UCLA Anderson School of Management Blog

Nestlé’s Chris Johnson Explains How Local Tastes Drive Worldwide Consumption

By Paul Feinberg

Food and drink companies have an unusually intimate relationship with the consumer. After all, they’re asking you to put something they make into your body and trust that no harm will result.

“Ultimately, the value of Nestlé, or of other companies, is based on trust,” Nestlé Executive Vice President Chris Johnson (’88) told a UCLA Anderson audience Monday. Johnson, who heads the company’s business excellence division, joined UCLA Anderson Dean Judy Olian in a conversation that was part of the Dean’s Distinguished Speaker Series.

Johnson has spent his entire career with Nestlé, and the past 26 years overseas. During that time, he’s experienced numerous changes and roles at the world’s largest food company. He assumed his current position as head of the new business excellence arm in October 2014 and his job is to help the company better leverage its huge scale and strengths.

On-the-Ground Strategies for Eroded Land in Guatemala’s Coffee-Growing Regions

Left to right: Justin Lee, Ernesto Cruz, Idan Ariav, Sid Parikh and Jose Lanzagorta toured a coffee plantation in rural Guatemala

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UCLA Anderson MBA students conduct Applied Management Research (AMR) 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. The Center for Global Management sponsored UCLA Anderson Class of 2018 teams to collaborate with established NGOs seeking sustainable solutions for global economies, health delivery systems and environmentally sensitive parts of the world. UCLA Anderson Class of 2018 AMR students made their final presentations on March 9.

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By Idan Ariav (’18), Ernesto Cruz (’18), Jose Lanzagorta (’18), Justin Lee (’18), Sid Parikh (’18)

In January 2018, our Applied Management Research (AMR) team visited Alta Verapaz in the northern highlands of Guatemala with our client Strategies for International Development (SID). SID is a nonprofit organization that develops and promotes methods for helping poor farmers reclaim eroded land, increase income and overcome poverty.

Having successfully launched campaigns in Bolivia and Honduras, SID focuses currently on helping coffee farmers in Guatemala. SID engaged our team to help answer some of the nonprofit’s toughest strategic and marketing questions in order to ultimately drive its fundraising efforts. We traveled with key members of the SID team, including executive director Charles Patterson and Guatemala National Program director Bayron Leon to apply and improve SID’s new strategy on the ground.

Improving the Quality of Sustainable Coffee Production in San Martín, Peru

In in the San Martín coffee-growing region of northern Peru, Don Pablo explains “coffee leaf rust,” a disease that has wiped out a significant amount of coffee crops worldwide

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UCLA Anderson MBA students conduct Applied Management Research (AMR) 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. The Center for Global Management sponsored four UCLA Anderson Class of 2018 teams to work with Conservation International, which partners with indigenous groups internationally and pairs local expertise with student consultants.

This story is one of the four by students who collaborated with CI to help find sustainable solutions to enhance economies in environmentally sensitive parts of the world. UCLA Anderson Class of 2018 AMR students made their final presentations on March 9.

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By Pascual Daniel George Eley, Santiago Fernandez Quiroz, Ryan Seiji Imamura, Alfredo Jose Noriega Aurazo, Michael David Snyder (Class of 2018)

Our Applied Management Research (AMR) team engaged with Conservation International to support the development of an environmentally sustainable value chain for coffee production in the San Martín region of northern Peru. The goal was to identify the key to scaling current efforts to improve sustainability by identifying optimal linkages in the value chain for intervention. Evaluating the current split of value-capture across the chain to understand how best to incentivize local farmers was inherent to these efforts and any intervention efforts need to consider the social and economic impact on the small communities in the San Martín region.

After several weeks of extensive secondary research, we understood the broader economic context in which the coffee sector in Peru operates. A combination of price pressure and limited power relative to middlemen in the value chain left smallholder farmers exposed to the fluctuations of the volatile coffee market. Along with the unfavorable effect this had on living conditions, the corresponding drive for increased yield to make up for limited pricing power adversely impacted the environment (coffee farming has been identified as the leading cause of deforestation in the San Martín region). Our primary research entailed interviews with coffee industry players and subject matter experts, and an in-country visit to meet with smallholder farmers, local community representatives and leaders of cooperatives.

The Project Management Key to Sustaining Guyana’s Indigenous Communities

UCLA student consultants visited Moco Moco Village, an indigenous community in Guyana

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UCLA Anderson MBA students conduct Applied Management Research (AMR) 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. The Center for Global Management sponsored four UCLA Anderson Class of 2018 teams to work with Conservation International, which partners with indigenous groups internationally and pairs local expertise with student consultants.

This story is one of the four by students who collaborated with CI to help find sustainable solutions to enhance economies in environmentally sensitive parts of the world. UCLA Anderson Class of 2018 AMR students made their final presentations on March 9.

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By Miriam Leah Feygenson, Yuhei Iwasaki, Vasiya Krishnan, Anubhav Mishra, Harshita Mishra (Class of 2018)

In 2015, the United Nations set an ambitious goal for the entire globe by the year 2030: to “transform our world by ending poverty, protecting the planet and ensuring prosperity for all” through sustainable development. To align with the UN 2030 Sustainable Development goals, Guyana entered into partnership with Conservation International, a globally renowned NGO, to improve and expand the country’s existing sustainable development program catering to its numerous indigenous communities.

Conservation International, in collaboration with Guyana’s Ministry of Indigenous People’s Affairs (MoIPA) and the Kanuku Mountains Community Representative Group (KMCRG) of Region 9 (one of 10 administrative regions of Guyana), are piloting a program called Sustainable Development Framework (SDF) in order to create a standardized methodology for an impactful and successful sustainable development of the indigenous communities in Guyana.

UCLA Anderson Field Study Team Tackles Market Access for Cattle Farmers in Botswanan FMD-Zone

“Eco-Rangers” in the field in Botswana. The premise of social enterprise Meat Naturally Pty. (MNP) is to restore traditional cattle herding as a profession, with technology, dignity and a targeted emphasis on the environment.

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UCLA Anderson MBA students conduct Applied Management Research (AMR) 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. The Center for Global Management sponsored four UCLA Anderson Class of 2018 teams to work with Conservation International, which partners with indigenous groups internationally and pairs local expertise with student consultants.

This story is one of the four by students who collaborated with CI to help find sustainable solutions to enhance economies in environmentally sensitive parts of the world. UCLA Anderson Class of 2018 AMR students made their final presentations on March 9.

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By Shivesh Bakshi, Brendan Joseph McNickle, Marianne Elizabeth Monroe, Richard Eric Mopas, Nitya Ramaswami (Class of 2018)

“Elephants are killing us!”

This is the jarring, personal testimony of a cattle farmer in Botswana. It directly challenges a first-world (mis)understanding of “conservation” and demonstrates how environmental and habitat conservation efforts cannot be pursued as a one-note campaign to save land and wildlife. Conservation is a balancing act affecting both the Earth’s most vulnerable natural ecosystems and the livelihoods of people who live there. Vital biodiversity includes human beings.

In human settlements that overlap with elephant migration routes, elephants will venture into fields to feast on (and destroy) gardens and grazing land. This problem is complicated by the fact that many elephants are fleeing poachers in neighboring nations that may not have the same protections in place as Botswana’s pro-conservation government. The protected lands of the Okavango Delta are designed to provide sanctuary.

Fishing for Profits: UCLA Anderson Field Study Team Dives Deep into Galapagos Tuna Supply Chain

 

Left to right: Daniel Osorio, Traci Kuratomi, Will Berman and Kevin Oswald visited a fishing cooperative in the Galapagos 

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UCLA Anderson MBA students conduct Applied Management Research (AMR) 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. The Center for Global Management sponsored four UCLA Anderson Class of 2018 teams to work with Conservation International, which partners with indigenous groups internationally and pairs local expertise with student consultants.

This story is one of the four by students who collaborated with CI to help find sustainable solutions to enhance economies in environmentally sensitive parts of the world. UCLA Anderson Class of 2018 AMR students made their final presentations on March 9.

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By William Roger Berman, Guilherme Mattos Kobylko, Traci Yukiye Kuratomi, Daniel Osorio, Kevin Christopher Oswald (Class of 2018)

In 2015, the Galapagos Marine Reserve instituted various “no-take zones,” which restricted fishing in areas deemed vital for adequate biodiversity and sustainability of fish stocks. Our AMR team is working with Conservation International to increase the market value of local fishermen’s tuna catch. Tuna is an important source of income for the people in the Galapagos Islands, and they need ways to sustain and improve their lives while still protecting the natural beauty and diversity of the Galapagos.

Galapagos is synonymous with nature and biology and, since the time of Charles Darwin, world-renowned for its endemic wildlife species. Therefore, protecting its biodiversity is an important task, but increased restrictions on fishing stress the local fishermen. Already under strict regulations to fish in artisanal ways without the use of more efficient but environmentally damaging industrial techniques, fishermen often struggle to make ends. With roughly 3 percent of the employed population working as fishermen, this is a problem for the local community and its economy.

Women from Four Countries Find Unity amid Cultural Distinctions

Left to right: Sweksha Tripathi (’19), Alina Karimova (’18), Vasiya Krishnan (’18), Chenjie Ding (’19), Giovanna Santos Chapini (’19), Kayla Carpenter (’19)

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By Carolyn Gray Anderson

Considered by many the hub of the Pacific Rim, Los Angeles is nothing if not one of the most international cities on Earth. UCLA Anderson is a magnet for students pursuing careers with global companies — including women from across the U.S. and the world who work in diverse industries.

On March 8, UCLA Anderson highlighted the school’s global reach by convening a panel in honor of International Women’s Day. Representatives among the student body from India, Russia, Brazil and China participated in an informal chat with Kayla Carpenter (’19), president of the UCLA Anderson Women’s Business Connection, to reveal surprisingly unified experiences as women in their home countries and here in the U.S.

UCLA Anderson Field Study Team Applies Global Purview to a Compelling Business Case

Team members met with female business leaders in Jamaica, which reports the highest percentage of women in business and management globally. Left to right: MBA student David Poli; Eva Lewis, corporate and investment banking head of Citi Jamaica; Cathrine Kennedy, group chief officer of GraceKennedy Limited; Marjory Kennedy, director of administration of Jamaica Fruit & Shipping; Mariame McIntosh Robinson, president and CEO of First Global Bank; Lisa Lewis, founder/CEO of Great People Solutions; Patricia Francis, chairman of the Trade Facilitation Task Force for the Government of Jamaica; MBA student Jessica Lin.

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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. The Center for Global Management sponsored one UCLA Anderson Class of 2018 team to work the International Labour Organization, which brings together governments, employers and workers of 187 member states to set labor standards, develop policies and devise programs promoting decent work for all women and men. The project focused specifically on engaging leaders in the business community through a new ILO publication on women in business and management.

UCLA Anderson Class of 2018 AMR students make their final presentations on March 9.

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By Katie Donovan (’18), Anna Goldberg (’18), Jessica Lin (’18), David Poli (’18) and Jennifer Yoohanna (’18)

Over the past four months, our team of five full-time MBA students has had the privilege of working with the International Labour Organization Bureau of Employers’ Activities (ILO-ACT/EMP). Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, the ILO-ACT/EMP is a specialized unit of the United Nations (UN) that supports employers’ organizations (EOs), such as chambers of commerce and industry associations, to inform their members on topics related to job creation and employee well-being.

In 2019, the ILO-ACT/EMP will publish a new global report focusing on Women in Business and Management (WIBM) and our team worked closely with our client counterpart, Anderson alumna Jae-hee Chang (Ph.D. ’08), to research and ultimately make recommendations on how to increase business leaders' engagement with this new publication.

In Latin America, Ambassador Noah Mamet Promotes UCLA’s Strides in Entrepreneurship, Education and Sustainability

By Carolyn Gray Anderson

As U.S. Ambassador to Argentina under President Barack Obama, Noah Mamet (bolstered a positive bilateral relationship in the areas of entrepreneurship, education, clean energy and global climate change, repeatedly looking to his home state — and to UCLA in particular — as an exemplar of progress in all these areas.

Ambassador Mamet recently took part in a conversation with Argentine native Adjunct Associate Professor Andres Terech (Ph.D. ’04), the event sponsored by UCLA Anderson’s Center for Global Management, and drilled down on the economic and trade challenges facing Latin American countries, including a U.S. aversion to problem of inflation in places like Argentina. Mamet said it’s the biggest challenge for managers doing business there today, as local salaries sometimes need to increase as much as 42 percent from one day to the next. One impediment is Argentina’s slowness to invest in infrastructure. “When the cost of energy goes up, it’s hard to control inflation,” he said.

A third of Argentina’s GDP is held outside the country, suggesting a mistrust of domestic reinvestment, which may deter outside investors, too. Mamet said a one-time tax amnesty that invited Argentines to declare their overseas assets revealed $130 billion in investments that the government wants to attract back to the country. “Bank information sharing was a game changer,” said Mamet. “It was the most successful tax amnesty in history.”Mamet believes tech will boost the economy and encourage international trade. Among perhaps six Latin American unicorns, four came straight out of Buenos Aires, said Mamet, making Argentina a contender for world markets.

Hsieh Family Continues a Tradition, Inspirational Gift Will Name Foyer in Marion Anderson Hall

By Paul Feinberg

A Chinese proverb suggests, “When drinking water, think of its source; gratitude for the source of benefit.” It’s a reminder that when considering your life, always remember what helped you along the way.

That’s how Dr. Paul Hsieh (Ph.D. ’70) feels about his days at what was then UCLA’s Graduate School of Business Administration. Since he graduated, Hsieh has expressed his gratitude in a variety of ways: He founded the school’s alumni chapter in Taiwan and has made a series of gifts, including those that named UCLA Anderson’s Dr. Paul N. Hsieh Study Room and created the Paul Hsieh Fellowship. Now, in celebration of Hsieh’s 80th birthday, his daughter Yvonne Hsieh (’03) and her husband and classmate David Schumacher (’03) recognize his remarkable legacy with a significant gift that will name the Foyer in the new Marion Anderson Hall in his honor. This fitting tribute will be appreciated by scores of students, faculty and visitors to the new building, which is set to open in late 2019.