With a mission to inform, empower, celebrate and advocate for British Columbia's current and aspiring business leaders, BCBusiness go behind the headlines and bring readers face to face with the key issues and people driving business in B.C.
Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1494678
MARCH/APRIL 2023 BCBUSINESS.CA 45 E ntrepreneurship runs deep in Lara Mitchell's family. "When I was little, my parents had a corner store that I was raised in," she recalls of her childhood. "It was like a general store." She took roles in other family enterprises after high school—a small renovations company; a deli and meat shop she helped run despite being veg- etarian. "It was a huge contradiction in my life, but the business needed me," she remembers. Mitchell seized opportunities as she discov- ered them, founding and leading companies in the publishing, marketing, and lighting indus- tries. She describes her path as "very organic and unplanned." In the early part of her career, she hadn't gone for a degree—her business schooling was all hands-on. But she began to see how a classroom education made the employees she hired more valuable. "There is a big difference," she says. As Mitchell's three children approached adult- hood, she wanted to set an example. "They're ask- ing for life advice and I was encouraging them to go to school," she laughs. "And yet, I hadn't really looked at that for myself." Royal Roads quickly emerged as her ideal choice. It offers a blended delivery combining online classes with a pair of two-week residen- cies on campus in Victoria. So Mitchell, who lives in Edmonton, wouldn't have to disrupt her work much. And Royal Roads accommodates applicants with unconventional educational backgrounds, like Mitchell. Its f lexible admission pathway assesses their work and management experience, and doesn't require a degree or GMAT score. Royal Roads business school dean Rob Mit- telman says students like Mitchell make valu- able contributions to the learning environment. "The leadership experience in the field that they bring into the classroom discussions—that for us is worth as much as the undergraduate degree might be for some others," he argues. Mitchell has finished her schoolwork and will receive her MBA in June. She's contemplating what she will do with her new tools. "I still feel like I'm celebrating," she says. EDUCATION GUIDE 2 0 2 3 Royal Roads University " The leadership experience in the field that they bring into the classroom discussions—that for us is worth as much as the undergraduate degree might be for some others " –Rob Mittelman, dean, Royal Roads University WORK MOM Lara Mitchell pursued an MBA late in her career in order to set an example for her children