Perform Real BusinessResearch to Solve a Real Business Problem

Project Overview  

The project aims to estimate the financialhealth of private companies around the world. Private companies do not reportfinancial statements to outsiders - only public companies do. A public companyis one that sells shares to the general public through a regulated financialexchange, such as NYSE or NASDAQ; in doing so, regulatory filings are submittedto outsiders for their review that include financial statements. It isestimated that there are 200 million companies globally, but little is knownabout most of them from a financial standpoint since the vast majority areprivate.  

Consider China. There are about 40 millioncompanies in China, while only 3,000 are public. Therefore, tracking thefinancial performance of private companies is crucial to understand the Chineseeconomy.

PROGRAM BASICS

√100% Online Program

√Research takes 5 - 10 hours per week (including onlineinstruction).

√All online sessions take place evening & weekendhours, and sessions are recorded.

√No grading. The goal is to perform research.

√ Research is performed online using special software under thedirect supervision of the Executive Director.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

√ Become prepared for a career or graduate program in finance (e.g.,MFE), accounting (e.g., Master’s), business (e.g., MBA, PhD), or economics(e.g., MA, PhD);

√ Suitable for students majoring in business, finance, accounting,economics, math, statistics, or computer science;

√ Learn how to make presentations and write reports in a professionalmanner suitable in research and business settings;

√ Learn how to collect data using software and algorithms; and analyzethe data to make meaningful inferences;

√Learn how to successfully perform independent research.

WHAT YOU EARN

√Certificate of completion. May be referenced in job& university applications.

√ Letter of recommendation. Written personally by the ExecutiveDirector. Can be written in time for graduate school applications.

Requirements

· You canbe any year college student or recent graduate.

· Internationalbackground is preferred: leverage your knowledge to investigate companies fromyour country or region.

·No prior knowledge of finance or accounting is assumed. You will betaught what you need to know.

· You canbe inside or outside the U.S. (e.g., in China).

Registration Fee:  $2,413 (paidby student)

Registration fee provides:

· Onlineinstruction from faculty.

· Instructionalsupport.

· Accessto unique financial databases.

· Webscrapers & servers to collect & host the data.

· Softwareto analyze the data & collaborate.

Project Phases

Phase I: Receiveinstruction and training from the Executive Director on how to perform researchbased on U.S. analysis of companies and industries. These methods are thenadapted for other countries and regions.

Phase II: Collectdata for the industry and region of your choice (e.g., e-commerce in Shenzhen,China; pharmaceuticals in Boston, MA). Most students choose an industry basedon their personal interest and where they would like to work or obtain aninternship.

Phase III: Analyzethe data collected by the entire global team to uncover patterns and trends.Use specialized software and techniques to do so. Write a professional reportwith your team.

The Research Approach

Companies to Investigate

Because it is impractical to identify the performance ofeach company globally, a statistical procedure was designed to track theirfinancial performance based on a sampling methodology that leverages machinelearning algorithms and natural language processing. Specifically, the projectshall precisely assess the financial health of a sample of approximately 10,000private companies, and then use that knowledge to estimate the financial healthof all remaining 200 million businesses. The Research Team’s main function isto collect and evaluate financial indicators and fundamental firmographics forthe 10,000 companies.

Research Methods

·   Read news articles andgovernment filings to infer the financial health, employment, and revenue ofcompanies;

·   Use cutting-edge software toolsto track private & public companies;

·   Read corporate websites andofficial government agency registries to verify the legal identities ofcompanies;

·   Audit the work performed byother members of the Research Team so as to ensure accuracy in the data beingcollected and estimated;

·   Focus on companies in aparticular city or region in your native country, leveraging your personalknowledge of the area;

·   Present your findings to theResearch Team for evaluation;

·   Run machine learning andnatural language processing algorithms to analyze the extracted data, train thealgorithms, and then apply the algorithms to approximately 200 millioncompanies.

Deadlines & Dates

Admissions on a rolling basis

November 17

Fall 2016 Application Deadline

January 13

Spring 2017 Application Deadline

关于项目执行主任Jose M. Plehn-Dujowich教授：

Jose M. Plehn-Dujowich教授是加州大学伯克利分校哈斯商学院教授，兼任金融报告与管理中心执行主任；他同时也是加州大学洛杉矶分校安德森商学院教授，兼任劳伦斯-芬克金融与投资中心执行主任。Jose教授在产业研究、会计、金融与投资领域颇有建树，不仅在顶级期刊有多篇文章发表，同时在业界享有盛誉。

该项目将由Jose Plehn-Dujowich教授亲自指导，所以每位同学都可以有与教授一对一交流的机会，本科毕业的同学也可以申请，并且并没有硬性的标准。入选项目的同学，教授都会亲自去认识，一起做研究，所以都会拿到推荐信哦！项目结束后也会有机会继续留在团队中，这么好的项目，无论是要出国读书的你，还是即将工作的你，都是一个非常好的提升自己的机会哦！

申请链接：https://globalfinancialhaas.wufoo.com/forms/global-financial-data-project-fall-2016/

有任何问题可以直接与教授通过邮件联系：jose.plehn-dujowich@anderson.ucla.edu