UCLA Anderson School of Management Blog

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.

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.

Moving Forward: Can We Solve L.A.’s Housing Affordability Problem?

Photo: Owen CL, Unsplash.com

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By Carolyn Gray Anderson

Last March, Los Angeles voters rejected proposed limits on the construction of large-scale buildings, limits that included a two-year moratorium on development of dense, high-rise residential properties. In a city where working-class and middle-income households are increasingly forced to prioritize housing costs over medical care, food and even transportation, it was a decisive defeat for ballot Measure S. But will augmenting the pace and quantity of available dwellings really make living here more affordable for anyone but the super rich?

The UCLA Ziman Center for Real Estate studies the problem of housing affordability as it reaches crisis levels in California. The constraints are especially acute locally because although there is an immense amount of wealth concentrated in L.A. and land values are extremely high, ours is a very expensive city with no real wage growth within the working class.

Ziman partners regularly with the nonprofit Mercy Housing to organize symposia on topics germane to professionals in real estate, government and industry — but with a crucial public education component consistent with the mission of Ziman’s Howard and Irene Levine Program in Housing and Social Responsibility to promote the kind of dialogue that improves society in all economic sectors. Mercy Housing is a national nonprofit organization that provides affordable housing and supportive programs in 41 states to improve the economic status of residents, revitalize neighborhoods and stabilize lives.

Left to right: Paul Ong, Ann Sewill, Doug Shoemaker, Ben Metcalf, Ben Besley, Kevin Ratner

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

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.