Berkeley MBA Student Blogs

We've Moved!

2011-08-11T11:30:00.000-07:00

The Berkeley MBA Students Blog has moved from Blogger to Wordpress. New posts will appear exclusively at http://berkeleymbastudents.wordpress.com/. The new RSS feed is available here. Thanks for reading!

Beers + First Years

2011-08-09T12:55:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe that it's been more than a year since I arrived in Berkeley, and harder still to get used to referring to myself and my classmates as second years. But I had to get used to it quickly last night when the Beer Industry Club hosted about 70 first years at a great local brew pub, Triple Rock, to welcome them to Haas and help them recover from their first week of Math Camp. When planning this event with my fellow co-presidents, we had anticipated having about 20 people, so we were pleasantly overwhelmed when, within half an hour, the roof deck was standing room only. We shouldn't have been surprised...any time you offer free anything to b-school students, you're guaranteed to get half the student body, so it's good to see that our new crop of first years aren't any different! I had a great time reconnecting with some first years I met last spring at Days at Haas and meeting a lot of new people. It'll be great to be on campus again in just a few weeks.

I forgot to bring my camera along to last night's event, so here's a picture from one of my favorite Beer Club events last year, our North Bay brewery tour (at the iconic Russian River Brewery in Santa Rosa). And yes, another brewery tour is in the works for this year!

The Halfway Point

2011-06-05T18:30:00.000-07:00

I’ve heard many of my classmates mourn the fact that our first year at Haas is effectively over. Indeed, it is a little sad that the last nine months have passed in what seemed like the blink of an eye. That’s what happens when you are busy having a wonderful time with great people and learning new things. Many of the blog posts here have been dedicated to just how good of a time we've had these past nine months. However, I'm trying to look forward to new opportunities rather than dwell on the glory of the past. And I have to say, things are looking pretty good.

Last week I started my summer internship as a product manager at Zynga, one of the hottest companies in the Bay Area right now and the makers of many hit Facebook games. This is exactly the kind of opportunity I wanted when I applied to Haas and it will be a crucial stepping stone in my transition from consulting to technology. Although I've only been on the ground for three days, I've already learned a tremendous amount and can tell that its going to be a phenomenal summer. I've heard my classmates make similar comments and everyone is very exciting for this summer. They should be, because they're doing amazing things! My classmates are doing everything from business development at Facebook and Box.net to leading projects for Deloitte and McKinsey to working on deals at private equity companies and venture capital firms.

After we finish up our internships this summer, we're going to walk away much wiser and with a new vision of the future. Sure, we'll be closer to graduation and a return to the careers we've left behind, but we'll still have two semesters left. That's a lot of time to take interesting classes, spend time with my friends at Haas, and enjoy the good life. Things could be worse, but they couldn't be much better.

Congrats class of 2011!

2011-05-17T01:11:00.000-07:00

In a Berkeley MBA commencement “first,” the graduating full-time MBA class chose co-speakers to deliver the student address: Andrew Jensen and Alan Lock. The class of 2011 was inspired by the duo’s forthcoming Polar Vision endeavor, a record-breaking trek across Antarctica. Here are some excerpts from their speech, delivered at the Berkeley MBA commencement on May 15:

Alan Lock: All of us came to Haas to—at some level—change the direction of our journey in life. As with many journeys, we are often faced with hurdles that block our intended path. For me, it was the loss of much of my sight, a shock which happened relatively early in life and left my plans in disarray. Virtually overnight, the destination which had always been so clear and sharply focused for me suddenly disappeared.

In trying to rebuild my life and my career, I had to find a way around this hurdle and I took a different direction than I otherwise might have done. I came to California and to Haas and in doing so set forth on a new path in my own journey.

I did not step onto that path alone. I joined 239 others with whom I would be spending the following 2 years. In short, 240 unique threads had weaved themselves from points all over the globe and for this brief period we would be fellow travelers. We had come from different countries, cultures and careers, but we all came with one goal: to change our lives for the better.

And I can sincerely say that the MBA experience did change my life for the better. Any fears I had taking on the challenge of an MBA with my impairment were swiftly quelled by the kindness and support of my fellow classmates that epitomized the principle of thinking “beyond yourself.” I know that my experience was replicated many times over for each of us. Whether it was the class coming together to support students families during the earthquakes in Chile or Japan, or the tireless work of many of the class in the annual C4C (Challenge for Charity) events, it really shows that people do care about the journey, and what they can contribute along the way.

A large part of my own experience here has been planning another journey, to take place later this year. As most of you know, Andrew and I are leading an expedition called Polar Vision, aiming to set a Guinness Record in attempting to reach the South Pole to support a number of sight charities.

This 6 day expedition across the frozen wastelands had a lot of parallels with our Haas experience. It involved setting into the unknown to trek toward a far off goal; it necessitated teamwork and a definite display of confidence (without attitude). As with our MBA course, there were challenges—indeed pulling a 140-lb sled across a featureless wasteland was comparable to trying to fill the limitless expanse of empty Excel cells to make a financial model (that works).

But despite the challenges, uncertainties, and hard work we faced on this particular journey, we finished it with a lifelong connection, a deep friendship, and a knowledge that this experience brought us together. And for me, and I am sure for all of you too, this is an exact reflection of our experience at Haas.

Andrew Jensen: I’ve heard it said that completing an MBA program is like walking down a flight of steps and accidentally missing the final step- one emerges disconcerted, but unscathed. I think everyone here can remember a moment during their program when they realized they had stepped from familiar ground and found themselves swimming in cool and unfamiliar water— be that the first time they were expected to correctly apportion fixed and variable costs in a tractor manufacturing facility, consume as many cupcakes as possible in one minute, or negotiate Telegraph avenue after sunset.

We experienced these moments because we demanded challenge from this program. It was no small feat to be allowed the honor of walking through the doors of this school during orientation week—parents, please take a moment to pat yourselves on the backs—your sons and daughters made it here because they, and you, were excellent at what they did.

Still though, we came because we found something missing from our lives. We were not content to be the mechanisms of other schemers and detritus on the waves of fate, but felt our future success should only be limited by the power of our own imaginations. We believed the occasional pessimistic atmospheres we encountered must be met with new resolution and resourcefulness.

We were fortunate in that we didn’t decide to come to just any business school. We don’t see our careers as means for furthering our own frivolities, ultimately chasing those frivolities until they vanish. But rather, we see our work as an extension of carefully articulated core principles which we plan to propel fondly forward into the world. Haas, at this time and place, distinguishes itself in not merely striving to give its students the means to disentangle the business challenges its students will face but also finding solutions which are socially responsible and sustainable.

Alan and I have walked our own paths among you. From Alan, I learned that while the paths of our lives twist and earlier assessments of the future fade, there is no status quo which cannot be challenged through determination, innovation, and intrepidity. From my time with you I’ve felt the energy of a thriving community built on the exchange of ideas… something that can’t be found merely anywhere. And from meeting you all I’ve been inspired—not to walk a path because ‘it’s the right next step for my career,’ but because we, as a careful gifted few, have an obligation to go beyond ourselves and promote ideas that can propel the world fondly forward.

Alan Lock: As we step out again into the world, we will all be headed in different directions. However, the common tie that we will always have is the time we shared together. These two precious years where friendships were forged, careers were born and new ideas blossomed. Each of us has faced challenges and knockbacks, but we have never faced them alone, and I believe all of us will have made deep connections here that will last a lifetime.

So in setting out on the next stage of your own journey, I want to leave you with one final thought. Whatever goal you set yourself, aim high. Life will doubtless throw obstacles in your way, or you may be taken in a hundred different directions before you get there, but if you aim high and harness the same spirit that attracted you to Haas in the first place, then you’ll have an amazing journey. So whether your aim is to change the lives of communities in Africa, create the next generation of green technologies, start a company, or, indeed, reach the South Pole, we can all look back on this time as the start of that journey. Furthermore, we can take the next step knowing if we do aim high and strive to make a difference in whatever we do, then we will truly be going beyond ourselves and commencing a journey that will be fulfilling and will touch the lives of those around us.

And we're off!

2011-05-14T14:00:00.001-07:00

Today marks the day for more than 100 first-years participating in Haas' International Business Development (IBD) program to set off for our posts around the world. IBD is a global consulting program that sends first years all over the world to work with local organizations (read more about the program). And it's actually one of the reasons I chose to come to Haas!

I'm on an all-female team going to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. We're working with a women's college, Dar Al-Hekma, to deliver and recommend programs that promote the personal development and advancement of women in Saudi Arabia. My team and I have spent the past 4 months researching and compiling information that will help with our projects, but most of our work is yet to come. Dar Al-Hekma wants to launch a "women's center for excellence" so we'll be interviewing key stakeholders to figure out which services would most benefit them, and then writing and presenting a proposal to our client. We'll also be conducting a 4-day workshop on "business principles" for women entrepreneurs. I can't wait to get there and get started!

If you're interested in finding out what other IBD teams are up to, check out the IBD blog: http://haasintheworld.blogspot.com/. Students are going everywhere: Africa, Asia, Europe, South America, Mexico and New Zealand and they'll be posting throughout their trips.

NEW Online Video Blog - Careers & Recruiting

2011-04-21T20:21:00.001-07:00

Check out the new online student video blog I just finished making. It's a 3-min video on career services and recruiting at Haas that includes:

Current student Kristi Mannix's recruiting story,
Consulting, Real Estate and Tech recruiters talking about why they hire Haas students,
Our Careers Executive Director explaining how advisors help students and
Recent alumnus talking about landing a Finance job in New York City.

CLICK ON YOUTUBE LINK HERE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sF6vwUv01VY

Enjoy!

Phil

Haas Students Visit Warren Buffett

2011-03-14T14:48:00.000-07:00

This post is guest-authored by Aaron Azelton, FTMBA 2012 and co-president of the Haas Investment Club .

On March 11th, 2011, a group of 20 Berkeley-Haas MBA students from the Investment Club made the trek over to Omaha, NE, to meet the legendary investor Warren Buffett. Every year for the last several years, Warren Buffett has invited groups of MBA programs to Omaha to participate in tours of Berkshire Hathaway portfolio companies, a two hour Q&A session, and a lunch with Mr. Buffett. This year, we were invited to join 120 other MBA students from around the country to visit with the Oracle of Omaha in an unforgettable life experience.

The two hour Q&A session with Mr. Buffett was the highlight of the trip. We rotated through each school asking questions about all kinds of topics spanning politics, business, and career. Not only was Mr. Buffett incredibly insightful, inspiring, and passionate, but also tremendously humorous and humble. For career advice, Mr. Buffett suggested we find whatever it is that makes us most happy and to not let money factor into our decision. He recounted accepting one of his first job offers with his hero Benjamin Graham, moving to New York, and only then finding out what the position paid. He says he “tap dances to work” every morning and that we should aspire to find careers in which we can do the same.

Following the Q&A session, Mr. Buffett treated the entire 140 person group to lunch at one of his favorite restaurants in Omaha, Piccolo Pete’s. Afterwards, Mr. Buffett took a personal photo with every MBA student on the trip. While at first most people took serious photos, we began to notice Mr. Buffett taking increasingly humorous shots. For the next hour, the place erupted in laughter as Mr. Buffett got students in headlocks, proposed on one knee to lucky gals, and took other shots which gave students unforgettable memories. This just goes to show what kind of incredibly down to earth, gracious and wonderful man Mr. Buffett is.

Thank you, Mr. Buffett. You are an inspiration and incredible example for all. We will never forget this incredible experience.

Busier than ever!

2011-02-18T14:17:00.001-08:00

Just when I thought things couldn't get any busier, the summer internship recruiting process began in earnest! In addition to attending classes and fulfilling my club leadership responsibilities (Haas Student Ambassadors! Tech Club! Beer Industry Club!), I'm also actively searching for a summer job in the tech industry. Since I'm an industry switcher, I've been focusing on ways to increase my knowledge of the tech industry. Two of the main ways I've been doing that since coming back for Spring semester have been informational interviews and company treks.

Although Haas has a smaller student body than a lot of MBA programs, it's turned out to be a tremendous benefit when it comes to networking because our alums are so eager to help out fellow Haasies. I was initially pretty uncomfortable with the idea of reaching out to complete strangers, but our alums have made it painless! Every single person I've reached out to (and there have been literally dozens) has gotten back to me, answering my questions and encouraging my interest in their companies. They have graciously taken time out of their busy days to chat with me on the phone or over coffee about their companies, roles, and trends they see in the industry. As a result, I've been able to identify companies and roles in which my skills would be a good fit, and I've felt prepared and knowledgable for interviews, which just started a few weeks ago.

I've also enjoyed visiting tech companies in SF and the Silicon Valley. HTC has been really active setting up on-site tours and networking events with large and small companies in a variety of sub-industries, from networks to online to software. These events give members a great opportunity to get a feel for these companies and another way to meet current employees. I recently joined HTC's trip to Cisco, where we had the chance to hear about the internships for which they're hiring--AND test out their TelePresence software! (Read about it here.) Pretty much every Friday, we can count on a trip down to the Valley. And in fact, today is no different; I'm heading out the door to the GooglePlex right now!

Experiential Learning in the Classroom: What do operations and beer manufacturing have in common?

2011-02-15T10:26:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite aspects of Haas is the program's continued emphasis on providing high-quality professors within a diversity of teaching methods. Perhaps the best example in the first-year core curriculum is Terry Taylor’s infamous operations course. The class is an operations exercise of its own with every segment of class broken down into carefully timed and facilitated case, lecture, and hands-on learning.

Professor Terry Taylor in preparation for “The Beer Game”

This week was one of the most enjoyed and anticipated single classes of the year… when we were introduced to “The Beer Game.” Following the principles of the production-distribution system, a class is divided into teams of eight where each player is assigned to one of four factory “roles” in the beer-making process: retailer, distributor, wholesaler, or factory. As the retailer for our team, I was responsible for fulfilling customer orders with retailer inventory and managing the team’s three key steps:

Advance the beer (RED above… fulfill orders)!
Move order requests (GREEN) as completed and record inventory
Place new orders for the following week…

Similar to a few other classes, such as Don Moore’s “Leading People,” we were asked to contribute $5 each to simulate a “real” competitive industry environment. In other words, the stakes were high! We named our operations “Golden Beer Brewery” and received $2 per fulfilled beer order with expenses of $1 per beer in inventory (at any stage in the process).

Each of the roles could consult amongst themselves but not interact with the upstream/downstream functions to prevent collusion on order quantity. The first several rounds were steady orders of 4 beers per week – and we were a lean machine to say the least!

“Golden Bear Brewery” team hard at work – recording inventories

As the order quantity jumped up to 8 per week we saw quite a few changes in the behavior of our beer operations. Order quantities went up substantially (some as high as 20-30 per week) anticipating a trend of even higher orders per week to come. As the quantities increased and our orders remained at 8 per week, we acquired a lot of inventory, as did many teams, until we felt we could handle a larger quantity without a backlog (this would undoubtedly tarnish Golden Beer Brewery’s weeks of brand equity!).

As a previous pharmaceutical chemical engineer and later consultant, I fully appreciate and relate to Professor Taylor’s teaching principles and carefully orchestrated lessons in class. Previous weeks of class included the basics of process types (job shops, batch processes, and continuous flow), queueing psychology, factory physics, and exemplary cases of production systems including the well-researched Toyota Production System. My first introduction to these operational concepts was during my time at Merck in R&D and manufacturing for Gardasil (the then new HPV vaccine). Gardasil’s plant was exploring opportunities to incorporate “lean” manufacturing techniques in the plant as a pilot for the larger manufacturing facilities in vaccines and pharmaceuticals. Working with their director for “operational effectiveness” we developed a Kanban system that used designated resource bins and “signboards” for key inputs and equipment in the production process.

Sample Kanban signboard designated for one part

I find that the more I sit in Professor Taylor’s class, the more I start relating basic operational concepts to my professional and personal life. For example, is my macro homework a batch or continuous flow process? Which would increase my flow rate/flow time?

This time of year many Haas students are spending as many weekends as possible in Tahoe. While some may stick to the hot tubs during the day, many are likely strategizing how to make the most out of their season pass. How many runs can you make in a day… in a season? If you break down the steps… ski to lift, take the lift, and ski down the hill – you could easily estimate cycle times, average time in queue, flow rate, flow times, capacities, and utilization of the resort. Perhaps these metrics should be used to pick… do you choose Heavenly or Squaw? Are they pooling their queues for ski lifts to reduce variability and wasted capacity of resources?

Similarly, basics of queuing or continuous flow processes would be well-recited by many consultants who have mentally restructured TSA lines for dozens of airports across the country. This is shocking considering the Whole Foods chain in the Bay Area has figured this out, exemplifying nearly perfect best practices in business processes. With one consolidated line that feed all the check-out counters, Whole Foods makes sure that all cashiers are equally utilized with a FIFO (first-in, first-out) model. At the same time, a long consolidated line means that customers expectations are almost always exceeded as they are surprised how fast it moves (as it would with 10 check-out counters!).

By the end of the week, our entire class had completed Spring A core midterms. With a strong sense of accomplishment and Friday afternoon Consumption Function on the horizon, it wasn’t surprising that several classmates eagerly celebrated, “advance the beer!”

Emily Ewell
Haas MBA/MPH 2012

Orchestrating a “Haastile Takeover”: a student perspective on winning the 8th annual Innovation Challenge

2011-01-23T13:12:00.000-08:00

This post is guest-authored by Blake Holland, FTMBA 2012, a member of the team that won the title of "America's most innovative MBA team" in the 8th annual Innovation Challenge. If you're interested in or have any questions about the Haas team that won the Innovation Challenge, please contact Blake at blake_holland@mba.berkeley.edu.

It would be exaggerating to call the events following my Haas team’s victory in the 8^th annual Innovation Challenge, a business case competition involving over 100 teams from more than 50 business schools, a “media firestorm”, but waking up to a text message saying “I’m going on CNN at 10:30AM” from our team leader the next morning certainly felt a bit storm-like. Between that and receiving congratulations from Dean Lyons and others at the school, there was quite a bit of hoopla surrounding our efforts in those first few days of winter break. Having now had some time to reflect on the competition and team Haastile Takeover’s performance, I am struck by a couple elements that made our activities quintessentially “Haastile”.

First, it is amazing how much we learned in just one semester. Working on a business model innovation case for Jiffy Lube, one of the competition’s sponsors, our group naturally engaged in the innovation process we learned from our Fall A Problem Finding, Problem Solving core course. We started with a brainstorming session focused on divergence – a free-for-all where no idea is too farfetched – and then focused on convergence and gradually focused our ideas to create a comprehensive solution that captured the common values in each of our individual ideas. Our early academic experiences carried into the presentation portion of the competition, when we relied on lessons from our Fall B Marketing course to present our solution’s value proposition based on benefits to consumers, rather than just features. This is where I believe our presentation differed substantially from those of our competitors, and ultimately enabled us to take home the first place prize. We each truly felt, at each turn and with each choice we made as a team, that we were applying the skills we were developing in the classroom. To see such immediate value from our investment of time and money in the MBA program was incredibly rewarding.

Second, our work sessions radiated the positive energy that pervades the Haas community. Did we, at one point, consider proposing that each Jiffy Lube franchise include a silent disco? Did we almost laugh ourselves out of the library while putting together our presentation? Yes and yes. If nothing else, the cornerstone of the Haas experience thus far has been the fun we have while taking on some pretty significant challenges. Team Haastile Takeover took that to heart during our activities. While my bank account will never forget the significant prize money we won, my fondest memories of the Innovation Challenge will be the relentless joy we all exhibited while tackling these business problems together.

In the short time I’ve been here at Haas, teams have won marketing case competitions, technology case competitions, and nationwide MBA soccer tournaments. The school clearly has a strong tradition of excellence in its endeavors. But the thing that other top business schools may not be able to replicate is the fun we have while seeking this excellence. Not only do we learn an absolute ton in a very short period of time and immediately put it to work, but we do so with pride, spirit, and big smiles on our faces. It sure is fun to get Haastile.

To read the original article about Berkeley-Haas winning the 8^th annual Innovation Challenge, click here.

America's Most Innovative MBA Team

First-Ever Online Student Video Blog!

2011-01-20T16:43:00.000-08:00

Check out Haas' first-ever online student video blog! Follow the stories of three different MBA students and see over 100 current students in this student-led video project. The 3-min video showcases the Global Perspectives at Haas.

Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlFBpLMgzyU

Getting Energized for a Brighter BERC in 2011!

2011-01-03T19:35:00.000-08:00

This post was guest-authored by Gustavo Ribeiro and Mateo Bueno, both Haas MBA 2012 candidates and the VPs of Marketing for the Berkeley Energy Resources Collaborative (BERC). They can be reached at gustavo_ribeiro@mba.berkeley.edu and mateo_bueno@mba.berkeley.edu.

It’s hard to come to Haas and not want to roll up your sleeves and get involved in one of the dozens of student-led clubs and events that take place throughout the year. Immediately after starting our first semester here, we all begin to feel a sense of gratitude for the work that previous generations of MBAs put in to maximize the value of our MBA experience, and we really want to find a way to do the same for future students. In all honesty, we also want to take advantage of this opportunity and get involved with something that we are each passionate about and might open up a few career opportunities in the future.

For the two of us, the Berkeley and Energy Resources Collaborative (BERC) was a clear way to get involved and give back.

For those who don’t know much about BERC, here is the brief overview. It was founded in 2005 by Haas MBA students as a multidisciplinary organization that connects all aspects of energy and resources at UC Berkeley. Over the past six years, it has grown to have over 2,500 members across the Berkeley campus, and its now one of the largest student-run energy/environmental organizations in the US.

As energy challenges become increasingly more complex, we have seen the need for more interdisciplinary solutions that bring in perspectives from different fields: engineering, business, environmental sciences, policy, law, etc. By bringing in ten different graduate programs, the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, and the undergraduate community at UC Berkeley, BERC has become a critical resource to build and shape the most innovative solutions to one of our toughest global challenges.

In the past few years, BERC has managed to fulfill this mission in very specific ways. In addition to a few dozen events throughout the year, BERC offers practical opportunities for graduate students to collaborate with real business solutions. Read about our flagship programs such as Cleantech2Market and BERC Innovative Solutions here.

While BERC’s achievements in six years are astounding, we have also identified a number of ways that the organization could expand its reach and broaden its impact within and outside of the UC Berkeley community.

As two Haas students passionate about the ways that smarter marketing strategies can help accelerate the roll-out of clean energy solutions, we saw BERC as a clear opportunity to put our marketing skills to the test. Some of our marketing goals for the year include:

Increase BERC’s membership across the graduate and undergraduate community by broadening BERC’s reach, increasing collaboration across programs, and providing various opportunities for involvement and professional development
Strengthen BERC’s online presence through revamped website, newsletter, blog, and social networks
Increase sponsorship opportunities and value leveraging BERC assets and year-round events

We plan to use this blog and a future BERC blog to keep you posted on the progress (and mistakes!) we make throughout the year. In the meantime, if you want to learn more about our programs, receive our newsletters, or provide input on future programs, you can reach us through the BERC website or emailing us directly.

Women In Leadership

2010-12-29T13:27:00.000-08:00

This post is guest-authored by Caroline Mock, FTMBA 2012, the president of the Women In Leadership club at Haas. If you're interested in or have any questions about WIL at Haas, please contact Caroline at caroline_mock@mba.berkeley.edu.

One of my favorite aspects of Haas so far has been the Women in Leadership (WIL) activities, and I couldn’t be more excited to serve as the president of WIL this coming year. It is so inspiring to be surrounded by such driven and accomplished women, ranging from a former helicopter pilot who is starting her own cookie business to a social entrepreneur in Africa. Through panels and lunches, retreats and dinners, we are able to leverage our strengths, share resources and experiences and continue to expand our presence. We have such a short time here at Haas, and I plan to make it as meaningful as possible for us. The previous leadership teams have done a great job at establishing a strong WIL presence at Haas, and I hope to make it even stronger. The following initiatives are a few ideas that I have to lead WIL through another amazing year.

-Expand Professional Development: We heard it on the WIL retreat and we see it every day, WE are one of our greatest networks/resources. What we could do even better is developing stronger ties with the alumni aspect of our female network and expanding women-focused career programming.

-Partner with other clubs and hold events that include other members of the Haas community: We’ve shown each other that women are great leaders and have great events, but our club already knew that. If we want to establish ourselves as Women in Leadership at Haas, we need to lead others. I plan to spread our strengths through events with other clubs.

-Expand Community Outreach: While we are lucky to be women in business, many women aren’t so lucky. I would love to develop stronger relationship with women’s organizations in the area -- allow our club to give back to a community that is facilitating our personal/professional growth. For example, I serve as a board fellow with Girls Inc, and I think this would be a great organization for WIL involvement.

-Social and Sports funds: The current WIL board did a great job of getting these established, now it’s time to make them more accessible and raise awareness of their availability, which can be for events ranging from a BBQ to a marathon. This incentive (while hardly needed to get us together) demonstrates a commitment from our club to personal development, which is a major component of business school growth.

En route to Napa during the WIL retreat in September.

"Dynomite" ending to Fall B

2010-12-22T13:52:00.000-08:00

I expected to become a lot of things as a result of coming to b-school—a better leader, a stronger communicator, a more adept quant jock. I did not, however, expect to become a band groupie. But I think most of my classmates are finding themselves in the same boat as me…More than 100 of us turned out last Monday—the last day of finals—to cheer on and rock out to Jean Claude Van Band, our very own Haas cover band, consisting of six incredibly talented first years: Eileen, Steve, Mark, Dan, Brad and Moritz.

From Lady Gaga to Bruce Springstein to our class’s anthem “Dynomite”, JCVB was the perfect way to end our challenging, frenetic, and rewarding semester. The band has played a few gigs at this point, and I am blown away by how talented they are. It doesn’t hurt that a few of them are in bands that actually perform around the country (one had a show in NYC last weekend), but I think they’re a great example of the kinds of people that come to Haas. Sure, the people here are intelligent and motivated. I’m reminded of that in class and clubs every day. But that’s to be expected. What has really surprised me is the breadth and depth of interests and talents my classmates possess outside of school. Some dance, others paint, some brew beer, and others run marathons, climb mountains, play field hockey. And my classmates don’t just do these things—they do them WELL. Being around such an exceptional group of people is inspiring and humbling…and really fun!

Thanks for a really great show, JCVB! Can't wait for the next one!

(Thanks to Ramon, Alex and Steve's friend Ben for the photos.)

The Last Class

2010-12-17T10:29:00.001-08:00

As I begin to write this, I know I should be doing a hundred other things. At least. I should be studying for my accounting final tomorrow, writing the marketing paper that is due on Sunday, or even sleeping. But after the last class of this semester, I feel compelled to write a tribute to the moment I shared with my classmates today.

Today, we witnessed the retirement of a remarkable professor who taught thousands of students at Berkeley over the last two decades. He has become part of the institution and is remembered by every alumnus I have ever spoken to. In typical Haas fashion, we sent him on his way with standing ovations, a student singing his favorite song, and lots of heartfelt speeches. It was one of the defining moments of my first semester and I will remember it for the rest of my days.

In a striking coincidence, that class was also the last for my cohort. For the last few months, I have spent hours each week with the same sixty people developing relationships, forming bonds, and sharing the classroom experience. We have had more than a few great moments. I feel a real connection with this group and sadly, we’ll never all be in the same classroom again. After our professor left the room for the last time, we had our own farewell ceremony for the Oski cohort. It was a great way to end the semester, and it was so typical of us. It couldn’t have ended any other way.

These words do a poor job of conveying our experience at Haas. Together we’ve survived midterms and group projects while letting loose at Cohort Olympics, consumption functions, and a dozen other events. We’ve faced enormous stress, attained amazing success, and have been humbled on occasion. Together we’ve laughed, cried, and celebrated this experience we share. When you come to Haas, you become part of a wonderful, vibrant community. You’ll learn life lessons, form friendships that will last, and embrace new ideals. After two years, you’ll leave Haas a changed person.

Today, I witnessed the end of a wonderful teaching career. Professor Glazer impacted the lives of thousands and enjoyed every single moment of it. He felt no greater joy than imparting knowledge on a generation of business leaders, and he left us with words of wisdom and encouragement. But in a way, we’ve all been teachers this semester. We teach each other by relating past experiences, collaborating on tough projects, and pursuing mutual interests in extracurricular clubs. I thank our professors for all they’ve done this semester, but I also want to say thank you to my classmates.

As our time as a class comes to a close this semester, I realize that we’ve all been changed by this experience we share. I’m sad that I’ve completed almost a quarter of my MBA experience, but I really shouldn’t be. These last few months have been glorious.

check in to greatness, and great times!!

2010-11-23T15:29:00.000-08:00

I've been in this wierd sort of place for some time now. I'm not sure if i can explain it though, but let me try, nevertheless... y'know, its that feeling that you should be doing something right about you, you start to do it, and procrastination kicks in, and then before you know it, Boom! somebody else has gone ahead and done it! That's pretty much what's been happening with me, and in the interest of you readers, we try not to repeat topics on this blog. Long story short, been a long break, and as Berkeley rushes into a weekend of stuffed turkey et al (basically amazing food), i figured it would probably be a good time to give you the quick run through on what's been happening for the past few weeks.

But first, for the international prospectives reading this post, this weekend is Thanksgiving. (I'm sorry if it sounds patronising, but I actually was one of those people who didn't know when thanksgiving was until i got here; i'm sure there are a few folks like me who appreciate the heads-up!)

So, what's been happening here? You've all heard about some of the wonderful achievements for Haas these past few weeks; from football (soccer) to the Elite 8, to the stock pitch competition, (and others, i'm sure!!) and the small downer of having lost to Stanford in college football last week (although in all fairness we did win the battle of the bands hands down, so there!)... We also had an amazing consumption function to celebrate the Indian festival of Diwali. Diwali is the festival of lights, celebrated with great pomp all over India. In true Haas culture, we decided to have a bit of fun, and learn a lot along the way as well. How did we do it? Well, ladies and gentlemen, follow me!

We decided to put up a short dance/musical skit (Bollywood style), and 3-4 cultural performances. We expected to have a few people volunteer to participate. The response we got, quite simply overwhelmed us! Before we knew it, we had at least 30 amazing people, from all over the world (and I really mean it, all over the world!!) were dancing to Bollywood and Bhangra dance numbe

rs. The end result? By popular consensus, one of the best consumption functions that Haas has seen (and btw, by Haas standards, thats saying quite a lot!

There are things that all of us learnt from this experience. For those amazing people who had the courage to go beyond themselves and learn something new, kudos! For me, an amazingly humbling experience to see everyone in the community egging them on, cheering them on, as if we're all family. But then again, maybe we are. I wish I could shout out to each one of you. But i'll keep it for some other time. For now, go ahead and watch this video of us B school students balancing work with fun!

I guess I'll stop this post right here.. more from me later! Cheers! and have a great Thanksgiving!

Not Just Business

2010-11-16T13:22:00.000-08:00

In a typical week, about a third of our time is spent in the classroom, a third on extracurriculars and a third on social activities. Sometime in the middle of Fall B, however, the Haas calendar kicks into overdrive as clubs, midterms, birthdays, and the football season all come crashing together. Here is just a snapshot of some of the events that we’re looking forward to this week - and that you can look forward to as a future student at Haas!

Tuesday
Cleantech Outlook for Latin America, a networking event and panel co-hosted by the Latin American and Hispanic Business Association and the Berkeley Energy Resources Collaborative, will take place this Tuesday to introduce their new initiative, "Renewable Energy Latin America."

Jackson Family Wines, owner of Kendall Jackson and Murphy-Goode will be on campus to discuss the marketing of wine across their brand portfolio and to give Haas students an exclusive tasting.

HaasWeek, Haas' satirical student newspaper, will celebrate our phenomenal success this semester with an end-of-the-year dinner at Chez Panisse in Berkeley.

Wednesday
Legal experts from Dorsey and Whitney will speak to the Entrepreneurs Association about the process of incorporating a business and protecting your IP.

The Hub and GSVC are mixing it up at Hub Berkeley, where students and bay areas professionals will meet to discuss creative ideas for social impact.

Thursday
Ron Eldson, author of multiple books on workforce and career development, will discuss "How to Get Buy-in for Change," a session that explores the complex interplay of individual and system factors that effectively guide organizational change.

Both the Black Business Student Association and the Women in Leadership Club are hosting pre-Bar of the Week happy hours in the bay area.

Bar of the Week will turn into a global music dance party, hosted by Global Initiatives at Haas. DJs / Haas students Abhay Nihalani, Adithya Jayachandran, Mateo Bueno and Luis Lopez will spin beats from Africa, South Asia and Latin America at the Bollywood Cafe in San Francisco.

Friday
Del Monte will host the Haas Marketing Club at their downtown offices for a "Day on the Job" trek.

2010 Annual Berkeley Finance Conference will be hosted on campus, where finance professionals and students will come together to discuss the future of Mergers & Acquisitions. Keynote speakers include Inder Singh, VP Corporate Portfolio Management, Long-Range Planning, Mergers & Acquisitions Finance at Cisco Systems, Cynthia Gaylor, Managing Director of Technology Investment Banking for Mergers & Acquisitions at Morgan Stanley, and Read Simmons, a Partner within the Private Equity and Telecommunications, Media & Technology groups at Bain & Company.

The Latin American and Hispanic Business Association will host their Semi-Annual Mojito Party!

Saturday
Big Game!!!! Cal will play Stanford - pardon me, will beat Stanford - in the annual Big Game. After our victory, Haas students will celebrate with a performance by our very own 80s & 90s rock cover band, Jean Claude Van Band

Sunday
We don't know about the rest of Haas, but the only To Dos on our calendars are to 1) sleep in and 2) get ready for next week….

Haas Soccer Club Took 1st Place at UCLA Tourney

2010-11-15T09:27:00.000-08:00

The Haas Soccer Club traveled down to Los Angeles to compete in the UCLA MBA Soccer Tournament. Despite having a smaller class size then most schools, the club was able to field two teams in the tournament. While the Haas B team lost two close 1-0 matches to Harvard and Wharton, the Haas A team defeated USC, Michigan, Stanford, UCLA and Kellogg to win this coveted title. Additionally, Kyle Bentzien played lights out as our goalkeeper and didn't concede a single goal in our 5 games. I don't know about you but it feels like Haas is building a dynasty in MBA soccer. Go Bears!

Haas Wins Elite 8!

2010-11-09T20:32:00.000-08:00

This post is guest-authored by Stephanie Tsai (FTMBA 2012), incoming VP Alumni for the MBA Association and all-around marketing superstar.

It’s been a grueling 30, nearly sleepless, hours spent with 4 other Haasies in a tiny, windowless room in the Twin Cities. Why put ourselves through such insanity, you ask? For glory, for school, for an intense caffeine high? Yeah, pretty much all three.

I’m sitting in the Phoenix airport now with the rest of my team, returning from the Elite 8, marketing / brand management case competition. This year was the 10^th anniversary of the competition, where eight schools (Haas, Anderson, Kellogg, Wharton, Kelley, Fuqua, Ross and Carlson) are hosted by the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. The competition is sponsored by big names like General Mills, 3M, Land o’ Lakes as well as many other companies. The teams are given a case question and are given 30 hours to prepare a presentation to a judging panel. Grand prize? $10,000 plus bragging rights.

Our team this year was all women, all first years – so we were a bit nervous (Alicia Chen, Anne-Elise Fettig, Jessica Huard, Vannie Shu, and me). While we were united in our passion for marketing, we had varying levels of experience with marketing. Plus, we were only 2 weeks into our core marketing course with Rashi Glazer and we were going up against teams with 2^nd years!

Our case this year turned out to be in the B2B (business-to-business) space, which threw us for a loop, but also leveled the playing field. Most teams come in with deep consumer knowledge and the B2B spin in a convoluted industry made life a little more complicated for everyone. We rolled up sleeves and got to work.

Our home for the past 30 hours

30 hours later, after many Starbuck’s runs, Twizzler sticks, bags of chips and slide revision after slide revision, we had our deck! Jessica and I would present our marketing plan during the 30-min time slot before a panel of 8 judges. We were on deck for a 9AM presentation, the second of the day, which meant that we would have a small audience since the other teams would not be allowed to watch until after they had presented.

9AM rolled around and we rocked the presentation. It felt great to be up there, sharing our ideas with the judges. They asked some tough questions at the end, so we walked away unsure of what they really thought. Our team stuck around to watch a couple of our competitors, but we were exhausted. 10 hours of sleep over two nights meant we were running on fumes. We went back to the hotel to rest up.

Finally, the moment of truth came at the evening reception. And the winner is…Berkeley Haas! We were shocked!

Our class support was incredible – so many messages of support and congratulations! We’re proud to bring home first and continue to bring marketing to the forefront of our program. We love you Haas!

Winners! The team: Vannie Shu, Stephanie Tsai,
Anne-Elise Fettig, Jessica Huard and Alicia Chen

Haasies Head to Ross for the Net Impact 2010 Conference

2010-11-06T18:17:00.000-07:00

The following post is authored by Patrick Schneider (FTMBA 2012), the incoming co-president of Net Impact.

Last weekend was a great one for the Haas Net Impact Chapter, as we all bundled up for the annual Net Impact Conference at the Ross School of Business in Michigan (it’s colder there!) We had a contingent of about 25 students, which I was really impressed with, considering the distance that we had to travel and our small class size of 240 per class! Everyone flew out at different times, and I think my group had one of the toughest itineraries. Our flight left at 5:30 . . . . am! Which meant that we woke up (if we went to sleep at all!) around 2:30am in order to make it to the airport on time. Of course, the flight went quickly because we were all asleep. This got us into Ann Arbor in time for the kick-off, which was great, and then we spent a relaxing evening hanging out with each other, meeting some alums who had come to the conference as members of professional chapters, and then getting some rest for the days ahead!

The next couple of days were a blur of enlightening sessions, networking with students from other schools and professionals, and some social time with all of these people who had come from around the world to celebrate the fact that never before has the gap between doing good and doing well been so small (thank you for that gem, Dean Lyons!) Several sessions really had an impact, but my favorite was a panel with the Executive Directors of First Book and KaBOOM! on how to scale nonprofits to maximize social good. Really had some insightful things to say, and got me interested in their organizations!

We had drinks Friday evening with the Net Impact chapter from MIT, and it was great to get to know these individuals from across the country! Obviously the social impact sector (in light of the larger business world) is a bit smaller, so I think it’s really important for everyone in this field to pull together, share ideas, and work with each other to maximize the impact we’re having in the world. I’m excited about continuing these connections beyond the conference! Also at this event, Patrick Schneider (that’s me!) and Dana Ledyard were announced as the Net Impact Co-Presidents for next year, and we’re so excited about continuing the great work that’s been done with Net Impact at Haas.

Unfortunately, it was time to return on Sunday, and we were all sad to leave, partly because of the great connections we’d made, but also because of the piles of Finance and Accounting homework waiting for us at home (and on the plane!) But it was a great experience, and we can’t wait to renew those ties at the 2011 Net Impact conference in Portland, OR!

Transition to "Fall B"

2010-11-05T00:03:00.000-07:00

We are now about two weeks into “Fall B”, the second half-semester of the fall. This brings a whole new roster of classes and professors. But for me the change to Fall B seems deeper than that.

Orientation Week and “Fall A” were a whirlwind of meeting new people. In Fall A you get a glimpse into the personalities of a good number of your classmates. You meet them socially and also learn a little about their career aspirations and what brought them here.

With Fall B underway, I’ve spent more time connecting with classmates who share similar career interests. In Fall A you are mostly passive participants in the student clubs, as you try to figure out the clubs and activities that you want to join. But in Fall B we start to take on responsibility in those clubs and activities. A few hours of my week are now devoted to working with my classmates to organize the Berkeley-Stanford Cleantech Conference and the 2011 Berkeley Business Plan competition.

We also just started a communications class in Fall B. We each gave a three minute speech about ourselves to a small group of our classmates, including our study groups. Our five-person study groups have been working together since the beginning of school, so we already know each other fairly well.

Or so I thought. Those speeches blew me away. Everyone shared very personal life details, and we discussed our hopes and vulnerabilities in a way that made me appreciate the depth of connection which is already forming. The point of the communications class is to help us hone our public speaking skills. For class purposes, speech content is secondary. But I couldn’t help but dwell on the content of what my classmates shared about themselves.

By class rule I can’t share the details of those speeches. But I can relate an example of how much, by Fall B, you have become invested in your classmates’ success. One of my classmates, Assaf, shares common interests in entrepreneurship and energy. He is always checking in and asking me about my progress in getting out and talking to people. He has taken a real interest in helping me define and pursue career opportunities. He is in my cohort, so we see each other in class every day. He is always cheerfully willing to help me. On those days when I miss the friends and family that I left in the Midwest, it’s really motivating to know that someone you met only two months ago is genuinely interested in seeing you succeed.

Assaf recently interviewed for a prestigious program at Berkeley called the Mayfield Fellows. When the text showed up on my phone that he was invited into the program, an hour later we were at Beckett’s pub in downtown Berkeley clanging our pints of Guinness together in celebratory toast. I was incredibly happy to see him get this opportunity. I also realized how invested I had become in his success.

For me, that’s what Fall B has been about: moving beyond introductions and mixers, and becoming invested in Haas and in my classmates’ success.

Getting my Career in Gear

2010-11-03T10:20:00.001-07:00

Despite my best intentions, it has been incredibly easy in my first 3 months here to focus on classes and clubs, putting off "the career stuff" for another time. Recently, though, our Career Services Office (CSO) hosted a two day conference that forced me to stop and think about my career plans. Because it was held during the week between Fall A and Fall B, I was able to participate in this conference without the pressure of classes and without sacrificing a much-deserved weekend off from class work. It was a much-needed 48 hours of clarifying my goals and working on my marketability without any distractions or excuses!

There were workshops, resume advice sessions, keynotes...but far and away the most valuable aspect of the conference for me were mock interviews. I was paired with two other first years interested in technology, and a second year career coach who had interned at Facebook over the summer. The real-time feedback this session provided was tremendously helpful in calibrating my perceived strengths and uncovering the areas I still need to work on. For example, I thought I had bombed a few behavioral questions, only to find out that my interviewer and peers thought I did really well. Meanwhile, I thought I nailed the mini-marketing case study, only to receive a lot of constructive feedback about how I might better approach this kind of question. I walked out of there more confident in my interviewing skills and with a clear idea of where to focus my energy in future interview prep.

Career planning isn't nearly as exciting as many of the other activities that have occupied my time at Haas, but it's arguably the most important. I think it's easy to under-estimate the value of the career resources available through school, and I know that I didn't emphasize that in my b-school search. Fortunately, I lucked out. CSO has not only helped me plan and provided relevant feedback, but they're also supporting my progression, so that I don't wake up in January--or April--feeling overwhelmed about tackling the "career stuff."

Being a Part of Greatness

2010-10-31T10:48:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, the Haas School of Business hosted the annual >Play conference, an event dedicated to digital media and the future of technology. It was the culmination of months of effort put forth by over 100 Haas MBA volunteers. The event included keynotes by industry luminaries Chris Anderson and Dr. Michael Johnson, panels covering every aspect of digital media, and an exhibition featuring many exciting companies. The conference sold out and we had the pleasure of welcoming over 500 people to the business school yesterday.

After the rollercoaster that was yesterday, I can confidently say that >Play was one of my best experiences at Haas. The energy and passion of my classmates created an amazing event that showcased exactly those qualities that Haas embraces. Talking to various attendees and participants showed me just what sort of impact we were making. One woman told me of how she had come to >Play five years in a row to meet the real movers in digital media. She had the option of expensing the trip, but considered it such a personal pleasure that she chose to spend $1,200 out of her own pocket. I was only a small part of the effort to make >Play a reality, but I was a part of something truly great. And that kind of experience lingers and resonates for a long time, changing how we perceive and influence the world.

I'm only a couple of months into my time at Haas, but I can tell already that >Play will not be the only time I will be a part of greatness. I believe that my entire time at Haas will be that kind of special experience, as I spend time with my classmates both inside and outside the classroom. Together we'll scale mountains over winter break, volunteer on the boards of non-profit companies, start innovative new businesses, and host many other great events at Haas. Even as students, we'll make a tangible difference through our passion, intensity, and collaboration. The bonds we forge now will last a lifetime. And when it is time for us to split up and re-enter the real world, we'll leave Haas forever changed by our shared experience.

Brian Guenther also writes at his personal blog, www.digitalerudite.com, on topics ranging from technology to marketing. He can also be found on Twitter (@bguenther).

DMEC’s 1st Pre >play VIP Kickoff Event!

2010-10-27T03:25:00.000-07:00

The following post was originally authored by David Breger (MBA 2011) and is cross-posted on the Berkeley Digital Media & Entertainment Club blog.

DMEC’s 6^th annual >play Conference (http://www.playconference.org/) is coming up in only 4 days, and the Bay is buzzing with excitement. Fantastic speakers, an amazing Expo, exciting Rocket Pitches, and a great Career Fair to come!

However, this year we thought it would be great if >play attendees would have a chance to meet each other before the Conference. So this year for the first time, we decided to hold a pre >play VIP Kickoff Event to allow for this opportunity.

Yesterday evening, over 150 >play volunteers, DMEC alums, panelists, and Conference attendees descended upon KickLabs, a San Francisco-based technology and online media incubator, to host a one-of-a-kind event to kickoff >play 2010 with a bang. Product managers, venture capitalists, and CEOs of top digital media firms from around the Bay, along with several Berkeley Haas MBAs, had the chance to interact with one another before the Conference – to eat, drink, and of course talk about the hottest topics in the world of digital media!

This was a first-time event for us, but we really enjoyed ourselves and the chance to talk with many of the >play attendees before the big day on Saturday…and we hope you did too!

Thank you to KickLabs, our >play sponsors, and of course everyone who came out on Saturday! Only 4 days ‘til it’s time to >play!

David Breger and Vince Huang, DMEC Co-Presidents
Gina Strayer and Dan Parker, >play Conference Co-Chairs

Going Green: Getting a well rounded education

2010-10-26T01:14:00.000-07:00

The first year at any school is a blur. Balancing a wide load of courses, meeting new friends, exploring the city, and making connections for my job switch was more than I could've imagined. In my second year, I've decided to go deep on things that mattered most to me:

Embrace my love for digital media and technology (looking forward to >play this weekend)
Take classes in my weak spots (financial modelling, and financial information analysis)
Learn how to play golf

With camera present, Mike forgets to keep his eye on the ball.

For me, the second year has been about going deep in what I enjoy most and spending time learning things that I've always wanted to do. While it didn't make it into my application essay, golf has been one of those skills that I've always wanted to get at B-school.

Lucky for Haasies, we're right next to Tilden, a par-70 18-hole golf course right in our backyard. Utilizing my new negotiation skills, a bunch of my classmates and I were able to get reduced pricing for lessons. That's experiential learning.

It's been great over the past couple weeks to work on our farmers tan while learning to hit the ball in a quasi-straight line.

Samir poses with Chris our instructor while Vincent works on his farmer tan. GO GIANTS!

On the Fallacy of the Business Major and Always Being a Student

2010-10-23T15:36:00.000-07:00

During my application process and after my acceptance to Haas, I thought I would have an advantage over my classmates when it came to the academic setting of business school. The completion of my first quarter at Haas has made me reevaluate this opinion.

A little over four years ago I was graduating from the University of Maryland with not one, but two business degrees, one in Finance and one in Marketing. This is not to say that the Robert Smith School of Business, which was ranked in the top 30 when I attended, did a poor job at educating me. They did a great job and I stand by Maryland as a good school. The key difference between what I learned at Maryland and what I am now learning at Haas is one of perspective.

At Maryland, I was taught the language and methods of business. I was given the terminology and mindset to operate well within that world. I took that knowledge and became a management consultant. I did very well there, successfully completing projects in a half dozen industries. It wasn't just my inherent traits that allowed me to succeed there. My undergraduate business education was vital to my success.

After four years as a consultant, I decided I wanted to return and get my MBA. My main motivation to do this was to make a transition in geography, industry, and role - while this sounds extreme, it is not uncommon in business school. I didn't come back expecting to learn a tremendous amount from the core courses at Haas. This is the fallacy of the business major: expecting that a previous business education will make some parts of the MBA redundant. Well, they're not.

I said earlier that the difference was one of perspective. Let me elaborate. In my undergraduate experience, I was taught how to be a cog in the business machine. I was given the tools to be more than just a cog, but didn't make extensive use of them in school. The difference with the MBA is that you are always taught as if you are the decision maker. You aren't just given the tools to make decisions, you have to use them every day in class. You absorb them and make them a part of your mental processes.

Business undergraduates may think they are more than prepared for the core MBA courses, and for bankers and accountants that will be true with some of the classes. However, the majority of business majors will still derive academic value from them.

My main point is that people considering getting an MBA should be ready to be a student. This is one of the defining principles for the Haas School of Business, and I have embraced it completely. Don't assume you've learned everything you need to from your past experience. There are many lessons ahead and you'll find them in surprising places. Come back to school with an open mind and you'll be ready for an absolutely phenomenal experience.

Brian Guenther also writes at his personal blog, www.digitalerudite.com, on topics ranging from technology to marketing. He can also be found on Twitter (@bguenther).

Cohort Karaoke Competition Tonight!

2010-10-08T17:20:00.000-07:00

So every month there's a Consumption Function held in the Haas Courtyard. All from the Haas community are welcome - students, partners, alumni, faculty, staff, babies, and dogs. Yes, even dogs. Typically there is over a hundred people who come out to socialize and enjoy the free food and drinks.

Tonight's Consumption Function should be a fun one. Every month has a different theme and this time it's the 1st Year Cohort Karaoke Competition. I've heard rumors that the 1st years are going to go all out. They've picked great songs and will be dressed up in colorful costumes. Can't wait to watch the show.

What you should be doing now if you want to be an MBA

2010-10-03T20:31:00.000-07:00

I am surrounded by amazing and brilliant people at the Haas School of Business. During class, I never cease to be amazed by how quick my classmates are, how well they understand the concepts, and how they are able to ask nuanced and substantial questions. Some of them are even able to sprinkle in cohort jokes, such as saying "I'm kind of a big deal" in a question to the professor. The sheer, humbling ability of my class mates made me start thinking about what it takes to be a Haas MBA and what prospective students should be doing today to get ready.

What makes my classmates so effective is that they aren't just smart, they are knowledgeable. If you want to be an MBA, start getting to know your industries and areas of interest. And I mean really get to know them. Knowing that Facebook is one of the hottest companies in the Bay Area isn't going to surprise anyone here but understanding how Facebook Credits works just might. Hint, it is going to be a billion dollar business. Knowing a lot about the areas you are truly interested in is going to show in your club activities, chats with class mates, and even your class discussions.

You are also going to want to be a fan of business in general, because you are going to be living and breathing this stuff for 20 months. Start reading the Economist, Wall Street Journal, and niche blogs dedicated to your areas of interest. Revel in the dynamics of business, learn more about business heroes like Warren Buffett, and come up with a list of companies you really respect. You should be comfortable commenting on vague or esoteric business questions because in a short amount of time, your boss is going to be looking to you for the answers.

The single most important thing you can do right now is to know yourself. When you get to the MBA program of your choice, you are going to be under a constant barrage of great opportunities. You will not have enough time to do even a fraction of them. So you need to figure out what your objectives are and how to fulfill them. Don't create a project plan for the next two years (I'm looking at you consultants). Instead be flexible and know your top 2 or 3 goals and how you want to meet them. If you know yourself, you're going to have a great time during your MBA and you'll come out ahead on the other side.

Brian Guenther also writes at his personal blog, www.digitalerudite.com, on topics ranging from technology to marketing. He can also be found on Twitter (@bguenther).

.. a slice of the sky!

2010-10-03T11:00:00.000-07:00

I've always believed that it's all about the frame of mind. It's all about keeping yourself open. Open to new experiences. To new points of view. and to new ways of thinking. Even so, I seem to have been ridiculously myopic about the first couple of months here. But, i'm happy to report, all of that has changed. In a couple of weeks, I've turned the corner, and I'm finding myself in a good place. How so? Let me tell you.

Last week, I had the opportunity to have lunch with my Economics professor. Now, for an engineer (me), who for some wierd reason hasn't had a course of economics ever (which by the way, is something i now believe should be an essential part of any engineer's make up) the way the world runs has always been one of those eternal mysteries of life. Like Evolution. Like the meaning of life. Like so many other things about existence that we cannot put our finger on. The beauty about attending this class of microeconomics for me is that the class shows me a way of thinking, a frame of mind, that at the same time is amazingly powerful, and amazingly simple. 6 weeks into this course, i feel i understand a lot more about the way markets operate (not that i'm an expert now), but surely what seemed like an unsolvable mystery is now a science that i believe can be learnt. I still understand and acknowledge Adam Smith's Invisible Hand; however, i can now see the mechanics that rule pricing, competition and demand (for those engineers out there, economics is to business what physics is to science... then again, there are those who might not agree with me, and i might be wrong, but this is how i feel right now. )

So coming back to the lunch, that time I spent listening to the conversation was truly an enriching experience for me. I was already in love with the course, now I can't get enough of it!

About Paulo's post, i completely agree. Sooner or later, you'll end up in a position where you aren't the best. However, the way I see it, this is a good place to be. The amount you learn everyday is one of those things that makes you grow as a person. The good thing about being at Haas is that here, I don't have to be looking over my shoulder at the competition. I don't have to climb a ladder and not let any one else on it. I run with my class. I see smiles all around. I've made real friends. And that is something special that this school gives you.

As October kicks in, and prospective round 1 applicants start to break into a sweat all over the world, I have just this one thing to say. Don't fret too much. Each one of you is an amazing person. The story of your life is amazing. Just stay confident, and run the course. And all will be well!

Cheers! and more for later!

Let's hear it for the girls!

2010-09-26T19:22:00.001-07:00

One of the second years told me that we have more than 50 student-run organizations at Haas. I can't say that I've counted, but I can tell you that getting involved in them is well worth it. In addition to the career opportunities, spending time with fellow club members is fun! Case-in-point: the annual Women in Leadership trip to Napa that just happened on Saturday.

After a quick breakfast at Haas, 90 WIL members filled two chartered buses and headed north to some breathtaking - and delicious - wineries. First stop, Clos Pegase. After touring the grounds, we wandered into a "cave," where we attempted to master the art of food/wine pairing. Key learnings: lemon and sauvignon blanc should, under no circumstances, be served together; and, bleu cheese goes with everything. The second-years then shared a thoughtful surprise, which I'd tell you more about, but I don't want to give anything away for next year's trip... After lunch in the sunshine, we got back on the bus and landed at Rutherford Hill.

In case you've never been to Napa (I hadn't before yesterday), it's gorgeous! And Rutherford Hill where this picture was taken is a prime example. It was 90-odd degrees out, but we still managed to enjoy the company, the wine, and the view. Well, to be perfectly honest, some of us found our way to the air conditioned tasting room, which was heaven. (I love the late summers in the Bay Area, but air conditioning is a pretty rare luxury.) Last up, we visited Rubicon, where we munched on passed hors d'oeuvres and, of course, had a little more wine.

The trip was such a great way to hang out with my classmates, get to know some second years, and even meet the partners of some other classmates, since they were invited as well. Plus, it's always fun to hang out with the girls!

Your flaws, your potential: the Big Conspiracy

2010-09-26T17:50:00.000-07:00

I have waited five days too long to write my next post, and here's what happens. Not only the other bloggers have touched the topics I wanted to address, but also they have expressed more insightful thoughts than what I would have probably done.

Get used to that! It happens every day in class, that's what you should expect from a class of brilliant people - paraphrasing Prof. Don Moore, if you excel in high school, and then you go for the best colleges and are still one of the best, and keep on progressing even further in your career, sooner or later you'll join a group of people in which you are not anymore the best.. come to Haas and see :)

I am starting to realize that the MBA experience is in fact a kind of *conspiracy*. Your classmates, your professors, the career advisors, the campus, and the whole Bay Area are secretly plotting in the dark. They are all working together to get you confused, to make you forget your priorities and certainties, question your value and confidence - to enable you to discover yourself, and become a better decision maker.

Every other email in your inbox is a decision to take. Every reading, every class require you to pick a position. Events, speakers, company visits, social happenings compete to invade your calendar: they breed and overlap, they pretend your attention, they fight for every slot of your time.

The key is knowing who you really are, what your strongest needs and aspirations are, and what your flaws are. I suggest that you follow Chuck's advice and that, after you quit your job in May, during your three months of relaxation, while drinking a cuba libre on a sandy beach in Hawaii (not my case), you start wandering what you want to get from your bschool. I perfectly knew that I wanted to pursue a career in marketing, and that I wanted to learn to play golf. And that I would have paid frequent visits to San Francisco.

IN FACT, I am involved with the High-Tech Club. I am considering starting to play rugby, and I will try to go back to Yosemite or camping around in the woods whenever possible. :) Allow yourself a little flexibility, you will change your depiction of yourself once you are here. But try to have a main idea of who you are and what you want, and work on it, adjust it day after day as you go on learning - just don't forget that Haas is as much a journey of self-exploration as a school of business.

In particular, producing a list of my flaws has helped me a lot. Every situation here looks new and exotic at first, but there is an important constant: myself. Being well aware of my own flaws, and trying to prevent/overcome them, is helping me not to fall in the same old traps. That's where the transformational experience is. Go beyond yourself, mate. Without attitude.

Life as a Second Year….

2010-09-24T15:57:00.001-07:00

So the perception I had before I came to Haas was the MBA students had nothing but time on their hands. I mean, compared to working full time, going back to school was supposed to be the life of leisure – nothing but sleeping in, working out, pleasure reading, and vacations. I learned very quickly that this is not the case in my first year! Between reading for classes, working in study groups to get projects done, recruiting for internships, getting to know your fellow classmates, and taking advantage of all the top speakers coming to campus, I found myself busier that I had ever been working (albeit, having a lot more fun than working). But this was surely just a first year phenomenon, right? Once I got “promoted” to being a second year, I would be through all of it and have nothing but time on my hands….No Way!

Here is just a list of the things that have kept me busy around campus during the last two weeks:

Class – Second year classes are no cake walk! They get into deep into the subject matter and require a lot of prep. My Real Estate Finance class dug into the financing of the Rockefeller Center Buildings in 1986 and 2001 – talk about a lot of detailed prospectus reading!

Clubs - I’m involved in both the Consulting and Finance Club. This week both clubs had firm nights – so I was busy helping set up, welcoming the companies, and paying the tab on both Tuesday and Thursday nights. This is in addition to 2 hours of exhausting networking.

Talking to Applicants – I’m one of the 8 Haas Student Ambassadors and a lot of people are getting serious about applying. We’ve had tons of people at our information sessions and I’m having a lot of phone conversations about Haas. I absolutely love the position and always happy to talk about life here, but it takes a lot of time!

Golf – OK, nobody is going to cry for me with this one. I organized a beginner series of golf lessons for me and 6 classmates. This is a nice break on Wednesday afternoons, but I’m finding that between the lessons and practicing at the driving range, this golf thing is really take some hours. I figure that a lot of business is done on the golf course, so although I don’t get credit for this class, it could be the most enjoyable class I have this year…

Speakers – We do a great job getting some really big name speakers to come to campus. Just two weeks ago my favorite author, Michael Lewis, gave a talk about his new book The Big Short and some of his thoughts about Liar’s Poker and the finance industry in general. He also talked about the sequel to Moneyball that he’s currently working on. We also had an Entrepreneur’s Forum last night hosted by the Lester Center. I got to hear about some start-ups pitches and listen to two CEOs who hatched start-ups in the food industry.

Social – Just hanging out with my classmates. Seeing how my fellow second years are doing in their full-time interviews and getting a chance to meet all the new first years. There are so many cool people that you want to know and see how their doing – I find that I can talk all night, but sooner or later I need to go home and get some sleep before I have to get to class the next morning…

So what’s my advice for people who are applying? When you get into B-School, take some off before. Quit your job in May and travel or just relax for 3 months because when you get here, it’s no vacation…not even when you’re a second year with a fulltime job offer!

Media / Entertainment 101 Panel

2010-09-23T16:53:00.000-07:00

Today I participated in the Media/Entertainment 101 panel. The purpose of this panel was to give the class of 2012 an overview of the space, the typical roles and work performed along with information on what is needed to conduct a successful job search.

On the panel was a handpicked selection of second years who spent their summers at Apple, Disney, Facebook, Google, and Zynga. From launching new products to managing global teams, the class of 2011 panelists showed that it's possible to accomplish a lot in 2.5 months! While we had different roles and responsibilities, it was no doubt that we were all enthusiastic to talk about our great summer experiences!

This was a great opportunity to share our insights on not only the recruiting process but also give the first years an inside look at what it's like to work at these companies. Given the insightful questions, we are confident that the new class has hit the ground running and will continue to stake their claim in the digital media and entertainment industry!

Work Hard, Play Hard

2010-09-22T23:16:00.000-07:00

If there is one motto I would use to describe the Haas MBA, it would be "work hard, play hard." My days are full of academic and club events, and more often than not, my nights are full of the things I enjoy doing, shared with my wonderful classmates. I've found myself at events I wouldn't have imagined a year ago, like the Digital Media and Entertainment Club's Game Night, which was all about retro video games, Guitar Hero, pizza, and some nice refreshments. Last night, I attended the Haas Technology Club's Semi-Annual Wine Party, which was a great wine tasting event. Here at Haas, we really enjoy being in close proximity to Napa and Sonoma. There aren't many things better than good wine, great company, and cheese plates. By the way, I'm convinced that cheese plates make everything better.

What might be surprising is that industry-oriented clubs are throwing these events. This might not be consistent with what you would expect from a business school, but it all comes back to working hard and playing hard. My classmates and I came to Haas to discover new new things and forge relationships. While class may be one way to do this, what really brings people together is good old-fashioned fun. That is why these clubs are throwing these great events and also why I'm going to go to as many as possible.

Since I'm a devoted fan of the Haas Technology Club, I encourage you to check out the club website if you are interested in a career in technology.

(A picture of me and some of the other members of the Haas Technology Club sharing a toast)

Learning Outside the Classroom

2010-09-19T22:46:00.000-07:00

Like most of you looking to come to Berkeley, I am sure that the location of the school is very attractive. Being close to San Francisco and Silicon Valley, Haas benefits from having alumni, industry experts and thought leaders so close to campus. As a result, the students are able to learn and engage with some of these dynamic individuals frequently throughout the semester.

In the weeks since school has started, I personally have had a chance to listen to the following business professionals:

(1) Tom Kelley, General Manager of product design firm IDEO
(2) Biz Stone, Co-founder and Creative Director of Twitter
(3) Micheal Lewis, influential non-fiction author of best sellers like The Big Short and Moneyball
(4) Anand Iyer, Senior Product Manager on the Windows Phone 7 Team at Microsoft
(5) John Fougner, Manager in Performance Product Marketing for Facebook

Additionally, there are some great opportunities later in the semester as well. I am already planning to see John Chambers (Chairman & CEO of Cisco), Micheal Arrington (Founder of Techcrunch) and Donald Knauss (Chairman & CEO of Clorox) over the next few weeks. I can't wait to see who else will show up over the next two years!

(Anand Iyer, Senior Product Manager at Microsoft, presenting at the Haas Technology Club Speaker Series)

Juggling Seven Balls At Once

2010-09-19T20:53:00.000-07:00

If there is anything I've learned in the past four weeks since I started my first year at Haas, it is that the MBA is really just one long period of juggling. You have to somehow balance your academics, career search, social activities, family, friends, club activities, and more. It is a test of your time management skills, discipline, and ability to function with less than 8 hours of sleep. All of the classmates I've talked to have been experiencing similar struggles. We've all been forced to learn how to juggle to survive and get the most out of our time here at Haas.

What makes this stressful lifestyle worth it is that there is never any shortage of interesting and useful activities to take part in. Last week, I had the honor of seeing Michael Lewis speak, met with product managers from Zynga, and listened to a presentation about Google's data-driven approach to human resources, all in the midst of mid-term exams. And that was in a slow week. On top of weekly rituals like TNABL (a class-wide gathering at a local bar) and Bar of the Week, I usually have the opportunity to attend company presentations, meet with entrepreneurs, go to wine tastings, and visit San Francisco. Then there are the classes, club meetings, and Cal football. It is this plethora of activities that forces Haas students to plan out their schedules so carefully.

Before I came to Haas, I wasn't very good at juggling. And actually, I still suck at it. But I have learned to manage my time effectively, optimizing my time so that I can achieve my goals and have fun doing it. Learning to do this is probably one of the biggest challenges MBA students face. I find myself creating to do lists in Evernote, managing my Google Calendar, and piping multiple email accounts to my iPhone. This hassle is completely worth it by the way. I've never felt so engaged, even when I was zipping around the country as a strategy consultant. Coming to Haas was definitely one of the best decisions I've ever made.

Cheers to the end of Fall A midterms

2010-09-17T15:06:00.000-07:00

There were a lot of happy first years raising a pint at the Bear's Lair on Friday, celebrating the end of our first set of midterms! Hard to believe that after only three weeks in school, we're already taking tests, but when our terms are only seven weeks long, the exams come early.

Speaking of seven week-long terms, I had lunch with a few prospective students last week (an informal way to get to know a few students and visit Haas) and we were talking about the length of our core courses. On the one hand, I think the major benefit of this set-up is that they prepare us for job recruitment, which is just around the corner. Thanks to having micro-econ under my belt, for example, I'll be able speak intelligently with companies about how'd I'd think about pricing one of their products, should that come up in a marketing interview.

On the other hand, with only seven weeks to learn the material, the pace of our classes is as fast as the pace of iPhone 4's flying off the shelves at an Apple store. It's been challenging to keep up with the material, and at the same time, try to take advantage of all the clubs, speakers, and events that are happening. I've definitely had to say no to things I would have liked to do. But on the plus side, as one of my classmates pointed out, it forces us to focus on the things that are the most important to us. For me, that's been learning our course material, getting involved in DMEC's >play conference, going to the Careers in Marketing Speaker Series, taking some time to swim at Hearst pool, and (hopefully) becoming a board fellow.

By the way, if you want to see what courses we're taking right now, you can check out the list here. We're also taking a brand new one called "Problem Finding, Problem Solving." I'll try to write about in the near future, if someone doesn't beat me to it.

Anyway, a big congratulations to my fellow first-years on making it through our first midterms!

Common Italian mistakes

2010-09-13T01:09:00.000-07:00

In the last weeks, in classes and in other events, I have heard a lot about mistakes. Of course success is not about avoiding all mistakes. Is then success about making many many mistakes and learning from them? This was my original idea, but it does not sound right anymore. Making a lot of mistakes at an automatic gas pump when you try to fuel your car is not the same as making lots of mistakes when trying to start your own company. The purpose is probably what makes the difference between errors that build success, and errors that lead nowhere.

What I think right now, at the beginning of my fourth week of courses at Haas, is that success is about being open to make a lot of mistakes whilst pursuing your own, totally personal and heartfelt, definition of success/happiness.

Speaking of what, I am doing a lot of mistakes. Errors in language and pronunciation, first of all: I am Italian and I never had to speak English every day, with everyone. Cultural mistakes when approaching all of my classmates, who are so diverse that every day I learn as much about Japanese, Indian, Chinese, French, German and other cultures, as I learn about the US culture. Mistakes in managing the workload, how many of them! Only the second week here I discovered the importance of the syllabuses. Errors in trying to network, because networking is a new world to me. Mistakes in a lot of subjects, from finance to microeconomics to accounting, because of my background very IT-focused.

BUT, what makes all of these mistakes precious to me, is how they fall in place in the pursuit for my personal objectives. Every time I start to feel frustrated, overwhelmed, not up to the task, I just sit back and ask myself "Who was I before starting the MBA, two months ago?", "How are these mistakes helping me to go beyond what I am?", "What am I achieving, despite and by means of these mistakes, in my personal growth path?". There you go - every mistake I am making at Haas has its deep WHY in my mind, and by this reason it is an investment towards my personal success.

Typos included :)

the aftermath.. and now, it does, truly begin!

2010-08-24T11:47:00.000-07:00

Time travel is a wonderful thing. No jokes. It is. Except for the fact that, we really can't travel in time, can we? Anyway, the second best option, in my mind, is an amazing costume party. And after the breakneck O-week schedule, which in my mind, was as amazing as it gets, this was going to be interesting! Oh and did I mention that I have never, ever been to a costume party in my life!

20th August - 10 AM - Meet at Downtown berkeley

Actors:

Tycho

Objective: Costume shopping!

... after a couple of hours of walking up and down telegraph (which, in my opinion is the most lively part of town ;) ) i think we finally have our costumes. And a crazy idea, to take it over the top.

Fast forward to 5 PM, and anderson auditorium is a blast from the past. Quite literally. 240 haaskies dressed up as hair band artists, biker chicks, miami vice, rock and rollas, and the grand daddy of bling!... needless to say, we all had a tonne of fun that evening. All said, an amazing end to an amazing week!

.. Monday morning. My first case study session in a strategy workshop - did pretty okay, considering i have never done case studies before. Fall 2010 is getting more and more hectic by the minute. But God! I'm loving it!!!

Oh by the way, I should introduce myself. Aditya Ramachandran (known as 'addy' to the class of 2012), Engineer, worked in manufacturing ops for 5 years in India, before coming to Haas.

Cheers, and more for later!!!

Just another O-Week speaker...

2010-08-20T00:49:00.001-07:00

Just a quick post because I have to share the thrill our class got today after we returned from our O-Week lunch. The one and only Biz Stone, the co-founder of Twitter, TWITTER!!, was our speaker. Don't get me wrong, I knew Haas was well-connected, but to have a heavyweight like Biz presenting during our first week is pretty amazing. This is a guy who has revolutionized the way people interact with each other the world over...not to mention the way organizations conduct their marketing and build relationships with their consumers (which happens to be my area of interest).

He spoke to us about what he's learned over the years. Some of the points that resonated with me were:

Opportunity can be manufactured (so go out and make something happen for yourself)
Creativity is a renewable resource (that is, there are infinite solutions to one problem)
Mistakes add value
To succeed spectacularly, be ready to fail spectacularly
There's a compound interest to altruism (therefore, start helping others early on, so they are able to go onto help others too)

I'd go on, but O-Week continues tomorrow, and even though I get to sleep in, I've got to rest up for 80's night tomorrow in the City.

The Start of Business School

2010-08-11T23:11:00.000-07:00

Hello all! My name is Jason Lyman and I am a proud member of the Class of 2012! Seeing as I am an avid blog reader myself, I thought that it would be a great experience to volunteer as a student blogger here at Haas. I know that going to business school is going to be a very unique experience and wanted to have a way to capture all the wonderful experiences I will have during my two years. Additionally, I hope that I can provide some additional color around life at Haas for all your prospective applicants out there.

Just as a some background for you readers, I did my undergrad work at BYU in Provo, Utah and then spent the next four years working as a strategy consultant for L.E.K. Consulting in its Los Angeles office. During my time there, I worked across a variety of different industries but really developed a focus in the media and entertainment space. Although I enjoyed my time there, I left to come to business school to round-out my business skill-set and look to transition into the technology space. (However, I am keeping an open mind and will evaluate different opportunities as they arise...)

Although school has not officially started, many of us are attending some "Pre-term" classes right now to review some subject matter that will be valuable to understand once we begin the core classes at the end of the month. I have enjoyed this opportunity to ease back into the "school lifestyle" as well as the chance to get to know some of my classmates better. I have been truly impressed with the talented group of people I have meet thus far and look forward to getting to know them better.

Anyway, I got to rest up...O-week is coming...I heard it is a crazy time and I can't wait!

It begins!

2010-08-08T20:33:00.000-07:00

Well, I’ve landed in Berkeley!

After enjoying my first summer vacation since undergrad (sleeping in! traveling in Australia! catching up on Mad Men!), I’ve been eagerly anticipating my move to California and the beginning of business school. Granted, school hasn’t technically started yet. A hundred and fifty or so of us have just finished our first week of “Math Camp.” And you know, it feels a lot like drinking from a fire hose. My background is in marketing and communications, so a lot of the material is pretty new to me. But it seems like even the people with more of a quantitative background have been getting something out of our morning sessions. Plus, it’s been a great opportunity to start working with my new, incredibly helpful classmates. Just reaffirms one of the big reasons I chose Haas: its collaborative and supportive culture.

Not to mention, it’s already been a heck of a lot of fun! In fact, I don’t think there’s been a night yet when someone hasn’t organized an activity. Dinners at Biryani, beers at Triple Rock, and of course there was the alumni welcome party in the City (which later involved a visit to one of the best pizza joints in San Francisco—Golden Boy). All I can say is, make sure you set your Google Group membership to receive posts as they arrive, because there’s always someone doing something and inviting everyone to join, whether it’s trip after class to the DMV or an outing to AT&T Park for a Giant’s game.

I can’t wait to see what the next few weeks hold. Especially O-Week, which I hear is pretty epic.

SF Music Tech: The Bits in the Beats

2010-05-18T19:10:00.000-07:00

The San Francisco Bay Area is fast becoming the hot-bed of music and technology. Both Pandora and Mog are in Berkeley's backyard (Oakland and Berkeley, respectively). The MBA experience at Haas is more than just the curriculum and the community in Haas, but being an MBA provides tons of opportunities to network and make new connections. Brian Zisk, who was a former panelist for the >play conference, organizes a semi-annual conference.

Having attended the SF Music Tech Summit in December, I was thoroughly surprised that a mere six months later, 700+ people would be filling the Kabuki Hotel in Japantown for another pow-wow.

The underlying theme was to recognize the power of proper data analytics and management to empower the music ecosystem.

As the music industry adapts to the digital age, the attendees were stress that there will always be music. As the industry seeks new business models, it was made clear that many of the companies aren’t re-inventing the way people interact with content and music, but looking towards data analytics as a guiding light to new monetization models.

From Cisco’s Eos’ technology enabling both front-end and more importantly, back-end management Saas solution for enterprises to Pandora conscientiously tracking its users to pair growth with capital investments the tone to both artists and businesses was that in order to succeed, one needs to see the numbers in music.

Know who your audience is and where there are
There is no silver bullet. Gone are the days where listeners flock to the artist. Gone are the days of mono-channel distribution. While artists and their promoters are in search for a general recommendation, figure out where your listeners are and go to them.

: Case in Point: Susan Boyle's CD Sales

Case in Point: Susan Boyle
Simon Cowell saw $$ when she got up on that stage and cleared her windpipes. The label was clearly shocked when her CD went on sale—91% of recorded sales were from physical DVDs. Thinking that digital sales were not being accounted for, the label soon learned that Boyle’s audience watched on YouTube, but still purchased plastic CDs.

There were also some great quotes:

Monetization through Hypersyndication: Get your data out there, actively send out your info. It’s about distribution, give them the data so that it’s clean, so it doesn’t rely on user submissions. Hypersyndication will enable artists to find new ways to get paid." Darryl Ballantyne, LyricFind
Understanding Your Point on a Growth Curve: "We've always been vigorous with our analytics. However, it can be surprising. For the first couple of years, our growth over time was surprisingly linear. When you're in the early part of the exponential growth curve, it looks very linear." Tom Conrad, Pandora
Comparing Android v. iPhone OS: "You can push faster and iterate to learn with Android. Android is good for acquisition. For the iPhone, its the opposite. We've received pushback from user registration, often a week to two weeks. But with the iPhone, we get more paid conversions." Warren Wan, Dada Entertainment
On Multitasking Functionality for the Phone: " When you can run things in the background, companies will be able to use background information to trigger events or discovery." Reno Marioni, Nokia

It was great to dive into the conference. The greatest value from attending the conference isn’t just the download from the panels, but from the conversations in between the panel. I was able to meet some amazing minds! From learning about JamLegends, meeting A&R managers, and networking with entrepreneurs to exploring a partnership with the SF Chapter of the Grammy’s I was grateful that the conference was in Japantown—I walked down the block to carbo load at my favorite ramen shop.

Pictures from Flickr:

A variation of the post was taken from the DMEC blog.

Bringing Alums and MBA Students together for a night of Scotch

2010-04-15T22:37:00.000-07:00

Guest Post: David Breger, Co-President of the Berkeley Digital Media and Entertainment Club (DMEC) gives us a peek into the different events hosted by clubs at Haas. This recap is cross posted on the DMEC Blog.

One of the best things about DMEC is our extremely passionate and fun alumni base. Because the Club is less than a decade old, DMEC alums are recent alums that are awesome to hang out with and are always working on the most interesting things.

Case in point: a couple weeks ago was our First Annual DMEC Past & Present Scotch Tasting. Sponsored by Johnny Walker, we held the event at the Yardbarker offices in San Francisco, started by two DMEC co-founders, Pete Vlastelica and Jack Kloster.

The night began with appetizers and cocktails, where dozens of DMEC members and alums alike had the chance to talk and catch up with one another. Then began the scotch tasting. The Master of Scotch explained to us the differences between the five types of Johnny Walker scotch we tasted that night: Red, Gold, Black, Green, and Blue. It was a great chance to interact with DMEC students and alums working in the digital media and entertainment industries over some fantastic scotch!

What a week!!!!!

2010-04-10T11:31:00.000-07:00

After a while I am back!

This week was one of those in which you feel really proud and happy to be at Haas.

So let's start!!!!

One month from now I will be departing to Zambia to work on my IBD project. In fact, it is OUR project! I have been working with a great team, all the members are good people as well as outstanding professionals. I not only have a nice time working with them, but I am learning a lot from them. The project is well underway since everyone is engaged to do their best.

Two months from now I will start my internship at Amgen. Thanks to the support of the career services I was able to overcome the challenges of the recruiting process and find myself an exciting job at a great company.

Well, so what about this week?!!?!

I responded to the Dean´s survey about my first year at Haas, which I was really happy to do. This is another demonstration that the school administration is really connected to the students and is making its best to provide us with the best experience.

There was the Day at Haas 1! The admissions staff with the intense support of our class have organized a great event, that represents our community. I am sure all the prospective students feel that they are welcome here. It was really nice to meet knew people and share some of my experiences here.

In Strategy class, we spent the week discussing cases about innovation that were based on my future employer. It was a great opportunity to learn more about the company that I will work for and about the management of innovation and new businesses.

Woke up at 6:00 am on thursday to have a conference call with my IBD client. It feels so good to have my hands at work again. It was a very productive meeting a will certainly help us to deliver strong results for the company.

And then, there was the BOW, the Mojito Party, etc....

Being a VC for a day

2010-03-03T13:32:00.000-08:00

This is a guest post penned by Siddhi Saraiya (FTMBA 2011), a VCIC participant. As part of a two part post, around the Venture Capital Investment Competition, Siddhi shares on her team's experience being a VC of the day. To read about what it was like to plan the contest, click through to Robbie's post here.

On the morning of February 5th, I walked into the conference room with my team mates Scott, Buzz, Gabor, and Ian. We were focused and excited for the Venture Capital Investment Competition; we had spent about 10 hours over the two previous nights in the library preparing for the day.

By the afternoon, it had become clear that our investment choice was not the favorite amongst the teams, and our investment strategy was quirky. During the Q&A, we were hit hard with questions about our choices, but every time one person was unsure, another would step forward and answer. I really enjoyed seeing my teammates perform, and I was impressed by each of them.

Before the winners were announced, the judges spoke for a minute, saying that they valued the rapport with the entrepreneurs and the teamwork of the winning team. When they announced our team’s name, I felt honored that the impressive panel of VCs had chosen us to represent our school, and in true Berkeley style, they had rewarded us for our unique approach.

Although we didn’t win the next round at USC, this was a special memory for each of us from our first year, a chance for us to become better friends, and an excellent learning experience about venture capital.

Day in the Life of a Current Student

2010-02-17T09:46:00.001-08:00

Posted on the Haas Student Ambassador blog is a post on a Day in the Life of a Current Student. Click the link below to go check it out!

http://haasstudentambassadors.blogspot.com/

Haas Venture Capital Competition

2010-01-31T14:55:00.000-08:00

This is a guest post penned by Robbie Horwitz (FTMBA 2011), VCIC Organizing Committee, Judging Representative:

This Friday, February 5th, 2010, six teams of UC Berkeley graduate students will take on the role of venture capitalists for the day as they face off at the Haas school of Business for a chance to compete in the regional VCIC semifinals at the University of Southern California in mid February. Each team will be asked to evaluate business plans from promising entrepreneurs who are currently seeking funding for their businesses. The teams will perform due diligence in the form of a question and answer session with each entrepreneur, and will then prepare a valuation and term sheet for the business which they believe represents the best investment. A panel of experienced Silicon Valley venture capitalists will assess how well each team performs these tasks and determine the competition’s winner.

Recently, on January 22nd, 2010, the teams had a chance to practice their skills by participating in a series of workshops led by a team of two seasoned venture capitalists, an innovative entrepreneur, and an experienced and knowledgeable corporate finance attorney. These experts provided valuable feedback and guidance to the teams, which is sure to come in handy during the competition. Now, with less than one week to go before the competition, the teams are ready to compete and excitement has been growing on campus. It should be a fun event and a great learning experience for all involved!

Asia Business Conference - 2010

2010-01-23T01:27:00.000-08:00

Next month, the Haas School of Business will host the Asia Business Conference (ABC). This is the largest Asia focused student-run conference on the West Coast. Founded by Dr. Laura Tyson, economic advisor to President Obama and former Dean of the Haas School of Business, this conference intends to increase awareness and insights about businesses in Asia. 2010 marks the conferences’ 10th anniversary, and is expected to draw over 500 attendees. Audiences include various professionals and MBA students from the Bay Area who are interested in entrepreneurship and businesses in Asia.

The theme of the 2010 conference, “Asia: Shifting the Global Center of Gravity,” seeks to provocatively discuss whether major business and commercial activities are increasingly centered on the Asian region.

The conference seeks to address these issues from 4 perspectives:

Macroeconomic trends occurring in Asia’s ascent and its broader implications on capital flows and labor
Rise of Asia as a region of business and technology innovation as well as entrepreneurship
Challenges of leadership, organizational alignment and people management amidst relentless growth in Asia
Implications for personal development and career growth to take advantage of Asia's rapid growth

I'm pretty excited about the list of incredible keynote speakers that we have lined up for the event. The list includes Scott Matlock, Chairman M&A, Morgan Stanley Asia, Joi Ito, CEO of Creative Commons and General Partner of Neoteny Labs, Lim Siong Guan, Group President, Government of Singapore Investment Corporation and Arun Sarin, Senior Advisor, KKR and former CEO of Vodafone. (WOW!). Further, in the spirit of innovation, this years organizers have included a VC networking event over lunch. This exclusive lunch will allow entrepreneurs to take advantage of opportunity to exchange ideas with , lawyers and experienced entrepreneurs. The conference also includes panels ranging from clean tech, India, tech, consumer, finance and global operations with eminent thought leaders as panelists

Organizers have been working hard to make this conference a huge success. I'm sure it will be one - and I hope this blog has sparked some of your interest as well. To learn more about ABC, check out the conference website.

To attend or learn more about the conference, you can check the following resources as well.

Hope to see all of you on Feb 20th at Berkeley!

the four weeks that just flew by - my winter break trek

2010-01-15T00:55:00.000-08:00

"CAL" braving -15°C in the Forbidden City

They say that time waits for no one and it won't wait for me. What seemed like for long weeks have quickly sped by as I start for my second semester at Haas.

Berkeley, CA
A little known fact: Berkeley has a low-cost, fairly broad student health insurance plan (SHIP). Under SHIP, we not only enjoy $5 copay for eye exams, but also 50% discount on Lasik. Following my last final, I walked across the street from Haas to the UC Berkeley School of Optometry. The next couple days were a bit dark.

Taipei, Taiwan
A week later, got onto a plane and headed to Taiwan. My wife and I got married right before school started and I wanted to take her to Taipei to meet the rest of my family. While in Taipei, I was able to connect with Haas alumni. I was amazed at the loyalty of the alumni that they were willing to go out of their way to meet a stranger. I learned more about what consulting, technology, financial services was like in Taiwan.

Taiwan Alumni dinner with a MBA '11

Shanghai and Beijing, China
On the 5th, I flew from Taipei to Shanghai to meet up with 59 other Haas MBAs (combination of Full Time and evening/weekend) on a 10 day China Trek. Treks are entirely student run and five of my classmates put together a truly memorable trek.

Balancing company visits, site seeing, and a lot of late night karaoke, it was a tour de force of activities. We got the opportunity to visit companies including: Johnson & Johnson, GM China, Frog Design, Medtronic, Google China, Tencent, Huawei, Innovation Works, and LiNing. Beyond the company visits, we were able to meet up the alumni chapters who were able to provide great insights into doing business in China. One alum stated that there are three rules of doing business in China:

Everything is possible
But, everything is hard
When they say that there it is not a problem, it is a big problem

Over the past four weeks there have simply been to many unforgettable times. It was a privilege to have Kai-Fu Lee (李开复) drop in and discuss his thoughts on China, innovation, and the Chinese psyche. It was incredible to see the passion and love of Haas from the alumni. It was pure bliss to sing "I want it that way" with 59 other classmates.

So what's next? Study tonight for the waiver exam Friday afternoon, meet up with my wife to attend a SF MOMA 75 Anniversary event in the evening, and meet some prospective Haas '12 at the Super Saturday I over the weekend.

New Years at Taipei 101 (the 2nd tallest building in the world)

Shanghai at night

Haas Tech Club @ Crunchies

2010-01-10T22:21:00.001-08:00

Students at Berkeley will never stop raving about the opportunities you get to interact with techies and entrepreneurs from Silicon Valley. Last week, about 10 Haasies got together to attend the "Crunchies".

The Crunchies are to technology what the Oscars are to Hollywood. The awards celebrate the best tech accomplishments of 2009. GigaOm, VentureBeat and TechCrunch were the co-hosts and masters in ceremonies for the event that was held in the elegant Herbst Theater in San Francisco.

I cheered on as of my favourite tech apps, products and services were recognized for their awesomeness. Some of these included Dropbox, Facebook. Google Docs and Mint. Better luck to Jack Dorsey (for square), Tony Hsieh (Zappos), Yelp, Chatter and Groupon (which I LOVE!!), who probably lost our narrowly to winners in their respective categories. The complete list of winners is available at http://www.techcrunch.com/2010/01/08/crunchies-winner/

The award ceremony was followed by an amazing after-party. I made a list of the evening's highlights (in no particular order)

1. Meeting Mark Pincus - Truly one of the most prolific entrepreneurs of our times, Mark Pincus also spoke about how Zynga (through Farmville and other social games) was raising money for charitable causes.

2. Applauding Ron Conway for winning "Angel Investor of the Year" (joke of the evening was that he was giving $50K to everyone in the audience to start their own company). Of course, if you wanted examples of how Silicon Valley really pays tributes to its heroes, you should read Y-Combinators blog requesting their supporters to vote for Ron Conway.

3. Google giving away 10 Nexus One phones to lucky winners in the audience. Of course, with my sort of luck, it wasn't a surprise that I didn't win. However, Vic Gundotra (VP Engineering at Google) did declare that Google Voice will come to iPhone "one way or the other". Apparently, as quoted by JP, the HTC president, Vic also said "Haas Tech Club? We need to hire more of you guys!" Couldn't agree more, Sir!

4. My classmate Jason Mills, gets a photograph with the founder of Facebook - Mark Zuckerberg. Read Mark's interview with Mike Arrington for his thoughts on social networking in the context of today.
5. A fun way to catch up with classmates in the middle of a long break!

HTC Members at the Crunchies After Party

Gambling for charity!

Hanging with The Mule - Founder of Smule, iPhone App Company, with titles such as the Ocarina Flute and I Am T-Pain.

Volunteering - Checking in the VIPs and Attendee for the Event

Starting Up

2010-01-07T20:38:00.000-08:00

One of the great things about an MBA in general, and at Haas specifically, is that it is one of the most supportive environments for starting new initiatives or exploring new business ideas. This is how, a few months ago, we started Puzux.

An Idea

When I was traveling to Finland for my IBD project, I naturally took my Kindle with me. One day I felt like solving a crossword, which I quite enjoy doing, and was surprised to find out that the Kindle doesn’t offer such interactive games (or interactive content in general for that matter). I started contemplating doing something about it.

The team

First thing you realize when at Haas, is that you have access to top-notch talent – not only within your class but also in the greater Haas community. I shared my idea with a classmate with vast experience in sales and Business Development in tech, a classmate’s spouse who is a brilliant developer and another classmate’s spouse who is an IT wizard. Together, we started turning this idea into a reality.

Haas

In addition to talent, Haas (and Berkeley in general) provides numerous tools to support entrepreneurs. It stars with the Lester center, which hosts the Berkeley Business Plan competition, and there are many other, smaller, startup competitions where you get a chance to present your idea and get feedback from experienced entrepreneurs and investors. There is also the Life as an Entrepreneur Speaker Series in which every week successful innovators come and share their experience from starting their business. Naturally, there is also support for such activities in the curriculum, such as the Entrepreneurship Workshop which I’m taking next semester, and is providing students with ongoing guidance, support and access to resources during their company’s first stages.

Puzux

After several months of hard work and constant technological improvements, and forming partnerships with content providers, we launched puzux.com with a set of three crossword books and four Sudoku books for the Amazon Kindle. We are the first to offer interactive crosswords for the Kindle, and the first to offer advanced Sudoku capabilities (such as note-taking) for the device. Ultimately we aim to become leaders in providing quality interactive content to eReaders, as well as to establish a vivid community of people who enjoy mind puzzles and want to share this passion with others. So far, our books are selling extremely well on the Kindle store, and while the hard work is far from ending (and will hopefully never end), it is an absolutely fantastic (and highly recommended) experience.

Peruvian Llamas Love Haasies

2010-01-06T15:31:00.000-08:00

Winter break serves as a time recharge and relax. Having four weeks off also serves as an incredible opportunity to travel. Right now, there are groups of Haas students travelling together around the world. Locations include China, Brazil, Ecuador, Thailand just to name a few. As for me, I chose to trek down to Peru. We traveled to the floating islands of Lake Titicaca, Cusco, the Sacred Valley, and of course Machu Picchu. The trip was simply incredible. One big shout out to Alvaro who played tour guide and showed us a great time in Lima. That's all for now. Oh and yes, further proof that llamas are Cal fans.

1/4th of an MBA

2009-12-30T22:09:00.001-08:00

Early December, I glanced at my calender to see when I'd get some relief from the continuously pile of work that just never seemed to reduce - no matter how much I toiled. From academics to sports to extra-curricular activities and student associations, I feel like I'm on a full-speed journey.

I marked Dec as the month when things might have temporarily slowed down, and took some time to reflect on what I've learnt since becoming a quarter of an MBA

Academics: I'm no longer scared of financial jargon. Shorting T-Bills to going long on tech stocks, I thank my finance professor who mercilessly ensured that we spoke the language, and spoke it well. And that we understood the numbers. Coming to b-school with a non-finance background, the finance and accounting courses seemed intimidating at first. Now, I'm happy to have taken at least the beginners steps. Over the next year, I hope to take some more advanced courses that will help me get a stronger understanding of corporate finance, managerial accounting and valuations. I loved Marketing - and Rashi Glazer (I think almost everyone in my cohort and batch would agree that he is one of the best Marketing professors ever). As an international student, I absolutely loved the way experiential learning is incorporated into the curriculum. For instance, in our Leading People course, we conducted a real organizational audit and presented our findings and recommendations to companies. And of course, let me not forget Micro - after all, it was a Haas professor who took the Nobel for economics this year.

Student Activities: Wow, now that I look back, I'm shocked I ever got time to do stuff apart from club activities. First, I volunteered to help out with >play 2009 - Berkeley's Digital Media and Entertainment Conference. As part of the Expo team, I had an opportunity to invite and interact with some of the neatest tech startups from the Bay Area. It was a very memorable experience to meet some of the smartest tech entrepreneurs and to see their gadgets, tools and products. Of course, preparation for this event started even before classes, so you can imagine how much time and effort this took. Next up, I signed up to be an executive committee member for the Haas Tech Club - and spent quite a bit of time brainstorming how we could further improve the club's agenda. I'm also part of the marketing team and technology panel for the 2010 Asia Business Conference and on the organizing team for the 2010 women in leadership career panel. At Berkeley, student associations and conference are one of the best ways to supplement your learning experiences. By interacting with students with similar interests and passions, I've gained very interesting perspectives and built some very strong networks, both within and outside Haas.

Career: Some may argue that career stands to be the most important aspect of B-school. The career center at Haas recognizes this, and in my experience, has done the utmost to support the aspirations of MBA students. Even before the academic year started, I had the opportunity to speak with career advisors and 2nd year career coaches to figure out my plans of getting my dream internships. Over multiple advising sessions, mock interviews, resume and cover letter reviews, I do feel OK with my preparations. Berkeley and Haas provide innumerable resources such as a massive database of 100's of alumni in various industries, adjunct advisors (who have helped me out even during holidays and vacations!) and a vast career portal. While the next two months will tell me how the efforts and preparation pays off, there is no doubt in my mind about the transformation and refinement that's come about in students in just a few months.

My first quarter at Haas has been exhilarating - and my post just about skims the surface of my experiences. If I had to rewrite my admissions essays on "Why Haas", I know a 1000 words would just not be sufficient. Imagine then, what a whole 2 years here would be!

8th Annual Berkeley-Haas Wall Street Trek

2009-12-23T07:12:00.001-08:00

Last week about 30 Haas students in the Finance Club descended on NYC as part of the 8th annual Berkeley-Haas Wall Street Trek. Students pursuing investment banking careers met with a broad range of bulge-bracket and boutique firms, while a separate group of students focused on buy-side roles met with hedge funds and asset management groups within larger firms. A valuable element of the Trek emerged from the planning process itself, since many trekkers took the lead in reaching out to recruiters, alumni and personal contacts (or sometimes just initiating brand-new relationships from scratch) to schedule the itinerary. We're very grateful to all the alumni and other financial services professionals who offered their time and insights to help us better understand the NYC employment landscape and build East Coast-West Coast relationships.

LAHBA Coronation Dinner

2009-12-09T21:20:00.001-08:00

LAHBA initiatives have really helped me to feel home at Berkeley. During this first semester the club promoted a series of events that provide amazing professional and social interactions between students. The club has really done a good job in building a strong community!

Last week we had the coronation dinner, in which a new team took the leadership. Antonio and his team done a great job during this year. Now Claudio and his team will take the lead!

Thanks Antonio and team!!! Good luck Claudio and team!!!

To see more about us >> https://haas-lahba.campusgroups.com/web_page.aspx?order=1&id=8758

The Art of Possibility

2009-11-24T00:15:00.000-08:00

I've got to hand it to our Leadership Communication teachers and the 2nd-year Graduate Student Instructors: it takes some true talent to convince a classroom full of 60 hard-charging, data-driven over-achievers (okay, I'm grossly generalizing - sort of...) to risk looking like fools in front of our fellow MBA candidates by jumping up & down and waving our arms while shouting quotes from Shakespeare. Or to reveal our emotional connection to a speech topic to help us unleash our authentic voices. Or (most vulnerability-inducing of all) to present a persuasive speech accompanied by bullet-free PowerPoint slides, trusting images alone to support our words!

All right, so some of us might not volunteer to take those public risks again anytime soon, but the consensus view was that we all improved our presentation skills as a result of those two full-day sessions. Two classroom-bound Sundays in exchange for a more compelling "presence" (and a reduced reliance on filler words like "and" or "uhhhh") might be a fair tradeoff, IMHO. A big shoutout to Max W., my section GSI who guided some fairly impressive transformations in our small group.

A Socially Responsible Haas

2009-11-18T19:53:00.000-08:00

The following email was sent to entire student body by VP social. A quintessential example of how social responsibility and fun intersects at every major occasion at Haas.

Haas Community,

We are pleased to introduce a fantastic opportunity to benefit disadvantaged children in the Bay Area that Gwyn has been leading.

In the Bank of America Forum stands The Haas Giving Tree and on it are very special wishes from disadvantaged children. This is an effort done in collaboration with a local charity, the Family Giving Tree project, that was started by MBAs at San Jose State University. More information can be found at www.familygivingtree.org.

The children that this project benefits are from our community, the Bay Area, including Oakland and Berkeley. They come from backgrounds that are not as fortunate as many of ours and through the belief in the power of simply giving and caring we can help them have a happy and festive holiday. Over the next four weeks, up until December 10^th, we as a Haas community have a phenomenal opportunity to help these underprivileged families and children.

Each of us can help by simply taking a wish card from the giving tree and purchasing a gift. Once purchased, simply place the gift with the wish card attached under the Giving Tree and at the end of the season these gifts will be distributed to these children.

Our school is a great place full of innovation and community spirit, and if you can, please help please support this in any way possible. Others are welcome to place Holiday and giving oriented representations that are meaningful to them around the tree.

By adopting The Haas Giving Tree project we can secure this charitable effort within the Haas community for many years to come.

Thank you!

Jason, Gwyn, Ciera Ashley, Jan Veira, Kandra Chan, Ceinwyn Karne, Fernanda Fenton, Li Chien Chen.

Berkeley Finance Conference

2009-11-15T08:14:00.000-08:00

Bankers, investors and VC's, Oh MY!

Friday was the 3rd annual Berkeley Finance Conference, the only student run Finance Conference on the West Coast. Over 170 participants (from all over the country) and volunteers filled the campus for the 10 hour event.

Being student run, there are plenty of opportunities to get involved (and dodge the $30 admission fee). I was responsible for the Green Room (where the panelists hung out before their talks) and the finances. It was quite rewarding watching how much everyone enjoyed the event.

The featured speaker was Mark Zanoli, who works at J.P. Morgan, my previous employer. He had a very interesting take on the recovery and the recent surge in M&A activity.

I loved it so much that I am co-chairing next years event. Hope to see you there...

Haas at the UNC Alpha Challenge stock pitch competition

2009-11-14T21:16:00.000-08:00

I was lucky enough to be part of the team that represented Haas at the UNC Alpha Challenge stock pitch competition in Chapel Hill yesterday. After flying cross-country & back on Thursday & Friday, it felt amazing to get a full night of sleep last night - but the experience was well worth the super-intense week of working crazy hours on our analysis & presentation. The competition started last Friday: at 8am EST the UNC organizers emailed us a list of 55 companies from which we would choose one stock for a Buy recommendation and another stock for a Sell recommendation. That was 5am our time - and my teammate George was up that early awaiting the list! By 7am, George, our other teammate Will and I were divvying up our research duties.

When we saw that the assigned sector was alternative energy, the three of us were all pretty happy that we were enrolled in the Alternative Energy Speaker Series course at Haas (which is worth its own blog post some other time). That said, I was even *more* happy that George had experience in his prior job looking at alternative energy stocks, so he could point us to optimal research sources and guide our understanding of the various technologies in question. The week of working together so closely -- researching, brainstorming, number crunching, building models and PPT slides -- was one of those experiential learning opportunities that businesses schools pride themselves on. I feel pretty confident that each of us learned something new from the other two that will be very valuable throughout the rest of our academic and professional careers. (I know I did.)

At the competition itself, we didn't make it to the finals, but watching the final three teams' presentations was another dimension of the learning experience. It's simply fascinating to see how many different -- and excellent -- approaches that groups of clever people can take to the same challenge. Finally, we had the chance to meet so many of the other teams over lunch, at breaks and at the awards reception, exchanging ideas and business cards with them. It's heartening to realize our community extends beyond our Haas classmates to candidates at other top MBA programs. I'm sure our paths will cross again!

Hands-On Learning at Haas

2009-11-09T16:22:00.000-08:00

Last night I joined 41 of my classmates for the kick-off meeting to the latest Haas@Work experiential learning project. Our project involves assisting a top-tier PC provider develop compelling connected service offerings to integrate with its PC's sold to consumers and small/medium sized businesses. It's an exciting project to be a part of, especially one with ambitious goals in terms of revenue generation and go-to-market time frame. As a career-switcher, these are exactly the types of opportunities I was looking for when I came to Haas. Our team got off to a great start in the ideation process and really set out a good game plan to be able to make insightful and compelling recommendations in just a few weeks. Stay tuned for more updates!

Symantec Tech Trek

2009-11-09T00:39:00.000-08:00

When Vince and Matt asked me to write a guest post, I couldn't turn down the opportunity to share my experience here at Haas. This past Friday, roughly 15 members from the Haas Tech Club trekked to Mountain View, CA to tour Symantec’s corporate headquarters. While Symantec has grown to a Fortune 500 company with revenues exceeding $6 billion, the Symantec campus still has the energy of a start-up – ping-pong and fussball tables line the hallways and sand volleyball courts scattered around the campus get plenty of use.

While at Symantec, we toured a couple of their data centers dedicated to product development and R&D. I’ve been to a fair amount of data centers in my day but none as complex as Symantec’s. Symantec technicians support hundreds of unique hardware configurations and OS platforms to simulate each of Symantec’s customers’ infrastructures and environment.

Both the VP of Finance and VP of Symantec’s Storage and Availability Management Group (SAMG) provided overviews of the business and MBA full-time and internship opportunities available. Then we had a Q+A session with a number of Symantec employees working on the corporate finance and SAMG product management/marketing teams (many of whom were Haas alums!). Talking with Symantec employees, definitely gave us a better sense of what it is like to work at one of the world’s leading information management and security companies. I was very impressed with Symantec and glad to be a part of this Tech Club Trek.

Thanks Symantec and we look forward to seeing you at the December Consumption Function!

Guest posted by Tim Potter, MBA '11.

Career Trek to Symantec

2009-11-07T13:28:00.001-08:00

Last week, I had the chance to visit Symantec as part of the “career treks” that are organized by the Haas Technology Club. These treks allow us to visit company facilities, see their work environment, speak with members of the senior management team and gain a better perspective of the various roles and responsibilities across various groups.

Our trek started with a visit to the Symantec Labs. These labs were not IT software labs, rather they were test environments for their engineering groups. This was where Symantec simulated multiple environments to do thorough tests and quality assurances before releasing their products. We got to see some of the most high-end, high performance machines in the industry today. The lab forms a very critical part of Symantec’s product development process, and it was amazing to see the infrastructure that they built up.

Later, we were addressed by Kathy Bonanno, VP of Finance and Josh Kahn. Kathy spoke about the various functions performed by the finance organization within Symantec. It is always exciting to learn about a company that has continued to grow as rapidly as Symantec, both organically and through external acquisitions. We had a chance to speak with recent interns and graduates who enthusiastically shared their experiences thus far.

Josh Kahn spoke about the various products that Symantec has come up with, and the areas of growth for the company. We learnt about various interactions between product, engineering and marketing managers. It was also interesting to hear Josh’s take on the competitive landscape, and how that would pan out for the company.

Later, we had an informal panel discussion with various Haas alums in the company. Alums were in a variety of roles that spanned finance, corporate strategy, business developments, product management, product marketing management and business operations. The culture of Symantec had a very Haas-like feel – collaborative, innovative, energetic and entrepreneurial.

Overall, it was a great day. Treks like this play a huge role in the career search process. Learning about a company is instrumental part of the job/internship seeking process, and on behalf of all the students that visited, I like to thank the Symantec team for organizing this fantastic event.

We Love Lucy

2009-11-04T16:52:00.000-08:00

From the beginning of the academic year many of us female students and partners have been looking forward to the annual Women in Leadership retreat in Napa. (Sorry, guys - this is the one event of the year to which you're *not* invited!)

Our fabulous retreat co-chairs planned a jam-packed day of fun, including a raucous team challenge that included stomping grapes:
I couldn't help but think of this classic scene:

Only it didn't stop with grape stomping - in true MBA style, the team challenge also encompassed developing a wine-themed product idea and marketing campaign (e.g., "Cabernet Lingerie" or "Chardon-YAY" energy booster). Our teams presented skits during a gourmet luncheon - probably not surprising to learn that as the wine continued to flow, the presentations became funnier and funnier...

On the other side of town

2009-11-01T23:19:00.000-08:00

One of the greatest things about Haas is not what goes on within, but what happens just a stone’s throw outside of campus.   I came to Haas to switch careers, with the goal of moving from consulting to technology. There are plenty of ways to explore new fields, understand industry trends, and make alumni connections. I’ve joined the Haas Technology Club and the Digital Media & Entertainment Club (DMEC), enrolled in speaker series, and plan to take classes in the Management of Technology (MOT) program.

But let’s not forget that the Silicon Valley is in our backyard. And last Friday was a great reminder of this. With the Bay Bridge closed, a bunch of Haas students braved the crowded BART trains to the Virtual Goods Summit. The summit brought together leaders in this emerging space for conversations about the state of the virtual goods ecosystem as well discussed growth opportunities. Projected to be an $1B US industry this year, it's growing at an incredible pace.

Having walked into the conference with only a general knowledge about the space, I felt as if I was drinking from a fire hose.   I realized that much of what we discuss in class: demand curves, willingness to pay, price discrimination, and… even statistics are being used real-time by companies trying to monetize on digital content. The key difference is that shifts in policy don’t take months, years to bring change; change can take place in a matter of hours. To dip into the pool of insight, check out a presentation from Bill Grosso, CTO and SVP of Product, Live Gamer.

I left the summit with a head full of information and had the opportunity to network with thought leaders in the industry.   Most importantly, the energy from learning about such a kinetic and growing industry made the 20 minute BART ride home seem to flicker by in 20 seconds.

Haas @ Virtual Goods Summit 2009

Vegetarians, avert your gaze for this post

2009-10-25T00:22:00.000-07:00

A couple of weekends back, I found myself at the First Annual Haas Hog Roast. You gotta love anything labeled "First Annual" - it's quite cheeky in its presumption that the initial event will merit a reprise year after year... And yet, photographic evidence suggests that the Haas Hog Roast may indeed prove popular enough to endure in 2010 and beyond. To wit, before:

And after:

Note the BBQ pit assembled McGyver-style from rebar and cinderblock - now *that's* what I call leading through innovation. All this thanks to the ingenuity of the event organizers and the graciousness of the party hosts - kudos, fellas!

The Multi Club Firm Night

2009-10-23T09:29:00.000-07:00

This week, several student-run clubs got together to sponsor the multi-club firm nights. The Multi-Club Firm Night is an annual career event hosted by the Haas Marketing Club, General Management & Strategy Club, the Digital Media & Entertainment, the Technology and the Sales Club. This year over 14 firms attended the event, including Adobe, Apple, Chevron, Cisco, Clorox, DelMonte, E&J Gallo, Ivelich Stone, Leapfrog, NetApp, Neutrogena, SalesForce, Sony, Symantec, Gallup and VMWare.

It was fascinating to see 2 vastly different companies just 2 booths apart - Apple, which beat Wall Street expectations this quarter, and Zynga, which probably beat its own expectations of how fast they'd grow.

It was a perfect opportunity for students to spend 1-1 time with company representatives, understand their unique propositions and get a feel for what kind of career they'd like to choose. For a high tech enthusiast like me, I truly enjoyed meeting all the companies that are revolutionizing our digital futures - Of course, I can't wait to be part of that revolution as well!

MBAA Elections are coming up!

2009-10-22T01:26:00.001-07:00

Andrea (MBAA VP International) and I (MBAA VP Diversity) were tabling for the upcoming MBAA Elections, which is where 1st years declare their candidacy for various offices. Unfortunately, this meant we were unable to attend the Haas Talent Show info session that was happening at the same time. This is a REAL conversation from today.

I *heart* Andrea. Andrea is HILARIOUS.

3-2-1... Dodgeball!

2009-10-21T08:00:00.000-07:00

Becoming a student again has been great. Still, student life still has its pressures and stress points. Further adding to the problem, my motivation to keep up a regular gym schedule has been lacking. Enter dodgeball. At the start of the year, my good friend Phil decided it would be nice idea to see if there was interest in fielding an intramural dodgeball team. Many of us thought it was a great idea that we ended up fielding two teams (Haas Hooligans and Hungry Hungry Haasies)! Every Monday night we play for 45 minutes against other teams from the Cal community. While some of these teams posses superior athleticism and spryness (read: undergrads), our experience and team cohesion more than makes up for it.

MBA294.1 Life as an Entrepreneur Speaker Series

2009-10-20T21:13:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite courses at Haas School of Business right now is an elective course called “MBA294.1 Life as an Entrepreneur”. It is jointed hosted by Haas School of Business and the Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology (CET) at UC Berkeley’s College of Engineering. Basically each week one guest speaker was invited to give one hour speech, either at Bechtel Engineering Center in the College of Engineering, or Arthur Andersen Auditorium in Haas School of Business. Most speakers are successful entrepreneurs or venture capitalists (usually these successful VCs used to be great entrepreneurs as well.).

This web page at CET center lists all the schedule and each speaker’s name and photo. Among all the speakers so far, I particularly enjoyed following speakers:

From left to right:

Ted Hoff, Inventor of the Microprocessor. I enjoyed his story of inventing the first generation CPU Intel 8086/8088.
Maurice Gunderson, Senior Partner, CMEA. Mr. Gunderson is a veteran in energy industry.
Charles Giancarlo, Managing Director, Silver Lake. Mr. Giancarlo used to be one of the most influential people at Cisco, LinkSys and Avaya. He is really a senior executive with tons of experiences in Telecommunication, computer network and IT industry.

Just today Oct 20th, the speaker is a cool young guy Charles Huang, co-creator of Guitar Hero.

As I am an international student, I was not familiar with the name of Guitar Hero before the speech. Now I learned it is a very popular music video game in the U.S.

Actually “MBA294.1 Life as an Entrepreneur” is just one of the many ”Speaker Series” courses under the same umbrella of MBA 294 series:

Course Title

MBA294.1 Life as an Entrepreneur
MBA294.2 Real Estate
MBA294.3 Careers in Marketing
MBA294.4 Market-Based Approaches to Poverty
MBA294.5 Investment Management Spkr Series
MBA294.6 Microfinance Speaker Series
MBA294.7 Managing Internet & Digital Media
MBA294.8 General Mgt. & Strategy Spkr Series
MBA294.9 Careers in Consulting
MBA294.11 Education Leadership Speaker Series
MBA294.12 Private Equity Speaker Series
MBA294.13 Careers 101
MBA294.14 Topics in Technology
MBA294.15 Health Care Speaker Series
MBA294.16 Alternative Energy Speaker Series

Haas MBA body is pretty much diversified, so many classmates are taking other MBA 294.x Speaker Series, and it seems that almost everyone is enjoying it!

The Berkeley-Haas Digital Media Conference, ">play", is here!

2009-10-17T06:14:00.000-07:00

For those of you who can't make it, follow us in real time on Twitter: search "#play09"

Months and months of effort by over 100 students, staff, and administration, along with hundreds of industry professionals participating as panelists, expo members, and career fair recruiters, is finally coming to fruition!

We will have heavy weights like John Lilly, CEO of Mozilla, and Peter Moore, President of EA Sports as our keynotes, as well as 10 panels discussing everything about digital media and entertainment. The Expo will feature 17 companies with a first ever "Demo Day" where companies such as NeuroSky will demonstrate some of their new and cool technologies.

The first ever >play Career Fair will feature 9 very diverse and exciting companies, ranging from big/established companies such as Microsoft, AT&T, Yahoo, and Sybase, to startups such as Zynga and StumbleUpon, to gaming stalwarts such as LucasArts and Sony Playstation, to the unique, fun, and innovative Frog Design (for those of you who don't know, they are the equivalent of IDEO in the design world).

All this packed in one busy day! Stay tuned for pictures, tweets, and lots of excitement!

www.playconference.org

Star Wars in Concert

2009-10-15T22:25:00.000-07:00

While all the 1st year students are busy with their first finals of their MBA career, I thought I would post something to fill the "void". :P

Last Sunday I was fortunate to attend an event called "Star Wars in Concert".

http://www.starwarsinconcert.com/

It was a live orchestra, pyrotechnics, a big screen, and Anthony Daniels (the voice and movement behind C-3PO) narrating the main theme and story arcs of the 6 movies. Many of you know that over the summer I worked at LucasArts/Lucasfilm, the home of Star Wars, and we were offered a chance to buy tickets before the general public could buy them. With my roommate being one of the biggest fans George Lucas can ever hope for, I bought tickets for him and a couple other friends to check it out.

The concert did not disappoint! Even though half the audience were 8 year old boys and girls dressed up as Darth Vader and Princess Leia and there were light sabers flying around everywhere, the music was spectacular (I love John Williams) and the story narration reminded me why George Lucas is such a genius at creating great stories. The downfall of the prequels is the actual execution and the horrible dialogue, but in this high level narration method with clips of the movie supported by a live orchestra, I re-fell in love with Star Wars again.

All in all, a great experience that I would definitely do again. Till the next time, farewell from a galaxy far far away...

The weekend of the Blue Angels

2009-10-12T08:25:00.000-07:00

One of the things I really enjoy at Berkeley is that I can take a break from my MBA experience every once in a while. Yes, there are a million assignments (Only four, but I assure you it feels like a million), but my brain can only process so much.

So, I headed out to the Marina yesterday to catch some action by the Blue Angels. For someone who's grown up watching Top Gun and Pensacola: Wings of Gold, it was exhilarating to watch the squadron's six demonstration pilots fly the Boeing F/A-18 Hornets. They did a variety of maneuvers and formations, including the Delta and the Diamond. All this in spite of a seemingly cloudy day that may have canceled the performance.

Here's a video footing from youtube

I couldn't have asked for a better break from my assignments.. which reminds me... I got to get back to them.. sigh!

>Play Conference and "A Day In The Life"

2009-10-09T01:50:00.000-07:00

Quick plug for the Haas Student Ambassador blog, where we are posting some "Day in the Life" experiences of the HSAs and other classmates. Check out my long but fun/rewarding day today!

http://haasstudentambassadors.blogspot.com/

Also, a plug for the ">play Conference", the largest conference at Haas for lovers of digital media and entertainment. If you're in the neighborhood and love tech stuff, you HAVE TO attend this conference.

Now in its fifth year, >play is a unique event that mixes creative professionals, industry leaders, and students to discuss the emergence and implications of the digital lifestyle. Last year’s conference drew over 400 professionals and 100 students to the Haas campus.

This year, the conference will expand to include fresh and exciting discussions with multiple themed tracks where we provide a series of panels and speakers for each of those interested in Mobile & Cloud, Media & Entertainment and Identity & Innovation. Speakers already confirmed include Mozilla CEO John Lilly, Google VP of Products Bradley Horowitz and EA Sports President Peter Moore.

The conference, which runs from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., will also give students the chance to network with industry leaders and offer a sneak peak at the latest gadgets at an interactive expo.

For more information on the event, how to purchase tickets, and the full lineup of speakers as it is announced, please visit http://playconference.org.

Alright, hope to see some of you at the conference!

From Orientation to Finals: Looking Back!

2009-10-09T00:26:00.000-07:00

Time sure does fly, especially when you're having non-stop fun. As first years, we've already seen, done, heard, learned, and experienced an incredible amount. And the proof is in the list:

Been starstruck by Haas-organized lectures with Tim Brown (CEO, IDEO), Jacqueline Novogratz (CEO, Acumen Fund), Paul Otellini (CEO, Intel), Vinod Khosla (Founder, Khosla Ventures), Mark Hurd (CEO, HP)
Learned from the best. (No explanation necessary)
Helped with Haas' flagship digital media conference, >play, which brings together creative professionals, industry leaders, and students to discuss the emergence of the digital lifestyle and the innovative approaches to addressing its implications.
Surfed my first ever wave in Pacifica, CA!
Spent Labor Day camping in Yosemite with fellow Haas Redwoods Club members.
Started brainstorming about a club focused on design-thinking & innovation in business.
Seen two concerts at Berkeley's beautiful Greek Theater.
Been blown away by the brilliance of my Haas peers.
Not looked back. So, so much to look forward to.

Up next, final exams.

Tri Girl Tri

2009-10-07T23:34:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday, about fifteen fine ladies from Haas teamed up to participate in the TRI, GIRL, TRI!® - 6th Annual All Women's Triathlon at Napa. The group included a nice mix of experienced athletes and absolute newbies, but everyone agreed that it was a morning that was very well spent.

Here's a shout out to the awesome Haas women including Kristen, Siddhi, Heather, Li Chien, Abi, Sarah, Jeannette, Grace, Kim, Allison, Erika, Deepa, Elise, Joyce, (and me). And a double cheer for our inspiration winning team of Heather, Abi and Kim for WINNING the triathlon.

Here's to girl power and the Haas Spirit!

A Source Inspiration

2009-10-06T22:24:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of the view from my apartment on the University Village. Such a beautiful sunset in the Bay!! I was so lucky to have this source of inspiration while working on the essay of my application for the IBD Program.

I am really looking forward to working on IBD Program during the first weeks of the summer. It will certainly be very good to put in practice the business tools learned in class. What makes it even more exciting is the fact that it will be also a good opportunity to visit a new country, experience a new culture, work together with my classmates and especially, be able to make social impact. Several projects at many different countries are on offer, but what I really want is to help an organization that brings development to Africa.

Now I have to get back to work because dead-line is close!

Hurry up

2009-10-03T17:55:00.000-07:00

In this picture, you can admire two second year students at Haas frantically typing emails during a break between two meetings.

Please observe how Ran is keeping an open bottle of juice terrifyingly close to her laptop. Also notice how Andrea reveals his upsetting laziness by having a mouse always with him.

They are focused, fast, energetic. But don't be intimidated, because they are fun and approachable (when they aren't writing emails).

Will our heroes succeed in hitting "send" once more before the clock marks the hour? Will they raise the bar of operational efficiency yet another time?

But most of all... will Andrea ever learn how to say "a little bit" in German???

Students actively participate

2009-09-28T10:20:00.000-07:00

Here at Haas students actively participate on the shape of the MBA program as well as take charge of many other activities. There are a lot of ways in which you can positively impact the student’s experience in the business school.
The Speaker Series is a good example of students’ involvement. A student organizer works with an instructor professor developing a course that aims to provide an introduction to multiple facets of a determined industry for all students, ranging from those preparing for a career in it or to those simply interested in learning about the industry. Careers in Marketing, Private Equity, Health Care, Alternative Energy, Careers in Consulting and General Management & Strategy are examples of some of the Speaker Series organized this year. You and your classmates will get to interact with top professionals from organizations such companies such as Visa, Dodge & Cox, Delloite, Clorox, P&G, Mozilla, Adobe, Google, Apple and many others.
I am attending to the Career in Marketing series, which has been a great opportunity for interacting with professionals and for getting insights on the skills required to be successful in this career. This Speaker Series also has been very important for me to get know better the culture of the companies, thus helping me focus on my search for an internship over the summer.
There are also several other ways in which you can impact student’s experience in the business school. Organizing the >Play conference, leading a club, preparing tailgates for Cal’s games, being a MBAA leader, supporting admissions on Day at Haas and organizing a trek to your home country are some other examples of the many activities in which you can be involved.

Time for Thai Noodle

2009-09-25T15:00:00.000-07:00

Full time job search is a demanding process that requires commitment, discipline and... makes me hungry!

Nibbling at small bites at the end of a company presentation may not suffice. Especially if you had an intense day, spent doing homework, attending classes, and meeting with classmates for club activities.

So, where can you resort to have a good meal with your friends, no matter how late it is?

Thai Noodle!

today was a good day

2009-09-23T23:33:00.000-07:00

7:20 am Pre-Alarm goes off ("pre-alarm" because I always hit snooze at least once)

7:22 am I let my mind ease out of dreamland and into what will be my longest day of the week.

7:30 am Real-Alarm goes off. I reach over to my desk, grab my computer, and pull it onto my chest (while I'm still lying in bed). I already have the link to Professor Haykin's website, so that I can watch the Tesla Motors "Virtual Case" (aka video case) for today's Innovation, Creativity, and the Entrepreneur (ICE) class. I'm grateful for the opportunity to absorb a case with my eyes closed.

8:05 am After finishing the case, I put my computer back on the desk and roll out of bed. I listen to make sure none of my roommates are showering (don't want to divert the hot water), and begin to get so fresh and so clean. I turn up the volume and blast the case from my speakers as I get ready so I can review some of the key details (wasn't totally awake the first time I went through it)

9:00 am Phone rings. Who is calling at this hour? Daniel Chun, one of the undergrads on my Diversity Conference planning committee. He has a lead for a keynote speaker. AWESOME.

9:15 am Gah... I really should fire off some emails before I leave. Must find a nonprofit board meeting to attend before my paper for Strategic Management of NonProfits is due on Oct 20th. I check the websites of 5 charter schools, fire off emails to contacts at 3 CMOs, and text a couple friends at nonprofits. Maybe I should draft an email to solicit interviews from my Del Monte colleagues for the Strategy, Structure, and Incentives project... D'oh! Gotta go!

9:45 am Grab my dinner out of the fridge, hop on my scooter, and ride down the hill to school for

10:00am Meeting with admissions about the Diversity Admissions Workshop on Oct. 10th.

10:30am Bump into Takashi (from the other IBD Finland team) in BofA. Chat about our meeting with Sebastian and the upcoming IBD conference. Brandon (also on Takashi's team) swings by. We brainstorm what's the best way to provide constructive feedback on how to ensure that our client continues to get good value out of the IBD projects they pay so much for.

11:00am Hop on my scooter and scoot down to Emeryville for lunch with Gasper Martinez, a colleague from Stanford undergrad who I'm trying to recruit onto Leadership High School's Board of Trustees.

11:20am Arrive at Cocina Poblana, but Gasper texts that he won't be there for another 20 minutes. It smells yummy. I sit down, whip out my computer, and start drafting more emails.

11:40am Gasper arrives, buys us lunch, and lets me know that although I'm here to court him onto our board, he's also here to try to recruit me to work for EdTec, a charter school support organization. SWEET! Let's talk!

12:40pm We wrap up lunch, he agrees to set up a visit to Leadership High, and I agree to come by EdTec to have lunch with folks there sometime in the coming weeks. Time to jump back on the scooter and head to school.

1:10pm Back at school. As I'm walking from my parking spot to school, I pass by I-House, which today is hosting a BCBG sample sale with items up to 70% off! I've been dying for some reatil therapy for WEEKS... so tempting...

1:25pm Walk into C335 in time to catch the tail end of the Education Club kick-off meeting. Welcome to all you first years interested in public education!

2:00pm Help Jason gather up the extra pizza and walk over to the MBA lounge to meet with my IBD team on our upcoming presentation. Marvel at all the great pictures Bernie added to the presentation. Reminisce about how simple life was in Finland. Work on a single project during the day; relax in the evening and at night.

3:00pm Meet with Amy Hornstein in the program office to discuss the status of the Diversity Conference planning. Accept her offer of a plum tart slice leftover from Kate Blumberg's birthday. Tasty!

3:45pm Hungry again. Head to the MBA lounge and wolf down leftovers from lunch. Notice a bag of leftover baked goodies that are now up for grabs. I dig around and find... a brownie? Yoink!!!

3:55pm Pick up prospective students visiting my ICE class.

4:00pm ICE time! Today's session is on design thinking, and Whitney Mortimer, IDEO's head of Global Marketing is the guest speaker. I heart this class!

6:05pm Time for Strategy, Structure, and Incentives. Discussing make or buy/ outsourcing decisions. Somewhere around 7pm I start fading...

7:30pm Break time. I try to get on airbears (the UC Berkeley wireless network) to print the reading for Power & Politics tomorrow. FAIL. Try to call Wendell Tull from admissions to touch base about sponsorships for the workshop. No reception. Retrieve my dinner from the HaasWeek room fridge. Microwave does not blow up. Success! Yum. The food gives me a second wind. Start skimming the Power & Politics reading on my computer.

8:15pm Break over. Back to discussing the situations in which outsourcing does or does not make sense.

9:30pm Class over. Wohoo, I made it! Oof, it's cold outside now that it's dark. Suddenly regretting wearing a skirt/not bringing knee-high socks to wear on the ride back home. Oh well. Hop on the scooter and scoot up the hill.

10:00pm Home. Public policy roommate (Aurora) is pressing gauze to her lip and is icing it. What's going on? Public Health roommate (Meghan) explains that Aurora got hit in the face with a softball. =( We do some googling about what kinds of cuts need stitches. Aurora decides to go to the emergency room and sends me update texts about her tetanus shot and sweet wrist bracelet.

11:00pm Crawl into bed, pull my laptop onto my chest, and blog about my day. Aaaaannnnnd... I'm spent. G'night Neverland!

Fall A midterms done!!!

2009-09-23T21:21:00.001-07:00

Yes, it's still September. And yes, we've already completed midterms for our Fall A core classes. It has surprised a lot of my friends & family that I've already passed that first milestone. And I'll confess that the timing kind of surprised me as well.

It's all sneaky-like, see? It goes a little something like this:

Week 1 - 3-day week that starts on Wednesday, 8/26. That's not a *real* week! You're still feeling the glow from O-week festivities. In fact, you're probably still partying like O-week, though you attend a few classes.

Week 2 - normal 4-day week - what will be your regular class schedule. Decent amount of readings, but no real deliverables. "Self," you think to yourself, "this is pretty gosh-darn manageable. Everyone talks about how grueling the first year of business school is. I must just be way smarter/better organized/speedier than everyone who has come before me!"

Week 3 - 3-day week after Labor Day. It's a holiday! You're celebrating all those laborers. Then the week starts full-tilt on Tuesday. Student club info sessions have packed your calendar. Oh - and now there some homework assignments. And group projects. And career services workshops. Good luck finding study team meeting times around all the extracurricular activities you & your teammates have signed up for!

Week 4 - Fall A midterms. Wait - WhhhaaaaAAAAAAA?!?!? Midterms? But I only just got here! Holy cow - lots of writing, meeting & studying to do. Not so much sleep. Right. Now I get it. There's a lot to juggle in business school.

So, a few cautionary words for next year's incoming class: READ AHEAD IN YOUR SYLLABUS. No, really. It might surprise you. Just maybe not in the terrifying way that *not* reading ahead in my syllabus surprised me.

I apologize to my boyfriend for not pacing myself a little better. But hey, look at the bright side - Fall A finals will be over in just 3 short weeks! And then, in Fall B, I will certainly work ahead in all of my classes so I'm not overloaded at the end of the term. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight...

Club Fair!

2009-09-22T20:39:00.001-07:00

Hey all!

I'm a little bit behind on this one, but forgive me. As VP of Student Organizations (aka Clubs) for a few more months, I must highlight one of my favorite All-Club events in the fall. With eager first-years soaking in their options, and second-years sharing their wisdom (and trying to rope first-years into joining their clubs), the Club Fair exudes incredible energy and possibility. Enjoy the sunny view :-)

-Rumana

Gameday in Berkeley

2009-09-17T13:21:00.000-07:00

Ok, I'll be honest here. In the final decision of where I would attend b-school, the alure of once again being able to buy student season tickets came up as a strong plus for coming to Haas. But as great as discounted football tickets are, it's not really worth it if you can't enjoy the game with great company. Fortunately enough, Haas students love gamedays. Now, not everyone loves football (and that's very much ok!) but you would be hard pressed to find someone that would turn down a good tailgate. Before every home football game, Haas students will host a tailgate with proceeds going to Haas for Students, a fund that encourages students to take jobs in the non-profit and public sector. Alumni often come back to reconnect and meet current students. Overall, its a great way to spend a Saturday just hanging out. One last note, the great photos are courtesy of my classmate Rui. Till next time, go bears!

Cool People and Cool Topics

2009-09-15T20:35:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I posted but I wanted to share some of the more interesting things I have done over the last few weeks.

Cal football is a good time and I recommend getting season tickets if you enjoy college sports. Haas is kind enough to organize a tailgate for the MBA's prior to the games. It is very convenient as Haas is right across from the stadium and it is easy to go over as a group and sit/stand together in the student section. I also included a picture of the real live Oski since we were sitting in the first row.

On a more academic note, Tim Brown (left), the CEO of IDEO and Jacqueline Novogratz (right), Founder and CEO of Acumen Fund, came to Berkeley last week to talk about innovative approaches to global development where the people are at the heart of the solution. It was an incredible event that packed a 300+ person auditorium. They spoke about social investing and how creative firms like IDEO have partnered with social funds in order to find creative solutions to poverty issues. Simply amazing to have two such impressive figures on the same stage talking about a topic so relevant at Haas.

More next time...

Career Service @ Haas

2009-09-14T22:47:00.000-07:00

Career Services is the last thing that I wanted to see at the start of business school. The hangover of staying away from work was too sweet to give up. Just when I started breathing easy after four years of work life, the super charged force from career services kicked in with a series of programs and workshops. After overcoming the unexpected shock, I finally signed up for them. Its been one month since then and I could not have been more grateful.

Within a month, Career services has organized workshops on finding your career focus, resume building, American job search styles, etiquettes on business and social functions, art of informational interviews and many more. As an international student, these workshops have been instrumental in transitioning me into global job market and giving me a head start on job (internship) search.

The Career Services has also organized a series of industry panels where second year students share industry/function specific internship experiences with the first year students. Industry panels have helped in understanding the nature, prospects and critical success factors of securing jobs (internships) in various industries. I attended industry panel in finance, consulting, general management and strategy and product management & tech marketing. These forums have given me the first nudge towards defining my areas of interest and building right knowledge and network. These forums also epitomize the collaborative and student led approach to all activities at Haas.

Further, I was also able to schedule a one to one career discussion with career services during which an experienced professional helped me understand the market place, gave me ideas on defining my value proposition and directed me to the right set of companies and alumni.

The whole beauty of the process is the one click registration process for the workshops. All workshops are listed on the career services website. Login, press click next to workshop and within seconds, you receive an invite in your mailbox. Click and it goes into your calendar. Total time = 10 seconds

My interaction with Career Services at haas had completely assured me that no stone would be left unturned in helping me define my career goals and find opportunities pertaining to my interests. The high energy and pleasing demeanor of the entire Career Service team is always added bonus in all their workshops and events.

MBA 2.0

2009-09-11T14:02:00.000-07:00

It's good to be back on campus! After three months of working/traveling, I'm attending everything all over again: career coach session, club fair, club kick-off meeting, career panel, etc. The big difference this year though is that I find myself on the other side of the table answering questions and concerns from the 1st years. Fortunately for me and the 1st years, I was able to learn a lot from my internships at Clorox and Ivelich Stone this summer and share my experience with them.

Since I was in charge of formulating Ivelich Stone's social media strategy this summer, it seems fitting that I share my internship experience with everyone on this blog. Ivelich Stone is a full-service brand strategy and design firm, and their previous works include naming Peek (a cool anti-iphone device) and buildOn (an amazing nonprofit organization). During my internship, I was amazed by how an office with three full-time employees created best-in-class products for gigantic organizations such as General Electric and Charles Schwab. Since I have only worked in medium-large corporations, it was quite rewarding for me to experience a start-up environment that is full of energy, creativity, and dedication.

I'm glad that I delivered a final presentation that will help transform this boutique yet high-impact organization in the online space, and I wish that I had another summer for internship. But for now, it's back to reading cases and balancing the balance sheet!

Bonjour de Paris!

2009-09-08T11:17:00.000-07:00

Today marks the end of yet another satisfying day in Paris. A day that involved getting lost in the Marais, people watching in St. Michel and eating what might be the best falafal I have ever had. Though it sounds like an amazing vacation, I'm actually in Paris for a semester exchange program at HEC Paris. I will be joined at HEC by three of my classmates. As classes don't start until September 14th (yes, three weeks after Haas starts), I'm using the time to perfect my understanding of the French "joie de vivre" by exploring the city and eating as many different varieties of yogurt as I can. If you're a first year and reading this post, I highly recommend that you talk to some of our exchange students about their schools if you are thinking of studying abroad. Feel free to reach out to me as well!

More to come...

Lenny Kravitz agrees, that's one good falafal

The University Village

2009-09-06T23:11:00.000-07:00

This week I moved to my new apartment, which is located in the University Village. Since I did not have the opportunity to visit Berkeley before the classes started, I followed the recommendations of some alumni in Brazil and signed up for an apartment in the Village. Arriving here I found that the Village is really an awesome place to live!

The Village is located in Albany very close to the Bay and the commute to the campus is really easy since there are buses running all the time. The apartments are excellent and there are several options that you can choose from. Also the Village has a very good infra structure for the students as well as for their families. Here we have a Community Center, a Family Resouces Center, a Computer Center, a Study Room, Recreation Areas and Programs, a Youth Services Programs, and many large and small events organized by the staff and the families living here.

The families in the Village form a very welcoming community. Walking around you will see the kids and families playing together, friends having a barbecue, students working on the assignments in the computer center, friends playing sports in the recreation areas, people helping each other when a family is moving in or moving out.

Many of our MBA colleagues live here in the University Village, which is a great thing. We can help each other and have some fun together. We have organized for tomorrow a barbecue of the MBA students, which is another great opportunity to get to know our classmates and their families better. I am sure that I can really call this place home and that I will have excellent 2 years living here with my wife.

September as a 2nd year

2009-09-05T21:41:00.000-07:00

This summer was outstanding.

I spent a ton of time with my little ones. I got back to practicing, which it turns out, I completely missed. I'll keep a half session through the rest of the year. And, I worked incredibly hard on my start-up with Brad, my co-founder.

Classes are great so far. I'm in almost everything I want, although I missed Venture Capital and Private Equity. I could have audited, but the 6-9:30pm time was so difficult. I really had to juggle the career/family question on that one. At the end of the day, my sanity and time with the babies won out. I substituted Financial Models that Work, another class that should bolster my lack of finance background and help regarding entrepreneurship aspirations. I'm thinking that if/when I get into VC, I won't be bringing financial savvy whether I take this course or not - I'll learn that at someone else's knee. Marketing Strategy is interesting, it will probably get really exciting when the mark strat game gets going. John Danner's entrepreneurship workshop will be fabulous, of course. Managerial accounting, really good so far. Leave it to Suneel to have me in stitches while actually really learning accounting. Negotiations begins fall B. Can't wait.

Oysters at Marshall's Tomales Bay this August.

Santa Barbara in July.

Santa Barbara in July.

Maya shares while Hannah protects. In the end, Sofia managed to snag most of both their ice creams!

Mini golf in fashion on the Jersey Shore in June.

On the pier in San Fran June.

Look what a year at business school has done!

Sofia was just standing when we moved here.

So the first year class has Danny Bar and family - another student with 3 children! Go Danny and Michal. We're already sharing lunch responsibilities, their Maya is in the same kindergarten as my Maya.

Since beginning last year our class now has (that I know of): 3 new ones (congrats again to Christine, Raimundo and Cory) and 3 on the way.

The first year class has at least 1 on the way that I know of.

Maya has been asking all summer when the Consumption Functions will be beginning again. This coming Friday - and we're all looking forward to it.

"We" Are Better Than "Me".. Really?

2009-09-01T16:31:00.000-07:00

Have you ever wondered why team-players are so valued in organizations? Is it because it is proven that the collective wisdom of the team is better than the individuals? Or is the concept of "collective wisdom" just an urban myth? Is there any data to prove that a bunch of people will produce better results in a team than if they were performing the same task individually?

These were the questions that Professor Cameron Anderson and Laura Kray forced us to understand and appreciate during a session on Team Effectiveness. As it turns out, teams may not be as effective as the sum of the individuals. The "gains" that might have been obtained by operating as a team, are soon nullified by the "losses" which occur due to lack of coordination, motivation and ability.

Given the paradox, we then looked at frameworks and practices that actually enable teams to perform better. One of the most interesting observations was the "Five-to-One" ratio, which states that a team must have five positive interactions for every negative one. If it’s lesser, they may slip into a conflict mode and if greater they suffer productivity loss. Funnily enough, it’s true even in marriages! Those marriages where the couples have an interaction ratio of less than 5:1 usually end up in divorces!!!

In the end, each study group was encouraged to reflect and layout their own schemes for performing well together. Each team then came out with a team contract that articulated the missions, goals and accountability for the group. It’s a live document to remind us how, as a team we can motivate each other to achieve successful outcomes, and resolve conflict directly in a timely manner.

LGBT Diversity Admissions Workshop in New York!

2009-08-30T15:52:00.000-07:00

Some of you might not know this, but Haas is committed to attracting and forming a very diverse student body, even with some of the limitations that California's Prop 209 puts on it. We are one of the very few schools that have not just the Women and Minority Diversity Admissions Workshops, but also not one, but two diversity admissions workshops for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered (LGBT) applicants, thanks to the hard work of the Q@Haas student club, company sponsors, and dedicated alumni.

With that said, the first event in New York City is coming up on 9/10, Thursday, 6:30pm, at JP Morgan Chase, with all the event details and registration here:

https://ssl.haas.berkeley.edu/Admissions/Events/index.cfm?forum=4791

As the VP of Admissions, I will be there along with admissions officers, students, and alumni to answer your questions and talk about Haas.

For information on the Women (10/10) and Minority Workshops (10/31), and the LGBT Workshop (11/21) at Haas, please check out this website and register accordingly.

http://mba.haas.berkeley.edu/workshop.html

Cheers!

A refuge

2009-08-27T07:52:00.000-07:00

As a resident of New York City for over a decade before I arrived at Haas, I should have been well accustomed to the high-octane level of activities during O-Week... but man, these people never slow down!!! The "laid-back" reputation of Berkeley might need to be rethought in relation to Haas students... I was thoroughly impressed by my new classmates who managed to go out every night of the week after a packed orientation itinerary created for us by the valiant second-years (most of whom seemed to be still finishing up summer internships in whatever waking hours they had when they weren't concocting competitive and/or costumed trials for us). Nursing a bad cold myself (it was going around - what do you expect when you start shaking hands with 240 people who just arrived from all over the world?), I took it easy until the big Friday night extravaganza. "If only our mothers could see us now," I joked to my seatmate on the Pirate Bus ("Arrrrgggggghhhh!") as I applied a skull & crossbones stick-on tatoo to my bicep -- not an easy task when wearing an eyepatch, I'll assure you, though liberal quantities of PBR from a can might have made me less fussy about the resulting crookedness...

One feature of the Bay Area that I'm beginning to enjoy immensely is the close proximity of natural beauty -- when you just need to get away from it all and recharge. In stark contrast to the raucous fun of O-Week, I found peace and solitude at Muir Woods. Peering up, up & upward toward the tippy-tops of the giant redwood trees, I was pleased that "The Cathedral" area was designated a quiet zone. Yes - a refuge...

First blog ever

2009-08-23T20:20:00.000-07:00

I haven't been this tired in a while. Orientation week (O-week) was an absolute blast; meeting the 239 individuals who comprise the Haas MBA Class of 2011 was an exhilarating yet exhausting time.

Being from the East Coast, I was not sure what to expect from Berkeley. The unbelievable diversity among the Haas students has really impressed me. My classmates come from all over: U.S. Naval Captains in China, an AIDS initiative fellow in Africa, plus plenty of Consultants from all over. One of the O-week activities was a mini case competition. We broke out into teams of 5 and representatives from HP evaluated our solutions to business challenges facing their firm. Although no one in my group had a technology background, the business insights we were able to generate really impressed the judges.

Outside of the classroom, we enjoyed social activities. My favorite was the cohort olympics, where we spent an active afternoon playing various games. Although I lost the cupcake eating competition, it was a fun way to get to know the rest of the class. For me, the students make the school, and the people here have been so welcoming to my fiancee and me.

Classes start on Wednesday, I will let you know how it goes.

Awsome week!!!

2009-08-23T10:36:00.000-07:00

This has been an awsome week!!!

The Haas staff and the 2nd year students are providing us such an exciting experiences. We had the opportunity to have inspiring speeches from Rich Lyons (Dean of Haas) and Paul Otellini (CEO of Intel and Haas Alumnus). We worked on real business cases for Adobe, HP, Lucas Arts, Del Monte Foods, Deloitte, Chevron, Abbott . Additional workshops gave us the opportunity to know better the resources available at the university: career services, student services, clubs, MBAA, alumni network…… But most important of all, this week has consolidated my expectations about the school and the classmates. Haas is about place, people and culture! And most of all, here LEADERSHIP THROUGH INNOVATION prevails!!!!!!!

Of course we had lots of fun too! The Go Game was a fantasctic integration experience. The happy hours were good times to know our classmates better and to play Flip Cup Game. The Cohort Olympics anf the Final Party… Well, for these ones I don´t have words to describe them! So here goes some pictures.

The power of the network

2009-08-21T13:00:00.000-07:00

Hello again and of course welcome to the class of 2011! I have been back at work for a few months now and actually shouldn't be posting on this student blog anymore, but I wanted to share an episode that really proved to me just how incredibly powerful the Haas network can be.

About a week ago I was researching a new topic for a consulting project and sent out a brief note through my class email list asking for any ideas or hints about the topic. I was hoping to maybe get one or two contacts or a helpful article (it wasn't the most mainstream topic), but within just a few hours I received a total of 10 responses, all of which were extremely helpful and insightful.

As you can see, the network is alive and working. And it also serves as a hub for meetings and visits: Being in Berlin I have already had the pleasure to meet or host several of my traveling classmates and I look forward to an Oktoberfest meet-up in Munich soon.

Cohorts Olympics in First Year O-Week

2009-08-19T23:16:00.000-07:00

Today August 19th is the third day of the Orientation week for our first-year new MBA students. It turned out to be an athletic day. After a whole morning of meaningful and fun volunteering labor work in a local community for homeless people, we had an afternoon of even more fun, more laugh, and very competitive Cohorts Olympics.

As an Haas MBA tradition, we have four cohorts every year: Gold, Blue, Oski, and Axe.

Gold and Blue are named by the California Golden Bears which is the nickname used for 27 varsity athletic programs of the University of California, Berkeley, and the official campus alma mater for UC Berkeley is "All Hail Blue and Gold". Oski is the official mascot of the UC Berkeley. Axe is named from the trophy awarded to the winner of the annual Big Game, college football rivalry between the University of California, Berkeley and Stanford University.

Intel CEO at Day One of Orientation week for first year Berkeley MBA

2009-08-19T23:03:00.000-07:00

Wow, this Monday August 17th is the Day One of Orientation week for first year Berkeley MBA new students like me. I never expect that we could have Paul Otellini, President and CEO of Intel, also Haas MBA 1974, as the guest speaker at Day One!

Paul’s speech is simply great.

Great.

What a day! Stay tuned. This is just the first day of Orientation week. :-)

(Daniel, my deal Haas classmate, thank you for the photo.)

Welcome to the "First Years"!

2009-08-15T00:07:00.001-07:00

Wow!

I knew this was coming and have been preparing myself for it, but I'm still not ready for the fact that starting next week, I will be officially a "Second Year" student at Haas. I'm not quite sure how one full year went by so quickly (I know I can read my own blogs, but I'm lazy, so I'll continue to not remember =P), but what a year it has been! Reading many of the former "Second Years'" posts about how their two years went by in a blink of an eye, I am already starting to worry about this coming year going by too quickly!

But this post is not for me to reminisce about times gone by (that's saved for a future post), but it's to welcome the new Class of 2011! Over the past year, over a hundred students have been involved in setting everything in motion to bring all of you here and welcome you. Now we are only a few days from the beginning of Orientation Week (fondly known as "O-Week"), where many of us will get to either meet you for the first time or re-meet you again.

It'll be a week of learning, fun, socializing, experiencing, and of course, partying. You will have taste of the next two years condensed into one week, and hopefully by the end of it, you'll be ready to take on the challenge of the infamous Fall Semester in business school. Just remember, use your "Second Years" as a resource to help you survive and excel in this busy year!

Finally, I'm excited to see so many new bloggers join our ranks and provide their own unique and fun observations of Haas and the SF Bay Area. I look forward to reading your stories (and reliving my first year) as well as sharing my own adventures in the coming year.

Here's to an awesome year together!

Back Into The Swing

2009-08-13T18:37:00.000-07:00

Spending the past year overseas far removed from the corporate world granted me many of the personal pleasures that my investment banking career so graciously stripped away during my 5-plus year tenure on Wall Street. To name a few: sleeping normal hours, walking in sunlight, eating at a table instead of inside a cubicle and, best of all, waking up when my body was ready (sans alarm clock). Yet, as good as a leisurely lifestyle is, matriculating to Haas is a very welcomed transition. Moving to Berkeley from the Philippines; however, was not a joyful pleasure.

Long story short, moving is the worst chore ever. I’ll spare you the details. Actually, I won’t. I tried out the ‘San Francisco method’ roommate search, aka Craigslist, to hunt down the ideal living / roommate situation. I didn’t find it after 1.5 weeks and 30 apartment showings, partly because I’m picky and high maintenance but probably because I’m just not cool enough for a set of random people already living together. Not so pleasant was the short-term housing I arranged during my apartment search, listed as a ‘hotel’ which, at that address, was a euphemism for ‘halfway house’ (chair under the doorknob at night, check). I eventually found a sweet studio, though, basically on campus and right in my sweet spot for rent. So I guess it was worth the pain I put upon myself. My advice for any new student: find roommates among classmates and get a whole house for yourselves (basement, garage, backyard, deck, the works). My way was the hardway, but we aren’t playing craps in Vegas.

So, after getting my place, moving in and buying the essentials (TV, lounge chair, dishes, rice cooker, sham-WOW, etc on credit card), I am all squared away and set for O-Week next week. I did sign up and attend the two-week summer workshops, which for me was a great way to ease my body into a routine / rhythm after a long my time off. Plus, I needed some brain calisthenics. Plus plus, I’ve already met dozens of awesome people even before O-Week started! Plus plus plus, I had many afternoons off to work on the ol’ golf game at Tilden Regional Park.

With hundred-year-old redwoods, rolling hills, well groomed appointments and affordable green fees make Tilden a breathtaking gem of a public golf course in a state park in the hills just above campus. Tilden is a superb medium, along with the summer workshops, to adjust my mind and body for the MBA program and to help me get into the swing of things. Even after school starts, I can likely sneak in 9 holes before class if I can train my body to get up at 5am. Hopefully, I’ll soon get my score back into the double digits and perfect an all to critical business skill.