MBA 12s at Work: The Strategic Side of Gucci

Grad: Eamonn Courtney, MBA 12.

Working as: Business Analyst to Gucci President & CEO, Patrizio di Marco in Milan. “At a high level, my role is to support Mr. di Marco with analysis that enables him to make data-driven decisions on strategic business issues. In practice, my responsibilities range from ideating on new services that can enhance customer experience to evaluating the financial productivity of our stores across the world.”

Gucci because: “Gucci’s management team is incredibly accomplished. The opportunity to work closely with these industry talents directly out of business school is truly special.” Courtney also appreciates Gucci’s active adaptation to the new ways clients shop and interact with brands.

Fabric cutting in Italy for ready-to-wear

Inside Gucci: “I travel to HQ in Florence quite a bit for work. When I’m there my colleagues and I will sometimes head over to product development to watch Gucci’s artisans at work. On one visit, the artisans happened to be making Blake Lively’s shoes for the Gucci Premiere commercial, so we were able to get a sneak peek before the rest of the world!”

Job search strategy: “Following my heart. I had to wait until mid-June for my offer from Gucci , which was incredibly stressful at times, but I knew it was what I wanted. I can’t tell you how it felt when I finally got that call.” Mock interviews were one tool Courtney used to prepare. “The Career Services staff has an adept lens through which to view you as a potential candidate since they are constantly talking to recruiters to understand the qualities that really resonate with interviewers.”

Classroom lessons in action: “One that I consider almost every day—and studied in Leading People with Prof. Don Moore—is bias and how it can impact data and behaviors. I frequently come across qualitative studies produced from numerous sources, and for each it is necessary to critically consider the source and how perspective might bias what they say. Otherwise, taking action on the data could be quite detrimental.”

The BILD approach:  “As an MBA, there are skills that are simply expected of you, and rightfully so. Thus to create unique value for your company you must be able to innovate. PFPS is an asset to Berkeley MBAs because the skills taught can differentiate you at any company, in any position, at any stage of your professional career.”

The Milan life: “Shopping. Milan is world-renowned for design across the board—fashion, industrial, etc.—so there are amazing local shops for all sorts of products. The people in the shops here also have incredible passion for their craft, so you can learn a tremendous amount at the same time.”

One of Courtney’s favorite shops in Milan–in addition to Gucci, of course!

How an Evening and Weekend MBA Student Moved from Idea to Acquisition–in Eleven Short Months

Amit Paka is not a man who wastes time. Three semesters into the Evening & Weekend MBA Program, he realized he wanted to be an entrepreneur. And in 11 short months, he hatched an idea, relocated, launched a venture—and sold it to eBay.

When Paka, MBA 12, began his MBA studies, he was a senior program and product manager with Microsoft, working in online advertising with Bing. “I entered the Haas program to broaden my perspective and explore all opportunities that were out there,” he says of an open-minded approach. The Seattle-to-Berkeley commute for Saturday classes was challenging, he acknowledged, but worth it.

Courses and seminars taken during Fall semester of his second year, such as Entrepreneurship and Competitive Strategy, became the game changer for Paka, introducing him to new ideas, frameworks, and people. “Becoming part of an entrepreneurial universe leaves an impression on you,” he says.

Launching a Mobile Conversation Platform

The impression made on Paka led him to take even more entrepreneurship classes, network extensively, at least once a week whether in Seattle or San Francisco, and to come up with an idea and a game plan. By the end of his second year in the Berkeley MBA Program he left Microsoft and relocated to the Bay Area, ready to commit to Flockish, his idea for a mobile conversation platform. “Flockish combines the status feed concept of Facebook with the location awareness of Foursquare to create conversation among people gathered in the same locations, such as a concert or a sporting event,” says Paka.

“I felt this was the right space, a big enough market and that I had the expertise to execute on it,” says Paka. eBay apparently agreed: Their event ticket site, StubHub, purchased Flockish and snapped up Paka to head their mobile apps division. In his new role, Paka was able to scale StubHub’s mobile apps, releasing a new iPad app that Apple featured on the App store.

Paka says one of the most important things he learned at Haas is to Question the Status Quo and to ask questions of other people. “If you want to be an entrepreneur, you have to go talk to customers, you have to go talk to your investors,” he says. “You can’t just have an idea and hope that it will somehow become a successful product.”

A Full Entrepreneurial Education

Just how you approach those investors and customers matters too. Paka took Confidence Without Attitude, another of the Haas School’s four Defining Principles, to heart in presenting himself and Flockish to the entrepreneurial community. “When VCs connect you to other VCs, they put their reputations on the line,” he says. “It’s a very close-knit group, so people will hear about it if you come across as anything other than genuine, clear about your goals, and free of arrogance.”

eBay’s purchase of Flockish meant that before he even graduated, Paka engaged in a full entrepreneurial education–from idea generation to launch and all the way through the due diligence required for an acquisition. “I learned a lot about IP and trademark infringement,” he says.

Paka says that since he’s launched Flockish and joined eBay, “Mind-blowing opportunities come up every day.” The most recent one took him from StubHub to a group product manager role with PayPal’s Digital Wallet product team, a group he believes is well positioned to develop and scale the smart-phone-as-wallet. The rapid pace of personal recognition and capture of opportunity mirrors what Paka sees around him. “In this valley you have to keep moving,” he says.

How Taking a Stand on Culture Makes the Difference at Berkeley-Haas

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When Dean Rich Lyons partnered with faculty, students, alumni, and staff to articulate Berkeley-Haas culture, the aim was to capture the school’s essence. What emerged were our Defining Principles: Question the Status Quo, Confidence Without Attitude, Students Always, and Beyond Yourself.

“These have always been the Haas heartbeat,” says Lyons, “but we have never used them so deliberately to shape our community and to differentiate ourselves in the marketplace.” Here are ten ways, among many, that taking a stand on culture has already had an impact at Berkeley-Haas:

• Curriculum: As part of the Berkeley Innovative Leader Development (BILD) curriculum, Haas launched the groundbreaking MBA course Problem Finding Problem Solving, giving students valuable tools to Question the Status Quo and bring solutions.

• Admissions: The school assesses prospective students, in part, on how they live the Berkeley-Haas Defining Principles, through essay questions, interviews, and letters of recommendation.

• Alumni: We have conducted the first of bi-annual alumni surveys to gauge familiarity with our Defining Principles. Already, 50 percent of those graduating in the past 10 years and 30 percent of those graduating prior know the Berkeley-Haas Defining Principles. Our aim is that in two years this familiarity will register with 70 and 50 percent, respectively, and, ultimately, with 100 percent of alumni who are within ten years of graduating.

• Student Recognition: The Masters in Financial Engineering Program honors four students at commencement, awarding one student for each defining principle.

• Careers: The “Standards of Professionalism” document signed by students to retain MBA career services leads with how the Berkeley-Haas Defining Principles apply to the career search process.

• Recruiters: The MBA Career Management Group gives a copy of our Defining Principles to corporate recruiters and surveys them on how well Berkeley MBA candidates reflect them.

• Faculty: All faculty, both tenure-track and professional, are now brought on-board with an orientation day that includes discussion of the Berkeley-Haas Defining Principles.

• Thought Leadership: For two years, Dean Lyons has served as a leading expert in a national conversation on the importance of business school culture. He now expands his role in shaping that discussion, having been tapped by fellow deans to serve on the governing board of the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), the leading accrediting organization for U.S. business schools.

• Staff-Faculty Teams: Volunteer staff teams spent fall 2011 developing ways to further deepen Haas community engagement with our Defining Principles. As a result, the school created two new staff positions dedicated to culture building and internal communication and is committing resources to implementing recommendations made by the teams.

• Staff Recognition: Each year the school recognizes four employees with Outstanding Staff Awards for clear commitment to, and demonstration of, a defining principle.

Read more about the power of culture in the latest issue of Berkeley-Haas magazine.

A Look Back at 2012-13: MBA 11s at Work

This week, Haas Achieves takes a look back at the year. First up, how 2011 grads put their MBAs to work–in consulting, gaming, finance, and cleantech entrepreneurship.

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• Hrishika Vuppala, MBA 11, works as an associate at McKinsey & Company. “Fellow students were instrumental in helping me build confidence to do well in interviews.”
• Nan Duan, MBA 11, is international publishing manager for Riot Games. “Gaming is rising, so…I feel I’m helping Haas establish a footprint in this industry.”
• Hallie Marshall, MBA 11 joined Dodge & Cox as a portfolio manager. “I am proud to be part of an investment team that remains committed to integrity and client focus.”
• Brooks Kincaid, MBA 11, co-founded Imprint Energy. “I’m already doing business with a fellow alum–never underestimate the value of strategic connections!”
• Kitty Sullivan, MBA 11, has joined Bain & Company Amsterdam as a consultant. On rotation in private equity, she likes “seeing deals I’ve worked on in the headlines.” 

MBA 11s at Work: Riot Games

Welcome to MBA 11s at Work, a periodic series on the career launches—in consulting, finance, tech, entrepreneurship, and more—of the Berkeley MBA class of 2011.

Nan Duan (front and center) From MBA glee to Riot Games gig

Grad: Nan Duan, MBA 11

Working as: International Publishing Manager at Riot Games, a Santa Monica-based video game developer. Riot is known for  League of Legends, which has over 32 million registered users worldwide.  “My main responsibility is working with Asian publishers who operate our game in Mainland China, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia.”

Riot because: “It’s one of the most dynamic companies in the video games industry right now.” In his second year, Duan narrowed an interest in consumer tech down to gaming. “Riot emerged as attractive due to its combination of a free-to-play business model with a ‘hardcore’ video game, as well as its aggressive expansion in Asia, which fit well with my international student background.”

Inside Riot: “We have adopted many of the techniques used in social games and applied them to a really competitive, hardcore title,” says Duan. The company organizes development around a highly rapid and iterative cycle. “This is not common at all for traditional core gaming, where studios spend two years and multi-million dollar budgets before the game is launched.”

Networked: “Haas has great presence in some of the leading areas in gaming—during my job search I interacted with alumni at Zynga and EA.” Duan observes that gaming has not been a typical sector for MBAs (He thinks he is the first fresh MBA grad hired at Riot), but says this is rapidly changing with recent social/mobile gaming trends. “Gaming is rising as a heavyweight component within the broad entertainment sector so, in this sense, I feel I’m helping Haas establish a footprint in this industry.”

Best career search strategies: Taking advantage of every event to socialize and know more people in the industry. “The opportunity at Riot came up after two Rioters were invited to speak at Haas.”

Classroom lessons in action: Duan is a big fan of Reza Mozzami’s strategy courses on IT, Media, and Wireless. “They have really shaped how I think about the technology industry and are a must for anyone interested in the sector.”

Living the So-Cal life: It’s Santa Monica—beaches and the weather to enjoy them are a top draw, along with “an amazing selection of Asian food.” 

Businessweek Covers Berkeley MBAs on Blue Ice

Polar Vision in the Yukon, spring break 2011

When Alan Lock and Andrew Jensen, both MBA 11, hit the ice in Antarctica this winter, Businessweek.com readers will follow along. The team will send dispatches tracking their progress as they trek more than 500 miles across the continent, from the coast to the South Pole.

Businessweek coverage began with a Sept. 21 article, MBAs Trek to the End of the Earth, covering their spring break training expedition in the Arctic, their fundraising efforts, applicable lessons from b-school (Tuck MBA Richard Smith is also on the expedition team), and Lock’s highly personal reasons for embarking upon the venture. Lock, who has been diagnosed with a form of macular degeneration, would break records as the first visually impaired person to make such a crossing. The team also aims to raise awareness for visual impairment and funds for two sight charities, Guide Dogs for the Blind and Sightsavers International, under the auspices of  of a non-profit they’ve founded called Polar Vision.

The team flies to Chile in November to begin the trek. “We’re trying to be cautious,” Jensen told Businessweek about his confidence in the undertaking. “We can do the best planning in the world, but there will be things you can’t plan for. Stoves are going to blow up. Clothes are going to rip. Skis are going to break. We have good tents, we have good equipment. Those will help you survive, but what makes it bearable are the people with you. If you aren’t drawing strength from the people around you, you aren’t going to make it. This is a strong team, and because of that, I think we’re going to be just fine.”

Pomp, Circumstance, and Celebration

Graduates of the Full-time MBA Program Kim Trout and Liz Callahan

Graduate of the Evening & Weekend MBA Program Kristina France

Graduate of the Evening & Weekend MBA Program Doy Charnsupharindr

Graduates of the Full-time MBA Program Prashant Gulati and Begna Gebreyes

Stay tuned: More MBA commencement photos will soon be posted on the Haas alumni event photo pages.

Who makes you proud to be Berkeley-Haas? Tell us in the comments below or share your stories with vgilbert@haas.berkeley.edu.

The Heartbeat of Berkeley-Haas

A Look Back at The Berkeley MBA Year

At the heart of Berkeley-Haas are four defining principles: Question the Status Quo, Confidence Without Attitude, Students Always, and Beyond Yourself. These principles were in full evidence in the Berkeley MBA Program this past year. Take a look:

Who makes you proud to be Berkeley-Haas? Tell us in the comments below or share your stories with vgilbert@haas.berkeley.edu.

Making Lunch, Making Time (Magazine)

MBA 06s Kristin Groos Richmond and Kirsten Tobey, top education activists

Haas Alumnae Make Time’s List of 11 Education Activists for 2011

Kristin Groos Richmond and Kirsten Tobey, both MBA 06, co-founders of Revolution Foods, and 2007 winners of the Global Social Venture Competition, were recently named among 11 Education Activists for 2011 by Time magazine. As Time noted: “They’re not the first people to try to improve the quality of school lunches, but the Kristin/Kirsten duo is the first to successfully couple good intentions with a serious and sustainable business model… Even in this economy, a company that sits at the intersection of three hot issues—education reform, child nutrition and sustainable and local agriculture—is a good bet.”

Groos Richmond says the enterprise now serves 60,000 healthy, fresh meals per day in Northern and Southern California, Denver and Washington DC and has created over 450 jobs since inception. Of the duo’s time at Berkeley-Haas, she notes, “We often reflect on how grateful we are for the world class MBA education that Haas provided. Within this program, the Lester Center (for Entrepreneurship and Innovation) served as an incubator for our and other classmates’ ideas, cultivating an engaging, creative and innovation-rich environment.”

“Another sign of the company’s growing cachet?” notes Time: President Obama has appointed Richmond to his White House Council on Community Solutions, which is tasked with mobilizing local resources to solve social problems.

Who makes you proud to be Berkeley-Haas? Share your stories with vgilbert@haas.berkeley.edu.

Clean Energy for All

Impact Carbon, a Haas MBA Success Story

The shared ambition of Cindy Chen, MBA 10, Matt Evans, MBA 08, and Evan Haigler, MS 08 (Environmental Health Sciences), is quite simply, “clean energy for all.” They are the force behind Impact Carbon. This nonprofit facilitates the use of cleaner cook stoves in developing countries, sells the resulting carbon offsets, and puts the money back into those same communities to expand clean energy efforts.

Evans and Haigler spun off Impact Carbon from a research center within UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health. Evans now serves as managing director, Haigler is the nonprofit’s executive director, and Chen is a consultant. The team’s efforts received a boost when they were one of three UC Berkeley teams to win $10,000 in the 2010 Dow Sustainability Innovation Student Challenge, held in October.