UCLA Anderson School of Management Blog

UCLA Ziman Co-Hosts Mayor Garcetti, Housing Summit

Mayor Eric Garcetti keynoted the Los Angeles Business Council’s 2014 Mayoral Housing, Transportation and Jobs Summit today in Korn Convocation Hall. The summit, subtitled “Innovation and Investment in LA’s Economy,” was co-sponsored by the UCLA Ziman Center for Real Estate and featured speakers from across the political and economic spectrum, including Rep. Maxine Waters, Marty Bailey, president of manufacturing for American Apparel, Amy Freilich, a partner at Armbruster Goldsmith & Delvac, and Richard Ziman, chairman of Rexford Industrial Realty.

Mayor Garcetti capped the day’s talks and panels with his vision for Los Angeles’ housing future. Acknowledging the challenges the city faces, he said many of them could be traced to L.A.’s popularity. “In a time period that Chicago’s population has declined by 200,000, ours has increased by that amount,” he said. UCLA Ziman Center researchers’ have found that this trend has made Los Angeles the least affordable housing market in the United States. “Los Angeles remains a place people want to live. If we didn’t have a city here we’d have to build one,” Garcetti said.

The mayor outlined a four-step plan for increasing the supply of affordable housing in Los Angeles, including streamlining the building process, creating policies that support sustainable growth, investing in infrastructure and building community support for new, smart development. “We must build community support for housing with good design and sensitivity to neighborhood character,” he said.

Tying housing, transportation and jobs, the mayor said any plans to fix the cities growing housing crisis had to include better planning for public transportation growth, continued job growth and his plan to increase the minimum wage to $13.25 per hour. “L.A. will continue to be an expensive city in which to live,” he said. “We need to encourage growth in middle class jobs in this city. We have to support an increased minimum wage.”

The summit included panel discussions on investing in sustainable communities, supporting business growth and innovation. Other keynotes included Waters, Compton City Mayor Aja Brown and Rep. Janice Hahn.

Culbert Tells NPR ‘Get Rid of the Review’

Samuel Culbert, professor of management and organizations, was featured on NPR’s “Morning Edition” story “Behold the Entrenched — and Reviled — Annual Review.” The story cited research showing “between 60 percent and 90 percent of employees, including managers, dislike the performance evaluation.”

Culbert, author of “Get Rid of the Performance Review!” and “Beyond Bullsh*t: Straight-Talk at Work,” told NPR the annual review can often act as a screen behind which mediocrity hides. “They're fraudulent, bogus and dishonest,” he said. “And second, they're indicative of and they support bad management.”

Read and listen at NPR.

Jill Baldauf (BA '79, MBA '81) Named Associate Dean of Alumni Relations

UCLA Anderson has a new associate dean for alumni relations. Jill Baldauf (BA '79, MBA '81) replaces Elaine Hagan ('91), who served as interim associate dean until a replacement could be found for outgoing associate dean, Eric Mokover ('80).

Senior Associate Dean Al Osborne made the announcement to the school.

Anderson Faculty and Staff:

I am delighted to announce the appointment of Jill Baldauf (BA '79, MBA '81) as UCLA Anderson's  associate dean, alumni relations. Jill is a longtime friend of UCLA Anderson, and well known to many in the Anderson community.

Jill's 30+ year advertising career has spanned both coasts, with key positions at DDB, Grey, Ogilvy & Mather and Benton & Bowles. She has worked with packaged good clients including Procter & Gamble, Nestle, Mars and Henkel, has extensive experience working with the restaurant industry and a combined 20 years of work experience with Mattel and Hasbro. In 2003, Jill retired from her position as director of account management and new business director at DDB LA to form her own agency, Ampersand, with key client Hasbro.

Jill is extremely active in the community, currently serving on the boards of Chrysalis, The Broad Stage, Blue Ribbon, Wildwood School, Stanford Parents Advisory Board and LA Opera. Previously, Jill served as a member of the UCLA Anderson Board of Visitors, from 1992 to 1997, and was also recognized as one of UCLA Anderson's Inspirational 100 Alumni as part of the school's 75th anniversary celebration.

A fifth generation Californian, Jill and her husband, Steve Grossman, reside in the Rustic Canyon area of Santa Monica, and have two daughters, Andie and Ella. Jill earned her B.A. from UCLA and her MBA from UCLA Anderson.

Besides her experience and passion for UCLA and UCLA Anderson, Jill brings with her an infectious optimism and boundless energy. We know that you will enjoy meeting and working with her.
 
Before concluding, I want to recognize the contribution of Elaine Hagan. In her role as interim associate dean, Elaine has performed admirably. She provided steady and effective leadership to the office of alumni relations and external affairs generally, and was instrumental in the search process that brought Jill Baldauf to us. Her commitment to UCLA Anderson is exemplary, and we look forward to working with her in similar capacities. 

Easton Programs: Vivek Sharma, SVP Online Disney Parks, Discusses Accelerating Digital Innovation

By CheeChee Lin

Vivek Sharma, Senior Vice President Online for Disney Parks spoke with UCLA Anderson students Friday night for the annual Easton Social & Leadership Styles Series, his talk titled “Accelerating Digital Innovation." This event was in partnership with the Easton Technology Leadership Program, a series of workshops designed to equip Anderson students with the technology and leadership skills for success.

Vivek stressed the importance of “accelerating digital innovation” in large corporations, especially since billions of consumers have access to enormous computing power via their smartphones. He elaborated on the concepts of balancing ideas and commercialization, and highlighted three key points to consider when creating a product: user experience, performance, and usability.

Vivek also shared with the students his personal motto “LDC”-- to constantly learn, to deliver high quality performance, and to connect with people. “It’s not about who you know, but who knows you. I know Barack Obama, but he doesn’t know me. I also know Kim Kardashian, but that’s another story” he quipped.

For more information on upcoming events for the Easton Technology Program, please visit their website. 

GEMBA Asia Pacific Student Dave Woodward Discusses His EMBA Experience in the Financial Times

Dave Woodward ('15) is a veteran of two prior part time graduate programs. As a result, he knew well the commitment UCLA Anderson's Global Executive MBA Asia Pacific program would take (the program offers a dual MBA with the National University of Singapore). He dove in anyway and is already seeing the benefits. In a recent piece for the Financial Times, Woodward wrote: 

It is early days, but I have noticed a difference in my approach to work. I am viewing my clients’ issues more holistically, offering legal advice in a more informed business context. And I am finally able to distinguish a cashflow statement from an income statement.

He added:

Ironically, the characteristic of an EMBA I had not consciously sought but am realising is perhaps the most valuable is the calibre and diversity of classmates. Our intake of roughly 40 students includes chief executives, venture capitalists, a US Navy helicopter pilot, lawyers, engineers, a physician, software programmers, diplomats, finance professionals, human resources professionals and entrepreneurs. They come from a wide range of industries – from high tech to auto parts – and hail from all over the world. Their eclectic profile encourages fertile discussions, with perspectives vastly different from my own. I know I will learn as much about business from them as from the professors.

Read Dave's entire FT story here. 

Faculty Profile: Suzanne Shu

Associate Professor Suzanne Shu lived and worked in a number of states throughout the U.S. before accepting a position at UCLA Anderson. Raised in Florida, New York, Massachusetts and Nevada, Shu attended Cornell University, where she earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering. There, she started work as an admissions officer at the College of Engineering, with a focus on recruiting more women into the field of study. After graduation, she took a position in the telecom industry in New Jersey. The next stop was the University of Chicago for her MBA and a doctorate in behavioral sciences, before accepting her first academic job in Dallas.

Shu credits the leap to academia with a course in her MBA program, “Managerial Decision Making” (similar to the course taught by UCLA Anderson Professor Craig Fox.) It drove her to learn more about decisions and behaviors, areas that were puzzling in the workplace.

“As an engineering project manager, I learned about aspects of business that I hadn’t really been exposed to in college,” says Shu. “I also learned a lot about human behavior in the workplace, and watched people make decisions that didn’t always seem rational or optimal.”

It was UCLA Anderson’s strength in the research and study of behavioral science and decision-making that lead Shu to join the ranks. “There are only one or two other business schools across the country with as many outstanding faculty in this area,” she says. “It’s a very invigorating and productive environment with amazingly smart people who share and discuss the latest discoveries in marketing, behavioral economics, psychology and behavioral finance.”

Another UCLA Anderson attraction: the work that faculty do collaboratively on research projects. Shu cites joint efforts with UCLA Anderson colleagues and UCLA Medical School faculty on how to use behavioral economics to encourage healthy behavior among patients.

Shu has recently become interested in “decumulation,” which involves how people manage their retirement income once they’ve stopped working. She looks at ways people can optimize their spending and make better quality decisions more easily that reflect their own needs and situations.

Shu also revels in teaching marketing courses to students who think the discipline is only about advertising. “We take a very rigorous approach to marketing that includes teaching quantitative tools that help marketers make informed decisions about customers and their environments. Getting students to see the relationships between marketing and statistics, strategy, economics and even finance is very rewarding.”

For more on Shu, head to her Anderson page.

AMR Program Kicks Off Record-Setting Year

By Cheechee Lin

Today marked the kickoff of this year’s Applied Management Research program. The AMR program provides second-year MBA candidates the opportunity to work closely with companies to deliver professional-grade consulting reports. This year there are 56 student groups for the fall/winter period and five groups scheduled to work on projects in the spring. They will be collaborating with companies from all over the world spanning various industries, including sports, entertainment, technology and nonprofits. This year marked a record 117 companies applying to take part in AMR.

The UCLA Anderson AMR program is the world’s inaugural MBA field-study program. MBA candidates choose to either participate in the AMR program or the Business Creation Option as their thesis project. Students form groups in the spring of their first year and select their project during the summer. In addition to the 56 AMR project groups, nine student groups opted for the BCO entrepreneurship program. Final presentations will be held on March 13, 2015.

Dean Judy Olian gave a warm welcome to the participating students and companies. She emphasized the importance of AMR as an "integrated experience that would help the students develop functional expertise," and told the story of PanAmSat, a successful AMR project that was later sold for $5 billion. WWE senior director of talent development and Anderson alumnus Canyon Ceman (’05) shared that his company is returning for a second year in the program because of the value the students bring to WWE. He complimented Anderson students on their “out of the box creative ideas, open-minded optimism and pro-active positivity.”

Michael Peck (’15) said he and his team are very enthusiastic about being partnered with Riot Games. “We’re particularly excited to be working with a growing company that has a global reach and a true passion for the product,” he said.

For more on AMR, head to their homepage.

Dean Judy Olian Recognizes Class of 2015 Scholars

By Bijan White

At today’s Dean’s Scholars Luncheon, Dean Judy Olian welcomed back a group of distinguished second-year students who were ranked among the top-ten percent of their class. The luncheon brought together the students and members of the Anderson teaching staff and administration.

Dean Judy Olian congratulated the students for their ability to “excel in the heterogeneity of the requirements demanded by Anderson’s core program to become distinguished among distinguished peers.” She emphasized the importance of the convergence between analytical thinking and boldness of ideas in the Anderson pedagogy. She further praised the students’ aptitude to formulating the right questions, rather than the right answers, to reveal a nuanced understanding of business strategy. Olian encouraged a sense of self-awareness among the students as they embarked on their second year, stating that it is “the first step towards leadership.”

LA Times Op-Ed: UCLA Forecast’s Leamer Weighs Pros, Cons of Raising Minimum Wage

When Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti last month proposed raising the minimum wage across the city to $13.25 an hour in 2017, he rekindled a long-running debate between the business sector, organized labor, city leaders and economists, among other groups.

Our own Ed Leamer, director of the UCLA Anderson Forecast, stepped right into the discussion this weekend with an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times, where he and Daniel Flaming, president of the Economic Roundtable, exchanged their educated thoughts on the pros and cons of increasing the minimum wage. Leamer raised concerns over who would fund the increase, and noted that “low wages are the symptom, not the problem,” among other points.

An excerpt of their conversation is below. To read the full op-ed, visit the LA Times.

From Edward Leamer to Daniel Flaming:



Dear Dan,



As I've considered L.A.'s minimum wage proposal in recent weeks, I keep coming back to one question: Who will pay for it?



It's complicated.
It's hard to think of a better way to provide significant amounts of money to needy individuals, families and neighborhoods than by increasing compensation for low-wage work. A report by the Berkeley Institute for Research on Labor and Employment prepared for the mayor suggested that a minimum wage of $13.25 in 2017 would directly increase the earnings of 27% of workers and would channel $1.8 billion a year toward this needy and deserving group.



But what is the best way to fund this attractive charitable activity?



Most economists think of a minimum wage as equivalent to an employment tax that applies to the very group we want to help out: low-wage workers. This is attractive politically only because the minimum wage tax doesn't show up on the city's books. But it could. Los Angeles could collect the $1.8 billion from employers as a tax on low-wage employment and then distribute the tax revenue to the poorly paid workers. An alternative way to raise $1.8 billion would be a 3% payroll tax on all workers earning in excess of $50 an hour.



(Read more here.)

Martine Rothblatt’s New Book Addresses the Future of Cyberconsciousness

Martine Rothblatt (JD/MBA ’81) returned to UCLA for a special reading of her newly published book “Virtually Human: The promise—and the Peril—of Digital Immortality.”

In her book, Rothblatt explores technology that might sound like science fiction: a world where cyberconsciousness, a simulation of the human brain via software and computer technology, becomes a part of our daily lives. More so than we might, at present, be ready for.

For instance, take a “Mindclone.” Bina48 is a nascent version of this technology that Rothblatt and her wife, Bina, are pioneering. This Mindclone that is, yes, derived from Bina, can partake in conversation, answer questions and even have spontaneous thoughts. The data for these responses are pulled from a “Mindfile,” or a digital database of thoughts, memories, feelings and opinions that are essentially a back-up copy of your mind, created by the real-life Bina.

Rothblatt asserts that the technology already exists and anyone who is active on Twitter or Facebook, posts photos to Instagram or does blogging is already on their way to creating a Mindfile. Rothblatt claims that the data can be made conscious with special software, or “Mindware,” that mimics the way a human brain organizes information, creates emotions and achieves self-awareness.

Rothblatt discussed the usefulness of Mindclones and how they will coexist with humans in the future. She attested that the utility of this type of artificial intelligence would eventually become commonplace, outpacing the fear of its weirdness. Rothblatt encouraged the audience to continue to think outside current possibilities and break thought barriers. “What seems to be a boundary is actually a border for us to transcend,” she said.

Also, don't miss a great profile of Rothblatt and her remarkable life and career at New York magazine.