UCLA Anderson School of Management Blog

UCLA Anderson Launches New Online Journal Spotlighting Current Research

Across disciplines, UCLA Anderson’s faculty enhance the school’s relevance through cutting-edge research that is highly applicable to the economy, business and the wider world. The weekly UCLA Anderson Review chronicles for a broader audience the research our faculty publish in leading academic journals.

UCLA Anderson Review launched with articles examining retirement savings, including Americans’ aversion to annuities and the hot topic of decumulation — illustrating how, under a single roof at Anderson, faculty members are individually and collectively expanding understanding of how to solve one of the country’s biggest financial and societal problems.

The Review joins other leading graduate business school publications in making available to a global audience of business leaders, fellow academic researchers, policymakers and others the substantial intellectual capital UCLA Anderson possesses and adds to each day.

Global Field Study Students Apply Social Impact Focus to After-School Programs in South Africa

GAP Team 33 met with staff and students outside of Johannesburg at the Boys & Girls Club of Pimville, which is run by UCLA Anderson alumna Laura Parker (’13). Top row: Jamie Nichols, Sne Vilakazi, Courtney Reed, Kitty Moepang, Christina Lebo Tlhabanyane, Dominque Akens. Bottom row: Laura Parker, Chloe Vieira, Diamon Lockett, Tumi Ramasodi.

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By Dominique Akens, Diamon Lockett, Shaurya Nanavati, Jamie Nichols, Courtney Reed, Chloe Vieira (FEMBA Class of 2018)

Our Global Access Program field study focused on increasing support for after-school programs in South Africa. We addressed some of the country’s problems stemming from its broken education system, gang violence, teenage pregnancy, HIV/AIDS prevalence and unemployment.

Supported by UCLA Anderson’s Center for Global Management, we partnered with two clients — Boys & Girls Clubs of South Africa and The Learning Trust ― who believe after-school programming can fill gaps in the education system and help lift South African children out of poverty. We operated on the assumption that involving more youth in after-school programs (“ASPs”) would make them safer, strengthen their educational performance and broaden their post-educational opportunities.

We embarked on a thesis project that was markedly different from those of our Fully Employed MBA GAP peers, whose projects traditionally entail finding new growth opportunities for corporate clients, typically technology companies. Our team has over 20 collective years of experience in the nonprofit and education sectors, and we felt strongly that our thesis project should reflect our interest in social impact. We developed a map of after-school programs in the Gauteng province of South Africa, researched effective after-school programming methods and recommended strategies to build the sector and reach more youth in the country.

Mission to Myanmar: Alumnus Brings Skills across the Globe to New Venture

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Michael Eister (EMBA ’17) accepted an offer to join a Myanmar-based company upon graduation. With several weeks in the new position under his belt, Eister shares his first impressions about working in a Southeast Asian nation that is undergoing political reforms.

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Michael Eister traveled to Myanmar in a modern longyi, the sarong worn by many Burmese men

By Michael Eister

In December 2016 a group of MBA students ventured into the former hermit kingdom (no, not that one…) of Myanmar. The goal was to assess whether or not the economy offered opportunity, and if the nation was on its way to economic success overall. For the latter, the jury is still out. For the former I can personally attest that yes, yes, yes there is opportunity here. This nation is flowering like a lotus and opening its mind to what the outside world has to offer.

Burma is no walk in the park. In fact, the biggest hazard, as far as I can assess so far, is walking down the sidewalks. Survival depends on watching your step. This is true both literally and metaphorically. The government is still adjusting to the future, and at times is relying on rules and policies held over from British colonial days. As it crawls into the 21st century, Myanmar is a contradiction at every turn. On one hand, they want to be successful and wealthy. On the other hand, they are ever-focused on a balance that has its roots in Buddhist thought.

As MBAs we are taught to focus on disruption, change and growth. This nation’s heart is focused on maintaining an even keel. This makes for quite a challenge when trying to modernize at light speed, as many are seeking to do here. Much of the difficulty for outsiders comes from an ever-changing policy and regulatory structure. Government offices are, by western standards, in a cyclone of churn when it comes to change. A policy made one day can be gone in an instant, and in order to find that out, one often has to make frequent visits to government offices to see hard copies of policies, which are not available publicly.

Student Consultants Find that African Cocoa Is Key to Increasing Nigeria’s Non-Oil Exports to the U.S.

Cocoa beans are processed for export at Bole Wole Enterprises, Lagos, Nigeria

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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. In honor of Anderson’s 2017 Impact Week, the theme of which was 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 Chigozie Muoto, Jessica Thompson, Rebecca Hilton, Petro Kit and Lucia Ehimika
Winners of the 2017 Deloitte Consulting Award for Management Consulting Achievement

Since the 1970s, Nigeria has been heavily reliant on oil, with over 90 percent of the country’s export value currently coming from crude oil and crude oil products. With the global decline in oil prices, Nigeria needs to diversify its export products and attract foreign investments. The Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) has a long-term goal to achieve zero-oil exports from Nigeria, and our Applied Management Research team’s project was to devise a strategy to increase export of an agricultural product to the United States.

NEPC is the government agency in Nigeria that is responsible for the regulation, promotion, recording and monitoring of export trade, administered by the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment. Our proposal for broadening Nigeria’s non-oil export activity takes maximum advantage of the African Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA), a United States trade act that enhances market access to the U.S. for qualifying Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries.

After seven weeks of secondary research and prep work, our entire team made the two-day trip from Los Angeles to Abuja, Nigeria, with the goal to:

1. Meet the client and better understand Nigeria’s resources, capabilities and limitations
2. Evaluate the supply capacities of cocoa, cotton, palm oil and hibiscus in Nigeria
3. Explore the current opportunities and challenges of exporters and businesses in Nigeria

News Fit to Print — in Modern-Day Myanmar

By Elise Anderson

In today’s digital age, with mobile devices and online streaming services ascendant, print is considered a dinosaur.

But when Sylvia Saw McKaige (’11) surveyed the Southeast Asian media landscape, she decided to take an alternative, back-to-the-future tack with a country that only recently came online. The longtime media professional and UCLA Anderson graduate recently launched Frontier Myanmar, an English-language print magazine published weekly in Myanmar.

“I felt that good solid journalism was missing in the market,” she says. “You know, that feeling when you watch a news program or read an article and you think, ‘Wow, that’s good reporting.’”

McKaige’s background, both personal and professional, prepared her to make this leap of faith in a country not known for press freedom. She was born and raised in Singapore. Her father is Burmese and her mother is Chinese. She gained journalism experience working as a business reporter at the Bangkok Post newspaper in Thailand and as a television producer at CNBC Asia, and later headed the guest assignment desk as part of the senior editorial team involved with the development of strategy for programming.

UCLA Anderson Executive-in-Residence Charles Burdick Rode Technology Waves Across the Globe

 

By Elise Anderson

Charles Burdick (’77) is the first to admit that his career trajectory was not the result of some grand plan: rather, it was more defined by hard work, preparation and learning and understanding his specific “talent,” and then being ready to take advantage of opportunities as they presented themselves, as they ultimately did in a number of different fields and industries.

He shared some of the details that led to his current position as chairman of Virgin Connect Russia, a provider of broadband, telephony and cable TV in Russia, and as advisory board member for the UCLA Anderson Center for Management of Enterprise in Media, Entertainment & Sports.

Burdick began his career in finance as an M&A analyst at Getty Oil before joining Carnation to work in the international division in finance and treasury. When Time Warner’s assistant treasurer of international, whom he knew slightly, mentioned he was retiring, Burdick applied for the job and got it — just a few months before the stock market crash of 1987.

“I was thinking I was fortunate that I had made the job move (to Time Warner) when I did, but the timing, job and industry were really more by accident than design,” he says.

It was at Time Warner that he discovered his passion for the entertainment business, which he found “full of bright, interesting people from all disciplines, whether it was finance, the creative end or branding and marketing.”

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.

MBA Consultants Research Southeast Asia “Fragile Zones” for Greater Foreign Investment

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 UCLA Anderson’s 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 Margaux LaPointe (’17)

From the start, our team — comprising Riccardo Cestarelli (’17), Margaux LaPointe (’17), Yoko Morishita (’17), Tyler Smith (’17), Adam Supernant (’17) — was thrilled to be matched with a prosocial international AMR project. Our client is the International Labour Organization (ILO), an agency of the UN that develops labor standards, policies and programs to promote access to decent work.

We are researching how to promote foreign investment in conflict-affected zones in Southeast Asia, focusing on Thailand, the Philippines and Myanmar. Over the winter break, we were lucky to visit all three countries and also attend the ILO’s annual conference in Bali to conduct primary research. On our trip, we interviewed business membership organizations (BMO) such as chambers of commerce and employers’ organizations, as well as multinational companies.

A Diverse Field Study Team Collaborates in South Africa to Improve Health Outcomes

Eric Flato at HSRC with client lead Dr. Alastair Van Heerden (right)

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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 UCLA Anderson’s 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 Joshua Bivins, Sarah Broadbent, Lynn Compton, Eric Flato and Denys Levin, MBA Class of 2017

Our Applied Management Research (AMR) field study project entailed working with the Human Sciences Research Council to develop a sustainable non-communicable disease (NCD) screening model in the South African community of Sweetwaters, located in Kwazula-Natal province. The goal of the service is to improve community health outcomes. Our team selected this project because it would give us the chance to benefit the wider global community and broaden our understanding of the impact space. Team members’ backgrounds ranged from registered nurse to renewable energy development, so each member was able to bring a unique perspective to this project.

Working with a client and community located halfway around the world from Los Angeles required our team to travel to South Africa through multiple, staggered trips to conduct primary research. The first trip kicked off with Denys and Sarah spending just over a week in the country in November. The second trip consisted of Lynn and Eric continuing primary research, with one week in the community. Finally, Joshua visited the community on a third and final week-long trip to wrap up any conversations and loose ends. The purpose of these trips was to get a sense of how the community operated, how health care was delivered and who the major stakeholders were in order to help us develop empathy for community members (who were our target customer base) and for their challenges accessing and prioritizing health care.

A Standout Visit to a South Africa Leadership Training Program Brought Social Entrepreneurship into Focus

The common area of Red Bull Amaphiko's Academy in Langa township, South Africa (Photo: Heartbeatmedia)

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By Bradley McGough (FEMBA ’18)

When UCLA Anderson’s summer global immersion programs were announced, the Center for Global Management-sponsored trip to South Africa intrigued me. I hadn’t ever been to the country, but had heard great things. The course topic was Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation, led by Gayle Northrop. Now, I had no idea what “social entrepreneurship” was, but I had great interest in startups, and South Africa was home to safaris and shark diving, so I applied.

As the lecture component got underway at UCLA, we spent a lot of time researching South Africa and talking about what defines a social enterprise. I found that my eyes were opening up to a world I didn’t know existed. While discussing the itinerary for our trip, Professor Northrop told us about the companies we’d be visiting, and that’s when I started to really get excited. These companies were doing amazing things for society and they were making money.

Learning about them in class was one thing, but visiting them in person was so much more motivating and inspiring. I could go down the list, one-by-one, to talk about how great each company visit was; instead, I’ll focus on the one that stands out the most: Red Bull Amaphiko. Yes, it is the same Red Bull that makes the energy drink you guzzle while pulling all-nighters.