Leading Through Innovation - The Berkeley MBA - University of ...

A d i s t i n c t i v e a p p r o a c h t o l e a d e r s h i p
Seth Familian
MBA 07
Business Development Associate
and Entrepreneur’s Program Participant
Bertelsmann Media Worldwide
Summer internship:
Product Marketing Manager
Apple
Cupertino, California
Previous degree:
BA, History & Literature
Harvard University
Job prior to Haas:
Strategist
Faith Popcorn’s BrainReserve
New York, New York
“Innovation doesn’t have to mean starting
from zero. It can be recognizing what assets
are out there and leveraging them creatively
in an unanticipated way. Haas and the
Berkeley MBA program encourage that.”
“The entrepreneurial resources here are
extraordinary. For example, the Opportunity
Recognition class was an intense, firsthand
learning experience for me. It turned
out that I had a great idea that wasn’t a great
opportunity. Getting that insight was invaluable
and will shape the way I evaluate future
entrepreneurial endeavors.”
The Berkeley MBA Program is about developing leaders
who possess a distinct advantage: the ability to lead using
the power of innovation. At the Haas School, Leading Through
Innovation is defined as a mindset and an array of capabilities that will
enable you to promote and foster environments where innovation flourishes.
In acquiring this way of thinking and doing, you can become a leader of
innovation. Because leadership and innovation are central to creating value
in the global economy, these abilities will offer you a career advantage.
Leading Through Innovation is definitely not just about technology – although
this is an important aspect of innovation, and the Haas School and UC
Berkeley have long been recognized for their strengths in the technology
area. It is also about thinking of innovation from a strategic and
organizational perspective.
The Haas School has a culture where fresh thinking is encouraged and
supported, and where leadership is expected. For example, Haas was one
of the first business schools to pioneer cross-disciplinary study of product
design via the elective Managing the New Product Development Process. This
elective, which has been taught by Senior Lecturer Sarah Beckman for more
than a decade, was among similar offerings that prompted BusinessWeek to
name Haas as one of the top design schools in the world in October 2006.
The culture of innovation here is continually enriched by a faculty of
innovators who study at the frontiers of knowledge, and bring their insights
into the classroom. And the Haas School has a history of students and
alumni who have changed organizations by leading through innovation.
In fact, a key school goal is to develop new generations of business leaders
who succeed because of their ability to build and manage organizations
where innovation flourishes.
The Berkeley MBA Program also has a tradition of creatively linking
exceptional programs and courses across disciplines at UC Berkeley. If
you take courses in the Management of Technology Program, for instance,
you interact with students and professors drawn from the schools of
business, engineering, and information.
Finally, the program is located in an innovation ecosystem that is unequaled
anywhere in the world – the San Francisco Bay Area, which includes Silicon
Valley. Innovation is a huge part of the ethos in the area, and you will feel it
every day at Haas.
Alexis Green
MBA 07
Summer internship:
Product Manager
Adina for Life, Inc.
San Francisco, California
Previous degree:
BA, Social Psychology and Spanish
Lehigh University
Job prior to Haas:
Global Account Manager
Mediaedge:cia
New York, New York
“Bringing new ideas and a new approach to the
table adds value. That is central to innovation,
and it is what Haas has helped me learn to do,”
says Alexis Green. Two of her experiences at
Haas crystallize the school’s Leading Through
Innovation mindset.
Green was on the implementation team for
Haas@Work, a semester-long project that
started with a daylong workshop that brought
together Haas students and employees at a
leading online travel firm. “We brainstormed
business ideas from acquisition strategies to
risk management to upselling opportunities,”
Green recalls. “At the end of the day, we
presented our ideas to the company’s executive
board, including the CEO, CMO and VP of
Merchandising.” Green was on the team of
six students selected to explore whether
marketing strategies and tactics – beyond price –
could affect customer conversion. “Some of
our recommendations are on-line now as part
of a pilot plan. Being able to see the results of
our work was one of the great things about
Haas@Work.”
Green also saw results – and got to practice
her Spanish – when she worked with a nongovernmental
organization in El Salvador as
a part of the International Business
Development program. “We were the first
Haas team to go to El Salvador. Our assignment
was to develop a strategic growth plan the
NGO could use to increase the number of
coffee farms in El Salvador obtaining the
Rainforest Alliance certification seal. We
identified missing information and ways for
the NGO to align itself better in the process.”
Another Haas team will return this summer
working on a new project for the organization.
Throughout her time at Haas, Green has
been impressed with her classmates’ “openmindedness
about trying things. My classmates
really made the Haas experience for me.
Everyone is willing to get down and dirty.
There is no feeling of pretentiousness or sense
of entitlement. People are incredibly bright,
passionate, and inspiring.”
Leading Through Innovation: A Career Advantage
Haas School of Business Leading Through Innovation
Full-time Program 2008 2008 Haas Haas School School of of Business 3