The MBA Student Voice

Of Beer, Human Food, and Zombie Fodder

One of the first courses you’ll take during Anderson’s MBA program is a statistics class during which, O joy, you’ll learn all the intricacies of confidence intervals.  While this topic is more of a conversation killer than anything else, it does have pretty useful applications in real-life.  For example, imagine that you want to market a new product, but you are unsure whether it will be well-received by consumers.  How many people should you poll until you can be confident that their opinion about your product is representative of, say, the country as a whole?  What we learned in class is that solutions to such problems lie in the Student’s distribution, developed by a statistics enthusiast who worked for the Guiness brewery, which of course prompted a "beer: is there anything it can’t do?"

On a completely unrelated topic, I was fortunate enough to participate in a Dinner for Eight event hosted by McKesson last Thursday.  Eight students, mostly first-years, had the privilege of being wined and dined by McKesson and, more importantly, asking questions about the company straight to recruiters.  McKesson is an enormous healthcare company that specializes, well, in many things actually, such as pharmaceutical distribution and IT solutions for hospital administration.  I cannot overemphasize how helpful it is to talk to a recruiter for more than five minutes at the end of a corporate presentation.  It is obviously great for networking, but even more invaluable is the insider perspective and the better understanding of the company that I gained.

Speaking of dinner, I was also served at a Dinner for One at Universal Studios last Saturday (see picture below).  Every Halloween, Universal Studios throws a horror night, during which the park is taken over by a multitude of ghoulish monsters.  Simply put, the goal is to have a good scare, and I must say Universal did a very good job.  Of course, many theme parks do the same thing, but what’s great about this one is that many of its monsters are based on its movies, such as Halloween, Child’s Play, and Saw – although shame on Universal for daring to come up with a fifth sequel to Saw!  If you’ve never tried this kind of event before, consider going next year.

According to this zombie, I don’t taste that great, so he let me go after a few munches.  That’ll teach me for not obeying signs…

–Simon

Am I A Fool?

Please hear me out before answering…  In my first post, I explained that my main motivation for attending Anderson’s MBA program is corporate finance in healthcare.  While I am still interested in corporate finance, I must say that attending business school has been a real eye-opening experience so far.  The reason is very simple: mostly everything I am studying is new to me.  For example, one of my epiphanies occurred during Accounting, when I finally made the connection between the last line on the income statement and the (until-then) mysterious “bottom line” expression I’ve heard so many times before.  I also enjoy the theoretical aspects of Economics, although I question how feasible it is to collect data to test these theories.  But my greatest surprise so far has been Marketing.

Like most people, my marketing experience until now has been limited to ads, so I thought that marketing was just another word for advertising.  I now realize that there is a significant strategic component behind marketing, and I’ve discovered that functions like brand or product management for a biotech company are also an excellent way to leverage my scientific background.  How?  The obvious example is sales: you must understand your product in order to sell it, and I have an edge in that area because understanding the science behind the product will come easily to me.  The less obvious example has to do with interacting with the research and development team; it helps to understand the language of scientists and engineers, and to already think the way they think.

Last week, Abbott came to Anderson to talk about their marketing MBA summer internship program, and it was an excellent presentation.  Abbott is a large, global healthcare company with pharmaceutical, nutritional, and medical products.  Now that I understand accounting a little better, it is very impressive to see how its sales and operating income have been increasing since 2004 to reach $30 billion and $6 billion respectively in 2008.  According to Abbott, its marketing interns are directly linked to a domestic or international business unit. Interns work on projects that impact the business, and provide them with a broad perspective of the healthcare industry.  And so I’m left considering marketing as well as corporate finance, which really doesn’t help since I am widening my options.  But then, only fools never change their minds, right?

–Simon

Marginal Competitive Advantage

One thing Anderson MBA students do is join an Anderson Career Team (ACT), a small group of 10-12 first years.  Led by a second year who guides us through our internship search, these teams revolve around either an industry or a function.  For example, while I considered joining the corporate finance ACT, I finally went for the healthcare one.  I find ACT meetings useful because they allow me to meet people with healthcare experience and share the internship-search workload with others.  We also discuss related topics, such as the need to send a thank you note to an interviewer after an interview.  The consensus seems to be that, while nobody likes to do it, you should do it anyway.  This of course brings me to our topic – marginal competitive advantage.

The quest for a marginal competitive advantage is akin to installing battery operated sound effects and twinkling stars in the background of your dinosaur shoebox diorama in the 2nd grade.  The idea is that, when facing tremendous competition, the little things will give you an edge.  Was it always so?  Well, I know an engineer who, laid off after 25 years of loyal service, must write cover letters for the first time in his life when applying for jobs.  Unfortunately for him, someone had an idea to differentiate himself sometime between now and two decades ago, and now we all have to write cover letters and thank-you notes.  In some way, we are all held hostage by the next guy who will raise the bar by coming up with a new marketing stunt to make an impression.  This raises the question: “What hoops will we have to jump through to get a job twenty years from now?”

In 2029, we will have to include a box of chocolates with each resume we send.  In order to better connect with the interviewer, our cover letters will end with “Big Love” instead of “Best Regards”.  Actually, cover letters and resumes won’t be electronic anymore because, let’s face it, e-mails are so 2009 and who has time to read the tens of thousands they receive anyway?  Instead, job applicants will hire people to intercept interviewers on their way to work, sing their resume, and maybe even top it off with a nice back rub.  We will also notice the emergence of a new trend: candidates bringing a bottle of wine or flowers to the interview.  Finally, we will prepare engraved gold thank-you placards written in haiku format, and make sure to send one to interviewers AND their immediate family.  So, you see, it’s good to live in 2009!

–Simon

The DaVita Way

At this point, astute readers might suspect that I am on DaVita’s payroll since this is my THIRD post about this company.  Let me assure you that this Anderson MBA student is every bit as penniless as he was last week.  But since I am just back from a “day on the job” event at DaVita’s corporate headquarters where I was well-fed, which is the primary need of any graduate student, DaVita shall be today’s topic – yet again!  Note that students from USC – our archrival – also participated in the event, but no brawl ensued…

So a group of about 30 students showed up midmorning at Casa DaVita, the corporate headquarters, located in El Segundo, CA.  There, VPs explained opportunities at DaVita through their leadership development program and told DaVita’s remarkable recovery story.  We toured the headquarters and, since DaVita is a dialysis services provider, we also visited a dialysis clinic.  Overall, it was a very interesting and enlightening day, and I finally found the best way to articulate why this company is so different: DaVita strives to humanize work and the work place.  Let me explain how it became apparent.

On the inside, the Casa is a relatively large, airy building.  Since HQ employees rarely meet patients, enormous tapestries featuring pictures of actual patients hang from the high ceiling to remind employees of the purpose of their work.  Actually, there are no employees at DaVita’s, only teammates, and each division has been renamed to sound more fun.  For example, the legal division is called the Justice League.  Doing so makes sense since “fun” is one of DaVita’s core values.  Moreover, many walls at the Casa are ornamented with murals that were designed by teammates at clinics to represent the company culture.  You would be amazed to see the amount of work and the level of artistry that some of them represent.  DaVita is also very involved in the community, here and abroad, and I encourage you to read their community care book if you care about corporate responsibility.

I’ll now do something I never do in any of my posts: write a fourth paragraph!  If you are “too cool for school” and think DaVita sounds cheesy, or tacky even, you are completely missing the point.  I have visited the headquarters and I have met with the staff and what I am telling you is that, as a result, I believe that this company is true to its mission to be the provider, partner and employer of choice.  Did I drink the DaVita Kool Aid?  Maybe a little.  But if, like me, you are on the skeptical, cynical side of things, you know how exciting it is to finally find something for which you could stand.

–Simon

Knock! Knock!

They say you better be ready when opportunity finally comes knocking on your door, but it doesn’t seem to apply to Anderson’s MBA program.  Here, you see, opportunity is a 300-pound sumo wrestler who will knock down your door and throw you in the street in your underwear.  At least that is the way it has felt to me so far.  The following is a list of professional opportunities that were made available to me during the last week only.  Granted, they might not all lead to something, but my point is that finding them was exceedingly easy; I either sent an e-mail or received an e-mail.  Keep in mind that I just started the program.

The first thing I did was to write to a few second year students to discuss their summer internship.  Next thing I know, I was speaking to the president of DCF Ventures, a consulting company that seeks to help researchers on campus commercialize their inventions.  I did not come to Anderson with that kind of career in mind, but considering my experience as a mad scientist I would find it very interesting.  I have applied for an academic internship with DCF, and we will see if I am selected.  In addition, second year students have allowed me to start making contacts at Amgen.

As you might remember, the CEO of DaVita made a strong impression on me, and I am hoping to visit Davita’s facility as early as next Friday.  If I am selected for DaVita’s Day on the Job event, I will get to visit the local facility, lunch with people who work there, and have my questions answered directly by the company.  Finally, I just participated in an All-Anderson networking event, where I met a fully employed MBA student with interesting ties to a growing tutoring company.  It’s just that easy!

–Simon

We Are the Champions…

At Anderson, MBA students have the opportunity to address quintessential questions, such as: "What would happen if Queen, Chuck Norris and the Most Interesting Man in the World (MIMW) put on a show together?"  Obviously, I am not talking about the MBA curriculum, but rather about my section skit, which we performed on the last day of the two-week leadership program.  Before the program started, students were separated in five sections of 70 to study leadership together and, among other things, compete for the prized Section Cup (see picture below).  Thus, sections battled with sportsmanship against each other in various activities – Olympics, team spirit, section skit, etc. – for the privilege of winning The Cup.

My section being especially foolish ambitious, we decided to produce a Queen rock opera for our skit because studying leadership and group dynamics 10-12 hours a day for about two weeks just wasn’t time-consuming enough.  Frankly, I am surprised how smoothly the whole project went.  A dozen of us, including yours truly, brainstormed for about two hours and came up with the Queen/Norris/MIMW concept.  We then divided the work into three acts/songs – rewriting Queen songs was definitely the longest part – and a talented colleague seamlessly put it all back together.  We rehearsed as a group for about five hours, et voila!

But why add Chuck Norris and MIMW to the cast, you might wonder.  Well, Chuck Norris can sneeze with his eyes open – and that’s fact #4 – so he just had to be in the skit.  As for the MIMW, he might be the only man cooler than Chuck Norris, so incorporating him was a no-brainer.  And by the way, my section did win the skit contest, which also led us to winning the cup (see below).  Is there anything Chuck Norris can’t do?

–Simon

Chuck Norris (with the hat) is evaluating how far he'll have to stretch to roundhouse kick the cup into the face of the Most Interesting Man in the World (in the suit).

De-blasé-fied!

I am so jaded I would probably yawn at my own funerals.  Personally, I blame Hollywood movies and video games for murdering my awe, but every now and then something makes me go “Wow!”  Of course, I am too blasé to actually say it out loud, but nonetheless…  Thus, imagine my surprise when I had two such moments this week only, and this is only my second week as an Anderson MBA student.

My first “Wow!” popped out on Wednesday during a presentation by Kent Thiry, Chairman and CEO of DaVita Inc.  I will not bore you with details depicting how Mr. Thiry brought the company back from the dead over the last ten years, although the end-results are impressive.  Instead, I want to mention why I think Mr. Thiry has been so successful; he understands that happy employees have no incentive to leave or work poorly.  Big deal?  I think so, considering DaVita Inc. has over 15,000 employees.  How Mr. Thiry does it on such a big scale completely mystifies me, but it might have something to do with the fact that DaVita actually seems to take its values seriously.

My second “Wow!” moment was triggered by Pr. Al Osborne, Senior Associate Dean at Anderson, and entertainer (from what I can tell!).  I will not bore you with his accolades, for they are numerous, but I’ll attempt to recount an especially interesting part of his story.  Early in his career, Pr. Osborne decided that he wanted to promote entrepreneurial businesses, but was told that it was just a stupid idea that would kill his career.  Unsatisfied, he left his job for a position at UCLA, where he eventually founded the Price Center for Entrepreneurial Studies.  The Price center oversees teaching, research, extracurricular, and community activities related to entrepreneurship.  How’s that for seeing one’s vision come to fruition? 

–Simon

I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead!

“I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead” is not just a terrific title to a terrible movie - it might soon become my motto.  It appears that maneuvering a successful career transition during my MBA at UCLA Anderson will mean little sleep, especially during the first two quarters.  I cannot complain because I was warned that transitioning would require a tremendous amount of work, but I’ll argue that being warned about, say, the imminence of being sucker punched does not dull the pain.

It all started on Tuesday with a 12-day orientation/leadership program.  In essence, students spend 9-12 hours a day attending a multitude of leadership workshops and getting acquainted through various group activities, such as improvisation.  We then go home to prepare for next day’s lecture, work on a leadership plan, and maybe meet classmates at the pub.  So far, the challenge is not so much that it is difficult, but time-consuming.  This extravaganza ends when classes begin, and these will be mostly new topics for me: finance, marketing, accounting, economics, data & decisions.  Classes amount to 15 hours per week, and I expect I will need to spend another 15-30 hours reading, doing homework, studying, etc.

Classes, however, are only half the story; there is also the work required to market myself and ultimately land a job.  Fortunately, Anderson has the resources and the expertise to help me, but obviously I have to do the actual work.  So I will be spending a considerable amount of time researching companies, attending corporate presentations, making contacts, etc.  It will require impeccable time-management skills to conduct the career, academic, and extracurricular aspects of Anderson’s MBA program concurrently.  Thankfully, my brilliant plan is to forgo the minor details of life like sleep, meals and – while I'm at it – personal hygiene...

–Simon

Let Them Drink the (Housing) Kool Aid

One thing I learned from watching infomercials at 1 in the morning is that we can all make a quick buck in real estate because it NEVER goes down… until it does!  We now live in a renters market, and that’s great news since a significant portion of my precious money will go toward rent while doing my MBA at UCLA Anderson.  I have been visiting apartments in various neighborhoods around campus for a few days and I am happy to report that, while many landlords are still drinking the Kool Aid, rents are down.  In Brentwood, just west of the campus, you will find comparable 1-bedrooms priced anywhere from $1,400-$1,700/month; as a result, I had a lot of bargaining power and actually negotiated a rent reduction.  <Insert evil laughter here>

I chose Brentwood because I must protect my beauty sleep during finals!  I prefer to live as close as possible from campus, but I have learned to loathe the Midnight Yell four years ago, so Brentwood is just far enough.  Had I been ready to live a little farther than Brentwood, I have found several 1-bedrooms in reasonable condition for $1,200/month a few streets south of South Monica Blvd and West of the 405.  It takes about 15 minutes to drive to campus from there, and parking at UCLA is free if you are astute enough to commute on a scooter or motorcycle.  <Insert evil yet green-oriented laughter here>

–Simon

To MBA or Not To MBA? That Was the Question

In the U.S., a typical MBA will cost you approximately $100K, two years of your life, and a pound of flesh; thus, you better know why you need the degree unless you’re in it just for the punishment.  As an extreme career-changer, my needs are rather straightforward: becoming more knowledgeable about everything business, especially finance.  But how many new MBA graduates can this country really need as its economy is shrinking?  Call me a bear if you must, but I expect the unemployment rate two years from now to be at best comparable to its July 2009 value, i.e. 11.6% in California.  Moreover, the housing bubble hangover resulted in drastic fee increases and service cuts at both California public university systems.  Therefore, can my investment in a UCLA Anderson MBA ever pay off?

Dr. Phil was unavailable, so before choosing UCLA I decided to share my angst with Eric Mokover, the director of Anderson’s career center.  Frankly, I was shocked – and very satisfied – that Mr. Mokover’s replied so quickly and openly.  In essence, he reported that the 2009 rate of internship placement, 98%, is comparable to that of last year, although internships are increasingly unpaid.  This is good news to me because I was afraid there would be no opportunity to gain experience through an internship.  Of course, some might frown on the idea of working for free, but the reality is that most internships are unremunerated outside of the business world.  Mr. Mokover also explained that staff will be furloughed, but that the center will try hard to mitigate any ensuing service cuts.  Finally, he mentioned that private universities are not immune to service reduction, which I believe is true considering the current situation at Harvard.

So, the reason Mr. Mokover convinced me I was in good hands at UCLA is… he gets it!  He understands that an MBA program is only as good as its capacity to get its graduates hired, which in large part is hinged upon the support provided by its career center.  Naturally, I will be performing most of the career-related efforts, but doing so will be easier and more focused under the guidance of the career center staff.  And frankly I am impressed by the amount of help I have received from the career center even before the quarter has started; a counselor has already reviewed my resume twice, I have downloaded numerous Vault and WetFeet publications, I was given tools and guidance to start working on a career-search strategy, and so much more.  Needless to say this will keep me busy for weeks.

–Simon