UCLA Anderson School of Management Blog

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and outgoing individual who will likely motivate colleagues and push ahead on projects, or the “neurotic,” who seems withdrawn, anxious, is expected to contribute little and may adversely affect morale?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.

Xerox's Ursula Burns on "Transformative Leadership" at UCLA Anderson

The Gerald Loeb Awards Reception 2013

What better way for UCLA Anderson to celebrate 40 years of hosting The Gerald Loeb Awards than with food, drink and atmosphere provided by Anderson entrepreneurs? This year's reception for the Loeb Awards' preliminary judges was held at the UCLA Broad Art Center. Amid artwork by UCLA Department of Art MFA candidates, some 30 visiting journalists and editors from the nation's most prestigious media outlets connected with UCLA Anderson faculty and alumni for an evening of discussion and celebration.

Many of the Anderson entrepreneurs were on hand to showcase their ventures. Among the alumni were: 

• Veggie Grill's T.K. Pillan, MBA '96

   

  

  Dean and Loeb Awards judge Judy Olian with T.K. Pillan
  Tired of eating pizza during his years serving the tech world, T.K. Pillan and investment banker Kevin Boylan went looking for two things: great-tasting food and an approach that would be scalable in a “fast-casual” food format. “We wanted a product that would appeal to anyone who's looking for high-quality, wholesome food.”

   

  
  The result: the popular West Coast restaurant concept known for craveable, plant-based food. With 13 very successful locations in California (18 on the West Coast), Pillan is looking to establish a national brand in the next few years. “Our number-one goal is to get people to try our food…and we got some great feedback from the attendees.”

  

• PubCakes' Misty Birchall, EBV '11

   

  

  Misty Birchall
  A former linguist with the U.S. Navy, Misty Birchall combined her passions for baking and craft beer to design beer-laced cupcakes. Originally available only by special order or at hip beer bars, PubCakes began as a delivery only business and eventually started sharing storefront space with San Diego-based Treehouse Coffee. Misty is currently moving the PubCakes business into catering, cake mix development and into new venues to sell her wares, such as farmers' markets.

   

  “The positive response I received from everyone (including those attending The Gerald Loeb Awards reception) has been overwhelming. It's has helped inspire me to push my business and entrepreneurial goals further and expand my business from a local venture to a national one with my craft beer cake mix.”

   

• TheBouqs.com's John Tabis, MBA '06

  Sometimes irritations lead to great things. TheBouqs.com owner, John Tabis, found his own experience ordering flowers for a loved one proved to be needlessly complex, convoluted and frustrating. “To top it off, what I ordered wasn't exactly what I wanted and didn't last very long. So, I decided to launch a company that would fix the problem.”

   

  

  John Tabis (center) has a laugh with KNX 1070 Business News anchor Frank Mottek and UCLA Anderson media relations program manager Carla Collado
  Vertically integrated back to the farm, flowers ordered one day are cut from the South American volcano the next day and delivered straight to the home. Between the use of sustainable farming practices, the ability to cut supply chain waste and implementing the company's own ‘hustle,' The Bouqs Company quadrupled its revenue growth in one month, between December 2012 and January 2013, selling out much of its inventory ahead of Valentine’s Day. “The contrast of the eco-friendly, all-natural Bouqs against the modern and edgy design of the reception space was a sight to see.”

   

  

  
  

  
  
  
  

   

• Golden Road Brewing's Paul Burgis, FEMBA '12 (general manager hired by Golden Road owner Amy Gordon Yanow, FEMBA '12)

   

  

  Paul Burgis (right) with Golden Road’s Omar Douglas
  Here was the simple question: How can we give a city as energetic and vibrant as L.A. a craft brewing tradition to match its personality? Once Golden Road Brewing's owners landed on their craft beer recipes, found a location for production and rounded out their offerings with a pub, expansion was inevitable. Enter Paul Burgis, who left the world of stock brokerage and now maintains responsibility for the company's operations, finance, capital investment, quality assurance and production.

   

  ”Given that Golden Road Brewing was built on a foundation of knowledge learned at Anderson, it is was a real pleasure to be able to converse with so many intellectuals— and to do it at UCLA Anderson was icing on the cake.”

  
  
  

• Captûre Wines' Benjamin Sharp, MBA '99, was unable to attend the event, but sent an array of wines from the company's portfolio for all to enjoy.

  
  
  

  What makes a great wine executive? For Benjamin Sharp, it's a combination of experiences that include his degree in literature, time spent in business development, global management and consulting, experience with a brokerage house and a deep appreciation for European-style wines. Sharp says that the wine industry combines the mix of creative and business challenges that appeal to him to help develop a successful portfolio of world-class Bordeaux-style wines for Captûre Wines.

About the Gerald Loeb Awards

The Gerald Loeb Awards were established in 1957 by the late Gerald Loeb, a founding partner of E.F. Hutton. His intention was to encourage reporting on business and finance that would inform and protect the private investor and the general public. As the most prestigious honor in business journalism, distinguished journalists and outlets nationwide submit entries to the competition. UCLA Anderson has been presenting The Gerald Loeb Awards since 1973 and the awards use a two-tier judging process comprising a preliminary round and final round. The awards banquet and celebration is held in New York City every June and is attended by the country's top business and financial publishers, editors, journalists, producers and celebrities. The Gerald Loeb Awards is a 501(3)(c) non-profit organization that operates primarily from sponsorship and private support. Follow The Gerald Loeb Awards on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LoebAwards.

Hanssens' book named a "must read" for marketers

Quirk's Marketing Research Review has declared Professor Dominique Hanssens' Empirical Generalizations about Marketing Impact a must-read book for marketing researchers. The article in the February 2013 Quirk's lists the Hanssens-edited volume in the "Research in General" category.

Empirical Generalizations, which "surveys the academic research to determine 'what we know' about the impact of marketing activities on product and company performance," has also been called "a constant reminder that successful marketing is more often driven by proven facts rather than creative intuition" and the "most succinct, valuable, and readable inventory of what we know about the impact of marketing variables and the conditions under which they hold."