UC Berkeley Haas: Innovation at the core
The Mid-Program Academic Retreat ( MPAR ) held annually by Haas for their MBA students was eye-opening in terms of the quality of presentations. A group of over 240 EWMBAs and a smattering of full-time students gathered in the picturesque Silvarado Resort in Napa. The concept was brilliant and simple. It starts with the Haas curriculum that focuses strong on BILD . This flagship curriculum gives students the necessary tools to be innovative leaders in the outside world. When I was an exec MBA student there, this program was not a focus of our curriculum but I chose it as an elective and it turned into one of the most exciting and pragmatic classes I had taken at Haas. My own journey continued beyond the MBA but I loved the opportunities to support the school. At Napa, the students were put in teams of 5-6 to work on developing products that emphasize growth opportunities not for one but two sponsors. These sponsors were: SAP, Citi, Ford, Kaiser, Panasonic, Verizon, and Nike. Each sp...