Student Innovation Projects Excite Executives

In the Fall 2012 Semester, the Haas School of Business provided students with an unparalleled opportunity to interact with industry professionals both inside the classroom and beyond its confines. Students in UGBA 190T: Open Innovations in Business were offered the opportunity for experiential learning through the development of business models that were immediately relevant and applicable to changing business environments by working in tandem with major companies such as Johnson & Johnson, SAP, Mattel, Ericsson, Cisco, Huawei and Standard Chartered Bank.

Names listed by group: Cisco: Ben DuBois, Janaki Gunnam, Karla Mendez, & Patrick Chen; Ericsson: Andrew Liu, James Murnane, Liangqiu Shen, & Raymond Zhuo; Huawei: Alykhan Jivraj, Calvin Xu, Chia-Yu Shih, Shirley Liu, & Siddharth Dhurka; Johnson & Johnson: Gloria Zhu, Jenna Glimp, Michael Bloch, & Nish Badhraja; Mattel: Blake Anderson, David Eliahu, Lanny O’Connell, Omer Spillinger, & Sahil Kotak; SAP: Eric Liu, Himanshu Jatia, William Yan, & Yuliya Bazyleva; & Standard Chartered Bank: Caleb Linden, David Motamed, James An, Jeremy Fiance, & Stanford Stickney.

The goal of the course was to create functional business models of a dynamic nature that leveraged the open innovation mindset and framework set in place by the Garwood Center. The course was a great success, providing both a mutually rewarding experience for students as well as the executives who participated.

Olga Patel Manager of Open Innovation, Mattel Corporation

“Since its earliest days, Mattel has been focused on innovation. Just like everyone else, we are continuously searching for disruptive innovation. In the Fall Semester of 2012, we turned to the Berkeley Haas students from the Open Innovation and Business Models course, tasking them with a disruptive innovation idea for Mattel. The team put a lot of hard work into the project, surprising us with a new business model at the end. We asked for open-minded thinking and we got it! We are looking forward to another project!”

The conclusion of the course consisted of student teams competing in pitching their ideas to executives from these firms, with the teams which represented Standard Chartered and Johnson and Johnson tying for the top position. Professor Solomon Darwin, Associate Director for the Program in Open Innovation and the instructor for the course, provided students with a challenging opportunity for learning and growth. The students were excited to take on this challenge and Professor Darwin is eager for the additional creativity and innovation that is expected in the next course to be offered this Fall Semester 2013.