46 Duca in Canada

Team 103 Poster

Team Reflection

Our story explores the innovative work by Canadian Credit Union company Duca through their Impact Lab. The Impact Lab, as an offshoot of Duca, focuses on providing secure banking alternatives to groups at risk of financial insecurity and purgatory lending in Canada (Taylor, 2024). With first-hand experience of the gap in banking support in his community growing up, Keith Taylor and the team at Duca’s Impact Lab saw the detrimental impacts of inaccessibility of banking loans to those most financially vulnerable in society (those with low credit scores) and aim to provide schemes to uplift those in need, and prevent the financial instability cycle associated with alternatives loans. Via these schemes, most notably the ‘Escalator Loan’, Duca works towards Sustainable Development Goals of poverty elimination and inequality reduction within Canada (Taylor, 2024; Development, Department of Economic and Social Affairs Sustainable, nd).

Initially, we were surprised at how banking could be leveraged as a tool for social good, challenging our assumptions about the financial sector’s role in promoting societal well-being. However, upon learning about Duca’s work in Canada, we found their goals not only unique in the banking sector, but also essential at addressing an under-acknowledged sector of support for financially insecure communities. Additionally, we found the emphasis on data collection as a part of the Impact Lab particularly important, as we felt it highlighted the company’s effort to expand the possibility of support to other countries, making their innovation reproducible via data-driven proof of its benefits to the wider community (Taylor, 2024). These findings have also been inspiring for the group in terms of our personal interests, and how our future work could be more considerate about these community and sustainability.

We were also surprised by the additional benefits of Duca’s work towards the Sustainable Development Goals that extended beyond our initial assessments of the company and their positive impact. Taylor’s discussions on the wider impact of addressing financial vulnerability, particularly in terms of alleviating pressures on essential community services via protection of wellbeing, as well as the disproportional percentage of financially vulnerable women, opened our eyes to the interconnectivity of the Sustainable Development Goals, as our discussion then extended to improves to health and well-being and gender equality (Taylor, 2024; Development, Department of Economic and Social Affairs Sustainable, nd). These discoveries not only added to our existing knowledge about lending and banking schemes taught in our respective university courses, but also challenged our understanding by centring the topic of financial security around mental health and well-being impacts. These discussions also illustrated an example of a commitment to the ‘people’ aspect of the triple bottom line, providing first hand examples of how theories we discuss academically could be implemented (Correia, 2019).

As a result, our Aim2Flourish story has allowed us to reflect on the gaps, particularly in financial services, in protecting well-being and how this has an ongoing effect on entire communities. It has also led us to re-evaluate how we define sustainability in business, which, as shown by the variation in the Sustainable Development Goals, extends beyond environmental business innovations (Bashir & Hussain Qureshi, 2022). It also encouraged us to re-evaluate the conventional boundaries of corporate responsibility, and how going beyond these, as we saw with our work with Duca, can have such far reaching effects. As our team is all from Europe and North America, analysis and discussion of the inequalities and problems in Canada also encouraged personal reflections and discussion about the domestic inequalities and problems in our communities along similar lines (due to the similar, if not the same, economic positions of these communities). It also encouraged us to re-think the scope of business responsibilities in our own communities by comparing the extents to which well-being and equality is prioritised in our respective communities, despite many cultural similarities.

These cultural similarities, particularly in terms of the measurable indexes of Hofstede’s Theory of Cultural Dimensions (with the students in our group being from Canada, the UK and the US), meant that miscommunications along cultural lines was limited (Hofstede, 2011). Even where there may have been more difference in cultural approaches, such as Uncertainty Avoidance (according to dimension indexes), we worked together as a group with communication outside of weekly meetings to ensure we all aligned on our progress and work (The Culture Factor Group, 2023). Despite some obstacles, mainly to do with incompatible schedules and time zones, these cross-cultural similarities, particularly in terms of individualism and low power distance, helped streamline our collaboration and likely aided our ability to adapt as a group without tension. Furthermore, we worked particularly well together at co-ordinating and dividing tasks, with each member of the team eager to contribute fairly, and avoiding overloading work on individuals. Our approach to participation included rotating who was responsible for submitting the weekly meeting minutes, and pairing up to do the interview, story, and poster with ease to divide up work fairly. We then worked collaboratively intermittently throughout our pair work to ensure we remained in agreement about the direction and standard of our work. To conclude, our Aim2Flourish experience as a group has challenged our thinking towards business innovations that support the Sustainable Development Approach but exposing us to more unique, yet essential strategies and problem areas in the financial sector. This process has aided our existing knowledge in economics and the financial world, and exposed us to potential gaps in our understanding of the problems with some institutions we have learnt about, from a sustainability perspective. As a group we were able to adapt to challenged well and work cohesively, most likely aided by our cross-cultural similarities, an area which was perhaps explored with more depth in groups with more cultural diversity.

Individual Reflections

Jonah Crozzoli

Working on this initiative with a team of people from Canada, America, and England created an experience of working with people with similar but not the same values; something contrary to many other groups in Aim2Flourish. Despite differing backgrounds, we didn’t encounter major cross-cultural challenges; instead, our shared values around the role of business in social good made it easy to collaborate with one another. Everyone shared ideas openly with clear communication across the board, allowing us to focus on the assignment rather than spending time adjusting for our differences. One logistical barrier that we had was time zone coordination. With team members in both Europe and North America, there were some challenges with scheduling meetings to accommodate for everyone which often meant early or late calls for some members. Despite this, our team adapted by being flexible and using asynchronous communication tools, allowing each member to contribute on their own time. My coursework, especially around team dynamics and sustainable business practices, reinforced the project’s purpose and the importance of collaboration and adapting to who you are working with. For me, this experience highlighted that when everyone is motivated to work together, despite potential geographical and cultural differences, shared goals and values can make international teamwork both fulfilling and effective.

Andrea Defferary-Gould

I have found the Aim2Flourish experience incredibly inspirational whilst exploring the positive outputs of the company we worked with (Duca). With income inequality and financial instability being an issue I have chosen to address in other areas of study, the work of Duca, through The Impact Lab, has been very stimulating and an interesting lens through which to address the Sustainable Development Goals. It has challenged my perception about the finance industry in particular, which is often more closely associated to profit and ‘big businesses’ as opposed to community outreach, by exposing how business can make space for more supportive initiatives (Rubstova, 2019). In terms of the team dynamic, as mentioned in the group reflection, the cross-cultural differences between the members of our team were limited, so I felt that I rarely had to adapt my approach to the group work with this in mind. The problems we encountered with time zones were where myself and my partner had to compromise, with our team meetings occurring in the late evenings for us, in order to accommodate the schedules of the students in North America. As a virtual team I felt we were able to communicate very well, and divide tasks appropriately, with everyone participating evenly, to complete our tasks on time and to a standard we were all proud of.

Aya Deiri

Participating in the Aim2Flourish project has certainly altered my perception of sustainability in the business world and has brought me out of my comfort zone in a positive way, to work with individuals across the world that I’ve never met. Prior to working on this project, I was unaware and uneducated about sustainability goals and how businesses could apply these goals to benefit themselves, society, and the environment. Also, working with a company outside of the United States was very interesting and beneficial to my learning as I was able to explore on international corporations working to improve society. While I was learning about sustainability, I was also learning how to manage my own personal life while also being able to make time for zoom meetings, responding to my group mates in our chats, and working on the project itself. Cooperating to meet weekly at a time that suits all of us was handled well in our group as we would all state the days and times that worked for us best. I believe our group worked well together and in a respectful manner.

Graham Ashick

As a member of team 103, I really enjoyed participating in this COIL activity. Being a part of this international team has taught me a lot about how to be more adaptable in group work situations, as well as teaching me how to look at things through different cultural perspectives. Having group mates in different continents sometimes made it tricky to set up meeting times when we were all available, but my team was excellent when it came to figuring out a schedule that will work for everyone.  It was interesting to work with our chosen company and learn the in’s and out’s of their business model. Even though I wasn’t present for the interview with Keith, listening to the recording of him proudly talk about the impactful things his company is doing really brightened my day. It gave me hope for the future of humanity, as his company and many others like it are working tirelessly to help achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Within my group, I felt pretty much everything went as smoothly as possible. There weren’t many cultural differences that I had to work out, and everyone’s first language was English so there wasn’t a language barrier. Overall, I really liked this activity and hope to work in an international team like this again one day.

Kendra Kimber-Ullrich

This team project was an interesting and fulfilling experience which allowed me to become more familiar with SDGs, and sustainability overall. Having the opportunity to interview a real company making a real difference was very valuable and offered me a way of learning that I have not experienced in any other assignments. Being a member of this team during this project was certainly a new and rewarding experience. It was interesting to engage with people outside of my campus and country. I feel that our team handled conflict very well, everyone was very open to compromise and did not use language that was rude or counterproductive. Because of this, the whole project ran quite smoothly which I am very grateful for. I also didn’t find that there were too many cross-cultural barriers, likely because a large portion of our team was from North America. Dealing with multiple time zones was a challenge at times. It could be difficult to find times that were good for everyone, and often people had to make compromises in order to meet. This was largely the Americans and us had school or sports until early afternoon, so afternoons were often the only time that worked. However, afternoon for us was nighttime for our Spanish teammates, meaning they had to stay up and work late often on weeknights. They handled this very well though, and it did not really lead to any issues. Learning how to navigate a virtual environment was initially a little bit of a challenge. I am not very familiar with zoom, so setting up meetings was something that I had to learn. We were also under a time constraint each meeting since zoom has a time limit, but we were able to manage this obstacle by keeping meetings on track and productive. I believe that the knowledge I gained from doing an entirely virtual group assignment will serve me well in the future and has provided me with information that I can expand on. Overall, though there were some small challenges that had to be overcome, I believe that this project has given me a valuable experience that tested my problem-solving, and team-work abilities.

Mackenzie Cuddihy

Being a part of this COIL assignment was very rewarding and I felt that I learned so much. Also having the opportunity to connect with students from different parts of the world was such a cool experience. Before this assignment, I had only briefly learned about the sustainability goals, but this led me to go more in depth and think about how businesses are making a difference in the world. Researching about DUCA and learning about their initiative was really interesting and gave me the opportunity to learn about a company outside of the United States. Overall, I think our group did well with communicating and staying on top of our work. I really appreciated how our group took into consideration my partner and I’s schedules with our sports as well as times we have class. There would be some conflicts with time, but we made it work. I’m glad I had the opportunity to partake in an assignment like this and think this would be a good idea for other universities or schools to partake in an opportunity like this.

Bibliography

Bashir, I., & Hussain Qureshi, I. (2022). A Systematic Literature Review on Personal Financial Well-Being: The Link to Key Sustainable Development Goals 2030. FIIB Business Review, 31-48.

Correia, M. S. (2019). Sustainability: An Overview of the Triple Bottom Line and Sustainability Implementation. International Journal of Strategic Engineering, 29-38.

Development, Department of Economic and Social Affairs Sustainable. (nd). The 17 Goals. Retrieved from United Nations: https://sdgs.un.org/goals

Hofstede, G. (2011). Dimensionalizing Cultures: The Hofstede Model in Context . International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology, 1-26.

Rubstova, V. (2019). Banking and Poverty: Why the Poor Turn to Alternative Financial Services. Berkley Economic Review.

Taylor, K. (2024, October 22). Duca Interview. (J. Crozzoli, Interviewer)

The Culture Factor Group. (2023, October 16). Country Comparison Tool. Retrieved from The Culture Factor Group: https://www.theculturefactor.com/country-comparison-tool?countries=canada%2Cunited+kingdom%2Cunited+states