First Place (3x) and Flex from Houston: Meet Vishal Saheta ’17

What is Flex like from Houston? And how about your wife flying to LA with you?

How does it feel to earn three first place finishes in case competitions during FEMBA?

What is FEMBA like during large layoffs at your company?

Vishal Saheta ’17 is in a brand new role as a Project Manager at Schulumberger (Fortune #287), and he answers these questions and more in this Drive Time podcast interview. If you’re thinking about Case Competitions, if you’re thinking about Flex, if you’re balancing friends and family and FEMBA, Vishal’s story has something for you.

Vishal’s three first place finishes in case competitions were:

1. 2017 First Place “The Economist / NRG Energy Case Study” global competition
   The $10,000 prize is shared by Vishal and his team members Ean Mulligan and Julian Trobe, both in the full-time MBA program. The judges awarded UCLA #1 saying, “The UCLA Anderson Blue team’s solution was clean, concise and well thought-out.” 15 competing teams included HEC Paris, MIT, Duke, Carnegie Mellon, UCLA, Rutgers and Columbia. The UCLA Anderson Energy Management club made this competition available.
2. 2016 First Place “PwC Fiercest Competitor Strategy” competition
   The UCLA Anderson Management Consulting Association made this competition available, with sponsorship from PwC. Two teams from UCLA actually competed against each other.
3. 2015 First Place, 4th Annual “UCLA Challenges in Energy” case competition 
   Teams from seven schools competed, including Stanford, UC Berkeley and Michigan Ross. Vishal’s winning team “The Energizer Bunnies” consisted of Dan Freeman ’15, Dan Abbott ’16, and David Penskar ’16. The first place prize was $2,500. The UCLA Anderson Energy Management club also made this competition available.

To complete the interview, Vishal shares about:

• Global Access Program with Finland and a Global Immersion to Hong Kong. Vishal shares about these two FEMBA experiences.
• Maximizing productivity in FEMBA Flex. Vishal ends the interview sharing some of his secrets for success.

Vishal is a very accomplished person with 17 years of experience in Technology development & Product Management. His pre-UCLA degrees include a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Mumbai (First Class with Distinction) and an MS in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue where he earned a 4.0. UCLA Anderson helped him round out his skill set by building on his finance skills (passed 3 levels of CFA) and innovation skills (24 US and International patents awarded).

Enjoy!

The real Jerry Maguire and the $5,000 1st Place Prize: Meet the winners of the Game Day Sports Case Competition

Last weekend, three FEMBAs won the 4th annual Game Day Sports Case Competition at Villanova University. Congratulations to Thomas Crutchley ’19, Keenan Long ’19 and Doug Paulus 19.  And special thanks to Thomas for this interview.

Dylan: So first, Thomas, thanks for bringing me the good news. And second, tell me all about the Game Day Sports Case Competition.

Thomas: My pleasure Dylan. Well we all flew to Pennsylvania last weekend. A cool thing was that MEMES paid for our plane tickets to go compete. We won from a field of nine teams including Penn, U Connecticut, another UCLA team, USC and Villanova.

Dylan: Congratulations! Tell me more.

Thomas: Well, this was the 4th annual for this case competition. It goes back and forth between UCLA Anderson and Villanova. UCLA hosted 1 and 3, and Villanova hosted 2 and 4. It comes back to UCLA next year I believe.

Dylan: That’s great. So our new FEMBA 2020 students reading this, pay attention, maybe you can participate next year. And you won’t have to fly to Pennsylvania.

Thomas: Yeah, they’ll save a flight, but they’ll miss out on the Philly cheesesteaks!

Dylan: Life is full of difficult choices for sure. How did you hear about the competition?

Thomas: Keenan got an email from the SBA [the Sports Business Association] and we looked into it. The hardest part honestly was that this competition requires both MBA and Law School students be on every team.

Dylan: Cool. So how’d you get a law student on your team?

Thomas: All internal networking. We reached out to Dean Freixes. We just started asking around. We ultimately connected with Ilan Issacs, a 3L here at UCLA Law. He crushed the legal part. He’s going into entertainment law after graduation.

Dylan: And how about Doug and Keenan, your fellow FEMBAs? How all do you know each other.

Thomas: Well first we’re all in Section 3. Go section 3! And second, we’re all just a bunch of sports lovers.

Dylan: And was this your first case competition?

Thomas: For sure. First case competition for all of us. Turns out all four of us have a sports connection. Ilan walked on to the soccer team at Brown. Keenan played semi-professional Major League baseball. I played college baseball at UCSD. And Doug self-describes as the “ultimate intermural athlete.”

Above: 2017 Game Day Sports Case Competition (L-R) Ilan Isaacs 3L UCLA Law School, host and professor Jeffrey Moorad, Keenan Long 19, Doug Paulus 19 and Thomas Crutchley 19.

Dylan: Nice. And how about Jeffrey Moorad, professor and founder of the Game Day Sports Case Competition?  [Shown in the photo above.]

Thomas: That’s one of the coolest parts. So he’s amazing. He’s a former sports agent, as well as the former CEO and former minority owner of both the Arizona Diamondbacks and the San Diego Padres of Major League Baseball (MLB).

And, he’s part of the inspiration of the Jerry Maguire character in the movie.

Dylan: No way. That’s awesome. I didn’t know that?

Thomas: When he teaches sports business at UCLA, he brings in all kinds of big names, A-Rod, like that. He represented Steve Young, Troy Aikman, Warren Moon, Manny Ramirez. That’s where they got all the perspective that became the Jerry Maguire character.

Dylan: Oh yeah. That’s right. In my Drive Time podcast interview with our FEMBA Olympic Gold medal winner Ed Moses last year, Ed mentioned being in that class.

Thomas: Professor Moorad is amazing. He created this case competition. He put up the prize money.

Dylan: I’m looking him up online right now. Looks like he’s an alum of both UCLA and also Villanova, and that in 2012 he donated $5 million to the Villanova Law School for the creation of a new Center for the Study of Sports Law.

Thomas: Exactly. And when we met him at first we didn’t recognize him. We were all mingling around and one of asked, “So what’s your role here?” Later, when he went up on stage and we realized the whole thing revolves around him. You know. It was a moment.

Dylan: Love it. Well what were your other take-aways? Was it worth your time and effort?

Thomas: For sure. I think for all of us, what was really exceptional was the interaction with the judges. I mean, these were some real big names in sports management, like Joe Banner, former president of the Phildelphia Eagles. He was a judge. People like that.

And we were hanging out with them, listening to them talk about their careers.

It was eye-opening. It’s not just an old boys network. The way they described their career paths, you can see it. You can see that you can take an MBA, or a law degree, and you can really make a career in sports management.

Dylan: How great is that? We all know sports is a huge business and it’s only going to grow.

Thomas: Yes. And these guys were telling us how to get started. I mean, they all gave us their business cards. It was great.

Dylan: Oh very good. Hold on to those. And follow up. Send ’em a ping now and again to keep them posted on how your MBA is going.

Thomas: We will for sure.

Dylan: Well thanks for this. You made my week with your story. Congratulations again Thomas (and Doug, Ilan and Keenan!).

Thomas Crutchley, FEMBA 2019, with the winning check. Congrats!

Team 21 Visionaries: Deloitte Case Competition Winners

Welcome to the first Drive Time Podcast of 2017, featuring Team 21 Visionaries, the #1 team out of a field of 24 Anderson teams in the 2016 Deloitte Case Competition held here at Anderson last Fall Quarter. Seen above (left to right) are Melissa Tran, Sophia Moreno, Ella Foux and Bradley McGough, all Class of 2018.

Melissa, Sophia, Ella and Bradley give you their insider’s peek at what a case competition is all about and the reasons you’d want to participate, including:

• Exposure to Deloitte Executives
• Opportunity to hone public speaking skills
• Getting your feet wet in consulting
• Competing for real dollars in prize money
• Solving real-time company challenges
• Receiving feedback from Deloitte Executives
• Visiting both the Los Angeles and the Dallas offices of Deloitte
• Building memorable connections with classmates across sections
• And more.

Congratulations again to Melissa, Sophia, Ella and Bradley. We appreciate your representation of UCLA Anderson!

Podcast: Meet Matt Rose ’16, “Co-Founding PetSnap with Classmates”

Matt Rose ’16 ran full speed through FEMBA and we hope you enjoy hearing his journey. A transplant from Colorado, Matt already had a Master’s degree before his MBA from UCLA. An unexpected life tragedy happened during FEMBA and from there he had an insight that led to creating PetSnap with classmates. In this podcast, you’ll learn how:

• Matt launched PetSnap with very little outlay of funds, using the resources of UCLA,
• Matt’s section three classmates became his co-founders,
• Professors Cockrum, Freixes, Scheinrock and Sussman supported the architecture of PetSnap,
• Matt and his wife Kate greeted their first child just before graduation. (Their daughter was born after we recorded this podcast.)

Enjoy meeting Matt Rose ’16.

Download our podcasts for offline listening.

Podcast: Sean Camarella ’16 “A Global Tour with Destination McKinsey”

“A Global Tour with Destination McKinsey”

Meet Sean Camarella, UCLA Anderson FEMBA Class of 2016. A Bruin undergrad, Sean had already earned a prior Master’s Degree from USC while climbing the ranks at Boeing to be a Manager in Materials and Processes. You’ll hear how Sean fulfilled his two MBA goals of gaining a global perspective and accelerating his career as he goes into the details of his experiences:

• Consulting with a company in Finland for his Global Access Program (GAP) capstone project
• Traveling on two Global Immersions, to Argentina with Professor Terech and to China with Professor Leslie
• Graduating with the Specialization in Global Management
• Changing careers during FEMBA
• Graduating as one of 4 classmates his year going to McKinsey and Company
• Finally, and after the recording of this podcast, Sean and his wife Laura have welcomed their first daughter Charlotte, who was born healthy and happy the week before graduation.

We hope you enjoy meeting Sean Camarella UCLA Anderson FEMBA Class of 2016.

“I got everything I wanted from my MBA” meet Isadora Dantas ’16

“I got everything I wanted from my MBA”  Meet Isadora Dantas, UCLA Anderson FEMBA Class of 2016. Hers is a fantastic global journey from Brazil to New York City to Los Angeles, a powerful personal transformation, and incredible career results. Isadora shares generously about the impact of FEMBA:

• Discovering a passion for public speaking during Professor Firstenberg’s course
• Becoming a TEDx campfire speaker at UCLA
• Aligning her prior Master’s degree research on happiness
• Co-founding a start-up, Petsnap, with FEMBA classmates
• Switching careers, from graphic design to product management, leveraging the coaching of Susan Cowell and our FEMBA Career Services team
• Switching companies, from Disney to Sony to finally landing at UCLA-founded, Cornerstone OnDemand, all utilizing her UCLA network
• Taking a Global Immersion to Israel with Professor Gabriel to see the vibrant tech scene
• Meeting her “FEMBesties” during school
• (Short on time?? Start at 38:00 to hear Isadora’s summary of her FEMBA journey, and what’s next.)

Enjoy!

Download our podcasts for offline listening.

Good news and Great news

Friday afternoon in Westwood and what’s this unique atmospheric occurrence? Something that resembles moisture has been falling from the sky…strange.

Great last couple of weeks in FEMBA. 99% of Round Two has been reviewed by Faculty Committee and the applicants have been notified, two weeks ahead of schedule.

WELCOME to all our new Round Two members of the Class of 2019!

Applications are still up for the season, and we look forward to welcoming you to UCLA. We’ll have a welcome event April 9, and save-the-date for FEMBApalooza 5, July 24th.

GOOD LUCK WITH FINALS EVERYONE  Winter Quarter went fast this year!

My final is next week, for the “Being a Leader” course I took this quarter across campus in the Luskin School of Social Welfare. Taking one class, while working, made me appreciate yet again how dedicated you are as you go through FEMBA.

PROGRAM UPGRADE: Enrichment Program for young children of Saturday FEMBAs

We have launched an Enrichment Program in partnership with UCLA Early Care and Education exclusively for the children of UCLA Affiliates. We now have an on-campus option for child care on Saturdays.

Your young children can attend an enrichment program Saturday while you attend FEMBA classes! We can’t wait to see if we attract new FEMBAs with young children who would not have chosen to get their MBA otherwise.

CONGRATULATIONS! First Place winners of the Southern California  ACG Cup last week.

Above: l-r Jeremy Mau, David Zhou and Kyle Patterson, all Class of 2017.

ACG, the Association for Corporate Growth – Los Angeles, hosted 11 teams from multiple schools in this annual investment banking competition. Jeremy, David and Kyle’s team came out #1. The team worked hard for the three week window of the competition, and their efforts paid off!

DOING WELL WHILE DOING GOOD — ANDERSON MEETS YAMAHA MUSIC

Above: Professor Bhagwan Chowdhry, Sid Khanna 17, Dr Margaret Martin, Founder of Harmony (non-profit), D’Addario Foundation Executive Director, Suzanne D’Addario Brouder, C Terry Lewis – chairman of Yamaha Music and Wellness Institute, Dr. Barry Bittman, center, CEO/President of Yamaha Music and Wellness Institute, Bhavna Sivanand Price Center, Geetha Rajan 17, Karen Shang 17, Clarissa Chiang 17 and Navin Prabhu 17.

The photo above came from one of my favorite FEMBAassadors, Geetha Rajan 17, along with this note:

Hi Dylan,

I wanted to share an amazing opportunity that FEMBA students had this week (03/07/16) . What started off as a Net Impact Case Challenge, went as far as being chosen to represent Anderson to present our recommendations on scaling Harmony (a non-profit that focuses on positive development of low-income children through music) to the CEO/President of Yamaha Music and Wellness Institute, Dr Barry Bittman. Dr. Bittman flew in from Pittsburg to understand our recommendations and was very impressed. The Price Center and Professor Bhagwan Chowdhry have been invaluable in maintaining the relationship with Harmony and giving us this opportunity.

Further, we are also chosen to present our recommendations to an Anderson Trustee who is interested in potentially investing in Harmony! 

I never knew how far this would take us. Truly an opportunity of a lifetime! 

Thanks,
Geetha

TWO LiveGuides IN APRIL: MEET SRISHTI GOYAL 16 and KIESHA McCURTIS 16

Two great LiveGuide sessions so far for Spring Quarter. If you have friends who want an in-depth look at the value of FEMBA, have them sign up for either of these LiveGuide sessions:

Srishti Goyal 16 LiveGuide Session April 4

Kiesha McCurtis 16 LiveGuide Session April 21

FEMBAs sharing their experience with their peers at Northrop Grumman

Above, this year’s first Corporate Connect Information Session for Northrop Grumman employees was held at Il Fornaio Restaurant in Manhattan Beach. This event was organized by Barry Ripley 16 and attended by four other current FEMBA students Roselle Chinsio 16, Timothy Bednar 18, Stephen Moran 18, Anthony Davidson 17, and 19 prospects that currently work in the Engineering field at Northrop. There was great energy in this informal setting and several people walked away with plans to apply this year and next year. We want to thank Barry for his hard work in coordinating with current students, building the audience and reserving the restaurant to make it a convenient way for Northrop employees to meet current UCLA Anderson FEMBA students and learn about the program first hand during their lunch break.

LUNCH-AND-LEARN at the Cheesecake Factory in Sherman Oaks

Barry Ripley 16 was with Chris Thompson and me for a lunch in Sherman Oaks, above.

Last, but definitely not least, Christy Marquez and Raymond Morada put a LOT of MILES in this week recruiting. Christy did two Bay Area events, one each in San Francisco and Mountain View. She also hosted a great coffee chat here on-campus today. Raymond did two lunches, one in San Diego, and the other in Irvine. What a good, great week! Thanks to all my team.

Great weekends everyone!

Pet-Loving FEMBAs Create PetSnap

Five Pet-Loving FEMBAs Bring Pet Health and Wellness Management to Your Smartphone

Love your pet?

Want to be the best pet-parent you can be?

In 2012, Matt Rose and his wife Kate learned that their dog, best friend and ski buddy Barlow had cancer. Barlow fought the disease for almost two years. It was an emotional time, and Matt and Kate felt overwhelmed and confused tracking all of Barlow’s medical records, appointments and medications. They were concerned that they or one of Barlow’s many vets might miss (or misplace) something critical in all of those paper records.

Matt and Kate Rose posed with Barlow for their engagement photo in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado

Matt formed a team of FEMBA classmates at UCLA Anderson to build an app that could combine all of Barlow’s paper records in one safe place, and allow Matt and Kate to keep that information with them in case of emergency, and easily share it with vets, dog sitters or friends.

The team talked to a lot of pet owners who needed anytime access to their pet’s health information, and PetSnap was born.

Their team of five FEMBAs is changing the way you take care of your furry friends with their free mobile website and app, PetSnap. PetSnap is a pet health management platform that allows pet owners and veterinarians to collectively manage animal health from a computer or mobile device. It helps pet owners organize, digitize, and share their pets’ health records, and also set reminders for appointments, medications, and/or treatments.

When Barlow got sick with cancer, Matt was introduced to the problem of not having all Barlow’s medical history succinctly in one place.

PetSnap empowers pet owners to manage their pets’ health as well as they manage their own. As lifelong pet parents, the team at PetSnap truly believes that their platform can help make a difference in the health and well-being of animal family members. And the community seems to agree – PetSnap had a great response at last summer’s FEMBApalooza, signing up over 300 attendees.

Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, during a mentoring session with PetSnap on campus, agreed that “This lowers the stress of being a pet parent. It makes them feel good and that they are taking better care of their pet.”

You can support PetSnap. Like all start-ups, PetSnap needs to gain momentum. Two actions that will support PetSnap:

1. Download their iOS app
2. Refer PetSnap to your pet-owning friends

For more information about PetSnap, you can download their iOS app, visit their website at www.petsnapapp.com, view their 1-minute demo, or engage with them on Instagram or Facebook. The team would love to talk to you more about their product and how it can be improved to help you and your pets. Email matthew.rose.2016@anderson.ucla.edu

Stop them in the hallway if you see them!

Front Row, L-R: Rich Headley FEMBA ‘16,  Isadora Dantas FEMBA ‘16,  Frankie Judy FEMBA ‘16

Back Row, L-R: Matt Bailey,  Matthew Rose FEMBA ‘16,  Rex Hatch FEMBA ‘16

In the middle, held by Matt is Eddie. About half a year after Barlow passed, Matt’s wife Kate found Eddie wandering alone and unidentified in Koreatown and rescued him.

I want to thank Rich and Matt for generating this update on PetSnap. We’ll keep more updates coming as they proceed.

Additional story-lines include (Aren’t they busy!)

• PetSnap utilizing the new UCLA Anderson Venture Accelerator space for their development efforts
• Matt Rose winning the 2015 Wolfen Award
• PetSnap currently at the semi-final level in Baylor University’s New Venture Competition. Waiting to hear if they make the finals.
• PetSnap being semi-finalists in the UCLA Knapp Venture Competition
• PetSnap earning second-place at the IE (Spain) Venture Competition
• PetSnap currently prepping to enter Oregon’s competition
• PetSnap entering the UCLA Law School Lowell Milken Institute Sandler Prize for New Entrepreneurs
• PetSnap entering the ITA Venture Competition this Spring
  (They’re seeking an engineer to joing the team for this one, if you’re interested!)

 

 

3 FEMBA military leaders + $1,000,000 Hult Prize Challenge

As we approach Veteran’s Day, I’m already thinking about the contributions of leadership that the 65 active duty / reservist / veteran FEMBAs add to our great student body. This week, I want to mention three of our FEMBA military members who continue to offer their leadership to the world, even after their military service has completed.

#1  Graham Pulliam, FEMBA 2017, Director- Design and Manufacturing at i4C Innovations Inc., formerly United States Marine Corps Officer

Before FEMBA… Marine Captain Graham Pulliam near Combat Outpost Rocco, Uzbin Valley, Kapisa Province, Afghanistan, summer 2009. Credit: Graham Pulliam

Graham was interviewed on Public Radio International last week. If you follow this link, you can read the story and hear the radio interview of Graham.

#2  David Henwood, FEMBA 2018, Account Executive at Stryker, former US Navy Surface Warfare Officer.

David Henwood ’18, Account Executive at Stryker and former US Navy Officer

On the philanthropic side, David let me know about a fund-raiser he helped plan and deliver last month.

Our event, Ohana (Hawaiian for “family”) supports the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, which serves to pay for the college education of wives and children of special operations warriors.  We hosted an upscale Hawaiian resort theme/gala on Friday September 18, in Redondo Beach at the seaside lagoon, with live music as well as food tasting.  The Hawaiian theme came from my outrigger paddling team, and I have connected them with my former SEAL mentor, CDR Tom Deitz, who sits on the board of the special operations warrior foundation.

OHANA from Alex Neiberg on Vimeo.

The event was a huge success.  We raised $25,224.00 – not bad for our first year!!! As I mentioned to you before, all of the event proceeds go toward funding the college tuition of wives and children of fallen Special Operations Warriors.  We are extremely excited to have nearly TRIPLED our fundraising goals!  We had our post mortem and have already started outlining plans for our September 2016 event.  I absolutely think that there is a connection for FEMBA to be part of this next year, and I will be sure to connect with you about this as time draws nearer.

#3 Mark Harper FEMBA 2011, SVP Creative and Business Development at We Are The Mighty, formerly US Air Force officer

This week I was on Facebook and I saw a link from Mark Harper, one of my all-time favorite FEMBAs. From 2010 to 2014, I hosted the “All-Anderson Commercial Challenge” and teams made 60-second viral commercials about Anderson. Mark and his classmates won the grand prize the first two years. Post-FEMBA, Mark is now the SVP in a unique start-up called We are the Mighty.com, and that is where I saw his very poignant video (link below). Keep an eye of Mark: He’s one of the most creative people I know and I love following his future.

Part of WATM’s veteran team in front of the Hollywood headquarters (L-R) – Augie (Navy Nuke), OV (Navy Air), Mark (Air Force Combat Camera), Ward (Navy Air), and Paul (Marine Corps Infantry). (Photo: Jeremy Rhodes)

From the We are the Mighty website:

About Us
We Are The Mighty (WATM) is the first entertainment and lifestyle brand for and by the military community and those who love it. We create and distribute authentic content across all genres and platforms that entertains, informs and celebrates military life.

Impact
Our mission is to celebrate service with stories that inspire. We are also committed to employing veterans and supporting their businesses and organizations.

Follow this link to see a very serious video with Mark and several other veterans discussing military suicides.

For something much lighter, watch this video from Mark’s first All-Anderson Commercial Challenge win.

**********************************************************************************************

And now for something completely different…

Do you like challenges?

Like making a difference?

Like $1,000,000 in prize money?

Like to meet former President Bill Clinton?

Compete in the planet’s largest student competition

to solve the world’s toughest challenges

Consider forming a team to enter the 7th Annual Hult Prize at UCLA.  This year, the President’s Challenge will tackle another global social challenge, as teams of three to four students come together from around the world to take on the Global “Crowded Urban Spaces” Crisis!  For full details, visit the Challenge website.

http://www.hultprizeat.com/UCLA

Homeboy Industries and Team FEMBA

FEMBA represented itself very well in the Net Impact Consulting Challenge (NICC) this year, winning both first and second place in the competition.

Here’s an inside-look at the NICC from the FEMBA team paired with Homeboy Industries. Case competitions are an excellent way to hone business skills, deepen your network, and, especially in the social-profit-focused NICC, make a difference. This year, 85 students from Anderson and the Fielding School of Public Health contributed more than 1,000 hours of consulting support to 19 organizations.

For this blog post, I had a great conversation with Deepak. The NICC was one of six case competitions he entered his first year of FEMBA. “I kinda went crazy on case competitions,” he told me.

“Dylan, what makes NICC different from the other competitions is that we really got in-depth with the client. It was much more like a day-on-the-job in that it gave me much more insight into a new industry. That key difference really caught our attention as we were building our team.”

“In every case competition, I tried to pair up with new people, even from different sections. The networking is great at Anderson, but there’s so much more to learn in a case competition setting; you really see people’s strengths and weaknesses and I think the relationships formed are even stronger.”

Here’s Deepak Patil’s telling of the NICC experience this year:

FEMBA Team “Homeboy Industries,” the 2014 Net Impact Consulting Challenge 2nd Place Winner: l-r Anjali Purkayastha ’16, Nihar Bhatt ’16, Michael Weare ’16, Prasad Naik ’16), Tiffany Cantrell ’16) and Deepak Patil ’16

The Competition: We did a few case competitions prior to NICC (Net Impact Consulting Challenge). All were interesting and enriching experiences but this one was very different compared to the others. NICC pairs you up with a local non-profit organization and you get about 15 days to do a consulting assignment with the non-profit, starting with a project scope and coming up with valuable strategic recommendations to strengthen the non-profit services. At end we present in front of judges the issues and the recommendation.

Team formation: Prasad Naik took a lead on this one and approached a few of us and convinced us to join the team, to make real impact. The final team was Prasad Naik ’16, Nihar Bhatt ’16, Anjali Purkayastha ’16, Micheal Weare ’16, Tiffany Cantrell ’16 and Deepak Patil ’16 (me).

Homeboy Industries: We got paired up with Homeboy Industries, which provides hope, training, and support to formerly gang-involved and previously incarcerated men and women. We really appreciated the cause that they work for.

Kick Off : Our contact at Homeboy Industries was a little hesitant to work with newbies (first year FEMBAs), but the kick-off meeting with us instilled the confidence in them that we could help them with our talents and varied experiences.

We had our kick off and were able to come up with project scope on day 1. Homeboy had a lot of goals and we worked with them to prioritize and narrow them to the most important. The tasks were mainly related to Homeboy Bakery division of the industry.

Got a breakout room. Time to get going.  l-r  Anjali, Tiffany, Michael, Prasad, Nihar and Deepak

Days at Work: The first task that most of us on our team did was to visit Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles, to get a better understanding of their mission. We met quite a few very enterprising Homeboys, understood the way they work and got a know-how of the workings of the bakery market.

Then it was time for market research – multiple surveys, collection of data, analyzing data, numerous calls with Homeboy Industries, customers and other potential customers. Just for people who love inside quotes – I still remember Prasad, Nihar and me (Deepak) working at around 1:00 AM at Nihar’s office trying to makes sense out of the data collected and bring it all together (doing this while eating pizza and drinking Pepsi). We were hitting some roadblocks, and I said may be we will be able to solve this if we switch to Coca Cola (Nihar works for PepsiCo) and Nihar came back saying nope, maybe it will be just easy to analyze it if we could use SAP (I work for Oracle). Touché Nihar, Touché.

Looking good!

It was hard work, but a great bonding experience at the same time. The best skill that we learned from each other was how to attack an argument and not the person.

FEMBA life comes with challenges, for example, managing the time of 6 FEMBA students (work, study, and personal life) was a tough task, but we also learned that teamwork can make many things possible. It also made us appreciate the importance and value the support our fellow FEMBAs gave us. I am pretty we are making friendships which we will cherish for life.

Deliverables and Presentation: The challenge here was to consolidate all those hours spent on research into a 15 minute presentation. Gallons of coffee and a Starbucks Gold Status helped us get through this hurdle. On the presentation day we all did a great job of presenting our findings and recommendations to the Judges and Homeboy Industries.

We had a great opportunity to compete with some of the best Anderson teams. After the first round, we made it to finals. The final presentation was in front of a larger audience and all the 15 judges. It was indeed a great experience and snagging the 2^nd place ($3000 as the prize money) was just another perk and a good one at that!

l-r Prasad, Deepak and Nihar.

Aftermath: We are still in touch with Homeboy Industries, and helped them out with the deliverables. It was an honor and a great experience to work on something which makes an impact in today’s world almost immediately and for a good cause.

From the Homeboy Industries website, here’s a cool infographic about the positive human impact that results from their efforts. Congratulations again to Deepak and team; thanks for making a difference!