COURSE NUMBER: MBA 292C.1

COURSE TITLE: Strategic Corporate Responsibility and Advanced Consulting Engagements

UNITS OF CREDIT: 3

INSTRUCTOR: Omar Romero-Hernandez

E-MAIL ADDRESS: oromero@haas.berkeley.edu

CLASS WEB PAGE LOCATION: http://responsiblebusiness.haas.berkeley.edu/students/courses.html

And http://bspace.berkeley.edu

MEETING DAY(S)/TIME: Mondays and Wednesdays, 11:00AM - 12:30PM

PREREQUISITE(S): None.

CLASS FORMAT: Mixture of lecture, cases, corporate speakers, and company consulting engagement.

REQUIRED READINGS:

BASIS FOR FINAL GRADE: Mixture of all.

ABSTRACT OF COURSE'S CONTENT AND OBJECTIVES:

This BILD course focuses on the of use Corporate Sustainability (CS) and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as a part of a business strategy, linked to a firm's core business objectives and core competencies, leading to financial and social- environmental return. The class goes beyond the awareness stage of sustainability and provides skills and tools to create real business value through successful implementation corporate projects. The class includes a live consulting project opportunity in leading companies supported by a lecture component.

The lecture component of the class teaches theories, frameworks, tools and cases that you will use to evaluate and implement socially and environmentally responsible strategies-initiatives that maintain or maximize financial returns. You will develop a repertoire of tools and implementation strategies that utilize and compliment your core business skills and equip you with a new way of framing and solving problems. Whether your interest lies in environmental performance, corporate social responsibility, or functional areas of marketing, finance, operations, strategy, or HR, you will gain a broad understanding of both external and internal corporate sustainability, and a deep vertical knowledge on industries of your selection.

We source a diverse set of projects that appeal to a wide set of student interests at the intersection corporate sustainability and a variety of core business functions, e.g. marketing, strategy, HR, or finance. Students will bid on the available consulting projects, and will work in assigned teams, which are mostly multidisciplinary. Projects topics might include, but are not limited to social entrepreneurship; corporate carbon footprint, sustainable branding; sustainable business policies; communication strategies; stakeholder engagement; transparent annual reporting; public/private partnerships or new technologies in sustainability space.

This is an unparalleled opportunity to work with companies at the forefront of corporate sustainability. You will be getting exposure to the company executives with sustainability in their agenda. You will emerge ready to develop and implement successful strategic corporate sustainability initiatives within any company or industry and through any job function. Don’t hesitate to reach out to me, Omar Romero-Hernandez, for any questions. I would love to discuss further.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH:

Prof. Omar Romero-Hernandez is a Chemical Engineer with graduate studies in Economic Policy and Government and a PhD in Process Economics and Environmental Impact from Imperial College, London, UK. Appointment as Haas Faculty and Senior Research Advisor for the Haas CRB Sustainable Products and Solutions Program.

Omar has worked for a diverse range of public and private organizations such as Procter & Gamble, PEMEX (Oil & Gas), Accenture, and the Ministry for the Environment and Natural Resources, Center for Economic and Social Studies. In 2001, he was appointed as Professor at ITAM, UC Berkeley Fulbright Professor in Haas (2009) and Energy Biosciences Institute Researcher in 2010.

Currently, he is a National Researcher, and author of various books including: Renewable Energy Technologies and Policies, and Industry and the Environment and several international publications on engineering, business and sustainable development.

He has successfully led various internationally awarded projects in the field of sustainable business strategies, renewable energy and business processes – sponsors include the United Nations, Ministry of the Environment, Industry consortiums, the Stock Exchange and NGOs. In 2010 he was appointed by former president as leader of Mexico’s Business Summit task force on Economic Growth and Low Carbon Emissions, which delivers high rank recommendations. His main postgraduate teaching and research areas are multidisciplinary sustainability assessments (economic, social and environmental).

Prof. Romero-Hernandez was the recipient of the 2010 Franz Edelman Award, the world’s most prestigious award on Operations Research and Management Science.