Haas School of Business – Berkeley, California

As the second-oldest business school in the United States, the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, is one of the world’s top educators in innovative business ideas; this includes the distinction of having two of its faculty members receive the Nobel Prize in Economics over the past 20 years. 2,200 graduate and undergraduate students attend Haas each year, who has an alumni base of 40,000.  Their focus is in management education and it has 6 different degree programs. The business school’s motto is “leading through innovation,” and Haas seeks to develop leaders who redefine the way business is done.  At Haas they’re creating a business curriculum to deliver leaders who create the future. Dean Richard Lyons augmented the MBA curriculum in 2012 with a new strategy called “Berkely Innovative Leader Development (BILD),” focusing it on the traditional management education.  The program change was based upon four elements:

• Challenging convention and pushing towards innovation.
• Decision-making skills based on evidence and analysis.
• Innovative leadership through a life-long pursuit in intellectual growth.
• Leading ethically and responsibly.

The BILD remodel has added three courses and revamped the existing nine to satisfy these four areas.  To the right is a strategic overview of the academic plan at Haas (provided by the Berkley/Haas website)

The Full-time MBA Programme focuses on leadership and fresh thinking to make a positive impact on students.  They have a curriculum based on the areas of strategy, finance, marketing, accounting, and operations.  The programme pushes students to define, learn and manage leadership capabilities while placing a strong emphasis on management education. The programme also provides students with hands-on real-world business situations that are a required part of the course.  The activities occur in-class and out in the field and are always team-based.  Additionally, extracurricular opportunities in business competitions, organised conferences, group projects, and numerous special events are offered.  The two year programme has a curriculum that consists of 12 core classes promoting a general-management perspective.  The first year is divided into four quarters, and both the fall and spring semesters contain two separate group courses.

The Berkeley MBA for Executives Programme  is a 19-month programme  that helps students advance in their current organisation, change career paths or embark on an entrepreneurial adventure while enhancing leadership skills.  The programme  focuses on applying knowledge to daily, real-life situations that managers face in the workplace.  Class exercises and team projects help students collaborate together and face challenges in a group. The curriculum is taught from a general management perspective and covers all important areas of business, including finance, marketing, accounting, and leadership.  The curriculum is comprised of core management courses, electives and an international seminar.  Participants devote an estimated 20 hours per week to their studies outside of school and an applied innovation course is required that teaches the skills of problem-framing and navigating the design and innovation process.  Offsite learning modules in Washington D.C. and Silicon Valley are also offered to let participants take advantage of the local business knowledge. The Center for UC Berkeley offers Executive Education courses in the areas of management, innovation, leadership, finance, marketing, communication and negotiation and industry.  The programmes are open enrolment and each one is developed by academia’s and industry’s most forward-thinking minds.  Companies in partnership with the programme  include Pixar, Google, Chevron, Adobe, Cicso Systems, Yahoo!, and SalesForce.

The Berkeley Executive Leadership Programme  is a part of this executive education package.  Five different days cover topics including:  Facing the facts about you and your organisations, creating innovation, motivating and energising your organisations, your current business and future conquests, and communication, influence, and persuasion.

The High-Impact Leadership Programme  is another programme offered that is progressive and non traditional in design in order to move executives out of their comfort zone and into the application of core communication techniques.  An environment is created that challenges participants to identify and change their weaknesses in communication.  This is done through role playing and speechifying activities.

Although Forbes and US News do not rank MBAs globally, they were included for their impact in the US

• Forbes Rank – 13
• Financial Times Rank – 12
• U.S. News and World Report Rank – 7
• Bloomberg BusinessWeek Rank – 13
• The Economist Rank – 6

According to Bloomberg Businessweek’s Business School Ranking

• High:  96% job offer three months post-graduation

Haas School of Business 2220 Piedmont Ave, Berkeley, CA 94720, United States t:  +1 510-643-6000 w:  www.haas.berkeley.edu