The Cost of Being Busy
Why Companies Confuse Motion With Progress
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- Leadership & Management
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The work covers cost accounting methods that reveal what truly drives progress versus what merely looks productive. It analyzes how Indian Institute of Management Calcutta research connects meeting culture to organizational waste, and how the theatre of responsiveness distracts from meaningful outcomes. Each chapter presents evidence-based solutions for distinguishing between motion and real progress.
Managers who want to stop confusing activity with achievement will find this practical guide valuable. The book shows how to measure what actually matters instead of what feels important.
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Overview
Cost accounting, as defined by the Institute of Management Accountants, is a structured approach to tracking and sharing details about the cost of making products or delivering services. It involves methods for identifying, assigning, combining, and reporting those costs, then comparing them with set standards. While it's often seen as part of managerial accounting, its main purpose is to help leaders make smarter decisions by showing how to improve efficiency and control expenses. This information supports both current operations and future planning, giving managers the data they need to run a business well. Though cost accounting also feeds into financial accounting, its core use is internal, guiding management in their daily choices.
Origins of cost accounting
Cost accounting helps all kinds of businesses track their costs, whether they make things, trade goods, or provide services. It really took off during the Industrial Revolution when big businesses needed better ways to understand their expenses. Back then, most costs were variable — meaning they changed with production levels, like materials and labor. But as industries grew, especially with railroads and steel, fixed costs like equipment depreciation and departmental expenses became more important. Managers realized they had to figure out how to spread these steady costs across products, or else make poor decisions. For example, a company making railway coaches might spend $300 on variable costs per coach, so they couldn't sell below that without losing money. But if fixed costs were $1,000 a month, selling 5 coaches at $600 each or 10 at $450 each would cover those costs and turn a profit.
Material (inventory)
When a company makes something, it uses materials that become part of the final product. These are called direct materials—like paper in books, wood in furniture, plastic in water tanks, or leather in shoes. Then there are indirect materials, which support production but don’t show up clearly in the finished item, such as lubricants for machines or chemicals used in garment making. All of these materials must be tracked through three types of inventory: raw materials, work-in-progress, and finished goods. Each type requires different accounting methods to keep track of costs accurately.
Labour
Wages paid to workers or a group of workers that directly relate to a specific activity—like production, maintenance, transportation of material or product—are called direct labour. These payments connect clearly to turning raw materials into finished goods. But wages paid to trainees or apprentices don’t count as direct labour because they haven’t added significant value yet.
Standard cost accounting
Standard Costing is a method used in cost accounting to compare what things actually cost with pre-set standard costs, using variance analysis to spot differences. It helps manufacturers understand changes in production costs and allocate fixed costs to products made during an accounting period. This approach lets unsold goods stay on the balance sheet as inventory, carried forward to the next period, following GAAP rules. For example, a railway coach company that usually made 40 coaches a month with $1000 in fixed costs would assign $25 in overhead per coach. Adding variable costs of $300 gives a total cost of $325. If production jumps to 100 coaches, the unit cost drops to $310; if it falls to 50, it rises to $320. Variance analysis breaks down these differences into material, labor, and volume variations so managers can identify problems and act accordingly.
The development of throughput accounting
As business grew more complex and started making a wider range of products, the usual way of using cost accounting to decide how to make the most money came under fire. In the 1980s, managers began learning about the theory of constraints, which says that every production process has a limiting factor somewhere in the chain. Once businesses learned how to spot these bottlenecks, they started using throughput accounting to manage them and "maximize the throughput dollars" from each unit of constrained resource. This method focuses on making the best use of scarce resources in a JIT environment. "Throughput," in this case, means the money made from sales minus the cost of materials used to make the products.
Mathematical formulae
The throughput cost accounting ratio equals return divided by factory hours, measuring how efficiently companies use time and resources. Throughput is sales minus material costs, showing actual profit after covering just material expenses. This approach focuses on what truly moves business forward rather than tracking activity or output. Measuring return against factory hours helps managers assess whether operations build value or just keep busy. The formula highlights the distinction between motion and progress—companies might be busy but not necessarily profitable. This method pushes organizations to critically evaluate resource allocation and real value creation, emphasizing effectiveness over mere busyness.
Activity-based costing
Activity-based costing, or ABC, is a method companies use to more accurately assign costs to products by looking at actual activities required to make them. For example, "talking with the customer regarding invoice questions" counts as an activity in most businesses. Unlike standard cost accounting, which often estimates indirect costs as a percentage of direct costs, ABC treats many of these costs as direct, giving a clearer picture of true product costs and profitability. Accountants track each employee's time, assigning percentages of their salary to different activities, then calculate total costs per activity. This helps management see where process improvements are needed—like when workers spend too much time deciphering unclear orders. While ABC offers better long-term costing, it can be time-consuming, expensive, and prone to error. It also doesn't easily help with daily decisions since fixed costs stay the same regardless of production levels.
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Overview
Virtual management means leading and organizing teams that work remotely, often across different cities or countries, with little in-person contact. As more companies adopt remote work, global outsourcing, and digital tools, managing these virtual teams has become essential. While technology like online collaboration platforms and time-tracking software helps, leaders still face unique challenges. They must handle coordination across time zones, build trust without face-to-face meetings, and master new tech. In global teams, cultural differences add another layer of complexity. Managing virtual teams is just as important as managing in-person ones, but it comes with its own set of difficulties.
Trust and leader effectiveness
In virtual teams, trust is essential and starts with the leader, who must create psychological safety so members feel free to speak directly but respectfully. Leaders need to schedule regular virtual meetings, especially the first one, which sets long-term expectations. An 8-year study found that virtual team leaders must be more explicit about expectations because unfamiliar dynamics make communication harder. Even with video calls, it’s difficult to match the speed of in-person exchanges. Clear goals, milestones, and feedback channels help define roles. Effective leadership in diverse teams requires directive, transactional, or transformational approaches, along with clear plans, shared understanding, and a sense of belonging. The leader's role includes coordinating tasks, motivating members, encouraging collaboration, and resolving conflicts—making their influence central to success.
Presence and instruction
Virtual team leaders must make an effort to be truly present despite physical distance. Since virtual teams are spread out, people often miss what's happening across the group or how things are changing. Leaders need to track updates like new tasks, adjusted goals, or shifting deadlines, ensuring everyone stays informed and adapts accordingly. Without observing body language or picking up on unspoken cues, virtual leaders must find creative ways to notice when something's off. For example, they must determine if quietness in a chat means agreement or disengagement. They also can't assume team members are ready for virtual meetings or that everyone is using their full knowledge and skills. Sometimes giving too much information overwhelms people instead of helping them.
Virtuality
When we look at virtual teams, it’s important to understand that not all of them are the same. Virtuality describes how "virtual" a team really is, and it exists on a spectrum. Three main things shape this: the quality of communication tools they use, how far apart team members are—both geographically and in time zones—and whether the team includes people from different organizational or cultural backgrounds. These factors together determine just how virtual a team truly is.
Detriments
Leading virtual research and development teams faces serious challenges affecting project progress. One issue is missing breakthroughs due to lack of close familiarity with new technologies, making risk-taking and radical innovation harder while focusing on small improvements instead. Project structure becomes problematic when steps depend heavily on each other, making it harder for virtual teams to stay on track. Knowledge sharing is trickier remotely—while some information passes easily, complex or specialized details are difficult to explain clearly without face-to-face interaction. Managing resources also gets complicated when team members aren't in the same place, requiring extra effort and coordination to avoid delays or confusion.
Preparations
When a company starts forming a team, the first step is deciding what the team should accomplish and how virtual it needs to be to reach those goals. These choices depend on bigger strategic moves like merging with another company, expanding into new markets, or cutting costs. During the planning stage, leaders must create a mission statement, pick the right people, design their tasks, set up a reward system, choose the right tech, and make sure everything fits together. One benefit of virtual teams is that managers can now pick from a much larger talent pool, since they're not limited by geography or someone's availability. Before, they had to work with whoever was nearby or free, which meant the team wasn't always made up of the best talent. Now, with virtual teams, the best people from anywhere in the world can be selected.
Launch
When virtual teams begin, it’s strongly advised that everyone meet face to face at the start. A “kick-off” workshop helps team members get to know one another, understand the team's goals, and clarify each person’s role. Participants also learn how to use communication tools effectively and agree on teamwork rules. These sessions are meant to build trust, create a shared understanding, and help people feel connected to the group. Research shows that teams who have this kind of preparation tend to work better together. Managers play a key role by organizing activities that cover three main points: technology training, clear expectations, and personal connections. When all these goals are met, virtual teams can function much more smoothly and with less stress.
Performance management
Managing virtual teams requires strong performance strategies to keep work effective and the team climate constructive. Research shows that expectations around leadership, goal-setting, and conflict vary across cultures and greatly affect team success. In the early stages, teams must agree on what leadership means and how roles are divided. Leaders need to actively shape a shared understanding of the team's purpose. Three leadership approaches have been studied: electronic monitoring for control, management by objectives for delegation, and self-managing teams for autonomy. Motivation and incentives help keep virtual workers engaged, especially when they know their efforts are visible to managers. Communication in virtual teams mostly happens through email, phone, or video calls, which can limit the richness of information exchange. But tools like anonymity can help people share feedback more openly. Studies also show that team members' motivation, trust, and satisfaction play a big role in how well virtual teams function. Knowledge sharing and building shared understanding are especially hard in virtual settings due to less face-to-face interaction.
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Overview
AlixPartners is a global financial advisory and consulting firm founded by Jay Alix in 1981. The company became known for its work on major Chapter 11 reorganizations, including those of General Motors Co., Kmart, and Enron Corp. Over time, the firm expanded into more traditional consulting and grew to over 1,000 employees. Headquartered in New York, AlixPartners operates in more than 20 cities worldwide. In 2006, private equity firm Hellman & Friedman invested in the company. Then in 2012, CVC Capital Partners acquired AlixPartners from Hellman & Friedman. By 2016, the firm was valued at $2.5 billion.
Founding
In 1981, Jay Alix, a Certified Public Accountant based in Southfield, Michigan, started Jay Alix & Associates PC. BusinessWeek later noted that the firm was among the first to offer consulting services to companies facing bankruptcy. The company gained public attention in 1984 when it worked with the struggling DeLorean Motor Company, helping to secure an additional $100 million for the company’s creditors.
Business structure
AlixPartners offers enterprise improvement consulting, financial advisory services, and turnaround management for troubled and healthy companies. The firm has worked on high-profile cases including GM's Saab division, Kodak, Barney's New York, and JC Penney. In 2006, Hellman & Friedman invested in the company, and CVC Capital Partners acquired it in 2012. That December, AlixPartners bought Evidence Exchange, a litigation support firm. In February 2015, it purchased Zolfo Cooper's UK and European operations for $100 million. By November 2018, the acquisition of Zolfo Cooper brought its turnaround group to nearly 350 employees worldwide. In January 2016, Simon Freakley succeeded Fred Crawford as CEO after serving as AlixPartners UK managing director and former Zolfo Cooper Europe CEO. That year, CVC agreed to sell its stake to founder Jay Alix and other investors. In 2020, AlixPartners acquired Matrix Economics and Freeh Group, led by former FBI director Louis Freeh, for their investigations and compliance work. In November 2021, the firm partnered with Palantir to use its Foundry analytics platform. In February 2023, it announced the acquisition of London-based advisory firm THM Partners.
Consulting and M&A work
AlixPartners grew its mergers and acquisitions practice, handling large integration situations across industries like maritime, automotive, energy, and aerospace. In 2003, it began working heavily in the automotive space, with founder Jay Alix helping establish turnaround efforts in Japan. The firm advised on the 2014 merger between JoS. A. Bank Clothiers and Men's Wearhouse. It consulted for companies such as Airbus, Crocs, and William Morris Endeavor, where it identified $120 million in cost savings before a merger. In 2015, AlixPartners launched its Leadership & Organizational Effectiveness practice. It helped Ukrainian bank PrivatBank recover over $5 billion in stolen assets in 2016, leading to a lawsuit by former co-founder Ihor Kolomoyskyi in 2017. The firm also worked with Quinn Emanuel and Niederer Kraft Frey on anti-money laundering investigations involving Julius Baer. During the pandemic, AlixPartners advised Arabtec Holding, Cineworld, and JCPenney on restructuring. In February 2026, it was appointed joint administrator for Market Financial Solutions, a major UK property finance firm in insolvency.
Lawsuits
In 1990, Jack Sanders and former co-owner Filipp Kreissel sued AlixPartners and a lender over a $6 million claim, but the case was dismissed after just one day of arguments. Then in 2014, AlixPartners accused several executives leaving to join McKinsey & Company of stealing trade secrets. And in 2018, founder Jay Alix took legal action against McKinsey, accusing them of misleading bankruptcy courts about conflicts of interest. As of August 2023, McKinsey had not succeeded in stopping the racketeering lawsuit brought by Jay Alix.
Awards
AlixPartners has been widely recognized for its work in consulting, earning top rankings in major industry surveys. The firm was named No. 1 in "Transformation & Restructuring" by Dietmar Fink’s Top Management Consultancies 2018 and again No. 1 in "Turnaround & Restructuring" in the Swiss Management Consulting 2019 report from Gesellschaft für Management und Beratung. Four of its consultants were honored by the Turnaround Management Association as winners of the prestigious “Turnaround and Transaction of the Year” award. The company has also been named one of the Best Firms to Work For by Consulting magazine, and one of the Best Management Consulting Firms in 2018 by Forbes. Since 2018, AlixPartners has scored 100% each year in the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Corporate Equality Index, reflecting its commitment to LGBTQ equality.
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Overview
The Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, known as IIMC, is a public business school located in Joka, Kolkata, West Bengal. Founded in November 1961, it's the oldest of the Indian Institutes of Management and was given the status of an Institute of National Importance in 2017. The school came together through a partnership with the MIT Sloan School of Management, the Government of West Bengal, the Ford Foundation, and Indian industry. It moved to its current campus in 1975 and offers a two-year MBA program, along with executive and doctoral courses. Admission to the MBA is based on the Common Admission Test, and the institute holds accreditation from AACSB, AMBA, and EQUIS.
History
After India became independent in 1947, the Planning Commission was tasked with guiding the nation’s development. In the 1950s, it faced challenges finding qualified managers for the expanding public sector enterprises. To solve this, the Commission invited Professor George Robbins of the University of California in 1959. Based on his recommendations, India decided to set up two elite management institutes called Indian Institutes of Management. IIM Calcutta was the first, founded in November 1961. Its first director was K. T. Chandy, former chairman of Hindustan Unilever Limited. The institute began at Emerald Bower in Kolkata before relocating to Joka in 1975, where the foundation stone was laid by Morarji Desai on December 15, 1968. IIM Calcutta also helped launch IIM Ranchi in 2009 and IIM Bodh Gaya in 2015.
Campus
The main campus of IIM Calcutta sits on 135 acres in Joka, just outside Kolkata, and has been there since 1975. In December 2019, the institute asked the West Bengal government for a five-acre space in New Town to build a new satellite campus. They wanted to grow their executive education programs, work more closely with industry, and take advantage of being near corporate offices and the international airport.
Corporate placement and campus drive
At IIM Calcutta, students have access to a strong network of corporate placement opportunities. In December 2021, the institute partnered with TreeAndHumanKnot RisingIndia ThinkTank to explore ways to give students international experience. This collaboration was part of the broader effort to enhance student dynamics and open doors for global exposure through campus drives and corporate engagement.
Teaching Blocks
The main academic block at IIM Calcutta sits beside the administrative building and includes four big lecture halls and smaller classrooms. In 2000, a new teaching building called the New Teaching Block opened to help with classes. Then, in August 2011, a brand-new academic block was officially opened by the then Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh.
Auditorium
The auditorium at IIM Calcutta, known as the Audi, is where major campus events take place—including convocations, conferences, and guest talks. It holds up to 750 people and was constructed at a cost of over ₹90 million, which equals about US$930,000. The space features full air conditioning and modern technology, including professional-grade audio and visual systems.
Library
The Bidhan Chandra Roy Library, or BC Roy Memorial Library, at the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta honors Bidhan Chandra Roy, who served as the second Chief Minister of West Bengal and the first chairman of the institute. Funded by a grant from the Ford Foundation, the library supports academic programs with over 160,000 volumes, hundreds of management journals, and access to electronic databases. It also offers more than 40,000 online full-text journals. All library operations are fully computerized.
Hostels & Accommodation
At IIM-C, students in its PGDM, PGDCM, and Fellow programs live in four main hostels: Ramanujan Hostel, sometimes called the Old Hostel, and Tagore Hostel along with its Annexe, known together as the White Hostel, plus the New Hostel and Lake View Hostel. Those with families get separate housing, but PGP students are only offered single-room accommodations. Priority for hostel rooms goes to FPM and MBAEx (formerly PGPEX) students. There are also special hostels for MBAEx and PGPEX-VLM programs, with MBAEx students living in the Management Development Center. Others in different courses usually stay at Tata Hall, which serves as a guest house on campus.
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Overview
Advertising is how companies draw attention to their products or services, using techniques meant to show what makes them useful or appealing to buyers. It’s often done to increase sales, and it can be through branding, which links a product’s name or image with certain qualities in people’s minds. Some ads aim for an immediate response, called direct-response advertising. Non-commercial groups like political parties, religious organizations, and government agencies also advertise. In 2025, global spending on ads reached over one trillion US dollars. Digital platforms took up the largest share at 59.4%, followed by television at 24.9%. The biggest advertising groups that year were Omnicom, Publicis, and WPP.
18th-19th century: Newspaper Advertising
By the end of the 18th century, newspaper advertising had become so common in England that the word "advertiser" started appearing in newspaper titles. In the U.S., newspapers grew rapidly in the early 19th century, partly because of ads—by 1822, the U.S. had more readers than any other country. About half the content of those papers was advertising, often local, and many daily newspapers in the 1810s included "advertiser" in their names. In 1859, the British pharmaceutical company Beechams created a slogan: "Beechams Pills: Worth a guinea a box," which is considered the world's first advertising slogan. The phrase was said to be uttered by a satisfied purchaser from St Helens, Lancashire. In 1836, the French newspaper La Presse began running paid ads, lowering its price and expanding readership. Around 1840, Volney B. Palmer in Philadelphia began buying large blocks of newspaper space at discount rates and reselling it to advertisers, acting as a broker. The first full-service agency, N.W. Ayer & Son, was founded in 1869 in Philadelphia. By 1900, advertising agencies had become the central hub for creative planning, and advertising had emerged as a profession. In France, Charles-Louis Havas extended his news agency services to include ad brokerage. At first, agencies were simply brokers for newspaper space.
Late 19th century: Modern Advertising
In the late 19th century, as industrialization grew, modern advertising emerged alongside consumer goods. Thomas J. Barratt, known as "the father of modern advertising," worked for Pears soap company and created effective campaigns using persuasive language and psychological tactics. One of his slogans, "Good morning. Have you used Pears' soap?" became widely known. In 1882, he hired actress Lillie Langtry to endorse the brand, making her the first celebrity to promote a product. Barratt, who became the first brand manager in 1865, believed in strong branding and saturation advertising. He also stressed that advertisers must adapt to changing tastes, saying in 1907 that "tastes change, fashions change, and the advertiser has to change with them." By the mid-1800s, British biscuit makers like Huntley & Palmers began using branding to reach mass markets, and by 1900, their biscuits were sold in 172 countries.
20th century onwards
Advertising exploded in the United States after 1919, when spending reached 2.5% of GDP, driven by industrial growth and the need to boost consumer demand. Advertisers in the 1910s and 1920s began targeting human instincts, especially unconscious desires, a method popularized by Edward Bernays, nephew of Sigmund Freud. He believed that people act on hidden motives, not the reasons they give, and that successful selling required understanding those deeper drives. His approach helped create campaigns that used sex appeal, which sparked controversy. Under Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover, advertising gained government support; in 1925, Hoover called it “a vital force in our national life.” The tobacco industry hired Bernays to link smoking with positive images. Advertising also shaped culture, encouraging workers to adopt a modern lifestyle, especially immigrants, through outlets like the American Association of Foreign Language Newspapers. Women found careers in advertising, and the first sexual sell was created by a woman for soap. Psychologists Walter D. Scott and John B. Watson helped apply psychological theory to advertising, with Scott saying, “He is reasonable, but he is to a greater extent suggestible.”
Radio from the 1920s
In the early 1920s, the first radio stations were set up by manufacturers of radio equipment, then taken over by schools, clubs, and civic groups. Retailers and consumer goods makers quickly saw how radio could reach people in their homes and began using slogans, mascots, and jingles to grab attention. By the 1930s, radio station owners started selling small blocks of airtime to multiple businesses, boosting advertising revenue. This shift let manufacturers advertise directly to consumers, pushing them to understand what people really wanted. The earliest radio drama series were sponsored by soap makers and became known as soap operas. By the 1940s, advertisers used psychological and cultural research to build strong brand connections, leading to long-lasting campaigns for companies like Chrysler and Exxon/Esso.
Commercial television in the 1950s
In the early 1950s, the DuMont Television Network started selling ad time to multiple sponsors, a practice that quickly became standard across commercial television in the U.S. Before that, DuMont had trouble finding enough sponsors for their shows, so they’d sell smaller ad blocks to several businesses at once. That changed how advertising worked on TV. Still, some programs kept the older model of single sponsorship, like The United States Steel Hour. In those cases, sponsors often had a lot of control — sometimes even letting their advertising agencies write the show content. Today, that single-sponsor approach is rare, with only a few exceptions, such as the Hallmark Hall of Fame.
Cable television from the 1980s
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, cable television changed how ads reached people, especially with MTV leading the way. Pioneering the music video format, MTV created a new kind of advertising where viewers tuned in specifically for the message, not just as an afterthought. As cable and satellite TV grew, specialty channels popped up — some dedicated entirely to selling products, like QVC, Home Shopping Network, and ShopTV Canada.
Internet from the 1990s
The rise of online advertising in the 1990s, fueled by ad servers, helped drive the dot-com boom, with companies like Google shifting how ads worked by personalizing them based on what users browsed. By the turn of the century, platforms such as Facebook and Google were leading digital advertising, making it more interactive and targeted. Despite changes in media from newspapers and posters in 1925 to television and then online by 2017, advertising spending as a share of GDP stayed fairly steady at around 2.4% to 2.9%. Guerrilla marketing techniques, including public stunts and product placements, became more common, using unpredictable methods that could influence consumers. Some businesses even traded equity for media space, a practice that began in Europe but grew popular in the U.S., with companies like Uber and Airbnb using it to scale quickly.
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Overview
Naheed Nenshi is a Canadian politician who became the first Muslim mayor of a major Canadian city when he won election in 2010 as Calgary’s 36th mayor. He served three terms, being re-elected in 2013 and 2017, before stepping down in 2021. Before entering politics, he worked as a management consultant and taught non-profit management at Mount Royal University. He also wrote a regular municipal affairs column for the Calgary Herald. In March 2024, Nenshi ran for leader of the Alberta NDP and won on the first ballot with 86% support. He became an MLA in June 2025 after winning the Edmonton-Strathcona by-election and took on the role of leader of the Opposition.
Early life, education, and career
Naheed Nenshi was born in Toronto and raised in Calgary and Red Deer County. His parents, Kurbanali Hussein and Noorjah, were Ismaili Muslims from India who moved to Canada from Tanzania in 1971. He attended the University of Calgary, where he served as president of the students' union and earned a Bachelor of Commerce in 1993. He later completed a Master of Public Policy from Harvard's Kennedy School in 1998. While at Calgary, he studied under former premier Peter Lougheed alongside Danielle Smith, who would later become premier. Nenshi worked for McKinsey & Company before founding Ascend Group, a consulting firm that advised nonprofits, private companies, and public organizations, including the United Nations on corporate citizenship. He also helped mentor young professionals through Canada25, a federal networking group. In 2002, he wrote about how cities can retain young talent and use resources effectively in a publication titled "Building Up." In 2006, he was chief author of "ImagineCalgary's 100-year plan." He first ran for city council in 2004 but lost. Later, he co-founded two citizens' groups focused on improving Calgary's government. In 2009, he joined Civic Camp, a forum promoting civic engagement, and co-founded the Better Calgary Campaign. He taught non-profit management at Mount Royal University and wrote a regular column for the Calgary Herald.
2010 election
In 2010, Naheed Nenshi ran for mayor of Calgary under the campaign title "Purple Revolution," a strategy that used social media to connect with voters across different backgrounds. His campaign gained momentum, especially among younger voters, and by late September he was polling at 30 percent among decided voters, tying with the leading candidates. He ultimately won 40 percent of the vote, finishing nearly 28,000 ahead of second-place Alderman Ric McIver. His rise was met with scrutiny, including a public clash with Police Service Chief Rick Hanson. Just days before the election, his campaign office was vandalized, and racially charged emails were sent, widely seen as racially motivated. Nenshi’s win marked a turning point in Alberta politics and highlighted how digital engagement could reshape democratic participation.
2013 election
In September 2013, as Naheed Nenshi's re-election campaign gained momentum, he disclosed his campaign donors and encouraged rivals to do the same, pledging to increase transparency at City Hall. His platform included eliminating a $4,800 subsidy for home builders, which he said had added $1.5 billion to municipal debt over ten years. Nenshi wanted developers to fund infrastructure through levies instead, while the Manning Centre for Building Democracy supported free market principles but also pushed for inner-city communities to share growth costs. In October, Nenshi joined Councillors Andre Chabot and Gian-Carlo Carra in advancing a 2008 plan to redevelop International Avenue as a transportation hub, including a C-train line and bus lanes. Carra had studied Forest Lawn's urban decay for his thesis. Riding a wave of popularity, Nenshi won re-election in a landslide and was sworn in shortly after.
2017 election
During his first term, Naheed Nenshi extended council terms from three years to four. He announced his intention to run for a third term on November 4, 2016. On October 16, 2017, he won re-election with over 50% of the vote, though his margin of victory was smaller than in his previous campaign four years earlier.
Housing
In early 2013, Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi suspended relations with the Canadian Home Builders' Association after its president, Charron Ungar, called the city's policy a "suburban freeze." Nenshi had campaigned to legalize secondary housing to address a shortage, proposing a bylaw for safety standards and waiving $4,485 fees for rezoning. That same year, a leaked video showed Shane Homes CEO Cal Wenzel discussing how to influence council votes, including plans to raise $1.1 million and enlist support from the Manning Centre for Building Democracy. Wenzel mentioned relying on councillors who could be counted on for eight votes. Nenshi ordered an investigation into possible electoral law violations. Wenzel later sued Nenshi for $6 million, calling his comments out of context and comparing him to "Godfather," which Nenshi ambiguously confirmed. They settled in December 2015, with Nenshi retracting some remarks and Wenzel apologizing for harm done to his reputation. Nenshi's legal costs, nearly $300,000, were covered by donations.
Infrastructure and services
Soon after taking office, Naheed Nenshi pushed forward major infrastructure projects to revitalize Calgary, including the redevelopment of the East Village neighborhood with the New Central Library and the National Music Centre, funded largely through the Community Investment Fund. His council completed previous approvals like the C-Train extension, Peace Bridge, and the airport traffic tunnel. Nenshi also ordered a corruption probe into Enmax after former CEO Gary Holden’s lavish spending was revealed, leading to his resignation and a $4.6 million severance payout. In 2011, Nenshi attended the groundbreaking for the $1.4 billion Shepard Energy Centre, which became Calgary’s largest project and began operating in 2015. He promoted government reform initiatives like “cutting red tape,” saving Calgarians thousands of hours and dollars. In 2013, council passed a playground smoking ban, and Nenshi supported the proposed Keystone XL pipeline.
Transportation
During Naheed Nenshi's time as mayor, Calgary expanded its bike infrastructure, adding the first downtown bicycle lanes and planning to reach 30 kilometers by 2020. In late 2013, the city negotiated with the Tsuu T'ina Nation to extend Stoney Trail through their land for a ring road, after more than 50 years of talks. The proposal was described as "win-win-win," but construction wouldn't begin even if approved—until two years later. On October 24, 2013, Tsuu T'ina members voted yes. In exchange, the band received 2,150 hectares of Crown land and $340 million for 450 hectares of their territory. Calgary Transit also introduced the "RouteAhead" plan, calling for $13 billion over 30 years to upgrade services. The city approved $200 million for 60 new four-car trains to replace aging units from 1981, aiming to reduce rush-hour crowding. Nenshi had eliminated park-and-ride fees to boost transit use, but later reinstated a $70 monthly charge for reserved parking.
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