UCLA Anderson School of Management Blog

Praise for UCLA Anderson’s iPad-Friendly Magazine

Assets Digital, the UCLA Anderson interactive alumni magazine, is making a name for itself in the electronic-publishing and social-media worlds. Launched in December 2012, the first-of-its-kind business school publication connects the global network of approximately 37,000 alumni—and it’s getting noticed.

The website Social Media Today featured the app on its survey of How 10 Savvy Colleges Are Using Social Media. Making the list, along with the likes of Stanford, Notre Dame and Princeton, Assets is praised for increasing “engagement through content consumption.”

Designed exclusively for the iPad, the host of features includes real-time Twitter feeds, up-to-the-minute events calendar, video, photography and even animated illustration. The app also includes an Alumni Hub, allowing the Anderson diaspora to connect at anytime and from anywhere.

In a recent blog, Adobe also featured the app for its innovative use of Adobe’s Digital Publishing Suite. “With three primary groups of focus: prospective students, alumni, and prospective employers, the app provides opportunities to get creative and think outside of the box,” writes the Adobe team.

Connect with Assets Digital and check out previous issues here. Download the app here.

FEMBApalooza 2013

This Sunday, July 14th, marks the second-annual FEMBApalooza, the Fully Employed MBA’s summer networking event. More than 500 attendees enjoyed last year’s event, and more than 700 are anticipated to show up Sunday and enjoy lunch, ice cream and the new FEMBA Biergarten.

Significant others are welcome, and kid-friendly fun includes face painting and a bounce house. There will also be a FEMBA Entrepreneur Zone. The event runs from noon ‘til 5pm and pre-registration is required.

Check out pictures of last year’s event here. Take a look at the teaser video for this year’s action here. And register here.

GAP Program Lands NZ Tourism Co.

The UCLA Anderson Global Access Program has reserved time with N.Z.-based Reserve Group, creators of the booking system evoSuite, to help expand their international reach. GAP sends final-year MBA students on six-month field studies to research corporate growth opportunities, and has helped companies make next-level decisions since 1998.

The GAP team will dedicate more than 2,000 hours to evaluating Reserve Group’s products and doing market research. Reserve Group provides “sophisticated IT solutions, robust project management and quality control” to businesses. The GAP team of five, Fully Employed MBA students will provide high-level strategic insights and planning at the end of their field study, including an “investment-quality business plan” that can help Reserve enter the U.S. market.

More than $200 million in new investment capital has been raised based upon GAP business plans, and international firms also have created U.S. subsidiaries, opened U.S. distribution and formed strategic partnerships. GAP fees are nominal, and companies can apply via the program’s site.

Check out more on GAP and evoSuite, as well as coverage in The New Zealand Herald.

Go Make Fireworks

Every year we celebrate the spirit of change, the ability to create solutions. UCLA Anderson grads embody that essence and constantly strive for ways to Think in the Next. As Marshall Goldsmith, Ph.D. (’77) says,

"Real leaders are not people who can point out what is wrong… Real leaders are people who can make things better."

Goldsmith, who was recently recognized as the No. 1 leadership thinker in the world at the bi-annual Thinkers50 ceremony sponsored by the Harvard Business Review, helps business leaders find ways to recognize challenges and create the next big thing. Because, as the bestselling author of such books as MOJO and What Got You Here Won't Get You There, says, “Successful people spend a large part of their lives engaging in activities that simultaneously provide meaning and happiness.”

So, happy holiday and enjoy the pursuit of happiness, or, as we call it, the ability to Think in the Next.

Housing Market Posts Record Gains

UCLA Anderson’s Eric Sussman says bubble fears might be overblown.

The housing market is growing, even hitting a record one-month increase, and experts—and the media—are beginning to ask: “Are we on the cusp of a new housing bubble?”

The April Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices showed an average home-price increase of 11.6% and 12.1% for its 10- and 20-City Composites, respectively. In fact, year-over-year returns were positive for all 20 cities and both Composites. Los Angeles’ housing prices grew a hefty 18.8% over the past year, lagging just behind the more than 20% gains in Atlanta, Las Vegas, Phoenix and San Francisco.

“The 10- and 20-City Composites posted their highest monthly gains in the history of S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices,” said David M. Blitzer, chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices, in a release. “Thirteen cities posted monthly increases of over two percentage points, with San Francisco leading at 4.9%.”

But, when it comes to creating a housing bubble, Eric Sussman, senior lecturer in accounting and real estate at UCLA Anderson, says it takes more than a little tilt to the “demand” side of supply and demand. “I wouldn’t call it a bubble. A bubble to me includes, and deals with, speculation, folks who ultimately have no business investing in a certain market, but nevertheless do so. I don’t think you have that now,” he says. “Now, the recent price increases aren’t sustainable, but it’s not a bubble. It lacks that rampant speculation.”

He says this bump in real estate values reflects simple economic reality. “On the demand side you have increasing, or at least stabilizing, consumer confidence, the recovery of the stock market, significant institutional-acquisition activity, relatively low interest rates, and high rental rates,” he says. “On the supply side, people weren’t building for the past few years, and in some markets you don’t have a lot of supply available anyway. So, prices are going up. It’s kind of econ 101.”

That supply-side pressure is especially noticeable in cities like Los Angeles. “You have what amounts to limited supply—there’s not really much land left to build on—and growing demand,” Sussman says. “Where can you go to build? Prices are going to go higher.”

According to Sussman, much of the U.S. demand has been driven by institutional investors looking to cash in on lower housing prices, a tough mortgage climate and a corresponding increase in rental rates, which is not a workable model. “At the end of the day, unless we have real sustainable economic growth and growth in wages, you still have household incomes that are too low to create sustainable housing demand,” he says.

Still, Sussman calls housing market price hikes a significant part of economic growth, a sign of consumer confidence and a necessary underpinning of the economy. “Price increases are good at some level,” he says. “So much of economic and consumptive behavior is a continual loop. It feeds on itself.”

Sussman says thinking about the real estate market is probably better done from a bird’s eye perspective with long-term goals firmly in mind. “If you’re going to buy, make sure you’ll be there for five years at least. Transaction costs are too high. Market uncertainty still exists,” he says. This perspective gives historical value to any real estate decision. “Even if you bought in 2006, if you planned on owning for 30 years, it will likely still prove a good decision,” he says.

And, while people want to get in and grasp that American, home-owning ideal before interest rates are too high, he cautions against jumping too eagerly. “It’s a business decision,” he says. “It has to be dispassionate."

Ultimately, he uses an analogy recognizable to many Angelenos. “It’s like body surfing: Should I ride that wave or duck under it?” he says. “This isn’t going to turn into a tidal wave. We’re not there. I’m of the mindset that you shouldn’t ride this wave in, but wait.”