Author: Haas News

Haas Real Estate Conference to Drill Down on Big Data, San Francisco Gentrification

| by Haas News

Hot topics like Big Data and land-use conflicts and development in San Francisco will be among the subjects discussed at the 19th Annual Fisher Center Real Estate Conference April 28 in San Francisco.

In addition, Fisher Center Chairman Ken Rosen will share his popular forecast for the upcoming year. He will be joined by Cal alumnus Robert Lalanne, BA 78 (Archit.), UC Berkeley’s new vice chancellor for real estate, as the other keynote speaker.

Conference panels will also tackle issues including government involvement in capital markets, the intersection of real estate and Big Data, and what’s ahead for California in residential markets.

Industry experts who will speak at the conference include :

The conference runs from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Westin St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco, immediately followed by a cocktail reception.

Registration link: regonline.com/19thAnnualConference Conference website: groups.haas.berkeley.edu/realestate/ExecEd/AnnConfinfo.html

Haas Summer Youth Business Academy Expands Reach

| by Haas News
Eva Luna Reiling

Eva Luna Reiling, 13, is still months away from her freshman year in high school, but she already has dreams of attending Berkeley-Haas and becoming an entrepreneur. At the Berkeley Business Academy for Youth Program (B-BAY) last year, she discovered a key skill she needed to develop.

“I learned how to work on a team,” says the Arlington, Va., resident. “I used to be really bad at it, but now I use what I learned about teamwork in school every day.”

Reiling, whose father and mother earned MBAs at Berkeley, decided she wants to follow in their footsteps after attending B-BAY, which is going on its sixth year this summer. Founded for middle school students in 2008 by the Haas School’s Center for Young Entrepreneurs at Haas (YEAH) , the intensive program continues to extend its reach in curriculum and student diversity.

This summer will mark the second year YEAH offers a session to high school students with housing.  In addition, more international students will be attending the program—including students from Belgium and Brazil for the first time—thanks to recruiting across the globe.

Tuition from B-BAY supports the Center for Young Entrepreneurs at Haas, which teaches business skills in under-resourced Bay Area schools during the school year. Along with teamwork, business concepts such as entrepreneurship, accounting, marketing, and corporate social responsibility are tailored for students’ levels. As a final project, middle school students create a business website, while high school students present a business plan and critique a case study.

Lecturer Frank Schultz is one of the Haas faculty members who have been donating teaching time to B-BAY for the last five years. His coursework emphasizes leadership and teamwork. One of his experiential exercises teaches students about organizational structures such as forming (students getting together), storming (students competing with ideas), norming (coming up with a mutual plan), and performing (teams handling the decision-making process).

“The students learn that if they have disagreements during the storming point, they should not necessarily feel as if they got a bad team,” he says. “Disagreement, negotiation, and coming to a consensus on a direction are fundamental to moving on to the norming and performing stages.”

Joyce Zhao, 17, a high school junior from Guangdong province in China and 2013 alumna, is applying what she learned in school this year. “Some fundamental ideas related to business and economy are helpful for my AP economics study now,” she says.

Meanwhile, 2010 B-BAY alum, Jonathan Lee, 17, of Lafayette, Calif., has used his knowledge to help him place as a finalist in a regional and state business competition. Thanks to B-BAY, he says, “I felt like I was already comfortable with all the material.”

Visit the Berkeley Business Academy for Youth website.

Eva Luna Reiling

California Management Review Launches Electronic Digest for Haas Community

| by Haas News

California Management Review (CMR), the Haas School’s quarterly management research journal, has launched a new digital service for students, alumni, faculty, and staff to make the latest management research more accessible.

CMR Executive Digest condenses and summarizes the key points from articles in the latest issue of California Management Review into two to three pages. The digest will be emailed to students, alumni, faculty, and staff each quarter when a new issue of California Management Review is published.

“We received feedback from alumni and students that they don’t always have time to read an entire article or issue of California Management Review,” explains Haas Professor David Vogel, the journal’s editor-in-chief since 1982. “CMR Executive Digest is a way of making our articles more accessible to the Haas community.”

CMR Executive Digest also will include summaries of articles in the Berkeley-Haas Case Series, which recently expanded its audience through an agreement with Harvard Business Publishing.

The first edition of the CMR Executive Digest includes a summary of Haas Professor Jenny Chatman’s case article “Culture Change at Genentech.” The digest also includes summaries of articles on Japanese companies after the 2011 earthquake, supply chains, open innovation, and employee contributions to brand equity.

To access the full table of contents of the latest issue of CMR, visit CMR’s website at cmr.berkeley.edu.

Marketing Professor Clayton Critcher Honored with UC Berkeley Mentor Award

| by Haas News

Haas Assistant Marketing Professor Clayton Critcher will receive the Carol D. Soc Distinguished Graduate Student Mentoring Award on April 15.

The Soc Award recognizes UC Berkeley educators who provide excellent mentoring to graduate students and future faculty. Carol Soc served the university as Graduate Division Director of Academic Affairs and in other positions for 50 years. The department established the honor bearing her name in 2007.

Critcher’s students describe him as a stellar academic adviser who is intimately involved in all aspects of their projects.

“Clayton has the ability to quickly see through the complexity of a problem and break it down into its component parts. For an academic, this is akin to a possessing a superpower,” says Scott S. Roeder, a Haas PhD candidate. “Clayton always has time for his students, whether it is to discuss research, professional development, or simply to chat. I feel very lucky to be able to work with him.”

Critcher studies judgment and decision-making, moral reasoning, and consumer preferences. He joined the Haas faculty in 2010.

Critcher will be presented the award by the Susan J. Muller, UC Berkeley associate dean of the Graduate Division, at the Anna Head Alumnae Hall, 2537 Haste St., Berkeley, during an awards presentation from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. He will be joined by two other winners:
History Professor Cathryn Carson and Professor Linda Williams, who holds a joint appointment in Film and Media Studies and Rhetoric.

Alumni Conference to Feature Mac and Cheese CEO and Olympic Bobsledder

| by Haas News

Annie’s CEO John Foraker, MBA 94, and former Olympic bobsledder Darrin Steele, MBA 08, will participate in a full day of teaching by alumni, faculty, and staff at the Annual Alumni Conference April 26 at Haas.

Foraker will give the morning keynote talk, sharing his experiences in building Annie’s from a $6 million macaroni and cheese business to a public company listed on the New York Stock Exchange. In his talk, Hopping Down the Bunny Trail: Building a Mission Driven Consumer Brand, Foraker will provide examples of the values-aligned decisions he has had to make over the years as CEO and his observations about the future of consumer brands.

The conference will also feature a wide variety of lectures given by faculty and industry leaders—five to choose from in the morning and five in the afternoon. Among the topics:

  • Scalable Startups: Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Scale at Berkeley-Haas, taught by André Marquis, MBA 96, executive director of the Lester Center for Entrepreneurship.
  • A Fresh Approach to Networking, led by Heather Hollick, MBA 04, a leadership and team coach.
  • Personal Finance Boot Camp, led by classmates Tanya Shaw Steinhofer and Tammy Plotkin-Oren, both MBA 99, with colleague Gigi Orta.

Dean Rich Lyons, BS 82, will kick off the conference with a welcome and brief update on the school, including his perspective on how the unique culture and style of leadership at Haas empowers alumni to create positive change in organizations and markets.

Topics to be presented by Haas professors include :

  • Business and Social Impact at Haas, with Professor and former Dean Laura Tyson, director of the Institute for Business and Social Impact at Haas. Tyson will discuss the new institute, including its history, rationale, activities, and goals.
  • Aaker on Branding: 20 Principles That Drive Success, with Professor Emeritus David Aaker. Drawing from his new book with the same title as this session, Aaker will discuss what you need to know to create and manage strong brands.
  • China vs. the U.S.: Where Will This End?, with Senior Lecturer Paul Tiffany, PhD 83. Tiffany will review the remarkable rise of the Chinese economy from the Mao-inspired revolution in the mid-20th century to the present day.

Darrin Steele, MBA 08Darrin Steele (pictured right), CEO, U.S. Bobsled & Skeleton Federation, will be among the alumni giving nine HAASx Talks to cap off the afternoon. The five-minute presentations by Haas alumni are intended to inspire, engage, and provoke conversation.

Steele, whose talk is titled “Five Business Lessons from Olympians,” enjoyed record wins for the U.S. bobsled and skeleton teams in the Sochi Olympics this year. His own own career highlights include taking 12th in four-man bobsled in the 1998 Olympics and 9th at the 2002 Olympics in two-man bobsled with driver Brian Shimer.

Other examples of HAASx Talks are:

  • Three Ways to Demolish Gender Bias (Good for Men, Women, Business, and a Lot of Things), Nilmini Gunaratne Rubin, MBA 99, senior advisor, U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee.
  • Culture Eats Strategy for Lunch, Chris Loughlin, BCEMBA 04/05, CEO, Travelzoo.

The HAASx Talks will be moderated by Adjunct Assistant Professor Kellie McElhaney, faculty director of the Center for Responsible Business.

The day will close with a networking reception from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. Organizers are planning a simple way to help people connect with others from specific industries and executive recruiters during the event.

For more details on the conference, visit haas.berkeley.edu/groups/alumni/conference/.

John Foraker, MBA 94, CEO of Annie’s

Henry Chesbrough to Receive Honorary Doctorate from Spanish University

| by Haas News

Adjunct Professor Henry Chesbrough, PhD 97, faculty director of the Garwood Center for Corporate Innovation, has been nominated to receive an honorary doctorate from the University of Vic – Central University of Catalonia in Barcelona, Spain. The university said it hopes to carry out the investiture during this academic year.

“The reason behind this appointment is the major contribution you have made to the world economy, innovation, and international competitiveness with the introduction of the brilliant and inspiring concept of Open Innovation,” the university wrote in a letter to Chesbrough. “This concept has become a benchmark in the courses taught by our Faculty of Business and Communication Studies.”

With the publication of his first book, Open Innovation, in 2003, Chesbrough coined a new term and created a new paradigm for innovation that has been widely accepted and taught at business schools and management training centers around the world. Open innovation asserts that a company or organization should make greater use of external ideas in its business and allow its own ideas to go out beyond its own boundaries to others to use in their businesses.

Hewlett-Packard CFO and Tech Entrepreneur to Speak at Commencements

| by Haas News

HP CFO Cathie Lesjak, MBA 86, will speak at the Berkeley MBA commencement May 23, sharing her experiences helping to lead one of the world’s largest tech companies.

Entrepreneur Mark DiPaola, BS 99, chairman and co-founder of inMarket, founder of Vantage Media, and a member of the Dean’s Advisory Circle at Haas, will speak at the Haas undergraduate commencement ceremony will be held Monday, May 19, at 9 a.m.

Their speeches carry on a Haas tradition of inviting distinguished alumni to speak at the commencement of the program from which they graduated.

Cathie Lesjak, MBA 86

Cathie Lesjak will share her career experiences and rise to CFO of Hewlett-Packard at 2 p.m., Friday, May 23.

In her final year at Haas, Lesjak accepted a job in marketing strategy at a grocery store chain. When the chain went private a few months later and eliminated her intended job, she applied for a treasury analyst job at HP.

She joined the company in 1986 and, by 2007, was named CFO. As CFO, she is responsible for the company’s overall financial activities and leads several departments, including finance, treasury, tax, and controllership.

Lesjak also served as interim chief executive officer of HP from August 2010 through October 2010.

In Lesjak’s multiyear journey to turn HP around, she has worked to bring costs in line with the company’s revenue trajectory, and make the required investments for the long term. She’s also focused on a disciplined approach to capital allocation centered on restoring the company’s balance sheet. In February 2014, Lesjak noted “we’ve reignited innovation at HP, and we have strengthened our relationships with customers and channel partners.”

As a 24-year veteran of the company, Lesjak has held a broad range of financial leadership roles across HP.

Before being named CFO, Lesjak served as senior vice president and treasurer, responsible for managing the company’s worldwide cash, debt, foreign exchange, capital structure, risk management, and benefits plan administration.

Earlier in her career at HP, she managed financial operations for Enterprise Marketing and Solutions and the Software Global Business Unit.

Lesjak, who participated in a keynote conversation during the Women in Leadership Conference in 2010 at Haas, has a bachelor’s degree in biology from Stanford University.

Mark DiPaola, BS 99

InMarket Chairman and Co-founder Mark DiPaola will speak at the Haas undergraduate commencement Monday, May 19, at 9 a.m.

DiPaola is a successful entrepreneur who has been involved in several startups. He launched his first “real” company at age 15, which was ultimately purchased by a customer.

In 2010 DiPaola and his brother, Todd, founded inMarket Media, a mobile marketing company based in Venice, Calif., to bring the accountability of digital marketing to the realm of retail. (Todd also received his undergraduate degree from UC Berkeley.)  inMarket partners with retailers and publishers including Conde Nast and Gannett to enable them to deliver useful information to consumers at the right time.

DiPaola previously founded Vantage Media, a startup whose performance-based model simplified the often unruly world of online advertising. In February 2007–8 years after graduating—Mark led the largest Series A funding of any U.S. company in nearly two years, at a valuation of over $150 million.  Today, Vantage Media manages online marketing for more than 2,000 schools and colleges, as well as industry leaders including Netflix and Health Net.

Under Mark’s leadership, Vantage ranked #1 on the Deloitte & Touche list of fastest growing companies in Los Angeles, and #31 in the Inc. 500.  Prior to Vantage, he was a strategy consultant at Monitor Consulting.

An Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Finalist, DiPaola received the 2009 Award for Excellence in Achievement by a Young Alumnus from UC Berkeley.

He is on the board of The Boys and Girls Club of Santa Monica and is an active supporter of Young Entrepreneurs at Haas.

As a member of the Dean’s Advisory Circle, DiPaola joins other recent graduates of all degree programs who work to bring together the Haas School’s next generation of leaders. The Advisory Circle offers the Dean candid feedback on high-level school strategy, program initiatives, and curriculum plans.

Read a Profile of Cathie Lesjak, MBA 86, in CalBusiness Magazine

Three Berkeley MBA Programs Score High Marks in U.S. News Ranking

| by Haas News

All three Berkeley MBA programs placed among the top 10 schools in the U.S. News & World Report ranking published today (March 11). The Evening & Weekend MBA Program ranked #1 again among part-time programs. The Full-time MBA Program ranked #7 among full-time programs for the seventh year in a row. The Berkeley MBA for Executives tied for #9 with UNC Chapel Hill, up from #10 last year, among executive MBA programs.

In the full-time MBA ranking, Haas again rated 4.6 out of 5 in the peer assessment, which is based on a poll of business school deans and MBA directors. In the recruiter assessment Haas rose to 4.2, up from 4.1 last year.  Among specialty rankings, also based on the peer assessment poll, Haas ranked:

#4 in nonprofit (#4 in 2013)
#5 in entrepreneurship (#6 in 2013)
#8 in finance (#8 in 2013)
#8 in international (#9 in 2013)
#8 in management (#7 in 2013)
#11 in marketing (#9 in 2013)
#14 in accounting

Each ranking for full-time MBA, part-time MBA, and EMBA programs is based on a different methodology.

  • The full-time MBA ranking rated 63 programs and is derived from a peer survey of business school deans and directors of accredited MBA programs (25%) as well as a survey of corporate recruiters (15%); placement success (35%) as measured by average starting salary and bonus (40% of this measure) and employment rates at graduation (20% of this measure) and three months later (40% of this measure); and student selectivity (25%) as measured by average GMAT and GRE (65% of this measure), average undergraduate GPA (30% of this measure), and proportion of applicants accepted (5% of this measure).
  • The part-time ranking is derived 50% from peer assessment (business school deans and MBA program directors); 15% from average GMAT/GRE; 5% from average undergraduate GPA; 15% from work experience; and 15% from the percentages of overall MBA enrollment that is part-time.
  • The EMBA ranking is part of the specialty rankings and based entirely on a peer assessment poll by business school deans and MBA program directors.

Read the full U.S. News ranking.

 

Haas Ranks High Among Best for Vets in Military Times

| by Haas News

Berkeley-Haas ranked #16 in the “Best for Vets” ranking published today (March 10) by Military Times, which collected responses from some 140 colleges and universities. Haas is the only top business school (as measured by other national rankings such as U.S. News and Businessweek) to make Military Times’ final “Best for Vets” list of 64 schools.

Military Times scored schools’ survey responses to both its business schools survey and to parts of its colleges survey based on what veterans have said is important to them as well as applying its own editorial judgment. Military Times also factored in Education Department statistics commonly used to track student success and academic quality.

Overall, schools were evaluated in five categories: university culture, student support, academic outcomes and quality, academic policies, and cost and financial aid. The value of each section was comparable, but university culture and student support counted the most, and financial aid counted the least.

View the Military Times report.

Four Haas Alums Make 40 Under 40 List

| by Haas News

The San Francisco Business Times has released its third annual 40 under 40 award winners, a group of CEOs, entrepreneurs, and top executives making a difference in the local business community. In all, nine Cal alumni made the list, four of those Haas alumni. They will be honored at an event on March 18 at AT&T Park.

Haas alums who made the list:

Nikhil Arora and Alejandro Velez, both BS 09
Co-founders
Back to the Roots, which sells mushroom-growing kits and Aquafarm, a self-cleaning fish tank that also grows an herb garden
Read more Haas news about Back to the Roots

Danae Ringelmann, MBA 08
Co-founder and chief customer officer
Indiegogo, the world’s largest global crowdfunding platform
Read news articles and a magazine profile about Ringelmann and watch a video about how her Berkeley MBA experience helped her build Indiegogo.

Shivani Sopory, BS 05
Audit senior manager, emerging technology practice
KPMG LLP, a professional services firm that provides audit, tax, and advisory services

Cal alumni on the list:

Jason and Matthew Goldman, both BA 10 (Interdisciplinary Studies)
Co-founder and principal
G2 Insurance, an insurance brokerage for high-net-worth individuals, nonprofits, real estate, and technology firms

Daniel Lurie, MPP 05 (Public Policy)
CEO and founder
Tipping Point Community, which screens nonprofits to find, fund, and partner with the most effective poverty-fighting organizations in the Bay Area to support people in need

Kristen Law Sagafi, JD 02
Partner
Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, which represent plaintiffs in individual, group, whistleblower, and class-action lawsuits in state and federal courts nationwide

Ije-Enu N. Udeze, BA 95 (Economics)
Chief of Staff
Kaiser Permanente health care provider

See the 40 Under 40 article in the San Francisco Business Times

Top B-School Students Come to Haas to Take on K-12 Education Challenges

| by Haas News

Ten rival teams from some of the nation’s top business schools came to Berkeley at the end of February to compete in the Haas School’s annual Education Leadership Case Competition, helping develop strategies for a charter school system that recently expanded outside California to Memphis, Tenn.

This year the case focused on Aspire Public Schools, one of the nation’s highest performing school systems, which predominantly serves low-income students at 37 open-enrollment K-12 public charter schools in and California and Tennessee, where Aspire began operating two schools in 2013. Due to unpredictable budgets based on the state pupil funding rates, Aspire Public Schools sought guidance on how its management team could face future change—including new Common Core Standards, investments in technology and training, and new policies around teacher effectiveness—while continuing to provide the means for maximized student achievement.

Teams composed of students from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and Stanford Graduate School of Education School took first and second, while Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management in third. Other teams came from Berkeley-Haas, Columbia, Chicago Booth, Virginia Darden, and USC Marshall. Judges included two executives from Aspire.

“Aspire judges mentioned they left the competition with frameworks and solutions they are excited to start using,” says Erica Butow, MBA 14, co-president of the Education Club, which organized the competition.

In its eighth year, the competition is the country’s oldest MBA case challenge that brings business minds to education management. Past competitions have tackled problems faced by schools in such cities as San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, and Pittsburg.

“The Education Leadership Case Competition brings talented student leaders together to develop innovative solutions for today’s education challenges,” says Fanzi Mao, MBA 14, one of the Education Club’s vice presidents. “In doing so, we hope to positively impact America’s public education system and develop stronger leaders for future education reform.”

 

 

Support Haas Initiatives on New Crowdfunding Sites

| by Haas News

Berkeley-Haas launched two crowdfunding platforms to enable the Haas community to support campus initiatives and each other’s private ventures.

The crowdfunding platforms aim to help attract engagement and financial support for research and innovation, community activity, and entrepreneurial ventures that typically fall between the campus’s normal funding methods and models.

“These campaigns showcase the good work underway in the Haas community,” says Laurent de Janvry, Haas’ director of marketing and development – annual, reunion, and leadership programs. “And crowdfunding increases the visibility of that good work and expands the funding pool.”

Berkeley-Haas’ official crowdfunding platform, crowdfund.haas.berkeley.edu, hosts campaigns directly supporting school initiatives, such as the following live campaigns:

  • Center for Responsible Business: Raising $100,000 for the first student-managed Socially Responsible Investment Fund at a top business school, aimed at developing future generations of responsible investors and leaders.
  • Young Entrepreneurs at Haas (YEAH): Raising $20,000 for deserving Bay Area high school teens to have the opportunity to visit colleges in Southern California.
  • Haas Rugby Club: Raising $2,500 for new team uniforms and equipment.

Berkeley-Haas’ external crowdfunding platform, indiegogo.com/partners/berkeley-haas, hosts private ventures launched by Haas students, faculty and alumni, including this most recent campaign:

  • PlushCare: Raising $25,000 for a startup that offers medical diagnoses and treatment with qualified MDs via email, phone, or video chat. (They extended their campaign!)

CARE USA CEO Helene Gayle to Speak on Leading Top Aid Organization, April 29

| by Haas News

Helene Gayle, CEO of CARE USA, will speak at Haas at 12:30 p.m. April 29 about her experiences leading one of the world’s largest aid organizations and inspiring the next generation of leaders to solve global social issues.

The event, to be held in the Wells Fargo Room, is the inaugural Distinguished Lecture of the Institute for Business and Social Impact, which launched in November. Gayle, one of the world’s top female leaders and global thinkers, will be interviewed by Professor and former Dean Laura Tyson, who is director of the new institute.

The talk is co-sponsored by the Dean’s Speaker Series; registration will be required on the Dean’s Speaker Series website as the date approaches. Boxed lunches will be provided at the event.

Boxed lunches will be served at the event.

Boxed lunches will be served at the event.
Boxed lunches will be served at the event.

Gayle has served as president and CEO of CARE USA since 2006. The nonprofit is committed to reducing, and eventually ending, extreme poverty by serving individuals and families in the poorest communities in the world.  CARE places special focus on working alongside poor women because, with the proper resources, women have the power to help whole families and entire communities escape poverty. Last year, CARE worked in 84 countries and reached more than 83 million people around the world.

Gayle joined CARE USA after directing the HIV, TB, and Reproductive Health Program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She spent 20 years at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, focusing primarily on HIV/AIDS. Gayle holds MD and MPH degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and Johns Hopkins University. 

“I always knew that I wanted to do the most that I could for the most people,” Gayle told Forbes in 2013. Forbes ranked her 67 on its “Power Women” list “because her decisions affect so many.”

Marketing Guru David Aaker to Speak on 20 Branding Principles, April 21

| by Haas News

Haas Marketing Professor Emeritus David Aaker will distill his decades of pioneering work on branding into 20 principles that drive success during his annual talk at Berkeley-Haas at 12:30 p.m. April 21 in the Wells Fargo Room.

The lecture, “Aaker on Branding: 20 Principles that Drive Success,” is also the name of Aaker’s newest book, which will hit store shelves this summer. His talk is part of the David Aaker Distinguished Speaker Series and is sponsored by the Dean’s Speaker Series, MBA Marketing Club, and Undergraduate Marketing Club. Registration is required; more details on registration will be provided as the event approaches on the Dean’s Speaker Series website. Boxed lunches will be served at the event.

In his talk, Aaker will comment on both the history and the future of branding, touching on the power of “brand as asset,” the role of a brand vision, the importance of innovation, and the need in today’s Digital Age to change the focus from the offering to what the customer is passionate about.

Aaker has published more than 100 articles and 16 books, including seven on brand strategy, that have sold well over one million copies and been translated into 18 languages. Aaker is the winner of three career awards for contributions to the science of marketing and was named one of the top five most important marketing/business gurus in 2007. He has won awards for the best article in the California Management Review and (twice) in the Journal of Marketing.

Aaker is also vice-chair of Prophet, a global marketing consultancy, which was co-founded by two Haas graduates Scott Galloway and Ian Chaplin, both MBA 92, on the basis of the brand principles developed by Aaker. Another Haas alumnus, Michael Dunn, MBA 90, now leads Prophet as the firm’s chairman and CEO.

Aaker will be featured in the upcoming spring issue of BerkeleyHaas magazine’s “Faculty Giants” series. In the BerkeleyHaas article, Dunn calls the move to bring Aaker into the Prophet brain trust his “best corporate decision.”

If you can’t make Aaker’s talk at Haas on April 21, you can catch him speaking at the Berkeley-Haas Alumni Conference later in the week, on April 26. He also blogs at davidaaker.com.

Latin American Business Conference to Explore Innovation in Many Contexts, April 4

| by Haas News

With the theme “Scaling up Innovation,” the fifth annual Latin American Business Conference on April 4 at the Bancroft Hotel will focus on themes of interest to a community broader than just students and alumni focused on business in Latin America.

This full-day conference is organized by the Latin American and Hispanic Business Association (LAHBA), and will feature speakers and panelists from a variety of backgrounds talking about innovation at all levels, from the idea stage to startup to corporate innovation.

“This conference will be relevant to not only Latin America or Hispanic people, but the whole community interested in innovation,” says conference organizer and former LAHBA president Pablo Cuaron, MBA 14. “We want people to walk away with insights on what it takes to be innovative, whatever they want to do and wherever they want to go.”

The opening keynote will be Allen Taylor, VP of global network at Endeavor, which is an initiative that connects U.S.-based venture capitalists with entrepreneurs across Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa. Cuaron notes that Taylor will be able to talk on not only entrepreneurship in Latin America but also Latin America within a global context.

Pablo Peñaloza, CEO at GE Capital Mexico and Latin America; John Magee, CMO at GE Software; and Alejandro Alvarez, senior director in Global Brand Engagement at Banana Republic, MBA 05, will also give keynote talks.

In addition to the keynote addresses, there will be two panels: one on scaling up innovation in Silicon Valley and another on why tech companies should care about Latin America.

The conference runs from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., coffee and a networking event at the end. For more information and registration, visit lahbaconference.net.

UC Berkeley Startup Competition Adopts New Name, Attracts Record Entries

| by Haas News

Whether the challenge is finding convenient parking in San Francisco, minimizing the toxicity of chemotherapy, or quickly and cost-effectively converting a business to LED lighting, the entrepreneurial teams in this year’s Berkeley Startup Competition have solutions.

More than 200 teams from UC Berkeley and UCSF entered this year. On April 22, 38 semifinalists, including 18 Haas-affiliated teams, will compete to become one of eight finalists to compete in the April 24 final round. Nearly $60,000 in prizes will be awarded to winners of the semifinal and final rounds.

This year the contest, previously known as Bplan, now has a new shorthand name: LAUNCH. The new name reflects the continued move away from the use of a long-form business plan to a one-page business model canvas and a 10-slide presentation used by today’s startups, according to Moses Lo and Kristen Duffel, both MBA 15, the student co-chairs of the competition.

“We thought about what this competition is really trying to do: It’s now much more about catapulting and launching companies from ideas to viable businesses over the course of the competition,” Lo says. “LAUNCH exactly describes our aim.”

The competition draws startups from four industry tracks: energy and cleantech, life sciences, products and services, and IT and Web. After teams make their pitches at the private semifinals, judges will select two teams from each track to compete in the final round. First-place track winners receive $5,000 and a chance to pitch their idea during the Spring 2014 application cycle for SkyDeck, UC Berkeley’s startup accelerator. Second-place track winners receive $2,500.

During the private portion of the April 24 finals event, judges will select the $20,000 grand prize winner, who also will receive an automatic six-month spot at SkyDeck. The winner will be announced at the public finals on the evening of April 24.

Each finalist is also eligible to win the $5,000 People’s Choice Award, chosen by an audience vote during the final public round presentation. In addition, the semifinalists who did not advance to the final round are eligible to win the $2,500 Elevator Pitch Award, also determined by audience votes.

Teams participating in LAUNCH receive other benefits as well, including networking and mentorship opportunities. New this year is a networking reception and expo, where the 30 semifinalists who did not advance to the finals can set up visuals and discuss their business ideas with attendees of the public final round.

Another change to the LAUNCH competition this year is a greater emphasis on financials and go-to-market strategy, with two new workshops created to better prepare teams in these areas.

“The workshops bring in real-world VCs and successful entrepreneurs to relay their insights into our focus areas and allow teams to iterate their content with our practitioners,” says Duffel, a co-chair.

All LAUNCH participants are also encouraged to enter FOUNDER.org’s competition—open to all students at UC Berkeley and other partner schools—to win a $100,000 grant. FOUNDER.org, a LAUNCH sponsor, is a nonprofit dedicated to advancing student entrepreneurship. A March 19 event at UC Berkeley will launch FOUNDER.org’s 2014 competition with a talk by FOUNDER.org CEO Michael Baum, whose career has included six startups, including the recent IPO of Splunk.

Registration is required for the April 24 LAUNCH public finals, which will take place from 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. in Andersen Auditorium. For more information about LAUNCH, visit launch.berkeley.edu.

Lecturer Ethan Namvar Honored by Journal of Investment Management

| by Haas News

Research co-authored by Haas Lecturer Ethan Namvar that found a 2008 ban on short sales inflated stock prices was recently chosen by four Nobel laureates to receive the Journal of Investment Management’s 2013 Special Distinction Award.

Namvar’s winning paper, “Price Inflation and Wealth Transfer During the 2008 SEC Short Sale Ban,” was selected by a final panel that consisted of Nobel laureates Harry M. Markowitz, Robert C. Merton, Myron S. Scholes, and William F. Sharpe. The paper, which appeared in the journal’s second quarter 2013 issue, was co-authored with Lawrence E. Harris of the University of Southern California and Blake Phillips of the University of Waterloo.

The paper focuses on the turmoil in financial markets following the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008, when the Securities and Exchange Commission banned short selling of financial sector stocks in the United States. The objective was to restore market equilibrium and stabilize prices by removing short sales—a source of downward pressure.

Using a factor-analytic model that extracts common valuation information from the prices of stocks that were not banned, the trio estimated that the short sale ban inflated prices of effected stocks by approximately 10 percent to 12 percent. The effect of the ban was not permanent; thus, investors who purchased stock during the ban paid more than they would have otherwise. The research provides a conservative estimate of $2.3 billion to $4.9 billion in wealth transfer from buyers to sellers as a result of the ban.

“Financial crises are chaotic by definition, and it's very challenging to draw definitive conclusions,” says Namvar. “From our study however, we felt that we did observe price inflation in financial stocks and subsequent reversion for companies that were doing poorly prior to the ban. We simply wanted to document the effect and offer an economic assessment.”

“We hope the paper will serve as a reference for regulatory agencies when contemplating future short-sale bans,” Namvar adds.

Namvar has been a lecturer in the Haas Finance Group since 2011. He taught the undergraduate Introduction to Financial Engineering course in the fall.

The Special Distinction Award will be presented to Namvar and his co-authors later this year at the Journal of Investment Management’s spring conference in San Diego, Calif.

Make it Wearable: Lester Center To Create Curriculum for Intel Challenge

| by Haas News

Intel CEO Brian Krzanich wowed attendees last month at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas with his announcement of the $1.3 million Make It Wearable Challenge.

The global, year-long challenge will call upon the smartest and most creative minds around the world to develop startups to push the limits of wearable devices and ubiquitous computing in areas such as meaningful usages, aesthetics, battery life, security, and privacy.

Building on a longtime relationship with the Haas School's Lester Center for Entrepreneurship, Intel also announced a new partnership to build an online curriculum for the top 10 finalists in the Make It Wearable Challenge. Lester Center Executive Andre Marquis will lead Berkeley-Haas instructors in guiding wearable device startup teams through a multi-month intensive online accelerator that will start in August and culminate in November with the 10 finalists spending a week at UC Berkeley.

The curriculum will build on Haas' work leading a multimillion innovation program for the National Science Foundation (NSF). Haas Lecturer and serial entrepreneur Steve Blank, an architect of the NSF Innovation Corps curriculum, will be among the faculty offering training sessions as part of the Make It Wearable initiative with Intel.

“This educational and entrepreneurial initiative brings together so much of what is great here at Berkeley-Haas: lean startups, open innovation, and design thinking just to start," says Marquis. "We are excited to partner again with Intel to inspire and train the next generation of entrepreneurs and help them push the limits of what is possible.”

The Lester Center has been hosting the Intel Global Challenge at UC Berkeley every fall since 2005 in collaboration with the Intel Foundation. The challenge brings together the best business, science, and engineering students to network, learn from leading entrepreneurship educators, and compete for $100,000 in prizes by pitching their businesses to prominent Silicon Valley investors.

Intel will manage the selection process for its Make It Wearable Challenge, while Haas will host and build the curriculum for the accelerator program.

Registration begins today (Feb. 24) for the Make It Wearable Challenge’s Visionary Track, which features five rounds with start dates and judging staggered throughout the year and $5,000 prizes. Registration will open in summer 2014 for a Development Track, which will feature three rounds to select the 10 finalists who will participate in the accelerator curriculum created by the Lester Center.

For more information and to sign up for updates, visit the Intel Make It Wearable Challenge website at makeit.intel.com.

Yaniv Konchitchki Makes “World’s Top 40 Under 40”

| by Haas News

Haas Professor Yaniv Konchitchki was named as a “World’s Top 40 Under 40” lauding the best young business professors from around the globe.

Konchitchki joined the Berkeley-Haas faculty in 2011. Before receiving a PhD from Stanford University Graduate School of Business, he was a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and a Senior Financial Consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) as well as a Senior Investment Expert at the Securities Authority.

Konchitchki’s research interest and expertise are in interdisciplinary capital markets, and in particular he develops the new and growing area called Macro-Accounting, which addresses real-life problems using the value added that accounting can bring to various current macro-level topics (e.g., inflation; inequality; housing; recessions; GDP; business cycles; national accounting). His research serves as a starting point for new research on the linkages between accounting information, stock valuation, and the macroeconomy.

“The starting point in my research is holistic,” says Konchitchki. “Firms do not operate in a vacuum, but rather they are part of the macroeconomy. However, since its formation, accounting research has overwhelmingly ignored how firms are affected by, or inform, the macroeconomy. My research sheds light on questions that were ignored for decades.”

Konchitchki has published his research in top-tier academic and professional journals. In addition to being nominated as a “World’s Top 40 Under 40”, Konchitchki has consistently received awards for research and teaching excellence including:

  • from the accounting profession (American Accounting Association’s Best Paper Award)
  • across Berkeley (e.g., Hellman Fellow—a most promising assistant professor)
  • within Haas (e.g., Schwabacher Fellow, Bakar Fellow, Club 6, Cheit Award—for excellence in research and in teaching the core MBA and the PhD research classes)

Poets & Quants, a business school news site, publishes this annual award to recognize professors who excel in research and in the classroom. Konchitchki was quoted by one student: “You were able to effectively take an admittedly dry subject (and one I was not particularly looking forward to) and turn it into a great learning experience.  I appreciate all the time and dedication you put into the class; it truly shows.”

Read the Poets and Quants article.

Read more about Prof. Konchitchki on his website.

 

Culture Change at Genentech Featured Case Study in California Management Review

| by Haas News

Changing company culture is easier than managers believe and can have a rapid impact on the bottom line, Haas Professor Jennifer Chatman shows in a new case study in the latest issue of the Haas School's California Management Review.

“There’s a lot of talk in the consulting industry about culture change being so difficult,” Chatman says. “It takes a long time, it is expensive, it may not improve the bottom line. That’s wrong.”

Chatman’s case study, Culture Change at Genentech: Accelerating Strategic and Financial Accomplishments, is part of the new Berkeley-Haas Case Series, which recently expanded its distribution through Harvard Business Publishing. Chatman's case tracks Genentech senior vice president and Haas alumna Jennifer Cook, MBA 98, who within a year transformed the culture of her Immunology and Ophthalmology (GIO) division after it was acquired by Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche Group in 2009.

The Roche-Genentech merger left “a hangover effect” among some of the 11,000 employees working in four divisions who had weathered layoffs, uncertainty, and management changes after the deal. Cook wanted to bring the GIO team together and give them a sense of shared purpose.

Cook first conducted a culture assessment within the division in 2010, using a statistical tool Chatman developed to create organizational cultural profiles. That profile showed that Cook’s employees wanted to focus on innovation and patient outcomes, the attributes that had made Genentech successful initially. So Cook shifted the division message: back off slightly on our intensive focus on short-term results to make room for longer-term innovation to benefit our patients. She developed four new pillars that defined the culture: patient orientation, focus on people, courage/innovation, and integrity.

Cook moved quickly to get senior leaders onboard, creating a Cultural Advisory Board to build awareness of the four pillars, and developed rewards and recognition for workers who exemplified the new culture.

Miraculously, within just 11 months, Cook's GIO division had achieved her five-year financial and strategic goals: providing breakthrough treatments for 300,000 patients suffering from chronic immune system and ophthalmology diseases; creating three therapeutic franchises in rheumatology, respiratory, and ophthalmology; and reaching $3 billion total in revenue within these three franchises.

Since then, GIO continues to focus on aligning its culture and strategy and also continues to thrive. Cook was promoted in August 2013 and moved to Basel, Switzerland, to run Roche Commercial for all of Europe.

Comprehensiveness and consistency were key to Cook’s success in shifting her division's culture, Chatman says.

“You really have to be all in,” Chatman says. “Leaders need to get people to step up and take ownership of culture change to make it happen.” Cook also put employees first, acting as the leader and providing direction but ultimately putting success in their hands. “This wasn’t Jennifer Cook’s change, it was GIO employees' change,” Chatman says.

Professor Jennifer Chatman