By Adam Watson

Sequitur is a consulting firm that I founded in 1997. We have four partners and a cadre of 15 full-time and about 15 contract staff. Though we're based in Toronto, we also have an office in Edmonton and expect to be opening a branch in San Francisco in the next six months to a year. After launching the company, I went back to do my MBA because I realized that I needed formal business training if I was going to succeed. Sequitur was incorporated after I graduated from the Richard Ivey School of Business in 2002.

Here, we do strategic project consulting for the health-care, pharmaceuticals, and biotech sectors. We also provide strategic and operational advice for both small and large organizations (see BusinessWeek.com, 3/22/06, "Can MBAs Cure Health Care's Ailments?").

As Managing Partner, I lead the organization from a strategic and operational standpoint, but still take time to do some of the consulting. For instance, I'm currently leading a team of three consultants on a project for a regional hospital in Northern Ontario (see BusinessWeek.com, 3/29/05, "The Digital Hospital"). I'm also responsible for financial management, client relationships, recruitment, and staff development.

As the founder of the company, I'll never take its success for granted. I know how hard we've worked and how hard we still have to work for entrepreneurial success. I'll always remember the day I decided to give up a consulting job offer in New York City to restart my own business. It was just me, my used B-school laptop, my new education, work experience, and a small Rolodex. Looking back, it seems like a crazy thing to do.

Here's a typical day:

6:30 a.m. -- Coffee and e-mail from home. I tee up projects for the day and deal with customer demands. Head to the office on the subway and arrive around 8 a.m. Check with team, and begin work day.

8:30 a.m. -- Meet with some of our partners, a large architectural firm that specializes in health-care architecture and a large project-management firm. We talk about current clients and discuss a possible joint venture.

10:30 a.m. -- Phone call with our accountant. We talk about taxes and sales-tax rebates. I really admire the patience and attention to detail of accountants, though the discusions generally reaffirm my desire not to be an accountant.

11:30 a.m. -- Lunch, and review the business plan that Sequitur has been engaged to complete for a regional hospital in Northern Ontario. I send a copy of the plan to our client to ensure that our early directions are valid and in line with client expectations. You really can't over-communicate with clients. Overall, the biz plan looks pretty good, and I engage our graphics person to begin the layout process.

1:30 p.m. -- Meet with some of the joint-venture partners from the morning on a new request for proposal (RFP). Complex RFPs can involve up to five firms working together. As Sequitur is the lead company on the project, it's part of my job to pull those teams together and make sure we're working well together.

I like this co-enterprise model of companies working together because it creates a stronger team than any one business could bring on its own. The real trick at the early stages is to make sure that the team is as efficient and competitive as possible. For this project, we're working on a feasibility study for a clinical-research network in Ontario.

3 p.m. -- Talke on the phone with one of the health care regions in Ontario. Try to better understand their project requirements so that we can plan our own resources.

3:30 p.m. -- More phone calls. It's surprising how much of the day gets caught up with impromptu phone calls. Sometimes it's with partners, but sometimes with the media who are interested in projects that we're working on.

One of my biggest challenges is recruitment, both in terms of staging appropriately and bringing a team of high quality professionals together. It's a busy time right now and we would like to hire more staff, but finding qualified people in this sector is a continual challenge.

As a smaller firm—compared to the Deloittes and Accentures (ACN ) of the world—our main competitive advantage is quality and bringing a team of seasoned veterans to every project. That means hiring must be done very carefully. Recruitment programs at companies like ours should follow the "Hire slowly, evaluate quickly, act decisively" rule. A little harsh, but I know what that line's getting at.

4 p.m. -- Prep for press conference in half an hour. They would like some numbers on job creation in the region due to the project, so I quickly get to work.

5 p.m. -- Head to the gym to work out with my trainer, Marisa. Some days it's cardio, some days it's weights, but whatever exercise I'm doing, I use the time to clear my mind. Knowing that I'm probably going to put in a few hours of work in the evening, I need to get ready.

7:30 p.m. -- Arrive home for dinner and some quality time with my newborn son. What a great kid! Nothing like a newborn to keep both of your feet on the ground.

8 p.m. -- More work after he goes to bed.

10 p.m. -- Put my feet up with a scotch and water.

You don't need an MBA for this job, but it sure helps when challenges arise. It's great to know that you can readily understand many aspects of clients' businesses and problems. Looking back, if I had to do B-school all over again, I think I would because the satisfaction of being your own boss and building a business from scratch is immense.

My favorite phrase for new managers is "Management isn't about knowing everything, it's about knowing who knows what." And that's right on. So, would I do it again? I'd be crazy to, but with time, effort and a great team, it pays off!

If I could take more courses in B-school, I'd take a terrific Human Resources/Leadership course (wow, is that undervalued by some MBA students), entrepreneurial finance (if that's not an oxymoron), and I would re-take Consulting Management—I really should have been listening more. And if I could somehow learn Operations Management, I would be a happy guy. I love the ability to bring my business skills to bear on a client's project, not just our own. It sure helps you see complex problems with clarity.

To get your foot in the door at my company, it helps to have an MBA. We recruit from a large number of Canadian schools. We also accept resumes. We look for someone with health-care skills who could apply their skills fairly rapidly. We're fairly selective as far as the skill set that we're looking for: strong business acumen and extensive industry experience in health care, pharmaceuticals, life sciences. We also run into people in our travels, so we're aways on the lookout for top people.