20 COMPANIES&MARKETS

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Wednesday, October 31, 2012 www.pulso.cl

tercyclical. As a recession begins, enrollment tends to increase. When we lose our jobs, we tend to think that education is going to help us to return to the market more quickly and recover our investment. But, in the end, the decision has much more to do firstly with an individual commitment to investment in human capital, and, secondly, the ability to pay for education. When people lack education because they cannot pay for it, then it becomes a problem for our society. For that reason, education is not an individual investment; rather, it is a societal one. Has it become a problem that salaries within the financial sector are not the same as they used to be? This is really a problem, but the salaries of the best paid positions within the market are changing all the time. Knowledge changes, and the skills that are needed in the market are changing, as well. Having a financial background is very important even if the sector that requires such a background is going through changes. Financial education is also required in information technology, biotechnology, and

INTERVIEW WITH... DEAN OF THE UCLA ANDERSON SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT

Judy Olian The dean who has turned UCLA into an elite business school
Chile is a very business-friendly country... theres an environment thats ripe for entrepreneurs

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ADVANTAGES OF CHILE

The Chilean economy is focused on foreign trade and has very low barriers to entry. ______________________
PROBLEMS IN CALIFORNIA

The state of California has been deeply impacted by not only the recession, but also the need for infrastructure.
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ANDERSONS CHALLENGES

The financial crisis has left no one unscathed. The UCLA Anderson Business School has had to make budget cuts over the past few years. Dean Judy Olian talks about these cuts, relations with Chile, and what lies ahead for entrepreneurs.
THE PERSON THE INTERVIEW
where problems loom for multinational companies. I believe that investment in education has grown significantly and will ultimately pave the way for an economy based on knowledge and information. studies, such as economics, law, medicine, public policy, design, and journalism as we do not want to isolate ourselves. The proposal was that the university would earmark the money from the state for other priorities, and we would finance ourselves using other means, including via private philanthropists. In exchange, we would be given the freedom to set our own tuition rates, enjoy some protection from budget cuts, and have more flexibility with regard to the salaries paid to our faculty. We have to adjust these salaries since we have some of the best professors in the world. Looking ahead at our future, we have to ensure that we are staying competitive. Have peoples expectations changed because of the recession? Are you helping MBA students to remain enthusiastic? The decision to invest in an MBA is a very complex one. First, it is clear that education is essential to ensure competitiveness within the individual market, and, by extension, it is a defense against unemployment. Rates of unemployment are always higher for people with less education. Even jobs that are more technical - for example, auto and aircraft mechanics - are becoming more and more sophisticated and require more education. Second, to a certain extent, investment in education is going to start to become coun-

Our costs have risen because we have lost state support and have increased our aid to students.
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ACH year we have many Chilean applicants, and all of them are very good, points out the dean of the UCLA Anderson School of Management, Judy Olian, speaking of the relationship that the business school has established with our country. Olian describes the StartUp Chile program as phenomenal and asserts that it is a model to help entrepreneurs. Chile is a very business-friendly country even if the overall success rate is low; there is an environment thats ripe for entrepreneurs, she claimed during an interview with PULSO. That university has set up a dual degree program in conjunction with the Global Executive MBA program offered by Universidad Adolfo Ibez [Adolfo Ibez University]. Do you believe that Chile could serve as a model? I am not an expert, but we bring students here to witness economic transformations. One of the reasons why we established ties with Chile instead of with other Latin American countries is that this countrys economy is guided by outward-looking policies. The Chilean economy is focused on foreign trade and is very willing to look abroad with very low barriers to entry for business. Moreover, the governments policies are very welcoming in terms of contracts and legislation. This is not always the case in other Latin American nations,

UDY Olian is not the kind of woman who is interested in hearing excuses. She cuts to the chase and leaves no room for doubt when she states her opinion. Thats how it has to be: she has been the Dean of the UCLA Anderson School of Management for six years and claims that her job is to train leaders. She redesigned the MBA curriculum to turn it into a fulltime program and has positioned Anderson as an elite business school. The curriculum has not been the only change. Over the past three years, she has devoted time and energy to loosening the financial ties between the University of California system and her school, thus coming up with a self-funding strategy of selffinancing that is expected to make the Anderson School more independent. As dean, she heads an institution with an annual enrollment of 1,800 students in the MBA, Executive MBA, Master of Financial Engineering, and doctoral programs. This year, she was in Chile for the third time in four years to meet with local colleagues and students.

Has the economic crisis affected your schools finances?

The state of California has been deeply impacted by not only the recession, but also the need for an infrastructure devoted to health care and unemployment. As a consequence, the state has not been able to fund universities the way it did in the past. We have slashed key state budgets over the past two or three years, and, as a result, we have to become more enterprising in terms of offering greater appeal and outstanding programs in order to attract more people who want to pay more money. Unfortunately, our costs have risen because we have lost state funding, and we have increased financial aid to students. In addition, we have had to depend more on private donors. I understand that you requested not to receive state funds and that your proposal has caused a controversy in California Our approach was this: Can we come up with a different model so that the university can offer even more benefits while upholding our public mission and our relationship with the rest of the campus? This mission also includes interdisciplinary

pharmaceuticals. For example, there is a great demand for knowledge concerning financial reengineering in the health care industry. One also has to consider that the useful life of knowledge is decreasing, so more frequent reinvestments have become necessary. Have social demands changed your curriculum? We have changed the curriculum to orient it more towards the market even though we are always finetuning it.

I ask this because of the demands for executive transparency and improved behavior
At Anderson, we believe in valuebased leadership, and our values are reflected in our curriculum, whether in our courses on ethics or in our courses that illustrate key gray areas of business and the societal obligations of companies.