External Competition Success Stories

Competing Well, Doing Good

List of external CSR-focused MBA competitions

2007

Berkeley MBAs Place 2nd in Sustainable Venture Capital Competition (SVCIC)

Berkeley MBAs Take First in Net Impact Case Competition
Haas Students Compete in Spring CSR Competitions

2006

Haas MBAs Take First Place at JP Morgan's Good Venture Competition

Winner Selected at Second Annual Undergraduate CSR Case Competition

Haas MBAs Compete in Spring CSR Competitions

2005

Winner Selected at Inaugural Undergraduate CSR Case Competition

Haas MBAs Wins Global Ethics Challenge at Thunderbird

Berkeley MBA Students Place Second in Sustainable Venture Capital Competition

March 2007 - A team of Berkeley MBA students took second prize at the invitation-only Sustainable Venture Capital Investment Competition (SVCIC), held March 30 and 31 at the University of North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler Business School.

Full-time MBA students Takufumi Kawane, Luke Dunnington, Michael Pearce, and Danae Ringelmann, joined with Evening & Weekend MBA student Hitesh Parashar to beat out Harvard Business School and Wharton for the $1,000 second prize. The Kellogg School of Management won first place.

The competitors played the role of venture capitalists, implementing double and triple bottom line evaluation techniques, which assess business, social, and environmental impact, to make investment decisions on the real business plans of social entrepreneurs. The students evaluated four companies from a range of industries and social impact and were judged by venture capitalists on their investment decisions.

Team member Parashar attributes their strong showing to keeping an open mind and engaging in open debate. This resulted in high praise from the judges. One praised the team for having the only term-sheet that was ready to use with an entrepreneur and one said the team's presentation was "a great way to sell the value of your fund to the entrepreneurs."

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Berkeley MBA Students Take First in Net Impact Case Competition

February 2007 - A Berkeley MBA team successfully balanced sustainability and profitability to take first place at the sixth annual Net Impact Case Competition, held at the University of Colorado’s Leeds School of Business in Boulder on February 23-24.

Rob Kaplan and Nick Spicer, both MBA 07, and Jeff Denby and Iris Rave, both MBA 08, impressed a panel of judges featuring senior executives from Shell, IBM, and Sun Microsystems with their two-year business development plan for Shell Wind Energy. The Haas team won the $3,000 top prize.

York University’s Schulich School of Business placed second and Michigan State University’s Broads School of Business placed third, out of a finalist field of 20 teams that included such schools as the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business and Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.

The Berkeley MBA team qualified for the finals with their "BREATHE" marketing campaign, which positions Honda as synonymous with environmental leadership. Theresa Finn, MBA 08, participated in this preliminary round. Their winning strategy at the finals positioned Shell Wind as member of civil society through a triple bottom line framework, a tool learned in the Center for Responsible Business’ "Strategic CSR" course that assesses the financial, environmental, and social impact of business decisions.

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Haas School Takes First Place at JP Morgan's Good Venture Competition

December 2006 - Four Berkeley MBA students took home the top prize at the first annual JP Morgan Good Venture Competition in the graduate division.

Launched in the fall of 2006, Good Venture is a socially responsible case competition that invites students from around the country to submit funding proposals on behalf of various nonprofits. Winners of the competition secure funding from JP Morgan for the nonprofits in their proposals.

Working under the guidance of Kellie McElhaney, executive director of the Center for Responsible Business, Julia Gilfillan, Ellie Kelly, Rob Kaplan, and Shaolee Sen, all Full-time MBA 07s, beat out 65 other graduate teams from 41 schools, including Harvard, Northwestern, and the University of Chicago. Their chosen nonprofit, Lenders for Community Development, will receive a $25,000 donation from JP Morgan.

The Lenders for Community Development, based in San Jose, Calif., provides individuals and families in the Bay Area with the financial tools and training needed to help them build assets such as a home, a small business, or an education. "This award will support our clients as they gain financial management skills, build assets, and create long-term financial independence," says Eric Weaver, the executive director of Lenders for Community Development.

At the competition finals held on November 30 and December 1, 2006, six finalist teams met at JP Morgan's New York headquarters to present their cases before a panel of judges that included investment bankers and a member of the JP Morgan Foundation. The Haas School team, all of whom have all worked in nonprofits, pitched its cause in a 45-minute presentation. The winning team was announced at an awards ceremony following dinner.

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Winner Selected at Second Annual Undergraduate CSR Case Competition

April 2006 - By successfully balancing innovation and responsibility to solve a real-world case on marketing in the context of an overall corporate social responsibility strategy, a team of Berkeley Undergraduate students took top honors at the second annual Gap Undergraduate CSR Case Competition organized by the Center for Responsible Business on April 12.

The Center and Gap Inc. co-hosted the competition, won by Jessica Chen, Howard Cho, Morgan Kyauk, Michelle Taing, and Jacqueline Yu, who were awarded $1,000 from Gap Inc. They competed against four other finalist teams, selected from the eleven original teams of Berkeley Undergraduate students who entered the competition.

Finalists presented their solutions to the case to a judging panel comprised of Gap Associates Chris Wrede and Monica Oberkofler; Professor Priya Raghubir; Lecturer Lynn Upshaw; Center associate director, Katharine Brewer; and Seth Bindernagel, MBA 2006.

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Haas MBAs Compete in Spring CSR Competitions

Spring 2006 - The Center for Responsible Business sponsored a team of six MBA students at the 3rd Annual Daniels Race and Case Competition on February 9-12. The competition was held at Daniels College of Business at the University of Denver and Vail Mountain Resort. The Haas team, “Jerome and the Haastronauts”, was lead by second-year MBAs: Kirsten Tobey, Seth Bindernagel, Eric Potts, Vasey McClory, Jerome del Porto, and Will Coleman. The case focused on the oil industry and required the team to explore the pros and cons of investing in a civil war-torn African nation. "Jerome and the Haastronauts" finished a respectable second in the ski portion of the competition.

The Center also support the team of first-year MBAs - Robert Kaplan, David Good, Julia Gilfillan, Colleen Kearns, and Ayesha Khan - at the Garvin School of International Management's Second Annual Global Citizenship Challenge on March 31. The Global Citizenship Challenge is the largest global case competition in the world focusing on corporate citizenship, sustainability, and international development. The competition brings together 100 teams from more than fiteen countries.

The Center also sponsored a team of four at the 5th Annual Net Impact/Leeds International Case Competition hosted by Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado. The Leeds/Net Impact Case Competition challenges teams to formulate sustainable and profitable solutions to a current company’s business issue. The team consisting of Robert Kaplan and Sami Iwata, both first-year MBAs, and Grethe Peteresen and Darren Miao, both second-year MBAs, identified a successful growth strategy for US carpet manufacturer Tandus that would allow it to remain a leader in sustainability and achieve its financial goals over the next five years.

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Winner Selected at Inaugural Undergraduate CSR Case Competition

April 2005 - By successfully balancing innovation, quality, and ethical sourcing in a real-world case for the apparel industry, a team of BS 05 students took top honors at the first Haas undergraduate Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Case Competition, held on April 13.

The Center for Responsible Business (CRB) and Gap Inc. co-hosted the competition, won by Kelly Coyne, Kirby Koo, Min Young Oh, and Corey Robins, who each received $200 and a Gap gift certificate. They competed against four other finalist teams, selected from the sixteen original teams of Haas undergraduate students t
hat entered the competition.

Finalists presented their recommended strategies to a panel of five judges: Marcus Chung, MBA 04, manager of Public Affairs for Gap Inc.; David Levine, professor with the Haas Economic Analysis and Policy and Organizational Behavior and Industrial Relations groups; Kellie McElhaney, CRB executive director and adjunct assistant professor; Ryan Trammell, MBA 05, who will be working at Gap Inc. in the fall; and Chris Wrede, director of Public Affairs at Gap Inc. Dan Henkle, VP of Global Compliance at Gap Inc. delivered the competition's keynote address.

Given the success of this year's event, the Center for Responsible Business plans to make the competition an annual event, according to program manager Joanna Trammell.

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Haas Wins Global Ethics Challenge at Thunderbird

January 2005 - The Berkeley MBA student team won the first-ever Social Responsibility and Ethics Challenge, sponsored by Thunderbird, the Garvin School of International Management in Glendale, Arizona.

The competition, which took place in April, attracted 56 MBA teams from business schools around the globe, including UCLA's Anderson School, Kellogg School of Management, University of Southern California's Marshall School, HEC Montreal, and London Business School. UCLA and London Business School won second and third prize, respectively. The winning Berkeley "Jackrabbits" team included Aaron Ackermann and Steve Hardgrave, both MBAs 05, and Seth Bindernagel, Kirsten Tobey, and Eric Potts, MBAs 06.

Competitors were challenged to develop socially responsible solutions to real business dilemmas. For the finals, five teams developed strategies to help Tyco International instill a sense of ownership in its new corporate ethics program across a large number of divisions. The top three teams won cash prizes of $5,000, $3,000 and $1,000, and each donated half of the prize to their charity of choice. The winning Jackrabbits donated half of their $5,000 prize to BAYCAT, the Bayview Hunters Point Center for Art & Technology.

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List of External CSR-focused MBA Competitions

JP Morgan's Good Venture Competition

Leeds Net Impact Case Competition (University of Colorado, Boulder)

Race & Case Competition (Daniels College of Business, University of Denver)

Social e-challenge (Stanford University)

Sustainable Venture Capital Investment Competition (SVCIC) (Kenan-Flager, UNC)
Thunderbird Sustainable Innovation Summit (Thunderbird Graduate School of Management)

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