AMSA D48: Chowing with Panda

By Michael Kit Lo

This past Thursday, 8 Asian Management Student Association (AMSA) members had the opportunity to enjoy some fine Chinese cuisine with the founder of Panda Restaurant Group, Dr. Peggy Cherng, and her management team, all of whom graduated from Anderson.  Over some Tsingtao and a 10 course MSG-free meal, we listened to Peggy describing about how she and her husband grew their first restaurant (Panda Inn in Pasadena, where D48 was held), into a Chinese fast food empire with over $1 billion in revenue.  Serendipitously, the idea of starting a quick service restaurant spawned when a real estate developer approached Peggy in leasing a space in the food court of a mall.  The success from this business model transformation quickly spawned into over 1,200 Panda Express outlets in supermarkets, shopping centers, college campuses, casinos, airports, theme parks, and stadiums in 37 states and Puerto Rico.  The Panda Express in Ackerman is the company’s first dip into college campus.  Yet, Penn State outlet generates the highest revenue out of all campuses.  See, Non-Asian love Chinese food more than Asian.  Panda Restaurant is also not afraid of experiencing new strategies, including delivery, frozen food, and drive-thru.  

When we asked what new dishes Panda Express are contemplating, the answer quickly appeared on the table and disappeared after a turn around the table.  Yes, Walnut Shrimps are awesome.  Of course, we could not refrain from asking the question “who won between Beijing Beef and Orange Chicken?”, to which they replied, “which one has the bigger tray?”  Costco wanted to offered the Crown Jewel in frozen bulks but walked away empty handed.  We also learned that Peggy’s favorite dish at Panda Express is Eggplant and tofu although she seldom dines there.  To end the night, luxurious white chocolate-covered fortune cookies were served, with mine saying, “Confucius says: Your night will be legendary.”

Where Are the Jobs!? Exploring Career Opportunities in Asia

So the economy downturn is bad. But we are lucky. We are lucky that we are still young and didn’t slip too hard. It’ll be a tough start after school, but hey, we have nothing to lose, and so much to learn/gain!

Many students now started to look outside of US. Indeed, there is plenty of exciting career opportunities internationally, but where to start? Many people asked me about resources in exploring careers in Asia, so I thought it might be time to discuss it on our AMSA Blog. Little do we know, UCLA Anderson Parker CMC and varies identity clubs provide great resources to help you investigate, it’s up to you to dig deep. Here are several places to start:

• Vault Guide to International Careers. Available online through Parker CMC website: http://parkercmc.anderson.ucla.edu/CareerResources/Research/
  
• DISCO | Career Forum. This event brings together recruiters and bilingual Japanese-English speakers for job opportunities throughout the Pacific Rim. In addition to "live" conferences in San Francisco, Boston, London, and Tokyo, DISCO also offers an online career forum during the winter.  
  
• Class of 2008 International Alumni Friends of the Parker CMC. Started in 2008, these alums are happy to speak with UCLA Anderson students on international careers.
  
• MBA-Direct.  Promotes genuine, international, executive MBA job opportunities across the global recruitment marketplace and provides an advanced, effective method of recruitment across geographic boundaries, industry sectors and recruitment schedules. 
  
• Hong Kong Investment Banking Day on the Job Trip. GCBA, IFC, and Parker CMC collaborate on this DOJ to Hong Kong. Contact IFC about the trip.
  
• Wilbur Woo Greater China Business Conference. Coming February 2009, right on Anderson campus. Great chance to network and meet recruiters from Greater China.
  
• AMSA Resume Book & Career Survey. Reaching directly to Asia recruiters, the AMSA member-only resume book & career survey are a great way to get exposure. Submit your resume today to chenghsin.ouyang.2010[at]anderson.ucla.edu if eligible. 

At the end of the day, networking might be the one most important piece to land you a job in Asia. Be sure to be active in varies identity clubs at Anderson, and make time for some networking/mixer events! 

If you have further questions regarding International Career resources, Limor Einey at Parker CMC would be the one to talk to. Best of luck to myself and everyone, on our journey to the perfect gig in Asia! 

AMSA MBA SoCal Mixer, Bridging the B-School Connections in the Region

On October 10, the Asian Management Student Association (AMSA) will take over Hollywood hotspot Ritual Supper Club for a night of networking with other business school students. Held twice a year, the AMSA MBA SoCal Mixer had always attracted over 150 attendees from MBAs all over southern California, including USC, UC Irvine, UC Riverside, UC San Diego, Pepperdine, and Claremont. The MBA SoCal Mixer provides opportunities to broaden our personal network and bridges the MBA programs of business schools here in Southern California. Judging from the consistently overwhelming turnout, the event serves the great demand of MBA students looking to build relationships with other MBA students in the region. For FEMBA student Allan Ark, the benefits were more than that: “As FEMBAs, we seldom interact with the full-time students. The SoCal MBA Mixer was a great event to rub elbows and the like with full-timers and others from the local programs,” he said.

This time, coming back bigger and stronger, AMSA is partnering with USC Marshall’s Graduate Asian Business Society (GABS) to co-host the MBA SoCal Mixer.  But why-- you might ask-- Marshall is our rival in the war of the Golden Briefcase! But remember, “know your enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles, you will never be defeated” (Sun Tzu, the Art of War). The AMSA MBA SoCal Mixer has always been a blast, and with the newly formed partnership with Marshall, it is expected to be even better this time! Come early for free drink tickets, start mingling with MBAs all over SoCal, and stay late for the after party!

Register yourself at fallMBAmixer.eventbrite.com.

Questions? Contact Ivana at ivana.darmawan.2009@anderson.ucla.edu

Back to school. Play some kickball.

WELCOME BACK TO SCHOOL!!

And, Welcome, Class of 2010!
It was our pleasure to meet you at the A-days, the Club Fair, and our very first Kick-off event-- Kickball Social! 

Thanks everyone for coming out last Saturday for the Kickball event, we had over 30 people, with a good mix of first years, second years, FEMBAs, Sig-Os, and friends! (Speaking of Kickball, I'm a bit embarrassed to say, I had never played kickball in my life until last Saturday!) I hope you, like me, met a lot of cool people, ate a bit too much pizza, and had tons of fun! :) 

Check out more pictures here. 

AMSA's Community Outreach Project with Thai CDC

Daily Bruin’s reporter Machiko Yasuda intervewed AMSA for its community outreach project with Thai Community Development Center (Thai CDC). Diana Boriboon (’08) and Kamolrat(Bo) Sivanunsakil (’09) responded:

Q: As a part of [Daily Bruin’s] coverage for Asian Pacific Islander Month, we've been interested in what different Asian groups on campus were doing, and yours stood out. Could you tell me what is the project about?
Diana: This year was the first time we partnered with the Thai CDC, hoping to provide more opportunity for UCLA Anderson students to not only give back to the local community but to highlight LA cultural events which they can participate in. UCLA Anderson students get to not only practice their business plan review skills, but to offer relevant feedback to low-income Asians who are looking to become more self-sufficient through starting their own business. The pilot was a success with 7 AMSA members reviewing a business plan and submitting their feedback in less than a week.

Q: How did this project get started?
Diana: I became aware of the Thai CDC when I was an undergraduate student at UCLA in 2000, taking a class which is sadly no longer offered titled "The Thai American Experience." When I returned back to UCLA for business school and became President of AMSA, it was my goal to incorporate more social enterprise initiatives into our organization by partnering with the Thai CDC. I met with the Executive Director (a UCLA Alum) Chancee Martorell in Fall 2007 to explore volunteer opportunities where business school students can provide counseling or support in small business development or social enterprises. What we ended up piloting was a small-business plan review program in December 2007 (led by Kamolrat “Bo" Sivanunsakil, now AMSA's VP of Cultural Affairs).

Q: Could you give me an example, maybe, of the type of work the volunteering consisted of?
Bo: AMSA works with the Thai CDC to provide a business plan review service to entrepreneurs who want to start a new business in L.A. After receiving the draft of business plan from the contacted organization (e.g. the Thai CDC), I will ask for the volunteers to review and comment on the draft of the business plan. The Thai CDC will forward/ incorporate the comment to the entrepreneurs, so they can further improve the draft of the business plan. The process will repeat until we think the plan is completed. The goal is that if the plan is approved, the entrepreneurs will receive some grants to start the business. The financial reward is to encourage the diversity of business models in L.A.

Q: What about on the cultural initiative end?
Diana: We also worked with the Thai CDC to help organize the Thai New Year Songkran Festival held annually in Thai Town in Hollywood. This is an event which draws thousands to Thai Town to experience Thai food, folk dancing, kickboxing, as well as arts & crafts. On Sunday April 13, the festival drew over 100,000 LA locals and was a huge success. For our part, AMSA organized over 20 UCLA Anderson students to volunteer at the Singha booth, and weeks prior to that we had 4 AMSA members canvass Hollywood Blvd from Western to Vermont, alerting local businesses of the Festival and collecting the signatures required to secure the street closure. Overall, this was a great event for all who were involved as it gave UCLA Anderson students a chance to not only interact with local business owners, but an opportunity to explore LA's great diversity.

Q: What do you hope for the future of this partnership? and in other social enterprises for your group in general?
Bo: Although we have only worked with the Thai CDC, the Thai CDC is part of an Asian Pacific Islander Small Business Program, which is a consortium of 5 different ethnic community groups (Thai, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Pilipino). They also pass on about our service to the others in case they may have projects in need of assistance. In the future, I hope we can work with other organizations as well.

(To find out more and get involved with AMSA’s Community Outreach Project, contact Bo at kamolrat.sivanunsakul.2009@anderson.ucla.edu)

Asia Society Southern California Gala-- Honoring Anderson Alum Bill Gross, Founder of PIMCO

On May 20, hundreds of people gathered at the Beverly Hilton for the Asia Society Southern California Annual Gala. The purpose of the event is “to enhance dialogue, and generate new ways of thinking in policy, business, education, and culture to foster harmony and understanding between Asia and the United States,” said Donald Tang, Chairman of Asia Society.

This year, the honoree of the Gala is an Anderson alum and founder of PIMCO—Bill Gross. Several Anderson students along with Linda Baldwin and Marcia Shachelford atended to show our support. David Bonderman, a Founding Partner of Texas Pacific Group and its Asian affiliate Newbridge Capital, joined Bill Gross for a discussion of the evolving economic relationship between Asia and the United States. The discussion between the Wall Street gurus was inspiring as they talked not only about the financial markets but also life and success.

For Mr. Gross, happiness is ‘having something to do, someone to love, and something to hope for.’ For student representative Michael Kit Lo (’09), perhaps happiness simply means being there in the same room with Gross and Bonderman. “This is literally the Who’s Who event in the finance world. I feel like it might be the best night of my MBA life,” Michael concluded.
--Jenny Lee

Julia’s Chinese Lessons-- From Ni Hao to Zai Jian

by Chris Bishop

First year Julia Z. has started Anderson’s first ever student-run Chinese class (co-sponsored by AMSA and GCBA) with hopes of sharing some of the language and culture of her home country with other Anderson students. The class has been quite popular, since many students will be studying abroad in China next fall, and the importance of Chinese as a business language continues to increase. The class has met once a week since April 8, and this week’s class, accompanied by Chinese food, will be the last. Chinese food is an integral part of any Chinese class, since behind all of the serious motivations for learning Chinese always lies the desire to be able to read the menu in Chinese restaurants.

Although menu fluency cannot be achieved in just 6 classes, students have certainly come a long way. The class has covered pinyin and basic pronunciation, numbers, ordering food at a restaurant, and taking a taxi. Students have also learned how to count forwards and backwards. More astute students can now count to 100 million in Chinese. Wow!

In contrast to dull textbooks that start with sentences such as “This is a book,” Julia’s class involved conversations between Zhang Zi Yi and Yao Ming. She also taught several historical Chinese stories including the story about the love story with the snake and the other love story with the butterfly. It turns out that there was a lot of animal love in ancient China. There were also a few karaoke songs and guests speakers relating their personal China anecdotes to spice up the class.

Special thanks go to Julia Laoshi (teacher) for volunteering her time to prepare and teach the lessons each week. Hopefully someone from the class of 2010 will step up and continue the tradition next year.

See photos here