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.'"