UCLA Anderson School of Management Blog

MEMES Hosts Game Day Sports Case Competition

On Feb. 8, UCLA Anderson’s Center for MEMES sponsored the first sports case competition for MBA and JD students. The Game Day Sports Case Competition was created by MEMES board member and influential member of the sports industry, Jeffery Moorad. The competition centered around real-world sports business problems and required a multidisciplinary approach to problem-solving.

Event judges included Andrew Brandt, NFL business analyst for ESPN; Eric Johnson, executive vice president of multimedia sales for ESPN; Gillian Zucker, Auto Club Speedway president; Peter Guber, chairman of Mandalay Entertainment; and Irwin Raij, partner with Foley & Lardner LLP and co-chair of the firm's Sports Industry Team. All five participated in the opening panel, moderated by Brandt, on the business of sports and current trends impacting the industry.

First place went to Team 13 from Harvard Business School, with second and third places going to Team 10 from University of Pennsylvania and Team 7 from UCLA Anderson, respectively. Other schools participating in the event were Chapman University, Emory University, Loyola Marymount University, Marquette University, Northwestern University, Pepperdine University, University of Chicago, University of California, Berkeley, University of Michigan, University of Southern California, and Villanova University.

Head to the event Flickr page for photos of the day’s action, and head to the Center for MEMES homepage for general info.

UCLA Anderson Students Meet Warren Buffet

In order from left: Veronica Kalyna (FEMBA ’15), Constantinos (Dean) Pagonis (MBA ’14), Nedal Alqam (FEMBA ’15), Debika Seth (FEMBA ’15), Jernine Kim (MBA ’14), Ksenia Yudina (FEMBA ’14), Alex Jorion (FEMBA ’15), Joseph Duronio (FEMBA ’15), M. Reza Banki (MBA ’14), Ryan Rosen (MBA ’14), Warren Buffett, Tom Morgan (MBA ’14), Sean Haydon (MBA ’14), Danielle Zainer (MBA ’14), Jacob Gore (MBA ’14), Beth Sackovich (MBA ’14), Kevin Zhang (FEMBA ’15), Wenting Shen (MBA ’14), Aylon Ben-Shlomo (MBA ’14), Jason Stokes (FEMBA ’15), Ignacio Silva (MBA ’14).

By Veronica Kalyna (FEMBA ’15)

On a chilly winter morning in January, 20 UCLA Anderson students, members of the Anderson Student Asset Management Fund, Student Investment Fund and the Anderson Investment Association, began the pilgrimage to meet the Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffett. Along with students from six other U.S. universities and a group of Brazilian business students, we began the day at Nebraska Furniture Mart, the first of three Berkshire Hathaway-owned company visits. As we walked through the flagship store, we learned about the “Historic Omaha Handshake” and the two-page contract by which Warren Buffet and Rose Blumkin, NFM’s founder, sealed the sale of NFM to Berkshire Hathaway in 1983. Mrs. B’s simple business tenet of “sell cheap and tell the truth” has positioned the retailer to rapidly expand in the Midwest.

Our next stop was Berkshire Hathaway’s headquarters, inconspicuously located on the 15^th floor of the Keiwit Building. Stepping off on the top floor, we entered the marble-and-wood paneled Cloud Room. Mr. Buffett made his entrance, and a two-hour question and answer ensued. With great candor and modesty, Mr. Buffett spoke on a wide range of topics. While holding a 1951 Moody’s Manual, he quipped, “People who want to relive their youth buy old Playboys. I buy old Moody’s.” Mr. Buffett spoke at length of his philosophy of investing in simple, undervalued firms with solid operations and management teams, as well as his hands-off management style. He also spoke about how Berkshire Hathaway’s size has led him and his long-time business partner and friend, Charlie Munger, to “hunt for elephants”—a metaphor for deals in excess of $1 billion—as smaller deals, though more appealing, do not provide significant returns to his investors. However, not all questions were about the markets and investing. Mr. Buffet spoke greatly about personal and social matters such as philanthropy and the pointlessness of ostentatious lifestyles among the wealthy. Some excerpts from his speech:

On friends: “Associate with people you think are better than you and you’ll start behaving like them.”

Price Center Hosts Wolfen Award for Entrepreneurs Info Night

If entrepreneurial activity is your goal, don’t miss tonight’s Price Center event. From 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the EDR, the center will host the Wolfen family as they hold a Wolfen Award presentation, information session and reception. The event features Class of 2014 Wolfen Fellows Edward Gonzalez, Paul Greive, Craig Jones and Shuhan Majid, as well as past award winners and a chance to meet the Wolfen family, part of the award selection committee.

The Larry Wolfen Entrepreneurial Spirit Award is named after Larry Wolfen (’93), who died suddenly in 1994. His entrepreneurial spirit is celebrated with this annual award, offered to Anderson students who are seeking to pursue an entrepreneurial opportunity between their first and second years.

You must be a member of the Entrepreneur Association to qualify for this fellowship, and the group advises that a no-show on any RSVP will result in reduced EA privileges.

To RSVP head to the signup page. For more info, email Angela Klein.

Greenbotics Helps Make Solar More Powerful

It might be rough to think about for those outside of Southern California—with the dead of winter grasping much of the country—but the sun is still shining. Thankfully so for those heading for a vacation in sunnier, warmer climes and for the solar power industry.

UCLA Anderson’s Kyle Cobb (’12) knows a thing or two about that, seeing as the company he started as an AMR project was acquired in November last year by solar industry giant SunPower. That project was Greenbotics, a robotic cleaning technology for solar panels. The robots—flat, black trays on wheels—roll along the panels cleaning as they go. The automated system reduces water use by approximately 90 percent and takes one-quarter of the labor it once did. SunPower saw those benefits, along with an uptick in energy generation because of the cleaner panels, and bought the company. Many of the old Greenbotics team now work at SunPower, including Cobb.

Before Cobb came to Anderson, the idea of robotic solar panel cleaners was stewing around in the mind of his high school friend, Marc Grossman,  Most solar panel cleaning at the time was done by teams of people with buckets, water and soap. Grossman figured there had to be a better way. He had a team of engineers ready to start working on the technology, but, according to Cobb, “They didn’t really know what kind of help they needed on the business end. You have to know the size of your market, the value chain, how the players fit together, developing a sales pipeline”—things Cobb would be learning at Anderson.

Look for more on Greenbotics and the power of the sun (besides fighting off the polar vortex) in the next issue of Assets Digital, coming soon to an iPad near you.

UCLA Anderson Investing Conference Digs Deep Into Current Market Conditions

The 3^rd Annual UCLA Anderson Investing Conference took over Korn Convocation Hall today for a daylong look into the state of investing and global economics. Topics such as “Behavioral Finance in the Digital Age,” “Equity Investing: Uncovering Opportunities in Bull Markets,” “Global Credit: Navigating Uncertain Waters” and “U.S. Real Estate: From Boom, To Bust, To Rebound, To…” dug deep into current market conditions.

Dean Judy Olian noted that UCLA Anderson faculty help provide insights into market phenomena as a matter of course, and highlighted recent award-winning research by Associate Professor Andrea Eisfeldt. Her paper, co-written with Dimitris Papanikolauou of Kellogg, received the prestigious 2013 Smith Breeden Prize awarded for best paper of the year in the Journal of Finance. The paper, “Organization Capital and the Cross-section of Expected Returns,” analyzed the effect of organization capital on asset prices and argued that firms with high levels of that capital tend to be riskier than firms with more physical capital. “That’s just one example of important research at Anderson that has significant market implications,” said Olian, “and why this kind of dialog between Anderson and the financial and investment communities is so valuable."

The final keynote by keynote by Steven Romick, managing partner of First Pacific Advisors, provided a glimpse into his firm’s investment strategies and gave attendees a chance for a Q&A. When asked about how MBAs can prepare themselves for the real world, Romick replied that his advice for them would be the same as he would give to everyone who wanted to practice his form of value investing. “Learn to be a psychologist. Learn how the world works and how you work. How will you react to pressures?” he said. “Whatever you want to do, apply yourself to be an independent thinker. Do what fits with your skills and what you love.”

The day ended with a cocktail and networking reception for attendees.

Wojcicki (’98) Named New Head of YouTube

Susan Wojcicki (’98) has a new job description: head of YouTube. In her new role, Wojcicki, currently senior vice president of advertising and commerce for Google, will attempt to bring her revenue magic to Google’s video platform that brought in about $5.6 billion in gross ad revenues last year, according to eMarketer. This inflow represented an increasing percentage of Google’s overall ad dollars.

Wojcicki has led all new product development, including Google's two main advertising vehicles, AdWords and AdSense. She also oversaw the company's acquisitions of YouTube and DoubleClick.

Wojcicki joined Google in 1999 as the 16^th hire and the company's first marketing manager and was the force behind Google doodles. Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin launched Google fromWojcicki’s garage in 1998.

Wojcicki is a member of the UCLA Anderson Board of Visitors and one of our 100 Inspirational Alumni.

Head to her Inspirational 100 Alumna page for more.

Entrepreneurs and Startups Meet at EA Career Fair

By Asmi Shah, Entrepreneur Association vice president of events

Some people think MBAs and startups don't go together, but that couldn't be further from the truth. The 2014 Entrepreneur Association Winter Career Fair on Tuesday night showed what happens when some of Los Angeles' hottest startups get together with some of the best and brightest MBAs around. We had an amazing lineup of companies spanning multiple industries and various levels of funding.  From pre-seed to institutional investment to one company that filed for IPO the same day (!), the career fair represented the different stages of a startup. The industries reflected the diversity of student interests: health care, tech, big data, clean tech, new media, fashion—the companies ran the gamut.

The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, and the companies were impressed by the EA members' passion and enthusiasm for their companies, bringing well-researched questions and an overall high caliber of discussion.

The students and startups spent the event networking and discussing internships and full-time opportunities. I heard from many of the companies they had focused in on a few great candidates. Actually, I heard this at every table!

By the end of the event, we had planned additional programming with a few of the startups. The Price Center and EA work continuously to promote and support entrepreneurship in the Anderson community; it was great to spend a night sharing that with some of the best startups in Los Angeles.

Expect to hear more about Anderson and entrepreneurship in the coming months, and stay tuned for the EA Conference on May 9. We hope to see you there!

Check out great pics from the night at our Flickr page.

Roll Wins Bernstein Fabozzi/Jacobs Levy Award

UCLA Anderson’s Distinguished Professor of Finance and Joel Fried Chair in Applied Finance Richard Roll has won The Bernstein Fabozzi/Jacobs Levy Award for best article in The Journal of Portfolio Management. His piece “Volatility, Correlation, and Diversification in a Multi-Factor World” tied with Clifford Asness, managing and founding principal of AQR Capital Management, and Andrea Frazzini, senior researcher at AQR, for their “The Devil in HML's Details” article. The annual awards are voted on by subscribers and funded by Jacobs Levy Equity Management. The award comes with a $2,500 prize.

Read more on the awards here and check out Roll's Anderson page here.

Bendersky’s Neurotics Covered in NY Times

UCLA Anderson Associate Professor of Management and Organizations Corinne Bendersky continues to make waves with her research showing extroverts end up paying the price for their gregarious ways. She and co-author Neha Parikh Shah, an assistant professor at Rutgers Business School, found less is expected of neurotics, quieter and less showy by nature, who then exceed expectations and rise in esteem as they do. Those loudmouths, on the other hand, can never live up to expectations—regardless of the quality of their work—and lose esteem over time.

The newest attention for Bendersky’s work appeared Feb. 2 in The New York Times’ Business Day Applied Science section. This follows coverage in Forbes, Time, NPR, USA Today, Fortune and more.

Read the NY Times article here. Dig deeper into Bendersky’s work at her Anderson page.

Silicon Beach Rides Tech Wave

As tech-focused startups continue to be the darlings of the business and investment worlds, Santa Monica’s star continues to rise. Silicon Beach, as the city has been dubbed, is attracting more and more attention as ventures such as SnapChat (headquartered there) rise to the top of the startup heap. In fact, according to Fast Company, 35.9 percent of all Los Angeles startups are headquartered there.

Showing just how popular the tech scene is in Silicon Beach, the second annual Silicon Beach Fest brought in more than 3,000 attendees and more than 250 speakers on more than 60 panels in 17 themed tracks over four days, according to the organizers.

According to Bob Foster ('65, 100 Inspirational Alumni), who teaches High Technology Management at UCLA Anderson, the ocean is a big draw for hardworking entrepreneurs. "We have beaches and smart young people that enjoy surfing and the funky Santa Monica atmosphere," he explains.

And, Anderson alumni have heard the call. Kenny Berlin ('11) runs his business 12Twenty from a shared office space in Santa Monica. Berlin had thought of moving his company to the East Coast, but decided Silicon Beach was the place, both personally and professionally. "We talked about going back to the east coast, but here you've got talent and investors—and you can go surfing,” he says.

The fact that it’s not Silicon Valley or NYC’s Silicon Alley holds another bonus for young companies looking to make a splash. Ryan Cummins ('11), co-founder of a startup called Omaze, says, "The community here is still small enough that if you put in the effort to get out there and get to know people, you get a real sense of who the active participants are.”

For more on Silicon Beach, head to Assets Digital.