UCLA Anderson School of Management Blog

AMR Program honors the best teams of 2013

This week, teams of MBA students from UCLA Anderson's Applied Management Research Program (AMR) were recognized with two annual awards for excellence in the Program. AMR, the culminating requirement of UCLA Anderson's MBA degree, tasks teams of students with administering their skills and knowledge to real-world business applications.

Edward V. Sedgwick III Memorial Award

The Sedgwick Award recognizes the year's most exceptionally written report from the AMR project. It has been presented since 1985 to the report deemed to be of the highest quality, clarity and persuasive analysis. This year's winner, team Wells Fargo, was advised by Professor Jason Synder and composed of these students:

• Ryan Cheung
• Kevin Hofstee
• Kenneth Janssen
• Roger Kueny
• Geetika Maheshwari

Deloitte Consulting Award

Since 1992, the Deloitte Consulting Award has been presented to the AMR team and project judged to represent the highest standards of leadership, teamwork, research and analysis, professionalism, and strategic creativity in its solution of a complex problem. Five finalists are selected by UCLA Anderson. A panel of judges from Deloitte Consulting in downtown Los Angeles regards presentations by the finalists and chooses a winner. The 2013 winner, team Tresierras Market, was advised by lecturer Gary Reuben and composed of these students:

• Manuel Alvarez
• Mauricio Del Valle
• Nathan Kaehler
• Patrick Rooney
• Eric Vexelman

We congratulate the winners and all the finalists who contended. The winning teams receive a cash award, their names engraved on a plaque in the Cornell Hall atrium, and special recognition at the UCLA Anderson Academic Awards Banquet on May 31.

Mentored by the mayor, Riordan Programs graduates begin their futures

The Riordan Programs at UCLA Anderson graduated their 2013 classes of Riordan Scholars and Riordan MBA Fellows on Saturday, May 11 in Korn Convocation Hall. The Scholars are college-bound high-schoolers who are taught business principles and leadership skills, and the MBA Fellows recent college graduates prepared o apply to top graduate business programs. After the ceremony, they were treated to a grand reception at the home of former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, the Programs' co-founder and namesake. The Riordan Programs have shared some sights from the ceremony and reception.

 

The Linda Baldwin Award of Excellence was awarded to Marco De La Torre. The award is presented annually to a Riordan MBA Fellow who has exemplified exceptional commitment to personal and team excellence.

 

The graduation reception at Mayor Riordan's residence:

Co-founders of the Riordan Programs William Ouchi and Richard Riordan

EA blog debuts with inaugural "Entrepreneur of the Month"

UCLA Anderson’s Entrepreneur Association (EA), one of the largest student organizations on campus, will be highlighting an Entrepreneur of the Month on their website’s new blog. This month’s feature includes a Q&A with Peter Friis, a member of the 2013 MBA class, former president of the EA and co-founder of Essio, a company that designed and produces an aromatherapy diffuser for the shower. In this discussion, Friis provides insights about the product, its inspiration, funding, goals and challenges involved with this endeavor as well as the role that the Anderson education and experience played in helping to bring his idea to fruition:

In the long term, we are aiming to build a brand that stands for integrity of ingredients and innovative design.  The vision is for Essio to be a whole line, not just one product.  We would like to use relationships with spas and stores to launch new products.  Down the road it’s quite possible that Essio could create shampoos or soaps with similar fragrances, but always with the same commitment to quality and ingredients.

Knapp Venture Competition begins

The Knapp Competition is on!  

Neural Analytics' Dan Hanchey (FEMBA 2013) and Leo Petrossian (MBA 2014), this year's Entrepreneur Association Conference Fast Pitch winners, are the first to present their entrepreneurial business plan--for a noninvasive to measure intracranial pressure--to a panel of judges.

EA Conference Fast Pitches - nearly live!

UPDATE: (6 pm) We have a winner! Neural Analytics, represented by Leo Petrossian (MBA class of 2014), goes home with the top prize. Second and third places go to Doorey's Vow to be Chic and Dadkhahnikoo's Nikoo Energy, respectively. Congratulations to the winners!

 

At left, Neural Analytics' Dan Hanchey (FEMBA class of 2013) and Leo Petrossian are congratulated by Senior Associate Dean Al Osborne. At right, Petrossian picks up his prize.

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In these videos we captured only minutes ago, see Kelsey Doorey of Vow to be Chic and Neama Dadkhahnikoo of Nikoo Energy explain their entrepreneurial visions in just 90 seconds each:

 

 

Some 13 teams are competing in the semi finals of this year’s Entrepreneur Association Conference Fast Pitch Competition. The event is designed to give aspiring entrepreneurs the chance to present their business ideas in 90 seconds or less to a panel of distinguished investors and entrepreneurs. Final competitions will be held at 3:15 pm this afternoon in Korn Hall on the UCLA Anderson campus. Stay tuned!

Recruiters impressed by Anderson's talent pool

Another successful UCLA Anderson MBA Career Fair was held on Friday, May 3, 2013. More than 140  MBA students attended the Career Fair with some 60 recruiters representing 35 companies who came to campus to connect with our students. The companies ranged from fast growth startups to international corporations, covering a variety of industries, all looking to hire Anderson students.

According to one recruiter, “We were extremely impressed with the organization of the event. Anderson students were very polite and well prepared. You have great talent here.”

Advertisements for ourselves: 2013 Commercial Challenge winners announced

Team Underwater Robots, winners of the First Place and Most Next awards, accept their prizes from Commercial Challenge impresario Dylan Stafford.

The winners of 2013 Think In the Next Commercial Challenge were announced on Saturday, April 27 at a live event in Korn Hall. The elite judging panel, UCLA Anderson community voters at two live events, and the internet at large determined the awarding of over $10,000 of prize money to the videos that best showed how we Think in the Next. Watch the winning entries below. Thanks to all the entrants and congratulations to the winners!

Judges' Choice

First Place - $2000

Think In the Next
Team: Underwater Robots

Second Place - $1300

Leaders of Tomorrow
Team: Clueless and Determined Admits

Third Place - $1000

The Bruin Rises
Team: Creative Productions

Most Viewed on Internet - $2000

The Bruin Rises

Live Voting Prizes

People's Favorite - $2000

Here At Anderson
Team: Dance and Spirit Crew

Most Innovative - $1000

Brian - "Strom"-ing
Team: "Brian"-"Strom"-ing

Most Next - $1000

Think In the Next

Funniest - $1000

Here at Anderson

The Office Dilemma?

You've got a choice: Would you hire an “extrovert,” that energetic, confident and outgoing individual who will likely motivate colleagues and push ahead on projects, or the “neurotic,” who seems withdrawn, anxious, is expected to contribute little and may adversely affect morale? The optimal choice may be surprising.

In a paper titled “The Downfall of Extraverts and Rise of Neurotics: The Dynamic Process of Status Allocation in Task Groups,” UCLA Anderson Associate Professor Corinne Bendersky and co-author Neha Parikh Shah, assistant professor at Rutgers Business School, shatter stereotypes about performance of extroverts and neurotics in teams. Their findings: extroverts contribute less than team members expect.

“The core of an extroverted personality is to be attention-seeking,” says Bendersky. “It turns out they just keep talking, don't listen very well and are not very receptive to other people's input. In reality, they don't contribute as much as people expect.” Neurotics, by contrast, tend to work hard on behalf of their teams. They are more motivated, viewed as more generous and generally exceed everyone's expectations. In the end, extroverts lose status, while neurotics rise in teammates' esteem.

The media showing great interest in Prof. Bendersky's research include Forbes and Fortune.com/CNNmoney.com. The paper is expected to be published in the April issue of the Academy of Management Journal.

Project ECHO and Price Center turn L.A. teens on to entrepreneurship

More than 100 teens from high schools across L.A. displayed their entrepreneurial expertise—skills honed with help from the Harold and Pauline Price Center for Entrepreneurial Studies and Anderson MBA student mentors—in Project ECHO’s 9th annual business competition on Sunday, April 7, at UCLA Anderson. Vying for cash prizes to fund their business concepts were 20 teams, including finalists from a preliminary round held last month for 43 teams from Long Beach Polytechnic High School. The top winner walked away with a $1,200 award. An impressive group of successful entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, corporate officers, and other business professionals served as volunteer judges.

Project ECHO (Entrepreneurial Concepts Hands On) is an L.A.-based nonprofit that gives high school students, especially those from socioeconomically disadvantaged communities, opportunities to succeed in new ways. This year’s program launched with a two-day intensive business boot camp at UCLA Anderson, with industry experts leading workshops on subjects like generating innovative business concepts, making presentations to potential investors, and business accounting and management.

Project ECHO is one of the beneficiaries of Challenge for Charity, in which Anderson students compete with peers at top business schools for the coveted Golden Briefcase by raising funds and contributing volunteer hours to socially conscious organizations. Anderson student mentors worked with their Project ECHO teens for 12 weeks under the leadership of second-year MBA student Philip Hofman.

“MBAs are able to leverage the skills they have learned at Anderson … to help prepare students and provoke them to think about issues in new ways,” said Hofman, adding that the mentors “act as role models and encourage students through their continued dedication throughout the year.”

Team Design-n-Cut!, a customized clothing company at Santa Barbara High

Taking the competition’s top prize, from Long Beach Poly, was Ripped, a restaurant concept that plans to serve healthy fast food for athletes and others committed to nutritious eating. Among other winners were Nocturnal, a drug-and-alcohol-free nightclub for teens in south L.A.; Design-n-Cut!, a customized clothing company at Santa Barbara High; and Bait Studios, an in-house photo studio at Canoga Park High.

Team Digital Textbook Company from Murrieta High School

“The students really stole the show, giving some incredible presentations,” said Hofman. “Many of the judges that attended are heavily involved in the venture capital community, and they said that the presentations they saw were better than most they see in their day job.”

Project ECHO executive director Yinyin Goh (’97 Anderson FEMBA) said the program provides teens with tools for across-the-board success.

“The beauty of it is that teaching business and entrepreneurship touches on so many other areas,” said Goh. “It teaches teens math skills, writing skills, teamwork, presentation skills—things that they will find useful whatever field they choose to go into.”

Courtesy Project ECHO

MEMES Pulse conference puts its finger on "Hunger Games," social media, South America and more

"The Hunger Games" producer Nina Jacobson and UCLA Anderson professor Sanjay Sood

The annual Pulse Conference held by UCLA Anderson's Center for Management of Enterprise in Media, Entertainment, and Sports (MEMES) on April 12 brought industry leaders to Korn Hall to review the ever-changing landscape of entertainment and sports business.

Fittingly, the event was covered by runaway media success story BuzzFeed.

The opening keynote conversation was between Professor Sanjay Sood and Nina Jacobson, producer of "The Hunger Games" Trilogy. . . . "The first premise in a movie is to get people to care about the story and the characters" Nina said. She had wise recommendations for those who are starting in entertainment: "Both have an opinion and be receptive to the ideas of others."

In addition to keynotes from Jacobson and David Rone, president of Sports, News & Local Programming at Time Warner Cable, the Pulse conference tackled topics as varied as the difficulties of monetizing audiences and the uses of Big Data in live entertainment. Other topics included social media and South America:

As Paul Santello, EVP of Horizon Media, puts it "There are so many new technologies that sometimes we feel compelled to use them. But just because it is a new technology, it doesn't mean it is good for the client or the consumer. They all promise greater engagement, but research shows that people seating watching TV with their mobile devise, are doing something else, unrelated to what they're watching".

The panel on South America made clear the importance of this constantly growing market and the clear cultural differences. 20th Century Fox Adriana Trautman said "They want local movies well done, and because it's local, if it doesn't work, you cannot make it up in another market. Also you have to work with local regulations… the key is understanding that every country is totally different - we have offices in every country to build relations with media partners and every success builds upon the previous one.

Read the entire article.