UCLA Anderson School of Management Blog

UCLA Ziman Center's Richard S. Ziman: "To Succeed in Life is about Making a Difference"

 

Real estate investor, corporate executive and philanthropist Richard S. Ziman doesn’t hesitate when asked why he has contributed so much time, energy, leadership and financial support to the UCLA Anderson School of Management.

“To succeed in life is not just about having the biggest and most successful business endeavors,” Ziman said recently while standing outside the real estate center that bears his name. “To succeed in life is about making a difference, whether it’s in business or in philanthropy, and especially in education.”

Indeed, for almost 50 years, philanthropy has been a big part of Ziman’s life. “I started giving back through involvement and then financially, even before I could afford to,” he said, “because making a difference is as important to me as my job.” He turned his attention to UCLA Anderson School of Management in the 1990s. After being approached by John Anderson (with help from fellow real estate leaders Gene Rosenfeld and John Long), he established and endowed the UCLA Ziman Center for Real Estate at the Anderson Graduate School of Management in 2001. He now serves on both the Ziman Center’s and UCLA Anderson’s boards of advisors.

Big Ideas Highlight Third Annual Big Data Conference

By Carolyn Gray Anderson and John Bugajski

Now in its third year, UCLA Anderson’s annual Big Data Conference on November 17, 2017, addressed the theme of innovation — in devices, data storage and analysis, new VR and AR experiences, educational, training and philanthropic applications, and the data-driven business initiatives transforming industries from entertainment to agriculture.

Co-organized by Anderson’s Easton Technology Management Center and the Center for Management of Enterprise in Media, Entertainment & Sports, the conference featured panels and presentations by professionals in a range of sectors representing the expanded tech ecosystem.

Alumnus Bill Duff (’96), CFO of Microsoft’s Windows and devices group, sat down for a candid conversation with Easton faculty director John Blevins (’11). Duff said Microsoft has been aggressively investing in cloud computing for a decade, even on the devices side. Witness Windows 10, which the company offers as a service rather than a product.

Thanks to big data, said Duff, “Your technology strategy is your financial strategy.”

Exclusive: Under Armour Founder/CEO Kevin Plank Talks Leadership

Kevin Plank, founder and CEO of Under Armour, recently traveled to Los Angeles and the UCLA campus where UCLA Anderson presented him with the 2017 John Wooden Global Leadership Award. After the event, held in Pauley Pavilion, Plank sat down with the UCLA Anderson Blog team to talk about leadership, Under Armour, and his role models. (This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.)

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Q: In terms of your leadership style, what was the transition like, in going from entrepreneur and head of a small start-up to manager of a global company?

Number one, I feel like Under Armor is entering Chapter Three of our business. Chapter One was grandma’s basement — just fighting to survive — and Chapter Two was (when) we moved the company to Baltimore, (where) we tried to build a global company, and really worked on being a global brand. Chapter Three moves us to where we are a corporation and you lose the agility that you have as a small company, particularly a small company led by an entrepreneur.

As a small company, I’d see, or we’d smell, problems and I’d be able to have myself or my executive team jump on something and spend time on it. We could work 23 hours in a day, get it fixed and move on. Now the company is just bigger. It doesn’t mean you lose a sense of urgency, but you lose the ability to make as quick of an impact as you’d like. It just takes time, because the only way to get anything done, is by leaning on what I brag so often about, our team, and it has to be that way. I like to say that good leaders have good ideas, great leaders have great ideas and make others think of their own.

How do we position people with the right ideas, but also empower them to actually be able to make a change and create difference? We are a corporation with an entrepreneurial basis, foundation and culture. Hopefully, we can be the best of those two things, because I think every big company is trying to get small, and every small company is trying to get big. I just want to be a great company. 

Q: How would you describe your leadership style but also, if we were to ask your employees, how would they describe your leadership style? 

You’ve got to be careful, because sometimes your whisper can be a roar in an organization. But asked how they would define me, hopefully they’d say I was empowering. I’m not just saying, ‘Don’t worry, we’ll sit here and figure it out together.’ What you’re truly saying is that I’m just going to define for you what I think success is. And then — if that means meeting in Los Angeles on a Wednesday — I’m not going to tell you how to get there. Whether it’s a train, a plane an automobile or whatever you choose to do, you just have to be there at this time. And that’s the difference between running a larger organization verses a smaller organization.

Blair Taylor on Bridging Communities of Social Difference

Alumnus Blair Taylor recently participated in Anderson's High Impact Tea series; last year, he spoke at the 2016 Concordia Summit in New York (above)

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By Matt Duyst

Blair Taylor (’90) served for four years as Starbucks’ chief community officer and he is an active embodiment of the Starbucks credo: “One person, one cup, one neighborhood at a time.” The slogan invokes the gradual transition from one to all, from divided to unified.

Taylor, a UCLA Anderson Inspirational 100 alumnus and former CEO of President Obama’s collaborative, cross-sectoral movement My Brother’s Keeper Alliance, returned to UCLA Anderson as a speaker in the High Impact Tea series to remind graduate students of the necessity of this metamorphosis. He underscored the progression of single to whole in an inverse manner, deconstructing the binaries of global and individual from a top-down point of view — from the vantage of a major corporation to the eyes of a single youth.

He posed an outwardly transparent question: “What drives you?” Taylor proceeded to draw a parallel between his present and past selves, returning to that leitmotif throughout the talk and reiterating the value of lifelong persistence. He shed light on the impact that service experiences, like working for a suicide hotline, have had in shaping his ethic of “doing well and giving back.”

UCLA Anderson Celebrates the Life and Legacy of a Coaching Legend, Honors Under Armour’s Kevin Plank with Annual John Wooden Global Leadership Award

By Carolyn Gray Anderson and Paul Feinberg

On Monday, November 13, 2017, UCLA Anderson recognized Kevin Plank, founder, CEO and chairman of Fortune 500 athletic apparel company Under Armour, with the John Wooden Global Leadership Award. Fittingly, on its 10th anniversary, the ceremony took place in historic Pauley Pavilion, where Coach Wooden brought the UCLA men’s basketball team to many of his 10 championships between 1964 and 1975.

UCLA Anderson Dean Judy Olian introduced Plank by saying, “Kevin Plank was daring enough to challenge an industry, with a vision to build a sportswear company that enables athletes to perform better. He’s not just an enormously successful entrepreneur. Taking a page out of Coach Wooden’s playbook, he’s a leader who seeks to empower men and women around the world to follow their dreams and excel as confident, passionate competitors.” Plank received the award in recognition of his ethical business leadership, philanthropic activities and commitment to community.

2017 John Wooden Global Leadership Award Honors Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank

In partnership with the late Coach John Wooden’s family, UCLA Anderson honors one exceptional leader each year with a prestigious award for exemplary leadership and service to the community. On November 13, 2017, the 10th anniversary John Wooden Global Leadership Award will be given to Kevin A. Plank, founder, CEO and chairman of performance apparel, footwear and equipment company Under Armour.

Changing the Rules of Inclusion: John Wooden Global Leadership Fellow Anna Goldberg

By Carly Milne

Growing up, Anna Goldberg (’18) often heard her parents say, “Fair is not the same.” As she grew to adulthood, the phrase became a driving force behind her efforts to push for greater equality and equity across society.

“I want to build meaningful relationships that cultivate cultures and systems where everyone can flourish,” says Goldberg, who is the president of Anderson’s Women’s Business Connection. “I will always strive to create more equity for others; but being a white person with privilege, you can create access more easily than others who haven’t had that privilege.”

As one of four UCLA Anderson students awarded a 2017 John Wooden Global Leadership Fellowship, it may come as no surprise that Goldberg comes from a line of social activists. Her grandfather, for example, protested alongside Martin Luther King Jr. and was arrested with him. Like the civil rights leader, Goldberg’s grandfather died too young, but his influence on her family remained; when she was just 14, she traveled to Uganda with her mother and grandmother to volunteer for several weeks at a Jewish community village.

Microsoft Chairman John W. Thompson Talks Tech Trends, Business Strategy, More

“I don’t think anybody knows what the industry will look like in five years because every eight or ten years there’s an inflection point,” John W. Thompson, chairman of Microsoft Corporation, said when asked how the company’s business will evolve in the next few years. “There’s a pattern of change and it’s difficult to predict.”

Thompson, a Silicon Valley icon who succeeded Bill Gates as chairman of Microsoft in 2014, joined UCLA Anderson Dean Judy Olian in a wide-ranging conversation Monday before a capacity crowd in Anderson’s Korn Convocation Hall. The event was part of the school’s Robertson Lecture Series on Global Business Leadership, which provides students, staff, faculty and others the opportunity to hear top business leaders discuss issues that affect global business and the political economy. The lecture series is made possible by Chip Robertson (FEMBA ’06) and his family in conjunction with UCLA Anderson's Center for Global Management.

With Olian guiding the hour-long conversation, Thompson touched on a variety of topics. While declining to predict what Microsoft will be like in five years, he did say the company would be guided by three core principles. First, he said, the company would focus on personal computing with a goal of making it easier for people to interact with technology. Second, Microsoft will look to help users become more productive through business enterprise software such as Office and Word. It’s in this realm that Thompson believes many users will feel the effects of machine learning and artificial intelligence.

“The third one is obviously the cloud,” Thompson said, noting that in 2014 Microsoft pivoted from protecting its Windows operating system and began shifting emphasis towards the cloud.

Influencing Larger Health Care Issues: John Wooden Global Leadership Fellow Brandon Scott

 

By Carly Milne

When Brandon Scott (MBA/M.D. ’18) began medical school, his goal wasn’t simply to become a doctor. Scott had already cultivated an awareness of how impactful physicians could be in influencing larger health care issues, and he began his education with the idea that he — and other physicians — could influence and improve patient care delivery.

“My number one career interest is compassion in treating patients,” Scott says. “I went to UCLA to become a doctor, and I believe in treating patients with the idea that they can become familiar with the idea of normalcy — not just healing.”

Scott’s focus is reflected in Connecting Californians to Care, the student-run organization he co-founded with two fellow M.D./MBAs. While their mission is to help create access to care, they’re also dedicated to educating clinicians and administrators in professional development beyond the med school curriculum. It’s passion like this, and a unique way of thinking in the next, that made Scott a great candidate for a 2017 John Wooden Global Leadership Fellowship.

Woodenisms: Anderson's Favorite John Wooden Quotes

Coach John Wooden’s renowned Pyramid of Success is used in boardrooms as well as on the court, and is as popular with business executives as it is with basketball coaches. It’s often cited in articles about sports, psychology, business, education and more.

Coach was a teacher first and foremost, and a prolific author and thinker. He applied leadership wisdom he often expressed through aphorisms that resonate with members of the UCLA Anderson community, where we strive to emulate Wooden’s values and principles. As we prepare for the 2017 John Wooden Global Leadership Awards, we asked students and staff to tell us which “Woodenism” they admire most.

Share your favorite Coach Wooden quote in the comments!