University at Buffalo School of Management

This spring, Danielle Hockwater, BS/MBA '20, should have been celebrating graduation with her friends. Instead, she was preparing to enter the job market in a recession and watching as her father battled COVID-19. Thankfully, after days on supplemental oxygen, he recovered. Instead of getting discouraged, Hockwater heeded the advice of her LeaderCORE™ coach, Professor Dorothy Siaw-Asamoah, who challenged her to see setbacks as opportunities. She decided to launch her own business—and give back to the medical workers who were risking their safety to help patients like her dad. Through her Etsy shop, Divine Designs by Dani, Hockwater sells custom glasses, mugs and apparel, and donates 20% of the profit to WNY Feeds the Front Line. Within a few weeks, she had already turned a profit and wrote her first check to the foundation. "What I learned is that anything is possible and hard work pays off," she says. "I am forever grateful for this opportunity and excited to see where it takes me." Globally, countless School of Management alumni have shared their time and talent to help their communities in recent months. In Buffalo, Wesley Froebel, CEL '19, founding partner at Big Ditch Brewing Co., organized an initiative called Give a Pint to the Front Line, in which people donate gift cards for local breweries to health care workers—thus supporting small businesses and giving essential workers a well-deserved nightcap. "We received our first donation within minutes of posting on social media," Froebel says. "It's been inspiring to see the community rally around our front-line workers." Over in Singapore, Andrew Tan, BS '15, used his skills to help the UB alumni community. Tan, country manager for recruiting platform Wantedly, created #UBGotTalent in early April to connect job- seeking alumni with mentors and companies in Singapore. So far, he has engaged dozens of alumni and made several referrals, and hopes to expand the platform. "In these difficult times, extending goodwill is more important than ever," he says. An opportunity for good Hockwater Froebel 20 Buffalo Business Autumn 2020 On the other side of the globe, Grab—an app, similar to Uber, with 187 million downloads in Southeast Asia—adapted its busi- ness model quickly to changing needs. While stay-at-home orders negatively affected its ride-hailing services GrabCar and GrabBike, the company saw a spike in demand for its food delivery and tele- medicine services. The app also launched new products: GrabMart, for delivery of daily essentials, and GrabAssistant, an on-demand concierge. "Our immediate efforts focused on how we could ensure the well-being and safety of everyone in our ecosystem: our driver-partners, merchant-partners and customers," says Ridzki As part of its response to the pandemic, Grab launched new safety and hygiene measures to protect its drivers and passengers. Photo: Tom Wolf Alumni Impact

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