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

L e a r n i n g W h i l e D o i n g
Learning Beyond the Classroom
Jenna Feldman
MBA 06
Associate
Origo, Inc.
San Francisco, California
Previous degree:
BA, Psychology
University of Manitoba, Canada
BA (Honors), Business Administration
University of Western Ontario, Canada
Job prior to Haas:
Sponsorship Manager
Toronto International Film Festival
Toronto, Canada
In 2006, Jenna Feldman was one of six
Haas CSR Fellows invited by McDonald’s
Corp. to look at its beef supply chain from
every angle: the environmental issues, animal
welfare, and labor and social concerns.
The team visited ranches, feedlots, and processing
plants, and had access to corporate
executives. The results of their analysis can
be read in McDonald’s worldwide corporate
responsibility report, posted on the firms’
web site. “McDonald’s had been wrestling
with these issues for a long time, so a lot
of our findings weren’t new to them. But I
have to give them credit for taking a chance
and opening their doors to us,” she says.
It wouldn’t have happened, Feldman says,
without Adjunct Assistant Professor Kellie
McElhaney, executive director of the Center
for Responsible Business at Haas. “Kellie
took a risk herself, that McDonald’s would
be open to the idea. She encouraged us
every step of the way.”
Feldman’s CSR Fellowship, which required
10 to 15 hours of work a week, complemented
her regular coursework. “It was
a terrific opportunity to see first-hand the
intersection of corporate responsibility
and the bottom line.”
Feldman is applying what she learned on
the job at Origo, Inc., a consulting firm that
helps businesses create environmental and
social value along with profit. “The issues
are so complex. There are so many moving
parts. You need broad thinking and collaboration
to arrive at solutions that will work
across the system,” she says.
That’s the kind of thinking she encountered
among her Haas classmates. “They
constantly surprised and impressed me,”
she says. “A new skill or expertise would
emerge whenever it was needed. Each of
us took the lead when our strengths were
needed to solve a problem.”
The Berkeley MBA program is immeasurably enriched by a
large array of innovative courses that combine classroom
learning with hands-on exposure to real-world business
situations. In addition, the program offers you numerous opportunities to
get involved in field activities that make use of the knowledge and skills you
have mastered in your coursework.
Over 50 percent of full-time Berkeley MBA electives make use of hands-on
projects. This almost always means team projects – an important aspect
of experiential learning. For example, teams of Berkeley MBA students work
directly with firms such as Hewlett-Packard, Gap Inc., Ford Motor Co., and
McDonalds Corp. in a corporate responsibility course. One of the past teams
spent fifteen weeks conducting a third-party assurance of Intel’s corporate
social responsibility report, which was highlighted on the company’s web site.
International Business Development (IBD) is one of the Haas School’s most
heralded experiential electives. Each summer it sends 70 Berkeley
MBA students to work in small teams with a variety of clients for three
weeks on consulting projects in various countries. One team recently worked
in the jungles of Borneo, Indonesia, helping farmers to set up a viable
business co-op that will allow them to pool the rattan they harvest and
sell it to furniture manufacturers at a reasonable profit. In Zambia, Africa,
an IBD team conducted market research for products designed by the
Wildlife Conservation Society to promote sustainable agriculture and end
animal poaching.
Beyond the course-related field activities are a plethora of projects, studentorganized
conferences, case and business plan competitions, and numerous
special events that challenge Berkeley MBA students to put their learning to
work right away in innovative ways. The Haas@Work project last November
sent nearly 50 Berkeley MBA students to consult on a key business issue with
top executives at a large online travel agency in the Bay Area. “Innovation is
about fresh ideas being put to work, and Haas@Work is about applied
innovation,” says Adam Berman, executive director of curriculum innovation.
An innovative research fellowship sends teams of MBA students and other
Berkeley graduate students overseas on projects, such as one to create solarpowered
lighting systems in rural China, and another to extend microfinance
loans in Uganda. The activities are part of a collaborative effort between
the United Nations Industrial Development Organization and UC Berkeley’s
Management of Technology Program that focuses on researching sustainable
solutions for economic development in developing countries. Student teams
spend at least three weeks abroad conducting field research, which is
published in a journal and later presented at a UN-sponsored conference held
at the Haas School.
Vandana Agarwal
MBA 08
Summer internship:
Associate Brand Manager
Del Monte Foods
San Francisco, California
Previous degree:
BA, Computer Science
University of California, Berkeley
Job prior to Haas:
Senior Software Engineer
Kana Software, Inc.
Menlo Park, California
“Company executives look at the world differently
than other people. Haas@Work has given me the
opportunity to understand how they think and to
adapt my thinking and my presentations to deliver
what they are looking for. I’ve learned how
important it is to prioritize your recommendations
and always have support for any idea you present.”
“It’s exciting to know that something real will
happen as a result of the work we’re doing in
Haas@Work. Millions of people will see and
experience the marketing strategy we’ve put
together. We hope to have a true, positive impact
on the company’s bottom line.”
Haas School of Business Leading Through Innovation
Full-time Program 2008 Haas School of Business