Investment Fund Students Pitch Strategies to Distinguished Judges

By William Rindfuss, executive director of strategic programs, Haas Finance Group

It was a format familiar to many, but without any singing or dancing. And with much nicer judges.

On May 9, students in the Haas Investment Fund course — an experiential learning course in our Innovative Leader curriculum, competed against each other in pitching to judges the investment strategies they’d been developing over the past semester. The purpose was for the teams to benefit from feedback and advice from this panel of high-level investment professionals (who have a Berkeley MBA and two Haas PhD degrees among them), and for the judges to recommend allocation of the fund itself between the two competing teams, based on the market-beating promise of their innovative strategies — taken together with the degree of perceived risk.

Investment executive and Haas alum Minder Cheng (l.) with Haas Investment Fund students.

Judges included Minder Cheng, MBA 89, PhD 94, independent director with Investment Technology Group, Inc. Previously, Cheng served as chief investment officer for index equity and capital markets globally at BlackRock and as chief investment officer for the Equity and Capital Markets division of Barclay’s Global Investors worldwide.

Students in the course are encouraged to consider their own backgrounds and areas of expertise that would provide their teams with unique insights into the fundamental dynamics of particular industries or macro trends. They use skills learned in the Problem Finding Problem Solving course in “divergent thinking” to brainstorm multiple possible theses, and in “convergent thinking” to narrow and refine the list for further research and analysis. They are introduced to the particular financial instruments that might be used to implement a strategy (most students benefit from concurrently taking the Investments course), and they may then analyze their strategies with factor models and backtest them with historical data. Students received training on financial tools such as Bloomberg, FactSet, and BarraOne — as well as research tools and databases available from the Haas Library.

Team 1 had developed a “matched pair” strategy of long/short positions within multiple segments of the automotive components industry, with positions selected based on varying degrees of commitment to green technology. Team 2 had developed a screen for promising performance in the apparel retail space based in part on real-time trends in “Likes” of particular brands on Facebook.

Guidance was constructively delivered by the judges and was eye-opening to the students. A member of Team 1 felt the judges “provided extremely insightful feedback regarding our proposed investment strategy, including their suggestion to look more closely at current valuations and their recommendation to reconfigure our portfolio to a long-only one with risk analyzed through a factor model.”

A member of Team 2 added “The panelists’ questions were candid and thought-provoking.  It was reassuring to find that we had already discussed some of them in our team meetings — while there were others we hadn’t considered at all. To be able to present in front of such a distinguished panel was truly a phenomenal experience.  The panelists were respectful, kind, and generous with their compliments.”

In the end, the judges allocated the fund 60/40 between the two teams. After some adjustments based on the insights and suggestions of the judges, the teams will implement their strategies starting this June and will continue to implement, monitor, and manage their positions until December.

This one-year, three-unit course is cross-listed between the Full-time and Evening & Weekend MBA Programs and was led this year by Finance faculty members Christine Parlour and Bill Rindfuss.

With the pressure of pitching over…

…these investment fund teams will spend the next six months implementing their strategies.

A Look Back at 2012-13: The Evening & Weekend MBA Program

As part of a Haas Achieves look at this past year, here are some of the stories that made news in the Evening & Weekend MBA Program.

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• At the global Innovation Challenge, Sathishkumar Balasubramanian, Winnie Phua, Denise Toy, and Shisher Wahie, all MBA 13, emerged from a field of 178 teams to be among the top 15 overall and top 5 in the strategy and business model category.
• Students in the Evening & Weekend MBA Program made career changes and advanced at their current companies, then shared their tips with fellow students in a panel discussion.
• From Strategic Brand Management to Microeconomics, students shared thoughts on fall courses that made a lasting impression.
• Students in the Berkeley Evening & Weekend MBA Program do much more than juggle school and work. The WSJ took a look at how they fit it all in.
• Gaurav Agarwal, MBA 13, and his Traverie co-founders found success in b-plan competitions this year with their travel discovery startup.

Berkeley MBA’s Team Wins California Dreamin’

From the left: Richard Sudek,Chapman University; Gaurav Agarwal, MBA 13, Co-Founder & CEO Traverie; co-founders Tiffany Yang and Jimming Cheng

The Competition: Chapman University’s inaugural California Dreamin’ Business Plan Competition.

The Team: Evening and weekend student Gaurav Agarwal, MBA 13, co-founded Traverie, a travel discovery startup, with Tiffany Yang (MIT) and Jimming Cheng (Harvard) “I met Tiffany when she came to my wedding as a +1 and danced on stage with my wife to Bollywood music,” says Agarwal. “Jimming and I worked together previously and became close friends.”

The Outcome: Second place. “We won $25,000 after winning $1000 as a finalist in the UC Berkeley Startup Competition.”

The Field: Among the schools topped by Traverie were USC, Caltech, and all UC schools.

The Winning Idea: “Think of us as a visual interactive travel magazine with content from people you know and trust.” Traverie (now in private beta) aims to make travel discovery “fun, inspirational and personalized.”

Won Because of: The team. “We have relevant and complementary skills that work great together and things just get done.  Secondly, we are going after a large market – $39B spent on travel advertising, 84% of it offline. Finally, our extreme focus on travelers and their needs has helped us build something people will love.”

The H Factor: Agarwal says classes such as Problem Finding Problem Solving and New Venture Finance, along with the Startup Board of Mentors Program at the Lester Center for Entrepreneurship and the UC Berkeley Startup Competition all greatly contributed to the team’s success. “At Haas I’ve learned how to create a business out of an idea and how to build a strong team, which is the most important asset in a knowledge company.”

Defining Principles at Work: “More than anything, the principles of questioning the status quo and following your passions inspired the team.”

Berkeley MBA Students Escape from Alcatraz

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By Guest Blogger Dennis Ducro, MBA 13

As happens so often in business school, an ordinary conversation can lead to great adventures and impact. When Federico Acabbi, MBA 12, mentioned he had heard stories of an Alcatraz Crossing swim,  I took the hint.

As co-president of Redwoods at Haas, I work to bring the natural beauty of California closer to our MBA students, and to challenge them. This event fit into Redwoods’ calendar, and the first edition of “Haas Escapes from Alcatraz” was born. It promised not become a walk in the park…the Bay is extremely cold, the currents are strong, and the island lays 1.5 miles out in the open water.

Eighteen MBA students immediately signed up for the challenge, and the team could be spotted regularly in the swimming pools on campus in the months preceding the event. Both amateur and former professional swimmers had made this their goal for the end of the academic year, before heading out to internships and full-time roles.

On Sunday April 29, at 6:45am, the time had come! The team boarded a boat that brought them to a deserted Alcatraz Island, and at 7:00am they jumped in the water! Classmates, a gorgeous sunrise, and views of the impressive Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco accompanied the students during their swim. Their white caps read: “No One escapes?! Challenge the Status Quo!” referring with a smile to one of the four principles that define Berkeley-Haas.

All of us made it to shore, and the supportive community that had showed up to cheer could read a great sense of achievement from the exhausted, but happy faces. Two students even swam without any wetsuit, which is truly unbelievable since the thermometer indicated 51F for the water. The shower, sauna, and brunch with friends were well deserved (as was the afternoon nap).

Top row left to right–Julie Miller, Sebastiaan Verhaar, Hans Lintermans, Dennis Ducro, Federico Acabbi, Mark Stolze, Brandon Piper, Bernie Murphy, Gene Boyle.; Two in the middle–Tycho Moencks and Ismael Ghozael;Bottom row left to right–Gustavo Ribeiro, Suresh Krishnamoorthy, Boris Kopinitsch, Jaime Szigethi, Dan Stotts, Ariel Dekovic

Look out for next year’s edition!

Wall St. Journal Shines a Light on Life in the EWMBA Program

 

Asked and answered by the WSJ: What do b-school students do all day?

Not only do students in the Berkeley Evening & Weekend MBA Program juggle school and work, they somehow also manage to train for half Ironman events, work on career changes, and squeeze in a little time for family and fun.

The Wall Street Journal took a look at a recent Saturday in the life of three students in the program: Emily Douglas, MBA 13; Jake Goldfield, MBA 12; and Greg Marek, MBA 13, for the story, A Day in the Life at Haas School of Business.

Goldfield, a senior manager with Symantec, reveals how he fits in not one, but TWO hardcore workouts on a school day and how he balances physical effort with mental–reading through the Economist over a handful of cereal and learning in class about change management at HP and in the middle east.

Douglas wraps up a team project developing an employee engagement strategy for a national consumer brand, then unwinds with the rest of the class over pizza at the prof’s house.

Marek, senior manager of financial planning with NBC Universal, bookends his days with a quick flight and appreciates that his fellow students give him a lift back to the airport after a day spent discussing financial distress and agency costs.

It’s a glimpse at how just one day in the Evening & Weekend MBA Program is no small achievement.

 

Courses Make their Mark on Part-time MBA Students

With the spring semester sprung, students in the Evening & Weekend MBA Program take a moment to look back on some of the courses that made lasting impressions this past fall:

Lynn Upshaw's Strategic Brand Management course: Real-world examples, insightful guest speakers

Emily Douglas, MBA 13, says real-world examples in Lynn Upshaw’s Strategic Brand Management elective helped her to understand the importance of human nature in marketing. “We talked about connecting with human emotions on more obvious products like diapers, where new moms are looking for guidance, but also for less obviously emotional products like routers, where buyers want to use products they can trust with their jobs.”

Yelena Bushman, MBA 13, says guest speakers in Upshaw’s course added to her learning experience. She appreciated the chance to walk through the evolution of a corporate mass media campaign with Cisco’s director of marketing brand strategy and identity, Monique Mulbry.

Jill Rea, MBA 13, says it was eye-opening to learn from Holly Schroth that “everything is negotiable.” She says the Negotiations course offered extensive practice and a wealth of stories from Schroth’s professional experience, as well as the opportunity for students to share examples from their own workplace experiences.

First-year student Ronan Kennedy, MBA 14, was impressed by Shachar Kariv’s teaching of the core Microeconomics course and says Kariv held a reality game show to demonstrate the power of second bid auctions. “We also used game theory to discern how smart we think we are–and how smart our opponents think we are.”

The message from Kariv’s course that will stay with Kurt Zhao, MBA 14: Everything in life is quantifiable. “Shachar totally stunned me when he explained the root cause of unemployment using just one simple graph within a minute, precisely and elegantly.”

For Hussein Khazaal, MBA 12, the mix of lecture, exercises, and reflection offered in Sara Beckman’s Problem Finding, Problem Solving (PFPS) course drove home the importance of understanding customer needs before searching for solutions. “It is critical to observe potential users and learn first-hand about their pain points,” he says. “My engineering background was focused on solving a problem, but that is only one part of the puzzle,” says Khazaal. PFPS provided a step-by-step guide to an entire problem framing, problem solving process, as well as a safe environment for learning and applying concepts.

Part-time MBA students gave kudos to a number of other courses, including: Mark Rittenberg’s Active Communications course, touted by Bernie (Bernadette) Geuy, MBA 12, for offering the chance to “find your authentic voice and leverage your life stories to be an effective communicator;” Leif Nelson’s Market Research class, hailed by Jessica Galeria, MBA 13, for imparting solid skills in regressions and cluster analysis in remarkably entertaining ways; and Jo-Ellen Pozner’s Leading People course, said by Erik Krogh-Jespersen, MBA 14, to provide a set of tools for influencing opinion and shifting biases.

Winning Approaches: Innovation Challenge Semi-finals

Innovation team Sathishkumar Balasubramanian, Shisher Wahie, Winnie Phua, and Denise Toy, all MBA 13.

The Competition: The Innovation Challenge, a global business innovation competition.

The Team: Evening and weekend MBA students Sathishkumar Balasubramanian, Winnie Phua, Denise Toy, and Shisher Wahie, all MBA 13.

The Outcome: Emerging from a field of 178 teams to be among the top 15 overall and top 5 in the strategy and business model category.

The Challenge: Generating ways for AT&T to better connect its cloud-hosting services with mobility applications and services to meet the needs of small businesses.

The Winning Approach: “We definitely used brainstorming techniques amassed from the PFPS class, so had a broad range of solutions from which we ultimately picked our unique solution,” says Phua.

Defining Principles at Work: “We received positive feedback from judges and organizers on our innovation and presentation skills and the general display of confidence without attitude,” Phua says.

Fitting it all in: Since team members work full-time and attend school on Saturdays, that left Sundays–and much of Thanksgiving weekend to devote to the Challenge.

Fuel of Choice: Breakfast muffins and sandwich dinners from Panera Bread. Entertainment provided by Chief Morale Officer Sadie the Maltese.

Demonstrated Competition Prowess 2011-12: Innovation, education, management of organizations, marketing, entrepreneurship, and real estate.

• First-place: MIT EdTech Competition, Babson SF Rocket Pitch Competition
• Second-place: UT Austin Real Estate Challenge, Vanderbilt Human Capital Case Competition, Babson SF Rocket Pitch
• Third-place: Carlson Elite Eight Brand Management Case Competition
• Semi-finals: Global Innovation Challenge

Part-time MBA Students Set Careers in Motion

Craig Hashi, MBA 12, moved from biotech to investment banking

Evening and weekend student Craig Hashi, MBA 12, co-founded a medical device company before changing course to work in investment banking. Chris Fuller, MBA 12, transitioned from working in earth sciences to working in management consulting at Boston Consulting Group.

They are two of many students in the Evening & Weekend MBA Program to change careers while earning a Berkeley MBA. Hashi, Fuller, and five of their MBA colleagues shared the method behind their moves with fellow students in a panel discussion this fall.

The first step for all was to pull into sharp focus a target position, company, or industry. The students then employed a variety of tools, from career advising to on-campus recruiting and from networking to … more networking.

Then there are a few students, like Hashi, who went even farther. To make his change from biotech to investment banking, he worked in an internship at a hedge fund from 5 a.m. to 9 a.m., then headed to work as CTO for his medical device startup, NanoVasc, and capped the day with evening MBA classes (and homework). It was not a path for the faint of heart, but one that has placed him squarely on an investment banking track. Hashi completed an internship with Citgroup this past summer and is participating in on-campus recruiting this fall.

Kathy Benemann, MBA 12, found that careful networking made all the difference

These students also worked hard to land their informational interviews. Hashi estimates that in his biotech-to-finance move he spent seven months purely on building a network of contacts. Kathy Benemann, MBA 12, transitioned from senior strategy and product manager at UC Berkeley to associate brand manager at LeapFrog. She emphasizes the importance of building “a meaningful relationship with someone in your target company who is willing and able to help.”

Meaningful is exactly what Omer Ansari, MBA 12, aimed for in making his connections. Ansari wanted to work in cleantech and moved from an engineering role at a semiconductor company to product marketing with Soladigm, a developer of energy-efficient glass. Ansari says he doesn’t like to “schmooze.” “If someone is going to give me their time, I make it valuable,” he says. When requesting one informational interview, for instance, Ansari researched the company thoroughly and submitted a two-page brief analyzing its new product with his interview request. “I got a call within two hours,” he says.

Anand Sundaram, MBA 12, targeted--and landed at Verizon

Most panelists pointed out that the opportunity cost of making a leap can be reduced by taking on new responsibilities in a current position. Anand Sundaram, MBA 12, expanded the boundaries of his role as a service delivery manager with Nexius, a wireless service and software company, by taking on projects outside his comfort zone. His subsequent work for the company in finance, strategy, and supply chain (supported by what he was learning in the Berkeley MBA Program) helped position him for his target company: Verizon. Now, as Verizon’s area manager for Northern California, Sundaram is responsible for market expansion, new technology deployment, and customer performance.

All of the panelists observed that the Berkeley MBA, even in progress, boosted both their network and their standing in the marketplace. “The Haas brand gave me credibility and made it easier for me to take risks and expand my skills,” Sundaram at Verizon noted.

Jeff Chen, MBA 12, stayed with Intel to advance his career

Jeff Chen, MBA 12, employed a similar strategy to advance at Intel, where he’d already invested seven years. As he began his MBA studies, he moved from engineering to product marketing and, in the past year, has taken charge of defining and communicating the road map for Intel’s notebook and Ultrabook chipset product–as product marketing engineer. The move took him from a startup unit to one generating 30% of corporate profit. “Intel is huge,” notes Chen, who stood out by turning his networking conversations into mini case discussions where, “I could show critical thinking and offer up something for people to think about.”

On-campus recruiting has been an important tool for the investment-banking-bound Hashi and for Fuller, who sought a move to management consulting from earth sciences consulting. Fuller landed a summer internship with Boston Consulting Group (BCG), where he worked on an IT transformation project for a large media firm. He will join BCG full time upon completing his studies.

Other panelists also made use of services offered by the MBA Career Management Group: Ansari to polish his resume and practice interviewing, Sundaram to better negotiate compensation, and Chen to prepare for his next move–applying for a leadership program at Intel.

To one student attending the panel, Hrant Seferyan, MBA 14, these specific needs may seem like distant prospects. “I’m an explorer at this point,” he notes, adding, “Any event about careers makes me want to learn more about what’s possible.” As to what is possible, for students in the Berkeley Evening & Weekend MBA Program, maybe just about anything.

Vetted

Dan Kanivas (right), MBA 12, with Lt. Col. Eric Kail, his battalion commander in Korea

Joel Gutierrez, of the Berkeley-Columbia Executive MBA Program, says his military experience has given him the ability to “tolerate a lot of multiple tasks and prioritize,” as well as “a great sense of humor to lighten the atmosphere when things get tense.” Gutierrez, BCEMBA 12, is one of a group of veterans at Berkeley-Haas with not only combat training  in common, but an interest in rounding out leadership skills they’ve honed in the military with those they are gaining in Berkeley MBA programs.

Blake Coleman, of the Evening & Weekend MBA Program, just returned from a flying trip for the Navy, and says Haas has “greatly broadened my spectrum of experiences.”

“The business-school approach to problem-solving often comes from a very different angle than the rigid approach taken by the military,” explains Coleman, MBA 13. In his Equity Valuation and Negotiation classes, for example, he has learned a more flexible approach to problem-solving and, particularly from Negotiations, that many problems have multiple solutions. As a military aviation man, Coleman feels he brings a mindset of having a goal, being objective, and “attacking the complex questions posed in class.”

Dan Kanivas, MBA 12, is finding that his U.S. Army background, including the time he spent in Korea and Iraq, is helping him find his leadership style. “The most effective leaders in the Army did not rule with an iron fist and they were well liked,” Kanivas (pictured above) says. “Even in the Army, you would invite dissent. But then, once the decision was made, everyone had to march to that step and follow along.”

Kanivas was a summer intern for the Prudential Capital Group in San Francisco, and even though there is no direct connection between fixed-income investing and the military, Kanivas says, “the interpersonal skills I learned in the Army are huge. You have to convince the customers to trust us and our team.”

All appreciate the welcome they’ve found at Berkeley-Haas. “Veterans need to know that UC Berkeley, and especially Haas, are very receptive to veterans and the military,”says Gutierrez.

A number of the vets connect through the Haas Veteran’s Club, which recently participated in a panel with undergraduate veterans to discuss the graduate application process. The club hopes to soon bring its 30 members together in a mixer with Berkeley Law veterans.

As for what veterans bring to Berkeley-Haas, Dean Lyons reflects on how those who bring the military spirit of service to their studies align well with the school’s four defining principles: Question the Status Quo, Confidence Without Attitude, Beyond Yourself, and Students Always.

“What an Introduction to Africa!”

Evening and Weekend MBA Students Study the Business Climate in South Africa

“What an introduction to Africa! We are three days into our Seminar in International Business trip to South Africa, and already, starting in Jo’burg, we have met with McKinsey’s managing director for Sub-Saharan Africa…a finance executive from South Africa’s largest private health insurer…and Ahmed Kathrada, one of the leading anti-apartheid leaders,” blogged Geoff Huang, MBA 12, a student in the Evening & Weekend MBA Program.

Huang and 19 fellow participants journeyed to South Africa for the Seminar in International Business, a course that introduces students to a country’s business environment, history, and culture through lecture and 1-2-week field visits. Their trip also included a meeting with the CEO of DeBeers, a tour of a Levi Strauss manufacturing plant, and a visit to the winemaking region of Stellenbosch. This year’s other Seminars included a summer trip to China and spring break trips to Brazil and India.

South Africa participants also connected with full-time MBA students working on HIV/AIDS prevention through the International Business Development (IBD) course and took in experiences from game drives (“wildebeest… elephants, and lions!”) to an evening of food and music in Soweto. “Business has never been so fun!” blogged Huang.

Business lessons also abounded. Huang noted that the students learned “a thing or two about entrepreneurial spirit in South Africa: A group of kids in Soweto delighted us with their impromptu rendition of the South African national anthem. Then they charged us for the performance (and tried to sell us a soccer ball as well).” Huang also observed that a severe shortage of skilled workers and investor perception that South Africa (and Africa in general) is too risky have stifled entrepreneurship at the top strata.

Entry into the African market requires an understanding of nuanced complexities, said Huang. “I’d like to think that our two or three weeks in the country have at least given us an introduction to these.” Read more on The South Africa Seminar in International Business on the Haas in the World blog.

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