UCLA Anderson School of Management Blog

Amid the Chaos of Tech, Fun and Opportunity

Left to right: Kelly Merryman, Amanda Reed, Jane Bove, Kira Makagon, Courtney Montpas

Enjoy photos from the Velocity conference

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By Cheechee Lin

A full house gathered for the annual UCLA Anderson Women’s Leadership Summit, which convened under the theme Velocity. In quick but thoughtful succession, speakers and panelists took the stage for engaged and interactive programming, including breakout sessions and keynote panels.

Alumna Jane Bove (EMBA ’01), director of partner solutions at Microsoft, moderated a panel addressing gender imbalances in the tech industry. It featured Kira Makagon, EVP of innovation at RingCentral; Kelly Merryman, VP of content partnerships at YouTube; Courtney Montpas, West Coast regional GM of Hired Inc.; and Amanda Reed, founder and partner at Authentic Partners.

With a passion for women in tech, Bove engages in recruiting at universities, mentoring and chairing retention events. She is an active supporter for girls’ education with the Kiran Anjali Project and Hour of Code. All five women have made an impact in the tech industry. They related poignant experiences and cautionary tales, but kept the momentum with upbeat conclusions. Makagon’s summation was: “Tech is fun! You have the opportunity to experience (innovations) ahead of everybody. But only go into tech because you genuinely like it — not because it pays well or because it’s trendy.”

UC President Janet Napolitano Headlines Robertson Lecture Series Event

 

UCLA Anderson’s Robertson Lecture Series on Global Business Leadership is a collaboration between the school's Center for Global Management and the Los Angeles World Affairs Council (LAWAC). The series serves to provide opportunities for UCLA Anderson students to acquire global leadership perspectives through discussions around the critical issues impacting global business and the global political economy. It is made possible by Anderson alumnus Chip Robertson (FEMBA’06) and his family. The family has dedicated the series to Chip’s great-grandfather, Leo M. Harvey, a pioneer industrialist, inventor and founder of Harvey Aluminum.

On February 3, 2016, University of California President Janet Napolitano participated in the third Robertson Lecture. The event included an introduction by UCLA Anderson Dean Judy Olian, followed by a discussion with President Napolitano moderated by renowned journalist Terry McCarthy, president and CEO of the LAWAC. Mr. McCarthy was kind enough to recap the event.

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by Terry McCarthy

Janet Napolitano, President of the University of California, said the university is "in a state of excitement" after closing a multiyear budget deal with Governor Jerry Brown last spring and that she now wants to "ratchet down" student fees amid the rise of student debt. Speaking to a LAWAC dinner on February 3, Napolitano said that to convince Governor Brown to allocate more funds, she told him that "California would not be California without the UC system." As former Secretary of Homeland Security, Napolitano also talked about her thoughts on the current state of national security, saying she believes we are better off than we were pre-9/11, but that there is deep concern for the increase in cyber threats and an ongoing concern about aviation security.

When Napolitano left her job as Governor of Arizona in 2009, the entire state budget was $9.8 billion. The University of California currently has a budget of $27 billion a year — almost three times as big. Napolitano compared the extensive 10-campus university system to a "moderately large state with a large population of 18-year-olds." Faced with rising student debt, students protesting for first amendment rights, and the need to change the system's revenue model, Napolitano said of her job, "It gets crazy sometimes."

AEG’s Dan Beckerman Sheds Light on International Strategy

View our album of photos from the 2016 Pulse Conference

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By Golie Alemi

Dean Judy Olian kicked off the sixth installment of the Pulse Conference, UCLA Anderson’s signature event highlighting trends in digital media, entertainment and sports, with a conversation with CEO and president of AEG Dan Beckerman (’96), who was recognized as this year’s Game Changer Award recipient.

Named CEO in 2013, (replacing Tim Leiweke), Beckerman stands at the helm of a sports-entertainment powerhouse that includes: Los Angeles’ professional teams (Kings, Galaxy, 30 percent ownership share of the Lakers); venue ownership and/or management of arenas around the world (Staples Center, Barclays Center in Brooklyn, the O2 Arena in London, Mercedes-Benz Arena in Shanghai); and a live-concert-promotion division.

The Future of Television: The Battle for Your Attention Takes Center Stage

View our album of photos from the 2016 Pulse Conference

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By Andy Tillman

UCLA Anderson’s 2016 Pulse Conference, presented by the Center for Management of Enterprise in Media, Entertainment & Sports, featured an in-depth conversation on the future of television. Distinguished Visiting Professor Brian Frons sat down with Jim Lanzone (B.A. ’93), president and CEO of CBS interactive; Tony Goncalves, senior vice president of strategy and business development at AT&T; Eric Johnson (B.A. ’91), executive vice president of global multimedia sales for ESPN; and Chris Moseley, chief marketing officer for game show network, to discuss the current media landscape and their views for the future.

If ever there has been a Wild West in the industry, this transitory time for television is it. As TV goliaths scramble to define themselves online, the cable industry must find ways to hold on to their subscribers, and online content providers must further perfect their evolving business models. “Consumers are consuming more content than ever, the how and where are changing,” said Goncalves. “If the future is going to be defined as content anytime, anywhere, then those who have scale will win.”

While many networks partner with online counterparts, others fear that handing over access to programming steers hard-earned viewers elsewhere.

MANbassador Food for Thought Lunch Asks, “Can We All ‘Have It All’?”

Enjoy the full album of photos from WBC’s MANbassador pledge kick-off

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Join WBC members and the campus and business communities on Friday, February 5, for the Anderson Women’s Summit, Velocity.

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By Katie Satornino (’17) and Katrina Kurnit (’17)

Last fall, UCLA Anderson’s Women’s Business Connection kicked off the academic year by hosting small dinners for WBC members and what have come to be known as MANbassadors — our male peers who are as committed as women to achieving equity and inclusion in the workplace. The goal of the dinners was to provide a safe, intimate environment for both genders to discuss a range of issues, including paternity leave and the gender pay gap.

The MANbassador program focuses on creating male allies for the Women’s Business Connection, similar to UN Women Global Goodwill Ambassador Emma Watson’s “HeForShe” campaign. Anderson’s MANbassadors are a specific group of men who have committed to supporting women in b-school and in the workplace beyond. In October we invited Anderson men to sign a pledge of support of their female colleagues and we asked members of the Anderson community to share their experience with gender bias or discrimination. We raised awareness that gender issues are not just a woman’s problem, as they affect everyone and we must work to combat them together.

WBC recruited 156 MANbassadors. Other men can become MANbassadors anytime they want to!

WBC continued its MANbassador program with a series of Food for Thought lunches. The most recent event — attended by 14 men and 17 women — began with a viewing of Anne-Marie Slaughter’s TED talk, “Can we all ‘have it all’?” Slaughter discusses why changes in workplace and public policies as well as societal values and stereotypes need to occur in order for both men and women to “have it all.” She says, “Doubling work and family are not women’s problems; they are family problems,” and she challenges her audience to make “caregiving cool for the guys.”

UCLA Anderson’s Pulse Conference: Return of the Mid-Budget Film

View our album of photos from the 2016 Pulse Conference

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By Andy Tillman

UCLA Anderson’s 2016 Pulse Entertainment, Sports and Technology Conference brought together leading industry executives to share insights and perspectives on current trends, opportunities and challenges. As part of the event, organized by the Center for Management of Enterprise in Media, Entertainment & Sports, there were several breakout sessions, including the panel “Flipping the Script,” in which experts discussed the mid-budget film gap in movies, its cause and the new opportunity it presents for companies working outside of the studio system.

Moderating the panel was Monique Jones (’93), VP of finance and controller at Sidney Kimmel Entertainment. Panelists included: Paul Neinstein, COO of RatPac Entertainment; Alphonse Lordo, director of media and entertainment at CIT Bank; and Ivana Lombardi, VP of film at Chernin Entertainment.

The story of the mid-budget film gap began over two decades ago when studios started to realize that nearly half, if not more, of their budgets were going to advertising. Studio executives saw that the profits were bigger for bigger budget films. A shift began to take place. The studios would rather make a large-budget film with bigger returns. Suddenly mid-budget films couldn’t get financing.

This blockbuster formula brought the studios two things every studio wants most, profit and certainty. As budgets grew, so too did the cost of keeping the studios running. The kind of money that mid-budget films couldn’t support. The market took on a barbell effect, on one end, smaller, festival films and on the other end, big budget films. This left a gaping hole right in the middle, the land of medium budget films.