Dayo Odunfa

Growing up in Lagos, Nigeria, both my parents were entrepreneurs. For me, this meant spending most summer holidays working as an intern either in my dad’s accounting firm or my mom’s retail supermarket. During the summers working with my dad, I would learn the basics of bookkeeping and accounting and would then apply these principles learned at my mom’s retail supermarket. Through these experiences, I developed a love for numbers and recognized the impact various strategic decisions made by management can have on the financial performance of a company.

My love for numbers led me to a career at PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) where I spent six amazing years working with the brightest minds on various diverse and complex engagements. As an external auditor, my role at PwC was to validate the integrity of my clients’ financial statements for the stakeholders. Beyond the financial statements, my ultimate fulfilment came from adding value to my clients by proposing recommendations based on my knowledge of the business terrain as well as complex accounting issues prevalent in these regions.

My decision to pursue an MBA led me to ask myself the usual questions business school aspirants need to ponder over. Out of every other business school, Ivey passed the litmus test for all my questions. The one-year program duration, the close-knit community, the strong career management team, and the popular case method of teaching are a few of the reasons why Ivey resonated with me. At Ivey, every day in class is another fun-filled day where you tackle different relevant business cases with diverse classmates and renowned professors who all have different perspectives. You always think you have a solution to the case until you discuss it in class and hear so many other perspectives you hadn’t thought about! This is the power of the Ivey Case-Method! At Ivey, we go outside the conventional c-suite topics to discuss issues like environmental sustainability and artificial intelligence. These are the issues relevant to today’s businesses and that is why business leaders need to start discussing them

Beyond the classroom, Ivey puts you in unique learning environments such as the popular Ivey Field Project, the dreaded 24-hour reports, and the challenging three-day SABRE simulation. Each of these activities are meant to stretch you; develop your ability to think outside the box and your ability to work successfully in various teams under pressure. Most importantly, these activities are meant for you to have fun! Historically, the MBA class tends to steal time to enjoy a game of frisbee, soccer, or even office chair races in the midst of the time-pressured 24-hour reports!

In the past few months, my classmates have become family and my faculty members have become mentors. I have learned so much more than I knew before coming here and I can now comfortably hold conversations with industry leaders on relevant business matters. In the words of the popular Ivey Accounting Professor Vaughn Radcliffe; the program is working but I don’t know how!

If you are considering pursuing an MBA at Ivey, I encourage you to have a chat with me, or any of the other ambassadors. Better yet, come for a class visit and experience the magic yourself! I’ll be sure to give you a tour of the award-winning top-notch architectural building and introduce you to our very own Ivey Canada geese!