The MBA Student Voice

Los Angeles Startup & Non-Profit Scene

This past Friday I volunteered at Entrepreneur Impact Day (EID). The event was organized outside of UCLA but I was able to participate through Entrepreneurs Association (EA) on campus. It was a first in LA where startups and non-profits got together to solve some of the most challenging problems the non-profits are facing. I was assigned as program manager on the Los Angeles River Revitalization Corporation or LA River Corp. for short. Their main focus is to turn 51 miles of the LA River into a public space with parks, trails, bridges, etc. and make it a landmark for the city. Currently their challenge is awareness and fundraising. Employees from two startups, MuckerLab and PicPlayPost were on hand to help them with both these challenges. By the end of the full day event, the team came up with a pitch deck for the initial fundraising and strategies to improve project awareness in the general public.

After just three weeks of school I was able to attend this event through my network at Anderson School of Management. Since my long term goal is entrepreneurship, hopefully in the social impact space, it was amazing to be able to participate in EID. I made some great contacts and am looking forward to more such events in the future. Thanks to the organizers of the event for putting together an amazing opportunity for all LA residents.

The event was hosted at the beautiful Bel-Air Bay Club

EA Conference highlights

This post comes courtesy of the UCLA Anderson blog and was written by Asmi Shah, Class of 2014. 

The 2014 Entrepreneur Association Conference: The Evolving Entrepreneur is the best thing I’ve done at Anderson. Since October, I had been working with Kristina Bidovec (’14) and Bo Pulito (’14) to organize the event. This year, we created a partnership between the Entrepreneur Association (EA) and High Tech Business Association (HTBA) to expand the reach of the conference. Countless hours were spent brainstorming themes, new initiatives and of course – keynotes. We knew that keynotes pull a crowd and sell tickets, so there was a lot of pressure to get this right. Judging by the response last Friday, we indeed got it right: Sean Rad, Founder & CEO of Tinder, along with Anderson’s own Emily Taylor; Kelly Perdew, CEO of TargetClose; and Mohanjit Jolly, Partner & Managing Director at DFJ Venture.

Kristina, Bo and I also worked with a group of 25 students to organize panels and content, obtain sponsors, market the event and run operations.  It was a lot of work, but I was inspired by the passion and energy our team brought.  We were the managers  — thinking strategically about the event, the Anderson brand name, and how to maximize community engagement. We motivated the team when the end goal was months and months away. The three of us rallied together when ticket sales seemed slow, so we reached out to additional media sponsors, emailed personal contacts, and physically canvased co-working spaces and the rest of the UCLA campus. 

I’m proud of our entire team, as the conference was a resounding success. We sold more than 500 tickets, received media coverage from prominent L.A. press, secured new sponsors, and hopefully sparked a few new investments. By working on the conference, I not only formed lasting relationships with my classmates, I also gained experience in management, negotiation, marketing, sponsorship, operations, finance and decision-making. I felt like a mini-CEO! The Evolving Entrepreneur has made a splash in Los Angeles, and I’m proud to be a part of it.  

See photos of the EA Conference here.

With a spring in my step...

As I end the glorious year 1 of the best MBA program in the world, it is only fitting that I give the spring quarter a fitting tribute with a quick round up!

The quarter started on a high note. I'd signed my internship offer from Microsoft for the summer (Product Management) and from MarkedUp Inc. (a Santa Monica based startup) for the spring (Product Marketing). Yes, its very common for students here to do an internship during the school year and because the school is so well-entrenched in the Silicon Beach community (LA's startup scene) and opportunities keep coming all the time. Naturally, with the recruiting season behind me, I was relieved of so much stress. Also, while most people are confused about the difference between Product Mgmt and Marketing, I got a chance to dabble with both!!

I got to meet so many vivacious new admits from the incoming class of 2015 at the A days, where I represented the International Business Association(IBA), Anderson Creative and the International students panel.

As the first week of classes began, we started practicing for our C4C cheer, part of which we'd performed already in the Anderson Talent Showcase (February), but wanted to take it to the next level. After 3 weeks of tireless practicing, we put up a great show at the Stanford C4C weekend, which Kyle talked about earlier. You should totally watch the video below and stare at it with your jaw touching the floor (ok that part's optional). WHile the dance itself wasn't that difficult, learning to throw and catch an athletic girl took many dark turns during the practice sessions. Fortunately, everyone lived to dance the day!

  

Somewhere along the way, on the trip back from Stanford, we also finalized our AMR team. AMR is one of the most important parts of the second year of the MBA, and everyone therefore selects their teams and project preferences very carefully. I will be working on a new technology created by a Ph.D student at Anderson - specifically trying to establish a company and then it to market. The technology, called Mighty Mount, won the Knapp Venture Competition - another key component of the UCLA MBA. Yes, we have an amazingly entrepeneurial program here! What better way to capitalize on that by doing your second year project on building your own business? :)

Talking of entrepreneurship, I helped organize the biggest conference at Anderson - the EA Conference, which saw a huge attendence from successful entrepreneurs, VCs and students. Bill Gross, founder of Idealab, gave the most amazing keynote that I've ever heard in any conference so far and made me realize that I could just be hearing to the next Steve Jobs of the world.  It was amazing to see so many illustrious people in the school at the same time. Speakers came from companies such as Google, Disney, Fox, Yahoo!, CornerStone On Demand, Riot Games, Veggie Grill and many more. A complete roundup of the conference can be read at buzzfeed.

So much going on, but was I even studying, you wonder? Well ofcourse, I took 5 classes this time and was loaded with tons of work at all times. However, I really enjoyed the classes, in particular, the Tools for Business Strategy class which had mini projects for Deloitte and PwC, and the Brand Management class which is jointly taught by Professor Sanjay Sood and Jim Stengel (ex-CMO, P&G). In the latter, we got a chance to meet some really amazing people, such as Erik Ryan of Method, Davide Grasso of Nike, and Robert Eckert, former CEO of Mattel Inc. We also visited Ogilvy's LA Office and listened to their intriguing story of UCLA Anderson's rebranding effort (see a video made my Anderson Students for the new brand). Seriously, where else could you get to meet these people? I fell even more in love with my school! :)

 

While we're talking of meeting famous personalities, this quarter made  me completely starry eyed. A huge advantage of being inside one of the best universities in the country is that you get to be part of the larger community, where so much more keeps happening all the time. Some of us were lucky to take advantage of that and meet Josh Radnor (Ted Mosbey of How I Met Your Mother), the Hangover star cast at the premier and Owen Wilson at the premier of The Internship at the Bruin Theater. At UCLA, the stars come to you! 

This isn't all that UCLA has to offer though. I started discovering really fun events organized by different departments at UCLA that are also open for MBA students. Professor McCann, who heads the Center for Global Management at Anderson, secured VIP tickets for Anderson students at the Trisha Brown Dance show at the Royce Hall (the most exhilerating dance performance I've seen) ...

and the Graduate Student Association organized a trip to the Knotts Berry Farm (awesome rides!). 

We rounded out the quarter by yet another set of fun activities - first the Prom (which was also my first prom ever - you're never too old for your first prom, right?) and then the Hollywood Hike (literally ending at a high note!!) 

Oh and did I tell you about the amazing beach bonfires, making s'mores ( a teaser below) and so many other things?! Phew, I dont think I can describe my adventures at UCLA Anderson in just words.

And finally the icing on the cake, or perhaps the cake itself...

You really need to be here to experience it for yourself. I heart UCLA!

~Ayushman Jain (MBA '14)

 

TED at UCLA Anderson!

 

 

Hello everyone. Last week we had a very exciting event at UCLA Anderson, the second annual TED Live Streaming! TED (Technology, Entertainment, and Design) is an annual set of global conferences about "ideas worth spreading". The topic can be anything as long as it is an innovative idea and they last at most 18 minutes so it is a fast and fun way to learn something very interesting. For example I got to listen to a talk about how music should be free and another about how the best experiences and products are those that stimulate more than one of your five senses. 

UCLA Anderson has an agreement to live stream these conferences at the campus and they designed an amazing room so students could sit and enjoy the talks. Take a look here:

 

 

Doesn't it look awesome? Those bean bag chairs were very comfy! If you want to see how they set it all up you can see that in a video here. It looks much better there; my pictures don't do it justice. 

After the live stream three or four panelist comprised of alumni, students, faculty, and industry specialists would go up on stage and discuss the TED talk to provide more insight on the subject and allow guests to ask questions. 

 

Second year Ana Peña (on the left) was moderating the panel I attended.

 

There was also a campfire at the end of the event on the third day where students and faculty would go and present their own TED inspired talks. I was not able to attend but fellow blogger Ashley Mallison did and here is what she had to say:

 

 

"The campfire was a great event. The photo is of Bhavna from our year who gave an inspiring talk about changing the way we design our cities to inside healthier lifestyles! It was a fabulous event that spoke to the power of TED and the UCLA Anderson community with great drinks and food, and black light chalk wall for people to write “What would you name your own TED Talk” and truly inspiring presentations from students and professors!"

I hope this inspires you to attend the TED Live Streaming event at UCLA Anderson next year and if you are planning to visit campus make sure to ask a current student if there are going to be any events on the dates of your visit. There is always something interesting going on at UCLA Anderson! 

 

-Alejandra Rodriguez '14
Follow UCLA Anderson at @UCLAMBA

Election time - Join the EA!

So it has once again been an eternity since I have written here but there have been a lot of things going on. When people say business school is really what you make of it they're absolutely right. For me there are four major areas that take up the majority of my time: classes, my internship at Muckerlab, my own business (which luckily partially counts for one of my classes) and most recently the Entrepreneurs Association has taken over a large chunk of my life.

The EA is the biggest organization on campus and is responsible for bringing together entrepreneurial minded people at Anderson and expose them to UCLA and the LA community to help them start businesses, get recruited at startups and learn more about entrepreneurship. This club has been an unbelievable resource to me so far and I urge any and all new studentsto join the club as it tends to have the most and the biggest events, bring in the best speakers and get the most funding. Now I'm just preaching of course and the reason for that is that I am now running the organization.

Being the biggest club on campus, the EA holds elections earlier than anyone else (including the student association) and the power transition starts very soon in the year. That means that for the past two weeks I have been running around trying to learn as much as possible about the diferent facets of the organization that I did not yet know about, putting together a team and networking with board members of the Price center and other entrepreneurship organizations around campus and LA. It's been a lot of work but I'm unbelievably excited about it and while he current EA board has done an amazing job this year, we're really hoping to jumpstart from that. We've been lucky enough to have a lot of potential candidates come through this year and talk to us about the EA so please don't hesitate to reach out at any point as we have so much to share.

-Chris Varin, 14'

Follow UCLA on Twitter @UCLAMBA

Why UCLA Anderson Is a Great Choice For B-school IMHO

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope everyone had a wonderful day spent with family and friends. I know for us students, it was a welcome day off from studying as we approach finals. There are only two weeks left in the now-infamous first quarter of b-school (I say “now”—I think it was always infamous, I just didn’t really understand until I lived through it myself!), and I will admit to being incredibly ready for the holiday! That said, business school so far has been an amazing experience that I wouldn’t trade for anything. And one quarter into it, I can also safely say that I wouldn’t trade UCLA Anderson for any other business school either.

Another satisfied student votes Anderson!

It’s a tough question- there are many amazing business schools to choose from, how do you know which one is best for you? Complicating things is when you get your heart set on a school and for whatever reason are not able to attend (and by whatever reason, I mean you don’t get in). I've been blogging on this site for awhile, and with luck I've built up a bit of street cred amongst our readers. So I hope you'll trust me when I say that I encourage you to consider UCLA Anderson as seriously as you would any other school, and I include the Top 3 in that as well. Why? Where do I begin…

1)      The quality of people. Every day, every hour, I am amazed, surprised, and delighted by the sheer intellect, ambition, savvy, wisdom, goal-orientation, creativity, and overall high caliber of each of my fellow students, first and second year alike. This is truly a top notch institution to have attracted such amazing talent. There is no doubt in my mind that many people I walk the halls of Anderson with today are going to be tomorrow’s Fortune 50 CEO’s, start-up darlings, and revolutionaries in the non-profit space. It's just an added bonus that everyone is also friendly & helpful, normal (loosely defined), and quite often, hilarious. (At least in Section B, the most awesome section there ever was.)

What was that about “quality of people”??

Second Year

Second year has a very different rhythm from first. This time a year ago I remember looking at a list of deliverables due in the next three weeks and having no idea how I'd survive until winter break. This year the list is daunting, but definitely survivable.

It isn't exactly that the second year is "easier" than first. (Though it probably is, insofar as I no longer have to contort my brain into accounting-speak.) Second year is equally busy; the difference is that you chose everything piled on your plate. 

One of the things I did last year, that I'm excited to do again, is Project Echo. A business plan competition for high school students, Project Echo introduces young people to every step of the process of creating a viable business. Each student team is assigned a group of MBA mentors. We advise them on how to build their business plan and help them prepare for the final competition, when each team presents their plan to a panel of judges from the community. 

Last year I had the opportunity to review many of the student business plans, and to watch a number of student groups present their ideas. It was amazing to see how far the teams had come during the months of competition, from an unformed concept to a detailed, well-informed and realizable business plan. Many of the teams have already successfully put their ideas into practice!

When it came time to decide whether to sign up for Project Echo this year, I did hesitate. So much to do, etc. But ultimately I had to recognize that Project Echo gave back everything we put into it last year and more. Gaining early experience with business and entrepreneurship will be tremendously valuable for the participating students. Plus, it was a lot of fun.

So I signed up. In a few days my team will be meeting our new students, who already have a number of great ideas for their project. I can't wait!

-- Tara Egan

[email protected]

@UCLAMBA

UCLA Anderson at Forte MBA Women's Conference

In 2012 the Forte MBA Women's Conference is set to be held in the Los Angeles area, but this June the Forte Foundation held its Annual MBA Women’s Conference in New York. Nine UCLA women from both the FEMBA and full-time program represented the school. Most of us flew in on Thursday evening and met that night for dinner in a cute Mexican restaurant in Soho. We had diverse backgrounds – marketing, media, PR, aerospace engineering, education, economic and pharmaceutical consulting, automotive, HR and software – yet we all shared a bond through Anderson.

Over the next two days, while surrounded by other students from top business schools, we represented Anderson and interacted with key executives, asking questions and networking with 400+ women who attended the event.

On Friday, we were coached by Jodi Glickman on perfecting our 30 second pitch, sat in on industry panels and attended a Company Expo. We listened to Uta Werner (CSO at Xerox) and Kristin Peck (Executive VP, Worldwide Business Dev. & Innovation at Pfizer) share their professional and personal stories in a panel moderated by Pattie Sellers, Fortune magazine’s Editor-at-Large. On Saturday, we followed our interests attending discussions on topics ranging from Career Acceleration to Entrepreneurship.

Many of us stayed a few extra days to enjoy the East Coast vibe of New York. 

 

The Most Bittersweet of Endings

On the morning of April 14, I wrote a blog post about the numerous conferences going on on and off campus, and inviting the broader community to join in on those conferences.

Until now, this was my last blog post, because something that afternoon occurred that has changed my life.  Forever. 

In one of my previous posts, I talked about Sari Closet, an online nationwide rental service for saris (formal South Asian women's apparel).  To recap: Sari Closet started as a class project in our Business Plan Development class.  At the end of the class, our "final" was to present our business to the class and to a group of guest venture capitalists, whose commentary / Q&A compromised the bulk of your grade for the quarter. 

The feedback we received was tremendous, to the point where one of the guests contacted us to help us get started.  We launched the business in January and went live in May. 

So on that fateful afternoon of April 14, I was in a pod at Rosenfeld Library with my classmates-turned-business partners, preparing for the Knapp Venture Plan competition that evening.  This is a business plan competition across Anderson, with the winner getting $30,000 in prize money, presumably to launch the business (although that's not a requirement). 

Nisha and I were going to present, so we dressed as best we could like fashion executives.  Patrick was dressed like an MBA student in his last quarter: a t-shirt from a band nobody has ever heard of, old jeans, and at least one tennis shoe. 

(Digression: we made it to the next round of the Knapp competition, the semi-finals.  But in this round, all of the businesses were put into different rooms based on industry, and the judges chose the best business of the ones that they saw, and that team moves on to the finals.

I didn't realize that you had to "win your room" until 20 minutes before we were supposed to present, I thought the judges all listened to the pitches, then got togeher and chose their favorites based on all of the rooms. 

But I was wrong, and naturally, we ended up in Food and Beverage.  Any muppet can figure out that a sari is neither a food nor a beverage.  But our objections were shot down (apparently, our industry room was "Retail".)  So there we were, presenting Sari Closet after two food trucks, a beer business, and a pastry shop.  Of course, we didn't win.)

So we are meant to present at 6pm, and I get the call at 4:45pm that changed everything.  It was from Mrs. V.  I left right away, and 4.5 hours later, Mrs. V and I introduced our daughter to this world.

Like I said, something happened that changed me forever.

So I never had the chance to post again to this blog, and then I graduated.

Tearfully, it is time for me to say goodbye. To the blog, and to UCLA Anderson, at least as a full-time student. I'm officially an MBA graduate, and a father. 

I'm not going too far.  I'm still dedicated to Sari Closet, and will stilll be following the sports industry closely - the sports entertainment business remains my professional passion. 

Those of you who have enjoyed my writing (all three of you) can follow me over at Perfecting the Upset, a new sports blog started by Rahat Ahmed, a friend from college, and focusing on the sociology of sports: why are we fans, what makes us tick.  There will be a heavy dose of nostalgia, plus coverage in a way that isn't blinded by commercial interests. 

I'll be focused on my beloved Washington Capitals and Manchester United, and possibly UCLA football / basketball and the Steelers, if my daughter lets me.  I'll join there later this month. 

I'll always love my two years at UCLA Anderson, and writing this blog.  It's a bittersweet good-bye for me, a time that I will always cherish and remember fondly.

Go Bruins.

 

 

Conference Season at UCLA Anderson

Today is the Conference edition of the blog - because there's lots of news on all of them! Contact me if you want details any of the events happening on campus!

* The International Food Festival is on Thursday, April 7, starting at 17:00 (that's 5pm) at Alumni Plaza here on campus.  This is where the International Business Association turns Alumni Plaza into a street market atmosphere with food stalls representing 15 different nationalities, music and dance performances from around the world, and a global selection of beverages -- all run by UCLA Anderson students!  Last year, over 500 people were in attendance.

Entry is just $20 which includes five free food tickets (additional food tickets can be purchased for $1 each).  All UCLA graduate students are welcome - from any school, not just Anderson - as are all UCLA faculty and staff.  And yes, you can bring your family!  Children's entry is just $10.

* UCLA Anderson is putting on the PULSE Conference on Friday, April 8. This is UCLA Anderson's first-ever Sports and Entertainment Conference!  The conference is a collaborative effort between the Sports Business Association, Entertainment Management Association, and UCLA Anderson's Center for Managing Enterprises in Media, Entertainment, and Sports (MEMES).

Ann Sweeney, President of Disney / ABC Television Group is the keynote speaker.  Other speakers include AEG CMO Sean Dee, WME's Head of Digital Media Chris Jacquemin, and Yahoo! Sports's Director of Product Strategy Dana McGraw, plus many more!  Check out the PULSE Conference website for more details!

* The International Business Association is working with the African-American Students Association to put on UCLA Anderson's first-ever conference about Africa!  The day will highlight opportunities to invest and grow on the continent, with a fantastic array of speakers including MobileXL CEO Guy Kamgaing-Kouam, Sterling Energy Partners CEO Clyde Sotomey, and the Consul-General of South Africa's Los Angeles consulate, Cyril Sibusiso Ndaba. The conference will be on Thursday, April 21 here on campus, starting at 14:00. 

So to recap, you could expand your business mindset around the world, learn about different cultures, and become a more global citizen, all from within the confines of our beloved university in two weeks.  Not a bad deal!

-- Sreesha