The publication’s practitioner-focused mission will continue through Impact, Ivey’s home for faculty research and insight
After more than nine decades, Ivey Business School is concluding the Ivey Business Journal (IBJ), Canada's oldest business school publication. Founded in 1933, IBJ has been a distinctive Canadian voice in management thinking for generations of practitioners. Faculty insights for this audience will now be consolidated on Impact, Ivey's digital platform.
The decision reflects a fundamental shift in how business practitioners engage with management thinking and marks the completion of Ivey’s broader transition toward digital, multi-format thought leadership designed to reach global audiences.
“IBJ has shaped generations of Canadian business thinking,” said Nicole Haggerty, HBA '89, PhD '04, Acting Dean of Ivey Business School. “Concluding it is a significant moment in our history – and it's a moment that reflects how much the world around us has changed. The business leaders we serve are reading, listening, and engaging with ideas in ways that look very different from even 10 years ago. We are meeting them where they are.”
A distinctive voice since 1933
Founded in 1933 as the Quarterly Review of Commerce, the publication was later renamed Business Quarterly and ultimately became the Ivey Business Journal. Across its history, IBJ published research and insights aimed at improving the practice of management, reaching executives, managers, consultants, and educators in Canada and internationally.
Tom Watson, IBJ’s editor since 2013, evolved the publication into a modern business magazine and led its transition to digital. Under his leadership, IBJ published exclusive interviews offering career advice from business leaders including George Cope (BCE Inc. and Bell Canada), Hap Klopp (The North Face), and John Sculley (Apple, PepsiCo), as well as notable figures such as rogue trader Nick Leeson and Enron’s Andrew Fastow.
“Tom brought a journalist’s eye and deep respect for Ivey’s mission,” Haggerty said.
At its peak, IBJ was one of Canada’s most-read practitioner-focused management publications, distinguished by its commitment to accessible, research-grounded writing for working professionals. Its founding purpose – to improve the practice of management – became a defining aspect of Ivey's brand.
“IBJ's legacy belongs to the faculty who wrote for it, the editors who shaped it, and the readers who trusted it as a source of practical management thinking,” Haggerty said. “That legacy doesn't end with the publication. It continues in the work our faculty are doing today, and in the audiences we're reaching through Impact.”
Continuing the mission through Impact
Impact, Ivey's digital thought leadership hub, publishes faculty research and insights across multiple formats, including articles, podcasts, videos, webinars, and a monthly newsletter, reaching a growing global audience of business practitioners. Content spans the issues shaping business today, from strategy and AI to leadership and sustainability, as well as tariffs and geopolitics.
“Impact allows us to reach practitioners on their terms,” Haggerty said. “A busy executive can read an Impact article between meetings, listen to a podcast on their commute, or watch a short faculty video on LinkedIn. The formats have changed. The intellectual rigour behind them has not. What connects IBJ and Impact is the same commitment we've always had: bringing Ivey's thinking to business leaders in ways that help them lead better.”
What happens to IBJ's content
A curated Best of IBJ collection of standout articles by Ivey faculty from across the publication's history will be featured on Impact, ensuring readers continue to have access to some of the strongest thinking IBJ published over the decades.
The full IBJ archive will remain available through Ivey Publishing, where readers can continue to access selected free articles, purchase individual titles, or license articles for classroom use. Previously published IBJ articles remain valid publications and can continue to be cited in academic and professional work.
Readers who want to continue receiving Ivey faculty thought leadership are invited to subscribe to Impact's newsletter at (Subscribe) or explore Impact’s articles, podcasts, and videos.
Looking ahead
“IBJ's founding purpose – to improve the practice of management – is a purpose Ivey remains fully committed to,” Haggerty said. “The platforms and formats will change. The mission does not. Our faculty will continue producing thinking that matters to business leaders, and Impact is how we'll bring it to them.”
