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.

Five Things: Women in Leadership (WIL) Conference

Keynote speaker Heidi Roizen

1. Leadership: Co-chairs Ruth Duggan and Jane Wong, both MBA 13.

2. The mix: Among the more than 400 attendees was a nine-year-old, who asked speaker Heidi Roizen, venture partner at Draper Fisher Jurvetson, “How do you get better at your job?”

3. Themes: What paths are you driven to bend? Is dreaming big and being a leader selfish?

4. Inspiration: Amanda Pouchot, founder of Levo League, an online community of professional women, challenged the audience to “ask for more” on Equal Pay Day (which was April 9), and Roizen shared war stories from the male-dominated VC world of the 1980′s, then inspired the audience by sharing how she negotiated a four-fold increase in compensation.

5. Perspective: “Today gave me a lot to think about.”–comment from male attendee.

Five Things: Business of Healthcare Conference

Conference Co-Chairs Tara English and Darya Rose with Steve Burrill

Each year, more than 1,000 students, academics, and industry professionals build knowledge and expand networks at conferences organized entirely by Berkeley MBA students. This series will take a look at recent conferences, starting with the Business of Healthcare:

1. In charge: Co-chairs Tara English, Darya Rose, both MBA 13.

2. In attendance: A mix of about 30 percent students, 50 percent professionals, and 20 percent academics/other. People from more than 120 different organizations come, split evenly between small companies and large ones that include Kaiser, Genentech, and UCSF.

3. Questions: How are companies helping consumers manage complex healthcare decisions? How are organizations changing business models to adapt to increasing consumer choice? And who will consumers ultimately choose to meet their healthcare needs?

4. Answers: Keynote speakers Steve Burrill, CEO of the life sciences financial services firm Burrill & Co.,and  Ken Shachmut, EVP  & CFO of Safeway Health, a company founded upon the supermarket chain’s experience in controlling healthcare costs, were joined by attendees, and a host of experts in tackling healthcare’s big questions.

5. Food for Thought: 85% of people who look at their genetics with @23andMe (a personal genomics co.) choose to share their data. An Assumption that people cling to privacy is wrong.

Backstage: Salman Khan’s Meet-up with MBA Education Club

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The student-led spirit at Haas recently resulted in a Dean’s Speaker Series event featuring Khan Academy founder Salman Khan, whose simple YouTube tutorials to help young cousins with homework exploded into a “one-world schoolhouse” with 3,900 lessons viewed more than 230 million times.

With an introduction made by Bryan Wong, MBA 14, Co-presidents of the Berkeley-Haas Education Leadership Club (ELC), Erica Butow and Tom Pryor, both MBA 14, took on the initial outreach and legwork to connect with Khan. The Dean’s office then helped to make the talk a Dean’s Speaker Series event—attended by more than 400 people. (Catch Khan’s lecture in the Haas video room.)

Butow introduced Khan before the lecture and says, “While I was thinking on what to say, I started to wonder how this was possible. How was I able to come from Brazil, from a non traditional background, and suddenly be there introducing Salman Khan to the Haas Community?”

“Thinking about it, I got to the core of what I am passionate about,” says Butow. “All of this was only possible because one day I was given opportunities and these opportunities opened doors, including Haas. As with most of us at Haas, I want to make sure I don’t forget about those who are not given the same chances.”

Khan stayed after his lecture to meet with members of the Education Leadership Club in a more intimate setting, an experience called “amazing” by ELC member Mike Ciccarone, MBA 13.

“At one moment, Sal Khan was trying to describe the way in which he thought virtual education might impact the labor market, and you could tell he was going into ‘teacher mode’ like in his videos,” says Ciccarone. “He asked for a piece of paper to diagram on and I was lucky enough to be sitting next to him. He drew a few scribbles in my journal to illustrate his point, and only afterwards did I realize that I now had an original Salman Khan teaching aid. I’m thinking of getting the page framed.”

“For someone like me, who wants to build a career working in the education space and bringing the lessons learned at Haas to bear on the problems of education equality, getting to meet Sal Khan was nothing short of getting to meet a celebrity or a hero,” Ciccarone says.

Butow says Khan exemplifies the mission of the ELC. “We believe that in order to have the impact we want, we need to multiply the effect we could have on our own by empowering others who will empower others and so on. We believe education has the greatest potential to change lives and break the cycle of poverty.”

Adds Butow, “We are really thankful to Deans Lyons and grateful for being part of this incredible and student lead community that keeps opening doors for us.”

Revealed: The Mysteries of Coding

Alumnus Joe Wadcan demystifies code

Don’t know your Ruby on Rails from your RAM? Joe Wadcan, MBA 12, plans to change that. Wadcan recently offered the first of what he hopes may become a series of classes on coding for MBA students.

A serial entrepreneur, Wadcan has learned that there are numerous advantages to being conversant—even self-reliant–when it comes to code. Wadcan, who launched the social media team for Citi as Senior VP of emerging communications, as well as a number of his own social media ventures, is currently coding for his latest venture, Calico, which is “reinventing the calendar built around social.”

He returned to Haas to share what he’s learned because he wished he’d had access to such a class when he was a student. “I could have saved time and avoided mistakes,” he says.

Some 30 students turned out for an initial session, offered by the Haas Entrepreneurs Association. They heard from Wadcan on the joys of never again having to beg for coding help, or at least being able to avoid sounding dumb to developers. One goal was to help students see a way forward in getting started with code. “It’s less complicated than people think,” says Wadcan. “GMAT math is sufficient for 99 percent of web apps and a CS degree is not required. Though logic and patience are.”

Gabe Cohen, MBA 13, says he’s exploring opportunities with mobile app startups that would involve collaboration with coders and wanted “to get an understanding of the language and structure.” He says he might ultimately want to write his own code. “This session helped demystify the subject to the point where I think, with hard work, I could familiarize myself with coding.”

Wadcan hopes to return to Haas to help with that increased familiarization and suggests that students reach out to @joewadcan to express their interest in keeping their CPU and their CSS straight.

Learning in Store: Retail Trek Yields Consumer Insights

Wendy Pratt explains the lay of the land

One recent Wednesday morning 17 MBA students traded statistics for…shopping.  The students were getting a look at what goes on in stores behind the scenes, as part of a Career Management trek led by Wendy Pratt, a Haas career advisor specializing in marketing and consumer packaged goods (CPG).

Pratt, who brings over 12 years of experience building brands and launching new products in the CPG world, is walking the aisles of a local Target store and Safeway grocery store to share insights on how products get developed, packaged, discounted, and placed on store shelves. The students have a variety of reasons for participating: Some are preparing for internship interviews with CPG powerhouses. Some are exploring broader applications.

Kyle Rudzinski, MBA 14, is transitioning from clean energy policy to clean energy business and says the trek helped him realize “how truly powerful marketing is.” Bronson McDonald, MBA 14, hopes to validate strategies employed by his family’s food manufacturing business (producing canned ackee, Jamaica’s national fruit). “I’ve seen the challenges in getting shelf space and market share for a new food brand,” he says. McDonald is also seeking insights for his own entrepreneurial plans for a venture transforming waste into a resource for food productions.

Bronson McDonald (l. with Andy Rios) gleans insights for his family’s business and for his future entrepreneurial plans

Stephanie Curran and Allie O’Brien, both MBA 14, are interested in CPG careers. Curran, in fact, is preparing for an interview the following week and “wants to learn more about how to get into the mind of the consumer from a brand management perspective.”

O’Brien came to Haas after working in energy consulting. She enjoyed the marketing components of her energy work, but likes the idea of focusing on products that consumers not only connect with daily, but connect with emotionally. She’s also interested in being “the head of a business within a business” and in having the responsibility for profit and loss that comes with brand management.

Moving through Target, the students learn about entry point marketing (capturing consumer loyalty at the outset of a major life change, such as having a baby), category captains (those brands with #1 share who control much of what happens on shelf space and merchandising), and key trends, such as seasonal merchandise—this against a backdrop of cookies and tortilla chips done up in black and orange for Halloween.

Perfect test subjects, the group finds themselves unable to resist the lure of well-presented merchandise, stopping to browse plush baby toys, men’s shirts, and plaid PJ bottoms. Eliza Rosenbaum, MBA 14, leaves with a Cal hoodie. “There was just no time to shop in Fall A and I really needed something for Big Game,” she explains. O’Brien makes her own brand selections, leaving with the coffee and kitchen sponges on her roomate’s shopping list–along with a few impulse purchases.

“The trek is a really interactive way to teach and discuss the importance of merchandising, shelf presence, packaging, and all other aspects of the marketing mix,” says Pratt. “The best way to learn the basics of marketing and discuss trends in consumer behavior is to see how CPG companies handle the marketing mix on the ‘front line’ as consumers see it.”

Linked In: Broadening Access to the Game of Golf

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Working as an engineer in the oil and gas industry, Amara Aigbedion, MBA 13, received frequent invitations to golf with her (mostly) male co-workers. Not knowing the game, Aigbedion declined, but she noticed that missing a day on the links with clients meant missing out when “Others were out there making the lasting relationships important in business.”

So, when Aigbedion got to Berkeley-Haas last year and noticed Tilden Regional Park close by, she made the time to learn. She joined a large number of classmates in the “Tee It Up” lessons offered by the park’s golf course and says, “ I quickly got to know my fellow MBA teammates  and recognized the importance of being out there.”

“I had never had exposure to golf until those lessons,” Aigbedion adds. “And I have noticed that this is true for many women, minority, and international students.”

To remedy this, Aigbedion, VP of Diversity for the MBA Association, teamed with the Women in Leadership and Sports Management clubs to offer a Saturday morning golf clinic. The event quickly sold out, with more than 35 students signing up to learn the basics of putting and driving.

The outing was one in a series of “Beyond the Circles” events organized by Aigbedion. “These are designed to get people out of their comfort zone and regular social circles or cliques,” Aigbedion says.  Last year’s events included pottery and cooking lessons.

Due to demand, Aigbedion says that  she may offer another golf clinic. She timed this one so participants could sign up for the fall session of Tee It Up as follow-up and believes that several students will. Simply put, “It’s an important networking tool in the business world.”

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: Berkeley-Haas Defining Principles in Action

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Berkeley MBA students won the MIT EdTech Case Competition in November with strategy recommendations for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt on a new online tool that helps parents to help children with schoolwork. 

Razoring their way to raising funds, students donated $12,500 to Challenge for Charity through the annual tradition of No-Shave November.

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.

Berkeley MBA students won the Michigan Renewable Energy Case Competition with a portfolio approach to helping a Michigan utility generate more electricity with renewable energy technology.

First-year full-time MBA students Elsita Meyer-Brandt and Jens Uehlecke were just two of the aspiring Haas entrepreneurs to benefit from expertise offered by the Lester Center’s Entrepreneur’s Corner.

Full-time students won the IBM/Novartis Non-communicable Disease Challenge with a pharmacy membership program in Mexico that will provide access, community, and encouragement for improving the health of pregnant women with diabetes.

Evening and weekend MBA students used tools from Problem Finding Problem Solving on their way to semi-finalist status in the global Innovation Challenge.

Solar Win for Berkeley MBA

Will Regan and Will Greene in an earlier Xite Presentation

Hailed by judges as a “big idea” with significant implications for the thin film solar industry, Xite Solar took third place in the Department of Energy’s First Look West Clean Energy Business Challenge.

Full-time student Will Greene, MBA 13, and Will Regan, a Berkeley Physics PhD candidate, took home the honor and a $40K prize from the western regional finals of the competition, held at Caltech April 30-May1. Xite Solar’s technology enables production of high-efficiency, low-cost photovoltaics from a variety of earth-abundant, non-toxic materials.

Green and Regan, who connected last fall as organizers for the Berkeley Energy and Resources Collaborative (BERC) Innovation Expo, emerged from an original field of more than 80 teams and 30 finalist teams. “BERC has been a wonderful way to bring together students with an interest in energy from across the UC Berkeley campus..” says Greene. “It plays an instrumental role in facilitating interaction and collaboration among energy students from a diversity of academic backgrounds.”

Regan and Greene are going to be assembling a team of five students to participate in the Cleantech to Market class this fall to continue to work on the project.