UCLA Anderson School of Management Blog

FEMBAs Driving Change: Podcasts for Your Commute

 

The entire FEMBA family, along with the rest of the UCLA Anderson community, are encouraged to get acquainted with their current FEMBA classmates and FEMBA alumni through Drive Time, UCLA Anderson’s FEMBA podcast.

From TEDxUCLA speaker Isadora Dantas (FEMBA ’16) to Olympic Gold and Silver medalist Ed Moses (FEMBA ’16) to Peace Corps volunteer Victor Gebhardt (FEMBA ’18), who is in transit on the 10,000-mile Mongol Rally for charity, you’ll feel entertained by the journeys that led them to Anderson and edified by the lessons informing their direction now.

In recent episodes, FEMBA Class of 2016 commencement speaker Cara Bibbiani talked about the international experiences with Anderson’s Global Access Program that made her want to return as a GAP Fellow. PetSnap founder Matt Rose (FEMBA ’16) shared how he launched his pet health records platform with classmates and FEMBA Council President Katie Kroeger-Davis (FEMBA ’16) described her career transition. FEMBA Associate Dean Gonzalo Freixas chimed in with an account of his family’s arrival in the U.S. as political refugees.

Most recently, Professor Jeff Scheinrock shared three tips all new students can use and talked about The Agile Startup, the book he wrote with FEMBA alumnus Matt Richter-Sand (FEMBA ’10). And Senior Associate Dean Margaret Shih discussed how her international upbringing shaped her education and, ultimately, her passion for research in the areas of diversity, culture, stereotypes and decision-making.

Visit Assistant Dean Dylan Stafford’s UCLA FEMBA Works blog to hear these and many other podcasts to help you match the stories to the faces of FEMBA.

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A CEO’s Journey from “Gut Feeling” to Global Strategy

Robert Luna, CIMA, founded Surevest Wealth Management in 2002 and serves as the firm’s CEO and CIO, overseeing the investments process for all of the firm’s clients. He’s a Wharton Fellow with more than 16 years of experience in managing assets for institutions, professional athletes, small business owners and high-net-worth investors. His latest distinction is the Global Executive MBA he’ll leave UCLA Anderson with on Saturday.

A lifelong businessman who began amassing his baseball card collection with the money he earned selling candy, Luna appears regularly on CNBC and other financial networks and has been featured in numerous publications, including the Wall Street Journal. He wouldn’t mind being stranded on a desert island as long as he had a steady supply of red wine, cheese and salame. He’s inspired by Disney and the Dodgers, and his daughter’s name means Beautiful Moon in Italian.

As he gears up to graduate, Luna agreed to share a bit more about himself and why he pursued the GEMBA for Asia Pacific that will equip him with dual degrees from UCLA Anderson and National University of Singapore.

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By Robert Luna (GEMBA ’16)

Remember the book Everything I Know I Learned in Kindergarten? Well, most everything I know I learned from trading baseball cards. I parlayed my meager earnings selling candy bars door-to-door into promising rookie cards. I would study the stats of the top prospects in the farm leagues to gain insights into who would flourish in the big leagues. My “go to” category was rookie prospect cards. These were the guys who had not yet been called up to the majors. This was the baseball card equivalent of an IPO. Once they became “hot rookies,” I would hit the sell button. This strategy panned out reasonably well: By the age of 14, I had my own incorporated business, Sport Card City. I switched my inventory from hot prospects to blue chip hall of famers.

Suffice it to say, I took my baseball cards seriously.

UCLA Anderson MBA Class of 2018 Builds Trust — 100 feet in the Air

UCLA Anderson incoming MBAs discovered during the Leadership Foundations portion of their August orientation that shared success begins with trust.

Enjoy the full album of Class of 2018 orientation activities on Flickr

 

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Anderson Olympians: Moving Teams in the Right Direction

 

Left to right: UCLA Anderson alumnus Mike Altman with Patrick Todd, Will Daly and Tom Paradiso competing in the Lightweight Men’s Four Heat 2 at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. (Photo: Alexander Hassenstein/Getty)

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Among UCLA Anderson’s student body and alumni network are several U.S. Olympians, many of them medalists. As Rio 2016 escalates, we’re profiling five standouts who talk about their athletic team training and how an Anderson education influenced their esprit de corps.

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By David Davis

Mike Altman (’07), Rowing, Lightweight Fours
2008 Beijing Olympics; 2004 Athens Olympics (alternate)

Rower Mike Altman experienced the highs and the lows of Olympic sports. Making the 2008 U.S. team represented the pinnacle of his career after “years and years of training, traveling all over the world, sacrificing and competing,” he said. He and his teammates finished 11th in the competition, which was the lowest international finish of his career.

“Growing up, watching the Olympics on TV, you see all the success stories,” he said. “What you don’t see is the 90 percent of the athletes that don’t win a medal. So, it was this mixed set of emotions: trying to enjoy the Olympic experience and dealing with the disappointment of our performance.”

Anderson Olympians: The Paralympic Advantage

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Alpine skier Mark Bathum at the Sochi Paralympics in 2014
(Photo: Wheelchair Sports Federation)

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Among UCLA Anderson’s student body and alumni network are several U.S. Olympians, many of them medalists. As Rio 2016 escalates, we’re profiling five standouts who talk about their athletic team training and how an Anderson education influenced their esprit de corps.

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By David Davis

Mark Bathum (’86), Alpine Skiing
2014 Sochi Paralympics; 2010 Vancouver Paralympics

Mark Bathum was a nationally ranked skier when he began to realize that his eyesight was failing him. He quit racing to go to college, earned his MBA at Anderson, and then began his business career. Only later, well into middle age, did he start racing again. Skiing with a guide, he qualified for the U.S. Paralympic team and won silver medals in 2010 and 2014.

Bathum has found that working together toward one goal improves performance in business and in sports. “Even on a team of software developers or fixed-income security traders that are all working independently, the more you do things together as a team, and the more you share about what you’re doing, the more you’re going to learn things from one another. The performance of each individual is going to be elevated through the exposure to the other people on the team.”

Even though Bathum usually competes against men half his age, he has found success by adopting lessons he learned in the business realm. “In business you have to think strategically and tactically,” he said. “You have to leverage and address your strengths and weaknesses. I bring that mentality to sport: what are my strengths? What are my weaknesses? How am I going to find a comparative advantage? How am I going to approach training and preparation differently than my opponents?”

Bathum plans to try to qualify for the U.S. team in 2018. The Paralympics are a time of “intensive joy,” he said. “Everything is just extreme — your highs and your lows. You feel bonded with everybody, including the volunteers and your competitors. You’re highly focused because you’ve reached your peak physically and emotionally. The whole experience, every element of it, is life in overdrive.”

Bathum works for Seattle-based CBK Global, which provides websites and online advertising for the auto industry.

Anderson Olympians: Personal Best Leaves Nothing on the Table

 

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Among UCLA Anderson’s student body and alumni network are several U.S. Olympians, many of them medalists. As Rio 2016 escalates, we’re profiling five standouts who talk about their athletic team training and how an Anderson education influenced their esprit de corps.

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Swimmer Matt Smith now makes splashes with daughter Liviana

By David Davis

Matt Smith (’10), Swimming
2008 Beijing Olympics (alternate)

Matt Smith’s Olympic experience was bittersweet. His time in the pool was fast enough to qualify for the 2008 Games in Beijing, but he was beaten out of a spot for the Estonia team by a fellow swimmer. “It would’ve been awesome to go to the Olympics,” he said, “but just trying to make it was a very enjoyable process. Pushing yourself, having a goal, and tracking how you’re doing was great. I swam my personal best in qualifying, so I don’t feel like I left anything on the table.”

Smith found that, in sharp contrast to the individualized nature of competitive swimming, studying at Anderson was a powerful “community experience.” Said Smith: “At UCLA, the thing that felt the most genuine was the interaction between all the students, with everyone helping each other and motivating each other, rather than trying to compete with each other. Even now as an alum, I find everyone to be so supportive.”

Working in groups, as Smith did at Anderson, has helped his business career because “I learned how to delegate work effectively,” he said. “I learned how to trust and empower other people to do whatever components of the project they’re in charge of. Teamwork is about communication and making sure everyone has at least an understanding of what you’re looking to accomplish.”

When he was in the pool, Smith had clear-cut training goals and personal benchmarking. He has adopted that sort of regimen in business. “Having goals and metrics in your career is helpful,” he said, “because you can get stuck if you don’t have any idea of where you want to be going.”

Smith now works in the emerging technologies group at San Diego Gas & Electric.

UCLA Anderson Venture Accelerator Picks Up Speed with Donor Support

By Carolyn Gray Anderson

There are accelerators and there are accelerators. Recently, a 100-mile cycling trip proved to be the perfect incubator for Dean Judy Olian’s idea to involve donor and Board of Visitors member Jim Freedman (’78) in the Anderson Venture Accelerator — the 10,000-square-foot state-of-the-art co-working facility in Rosenfeld Library launched in late January by UCLA Anderson and UCLA Library. By the end of the annual Ojai Valley Century bike ride, Freedman, who is chairman and managing director of Intrepid Investment Bankers, found himself persuaded to claim a naming opportunity in the accelerator.

“Having the resources to incubate companies is phenomenal,” he said at an event jointly organized by Anderson and UCLA Library to recognize and bring together Anderson supporters and entrepreneurs. “We didn’t have something like this before.” Senior Associate Dean Al Osborne remembers Freedman as a student in his economics class, and appreciates Jim’s long association with the school, as well as his advice and counsel for almost 25 years as a member of the Price Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation’s board of advisors.

Olian gratefully acknowledged Freedman and fellow donor William Grabe (’63), who could not attend the event, for sharing their success with UCLA’s future entrepreneurs. “Jim’s generosity doesn’t end with what his gift enables here,” she said, “it extends to the advice he gives student entrepreneurs as an alumnus. That engagement is as priceless as anything.”

Anderson Olympians: A First for Women’s Soccer

Mary Harvey signs autographs for fans in Canada in 2015 (Photo: U.S. Consulate Toronto)

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Among UCLA Anderson’s student body and alumni network are several U.S. Olympians, many of them medalists. As Rio 2016 escalates, we’re profiling five standouts who talk about their athletic team training and how an Anderson education influenced their esprit de corps.

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By David Davis

Mary Harvey (’98), Soccer
1996 Atlanta Olympics

For Mary Harvey and her teammates, representing the Untied States and winning the gold medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics was unique “because this was the first time women’s soccer had been added to the Olympic program,” she said. “And, being in Atlanta, this was on American soil.”

One of the two goalkeepers on the U.S. team, Harvey became the backup to starter Briana Scurry after suffering a severe injury prior to the Olympics. “Was that the role I wanted?” she asked. “No, I wanted to play. It was difficult for me. But that was the job that they offered me, and so I had to accept that that’s my role.”

Anderson Olympians: A Gold (and Silver!) Standard for Both Competition and Collaboration

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Among UCLA Anderson’s student body and alumni network are several U.S. Olympians, many of them medalists. As Rio 2016 kicks off, we’re profiling five standouts who talk about their athletic team training and how an Anderson education influenced their esprit de corps.

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By David Davis

Ed Moses (FEMBA ’16), Swimming
2000 Sydney Olympics

In 2000, Ed Moses won the Olympic silver medal in the 100-meter breaststroke and the gold medal in the 4x100-meter medley relay at the Sydney Games. Looking back, he said, the personal sacrifice required to achieve his childhood dream was all-consuming. “People look at Olympic champions and say, ‘How did you do that?’” he said. “It really took a ton of commitment. If I wasn’t in the pool swimming, I was eating, sleeping, watching tape, studying technique or working out outside the pool.”

Competing as an elite swimmer is “very selfish and very focused,” he said. “You are 100 percent responsible for your performance.” At Anderson, he said, he learned that “the real world is the exact opposite. You have to work with people, you have to understand what motivates others, you have to communicate really well, and you have to have a lot of empathy. It was a personal transformation for me.”

On the medley relay, which includes one leg each of butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle, breaststroker Moses learned to compete as part of a team. “Without the combination of those pieces, we never would’ve broken the world record,” he said. “It was just like coming to Anderson: I didn’t know who all the students were, just that they all had their own specialty. But when you put all of those pieces together and you take the time to learn what makes others happy and how they fit, that’s what builds that tight business bond.”

In swimming, Moses said, “you can get caught up in your own bubble and listen to only what’s important to you. In business and sports, you’re only as good as your teammates. When you go to start a company, potential investors want to know about your team. Sometimes they don’t even care about your concept except who’s doing it and how are they all working together. It’s all about the team.”

Hollywood-based Moses is the founder of a sports statistics startup called StatFuel, which he plans to launch later this year.

Chris Tang Predicted the Uber Exodus from China

By Elise Anderson

He said it could happen, and it did.

Christopher Tang, UCLA Distinguished Professor of Decisions, Operations and Technology Management and the Edward W. Carter Chair in Business Administration, questioned early whether Uber could compete successfully in China with Didi-Kuaidi (now Didi Chuxing), the country’s dominant ride-sharing company, valued at $15 billion with one million drivers in 360 cities.

In his piece published in the September 2015 issue of Fortune, “Will China Be Uber’s Waterloo?” Tang pointed to a number of business model adaptations that Uber faced in its efforts to “dominate the mobilized sharing economy worldwide.” After losing $1 billion annually while operating in China, Uber is calling it quits and selling its stake in the ride-sharing business to its rival, Didi Chuxing.

Tang recaps some of the reasons he thought Uber never had a chance in China and what led to its not-so-surprising departure from this market:

• Uber is a U.S.-based company; Didi is a home-grown Chinese company with strong backing from Alibaba, Apple and others.
• Uber wanted to displace the taxi business in China, while Didi was more inclusive of that industry, encouraging cooperation with drivers in its business model.
• Uber’s U.S. model works well domestically, but Didi leverages its deep understanding of Chinese consumer needs, providing access to a pool of vehicles and options that include: SUVs (Chinese typically travel in larger groups); tour buses (for even larger groups); hitch (for ride sharing); concierge (hiring drivers to drive an individual’s care home, avoiding possible drunk driving charges).
• Uber was the new kid on the block; Didi merged with Kaudi to ensure more than 80 percent market share.
• Uber was late to adopt Alipay (mobile payment system in China with 85 percent market share), while Didi and Alipay had embedded service within WeChat, a social media platform with more than 700 million users in China. Most consumers in China find it easier to use one mobile app, WeChat, to use Didi and Alipay to hail and pay for the taxi service in a seamless manner.

And there you have it.