UCLA Anderson School of Management Blog

Los Angeles Business Journal Honors Peter Guber as Business Person of the Year

“Congratulations to our friend and collaborator Peter Guber, who, for years, has generously provided his vision to our media, entertainment and sports education. His perspectives on leadership and the trailblazers he brings to his class are legendary, driving our students to Think in the Next.”
— Dean Judy Olian

UCLA Anderson congratulates Peter Guber, distinguished lecturer at Anderson, for being recognized as the Los Angeles Business Journal’s Business Person of the Year. Guber’s leadership class is beloved by MBA students, and undoubtedly is one of the most popular courses available. Guber has spent decades in both entertainment and sports, and boasts a long list of accolades. An awards ceremony took place to celebrate this distinction on March 23. Below is an excerpt from his LABJ feature:

The lecture hall at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management was packed with some 80 MBA students, listening in rapt attention to the man at the podium whose trim build and sheer energy belied his 74 years. Indeed, Peter Guber would fit in among most professors at the Westwood university. But his speech about leadership skills on a recent evening drew from hard-won experience, not book learning.

“You have to really emotionalize the offering,” Guber said in a husky voice that retains more than a hint of the brogue of his Boston youth. “Just look at that dumbbell running for president! When you’re running a business, you have to shape that emotion inside a proper narrative. Otherwise, you’ll never hold the emotion of your audience.”

Guber has commanded the attention of audiences for more than four decades, from producing Hollywood blockbusters in the 1970s and ’80s to his latest passion, professional sports. In addition to minor league baseball and professional soccer teams, Guber has taken stakes in the Los Angeles Dodgers and reigning NBA champs, the Golden State Warriors.

“He’s the first in the room to remind everyone that we’re competing against every other form of entertainment in the market-place, and we should never forget that,” said Adam Silver, commissioner of the National Basketball Association.

As different as film and sports might be, they still rely on putting audiences in the seats and drawing viewers to the screens. And in that, Guber has excelled.

Read more at LABJ

“I like the idea of teaching, doing research and being independent”

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Professor of Accounting Brett Trueman had a penchant for Wall Street at an early age and so it’s no surprise that he chose to pursue a career that involved finance and accounting. He plots his road to UCLA.

Q: With your early interest in Wall Street, did you always plan to work in areas related to business?

When I began my studies at Columbia, I was really into math and science and expected to major in aerospace engineering. But, I switched to industrial engineering once it became clear to me that my passion lay in business. Ultimately, I moved to the business school at Columbia and earned my MBA.

Q: No tugs from the private sector?

As I neared the completion of the MBA program, I applied for positions as a securities analyst. At the time it seemed like an ideal job for me, as it combined my interest in Wall Street with the desire to do analytical research. I got an offer to work as an analyst at Bank of New York. At first, I thought that it would be a great job. But, I came to realize that working in a corporation wasn’t for me. I like the idea of teaching, doing research, and having the freedom to choose my own research projects. So, I chose to get a Ph.D. in finance.

 

Q: You earned all of your degrees at Columbia? Why not stay in New York?

I grew up in The Bronx and was tired of the daily struggles associated with living in New York. The not-so-great weather, the crowds, and the very frenetic pace were all reasons to leave the city.

“We need to expect differences.”

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Distinguished Professor Christopher S. Tang, the Edward W. Carter Chair in Business Administration, came to UCLA Anderson in 1985 and counts the global perspectives and open-mindedness of his students as a major reason to stay. Tang has seen supply chain management evolve from a largely in-house concern into a decentralized global phenomenon that affects businesses large and small. Tang is one of the foremost scholars on the subject, having published more than 100 articles in academic journals, magazines and newspapers. His latest research addresses social and corporate responsibility, which he believes should be as important as profits to any company leader. Above all, he says, global leaders must expect and respect cultural differences in order to succeed.

Q: What does supply chain management entail?

This is a very important area that every single company is encountering — especially when they are no longer doing everything in house. Whenever you hear the words “vendor,” “independent contractor,” or “supplier,” you have supply chain issues in the context of producing products or producing services.

So no matter whether you’re dealing with manufacturing or service companies, including online retailers like Amazon.com, you have to manage material flows all the way from the supplier to the hands of the customers. You have to think in terms of information: How do you capture the information so that you can facilitate the transaction, as far as material flows as well as financial flows? Since the rise of global competition and global trade, things have become very interesting.

 

Q: What are some examples of companies with supply chain issues they didn’t have before they were outsourcing to contractors?

IBM used to make everything in house — copiers, batteries, everything under the sun. Same with Hewlett-Packard. Then, in the 1970s and ’80s, with globalization, with suppliers being more available, accessible and affordable, companies changed their business models. IBM’s Lou Gerstner actually may have been the first to eliminate virtually all the company’s manufacturing divisions. IBM transformed itself. They outsource virtually everything now. But because of that, they have to manage all their suppliers, from manufacturers to distributors to customers.

"Walking the student down the path until he or she achieves the 'Aha!' insight: That’s a beautiful moment."

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If you grew up in Canada, chances are you were encouraged to play hockey throughout your childhood. But if emulating Bobby Orr’s career in that sport was not your calling, it would be advantageous to have an alternate area of interest on which to focus one’s future.

For Toronto-raised Mark Garmaise, senior associate dean of the full-time MBA program and professor of finance, the choice was easy. Thanks to an innate interest in math and finance, he could retire the hockey stick and skates and pursue the areas of study that most intrigued him.

Q: So, are numbers in your blood?

Very likely. After my father earned his advanced degree in the United States, my parents returned to Toronto to set up, own and run a successful investment management firm. I have a brother who is a consultant in New York and a sister working for a market research firm in Toronto. Guess you could say it’s all in the family.

Q: Looks like you followed your parents’ footsteps in pursuit of your academics.

I wanted to attend Harvard University to study math and philosophy, a combined major that was very appealing, as the fields have logic in common. While there wasn’t much time to engage in other campus activities, I did write some political pieces for one of Harvard’s student newspapers (not National Lampoon, in case anyone was wondering). I was working really hard on my studies and focusing on the academics, which was my priority.

You graduated magna cum laude from Harvard, then headed to Stanford University, where you earned a Ph.D. in finance. What was that attraction?

I always wanted to come to California for a number of reasons, including its natural beauty, laid-back attitude — a lot of stereotypes that are based on fact.

 

"From cowhand to knighthood — with a lot of stops along the way."

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What does a young man growing up on a farm in Bend, Ore. (population 10,000 at that time), dream about? Just ask Bob Foster, adjunct professor of decisions, operations and technology management and director of the Global Access Program. He sheds some light on his journey to the ivory tower.

Q: How did that journey begin?

After milking two cows every morning and night and learning how to judge cattle as a member of the Future Farmers of America, my main objective in life was to leave the farm forever.

Q: How were you planning to do that?

I was interested in cars and thought I’d be an automotive engineer until I found out that I would probably end up living in Detroit. The only school I applied to was Oregon State, as I was an in-state student and they accepted anyone who had a high school degree at that time. I never took any college admissions tests and was basically an average to poor student. The school’s dean of engineering suggested that I switch to another major. I declined. It took me five years to get my B.S. in mechanical engineering — something most of my students don’t know.

Q: What did you do with that degree?

After a few regular engineering jobs, I discovered that, at best, I was going to be an average engineer.

 

 

"I teach my students that it’s not enough to give employees and co-workers a voice, you have to actually consider what they say."

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With childhood memories of living in places as different as Europe, Canada and Asia, social psychologist Margaret Shih studies diversity in organizations, focusing in particular on social identity and the psychological effects of stereotypes, prejudice, discrimination and stigma. Research is in her blood, she says, and Anderson’s interdisciplinary environment and the energy of her students influence Shih to formulate the questions she wants most to explore.

Q: You were born in the U.S., but spent your early childhood in Germany, later childhood and adolescence in Canada, and summers in Japan with your Taiwanese grandmother. How did living in all of these different cultures when you were young shape your perspectives as an adult?

I think living in diverse cultures fed my natural curiosity about people and probably made me more open-minded and adaptable. I was seven when we moved from Bonn to Ottawa; I didn’t speak one word of English. Luckily, Vancouver is a very polite and welcoming city and I soon felt at home. I have enjoyed all the places I’ve lived for different reasons and they have each enriched me.

Q: Do you still consider Vancouver your hometown?

I love Vancouver and, in some important ways, Los Angeles reminds me of it. Both cities are in beautiful settings with diverse populations. There is a shared appreciation of the outdoors and focus on protecting the environment. And people are friendly here, too, though not necessarily polite on the freeways.

Q: Did you always want to be an academic or did you have other career goals as a child?

As a kid, I wanted to be a painter. Or a cellist. Unfortunately, my talents didn’t match those ambitions.

 

Q: So you abandoned the arts and turned your attention to psychology, earning your B.A. in psychology from Stanford and your M.A. and Ph.D. in social psychology from Harvard. What inspired that focus and ambition?

I was always curious about people and I think research was in my blood. My dad was a chemist who moved from academia into industry. Both he and my mom were strong role models for me. They valued education and hard work. But they valued family most of all. My dad turned down several promotions in order to have more time with the family. And my mom stayed at home until my sister and I started school. Then, she opened a Hello Kitty store — ahead of trend.

Faculty Profile: Corinne Bendersky

A native of New Jersey, Associate Professor of Management and Organizations Corinne Bendersky was raised in a household of academics, where family conversations “tended to be pretty heady,” she says. “From a young age, I developed a healthy skepticism about assertions that were made by the media and taught in school that didn’t have rigorous empirical support or theoretical grounding,” she explains.

Thoughts of pursuing a law degree after graduating with honors from Oberlin College took a turn when Professor Bendersky realized that she was more intrigued with conducting research about the types of conflict resolution interventions and practices that were most effective in organizations. That interest led to a Ph.D. program at MIT Sloan School of Management, where she earned an interdisciplinary degree that spanned industrial relations and organizational behavior.

The call to UCLA Anderson stemmed from the school’s Management and Organizations area, which focused on the same intellectual mix as her academic training. Here she studies work teams and examines conflict experience and management, as well as the process through which status (socially conferred respect) is negotiated, evolves over time and affects both individual performance and team effectiveness outcomes. She finds these research topics fascinating, primarily because they are so pervasive and can have both detrimental and beneficial impacts on individuals and teams.

With an inherent love for teaching, Professor Bendersky finds the greatest rewards when students relay an outcome from something they learned in class that they tried at work or with their study groups at school. What she equally enjoys about her field “is that non-academic friends can relate to these issues, and I can give them simple, practical advice about how to manage conflicts better—listen carefully—and attain and maintain high status—convey high competence and deliver on the expectations you set.”

Head to Bendersky’s UCLA Anderson page for more on her research interests and publications.