Business Transition research – Phase Three

Mike Thompson was awarded funding through a Research and Professional Development grant to explore small-medium sized enterprises in British Columbia to further Royal Roads University’s mandate.

This proposed research agenda will complement my teaching of Strategy courses within the university’s B.Com program and my role as academic lead within the Management Consulting stream and Final Residency in the MBA program.
In particular, there may be many attractive live case and/or OMP opportunities arising from this research as SME owners (and their professional support teams) realize the need to develop proactive succession development plans that can be completed by our MBA learners.
These applied research activities are closely aligned to the university’s mandate to actively and thoughtfully respond to B.C. and Canadian labour market needs.
The significance of the project relates to the importance of the SME sector in British Columbia and Canada in terms of job creation and as a driver of economic growth.
There appears to be a critical window of time where the next generation of leaders/managers in the SME sector have to be identified and placed in order to succeed the wave of retiring owner managers of the boomer generational cohort.