UCLA Anderson School of Management Blog

Field Study Team Assessing Feasibility of Blockchain Technology as Key to Sustaining Guyana’s Indigenous Communities Earns Inaugural Impact Award

A quintet of UCLA Anderson students was commissioned by Conservation International Guyana to assess the feasibility of blockchain technology to solve a major challenge in the implementation and scaling of the Community Development Plan (CDP) in Guyana. The work was conducted in the group’s Applied Management Research (AMR) project, the field study assignment that serves as the capstone of Anderson’s full-time MBA experience. The team, comprising Class of 2018’s Miriam Leah Feygenson, Yuhei Iwasaki, Vasiya Krishnan, Anubhav Mishra and Harshita Mishra, was awarded the inaugural Impact Alumni AMR Award and received a $5,000 prize.

The Impact Alumni AMR Award recognizes the MBA student team that has excelled at making the greatest impact on their mission-driven client’s project through the course of the AMR program.

Earlier this year, the team published a story about their experience on the UCLA Anderson blog.

Alumni judges selected the winning team for the inaugural Impact Alumni AMR Award. Pictured left to right: Dave Gallon (’03), Nurit Katz (’08), Laura Ferretti (’95), faculty moderator Gayle Northrop (’96), Wendy Spinner (’89), Harshita Mishra (’18), Vasiya Krishnan (’18), Anubhav Mishra (’18), Miriam Feygenson (’18), Yuhei Iwasaki (’18)

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“This award was established to highlight and appreciate the specialized skills and abilities needed to work with a mission-driven organization’s unique need to balance financial and social impact returns,” says Bhavna Sivanand (’14), executive director of the school’s [email protected] initiative. “An important objective for [email protected] is to integrate impact into the core competency of the MBA program, so that all MBA graduates seek out opportunities such as social impact AMRs to be able to positively contribute to society during their time here and beyond.”

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L.A.’s Best Resource for Mobility Management Could Be Its Recent MBA Graduates

During Impact Week (April 9–13, 2018), whose theme is Purpose + Profit, UCLA Anderson is highlighting stories of mission-driven careers, companies and projects that fulfill unmet needs in sectors from entertainment to real estate. On April 16, Anderson presents the annual Energy Innovation Conference, which focuses on companies striving for energy resiliency through new technologies, robust policy and inventive business models.

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By Carolyn Gray Anderson

UCLA Anderson Inspirational 100 alumnus Gil Penalosa (’84) believes in government’s ability and authority to build and maintain urban infrastructures that can enhance a city’s livability. But he also believes that, in most cities, the efforts and policies are mismanaged. Take public transportation and traffic congestion mitigation. “No private-sector company is going to solve the mobility problem,” Penalosa says. “Not one city in the world solves the problem through the private sector — public transit has to be run by governments. But the public sector should do more steering and less rowing. You can outsource the rowing.”

Founder and chair of the board of the Toronto-based nonprofit 8 80 Cities and chair of the board of World Urban Parks, Penalosa works internationally as a consultant and strategic advisor to both public and private institutions looking to create vibrant urban systems. Penalosa has one catch phrase he considers the real key to making cities livable: healthy mobility. When people can safely navigate their communities on foot, bicycle or wheelchair, he says, a chain reaction of mental and physical health benefits follows. This raises the quality of life for every citizen, including the most vulnerable — the very young, the very old and the very poor.

A Panama Community Trained This Peace Corps Volunteer to Have an Open, Unhurried Mind in the Workplace and Beyond

During Impact Week (April 9–13, 2018), whose theme is Purpose + Profit, UCLA Anderson is highlighting stories of mission-driven careers, companies and projects that fulfill unmet needs in sectors from entertainment to real estate. On April 16, Anderson presents the annual Energy Innovation Conference, which focuses on companies striving for energy resiliency through new technologies, robust policy and inventive business models.

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By Elizabeth Heredia (’19)

Bright-eyed and optimistic, college degree in hand, I was called by “the toughest job I’d ever love”: an environmental conservation assignment with the Peace Corps in a rural village in the mountains of Panama.

When I first arrived in Ojo de Agua, my job was to do nothing but pasear, which is to “walk around unhurried, stopping and chatting with townspeople.” I would often strike up a conversation right on neighbors’ porches, or perhaps at a grocery kiosk or even in the middle of the street. Niceties were exchanged, and town gossip, too.

In time, my community began to trust me and our conversations evolved. They began to share their stories and opinions. The porch visits were my favorite. As we swung back and forth on hammocks, I listened and absorbed, asked question after question, and slowly began to understand locals’ values as well as their aspirations.

For-Purpose Profits: UCLA Anderson Drives Change During Impact Week

[email protected] and the UCLA Anderson Net Impact chapter present Anderson’s annual Impact Week, April 9–13, 2018. Under the theme Purpose + Profit, invited thought leaders and founders of mission-driven companies explain how they are shaping the future of business through the creation of a social, environmental and economic evolution. They share their insights in workshops, panels and a networking mixer open to the campus community and the wider public.

Jessica Lin (’18) and Karthik Patange (’18), both VPs of Impact Week and UCLA Anderson’s Net Impact chapter, which won NI Graduate Chapter of the Year in 2017, are spearheading Impact Week. As purpose-driven MBA candidates, they hope their peers will be inspired to build service and the greater good into their plans for profitable careers.

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Q: As Impact Week comes together, where do you anticipate MBA students and alumni will find particular value?

Karthik Patange: The technology theme will be prominent during Impact Week. We live in a world where tech governs everything, including our future careers. However, it’s hard for some to envision how tech and social purpose come together unless it’s through the traditional CSR “add-on.” This year, Impact Week delves into blockchain, social media and education through computer science. We hope to show MBA students that they can make an impact within their tech roles, and not as a peripheral initiative of their companies.

Jessica Lin: We wanted to highlight a variety of industries in which profitable companies also have meaningful impact. I expect that representatives from the big name companies, such as Patagonia, Google and BuzzFeed, will help expand people’s knowledge of and interest in having impactful careers.

KP: Definitely. I hope students understand that big companies with big business practices can also cater to big purposes, and that this mindset can shape their individual careers.

Q: What is the role of social media in realizing the “purpose + profit” goal?

KP: Social media directly influences social impact. Online social networks are outlets for individuals to be outspoken about their purposeful initiatives and generate awareness. How is the business side supporting this interest, especially in today’s always-online climate? From simple knowledge sharing to how to use data for social good to spreading the word on the human condition in other parts of the world, social media networks can support purpose in a sustainable and profitable way.

UCLA Anderson Team Finds a Prize-Winning Solution to the Biggest Problem in Clean Energy

By Carolyn Gray Anderson

Renewable energy is one of the world’s fastest-growing business sectors. In California, the statewide goal written into law in 2015 is to generate 50 percent of its energy consumption from renewable sources by 2030. A more recent bill was introduced to increase the goal to 60 percent. The industry is said to employ hundreds of thousands of people.

But while wind, solar and other clean energy sources may be sustainable, accessing and financing them sustainably remains a challenge. This is why a UCLA Anderson team of MBA students won the first place $10,000 prize in the prestigious NRG Energy Case Study challenge hosted by the Economist’s Which MBA? Ean Mulligan (’17), Vishal Saheta (FEMBA ’17) and Julian Trobe (’18) solved the biggest pain point for their proposed client with an innovative financing model that breaks down silos between universities and commercial third parties.

Is Solar the Solution? Our Distributed Energy Future on the Line and on the Grid

Joseph Householder (CERT ’94), corporate group president of infrastructure businesses at Sempra Energy, delivered the keynote address

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By Margaret Bliss

Solar panels, EV charging stations and behind-the-meter systems are all innovative responses to global challenges plaguing the modern world. They were the topics addressed and explored at the annual Energy Innovation Conference: Our Distributed Energy Future, which kicked off UCLA Anderson’s fourth annual Impact Week. Anderson’s Energy Management Group hosted the in-depth conference, where industry experts and influential alumni provided insight into the world’s energy future.

The conference left attendees hopeful about the future of energy and eager to take personal steps to solve the challenge of harnessing and efficiently using renewable energy. The conference focused on the exploration and innovation of behind-the-meter (BTM) systems and the benefits that those systems could have on businesses and consumers.

Before the conference, I wanted to make sure I was current on the energy sector jargon and found I was unfamiliar with the term BTM. It refers to a renewable energy facility that produces power on site, commonly using solar panels for supplying electricity to commercial and residential properties. These systems are the future of renewable energy, as they will help meet the California energy mandate of acquiring 1.3 Gigawatts of energy storage statewide by 2020. The mandate calls for 50 percent of electricity to come from renewable energy sources, such as BTM systems. If large institutions such as UCLA, as well as individuals’ homes, implement BTM systems, hitting the mandate goals should be attainable and should also help reduce customers’ monthly utility bills.

Will Extracting Crab Meat in Ecuador also Extract a Price Premium? UCLA Anderson MBAs Propose a Sustainable Solution

With a local guide, Lizeth Chiprez interviewed restaurant proprietors at a fish market in Guayaquil, Ecuador, to gather data her team would use to understand the value chain around red crab and black clam processing and distribution

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UCLA Anderson MBA students conduct Applied Management Research projects in lieu of a thesis. The nation’s first business school field study program, AMR partners students with top organizations to solve a key strategic problem. During Impact Week (April 17–21, 2017), whose theme is Purpose + Profit, we’re highlighting stories of AMRs supported by the Center for Global Management that took UCLA Anderson Class of 2017 teams overseas to collaborate with NGOs whose mission-driven work includes such global challenges as health care delivery, international labor standards and environmental conservation.

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By Lizeth Chiprez (’17), Grace Luo (’17), Nishant Ranjan (’17), Makibi Takagi (’17), Randy Lee (’17)

Conservation International, the client for our Applied Management Research field study project, is an international nonprofit focused on efforts to promote environmentally sustainable development. CI has established 1,200 protected land, marine and coastal areas across 78 countries. In Ecuador, the location of our project, CI has been focused on conservation of mangrove habitats since 2001.

The fishermen who live in the areas near mangrove habitats are integral stakeholders in mangrove protection. However, many are struggling to make ends meets. Some of the fishermen have organized to create associations or formal cooperatives. To incentivize them to participate in conservation efforts, many of these associations have been granted a governmental concession that gives them exclusive rights to nearby mangrove resources, as long as they utilize them in a sustainable manner.

Black clams and red crabs at a fish market in Playas, Ecuador

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Our project’s goal was to find ways to improve profitability for members of associations that have been granted concessions, thereby creating an economic incentive for participation in conversation efforts. We are focused on associations in two fishing communities within the Gulf of Guayaquil, 6 de Julio and El Morro; and the value chains for two specific mangrove products, the red crab and black clam. Our team traveled to the Gulf of Guayaquil in Ecuador in December 2016 and January 2017 to conduct primary research.

Hard Knocks: The Road to Democracy ... Sun Democracy

 

UCLA Anderson MBA students conduct Applied Management Research field study projects in lieu of a thesis. Anderson gives full-time students the Business Creation Option in which entrepreneurs launch companies while still in school. During Impact Week (April 17–21, 2017), whose theme is Purpose + Profit, we’re highlighting stories of Class of 2017 mission-driven BCO projects that fulfill unmet needs in sectors from e-commerce to cleantech.

The Energy Management Group's annual Energy Innovation Conference kicks off Impact Week on Friday, April 14!

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By Akhil Modi, Antonio Arellano, Dan Komula, Shawn Ranjbaran and Kevin Shah, MBA Class of 2017

“Welcome to BCO!”

Last summer, we thought the hard part was over. Little did we know that it was just the beginning. Over the past six months, we have racked up a list of accomplishments that includes:

• 90 stakeholder conversations
• 3 pivots (which feel like many more)
• 20 different logo designs
• 5 domain name purchases (plus a list of over 100 more)
• 5 case competitions
• 200 versions of a pitch deck
• 75 versions of a business plan
• 1 surprise partnership

(We also went through one potential lawsuit — but that is a story for another day, maybe a fireside chat.)

The point is, after all that, we failed to get one customer and we failed to make a single dollar of revenue. So, what do we have to show for ourselves outside of a pretty deck with pictures culled from Google Images?

The failure to execute was a disappointment but remained our greatest opportunity. We confess that when it came to pounding the pavement and knocking on doors, we hid behind our pitch deck and business plans. Don’t get us wrong: We are not discounting what we have done — we have actually accomplished quite a bit. But if we could trade it all in, we’d trade it for one customer. The time to execute is now.

Sempra Energized by Long-Term Leadership Commitment from CEO Debra Reed

Check out the full gallery of photos from Debra Reed’s appearance at UCLA Anderson

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By Carolyn Gray Anderson

Debra Reed, chairman of the board of directors and chief executive officer of Sempra Energy, joined Dean Judy Olian as the first guest in the 2016–17 Dean’s Distinguished Speaker Series. Launching immediately into an explanation of the role of executive management in creating value for a company, Reed ranked “drive change” as the number one key to successful strategy development.

Reed, one of just 21 female chief executive officers of Fortune 500 companies, has been recognized every year since 2011 as one of Fortune magazine’s “Most Powerful Women in Business.” She joined SoCal Gas in 1978 and became the company’s first female officer a decade later. From 2006 to 2010, she was president and CEO of San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) and SoCal Gas, Sempra Energy’s regulated California utilities. Thirty-eight years since she began her career, she presides over a company with $41.1 billion in assets, operating revenues of more than $10 billion and 17,000 employees who serve 32 million consumers with energy services in the U.S., Mexico, Chile and Peru.

In October 2016 Fortune published Reed’s “4 Things Every Woman Should Know to Get to the C-Suite,” which are: 1) bid farewell to your comfort zone; 2) cultivate a mentor; 3) embrace diversity; and 4) make your mark. In her conversation with Olian and an audience that included Anderson MBAs and many other UCLA students and faculty, Reed said, “I cannot stress enough the value of using all sides of the brain, getting out of the silos.” Her advice is to combine the analytical and the intuitive, and to build a team of people different from yourself.

UCLA Anderson Field Study Team Aims for Lines of Tourists at the Carmen Lines in Peru

Members of AMR Team 10 learn about Peru's Carmen Lines from UCLA Professor of Anthropology Charles Stanish

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By Samuel Archer (’16), Erin Dea (’16), Kristan Griffith (’16), Hans Mantor (’16), Jonathan Wu (’16)

The Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA, along with Dr. Charles Stanish (Cotsen's director for 15 years, now on sabbatical), tasked UCLA Anderson Applied Management Research Team 10 with creating a sustainable preservation strategy for a recently discovered mound and geoglyph complex known as the “Carmen Lines.” The Peruvian Carmen Lines are situated in the heart of the Chincha Valley, about 200 kilometers south of Lima. Our team traveled to Peru primarily to visit a variety of archaeological sites throughout the country.

The Carmen Lines were created roughly 2,300 years ago by the Paracas people. Consisting of 71 lines and 353 non-geoglyph features (e.g., circular rock features, ceremonial mounds, settlements) across a 40-square-kilometer area, this complex is meaningful because it refines our understanding of human social evolution before the development of archaic states. We can learn how people in stateless societies went about the economic, political and social aspects of their lives. Unfortunately, the Carmen Lines have been damaged over time, so we set out to formulate a preservation strategy to save them.