Applied Innovation

International Business Development (IBD) arranges consulting projects with a variety of for-profit and nonprofit clients. Students work in small teams with clients throughout the spring semester and then for three weeks each summer in various countries. 

Students engage in a major strategy consultation project for a nonprofit, public organization, or select social enterprise in partnership with a major consulting firm.

In Cleantech to Market (C2M), students work with startups from Cyclotron Road, the Cleantech Open, LACI, ARPA-E, CalCEF, and other blue chip organizations to evaluate the commercial viability of emerging low carbon energy, clean water, and green chemistry technologies. C2M develops the next generation of leaders capable of addressing critical energy, environmental, and climate change issues.

Students engage with companies such as Wells Fargo, Autodesk, or Tesla to develop socially responsible business strategies that are aligned with business objectives and core competencies. These are combined with classroom "best practice" lectures of companies who have attempted to implement socially responsible strategies while maintaining or maximizing financial returns.

Students learn a structured approach to a business challenge that combines best of breed of design thinking, innovation strategy, and entrepreneurship in a course that takes place at THNK School of Creative Leadership in Amsterdam. The class focuses on one client and business issue, for example, Shell and urban mobility, or Booking.com and on-line travel.

Students gain skills that allow them to create innovative products, aimed at addressing a social problem in a developing country and using collaborative team-based techniques. MBA students work closely with counterparts within engineering fields across UC Berkeley, using applied science to create novel solutions.

Through a combination of case discussion and workshopping, students will develop skills in assessing and framing development opportunities, designing experiences for learning and development interventions, and facilitating group learning and development experiences. Students will practice and perform these skills both for other students and for employees in an outside organization through a client project.

In this introductory course in real estate investment analysis, students examine real cases. The primary deliverable is a comprehensive analysis that includes concept development, full market analysis, funding strategy, and entitlement and stakeholder consultation and approval strategies. Several working teams of five to six students focus on different aspects of the project. The course deliverables will be the product of extensive face-to-face interactions with stakeholders, real estate professionals, design professionals and capital market providers. A number of the stakeholders will themselves play an active role in the vetting and approval process for the final written group project and presentation.

Haas@Work sends teams of Berkeley MBA students to work with top executives at major firms, such as Visa, Virgin America, Cisco, Disney, Panasonic, Clorox, and Wells Fargo. Students research and develop solutions for a competitive challenge posed by the firm. The best ideas are then selected for student implementation by the firm's executives.

This course combines broad exposure to the many types of hedge funds and their strategies, together with hands-on development of unique investment strategies within student teams. Content includes, guest speakers representing different sectors of the hedge fund industry, as well as training, lectures and reading. Concurrently, student teams develop, test, and pitch their own investment strategies to a panel of investment professionals. Teams may continue on to execute their strategies in a related course the next semester.

The Haas Sustainable Investment Fund provides students with an opportunity to manage over $4.5M in public market equities and bonds, focusing on strong financial returns alongside positive social and environmental impact. As Student Principals, participants gain hands-on experience with a real-world portfolio, learning the principles and methodologies of sustainable investing and gaining insights into the practical environment in which investment and divestment decisions are made.

This course introduces innovation and new product development while focusing on the design and development of Web-based desktop and mobile customer products and services. Students will learn a process for Web-based product and service development and relate that process to the more general problem of product design. Project teams will work through a full product development cycle that culminates in a virtual design fair, soliciting and analyzing customer feedback.

This course provides real world, hands-on learning on what it’s like to actually start a high-tech company. The goal is to create an entrepreneurial experience where students are exposed to all of the pressures and demands of the real world in an early stage start-up. Teams use a business model to brainstorm each part of a company and customer development to get out of the classroom to see whether anyone would use the product. Finally, based on the feedback gathered, teams rapidly iterate the product to build something that customers would use and buy.

This class strives to create conditions where students become social venture designers, founders and leaders, working in interdisciplinary teams at an accelerated pace to practice the steps integral to starting a social venture. The course uses the Lean Launchpad and Social Blueprint Business Design methodologies to frame insights, strategies, and practices that distinguish social ventures, such as vision & values, innovative company legal structures, constitutional documents, stakeholder enrollment, business model design, and social impact assessment.

This course teams UC Berkeley students with local venture-backed startups in an effort to identify, frame and address strategic business challenges. Students will gain experience working within agile and dynamic startup environments while applying their academic knowledge in an entrepreneurial context. They will actively engage with senior management while applying learned principles toward market selection, market entry and sales strategy, as well as new product development and instruction strategies.

Food Innovation Studio @ Berkeley-Haas is a two-unit applied innovation course dedicated to identifying food industry opportunities, developing innovative food systems solutions, and aligning strategy, resources, and execution tactics to build mission-driven, disruptive food ventures with the help of real-world professionals.

The primary objective of this course is the active management in the end-to-end development process of a new product or service, culminating into the creation of a first-pass prototype.

This course will arm students with the toolsets and mindsets the enable them to tackle the various high-impact challenges and high-leverage decisions of the Product Management role. The primary objective of this course is to provide hands-on experience in the active management in the end-to-end development process of a new product or service, culminating into a go/no-go decision for a product as the ultimate outcome of the semester-long project.

Corporate LaunchPad teaches essential business skills and frameworks, combined with real-world project work to translate ideas into action. This course will teach you how to apply your MBA to maximum advantage in an innovation assignment. Markets are by nature dynamic; how you apply your learning and express your understanding of your market position and opportunities is the key to career advancement.

Dive into the world of impact investing with this hands-on practicum, where students work directly with industry leaders on real-world projects. In this course, students tackle real challenges like mapping investment ecosystems, developing impact measurement strategies, and identifying promising market opportunities – all while building your network and resume in this exciting industry. Class is ideal for both students who may want to work in social impact investing or serve on the boards of social impact firms.

This course prepares Equity Fluent Leaders to ignite and accelerate change.  Equity Fluent Leaders understand the value of different lived experiences - their own and others’- and courageously use their power to address barriers, increase access, and drive change for positive impact.

The Lean Transfer course provides hands-on learning for building deep technology startups. Based on Steve Blank’s Lean Launchpad courses taught at Haas, participants will form teams around existing UC Berkeley IP from top inventors.  These inventors are typically Bakar Fellows and represent the top tier of UC Berkeley’s world class technologies. 

This course gives participants real world experience as a Student Venture Partner - a role that allows students to lead sourcing, due diligence, and portfolio management work for early-stage impact ventures and startups. Students showcase their skills in an annual pitch competition, where teams can secure a $75K investment for a promising impact-driven company.

In this course, students can take the lead in climate finance with the $2M+ Climate Solutions Fund. Participants will gain invaluable experience in deal structuring and climate finance across multiple asset classes in private markets. At the end of the course, students put their skills to the test in the annual pitch competition, where their investment recommendations can receive $100K-$300K in funding – making a real impact on climate solutions.