The MBA Student Voice

Food Festival Continues to Grow

It's been a while since the blogeteers have posted, so let me give you a bit of a fill-in as to what's happening:

* The International Business Association is busy planning the International Food Festival, where we transform Alumni Plaza into a street market atmosphere with students running food stalls from a variety of different cultures.  I'm a step removed from the planning this year versus last year, but there are already more tables lined up than last year - which means more cultures represented, more food, and more fun! The festivities will be on April 8.

* Jason Arnott has made an instant impact on the Capitals.  On the ice, he gives the Caps something that they haven't had since Sergei Federov retired: a second line that draws defenses away from Alex Ovechkin's line.  Off the ice, he's been an instant mentor to Alex Semin, and has been a vocal leader in the dressing room.  Great move.

* Dennis Wideman doesn't have Mike Green's Norris Trophy ability, but can fill in very nicely while Green is on injured reserve.

* If the Football Association really wanted to incease the development of English players in the Premiership, they should turn the Carling Cup into a competition for English players only.  This doesn't violate the EU's labour laws because the clubs can still employ anyone from the EU for their other competitions.  Plus, it would give a deeper meaning the Carling Cup, which in my eyes struggles for relevancy compared to the more coveted FA Cup.

* Air Canada's threats to pull their sponsorship of the NHL if the league doesn't address head shots more carefully is hollow given how much Air Canada gets from hockey, but it brings up another point: as the NHL gains more national prominence, the league will be under a microscope for situations that even five years ago would not have been newsworthy.

* There seems to be more of my classmates staying in Los Angeles this Spring Break than I was expecting.  I don't know if that is a function of the economy -- feels like more people have jobs at this point than last year's graduating class -- or of higher oil prices due to the situation in North Africa, but I was rather surprised.

* Of course, it could just be that the point of a Spring Break trip is to go to a warm, sunny place with lots of beaches and girls in bikinis, and Los Angeles already fits the bill. 

See you on the other side of the break!

-- Sreesha

Caps' Struggles Begin at the Top

Lots to talk about so let's get right to it.

* For all of the controversy surrounding Wayne Rooney earlier this season, he seems to have settled back into life at Carrington.  He's been relatively out of the spotlight, with United piling on points and Berbatov and Chicharito handling the bulk of the goal scoring.  And then he struck this masterpiece against City, giving United the badly-needeed three points.  Beautiful. 

* United and Chelsea were off from Champions League duty this week, but Arsenal and Tottenham represented England very well. I loved that Tottenham played their usual, aggressive, attacking style even though they were in the San Siro.  They needed Gomes to make some big stops especially in the 2nd half, but were rewarded with Crouch's late winner from Aaron Lennon - that's two English players that bring home a 1-0 Tottenham win in Mlan.

* Given how well Barcelona has played this year, a 1-0 defeat for the Gunners would have been respectable. But full marks to Arsenal for bunking that logic and going for the draw, and then the win, in the final 12 minutes.  Makes me wonder about Barcelona: La Liga has been almost too easy for them this year, with just a modest Real Madrid challenge to contend with; switching to the more intense Champions League is really difficult.

* This summer might be the end of the line for both Bruce Boudreau and George McPhee.  It is clear that the Caps players are no longer responding to their coach: the power play continues to be dreadful, there are too many lifeless performances such as home against Los Angeles and San Jose, then in Phoenix. As of this morning, the Caps have lost four out of five and 14 out of 25.  How long can we call this a "slump"?

* I question whethere McPhee has made the transition from "building for the future" to "time to win now".  He might be saying the right things, but look at all of the trades that have been made in the past couple of weeks by other playoff teams: Tampa acquires Brewer for a marginal prospect and a 2nd round pick, Boston gets Kaberle for nothing, Philly gets Versteeg for nothing - even Nashville picked up Fisher for very little. It's not that we needed any of those guys (except Fisher); it's that trades seem to be happening at reasonable levels and yet McPhee can't get anything done.

* Which begs the question: do other NHL GMs really respect McPhee?  This is a people business ultimately.  All of McPhee's trades over the past few years have been with Columbus, Carolina, and one with Colorado. Is it possible that people aren't picking up the phone when McPhee calls because of something else he's done in his past?

* The fact is, the Caps' top six forwards are not playoff-worthy, much less Cup worthy.  We have one great pairing (8 and 19), one fantastic but streaky commodity (28), a 40-year-old (22), and we're trying to fill in the remaining pieces with youngsters (85, 90, 26) or asking other veterans to play above and beyond their capabilities (21, 25, sometimes 10).  The trigger has to be pulled for 1-2 more top-six forwards.

* I could buy that the D will be fine once Green and Poti are healthy.  I'm ok with not getting a goaltender either, because (a) Neuvirth and Varlamov have played well this season and deserve the chance to play in the playoffs, and (b) look at the past few Cup winners / finalists: only one of them really is a top-five goaltender (Fleury) - and he developed into a top-five goaltender after winning the Cup.  Niemi, Leighton, Khabibulin, Osgood, Ward, Giguere - no one that really sticks out as incredible.  They all played well, but none were show-stopping.

Hopefully we'll see some changes on their way!

Tweets in Class, and the 1,000th Person

Here is a unique twist: I have a class this quarter that encourages us students to use our mobile phones during class.

The class is called Brand Management and is taught by Professor Sanjay Sood and co-taught by Jim Stengel, the former Global Marketing Officer of Proctor & Gamble. It is a really exciting class because Mr. Stengel is a world-famous and highly accomplished marketing executive, Prof. Sood is renowed as being one of the best professors at UCLA Anderson for marketing and entertainment, and together they have assembled a fascinating array of guest speakers in the field.

Further, a whopping 20% of our grade will be based on "social media"; we are tasked with tweeting our reactions to the presentations by the guest speakers.  We've only had one class with this component thus far, but I thought it was a unique take.  It was interesting to see what my fellow students found poignant from the presentation, and to give and hear our reactions. 

In the first class, we mostly quoted what we felt were the highlights.  I tried to highlight some parallels to other facets of industry, and asked a question or two.  I think as we get more comfortable with the concept, we'll have a broader dialogue, where perhaps the twitter feed will be almost like a separate conversation to the presentation -- ideally an interesting debate.  Definitely a unique way to change the classroom experience!

* * * * * * * *

I need to bring up something that happened last quarter, that I should have addressed after it happened.  Better late than never, I suppose.

I wanted to shout a hearty THANK YOU to a fellow Bruin.  I don't know her name or which school she is in (she's not from Anderson, or at least, I didn't recognize her).  But I really appreciated her sentiment and would encourage all of us to follow her example.

See, what happened was, I was driving out of Parking Structure 7, which has a ramp that leads to a three-way stop T-junction with the main road.  It was relatively late -- think it was about 10:30 PM or so -- on a Monday night. 

I got to the stop sign at the same time as another car reached the stop sign to my right. I realized then that I had forgotten to plug in my iPod into my car stereo.  So I put the handbrake on (my American readers should know that I drive a manual transmission), put my emergency lights on, and quickly fished out my cord.

999 cars out of 1,000 would have driven off from that stop sign and gone on their way.  But she was that 1,000th car.  Rather than go straight and away from the garage, she turned left, pulled up next to me, rolled down her window, and asked, "Are you ok?  Is your car ok?"  I told her that I was just adjusting my iPod, she said, "great", U-turned, then carried on her way.

It occurred to me well after the fact that she's a small woman driving by herself late at night on a dark campus, yet took the time to make sure I was ok before going on her way. I was touched.  Those of us to live in the major metros in the US are so used to mis-trusting people that we forget to help each other -- or in this case, just make sure we are all ok.

To the wonderfully noble-minded Bruin from that night, thank you very much.  You made my day.

-- Sreesha

Week of Andersonian Puckheads' Dreams

Happy New Year! 

This is week 2 of three great weeks for us Andersonian puckheads.  The Winter Classic -- where my beloved Capitals defeated the Penguins, 3-1 -- was fantastic, and the HBO 24/7 series featuring the two teams was captivating.  Tomorrow is the final installment of the series, which no doubt will focus on Eric Fehr scoring two goals for my Capitals en route to the 3-1 win.

But nothing will beat Monday late morning, when Brian Burke, president and general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs, will be on campus here at UCLA Anderson!  We at the Sports Business Association are very excited at the chance to hear insights from one of the most accomplished executives in sports. 

Then on Tuesday morning, we've been invited by our colleagues at USC to a breakfast hosted by Gary Bettman, the commissioner of the National Hockey League.  He surely must be thrilled at the runaway success of the sport in 2010, as well as this year's Winter Classic. 

Hockey''s resurgence has given us cause to put a greater emphasis on the sport in our programming for the SBA, which is exciting for me both professionally and personally!

* * * * * *

There are two myths about the Penguins that I hope are finally being exposed, either by HBO in 24/7 or by NBC in its own Winter Classic coverage. 

Myth 1: The Penguins are an offensive team. This couldn't be farther from the truth.  When they have the lead, the Penguins play the same 1-4 neutral zone trap that former -- and current! -- Devils coach Jacques Lemaire used pre-lockout en route to three Stanley Cups.  When the Penguins are ahead or at the start of games, it's chip and charge -- never carrying the puck over the blueline unless they have an odd-man rush -- and two forecheckers attacking the other team's defensemen.  Classic Lemaire!

(Saying that, while HBO has made Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau into an internet sensation with his cursing, I actually have gained an immense appreciation for the way Penguins coach Dan Byslma goes about his business.  He really has his pulse on the games, makes timely adjustments, and has great control over his dressing room.  Watching Bylsma has been a revelation for me during the series).

Myth 2: Sidney Crosby is always cool as a cucumber.  There's no denying Crosby's talent, especially this season, but on the ice, he can be angry, foul-mouthed, arrogant, whiny, and agitated, all on one shift.  And frankly he's a better player for it - hockey is an emotional game, players typically play best when their emotions are running high (so long as they don't cross the line and take penalties - or worse).  He might always say the right things off the ice, but on the ice, he's an intense competitor.  It's what sets the best players (like Crosby, Ovechkin, Stamkos, and Toews) from other great players (like Malkin and Semin).

Time to set up the DVR for the week!

-- Sreesha

Finally Over

Here's the punchline of this post: first quarter of Year 2 blows.  There's no other way to say it. 

The problem -- and in fairness, it's a high-quality problem -- is that there are too many things that come up in the first quarter.  Because 1/3 of my 2011 classmates are abroad, and none of the first years are bidding for electives, it's the perfect quarter to take any of the professors or courses that you are eager to take.  Plus, most of us still here in Westwood started our field study projects (the acronym here is AMR, for Applied Management Research).  On top of that, most people are now involved in some sort of club leadership.  So yeah, it gets to be a busy quarter.  I'm happy to see the back of it!

I'll confess that I overdid it.  AMR takes up a lot of time.  I also took Real Estate with Professor Sussman, as well as Business Plan Development.  Both classes were rewarding - Sussman is one of what I call the five rockstar professors here at UCLA Anderson, the others being Alderton, Cockrum, Osbourne, and Sood, in no particular order.  It's not just that they were a LOT of work, it's that I wanted to gain a lot from each of them.  In hindsight, I wouldn't suggest over-doing it.  Do as I say, not as I do!

* * * * * *

Not at all happy with this past week for the Capitals.  To me, there are two glaring problems right now.

One, the power play.  It's not just that it needs to score, it's that the power play should generate momentum for the Capitals.  At the moment it's lifeless.  I've never liked Ovechkin at the point on the power play, he's better suited down low or on the half-boards.  It took until the Colorado game for Coach Boudreau to put more grinders on the ice during the power play. 

Two, we need an offensive zone system change - or at least, a Plan B.  Too many teams are collapsing four guys into the crease and letting the Caps play around on the perimeter.  So of course shots and passes are getting blocked, and when they are getting through, they aren't difficult stops for the goaltender.  Colorado did this to near-perfection on Saturday night.  The Caps lost, 3-2, not because Craig Anderson was a terrific goaltender (he played well enough to win but wasn't stellar), but because the Avalanche stopped 42 shots from getting to the target.  Backstrom seems to be the only Capital to have figured out what other teams are doing, because now he stutter-steps off the boards before making a play to try to create more space.

Yes, I know that had nothing to do with UCLA Anderson.  So what?  It's Winter Break!

-- Sreesha

London Calling...

Fellow blogeteer Jesse Ferlianto reminded me today that it has been a long time since I've contributed to the blog, so you can thank him for the fact that I'm going to tell you all about how I spent the US Thanksgiving holiday. 

Last weekend, while most of you were enjoying the turkey and the NFL, a motley collection of 21 UCLA Anderson students went to London for the 7th annual career trek there.  This year, I organized it alongside three classmates of mine.  The trip is in conjunction with five other US MBA programs and is cut across three verticals: finance, consulting, and the newly-created sports / entertainment.  Across all of the schools, we were approximately 80 students.

The trek was a success all ways around!  Personally, I was on the sports / entertainment verticals, and the companies were extremely receptive to us being there.  We got to meet some very senior people from a variety of exciting firms, including the NBA, NFL, IMG, ESPN, Harrah's, Disney, Paramount, Fox, and NBC Universal.  Above all else, I learned that while they all work for US-based companies, they have loads of opportunities to expand their business in Europe - in many cases, moreso than their US-based colleagues, who are facing a fragmented saturation of the American sports market. 

I'm also really happy that the finance and consulting verticals came out really well, too.  On the finance vertical, we saw Prudential M&G (the asset management arm of the UK's largest insurance company), Aerium Finance, and State Street for asset management; Carlyle and Providence Equity for private equity; and Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Nomura, Credit Suisse, and Citi in investment banking.  The feedback I got was that the companies were all stellar, and within the finance industry there was a decent amount of variety as well. 

On the consulting vertical, we saw McKinsey, Bain, and BCG, as well as Deloitte, E&Y, PWC, A.T. Kearney, Roland Berger, and Gallup.  This was the longest vertical of them all: the first meeting was at 12noon on Wednesday, and the last meeting on Friday afternoon!  But the feedback I got was that it was worth it, especially given the breadth of the companies and divsions that we visited. 

I'm also very proud of how we at Anderson did in terms of setting up meetings.  We arranged all of the sports / entertainment vertical - the Anderson alums there were nothing short of fantastic for us - as well as 2-3 headliners in both of the other verticals (McKinsey, Deloitte, Prudential M&G, Providence Equity, Credit Suisse, and Aerium Finance).  Big kudos to Abhijit, Pete, and Vivek for helping me make this trip happen.

More than anything, I think we showed a lot of multinational companies that, contrary to popular belief, Anderson students are willing to seek out job opportunities outside of LA. We came prepared, had great questions, and were extremely professional as much as possible. 

One thing that US MBA programs are known for are these sort of career treks, where you get to visit a variety of companies in different verticals.  Anderson frankly has been lagging other schools in this endeavour, but hopefully as the London trip continues to expand, we will be able to catch up.  Organizing the trip is extremely rewarding because it gives you direct contact with all of the people that you want to keep up with anyway -- so now you have delivered something for them, which differentiates you from the rest of the crowd.

Bottom line: these are the trips that are so critical to the MBA experience, and this one in particular is one that you should keep in mind for next year should you get the chance to join us here in Westwood. 

Reach out to me off-line if you want more details!

-- Sreesha

Laughing All the (Ooh-La-La) Time!

Mrs. V. surprised me with a belated birthday gift this weekend.  I didn't know what it was until we got there.

She told me to keep this weekend free, leaving Friday midday and returning to LA Sunday morning.  Driving distance, no passport, some general weather - that was it.  So we got in the car and headed south. 

A few hours later, we were at the Balboa Theater in downtown San Diego, waiting for none other than Craig Ferguson to appear on-stage!  He is a comedian who hosts the late-night talk show after David Letterman.  My friend Suman from New York switched us on to him (quite literally - after telling us about him, he left an episode on our DVR) and we've been avid fans ever since.  So a few months ago, she saw the tickets online for his show in San Diego and bought them.

She tried to do the same surprise in May, nearer to my actual birthday, when Ferguson was in Las Vegas, but I had planned to go to Vegas three times in May, and that was the one weekend I was planning to be in LA.  Plus, at that point I had accepted the summer internship offer to work for Harrah's, so I knew I would spend a lot more time in Vegas after that. 

Needless to say, she was extremely disappointed. 

And also needless to say, he saved my proverbial bacon last night by being at his absolute best last night. 

I was laughing so hard for most of the show that I nearly lost my breath.  His style is very similar to his monologues on his TV program, but more ebullient and with less restrictions on material.  He started off by saying he was going to tell a joke, rambled into many different topics - including a fantastic impression of Ellen DeGeneres, what it's like being a clarinet player in a heavy metal band, and a description of the sex education class he had to sit through in school ("Mr. and Mrs. Toad..."), -- and built up that one two-sentence joke which he shared at the very end.  And which was hilarious, I thought.

(No, I'm not going to share this with you now because (a) I won't do it justice, and (b) it's completely inappropriate for a blog focused on UCLA Anderson.)

(But mostly because of the former).

It was a fantastic night and a great weekend in San Diego - definitely one of the highlights of my UCLA Anderson experience.

-- Sreesha

Unfortunately, Time To Get To Work

Firstly, I apologise to all of my regular readers for not chiming in sooner.  So much has happened since I last posted that I really don't know where to begin.  Second, a hearty thank you to my fellow first-year blogeteers for picking up the slack!  Hopefully they have entertained in my absence. 

So you are probably wondering...where have I been? 

First quarter of Year 2 is the meatand potatoes of the MBA experience.  Networking and career hunting take top billing; our field study projects -- the Anderson acronym for this is Applied Management Research or AMR -- heats up; classwork is all through electives which have a significantly different culture to the core classes.  All three of these have soaked up all of my time over the past couple of weeks.

More than anything, everyone in my year is at a high level of stress.  We all have come to realize that our MBA experience is drawing to a close, and the end product now has to justify the $200,000+ that we have spent on it. 

I wish all of my fellow second years the best of luck in their career processes.  The better that each one of us does, the better it is for our entire program.  For me personally, this all means one thing:

Time to get to work!

******

Having to get to work is something that my career shares with Wayne Rooney's. 

The Rooney fiasco was painful to watch.  Ultimately, it is now clear that (a) Rooney never intended to actually leave United, but that he was after a bigger contract, and (b) his agent has badly advised him.  Not only has Rooney lost tons of sponsorship money by damaging his brand, but also Rooney now has to contend with disapproving and disappointed teammates and fans that he will need to win back.

The only way he will be able to do that is to get back on the pitch as fast as possible, and produce goals in the way that he is capable of doing. 

******

The Glazer family took a massive public image hit as well.  Essentially, Rooney's criticism of the Glazers is the same as the fans' view. The average fan sees the amount of debt that the Glasers saddled the club with in their purchase and concluded that the lack of a "big name signing" is due to the club's debt service payments.

But let me put another spin on this issue: Since the takeover was finalized in 2005, United have won the Premiership three times, went to the Champions League final twice and winning once, and have captured both the FA Cup and the Carling Cup.  On the pitch, the case could be made that under the Glazer regime United have enjoyed their most successful five-year period in the club's rich history. 

So is it possible that the Glazers actually have done it right, that SAF truly does have the budget for any player in the world but just hasn't spotted genuine value?  Dennis Mannion, the former president of the LA Dodgers, came to speak on campus today; one of the things he mentioned was that any club that make on-field decisions based on marketing reasons is asking for trouble. 

Put another way - has Real Madrid earned anything on or off the pitch since they paid 80mm pounds for Cristiano Ronaldo?  Since Ronaldo headed for Spain, his career has plateaued - certainly not what Real Madrid thought they were getting when they broke every official rule and unwritten ethical code of conduct to get their man. 

Back to Rooney.  He will win the fans back pretty quickly, and hopefully he's bought enough rounds of (non-alcoholic?) pints to win the trust of his teammates again.  And when Real Madrid try to meddle and disrupt his career and commitment to United all over again, he can tell them to [expletives deleted].

Till next time!

-- Sreesha

A Warm Summer Day in Anaheim

Many people assume that I want to be in the sports business because I'm an obsessive sports fan that never made it as an athlete.  That's not entirely accurate: I definitely am an obsessive sports fan that never made it as an athlete, but I'm not trying to be in sports to recreate a dream that never happened.

What appeals to me about the industry is the connection with fans on an imperceptible level, a bond that unites us with a bunch of strangers who toil for an impersonal company we have no direct connection to.  Sports is one of the few markets where the end consumer actually drives the business.

We at the Sports Business Association got to see this first-hand last week when our colleagues from USC Marshall invited us to a behind-the-scenes day with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.  We started with a tour of Angel Stadium by Clyde Wright, who pitched for over 10 seasons in the big leagues, primarily in Anaheim.  You could tell by his enthusiasm that Clyde had that he loved the ballpark and being a representative of the team - both on and off the field. 

Then, we spent an hour with team president Dennis Kuhl, who gave us his insights on the club, the business, baseball, and the industry.  Most interesting to me was his dedication to every detail of the fan experience.  He wanted his stadium to be the cleanest in the majors - and by my count, it was impeccable. One of his objectives was to build the brand of the club behind three logos: the name "ANGELS", the large "A" logo, and the colour red.  Every employee was dressed in all three on them in some capacity.

We wrapped up the session with Mr. Kuhl, then headed into the main part of the stadium for some Tennessee BBQ at Clyde's, which was named after our erstwhile tour guide.  Finally, we soaked in the fruit of the hard work put in by Mr. Kuhl, Mr. Wright, and the Angels organization: a big crowd out to see the Angels take on Oakland, a midweek game between two teams already out of contention.  The lower bowl was full, the upper deck was 40-50% there.  

That's what it is all about.

-- Sreesha

 

Diversity - in many ways

When we think of "diversity", we typically think of what I would call demographic diversity: race, age, gender, nationality, religion, etc.  However, during my summer internship at Harrah's, I had the chance to be a part of a diversity training program, where I learned that there are over 50 ways to measure diversity.

(Yes, I know I said this last year.  But last year I just wanted an excuse to make fun of my fellow blogeteers John Park and Matt Kerbel being fans of the Toronto Major Laughs Maple Leafs.  This time I actually have more to say.)

Applying that logic, here are a few different ways that you could measure the diversity here at UCLA Anderson:

* Career Aspirations: One of the reasons I decided to come to UCLA was that while there are healthy contingents of people looking for careers in finance or consulting, these two fields represent a much smaller portion of the total UCLA Anderson population than they do in other schools.  Nothing during my time here has dissuaded me of this opinion.  There are many other career aspirations on campus, including sports, entertainment, healthcare, non-profit, and education. 

* Entrepreneurship. I had heard a lot about UCLA Anderson's commitment to entrepreneurship, but I never appreciated that until i came here.  Many of my classmates are actively looking to start new businesses after graduation, and the school encourages and actively supports these endeavors -- as evidenced by the projects that came to fruition during the summer and in our second year. 

For example, one of my classmates has been working on edilex, a company offering professional grade business contract templates to legal professionals and business people over the web -- check it out at www.edilex.com.

* Previous work history: in my section last year, there were many different career backgrounds.  The usual pre-MBA careers of finance and consulting were present, but so were military (not just US), entertainment (including a feature film producer!), non-profit, healthcare, and energy, plus two Mormon missionaries and a published author.  And that was just within my 72-person section.

* Sport Activities: My regular readers will be forgiven for thinking that all we do here is drink, watch sports, play poker, and get into political debates.  I can't imagine a sport that isn't represented from both the fan and the spectator perspective.  And from those in the 1st year class I've met so far, that now includes cricket!

* * * * * * * * *

* Yeah, I'm a little annoyed at my Steelers, who managed to terrify Tampa Bay, 38-13 last week. See, I'm annoyed because we have so many holes to fill - offensive line being the most glaring - that we need a year off, get a high spot in the draft, and rebuild.  This year seemed like a good year to do that -- no Ben, no Santonio, difficult off-season.  Instead, after beating three teams we should have beaten, we're talking about making the playoffs and I can just see that 7-9 train wreck coming.  Of course if we make the playoffs, then I'll be happy to admit I was wrong.

* Great move by the NHL to get HBO involved in the Winter Classic with its behind-the-scenes documentary of the Capitals and Penguins up to the Winter Classic.  The best part is that the NHL series is being covered by broader entertainment media, such as the Hollywood Reporter - this shows that the NHL can build on the momentum of last season, arguably the best NHL season since 1994 (the Capitals' own demise against Montreal notwithstanding).

* I've seen Chicharito's goal in Valencia several times now.  What a brilliant strike!  But I still don't understand why Macheda didn't just have a shot himself!  Macheda has a lethal strike himself, surely he would have put that in.  I complain only because of United's woeful finishing this season and last.  Macheda has either lost his shooting instinct, or has gained an unworldly sense of vision. 

-- Sreesha