UCLA Anderson School of Management Blog

Staff News: Jackie Reynolds Honored, Ackerman Awards Announced, More

We don't often enough blog about the accomplishments of the unsung heroes of UCLA Anderson, the men and women who staff the school. Here's some of the latest:

Jackie Reynolds receives Excellence in Technology Award

From UCLA Today:

Jackie Reynolds, chief information officer of the UCLA Anderson School of Management, has received the 2012 Frank Cofrancesco Excellence in Technology Award. Selected for the award by IT leadership campuswide, Reynolds was recognized for her outstanding contributions to the advancement of IT at UCLA, from fostering collaborations between independent IT units to creating a "Digital Citizenship" initiative to empower staff and faculty to keep pace with fast-evolving technology. 

"She is a true trailblazer and innovator in collaborative Information Technology support," colleagues wrote in a letter of nomination. She was also commended as a "True Bruin," with a campus career that spans more than three decades. Previous to the Anderson School, Reynolds served as director of community programs in the Office of Information Technology, and, before that, as director of campus services for Administrative Information Systems.

Ackerman Awards Announced

Each year, the UCLA Anderson School of Management honors the memory of Abraham Ackerman, who worked for the school for over 40 years, with the Abraham Ackerman Staff Excellence Award. Recipients are noted for their dedication and service to the school. The 2012 recipients are:

Linda Campbell, Chairman’s Office 

Jennifer Hoang, Price Center for Entrepreneurial Studies 

Velia Primo, Academic Personnel 

Teri Szabo, Professional MBA Programs (FEMBA)

Announcing UCLA Anderson's Inaugural TED Case Challenge

Building on their recently announced "partnership to advance ideas," UCLA Anderson and TED will hold the first annual TED Case Challenge as a way to advance the ideas that came out of this year's TED and TEDActive conferences. Competing teams will be responsible for coming up with solutions for how the TED-generated ideas can translate into powerful impact across the world.

The TED Case Challenge tasks graduate students to take the key ideas from the TED conference and the TED Active Projects, and turn them into in-depth research and analysis that can be given to corporate sponsors and potentially other key stakeholders.

For this pilot collaboration, UCLA will host the competition and open it to UCLA Anderson students only.  Teams are limited to a maximum of four members, all of whom must be enrolled at UCLA Anderson School of Management at the time of application. The hope is that this pilot will evolve into a new program across top schools for translating ideas into execution plans across the breadth of important issues that TED confronts.

In this first competition, teams will be judged on how well they take the TED output - particularly that from TEDActive Giving Project, sponsored by TOMS - and translate it into a proposal that is actionable and impactful.  The prompt question above is meant to be a starting place only. Teams should consider the question open ended, and feel free to think in broad terms about the idea of sustainable giving in businesses and communities.

More here

Senior Associate Dean Al Osborne Demonstrates the Strength of UCLA Anderson

Find more photos from UCLA Anderson's Alumni Weekend Here

Doug Burke ('86): Water Polo Olympian Scores Big In Bakeries, Business

Editor's Note: With the 2012 London Olympics fast approaching, this is the third in a series of articles about UCLA Anderson alumni with Olympian connections.

By David Davis

When Doug Burke ('86) was growing up in the northern California town of Modesto, he could usually be found in two places: the swimming pool and the kitchen.

Even as he was developing into one of the country's top water polo players, Burke was trying out the recipes from his mother's collection of cookbooks. "I started baking bread when I was 8," Burke said, "because I just loved to watch the yeast rise. There are so many ingredients to play with in baking, all these variables and nuances. It's the art side – the creative side -- that interested me."

Burke pauses, then chuckles. "Of course, in those days we could eat a ton of food because we were always swimming," he said.

His prowess in the water led him to Stanford University, where he earned two NCAA national titles in water polo and a degree in economics. He was named to the U.S. Olympic team in 1980, only to watch as President Jimmy Carter declared an American boycott due to the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan.

Burke admits he was "upset, disappointed, angry" that he was not able to compete in Moscow. "You felt all these emotions, and then emptiness. Something that you worked so hard for was taken away by the political scenario. If there's anything that you learn, it's that you have no control over stuff like this."

The boycott also altered his athletic timeline: Burke abandoned thoughts of retiring and, instead, kept playing for the national team. On trips abroad, he visited bakeries and learned of bread's importance in other cultures.

Associate Professor Bruce Carlin Discusses the Pitfalls of "Search Fatigue"

 

According to UCLA Anderson Associate Professor Bruce Carlin, the notion of "search fatigue" is ... well let's quote him from a recent paper he co-authored with his Anderson colleague Assistant Professor Florian Ederer.

Quoting from their working paper called (simply enough) "Search Fatigue," they write "The fact that search is tiring (and can affect future behavior) has been overlooked. Fatigue from searching in one period may affect the costs and incentives to become informed in future periods."

In the above video, Carlin notes that "the more you search, the more worn out you get, the more likely the next time you're going to make a decision you may not search as hard." This, of course, has implications for the decisions consumers make.

Check out the above video as Professor Carlin provides the details.

UCLA Anderson Unveils Donor Wall; Recognizes Those Who Have Given $100,00 or More Since 1935

UCLA Anderson School of Management unveiled a Donor Wall last Thursday at its Board of Visitors' meeting, recognizing 324 people who have given $100,000 or more to the school since its founding in 1935. The ceremony was led by Dean Judy Olian and attended by the school's Board of Visitors. "This our way of saying a huge 'Thank You,' to those who have supported us and continue to support us," said Olian.

Olian noted that three donors have given $10 million or more, ten have given between $5 million and $10 million and 50 have given over a million dollars. At the top of the list is naming donor John Anderson who, with his wife Marion, gave the school $15 million in 1987 and $25 million in 2011. Anderson was also instrumental in bringing other business leaders together to support construction of the school's campus.

"This legacy of giving is remarkable," said Olian. "We hope more names will be added as you continue to show confidence in the school and our mission," she concluded.

Susan Wojcicki (’98) Rules the World of Web Marketing

 

Susan Wojcicki ('98) recently visited UCLA Anderson and told students how she returned to Menlo Park, CA after earning her MBA, bought a house and rented the garage to Stanford Ph.D. students Sergey Brin and Larry Page who founded Google. Susan talked about the difficult decision to leave her job at Intel to become one of Google's earliest employees, and described some of her experiences as the company grew into today's global communication service.

Many of Susan's memories were milestones in the development of web marketing, search, content and connectivity. What she didn't say was that she played a critical role in developing the business model to support the firm's vision. As Senior Vice President for Marketing, Susan is one of the most influential people in the world of online marketing. 

She recalled a pivotal experience that persuaded her to join the young venture. "I had this one moment," she said, "when Google search went down. It wasn't a professionally run service then, it was something at Stanford and I couldn't access it for this one moment in time. At that moment, I realized, 'I can't get my work done. I can't find anything.' This made me realize how important the service was. There were a lot of other search engines at the time, but it made me see, 'This is a service I can't live without.'"

To read the whole story about Susan Wojcicki, please find the rest on the UCLA Anderson web page.

"Save More Tomorrow" - Book Authored by Prof. Shlomo Benartzi Enters WSJ Bestsellers List at #3

 

Professor Shlomo Benartzi's new book, "Save More Tomorrow" has entered the Wall Street Journal's list of Best-Selling Hardcover Business Books at number three.

Benartzi, a member of UCLA Anderson's Accounting group and co-chair of the Behavioral Decision-Making Group, is a leading authority on behavioral finance with a special interest in household finance and participant behavior in retirement savings plans. His research on 401k plan participation is groundbreaking. Benartzi’s most significant research contribution is the development, with Richard Thaler of the University of Chicago, of Save More Tomorrow (SMarT), a behavioral prescription designed to help employees increase their savings rates gradually over time.

The book is divided into four sections: Save, Save More, Save Smarter and Behavioral Finance In Action. Much more than a simple "how to save" manual, "Save More Tomorrow" uses comprehensive applications of behavioral finance to improve retirement outcomes. 

For his part, Benartzi is pleased with the books appearance on the WSJ list. He's motivated by the fact that the impact of his work will benefit a mass audience.

"I've always been excited about research with impact," says Benartzi. "If a research project can't affect at least a million people saving for retirement, I just don't bother."

"Save More Tomorrow" at Amazon.com

Board of Visitors' Tom Epley Relates the Rules for Doing Business in Africa to 2012 Africa Growth Conference

The second annual Africa Growth Conference gathered at UCLA Anderson on Wednesday. Delivering the conference’s keynote address was Tom Epley, a partner at Vance Street Capital who specializes in corporate turnarounds, and who sits on UCLA Anderson’s Board of Visitors.

Epley, in an intense three-year period kicked off by a visit to an at-war Sudan in 2005, researched, thought, and wrote about the legacy and lessons of Africa’s recent era of receiving general aid and development support from the international community. The result of his efforts was The Plague of Good Intentions: We Broke Africa, Here’s How to Fix It, a book that critically examines those external efforts at aid and development and their results.

Epley used his keynote to provide those interested in doing business in Africa with food for thought based on the lessons articulated in The Plague of Good Intentions.

While acknowledging that his book focuses on the effects of government- and organization-led efforts, Epley’s advice to conferees came “based on both my experience as an investor and my experience in writing the book,” and was presented as a set of cautious rules for embarking on business in Africa. Among these rules:

• Don’t underestimate the fragility of economic progress. Epley sees that for many African countries, growth in GDP can often be attributed to singular causes like oil and gas deposits, and doesn’t necessarily portend sustained growth. “Don’t just rely upon ‘this country’s done really well over the last couple of years,’” he said. “Look at ones that have distribution of the GDP growth, not just oil reserves.”

• Don’t underestimate the colossal cultural differences. In the United States, 60 to 70 percent of corporate mergers fail, Epley says, “primarily because of cultural differences.” These differences, he points out, are “small gaps” compared to the differences between foreign investors and local cultures. As he notes of the New Coke backlash of the 1980s, “the best market-research institution in the world … if they can’t get it right, how do I, when I go to Kenya, really know what’s going on with the thinking process of the people there?”

In spite of his cautions, Epley decried easy stereotypes that might deter businesses from heading to Africa. “It is unfair and incorrect to use the aspect of corruption as an excuse not to go there,” he said.

Since publishing The Plague of Good Intentions, Epley has become a partner in Vance Street Capital, which acquires and operates medium sized companies in the United States and Europe, but primarily California. He currently manages a collection of five acquired companies, all in technology based manufacturing. In addition to the UCLA Anderson Board of Visitors, he also sits on the Board of the Broad Stage, and on the Board of Trustees of the Rand Ph.D. Graduate School of Public Policy. Learn more about The Plague of Good Intentions here.

The annual Africa Growth Conference aims to provide participants with an enhanced understanding of the trends shaping Africa’s growth and the key drivers moving Africa forward. It also provides a platform for participants to build networks, exchange ideas and learn how to position themselves to take advantage of the emerging opportunities that the continent offers.

UCLA Anderson and UCLA Ziman Center for Real Estate Announce Bren Gift to Launch Next Generation of Real Estate Entrepreneurs

This great news was just released:

LOS ANGELES – Peter Bren, a nationally recognized leader in the real estate and investment advisory industries, has pledged a gift of $1.25 million to the UCLA Ziman Center for Real Estate, a joint center of UCLA Anderson School of Management and UCLA School of Law.  The gift will be used to establish the Peter Bren Initiative for Real Estate Entrepreneurial Studies at UCLA.  The Initiative will create an advanced case studies course focused on entrepreneurial real estate as a capstone to the MBA real estate concentration. 

Reflecting Bren’s unique entrepreneurial path, the gift will also establish the Bren Fellows program, providing financial support and specialized mentorship for the top graduate students in real estate across all disciplines at UCLA. 

“Peter, through his many accomplishments, has always been a role model to the real estate world,” said Judy Olian, Dean and John E. Anderson Chair of UCLA Anderson School of Management.  “He is now creating a legacy that will benefit young entrepreneurs as they launch their careers and have the opportunity to learn first-hand from trail-blazing leaders.”

 

“In multiple ways, Peter’s gift is a real game-changer for the Ziman Center,” said Stuart Gabriel, Director of the UCLA Ziman Center for Real Estate.  “It provides a unique learning opportunity for some of the nation’s brightest and most promising MBA students, it introduces them to very successful real estate entrepreneurs, and it helps solidify UCLA's position among the top university-based real estate programs in the world.” 

Read more about Peter Bren's gift here.

Learn more about the Ziman Center here.