The MBA Student Voice

Anderson Case Competitions: Pick your flavor

One of the items that topped my business school bucket list was “participate in a case competition.” I didn’t have the opportunity to compete in one during undergrad and thought it would be the perfect avenue to apply the many skills that I’m honing at Anderson. Plus it’s a quintessential bschool activity, almost a right of passage. Luckily, Anderson hosts a range of case competitions on campus each year, so students have a lot of interesting challenges from a range of industries to cut their teeth on.

During the fall, some of my classmates came up with the next big thing for Amazon during the HTBA Amazon Case Competition and solved a complex hypothetical growth problem for Smart Things during the 2014 Deloitte National Case Challenge. This winter quarter, my friend and fellow first-year, Dan Abbott, and his teammates took home the gold during the 4th annual Challenges in Energy Case Competition for their win-win solution for EV charging at commercial location. Another friend, Liz Prutting, competed in the Entertainment Case Competition during the annual MEMES Pulse Conference, sponsored by Paramount Pictures. Her team came up with a set of creative recommendations on how to move media consumers up the margin ladder for movie purchases.

I, on the other hand, leapt into the case comp pool by way of the Net Impact Consulting Challenge (NICC), which took place last weekend. While most case competitions are just a few days, the NICC was a fascinating 2.5-week real consulting engagement with a real client. All participating clients were local LA non-profit organizations that signed up with real issues they needed help analyzing. My team of five was paired with a client org, which will remain anonymous, that has a serious volunteer recruitment and retention problem. (They rely on volunteers for 90% of all activities.) As someone who is deeply interested in all things human-capital-management related, this was a great fit for me!

Over the course of the next two and a half weeks, our team conducted extensive secondary research on volunteer trends and best practices in the non-profit sector. This informed our primary research, as we did multiple site visits to interview volunteers and conduct surveys. Ultimately we came up with a detailed plan outlining different recruitment and retention tactics to increase volunteer numbers and keep them engaged longer, and presented our recommendations to a panel of social impact experts. I wish the story ended with "then we won first place!" But it doesn't, because we didn't. We didn't even advance to the finals. But that didn't matter - our client was thrilled with our research, analysis, and recommendations. In a follow-up meeting, they said that they planned to implement most, if not all, of our suggestions. That meant more to our team than any first place prize. Plus, now I think I've found a new organization to volunteer with here in LA!

In other Anderson Case Competition news (for all you bankers out there) - tomorrow marks the kick-off of the Fink Center Stock Pitch Competition 2015. Good luck to the team representing Anderson!

Team Sugar Dumplings: Richard Wang, Britney Sussman, Kirby Ryan, Lucy Prom, and Lindsee Redmond

Follow me on twitter: @brit808 

Favorite Recruiting Moments of Fall 2014

I survived my first quarter!! No, I didn’t just survive; I flourished! But it wasn’t easy. Over the last three months, I was stretched and challenged in ways that change a person. I had 36 hours of things to do each day, and I had to bring my A-game to everything. First quarter classes are extremely rigorous and Google was recruiting on campus Day 1, so for 12 weeks I did a calculated dance between academics, recruiting, and social activities. It was intense and I’m a better version of myself because of it.

Sometimes I would be on the phone to my parents and would have to stop myself and say, “It might sound like I’m complaining, but I’m not. I love this. Every email I send, every informational interview I do, and every hour I put into studying is all about me and my future. It’s not about my boss or the organization I work for. It’s about me. It’s a uniquely selfish time and I love every minute of it.”

All of the hard work paid off, and at the end of the quarter, I accepted an offer for a summer internship (stay tuned for more about that in a future post). However it’s not about the destination, but the path you take to get there, and I really enjoyed the recruiting process. I recruited for human capital consulting and internal human capital management roles at tech companies. It is a field that is gaining interest at Anderson as more companies think strategically about how they manage their employees. Companies make presentations daily and nightly on campus, but here are my top four favorite recruiting events of fall quarter:

1. MCA Firm Kickoff – At Anderson, a lot of the recruiting takes place through on-campus professional clubs. The opportunities for consulting are run through the Management Consulting Association (MCA). At the MCA Firm Kickoff, over 15 top firms sent representatives to meet Anderson students. Each practice was stationed at a cocktail table, and for three hours, students could walk around and network with each one. It was a formal yet casual affair, and the perfect venue to make a good first impression with a variety of firms. The event was also on the night before the Statistics midterm, so it served as a good lesson in balancing academics and recruiting.
2. National Academy of Human Resources Foundation – The NAHR hosts an annual dinner and meeting with its fellows in New York City each November. One of the NAHR Foundation initiatives is to include select MBA students in the event, with the goal of attracting “top first year Master’s students to the HR profession.” I was chosen to represent Anderson at this year’s NAHR dinner, where I had the chance to chat with CHROs from a range of Fortune 100 companies. It was inspiring to hear from executives who have shaped the HR function over the last few decades.
3. Deloitte Human Capital Case Workshop – Deloitte has one of the leading human capital consulting practices and a growing office in LA. So I jumped at the chance to learn from some of the best at a case workshop they did on campus. Five practitioners, who were all also Anderson alumni, generously spent four hours on a Friday walking us through the Deloitte approach to casing. They provided us with valuable feedback after we worked through a practice case in groups. The day wrapped with a happy hour at a bar in West LA, which was a great way to get to know the Deloitte HC Anderson team a little better.
4. Days on the Job Tech Trek – Fellow Student Voice Blogger, Piyush Jain, published an earlier article that talks about this week in more detail, but to quickly summarize: for one week in November deemed “DOJ Week,” classes were canceled and Anderson students flew all around the country, visiting companies they are interested in. The High Tech Business Association (HTBA) organized the Tech Trek, which allowed me to jet up to Seattle, then down to San Francisco and visit Microsoft, Amazon, Adobe, Visa, LinkedIn, eBay, Intel, and Autodesk. It was an incredible opportunity to network with Anderson alumni working at each of these companies and experience the corporate culture first hand. I was able to ask recruiters about strategic HR summer internship opportunities and hear about their human capital issues. For example, we toured Visa Inc.’s recently-opened innovation outpost in the heart of San Francisco. As Visa prepares to do a lot of tech hiring, the new office is a statement of how Visa is branding itself to compete for top talent against other companies.

After such a rewarding first quarter, I can’t wait to see what the rest of the school year has in store for me. Here’s to an incredible 2015!

The group of Master's students who were selected to participate in the 2014 National Academy of Human Resources Annual Dinner and Discussion Meeting in New York City.

Anderson students who visited Adobe during the San Francisco "Days on the Job" Tech Trek.

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

Why Anderson? (Part 2)

This is somewhat of a continuation to my previous post.  As an applicant/prospective student, I know how valuable it was in my decision making process to hear why people decided to attend a particular school.  As a way to pay it forward, I decided to ask some recent graduates, current students, and fellow incoming members of the Class of 2016 the question, “Why Anderson?”  I just wanted to thanks to everyone that responded!  So, here it goes.  (WARNING: This is a beast of a post)

One recent graduate, who played a huge part in me deciding on Anderson said, “I had a great career in New York, and I wasn't sure I needed to go to business school, and if I did, I thought I wanted to go to one of the top five schools. When, I was introduced to Anderson, however, my perspective changed completely. The students were ambitious but supportive of each other, and were the happiest people of any business schools I had visited. From Ivy Leaguers to Iraq War veterans to former male models, the class was more diverse than I thought possible, and I knew I could learn a lot from these people. I decided to go to Anderson over other, higher ranked schools, because it simply felt right. I have never once regretted that decision.”  She continued, "Anderson has been nothing short of a transformational experience. I became incredibly involved early on in my first year, and I have most enjoyed getting to know every one of my classmates through student government, professional organizations, and fun Anderson traditions like football tailgates, C4C Charity Weekend, and Lit Club. As I graduate, I feel lucky to have made such incredible new friends, and I know it is a network of impressive people that will help me for the rest of my life."

C4C Part Deux: What a Difference a Year Makes

It's been about a month since my last post right before spring break, and we are now near the end of week 3 of the spring quarter. Hard to believe that I only have 7 weeks left of my time at Anderson!

However, it may be the most jam-packed 7 weeks of my MBA experience as I try to fit in every last possible business school experience as I can. I'll write about some of my non-Anderson experiences in an upcoming post so that people can learn about all the opportunities living in Los Angeles provides for having fun, but right now I want to talk about one of my favorite weekends at Anderson - the Challenge 4 Charity Sports Weekend. 

I wrote a post about it last year, but as a quick refresher, Challenge 4 Charity is a non-profit organization that nine West Coast business schools participate in. Over the course of the year, students volunteer and fundraise for charities to earn points. Said points make you eligible to participate in the final event of the year, sports weekend at Stanford.

Last year due Stanford needing to change the date of the sports weekend for logistical reasons, the group of 200+ Anderson students in attendance were primarily first-year students (my class). This year we brought 302(!?!) people to Stanford, as our C4C co-presidents, David Ketelsen and Karri VanMeetren, did a phenomenal job getting the class of 2015 hyped to attend. 

Combining the athletic talents of two classes of Anderson students resulted in the following out of 20 total sports:

- 13 teams in 1st place

- 6 teams in 2nd place

- 1 team in 4th place

Overall Place - #1 in sports!

Without further ado, here's some great photos from the weekend of our players in action and our championship teams: 

Another year over, a new one has begun...

I know this is a few weeks late to qualify as a new year post but hey, I go by the Chinese New Year so technically I'm a few days early yet! ;)

Seriously, can you believe it is the year 2014?! It just sounds so futuristic to me... I didn't think it was possible but fall quarter second year went by even faster than it did first year. Looking back I realize I was a pretty big slacker on the blogging front so here's a quick photo recap of the last few months:

AnderCanadian Thanksgiving brunch with bottomless mimosas at Le Soleil Westwood

Guest Post - UCLA Anderson Wine Club

Just in time for the holiday season, today's guest post comes to us from Emily Scadden, MBA '14 and member of UCLA Anderson's highly popular Wine Club.  The group's mission is to educate members about all things wine-related, for both personal and professional development.  

Standing in front of a label-free bottle of Bordeaux, I think to myself, “It’s go-time.” I give my glass another tilt and let the smooth red swirl from the tip of my tongue to the back of my throat. After two failed attempts to discern the main characteristics of this lovely blend, I’m determined to redeem myself in this blind Bordeaux tasting. I’m confident it’s a medium-bodied wine, with a vintage between 2008-2012. But as for dominant varietal and flavor, clearly the complexity of the wine is getting the best of me.

Hmm, what can it be?

I faced this challenged to my palette at the Bordeaux Matchmaking event at Monsieur Marcel in Beverly Hills last night. The event brought together more than 200 wine enthusiasts from UCLA Anderson School of Management and USC Marshall School of Business. And with more than 20 wines from Bordeaux being poured, the region showed off the diversity and complexity of its offerings.

As the grand-père of the blend, Bordeaux reds take their flavor mainly from cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, merlot, and malbec grapes. The whites from sauvignon blanc and semillon. After answering a survey of my tastes and preferences before the event, I was matched with a flight of whites from Bordeaux including a Chateau de Caulet, Lys de Cournillot, Chateau Marac, and Monsieur Marcel, Entre-Deux-Mers. Nearly a dozen custom-designed flights satisfied the tastes of the other revelers.

The mystery pour that had stumped me? Turned out to be Chateau Peylaby, Medoc, an earthy, medium-bodied, 2010 dominated by cabernet sauvignon grapes. Good thing you don’t have to be a sommelier to appreciate a great glass of Bordeaux. All it requires is good company and a taste for adventure.

To learn more about the Wine Club, check out this Daily Bruin article and head over to their website!

Guest Post - Marketing Association

Today's guest post comes from Craig Rosenkranz, First Year Director of Admissions for the Marketing Association (MA). The MA, with over 150 members, provides networking and professional development opportunities for students interested in marketing careers.  Read on for highlights from one of these recent events with General Mills!

 

Aside from all of my classmates and me studying like crazy for our first 2 midterms, last week was a pretty eventful and exciting week here for members of the Marketing Association (MA) at UCLA Anderson.

To start things off, representatives from General Mills came to campus and held informal “coffee chats” with small groups of first year students. We had the chance to sit down with two UCLA Anderson alums and talk candidly about their career experiences and what life is really like working as a Brand Manager at General Mills.

That afternoon, the MA kicked-off a series of lunch time marketing workshops led by General Mills reps Doug and Brad. The first one entitled “Putting Marketing into Real-World Practice” was led by marketing guru and UCLA Anderson alum, Doug Martin. We took a look at some current marketing campaigns and broke down what we think they’re doing well and what we think they could be doing better. This Smart ad really stood out (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0dkjtQdJzI) and was a crowd favorite.

Brad led the next workshop, entitled “Marketing in a Connected World” which focused on how brands can connect and provide value to their consumers beyond simple needs like good taste. Brad ran through a real life General Mills example of the rebranding of the classic kids cereal, Kix. It was great to get an insight into how Brand Managers approached a problem and turned around a brand.  

Both workshops were super engaging and highly interactive. I can’t wait to see what the rest of first quarter brings!

To learn more about the MA, visit their website.