UCLA Anderson School of Management Blog

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.

2017: The Year in Review at UCLA Anderson

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In Net Impact Consulting Challenge, MBA Students Provide Implementable Solutions for UCLA Mobile Eye Clinic

 

UCLA Mobile Eye Clinic (1st place): Pictured with two client participants (front row, center) are Benjamin Rostami, Michael Chester, David Goldman, Julie Ortega, John Double, Patricio Davila Gutierrez, all MBA Class of 2019

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By Nitya Ramaswami (’18) and Taylor Cramm (’18)

In mid-November, UCLA Anderson hosted the 13th annual Net Impact Consulting Challenge (NICC), in partnership with Impact@Anderson and the Harold and Pauline Price Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation. This competition unites MBA students and the academic community with nonprofit organizations and for-profit social ventures to help achieve greater social impact in our community.

NICC is a hallmark event for UCLA Anderson’s Net Impact chapter, the 2017 Net Impact Graduate Chapter of the Year. UCLA Anderson aims to deepen its ties with the L.A. community through interactions with local nonprofit and socially driven organizations. A significant aspect of this outreach comes through consulting initiatives like NICC and Social Impact Fellows, where students have the opportunity to benefit mission-driven organizations while strengthening their business skill set.

Over the course of a two-week consulting engagement, MBA students provide strategic and operational guidance to local organizations to overcome challenges in a variety of functional areas such as fiscal management, operations, marketing and leadership transition.

Some of the client problems that students tackled included: developing a clinic’s growth strategy to reach new local communities in need of health services; mapping a plan to improve operational efficiency around relief efforts in areas affected by recent natural disasters; and proposing a financial plan that would help an organization benefiting children better manage existing funding and search for future opportunities.

A First-Place Win Expands Biopharmaceutical Network for UCLA Anderson Health Care Business Professionals

Left to Right: Andrew Clark, Dan Edlin, Gabi Larus, Zane Goodwin

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By Zane Goodwin (’19), Gabrielle Larus (’19), Daniel Edlin (’19), Andrew Clark (’18)

The global focus on health care is growing at an exponential rate, and we are lucky at UCLA Anderson School of Management to be close to so many companies instrumental in driving significant changes in the industry and impacting countless lives. As student leaders of Anderson’s Healthcare Business Association (HBA), we have built strong relationships with many of these companies, and we are always looking for new avenues to expand our networks.

When the opportunity arose early in the fall 2017 quarter to participate in the annual Rutgers Biopharmaceutical MBA Case Competition in Newark, New Jersey, our team — Zane Goodwin, Gabi Larus, Dan Edlin and Andrew Clark — quickly formed with the goal of gaining industry knowledge, helping to solve a real health care company’s business problem and expanding our networks to the East Coast.

The problem presented in the case focused on how Edge Therapeutics, a pre-revenue biotechnology company based in New Jersey, should plan to commercialize its lead candidate, EG-1962. This drug is being developed to improve the safety and efficacy of treatment for patients who have suffered an aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH) caused by a ruptured brain aneurysm. While it has been granted fast track designation by the FDA, there are still many challenges facing the company and its potential product launch.

UCLA Anderson Understands the Importance of Diversity, and Businesses Do, Too

By Hugo J. Garcia

UCLA Anderson School of Management recently presented its professional conference Embracing Diversity. The annual conference demonstrates Anderson’s commitment to increasing diversity in its programs and provides business school applicants invaluable insight into what diversity means in today’s corporate world. Industry leaders are invited to address prospective students, and, without exception, they advocate for every business to seek a diverse pool of candidates in the hiring process.

Corporate Commitment

The 2017 event focus on the role of diversity in business school and the corporate world, not only as socially important, but as a factor that leads to greater efficiency. One of the most memorable presentations was on CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion™, the largest CEO-driven business commitment to advance diversity and inclusion within the workplace. This initiative is led by CEOs from numerous companies such as Accenture and Deloitte who believe in the strength that diversity brings to their business performance.

The presentation opened with a statement about research that shows “diversity increases creativity and innovation, promotes higher quality decisions and enhances economic growth.” This research has inspired CEOs to actively pursue the diversification of their employment base, creating avenues for businesses to capitalize on the rewards of introducing new perspectives into their company.