As global trade relationships shift and market conditions become more complex, Canadian companies are increasingly looking at new markets to strengthen resilience, reduce risk, and unlock growth opportunities. The challenge isn’t deciding whether to expand internationally; it’s knowing where to expand and how to do it successfully.
This is where the Telfer Executive MBA at the University of Ottawa comes in. For more than 30 years, the Executive MBA has partnered with Canadian companies to develop evidence-based market-entry strategies through a six-month consulting engagement. Our experienced Executive MBA consulting teams deliver strategic market research, competitive analysis, and practical recommendations—providing consulting-quality insight without the cost of a traditional consulting firm or the need to divert valuable internal resources.
By partnering with us, your company will:
Companies that:
Expanding into a new market requires more than research—it requires a clear strategy and the confidence to act. Through a structured, three-phase engagement, our Executive MBA consulting team helps your company identify opportunities, refine your market-entry strategy, and establish meaningful connections in your target market.
Assess the opportunity
Assess the potential of a new market through comprehensive industry, customer, and competitive analysis. Working closely with your company, our team identifies opportunities aligned with your expansion goals—from validating market demand and generating qualified leads to evaluating distributors, suppliers, and strategic partners.
Build your strategy:
Transform market insights into a practical go-to-market strategy. Building on the market assessment, our team develops a customized market-entry strategy tailored to your expansion goals while identifying prospective customers, partners, distributors, and other key stakeholders to support your successful entry into the market.
Transform market insights into a practical go-to-market strategy. Building on the market assessment, our team develops a customized market-entry strategy tailored to your expansion goals while identifying prospective customers, partners, distributors, and other key stakeholders to support your successful entry into the market.
Validate in the market:
Validate your market-entry strategy through direct engagement with the market. During a one-week business visit, you join the EMBA team in meetings with key stakeholders related to your objective, gaining firsthand market insights, validating your strategy, and building relationships to support your long-term success.
Time commitment:
While the level of involvement varies throughout the project, the greatest level of engagement typically occurs between September and December, with approximately 1.5–2.5 hours per week as teams learn about your organization and product/service. From January to April, you can expect about one hour per week, with some weeks requiring no involvement.
To maximize the value of the engagement, we also recommend that one representative from your organization join the Executive MBA team for a one-week in-market visit in April.
Access to information:
To ensure the project’s success, your company will need to provide relevant documentation and information. A non-disclosure agreement will be signed as necessary to protect confidential information.
Travel expenses:
Your company will be responsible for the travel costs of your executive(s) joining the week-long business trip in April, as well as any related out-of-pocket expenses agreed upon with the team during the engagement.
Your feedback:
We value your feedback and learn from your experience. A link to our client feedback form will be sent to you following the delivery of the final consulting report from the Executive MBA team. This feedback is critical to the learning experience of our teams and the evolution of this project for future years. We appreciate you taking 5-10 minutes to reflect on your experience and provide feedback at the end of the engagement.
September – April
The contacts made during the weeklong trip were only a small part of the benefit, Darryl Nelson, president of Nelson Environmental Group, received from his consulting engagement. Preparation for the international trip began half a year in advance. Nelson met with the Executive MBA consulting team to brief them on his business, who then set to work preparing a detailed report with data validating market opportunities, describing the structure of the market, outlining the key players and regulations, and much more.
“I can’t imagine what the cost would be to get a document like what they gave me from a consulting company. It’s superb, and something I could use to attract investment from bankers or Export Development Canada,” Nelson said. “Some of what they did was work I am not even capable of doing in-house.”
“I lost track of how many meetings they had lined up for me [during the week abroad], and they were all relevant, interesting meetings with people you need to know when you enter a new market. How wonderful it is to go to a foreign land and have all of these meetings lined up. The Telfer team took notes and chaired the meetings. I just had to show up and talk. It was wonderful.”
Client partners are not charged for these consulting services, minimizing their financial risk. As in Nelson’s case, senior business leaders of participating organizations often choose to join the Executive MBA teams on their international trips because they see the value coming from the team’s work long before travel dates.
Browse our other Executive MBA consulting projects to see how they can benefit your business.
For established Canadian companies with experience in at least one foreign market (USA or other).
For not-for-profit organizations in the National Capital Region looking to receive support meeting their digital marketing objectives.
For established Canadian organizations looking for support with their human resource strategies.
Our individual spring consulting engagements range in discipline, industry, and outcomes. If the descriptions above do not meet your criteria, explore this project opportunity.