SEMESTER: Fall 2018

This course is dual-listed with the Full-time MBA Program

COURSE NUMBER: EWMBA290T.4

COURSE TITLE: Corporate LaunchPad

UNITS OF CREDIT: 3 units

INSTRUCTOR: Bill Pearce wdpearce@berkeley.edu 


CLASS WEB PAGE LOCATION: bCourses

PREREQUISITE(S): EWMBA206 Marketing Organizations & Management

CAREER FIELD: This course is designed for students who want to understand the innovation development process and interested in careers in Marketing, Consulting or General Management.

CLASS FORMAT: Mix of case discussions, lectures, and group/individual projects, apportioned roughly as follows:

• Topical Innovation Discussion (dissection of the news): 15%
• Case discussion: 25%
• Frameworks: 30%
• Application: 30%

REQUIRED READINGS: Cases, Course Reader.

BASIS FOR FINAL GRADE: The final grade will be based on:

• 3 or 4-person Team Brand Project (final): 40%
• Four one-page homework assignments: 24%
• Class participation: 20%
• Personal Project: 16%

ABSTRACT OF COURSE'S CONTENT AND OBJECTIVES:

1. How to drive organic growth within an existing corporate structure;
2. Learning to lead innovation through strategic clarity;
3. Making the Go/No Go decision and aligning the organization to support.

Introduction
The business world is being transformed by innovative entrepreneurial firms. Established corporations have greater resources than startups, and yet often they are left behind by the new, innovative business models or disruptive products.

In this course, we describe how it is that new, innovative products/services are developed, and why established firms are often disrupted by these innovations. In the process, we will learn about consistent patterns that presage innovation success. We focus on organic growth driven by new product development within a corporate structure. Which innovative ideas are actually worth pursuing from a strategic and financial perspective? How do you identify and overcome challenges to change within established companies or operating divisions?

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.

To address these dynamics the course will be a semester-long immersion in the roles and responsibilities of a manager that has to make innovation decisions based on marketplace reactions and results.

At the end of the course, you will be able to confidently:

• Turn analytical skills into compelling arguments, both written and verbal;
• Evaluate qualitative and quantitative research and turn into actionable ideas;
• Learn how to lead innovation efforts through strategic clarity and provide a basis to evaluate probability of success;
• Develop innovation launch plans that drive sales and meet strategic and financial objectives.

The Course objective is to immerse students in the key marketplace drivers of B2B and B2C companies and how to generate new product/service led growth. Professor will use case study, group and individual projects to determine final grade. Presentation and writing skills will be given extra attention.

Class Participation / Attendance
You are responsible for the material in each case or project. Given the meeting schedule, each class is a full week of activity. Missing class without an excuse will negatively impact your grade. 30% of your grade will occur in class, between comments and in-class exercises.

Class participation counts for a significant portion of your grade. I will both cold and warm call students. I believe firmly in E.B. White’s posit, “Effective communication is clear and concise.” Quality is rewarded; quantity discouraged. Students will learn to structure comments for a senior manager audience. Be prepared to convince your classmates of the merits of your proposals. If you believe in your position defend it.

Team Project (Final)
I will assign groups of students a team to work on an innovation challenge for an existing business. Team selection will be random, but I will attempt to group students with similar career objectives. Each group will be scored based on the insightfulness and creativity.

Homework
Each student will be required to submit four one-page homework assignments. Memos will be graded on a 1-6 scale. If you receive a four or higher no further action is required; anything three and below will be given back for correction or clarification in-class for resubmission and regrading. Memos are due by 6:00 the day before class. If they are late you will receive a lower grade at my discretion based on how late. 6:01pm is late just like in the workplace.

Readings are available on Study.net. Read and analyze cases prior to class for which they are assigned. For each case think out, and be prepared to defend, a plan of action for how you would proceed.

Please download and read the class learning objectives (Excel file) for a week-by-week layout of the Learning Objectives.

I look forward to a spirited exchange in the classroom that will be educational for both of us.

Bill

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH: Bill Pearce is Assistant Dean and Continuing Professional Faculty member at the Haas School of Business. Bill has over 30 years of Corporate experience and over $1B in new product development success. Bill served as CMO for Taco Bell and Del Monte Foods and Executive Chairman of RichRelevance, a leading SaaS provider in the Digital Marketing area. Bill is the lead Director at Ooma (NYSE). He is an Advisory Board member of several other firms in the Digital marketing sector.