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02 Mar 2015, 15:01
| FROM The Berkeley EMBA Blog: Evening & Weekend vs. Executive MBA Programs: How to Choose, Part I |
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We know potential b-school candidates are busy – many already have families or have launched demanding careers. That’s why we offer several paths to the degree, including two part-time MBA programs. The Evening & Weekend program is a three-year, six-semester program, while our Executive MBA programmeets about every three weeks from Thursday through Saturday over 19 months. Both offer the same rich resources and result in the same Berkeley MBA degree. But which program is right for you? In this two-part series, we spoke with two couples in which each partner chose a different part-time program at Berkeley-Haas. Sunnyvale-based Manish Mukherjee and Nupur Thakur have been married 14 years and have two daughters, 11 and 8. Manish is studying in the Evening & Weekend program, while Nupur just completed the Executive Program—and now the couple is working on a startup.  Why did you both decide to get your degrees at the same time? He said: We wanted to finish our degrees before our older child goes to middle school. Teens go through so many changes – we wanted to be more available and attentive when that happens. She said: We knew if we were to get our degrees consecutively, it would take us nearly five years. We wanted to expedite that. What are/were you each doing professionally while studying at Berkeley? She said: I’m Director of Product Management at Juniper Networks’ services business. In addition, I’m on the board of Silicon Valley Product Management Association and a Berkeley Board Fellow for Girls Inc. of Island City. He said: I’m a Senior Manager of Engineering at Cisco Systems in a $1.6B annual product, leading 25 engineers worldwide. Nupur and I are also working on a start-up with a co-founder from Berkeley Engineering. Grafty Inc. heightens organization, search, and sharing functions for images and videos. How did you decide between the Executive and the Evening & Weekend MBA programs? He said: We both considered our individual needs, -- what made sense as a couple was to do different programs. And from a scheduling perspective, it worked out well. I’m gone every Saturday, then every three weeks she’s gone for three days. She said: Having worked in a functional area within business and management, I really wanted experiential training along with the academic experience. The EMBA residential format and immersion weeks were both huge factors in my decision. He said: I like my summers off, and managing the balance between work and education was key. I wanted to go deeper into entrepreneurship, and spend more time in the university environment. She said: For me it was not just a choice of which program, but also having the full campus ecosystem and the alumni network. How long will you each be in your program? She said: Manish started in May 2012 and will graduate in May 2015. I started in May 2013 and graduated in December 2014. There’s a running joke among our classmates that I started second but finished first. He said: Yeah, nice guys finish last! It’s a relay race we’ve run very strategically. What are the challenges of being a two-student household? What are the advantages? He said: Time. That was the major thing. It would have been impossible without strong family support. She said: And yet we had more time together to discuss and share things, to discover the campus and attend events. He said: We’ve been so involved not just in the work, but also in the fun. We were on a similar journey, which made it easier. To take a closer look at these two programs, check out our Compare and Contrast blog post.  
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16 Mar 2015, 15:01
| FROM The Berkeley EMBA Blog: Many Happy Returns: Long-Term ROI on the Berkeley MBA, Part II |
The Internet is rife with articles about the financial worth of a graduate degree from the nation’s top business schools. But while annual incomes are fairly easy to scale, it’s much more difficult to quantify overall satisfaction. What about professional creativity? Personal happiness? Social interaction? Flexibility? In this three-part series, we asked several Berkeley-Haas alums about a different kind of MBA ROI—how their Berkeley-Haas degrees have more broadly affected their lives in the longer term. Name and degree: Martha Gerhan EMBA 03 (Berkeley-Columbia Executive MBA Program) Lives and works in: San Francisco, CA Position prior to Haas and position today: “I was in sales and marketing, largely in manufacturing, hardware and software. Now I’m an independent strategic consultant for clients ranging from early-stage companies to corporations.” How her MBA has improved her career: “Haas gave me both the knowledge and the network, ultimately transforming me into an independent consultant. I now take a broader role in how companies work across the board, from engineering and product development to finance and marketing. As a consultant, I love being able to provide key strategic support and then move on – I’m not constrained by the structure of a full-time position.” "Greater earning power...has made me more confident in taking risks." Most rewarding aspects of life today: “I continue to connect professionally and socially with my Berkeley peers through strong friendships and the business community. Haas attracts a certain type of personality, and the Defining Principles tend to underlie our thinking. We have a different way of looking at problems and issues.” Other ways in which the Berkeley MBA has impacted her life: “Greater earning power does enable me to be more choosy about what jobs I take and has made me confident in taking risks. As an independent contractor, it’s important to have the confidence to know that you bring value to an organization.” Are you interested in becoming a more confident risk-taker?  You can also read about Beau Giannini, MBA 94 and a professor of entrepreneurship, in Part I of this series. 
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23 Mar 2015, 16:01
| FROM The Berkeley EMBA Blog: EMBA Silicon Valley Immersion: Entrepreneurship Up Close & Personal |
 Living and working in SoCal, Christine Elfalan, EMBA 15, is familiar with Silicon Beach; she is, after all, Executive Director of Product Management Bouqs, an online flower service based in Venice, California. Silicon Valley, however, was another story—and one whose mysteries were revealed during a Fall Immersion Week focused on entrepreneurship that is one of five immersions in the Berkeley MBA for Executives Program. She shares her impressions in this Q & A: What was Silicon Valley Immersion Week like? Part of the time we do case studies in awesome locations like Google and hear from executives you’d never think you’d be able to meet with—like Facebook CIO Tim Campos. Then we visit various startups and have intimate conversations with the founders. It’s just not something many people in this world ever get to experience. How did classroom time and startup visits work together? If we had just had the case studies it would be like any other class. If we just had the immersion, visiting the ventures without the doing the cases, we would have been focused on the companies--their products and missions rather than on the entrepreneurial experience itself—and that’s what the week is really about, understanding how you get there if you want to be an entrepreneur. It’s an eye-opener. How are you already seeing impact from this EMBA immersion in your life? My background has mostly been with larger corporations, and I recently joined a 20-person startup as Executive Director of Product Management for our site experience. The immersion week really brought to life that at a startup, I’m no longer just an employee, rather I feel like I have ownership, that this is my company. "The entrepreneurial experience itself—that’s what the week is really about." How does that sense of ownership play out at work? Early on, I was just trying to get things out, completed. That’s still important, but now I’ve started to get my team to focus more on the actual return on our efforts. What was the biggest epiphany from Silicon Valley Immersion Week? I realized that someday I’d really like to be up in the Valley. You really see that the nature of this environment is ingrained in the people there, the startup mentality, the lean mentality. It’s just a very different environment than in L.A. What was most surprising? I was happily surprised by the strength of the network. It was mind blowing to me that all these founders, people actually trying to run new companies would take time out to talk with us about our journeys and to tell us about theirs. How did earlier lessons come into play during the Silicon Valley Immersion? I really saw how the first two terms were setting us up for this week. From our leadership classes to our to our marketing class to our accounting and finance classes, they were all essential to get the most out of the week. Final thoughts? Just a big thank you to Professor Toby Stuart and our program office for putting in a tremendous amount of time and effort to give us a gift that nobody else could. I wish we could do it again. Want to know more about what Silicon Valley Immersion is like? Watch the video.  
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25 Mar 2015, 11:01
| FROM The Berkeley EMBA Blog: Evening & Weekend vs. Executive MBA Programs: How to Choose, Part II |
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There’s more than one path to an MBA, and for many people, a full-time program just isn’t in the cards. Perhaps you’ve already launched your career, or have started a family. That’s why we offer two part-time MBA programs. The Evening & Weekend program is designed to be a three-year, six-semester program;our executives program meets every three weeks from Thursday through Saturday over the course of 19 months. Both programs offer the same rich resources and result in the same Berkeley degree. But which program is right for you? In this two-part series (See Part I), we spoke with two couples in which each partner chose a different part-time program.  Tatiana Medvedeva and Sergey Averchenkov live in Mountain View and are engaged to be married. Both are Russian – she’s from St. Petersberg, he’s from Moscow – but they met in the U.S. in 2011. Sergey will receive his degree from the evening and weekend program in 2017, while Tatiana will graduate from the executive program in December 2015. Why did you both decide to get your degrees at the same time? She said: We were both at a place in our careers where going to business school just made sense. The timing for both of us was good, before we decide to have children. What are you each doing professionally besides studying at Berkeley? He said: I’m Vice President of the Engineering Department at Gbox, a small start-up in Redwood City. We’re just coming out of stealth mode, trying to create a business engine for creative people to monetize on movie-making capabilities. She said: I’m a Director of Product Management for Intermedia, a company that provides cloud services for small and medium-sized businesses. How did you decide between the Executive MBA and the Evening & Weekend MBA programs?  He said: I chose the evening and weekend program because I wanted to have more time to pursue extracurricular activities and the schedule is less intense than that of the executive program. Ultimately, I want to build my own start-up – I’m now working on creating my own business plan and model. She said: I felt like 19 months was a better timeline for me. Within the class demographic, I knew I would be among peers with very similar experiences to mine. I also had more flexibility around my work schedule than Sergey, so I could take a couple of days off every few weeks. What are the challenges of being a “two MBA” household? She said: Time is definitely the main issue. It’s a challenge that we have different class schedules – when I have a break, he’s busy with his homework. It’s difficult to coordinate our down-time. He said: We do like to fantasize what will happen once we have our free time back! We’re making this significant investment to advance in our careers. So a frequent topic of discussion is: What’s next? How are we going to achieve our goals? What are the advantages? He said: We’re definitely benefiting from exposure to the networks of both programs. The connections and people have been just unbelievable. We’ve made more friends in the past six months than in the past ten years. And the professors in both programs have been phenomenal. She said: You can’t go wrong when you’re ranked among the top ten U.S. business schools. We’ve really been enjoying the classroom atmosphere. And Haas was a great fit in terms of the culture. It’s very open – everyone is so generous with sharing their experience, information, and collaborative studying. You don’t always find that in other business schools. It’s one of the main reasons we chose Haas. To take a closer look at these two programs, check out our Compare and Contrast blog post.  
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27 Mar 2015, 11:01
| FROM The Berkeley EMBA Blog: Blowing Up the Business Plan at Berkeley-Haas |
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As a Berkeley MBA student, Andre Marquis learned how to write a business plan. Some 15 years later, after a series of successful ventures, he was leading the Haas School's Lester Center for Entrepreneurship. And he realized that MBA entrepreneurship programs hadn't changed with the times. That’s where Lean LaunchPad comes in. Andre shared his story in a Steve Blank blog post for the Huffington Post, noting that, "As I began my search to increase the relevance of our entrepreneurship curriculum...I found the answer right here at Berkeley, in the Lean LaunchPad class."  Blank's Lean LaunchPad course relayed business themes in a new way. Focusing on practical use and demo, Students learned the art of presenting their opportunities in real world scenarios. Lean LaunchPad focuses on customer development and agile engineering among other concepts. "I realized this class was teaching students exactly what it felt like to be an entrepreneur," says Andre. "Now, four years after I arrived at Berkeley-Haas, we don't teach business plan writing in any of our entrepreneurship classes or in any of our dozens of programs and competitions. We use Customer Development and the Lean LaunchPad to train and accelerate teams U.C. Berkeley-wide." Not only that, Berkeley-Haas has taken this teaching method global, sharing it with international students online. Haas is also part of the U.S. effort to accelerate commercialization of the country's best research spinouts from the National Science Foundation and National Institute of Health. Read the full story on HuffPo, and get the full story on Berkeley entrepreneurship on the Lester Center site.  
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29 Mar 2015, 10:01
| FROM The Berkeley EMBA Blog: Berkeley-Haas Defining Principles: From Launch to Lasting |
 The Berkeley MBA program maintains a vibe that goes beyond traditional b-school camaraderie, in part due to the school's Defining Principles: Question the Status Quo, Confidence Without Attitude, Students Always, and Beyond Yourself. Articulating Berkeley-Haas culture was a challenge that Dean Rich Lyons tackled alongside faculty and students in 2010, a process he calls both challenging and worthwhile. "I was at lunch recently with some venture capitalists who don't know the school very well, and I handed a culture card to them. They said, 'This describes the kind of people we like to fund.'" On the fifth anniversary of the Principles, the school's chief (but far from only) culture evangelist, reflects in a Haas Now story on both their launch and their lasting value.  
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30 Mar 2015, 11:01
| FROM The Berkeley EMBA Blog: EMBA Bonding Over Strategy Case Studies and S’Mores |
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What do an executive MBA program and sleep-away camp have in common? At Berkeley-Haas, everything. For three days every three weeks, our students come to campus for classes and stay together in a nearby hotel. “When we’re in the hotel for block it’s like being at camp with 68 of my best friends,” is how Julia Felts, managing director, The Sourcery, describes her experience. She isn’t alone. We hear from a lot of students that the block scheduling and residency components are two of the most valuable parts of the program.  EMBA students appreciate theblock scheduling because it gives them an opportunity to, as Don Ball, account director at gyro, says, “shift gears away from work and family, to dedicate yourself to your studies and your classmates.”  Sharrifah Al-Saleem, director of Investor Relations at Xoom, agrees. Because she travels for work, “the Evening & Weekend MBA Program would have been a logistical nightmare. The block scheduling of the executive program is much easier to handle,” she says. Residency accelerates and deepens the bonding that make the Berkeley MBA for Executives Program so valuable while you're in school—and for years to come.  Richard Wilson, director, Theravance, Inc., puts it well: “The three days on campus are sacred time. I’m there to focus on learning and to forge strong bonds with my 68 new best friends. We spend hours working on assignments, but also talking through workplace challenges, hopes and aspirations, and sharing family stories.” Here’s what Christine Elfalan, executive director of The Bouqs Company, has to say about the end of each block: “As a class, we’ve coined the term ‘blockover.’ It’s the feeling of withdrawing from a group of people who lift your spirits and challenge your intellect—it happens every time.” Even without the campfire—or the s’mores, sorry—students value the closeness and camaraderie that result from the structure of the Berkeley MBA for Executives Program. Find more of what they have to say about their experiences during block, in class, and with each other in our student profiles.  
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07 May 2015, 07:01
| FROM The Berkeley EMBA Blog: Al Gore Addresses, Inspires Berkeley MBA Students |
 Al Gore came to the Berkeley-Haas campus with a message of optimism that the climate change challenge would be met—tempered by an observation that "Democracy has been hacked" and that a breakdown in effective governance could be an obstacle to achieving that aim. The Nobel Peace Prize winner and former VP of the United States addressed a capacity crowd of Berkeley MBA students and other Haas community members in a fireside chat with Professor Laura Tyson, director of the Haas School's Institute for Business and Social Impact, and Dean Rich Lyons. During the impassioned conversation, part of the Haas School's Dean’s Speaker Series, Gore highlighted the importance of accounting for every system that supports humanity by recognizing, for example, the value in natural resources and quality of life and not just things you can buy. He encouraged students to challenge policymakers and bring innovative ideas to companies that support sustainable practices. “Mother Nature,” said Gore, “is telling us that we have to change.” Yet, despite the obstacles, “We are going to solve the climate crisis." We invite you to access insights from Al Gore, just one of the leaders to address Berkeley MBA audiences.  
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12 May 2015, 07:01
| FROM The Berkeley EMBA Blog: Taking EMBA Innovation Tools Back to the Gates Foundation |
 Berkeley MBA for Executives student Karin Lion is Associate Program Officer for Agricultural Development with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Here, she writes about Applied Innovation Week, one of five immersive learning opportunities in the Berkeley EMBA. At the Bill & Melinda Gates we attempt to tackle some of the world’s toughest problems with innovative solutions, from improving healthcare to reducing extreme poverty to increasing access to technology. I am proud to be part of an organization that pushes the envelope in how we think about helping the world’s poorest people lift themselves out of hunger and poverty. But even the most well-established organizations can become complacent in their approach to innovation, and I realize I have a part to play in continuing to push my team to think outside the box. I am now armed with the tools and confidence to drive our thinking in an entirely new direction. With some of the skills that I began to develop during our Applied Innovation Week with Sara Beckman, I am now armed with the tools and confidence to drive our thinking in an entirely new direction. I learned that it’s not about questioning the status quo, but, rather, about questioning my status quo. I realized that I bring my biases into every one of my experiences, and if I don’t reflect on how my assumptions shape my thinking, then I am limiting myself and the things I can achieve. We conducted several self-reflection exercises during the week, and I have to say, they could be painful at times. For one, I examined the business model of one of my grantee organizations and used design thinking techniques to tweak the model in order to improve its social impact. At times, I was ready to give up because I thought there was nothing more I could do! Luckily, my patient and supportive classmate, Roshini Das, kept pushing me to think differently using our new tools. It became clear to me that increasing social impact for this organization could result in a trade-off between quality and scale. I ended the week inspired and itching for a phone call with the organization’s CEO to talk strategy. I couldn’t expect to change overnight, as the concepts we were discussing were complete paradigm shifts in how I typically approach a problem and develop solutions. It also became evident that the week in San Francisco was just the first step in a journey to being able to develop the mindset, skillset, and toolset associated with being a truly innovative leader. I couldn’t expect to change overnight, as the concepts we were discussing were complete paradigm shifts in how I typically approach a problem and develop solutions. We left inspired by Executive Coach and Co-Instructor Barbara Waugh to commit ourselves to whatever we deemed our purpose in life. One of my classmates even committed himself to supporting the reunification of his country, Korea. We all left so empowered that I know he will do it! Applied Innovation Week is one of five immersive learning experiences in the Berkeley MBA for Executives Program. Check out four other ways to get immersed.  You might also enjoy , an EMBA Immersion in the Innovation Cycle. 
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03 Jun 2015, 14:01
| FROM The Berkeley EMBA Blog: Berkeley EMBA Program Prompts Leap into Entrepreneurship |
 Orion Parrott takes big leaps. Big leap #1: enrolling in the Berkeley MBA for Executives Program. Big leap #2: leaving his product line manager position at Teledyne Microwave Solutions. Big leap #3: founding Lendsnap, a start-up that streamlines complicated financial transactions by linking loan applicants’ financial statements and employment information, eliminating the documentation headache. “Lendsnap is my opportunity to improve the world in a visible way, to touch peoples’ lives, and it’s fair to say I wouldn’t have done that without the Berkeley EMBA Program,” he says. “The program—from class assignments to our professors and my classmates—is a concierge service of the best learning opportunities available.” Here are just a few of the ways Orion has leveraged what he calls the ecosystem of great minds at Berkeley-Haas: He met several of the people working with him on Lendsnap through the Haas Alumni Network. One of his classmates is both an advisor and an investor. Lendsnap is my opportunity to improve the world in a visible way. Lendsnap also participated in the California Dreamin’ Conference at Chapman University and LAUNCH, UC Berkeley’s startup competition. These opportunities afforded Orion “exceptional mentorship and connections with the inspiring entrepreneurs on the other teams.” And now, Lendsnap is one of a cohort of startups admitted to the Berkeley SkyDeck accelerator. “This puts a world-class network of mentors and advisors within reach, and it puts us side-by-side with other innovative companies building the future,” says Orion. “I feel more immersed than ever in the San Francisco Bay Area startup culture, and I know that the relationships I’m making here will continue to shape my own journey.” One of Orion's exposures to entrepreneurship in the Berkeley EMBA happened during the program's Silicon Valley Immersion Week. Take a look at our view of Silicon Valley.  
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10 Jun 2015, 13:01
| FROM The Berkeley EMBA Blog: What will I get out of an MBA? 7 things you may not have thought of |
 The decision to pursue an MBA frequently starts with the sense that there must be something...more, career-wise. More challenge. More meaning. More impact. And every year, the knowledge and skills gained in b-school lead people to find exactly these things in their careers. But at Berkeley-Haas, home to full-time, evening and weekend, and executive MBA programs, we believe there is even more to b-school. Here are 7 benefits you might not have expected—the icing on the cake: 1. "Me" Time While going to b-school is hardly ever (OK, maybe never) described as "relaxing," it is clearly time that you have set aside to focus on you—and what comes next in your career. Sometimes it's not cucumber water and quiet we need, it's higher quality noise—in the form of new ideas and information. 2. Exploration of the Path Not (Yet) Taken B-school admissions officers expect you to have a pretty clear idea of your aims and of your strengths and weaknesses, but they also know this: You haven't learned everything there is to know about yourself. A big part of the graduate business school experience is discovering unexpected abilities and passions. 3. I'm with the Band In b-school, you may find yourself chatting with founders about the life of a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, taking in a marketing VP's tales from the trenches, or hearing Al Gore's thoughts on the role of business leaders in our world's future. Enrolling in a top-ranked MBA program gives you access to top executives who have faced leadership challenges of all kinds and who share what they've learned along the way. 4. On the Ground, Around the Globe Semester break treks and built-in experiential learning opportunities bring you overseas to learn about the business climate and culture of nations from Chile to China. Sometimes part of a course and sometimes led by a classmate, these experiences are often named by students as being among their favorites. 5. Ommmmmmmm OK, not exactly like meditation, but b-school is a mind-opening and -altering opportunity to wrestle with substantive issues and to engage in the kind of deep thinking and thought-provoking discussion that lead to everything from a small shift in perspective to a Don Draper-style epiphany. 6. Not my Job You say you've never helped a firm expand into an emerging market or price a new product? Through class projects and hands-on consulting opportunities, in b-school you frequently tackle real-world challenges outside your wheelhouse as a way of practicing new management and leadership skills. 7. What Happens Outside the Classroom... ...actually comes back in. Plenty of opportunities for learning and growth happen outside of class, where you may take leadership roles in clubs, participate in case or startup competitions, lead treks, and more. You'll find these are a great way to see your learning come to life and enrich what you bring to class. At the end of your MBA studies you'll have a degree that opens doors, and new knowledge and skills to take you forward. But we think you'll find that not everything you get out of the experience was what you expected. Think of it as a way to have your cake (and icing) and eat it too. Want to know more about what an MBA program might be like? We invite you to compare our three programs.  Image courtesy of gineerobot under Creative Commons license 
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10 Jun 2015, 19:01
| FROM The Berkeley EMBA Blog: The Lean Startup Model and the Berkeley MBA |
 Lamenting the lack of real customer data in traditional startup models, Lecturer Steve Blank teaches an eight-week class at Berkeley-Haas called The Lean Launchpad. Using the lean startup method, Blank guides students through the process of gathering real customer data to head off business plans being developed solely on the basis of untested hypotheses. "Startup investors don’t even look at business plans," Blank told Poets & Quants. "They’re not expecting a five-year forecast, they want to know if the product will sell, and how a company creates value for investors and customers." Blank told Poets & Quants that about a quarter to a third of teams in his class actually launch a startup, with a number of successful products having been developed in the Lean Launchpad course. One was Krave, a natural beef jerky venture launched in the course by Berkeley EMBA alum Jon Sebastiani and purchased by Hersheyfor more than $200 million earlier this year. You can read more about Steve Blank's Berkeley MBA entrepreneurship course in Fortune Magazine.  
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01 Jul 2015, 12:01
| FROM The Berkeley EMBA Blog: 7 Reasons to Choose a Part-time MBA Program |
 Congratulations—you've decided to go business school. And you've decided that study in a top-ranked MBA program will give you the knowledge, skills, and network to chart the course of your career, from next move to a lifetime of meaningful work. Now you need to determine what kind of program is right for you: Full-time? Part-time? Online? Hybrid? We'd like to share 7 things about part-time MBA programs (such as evening and weekend or executive programs) that may help you decide if this is the best way for you to MBA: 1. Don't pause, stay in play. Part-time programs let you continue working while you earn your degree, eliminating opportunity cost. Not only that, many students make career moves while still in school. 2. Make the office your learning laboratory. Nothing makes new knowledge stick like the chance to use it right away—in the real world. Part-time MBA programs let you learn it on Monday night or Thursday, or Saturday and take it right back to work with you. 3. (Your Job Title Here) by day, marketer, strategist, founder, etc. by night. Whatever your day job, part-time MBA programs let you walk a mile in many different pairs of shoes, through class projects, consulting engagements, and startup competitions, to name a few opportunities. 4. If the shoe fits...wear it to work! As your previously untapped talents come to light at school, you can help people at work see you in a whole new way; let them know that you better follow financial conversations, and have more to contribute to strategic planning, or brand management, or... 5. Plug into a whole new network. Ever wish you knew someone who worked at (Your Dream Company Here)? Now you do. In a part-time MBA program, your classmates bring a wide range of experience, expertise, and connections to the table. As do faculty and members of the alumni network. 6. You don't have to live where you study The flexible scheduling options of part-time programs let you choose study at night, on Saturdays, or in blocks every few weeks. That way, even a commute by plane is do-able (and done by lots of people). 7. Invest in yourself—and others will too. Getting an MBA signals that you are taking charge of your career, realizing your potential, shaping and sharpening your skills. It says it before you’ve even finished the program. And it says it to your boss, even your boss’s boss. There you have it—seven ways earning your MBA part-time can take you where you want to go. Want to learn more? Check out the part-time programs at Berkeley-Haas.   
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06 Jul 2015, 11:01
| FROM The Berkeley EMBA Blog: Do I Need an MBA to be a product manager? Part I |
 Meet Max Wesman, senior director of product for GoodHire (which offers employment background check services) and a 2010 graduate of the Berkeley-Haas full-time MBA program. Max talked with us about his career in product management: What did you do prior to pursuing your MBA? I was a management consultant with Deloitte Consulting. What interested you about product management? I loved consulting because of the variety of work I was exposed to and the challenge of constantly learning new skills, while attacking challenging and interesting problems. I also worked with incredibly smart and driven colleagues. What I felt I was lacking was a strong sense of ownership over the work I was doing and the feeling of creating something tangible. For me, product management was a great opportunity to blend what I loved about consulting with being able to nurture, build, and launch a product or service into the market that people would use and enjoy. Not only that, but I would be able to stick around after finishing a project and work on improving the experience for the next release, all while working with customers to better understand their needs. What are your responsibilities as a product manager? My main focuses are making sure that our business is always moving forward, that we're exceeding customer expectations, and that my team feels supported and passionate about their work. More specifically, I'm responsible for our product strategy and road map, prioritization of our release schedule, general guidance for the engineering team, communications to the broader company and executive team, and ensuring that support and business operations are running smoothly. I manage a group of product managers responsible for various segments of our products, our UI and UX designers, and our business analyst.  How has earning your business degree helped? It first exposed me to alumni in the field who shared their experiences and various paths to reach their chosen careers. I used the Haas network to contact alums all over the Valley for informational interviews about what life as a PM was like at companies like Apple and Google. I also attended guest lectures by prominent PMs and used mock interviews to practice and focus in on areas where I needed improvement. Ultimately, I used on-campus recruiting to help secure a summer internship as a PM and eventually a full-time role. My MBA very much contributed to me getting my first job as a product manager. While in school, I focused on taking classes and building up experiences that I thought would help me look better to companies hiring PMs and assist me down the line in the actual job. Classes like Organizational Behavior, Customer and Market Development, Statistics, Financial Modeling, Negotiations, Leadership Communications, Market Research, Strategy, and Entrepreneurship all helped me strengthen my core PM skills. In my career as a PM, I’ve definitely had to reach back into my business school experiences bag for everything from dealing with troublesome personalities on development teams, pricing new products, evaluating A-B tests for statistical significance, presenting a product vision, and building financial models for forecasting. Should someone interested in product management pursue an MBA? For those looking to get into this field, I recommend going to b-school particularly when the person comes from a non-technical field or has little previous business experience. While there is no proper “Product Management course” in many programs (Note that the Berkeley MBA Program offers Managing the New Product Development Process), a curriculum of relevant classes and work experiences can easily be assembled to help build up a person’s PM career readiness. The other benefit is obviously the network. Being able to talk to experienced product managers about their day-to-day roles, and learning the do’s and don’ts of interviewing is invaluable. In addition, many top employers looking to hire PMs come directly to business schools to recruit on-campus. Want to know more about where our graduates go to work and what they do? Check out our latest employment report.  
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15 Jul 2015, 18:01
| FROM The Berkeley EMBA Blog: Paying it backward: Bringing EMBA experience to the family business |
 Dr. David Martinez and his son, David Martinez, Jr., share a name and a workplace – their family-owned business, CLICKVIEW Corporation, has provided innovative reporting products for radiologists and ultrasound technicians for 25 years. Now they have something else in common: Both are bringing back to their jobs the tools they learned at Berkeley-Haas. Dave Jr. has worked for his father’s company since he interned in high school, and gradually rose to chief operating officer. Seven years ago, he knew that there were some gaps in his skill set, but didn’t feel he had enough work experience for an executive MBA (EMBA) program. Instead he enrolled in UC Berkeley Extension’s certificate program in Business Administration. By the time he finished the certificate, he knew he wanted to go for a full MBA and that he had the necessary experience to qualify. After visiting classes and meeting the students, Dave Jr. applied only to Berkeley-Haas. “I’d looked at other programs but Haas just blew my mind, from the faculty to the alumni community to the Defining Principles,” he says. “I knew that was the community I wanted to be a part of.” Dave attended the 19-month EMBA program in 2013-14; because he had a family and traveled for work, the EMBA schedule was a good fit. Meanwhile, “Dr. Dave” Sr. was noticing a change in his son’s approach to the business. “I saw an increased understanding from a structural business point of view,” he says. “I observed almost monthly progress and a clear shift in authority from me to him. It happened much faster than I’d expected – I could actually see his intellectual evolution as he undertook more decision-making, negotiating of roles, and making us more competitive. It was like watching a flower blossom.”  Dave Jr. was eager to share his Haas experience with his father, since he’d also seen his own growth in the workplace. “On a practical level, I was able to do things like use financial statements more effectively,” he says. “But the Haas program also inspires a lot of self-reflection aimed at making you a more effective leader. I now understand that part of my role is to help our employees achieve their own professional goals. And I’m better at empathizing with my coworkers – are they asking me to solve a problem, or do they simply want to be heard?” The benefits were so great that the two decided to take Professor Toby Stuart’s week-long Silicon Valley Immersion course, “Strategy in Competitive Markets,” offered by the UC Berkeley Center for Executive Education, which delivers forward-looking techniques for assessing the competition and positioning a company for competitive advantage. With the rapid changes in the medical industry, both wanted to learn how to position their company in the strongest possible way. Dr. Dave came away with “a set of intellectual and practical tools, including how to build a value chain and value proposition. "My son had already introduced me to these concepts," he says, "but I really needed to understand them.” After their shared experience, both men identify more strongly than ever with the Berkeley-Haas Defining Principle of Students Always. “We’re both students of life, always looking into new projects and new ways of doing things,” says Dr. Dave. What advice might the Martinezes give to those looking to launch or join a family business? “Just go to Haas!” Dave Jr. says. “To succeed in this competitive environment, you need to be grounded theoretically as well as operationally.”  —Kirsten Mickelwait 
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10 Jul 2023, 09:43
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Hi Generic [Bot],
Here are updates for you:
ANNOUNCEMENTS
AGSM at UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE
Tuck at Dartmouth
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