Students studying microinsurance policies in Brazil are blogging

Find out more about our students conducting their field study in Brazil regarding microinsurance policies: http://uclamicrofinance.weebly.com/blog.html

MBA Students Work in Ghana Assessing Efficiency of Hospital Operations

Our client is one of the largest health care providers in Ghana. Our team has been tasked with improving the efficiency of the hospital’s operating rooms. To accomplish this, three members of our team traveled to Accra to visit. While at the hospital, we interviewed management and staff, followed patients through the system and observed surgeries. This trip helped enable our team to fully understand the hospital’s operations, including internal and external challenges the hospital must overcome. With this increased understanding, we are now developing a performance management system and providing recommendations for improving their organizational structure. In addition, we established many relationships which should prove helpful throughout the remainder of our project. Thank you CIBER for allowing this to happen!
- Scott Titus, MBA 2010

Nisarg Brahmbhatt, MBA 2010, travels to India for research

Date: September 18th, 2009

On reaching Ahmedabad, I scheduled a meeting with Jagan K. Mohan (JKM) Dasa swami, manager in charge of Akshaya Patra’s (AP) Gandhinagar operations. We agreed to meet on Friday to visit the Gandihinagar kitchen, located 30 miles from Ahmadabad. Kitchen operation starts as early as 3am and I got there at 6:30am. Upon arrival, JKM and I decided to observe operations first. It was interesting to note that everyone has to remove their shoes and use clean footwear before entering the operations to keep operations area hygienic. I observed three production areas each responsible for cooking rice, daal (soup) and roti (bread). I spoke with the supervisor in charge of each production units and used my camcorder to record the kitchen operations so that I could review the footage with my team back in USA. I also visited the area where the machines cut vegetables and prepare spices that are added to food during production. After spending two hours observing the cooking process, we decided to convene in the conference room to speak with supervisors from each section and other support department heads. At the end of another 2.5 hour conversation, I gained in-depth knowledge of typical AP operation and identified areas of improvement in regard to operations. At noon, I decided to call it a day and exchanged contact information with JKM.

Date: September 21st, 2009

My next destination was Banglore, located xxxx miles away from Ahmedabad. On Monday morning, I flew to Bangalore where I met my group mate Chinny at the airport. After two hours of car ride, we reached AP’s south Bangalore kitchen where we met Ms. Usha, our point of contact from AP. We checked in at the modest but comfortable guest house that AP kindly arranged for us and left to have a lunch meeting with Usha. Usha told us about her role, the overall organization structure and her tentative schedule for the next two days. Later in the evening, we met Ajay Parikh, Executive Director of Strategy for AP. Ajay explained the foundations overall vision and long term plans. After the meeting, Chinny and I decided to go to bed early that day because we had to get up at 4 am.

Date: September 22nd, 2009

The day started with visit of the on campus kitchen at 5:00 am! We briefly visited the on-campus kitchen in Bangalore which was similar to the one in Gujarat. We then traveled another 20 miles to AP’s North Bangalore kitchen, one of the largest kitchens in AP network. North Bangalore kitchen serves over 100,000 meals per day, five days a week and is 3 floors tall. We received warm greetings from the kitchen supervisor, and we spent the next two hours observing the 3 floors of operations that entailed cleaning, cooking and packing. Afterwards, we met the supervisor from each floor and discussed various details about their operations. Around 10:30am we left to go back to South Bangalore kitchen.
Upon reaching the kitchen campus, we met with Operations Manager for AP’s largest decentralized kitchen in Mathura. He explained how the decentralized model worked and what AP’s plans were with this type of cooking model. Usha had made arrangements for us to visit a nearby school where AP sends meals every day. We visited the school and met with the headmaster to take note of his inputs. We returned to kitchen campus and spent the next hour speaking to the transportation manager to understand the distribution system. We had a quick working lunch again discussing our observations with Usha. Next, we met the Nandnandan Dasa, head of design and process optimization. In 90 minutes, he shed light to many intriguing questions that had puzzled us. We then had another meeting scheduled with Ajay, whom we met the previous day. The three of us went through AP’s short term requirements that Ajay put together for us in a scope document. We discussed various initiatives that our AMR team could work on and how our AMR team will communicate with AP going forward.
After a marathon day of visits and meetings, Chinny and I sat down to compile our notes. We went through the scope document and created a summary for the other group members. By the time we finished, it was already 11 pm and we decided to call it a day as Chinny had a flight to catch in 5 hours.

Date: September 23rd, 2009

The next morning, I met Usha and asked her to put me in touch with head of operations in Jaipur, which has second largest decentralized kitchen. She connected me with the manager over the phone and we spoke briefly to gain more information about the Jaipur operation. After the phone call, I visited the on-campus kitchen operations to take few last minute notes. It was already 1:30pm, only 2 hours before my scheduled flight. I left for the airport after a short wrap-up meeting with Usha.

On my way to the airport, I wondered why smart people like Nandnadan Dasa (with a Masters in Industrial Engineering and amazing understanding process/operation design) decided to devote their entire life to a nonprofit organization like AP instead of acquiring wealth for themselves. Then, I remembered meeting precious school children on the previous day. Observing the children eat and happily interact with their friends was truly a satisfying moment. Now I know why everyone at AP is so excited and committed to their work. Putting a smile on a child’s face by providing his one and only meal of the day is priceless and is more rewarding than achieving any great corporate success!

The Best Summer Internship Ever in Lima, Peru

It was around the middle of March 2009, many of my friends had internships, I did not. I had a wave of interviews in January, nothing came of it. I had some more interviews in March, I got some offers but none of them were too attractive. Then, out of nowhere and after a flurry of phone interviews, I received only what could be described as the best summer internship, ever.

Altiplano Venture Funds (AVF) is a non-profit venture capital firm founded in October 2008 by an American finance professional who spotted an opportunity in Peru whilst he was working in Santiago, Chile. The main goal of AVF is to alleviate the side effects of mining activities on local communities in Peru. The team consisted of the founder mentioned above, a French/American private equity lawyer from New York, the South American director of a global engineering and project management firm, a team of American and Peruvian lawyers working for AVF on a pro-bono basis, and I (there was supposed to be another intern but he had visa issues).

Although it had been several months since AVF had been founded, it was not until the time I arrived that it was fully incorporated as a non-profit entity. Therefore, there was still a lot of ambiguity in the direction of the organization. My first task there was to identify potential sources of funding and investment targets. This involved gathering information from public databases, government archives , conferences and meetings such as ones at the Rotary Club and interviewing relevant people/organizations i.e. directors of other non-profits, government officials such as those at the US embassy and business leaders in the mining industry. Other tasks that I performed include projecting cash flows in order to determine the amount of funding required which in turn helped to demonstrate when the organization would become self-sustainable. From the research and modelling, it became clear that the original business model is not optimal. Over the weeks, ideas flowed and many changes took place in terms of the direction of the organization and its structure. Therefore, my main task was to re-draft the business plan for AVF over the coming years. This was not an easy task as no one on the team (including myself) had much experience in writing business plans. Nonetheless, I spearheaded the re-drafting of the business plan with much help from a variety of people (including a few UCLA Anderson professors). Eventually, towards the end of my internship, we ended up with a solid business plan and were ready to implement the pilot project (an investment into and management of a low-tech water filter manufacturer/distributor in rural Peru).

I had originally planned to be there to learn all there is to know about venture capital but, whilst I did get some experience in the investment selection process and financial modelling, I ended up learning much more about business development. I think this experience will prove to be much more valuable in the future than the finance skills that I had hoped to learn as a) I improved my ability to cope with ambiguity, b) I learned how difficult it is to start a business and c) knowing how difficult it is to start a business has not put me off in starting my own business in the future.
Overall, it was a fantastic experience not just because of the internship but also living in a culture that I’ve never experienced. At first, Peru seemed very foreign to me but after a week or so, when I had met a lot more people (especially Peruvians), figured out where things are and how things are done, I realized that Peru was an amazing place to be (my defining moment of feeling more “local” was when I shopped at a dingy produce market where I obtained 3 oranges, 3 pears, 2 Granadillas, a mango, a cherimoya and a huge avocado for $3.40). After my internship, I had a little time to travel and see other parts of South America. This short but packed journey made me realize that it is not just Peru that is fascinating but the whole continent has things to offer beyond my imagination. I will definitely be looking for opportunities there after graduation. To finish, I would like to thank CIBER for their generous financial assistance which enabled me to travel to Peru and help start an organization, AVF, which has the potential to improve the lives of many people who are less fortunate both now and in the future. My personal experience there was definitely enriched by this generosity, thank you.

MBAs conduct field research in India and adapt to project changes

Hello all. We arrived in Bangalore last night, and had our first day with our client today. We have been very generously welcomed here. It was a very productive day, as we were able to meet with the heads of Finance, Marketing, Fundraising, and Strategy. They were all very impressive, and they run an extremely sophisticated operation. We were able to get a strong sense of their goals, and how they hope to achieve them. We also got a sense of the many challenges they face.

There is no lack of potential projects. However, our stated project (helping choose the optimal domestic expansion targets) will probably have to change. Currently, they expand into new regions based on invitations from the local governments. They only decline invitations if they lack the resources (i.e. private donations, municipal commitment, and availability of real estate) to operate viably in that region. They already have well developed methodologies for evaluating expansion targets. Our efforts are better served elsewhere, in helping with the many other challenges they face in reaching their aggressive expansion goals.

Potential areas of focus:

- resource procurement optimization
- marketing strategies to improve domestic and international awareness
- labor force efficiency: training, knowledge transfer
- formalized strategic plans: 2-3 year plans, and a rolling 10 year plan

These are just a few of the many issues that were raised in our interviews with the staff, which we recorded and look forward to sharing with you.

Tomorrow we will be touring the main kitchen in Bangalore, as well as some of the local schools. We will keep everyone abreast of our progress. As always, any and all feedback is appreciated.

-Saman & Reggie

UCLA CIBER inaugurates high school program around sustainability

UCLA CIBER finished its first Global Green Business Week For Young Leaders, a one-week summer program for talented high school juniors and seniors. Forty students came from California, New Mexico, Minnesota, Maryland, Italy, Malaysia, France, and the United Arab Emirates to participate in the program. The students lived in dorms on campus and were taught by faculty from UCLA Anderson and the UCLA Institute of the Environment, as well as from graduate students from management, economics, and urban planning. For more info, contact our center at ciber@anderson.ucla.edu.

Note: Photo courtesy Erin Orias Photography.

Executive MBA students sponsored by UCLA CIBER conduct research for Medical and Surgical Skills Institute (MSSI) in Ghana

With the financial assistance of UCLA CIBER, a UCLA Executive MBA (EMBA) SMR (Strategic Management Research) team was able to coordinate two visits to Accra, Ghana. The purpose of these visits was to conduct primary research for the business plan. Travel to Ghana was essential to obtaining information on the Johnson & Johnson/International Aid (J&J/IA) sponsored Medical & Surgical Skills Institute (MSSI) at Korle Bu Teaching Hospital.

During their visits, they conducted interviews and surveys of medical students, surgical residents, University of Ghana Medical School professors and administrators, medical society leaders, corporate contributors and equipment manufacturers, and representatives of our client organizations.

Prior to their visit, the team conducted a study of 300 surgeons at the West African College of Surgeons Conference in Conakry, Guinea. Their initial visit to Ghana afforded the opportunity to gather interview data to supplement our survey responses. They were fortunate to also travel to the Michigan-based headquarters of International Aid. The interviews conducted there and at the University of Michigan allowed the team to gain insight into the intricacies of medical equipment donation, NGO operations, and the nuances of international relationships between academic institutions.

The team's second visit to Ghana provided the opportunity to interview members from their client organizations, gain insight into their other corporate contributions, and observe the MSSI in action. Additionally, the EMBA students used this as an opportunity to present our preliminary findings to their clients as part of a mid-point presentation.

The scope of the SMR project required primary research in excess of what would have been possible with the limited standard budget. The additional funding provided by CIBER allowed for additional research that will undoubtedly yield meaningful and actionable recommendations for the team's clients.

MBA students attend the University of Chicago Microfinance Conference

On May 8, 2009, fourteen MBA students from UCLA Anderson attended the University of Chicago Microfinance Conference. The conference, entitled "Navigating the Markets: Microfinance in the New Economy" was held at the Chicago Booth School of Business Harper Center. In addition to the fourteen first-year MBAs who attended the conference, one Applied Management Research (AMR) team from UCLA Anderson, comprised of second-year MBA students Wallace Cheng, Amit Thakkar, Tulika Kundu, and Avantika Bhargava, presented their AMR project for client Grameen America.

MBA Team Evaluates Financial Growth for Coffee Cooperative in Guatemala

MBA team Amy Nishioka, Shane Suehisa, Takako Ogawa, Felipe Sanchez, Taro Sasaki, and Andriy Aleksandrov were funded by UCLA CIBER for their AMR research project. Their client recently established federation of eight coffee cooperatives in Guatemala. Through grants from NGOs, it was able to build a dry processing facility and is in the process of obtaining an exporting license. Despite the initial grants, the client does not have adequate working capital for its current processing business or its future exporting business and has sought out the UCLA Anderson team to assist with solving this problem.

During their visit to Guatemala, the team conducted research to verify assumptions and investigate solutions regarding-the quality of the dry processing operation-the support and expectations of the member cooperatives and farmers/growers-the availability of credit in local markets and the requirements to obtain credit- and finally, the client's ability to obtain credit in the future.

Since returning, the team is focusing on formulatting the client's financial projections and validating its value proposition so that it may faciliate garnering future business from existing members and new members and obtain financing through local banks and NGOs who concentrate in the coffee growing market.

Director of Global HIV-AIDS program for the World Bank speaks at Anderson

Invited by the UCLA CIBER and UCLA African Studies Center, Dr. Debrework Zewdie, Director of the Global HIV / AIDS Program at the World Bank offered her thoughts on the economic crisis' impact on global HIV-AIDS populations in her lecture "Global Economic Crisis and the HIV Response." The lecture was attended by faculty and students from UCLA Anderson, the School of Public Health, the School of Public Affairs, and the undergraduate and graduate colleges at UCLA. This lecture was part of the UCLA CIBER Key Regions/Critical Issues lecture series.

Chinese and Spanish for Business Classes for MBAs

At UCLA Anderson, CIBER sponsors Winter and Spring quarter language for professional purposes classes. Both Mandarin and Spanish for business are taught and offered to MBA students as a two-credit elective. A combination of first and second-year students enroll in the courses, with a beginners course in each language offered in the winter and an intermediate follow-up course offered in the spring. The goal is to help students understand and gain knowledge of grammar fundamentals and basic phrases to assist in business context as well as to imbue an appreciation for each respective culture.

Social Issues Film Series continues on April 8, 2009

UCLA CIBER, in conjunction with the UCLA Anderson Entertainment and Media Management Institute (EMMI), and the UCLA Latin American Studies Center will host the second part in a two-part series on economic crisis and social issues in international business.  The documentary, Argentina: Turning Point, released by Bullfrog Films, chronicles Argentinians in the aftermath of their economic crisis in 2001-2002.  The event will be held at 5:30pm in Cornell Hall, classroom D-313.  For more information, or to RSVP, please email ciber@anderson.ucla.edu.

CIBER Info Session on International AMR Projects this Thursday

UCLA CIBER and the UCLA Anderson AMR office (Applied Management Research) will hold a special info session for MBA 2010 candidates regarding special international projects (microfinance and international social entrepreneurship) for their AMR. Students will have the chance to learn about CIBER, past projects, and the timeline for their own project. The info session will be held in Collins Center, A-301 at 11:45am on Thursday, March 5, 2009.

Social Issues Film Series event scheduled for April 8, 2009

UCLA CIBER, in conjunction with the UCLA Latin American Institute, will showcase Part II of its Social Issues in International Business Film Series focused on economic crisis. The second documentary, entitled "Argentina: Turning Around" by Melissa Young and Mark Dworkin, revisits Argentina to find out how, years later, Argentians were coping with the aftermath of their economic crisis. The event will take place on April 8, 2009 at 5:00pm at UCLA Anderson in room D-313.

Global Business Forum Takes Place in Hong Kong

UCLA CIBER, along with many other CIBER centers at US universities, sponsored the 2009 Global Business Forum organized by the University of Illinois and Hong Kong University. Approximately 130 senior executives, government officials, and alumni for sponsoring universities attended the conference held at the Hong Kong convention center. Entitled "Strategic Positioning in a New World Economic Order: Asia-Pacific and Global Competitiveness," the event took place on February 12, 2009.

MBA/MPP Student Conducts Case Study Research in Africa with HIV/AIDS organizations

Studying international management isn't always about figuring out best practices for a Fortune 500. With financial support from UCLA CIBER and the Price Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, MBA/MPP candidate, Erin Eriksson, traveled to Malawi and Kenya to assist in collecting data for case studies related to managing operations for profit and non-profit organizations. Much of her work looked at helping HIV/AIDS organizations improve their services through better management practices. Erin says, "I am grateful to CIBER for affording me the opportunity to build my knowledge and experience. As an MBA/MPP student focusing on international health, working abroad to gain experience with healthcare organizations in Africa was critical to my understanding of challenges and potential solutions."

MBAs Study Educational Project for Orphans Around the World

For their AMR project, Luis Salas, Andrew Chun, Erica Colon, Alejandro Gonzalez, and Lan Ta (all MBAs 2009) traveled to Kenya, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Mexico, to conduct an international roll-out strategy for an entrepreneurial educational project for orphans.

Funded by UCLA CIBER, their research focused on the ideal conditions of an orphanage and key success factors in order to implement an entrepreneurship educational program in orphanages in the developing world.

Social Issues Film Series event on Economic Crisis, FEB 11, 2009

This UCLA CIBER program, in conjuction with the UCLA Latin American Institute, consists of two separate documentary films that deal with the Argentine Crisis in 2001 and its aftermath 6 years later.

The first film, Argentina:Hope in Hard Times captures the social crisis that resulted when the value of the Argentine currency fell drastically, the banks froze all savings accounts, owners of businesses fled their factories and much of the public was essentially left to deal with the crisis on its own.

This film, by Melissa Young and Mark Dworkin who were in Argentina on another assignment, captures the dramatic moments of crisis that not only demonstrate the strength of the human spirit in trying times, but also how, under the most trying of circumstances, the people, workers and middle class, spontaneously organized self-help efforts and succeeded, through dialogue, discipline and hope to survive the crisis.

The second film, Argentina: Turning Point, to be shown later in April, 2009, will show how a crisis in today’s political economy can provide a opportunities for innovation and change. While not a strict Schumpeterian phenomenon, the film shows how people can experiment with new models of work, production, cooperative politics, joint ownership and community development.

MBA Field Study Team Returns from China

As part of their Applied Management Research (AMR) project, Chris Bishop, Jamie Song, and Xi Wang, both MBA 2009's, traveled to Hu County, a rural county 20 miles southwest of Xi’an in central China, to do field research and analysis for their client, a microfinance institution. While there, they interviewed government officials, customers and competitors to understand the market and performed a survey to business owners and other potential customers to identify their lending needs and awareness of their client. Through their findings, they plan to make recommendations that will help their client attract more investors, increase their customer base and improve their profitability.

Agenda launched for Title VI 50th Anniversary Conference

As a member of the Title VI programs for building a US international education infrastructure, UCLA CIBER will be taking part in the Jubilee anniversary Title VI conference March 18-21, 2009 in Washington, DC. The conference organizers have recently added the conference agenda. Please visit at http://titlevi50th.msu.edu/agenda/.

Travel Study in Peru Info Session (1/28/09)

UCLA CIBER and the UCLA Center for World Languages will host an information session tomorrow on the CIBER Business and Culture for Spanish program in Lima, Peru. The program will take place June 22-July 17, 2009. The info session will be held in Rolfe Hall, room 1301 at 12pm. Past participants will talk about their learning and life experiences in Peru and traveling in South America. Lunch will be provided!

UCLA CIBER cosponsors Global Branding conference at Columbia

In collaboration with the CIBERs at Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business, UCLA CIBER will cosponsor "Branding in India and China: The Reality and Future," which will be held at Casa Italiana, on the Columbia University campus, this Friday, January 30th.

Universidad Adolfo Ibanez visits UCLA Anderson

This week, nineteen executive MBA students from Universidad Adolfo Ibanez visited UCLA Anderson for a five-day international management seminar sponsored and organized by UCLA CIBER. The program included sessions taught by leading Anderson faculty in marketing, operations, policy, and global economics.