Raise your hand if you’ve got a smartphone next to you. This one’s for you.
“Brain Drain,” a 2017 research paper co-authored by Rady School professor Ayelet Gneezy and Ph.D. graduate Kristen Duke ( ’19) was recently recognized as having the highest social impact according to a best in class survey by Financial Times.
Gneezy and Duke’s research tested the “brain drain” hypothesis, that the “mere presence” of your smartphone might make it more difficult for you to engage with the task at hand, even when you’re resisting the temptation to actually check your phone. (Their research suggests that it does.)
Now raise your hand if you’ve just thrown your phone out the window.
To measure social impact, Financial Times first asked business schools to submit up to five research papers published within the last five years for consideration. Using Altmetrics, Financial Times measured “the online resonance that each [research paper] had with the wider world beyond universities,” including data such as academic citations, blog references and tweets. “Brain Drain” received an Altmetric score of 3956, more than five times higher than the second-highest-scoring paper.
You’ve rehearsed your pitch over and over again to prepare for the big meeting. So, how do you tell your story without sounding rehearsed?
Let’s ask Associate Professor of Marketing Rachel Gershon.
Gershon’s research focuses on understanding and improving human decision making with a focus on social and prosocial behavior. Some of her research looks at perceptions of authenticity.
In the paper Twice-told tales: Self-repetition decreases observer assessments of performer authenticity, Gershon and her co-author describe how we generally assume social interactions to be unique. When we find out that someone is repeating themselves, we find them to be less authentic, and in turn, we feel less likely to want to engage with them in the future.
Watch the video below for a research-backed tip on how you can repeat a performance—and still appear authentic—the next time you speak in public.
How to Increase Your Authenticity When Speaking in Public was last modified: February 25th, 2020 by Camille Cannon
Lessons shared by male allies at the ASCEND Executive Women’s Forum:
“A year from now, we want to be able to say, ‘Yes, look at the changes that we were able to make in the community. Look at how we were able to put this into action.’” Tasha Ross, Director of Corporate Relations for the Rady School of Management addresses a room of 40 women at the recent ASCEND Executive Women’s forum.
ASCEND, a triannual event produced by and at the Rady School of Management gathers select women in executive leadership positions across San Diego to evolve beyond discussion of the challenges they face and move toward pushing boundaries and solving issues.
The January 2020 ASCEND Forum focused on engaging with male allies to change the conversation – to see more inclusive leadership across San Diego businesses. First, Professor Uri Gneezy presented research about workplace inequities that he and his colleague, Professor Ayelet Gneezy, are conducting for a forthcoming book. For instance, most office spaces have the temperature controls set at a lower temperature, one that is often too cold for female employees. While this is a small example, it is one that most can relate to and highlights some of the questions posed in the book.
Three others: Lenny Comma, CEO of Jack in the Box; Navy Captain Al Worthy and William Molloie, Partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers were invited to speak on a panel as male allies.
Facilitated by Panthera Leadership CEO and Executive Coach, Felicia Lyon, and including questions from forum members, the panel offered actionable insights about what men and women of the workforce can do to acknowledge bias and facilitate change in the workforce.
1. Don’t put the pressures of the world on yourself.
Tell us if this sounds familiar. Lunch time is approaching
and you have a long to-do list before the next big deadline. You head to the
kitchen to heat up your food, which you’ll eat at your desk while you work. In
the kitchen, you run into a colleague who asks how your presentation went
yesterday.
“Fine,” you say. “I’ll send you a recap before the end of
the day.” The microwave chimes, you grab your food and keep walking.
Your interactions are brief and transactional. Who has time
for anything else?
“The outcome is that relationships aren’t built within brief interactions, and if you just take a little pressure off of yourself, you may be able to build stronger relationships,” says Comma. “Trust and believe in yourself. No one is going to be perfect. Don’t put pressure on yourself just because you believe that the world is putting pressure on you. Instead, be yourself. People are most attracted to you and want you to do your best work for the organization because you are you. If you can’t do your best work there and be you, then go somewhere else.”
2. Expand your network.
In a recent study, LinkedIn
reported that among people who applied for jobs directly on their platform,
those who asked for a referral from one of their connections were nine times
more likely to get the position.
The caveat here is that our networks typically consist of
people who look just like us. “Ducks pick ducks,” said Captain Worthy. This
perpetuates a lack of diversity as employees move—or don’t—up the ranks of an
organization. And a lack of diversity is straight-up bad for business.
“When there’s a decision to be made, different perspectives only make it better,” Molloie said. “That requires breaking the mold of ‘I’m comfortable with people like me and we all get the same answer.’ Because that might not be the right answer.”
Comma adds: “When you have multiple women on a team, the conversation tends to get more real. Women have had to navigate through the ‘good old boy’ conversation. Women have figured out how to challenge and change the conversation more than men who haven’t had to go through as much adversity. The process tends to be richer.”
3. Don’t overlook the middle.
From 2011-2013, Captain Worthy served as the Director of Diversity and Inclusion for the Naval Aviation Enterprise. After every forum or program they produced, Captain Worthy said he always asked one question: What do we do now?
“We realized that the only time men were hearing this conversation was when they were already at the top,” Captain Worthy said. They were eager to get it done, but in a 100,000-person organization, how do you instill change?”
Realizing this, Worthy’s team began bringing men in middle management to the diversity and inclusion conversation. “The men in the middle need to grow with the women next to them so that the culture changes below and these managers effect change as they rise through the ranks,” he said. “It can’t just come from the top.”
4. Practice transparency.
Years back as a manager working his way to partner, Molloie coached
his child’s soccer team. Driving from the office to soccer practice took at
least an hour and 15 minutes, which meant that three days a week, he needed to
leave the office at 3 p.m. to get to practice on time.
After about a year of “sneaking out early,” Molloie found himself waiting for the elevator next to a PwC practice leader. Molloie immediately thought, ‘Oh crap, I hope he doesn’t ask me where I’m going.’ The practice leader was anxiously hitting the button, and said, ‘If this elevator doesn’t come, I’m going miss rugby practice! I have to get home!’”
Molloie realized he need not hide where he was going. Seeing
a leader in his organization take the time he needed—and not apologize for
it—made Molloie realize he could do the same.
“If you’re not transparent, you’re prolonging the projection that ‘this never happens,’” Molloie said. “Although this is hard, if it’s not acceptable , you don’t want to be there. So be transparent. Only good can come from that. It may not feel like that all the time, but only good will come from that.”
At Rady, we believe in community partnerships. If you would like to connect to discuss ways to engage with the Rady School of Management, please contactcorporateengagement@rady.ucsd.edu.
Four Tips for Facilitating Change in the Workplace was last modified: February 21st, 2020 by Camille Cannon
Career fairs can be nerve-wracking affairs. We all want to make a great first impression on potential employers. So, how do we do that? We asked several accounting professionals attending a recent Meet the Firms — an accounting career fair hosted by the Rady School to introduce undergraduate accounting minors and MPAc students to dozens of employers — to share their best pieces of advice for students.
What employers want to see at a career fair:
“Someone that we can get along with in the workplace and that would have a professional demeanor when we place them in front of clients.” – Natalie Allen, UC San Diego alum and audit associate at KPMG
“Come out, be your true self. Definitely be prepared. Have some questions prepared for us to give feedback so we can get a dialogue. But then also ask us about who we are.” – Nick Winicki, UC San Diego alum and senior audit associate at Deloitte
“Communication skills. Definitely. We always say that you can always teach someone something, but it’s hard to teach soft skills to students.” -Rey Bada, staff accountant at Weworski & Associates
Next steps after a career fair:
“I think the students should think about what they’re most interested in and what they’re looking for in a career. If they’re in accounting, think about whether you’re interested in tax or audit so you can find the right path for you.” – Megan Chatman, tax manager at Gatto, Pope & Walwick, LLP
“Make sure you get business cards and then follow up with them afterwards. So every follow-up email I sent, I tried to include something we talked about so they’d remember me.” – Nick Winicki
Best advice for a job interview:
“Just be yourself, be punctual. Do some research about the firm and come up with really good questions to ask the interviewer and just try to make an impact.” – Michelle Koh, tax content analyst at Intuit
“It’s fine to be nervous. It’s fine. It happens to everyone. But the opportunities are out there and you have to be a go-getter. Go for that.” – Jose Palacios, UC San Diego alum and commercial credit underwriter at California Bank and Trust
“Be yourself. I think we all have a tendency to get nervous during a job interview but do what you can to keep your nerves calm and just really be who you are.” – Megan Chatman
“If you don’t know kind of the ins and outs of the bank and have really looked into why you’re excited to work here, it’s hard for us to see you in those positions.” – Nicole Wells, campus recruiter at California Bank & Trust
How to advance in your career:
“Participate some way in the community, whether it’s through volunteering time in the nonprofit, or being able to have a little bit of background of what it is to be in the workforce and become a little bit more knowledgeable.” – Cynthia Solomon, UC San Diego alum and relationship banker at California Bank & Trust
Accounting Professionals Share Their Best Career Advice for Students was last modified: February 11th, 2020 by Camille Cannon
We all know the struggle of sticking to New Year’s resolutions. We start strong, and then by February, our willpower to resist a plate of french fries or commit to a gym routine is gone faster than, well, said plate of fries.
What can we do to make healthy habits actually stick?
Associate Professor of Marketing Wendy Liu has answers. Liu specializes in consumer judgment and decision making, focusing on the cognitive and emotional basis of consumer choice, social interactions, and well-being.
Her recent research topics include decision making under complexity, self control decisions, and the role of emotions and social motivations in customer behavior. She also studies consumer behavior in medical and health domains.
Watch the clip below for a quick tip on how to see your new habits all the way through December.
This Quick Tip Can Help You Form Healthier Habits was last modified: February 5th, 2020 by Camille Cannon
How do qualified MBA applicants select which program is a fit for them? Their reasons are varied, layered and often deeply personal.
According to a 2019 survey by the Association of International Graduate Admissions Consultants, the five most important factors influencing an MBA applicant’s school selection are: reputation, ranking, school culture, career impact and city/geographic location.
So, how does the Rady School of Management distinguish itself? We asked full-time MBA students to share what influenced their decision.
Valerie Wiest, Class of 2021
Valerie (center)
Rady offers one of the best entrepreneurship programs in the nation and it focuses on having a positive impact on the world through
innovation. This
mission was made clear from the start when, in our orientation, one of the
presenters led us through an activity that implored us to solve problems worth
solving. That idea of
entrepreneurship with a purpose is the very reason I wanted to obtain an MBA
and why Rady is such a special place.
Small cohort size. Having a relatively small
class means that I am able to connect with my classmates and teachers on a much
deeper level than I would be able to in a bigger cohort.
San Diego weather and proximity to the beach! You really can’t beat La Jolla. I wake up every day and feel like I am on vacation. I love living and going to school here.
Kartik Sanghi, Class of 2020
A verydiverse
and inclusive culture. We get an opportunity to work with people from
around the world and grow our network globally. This also exposes us to various
perspectives and help us broaden our thought process, which is a business skill
in itself.
San Diego is a hub for entrepreneurs that offers exposure to innovation in industries such as healthcare and technology. Rady’s courses, programs and events provide multiple platforms to get hands-on experience with innovative ideas and work with like-minded people. Rady has a terrific record of [cultivating] successful entrepreneurs.
Rady hasworld-class faculty who are subject matter experts in their fields and are proactive in sharing knowledge and offering guidance to students. All of the faculty are easily approachable and open for feedback. They also make sure to modify the course structure as the industry demands to keep students up-to-date with the latest trends.
Paul Wynns, Class of 2020
Rady’sculture of innovation and collaboration resonates strongly with me.
No entrepreneur goes it alone. I’m excited about the communities here where I
can stretch my collaborative skills and find like-minded colleagues across a
diversity of technical and life experience backgrounds.
The school is agile, responsive, and forward-leaning in its approach to its MBA program. Its relationships in the San Diego startup ecosystem are full of exciting opportunities for insight, mentorship, and connections with investors.
Ehsan Amozegar, Class of 2020
The spirit I got fromits people. Since the very first
email I sent to graduate programs, Rady staff answered me in detail. I could
tell it was not copy/paste [correspondence] sent to everyone. I received a
one-on-one Skype call and the admissions team helped me discover the school from
thousands of miles away. I experienced the same level of support once I got
into the school.
UC San Diego is among the bestyoung schools globally and the Rady School offers you lessons in agility and creativity. Young schools in general, and business schools specifically, require those characteristics. After all, these are the qualities that their students need to be taught!
Takuya Onda, Class of 2020
Takuya (right)
People around Rady
are collaborative and work with others in order to pursue something new.
With its strong connections in the local economy, Rady has helped my startup access
so many resources such as mentors, advice from professionals, and the
opportunity to make a pitch.
I can develop a rich relationship with my cohort. The size of about 50 students allows me to get to know everyone well. Since the Rady community is really close-knit, you feel a responsibility to make our community better than ever.
San Diego is the best place to study with no stress thanks to the beautiful weather and ocean. Even if you are exhausted from studying long hours, the wonderful sunset from campus would make you feel great at the end of the day.
There is a cross-cultural environment here that [is important for business]. People around Rady are totally open-minded and willing to learn.
Lorena Arellano, Class of 2021
The school is highly driven by innovation. Rady allows you to explore real-life scenarios in its Lab-to-Market course, which gives me the flexibility I am looking for to simulate specific mechanisms in my industry with help and advice from professors. Also, Rady is well recognized for its quantitative analysis expertise.
Full-Time MBA Students Share Their Reasons for Choosing Rady was last modified: January 21st, 2020 by Rady School
For the fourth year in a row, the job search website
Glassdoor reported that Data Scientist is the best job in America. “This is due
to the high demand, high salary, and high job satisfaction,” Glassdoor Chief
Economist Dr. Andrew Chamberlain told CNBC. Several other data-driven roles
also made the list: including data engineer at #8 and data analyst at #31.
There’s no denying that data is very much en vogue.
“All organizations are collecting more and more data. It’s
never going to be less,” says Vincent Nijs, Associate Professor of Marketing
and co-director of the Rady School of Management’s Master of Science in
Business Analytics program. “In this competitive environment, what skill set do
you bring?”
According to a 2017 report by IBM, 39% of data scientists
and advanced analyst positions require a master’s or PhD. “I think of business
analytics as data science specifically for business,” says Nijs. “Our
curriculum is built on business problems that companies face in practice, those
that companies are willing to pay people to help solve them.” And pay they do.
“Continually learning and adding new knowledge in the field
of data science and analytics is a great long-term personal development
strategy that pays,” says Forbes writer
Louis Columbus. Indeed, that Glassdoor report shows the median base salary for
a data analyst at $60,000, but a data scientist can expect to see closer to
$110,000*.
“One piece of advice I always offer to students on the job
market is to try and start at the highest level possible,” says Raymond Petit,
Executive Director of the Rady School’s MSBA program. He has strong evidence to
support that advice. “Among graduates who report, 100 hundred percent of our
MSBA students are placed in jobs after graduation,” many of them in data
scientist roles.
“These companies see how our graduates our fulfilling their
needs and doing a great job at it,” says Terrence August, Associate Professor
of Innovation, Technology and Operations, and co-director of the MSBA program.
The Rady School of Management is currently accepting applications for its full-time, 11-month Master of Science in Business Analytics degree program and its FlexWeekend MSBA program. The 12-24 month FlexWeekend MSBA program will cover the same curriculum as the full-time program, with classes offered on alternating Saturday-Sundays. This new program will be the first of its kind in California, making it possible for professionals to continue working full-time while they pursue their MSBA degree.
If you’re deciding whether or not to pursue your Master of
Science of Business Analytics, here are a few questions to consider:
1. Do you want to earn
a higher salary?
*See above.
2. Do you want to be
able to communicate data more effectively?
“When we developed the curriculum for the MSBA programs, we talked
to a number of different large corporations in the area,” says Nijs. “We asked
them what they’d be looking for from our graduates. They talked about a lot of
things like looking at data, being able to analyze the data, but also very
importantly—being able to communicate the insights from that data back to
decision makers.”
This is a skill set that Rady MSBA graduate Josh Bhatnagar says he uses every day as a Data Analyst at Mazda North American Operations. In addition to supporting the company’s quantitative needs such as data accessibility, modeling and structuring, communication is critical to his job function. “I maintain ongoing dialogue with domain owners and IT to prioritize organizational data requirements, design strategic data solutions and implement those solutions,” he says. “Without my time at Rady, I would not have had the foundation necessary to be successful in my current role.”
3. Do you want more
confidence in your technical skills?
Rady MSBA graduate Swagata Chakraborty was working as an
analyst in Citibank’s Global Decision Management team when she found herself contemplating
how to move forward in her career. “I felt that people who already had a
specialization relevant to their role were somewhat more confident and had more
clarity about their role.” After graduating, Chakraborty secured a Data
Scientist position with Walmart Labs. “Concepts like the statistical significance
of the data, sampling methods for training and test data, working with
unstructured data, training machine-learning models and confidence interval
analysis are some of the topics which I learned through my coursework at Rady
and apply on a daily basis [at work].”
4. Do you want the
opportunity to expand your network?
Whether you pursue your MSBA in the full-time or in the
FlexWeekend program, the Rady Capstone Project provides the opportunity to
solve real business problems faced by real companies such as HP, Petco, Target,
and Thermo Fisher. Students work in teams of three-four for ten weeks,
ultimately to present their findings to the company. “It’s an experience that
very much feels like working for a company as opposed to just a school project,”
says August. And better yet, the capstone can become the stepping stone to your
next career move.
“Companies are setting up this capstone-internship-job pipeline with us so that they can start to build their analytics teams in a very safe, smart way and make sure they’re getting the right talent for what they need,” says Petit. That’s exactly what happened for Rady MSBA graduate Radha Srinivasan, who worked on a capstone project for Thermo Fisher, was offered a data scientist job upon graduation, and is now their Senior Data Scientist (one year after graduating).
5. Do you want to drive
up value in an organization?
“It’s great if you’re able to program something interesting
in Python that solves a problem, but if nobody wants to use it, we’re not creating
any value for anybody,” says Nijs.
Let’s look at that another way. According to a 2013 McKinsey
report, “By 2020, the wider adoption of big-data analytics could increase
annual GDP in retailing and manufacturing by up to $325 billion and save as much
as $285 billion in the cost of health care and government services … Big data
promises big things—but only if organizations have the right people in place
who know what to do with it.”
Hmm. Sounds like a job for a Rady MSBA graduate.
Learn more about the Rady School of Management’s MSBA program here.
Five Questions to Ask Yourself If You’re Pursuing a Career in Data was last modified: January 7th, 2020 by Camille Cannon
It’s the most wonderful time of the year! As the holidays approach, however, you may find yourself with a to-do list longer than Santa’s Nice List—and that’s why we’re here to help! Below you’ll find innovative gifts for your loved ones, all of which were created by companies founded by Rady alumni. We hope this guide helps make your holiday season bright, and we wish you all the best in the New Year!
Last Christmas, you gave kids new clothes and the very next day … they outgrew them! Skip the store and save by shopping “pre-loved” finds, delivered to your door.
Treat someone you love (or yourself) to some pampering—haircuts, manicures, beard trims and more—at the mobile salon that’s easily accessible to busy professionals.
Take something off your loved one’s to-do list and book an oil change on their behalf! These automotive experts bring their services to office parks and businesses across San Diego for a quick and convenient change during the work day.
For the friend whose New Year’s Resolution is (always) to drink less caffeine, try Cascaraa, an antioxidant rich tea made from coffee fruit that contains about one third the caffeine of your average cup of joe.
No holiday season is complete without snow … shaved snow, that is! Get the family together for a creamy frozen dessert that would satisfy even Santa’s sweet tooth.
Robert Yang MBA ’11
These Companies Founded by Rady Alumni Can Make Your Holiday Shopping Easier was last modified: December 10th, 2019 by Camille Cannon
“As a marine, the reality is, ‘I’m going to war. I’m going to battle. I’m going to defend this country and if I’m gonna die, I’m gonna die. And then you die of a disease that you could do nothing about.”
In 2010, Clay Treska (MBA ’19) was diagnosed with terminal cancer. He had served since 1998 in the U.S. Marine Corps, most of that time spent as a counter intelligence agent. Treska’s propensity to ask questions and seek answers led him to challenge his diagnosis, research his options, and ultimately save his life. His experience surviving the disease—and witnessing it take his father’s life and the life of fellow marines—led him to co-found Family Proud, an app with a mission to connect patients to healthcare resources, and to foster a network of support so that no patient feels like they’re battling illness alone.
“I was able to beat my terminal diagnosis and I wanted to understand why that was. I wanted to be able to share that with other people,” Treska says. The same year he was diagnosed, he graduated from San Diego State University with the intention of becoming a physical therapist. After volunteering and interning with UC San Diego Health, where he helped advise cancer patients and counsel mourning families after loss, he decided that he wanted to pursue a different kind of career in healthcare.
“I saw that the amount of good that you can do from an executive perspective in healthcare is just so far sweeping. It takes one meeting and one decision and you can impact tens of thousands of people and the future of healthcare. I realized that getting an MBA and learning about business was the path that I wanted to take,” he says.
Treska researched graduate business programs across California including those at Stanford, USC, University of San Diego and San Diego State University. “All of the [other] programs that I saw were missing those key components towards helping my own business,” he says. Rady’s emphasis on entrepreneurship and innovation appealed to him. “I made the decision that I need to go to Rady if I want to not only excel in the healthcare environment, but also have the opportunity to start up a company.”
Treska enrolled in Rady’s FlexWeekend MBA program and
continued working full-time in healthcare. He met classmate and Family Proud CEO
and co-founder Jaden Risner, and the two of them developed the business plan
for Family Proud through Rady’s Lab-to-Market course sequence.
“[At
Rady], you’re not just getting education from the class itself and from the
course material, but you’re getting education from your peers. One of the
greatest aspects of the program is how you realize that you can’t
possibly know everything there is to know about business. But that’s not the
point. The point is to understand it enough to be able to have conversations
with people, find those people that are smarter than you in these specific
disciplines and have them help you work on those aspects.”
As a young company with limited resources, only about a third of the Family Proud team are currently full-time employees. The rest are volunteers who give their time because they believe in the product, says Treska. “Everybody on this team, or someone close to them, has dealt with some type of an ailment or a struggle and thought that this is a service that would have helped them,” he says. “We’re all growing through our own challenges.”
Ultimately, Treska says that the goal for Family Proud is to help make high quality healthcare accessible to anyone. “Everybody should receive the highest quality medicine, the highest quality care, regardless of who you are, regardless of what type of insurance you have, what your pedigree is, what your job is, where you came from or who you know. This is our way of being able to make sure that everybody receives the highest quality care, inside and outside of their provider.”
It’s
Treska’s desire to help other patients that motivates him to keep building the
business.
“What more could you possibly ask from a program?” he says. “To take something from it that you can continue to grow and prosper, something other than the degree itself. That’s the most valuable thing that Rady gave me: to take a dream and turn it into a reality.”
Cancer Survivor Clay Treska Co-Founded an App to Help Patients Get the Support They Need was last modified: December 4th, 2019 by Camille Cannon
In late October, a National Bureau of Economic Research working paper co-authored by Uri Gneezy, Rady School professor and Epstein/Atkinson Endowed Chair in Management Leadership, sparked widespread online conversations with its surprising revelations about how we tip.
Gneezy and his co-authors studied 40 million Uber trips during four weeks between August and September 2017, looking at factors such as driver and rider characteristics, timing, location and ride quality. “We all have theories or stereotypes about who tips best and which workers earn the most, but honest-to-goodness tipping facts are rare,” wrote Andrew Van Dam of The Washington Post. This working paper offered unprecedented insight into tipping behavior (and lack there of).
As shared by The Washington Post, The Atlantic, The Economist, Daily Mail, Wired and other news outlets (and many a Twitter users), Gneezy’s study found that most Uber riders don’t tip. Nearly 60% of riders never tip, and only about 1% always do. Whether or not there’s a tip depends more on who the rider is than the driver (although promptness and safety still make a difference). Other factors the researchers found to influence tips include star rating, the time of day, destination and gender. Read the original working paper, The Drivers of Social Preference: Evidence from a Nationwide Tipping Experience, here.
Uber Study by Rady Professor Gets the Internet Buzzing About Tips was last modified: November 7th, 2019 by Camille Cannon
