Student Teams Compete for Capital in Pitching to the Stars

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

Team Blue was feeling good following its investment strategy pitch…

They executed back-tests instead of back-flips, sought “alpha” instead of fame, and competed in suits rather than…  what they wear on that show.

MBA teams in the Haas Investment Fund course pitched their investment strategies to a panel of judges on May 6^th, competing for allocations of capital from a dedicated fund that the teams will now use to execute those strategies.  HIF is the finance experiential learning course in the Innovative Leader curriculum, in which students explore their own areas of unique insight, anticipate catalysts for change in those areas, and train on portfolio analytics tools — all to develop unique investment strategies. In working as members of teams they also develop the capabilities of framing problems and opportunities, experimenting to learn, managing complexity and uncertainty, and influencing beyond authority.

The three judges — including a hedge fund manager and a former chief investment officer and with two Berkeley MBAs and two PhDs among them – were a bit unnerving before the competition but then wholly inspiring during the presentations.  Feedback was equal parts praise and constructive suggestions, with a particular focus on prospects for achieving true “alpha” — or market-beating returns — through the strategies, while closely evaluating and managing risk.

Team Blue pitched a multi-manager strategy that capitalizes on areas of experience and insight among the teammates, identifying potential price catalysts through fundamental analysis and selecting a portfolio of under-covered small-cap stocks.  Team Gold focused on the semiconductor and biotech spaces, gearing buy/sell decisions off an aggregator of mentions in online media — following extensive testing of this data.

One member of Team Blue who found it “extremely valuable to be in a professional setting pitching our investment ideas,” said the feedback was “concrete and actionable, and will definitely make our portfolio perform better over the next six months.”

…while members of Team Gold were feeling even better at the post-pitch celebration, here with judge Minder Cheng.

A member of Team Gold added that it was “invaluable that the judges had direct experience with our specific type of strategy and could pass lessons on to us.”

In the end, the judges admired both strategies almost equally, and allocated the fund 55/45 between the two teams.  After some adjustments based on the insights and suggestions of the judges, the teams will implement their strategies starting this month and will continue to monitor and manage their positions until December. The three judges were Minder Cheng, MBA 89, PhD 94, a former chief investment officer at BlackRock; Joel Drescher, MBA 05, co-head of equities and a portfolio manager at Symphony Asset Management; and Stephen Malinak, global head of investor analytics at Thomson Reuters.

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

MBA Internships: Google

Here’s an update from Pablo Molinero, MBA 13, on his product marketing internship with Google’s mobile ads team in Mountain View. In his latest post, he discusses everything from sushi contests to all-hands Q & A sessions with Larry and Sergey (Page and Brin, that is). As the internship winds down, Molinero realizes that he won’t have time for everything, but says, “That’s a great sign.”

 

Learn more, in Pablo’s latest post for Google’s Diary of a Summer Intern.

MBA Internships: Citigroup

Benny Du, MBA 13, celebrated 200 years of Citi by volunteering to refurbish a park on the Upper West Side and entertain kids for the Fresh Air Fund in Brooklyn

Student: Benny Du, MBA 13

Interning with: Citigroup, NYC, as part of the Digital Strategy and Channels Team at Citi Cards.

Thrilled because: “Citi is truly a global brand.” Also, since this year marks the 200^th anniversary for Citi, Du was able to take part in the celebration.

 Can’t believe he’s getting the chance to: Meet and interact with many senior leaders and executives, such as Jud Linville, CEO of Citi Cards. “Also, I’ve already had an in-depth discussion on the future of payments with the executive responsible for the Citi—Google Wallet partnership.”

The Berkeley MBA toolkit: Du has been using the observation and framing skills learned during PFPS class exercises. “I have also consulted with Sara Beckman during my time here. The framework that she provided of ‘use, usability, and meaning’ has been helpful in figuring out how consumers engage digitally through various devices, touch points, and functionalities; and determining potential opportunities for Citi. 

Inside Citi: “The summer associates were given a core values card (along with our name badges) as reminders to ‘be bold and curious,’ and ‘think and act like an owner.’ These definitely remind me of the Haas Defining Principles.”

Advancing career goals by: Gaining exposure to a wide variety of functions, such as traditional e-mail marketing and digital media strategy, along with “a front-row seat on applying innovation and cutting-edge technology to a consumer-facing business.”

MBA Internships: Google

Pablo Molinero, MBA 13, has posted an update on his summer as a product marketing intern with Google’s mobile ads team in Mountain View. In his latest post, he discusses his aim of learning all he can about business management and applying new skills in “a cool tech company that improves the world.”

He’s digging deep into questions like: How can Google improve user’s experience in mobile? How can Google serve the most relevant information and ads to its users? What should be the value proposition for all Google stakeholders (advertisers, publishers, app developers, and users)? As he puts it, “So much to do in so little time!”

Learn more, including a fun Google fact in Pablo’s latest post for Google’s Diary of a Summer Intern.

Pablo Molinero, MBA 13, Google Summer Intern Diarist

Pablo Molinero, MBA 13, is spending the summer as a product marketing intern with Google’s mobile ads team in Mountain View and will be keeping a diary of his experiences for Google. He’s looking forward to learning as much as he can about Google’s businesses (particularly mobile), enjoying the culture of fun and hard work, and working on complex problems in an ever-changing industry.

One thing he’s shared so far: Favorite past-times include time with his son (seen here at the Monterey Bay Aquarium).

In the coming weeks, Haas Achieves will keep you posted on Molinero as well as other Berkeley MBA interns.

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.

Haas Achieves: A Video Year-in-Review

Congratulations to the full-time MBA classes of 2012 and 2013. In just one year you have accomplished an extraordinary amount, from organizing conferences and international treks to winning case competitions. We are so proud of all you achieve at Haas–and have captured what we could (i.e. some, certainly not all!) in this Haas Achieves video. We know you have many achievements yet to come and wish you the best.

Video produced by Tritone Media

Maker Lair: Students Develop New Products in Hands-on Course

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Creativity is a matter of course in Managing the New Product Development Process. For nearly 15 years, this joint Berkeley MBA/Mechanical Engineering course has guided inter-disciplinary student teams from concept generation through prototype development in a semester-long project.

Industry professionals from IDEO, Frog Design, and Google provide coaching to the teams, whose students come from Berkeley MBA and graduate engineering programs and from the California College of the Arts. Work culminates with a product tradeshow.

Alden Woodrow, MBA 12, worked on Project “Reinventing the Briefcase,” an idea from Mechanical Engineering teammate Emily Rice, MS 12, who observed that urban professional men use different bags for work, working out, and going out. A flap on the team’s “Either” bag changes the look from conservative black with a leather handle to bright print with shoulder or backpack straps. “We envisioned a young SF lawyer going from an important client meeting to drinks with friends in the Mission,” says Woodrow.

Sue Young, MBA 12, worked on PocketKey, a keychain that can charge a cell phone.”We’ve all had the moment where we can’t call our friend, reply to our boss’ email, or find the restaurant because our phone ran out of battery,” says Young. Learning the importance and the how-to of understanding customer needs was her biggest takeaway from the course. “In a corporate setting, I find the focus within problem solving is more on finding solutions and less on a deep understanding of the problem. In the design process, understanding the need is absolutely critical.”

MBA Internships: San Francisco Unified School District

(L. to R.) German Freiwald with Paul Perry, MPP 11, Moritz Plischke, and Bruce Dos Santos, both MBA 12. Together they took first place in the 2011 Haas Education Leadership Case Competition.

Student: German Freiwald, MBA 12

Interning with: San Francisco Unified School District, San Francisco, CA

Thrilled to be with SFUSD because: “I get to work on projects which have a direct impact on children.”

Can’t believe he’s getting the chance to: Use his data analysis skills to help SFUSD make strategic management decisions. “All of my work leads to the district utilizing their resources as efficiently as possible so that we are better able to close the opportunity gap for children.”

Already he’s learned: “How to ask the right questions, use data to drive decision making, and influence the strategy of the Early Education Department.”

Advancing career goals by: Learning how districts are run and getting access to all of the key decision makers. “It is a very resource constrained and complex environment that demands the best of me everyday. As someone that wants to work in education, this internship is providing me with invaluable perspective on the challenges urban school districts face.”

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

MBA Internships: Visa

Student: Amy Josephson, MBA 12

Interning with: Visa Inc, Foster City, CA

Thrilled to be with Visa because: It’s “a major global brand with tons of interesting areas to focus on as a marketer– from global brand strategy to Olympics sponsorship to innovative new payment solutions in the mobile and eCommerce space. “

Can’t believe she’s getting the chance to: Get exposure to the CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) through intern executive breakfasts and project presentations with her team.

Already she’s learned: “How to prep a building for painting!” (through a Visa Volunteers day at a local elementary school.) She’s also gained good strategic frameworks for product marketing.

Advancing career goals by: “Applying strategic thinking to marketing in a way I haven’t done before.”

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