strategies. How does working with clients translate into teaching?
My role of strategic advice to clients is very close to teaching. At Adviso, we have a mission to democratize digital, it is important that our clients understand 100% of what we are doing for them. For this, there is education to be done. Even in 2017, digital investments can be a challenge for some leaders. When I see that a project, an idea does not move forward or is blocked internally by a client, the cause is often a lack of understanding or fears that we must demystify. I thus propose a small training, a meeting and most of the time it is what will accelerate the decisions and allow us to move forward.
SIMON ÉTHIER – OMNICHANNEL STRATEGY DIRECTOR
Course + institution: Strategy and e-business, HEC Since: 2015
Why is teaching important as an industry professional? You always have to have more than one project at a time, each feeds the other: the academic world is not afraid to get to the bottom of things, whereas in business, politics, budgets and deadlines forget sometimes essential in the long term. Has a teacher influenced your academic career? Frédéric Metz : he didn't hesitate to question everything, especially the students who gave answers that were fashionable at the time; nor was he shy about pointing out the slightest mistake in French or any other lack of professionalism. His goal was not to be liked, but in the end, everyone liked him because he was authentic and a perfectionist.
What is a defining moment as a teacher? Each session, I say that I strongly encourage the use of computers in class, especially since it is an electronic business course and I love to see the reaction of young people.
LOUIS-PHILIPPE MATHIEU – OMNICHANNEL STRATEGY TEAM LEADER
Course + institution: E-commerce: technological challenges – HEC Since: 2017 Why did you decide to start teaching? First of all, I come from a family of teachers, so for me it was only natural to embark on this adventure with both feet. Besides that, for me it is important to give back to an institution that has forged the professional that I am today.
Why is education important to you as an industry professional? The academic and professional world are two puzzle pieces that fit together very well despite their specificities. Teaching is important as a professional because it connects us with academic research which is often the basis of tomorrow's innovation. Conversely, injecting a little bit of hands-on experience into the academic world allows students to be prepared for the job market and to fully understand the type of challenges they will face after their studies. Has a teacher influenced your academic career?
Yes, several! Camille Grange (during my MSc in electronic commerce) because of her relentless rigour. This is a teacher who has a real passion for what she does and who pushes the reflection so that we enter in depth into the discussions. There is also Denis Larocque (during my MSc in business intelligence) who is a career mathematician, but who finds a way to popularize that we rarely see. He has the gift of explaining complicated concepts in such a relaxed and accessible way that he embodies for me the definition of a pedagogue. How does working with clients translate into teaching? Popularization and understanding of the non-verbal. These are two super important soft skills when working with clients. These same
soft skills are also super important as a teacher! Making yourself understood by explaining adequately is essential for clients to feel confident, and this is just as true with students. In the same way, in client presentations as in front of a class, you have to be alert to the non-verbal and avoid simply passing your message without paying attention to what is happening in front of you. Because after all, teaching and presenting to a client is always more of a conversation than a monologue.