Executive Leadership & Innovation Course
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Program Dates:
June 3 – 17, 2023
Innovation and entrepreneurship have become even more important as key development promoters in the post-pandemic era. The Boot Camp for Technology Entrepreneurship and Innovation will thoroughly expose the concept and practice of entrepreneurship and innovation. The curriculum will be shaped and delivered by world-class professors from UC Berkeley’s College of Engineering, Haas School of Business, and successful entrepreneurs from Silicon Valley.
The course will combine classroom sessions with lectures and interactive activities as well as out-of-class exercises and assignments to provide participants with the skills, culture, and networks they need to establish, operate, sustain, and scale new businesses. Upon completion of the course, participants will receive UC Berkeley certificates.
Participants will be introduced to the fundamentals of technology entrepreneurship, gaining familiarity with the processes that will allow them to go from ideas to the business. The course will cover best practices for recruiting and retaining talent, forming teams, pitching ideas, raising capital, prototyping solutions, testing markets, selling and marketing products and services, and launching scalable enterprises capable of creating value in both economic and social terms. Participants will also learn how to define problems and determine which ones to solve, becoming familiar with formulating solutions that are “usefully different” from and superior to what exists on the market.
Throughout, theoretical and conceptual approaches will be supplanted by case studies and visits to Silicon Valley. Participants will be exposed to practical examples of budding and thriving startups, renowned technology companies, venture capitalists, and angel investors as incubators and accelerators. The course will be enriched by insights from entrepreneurs and VCs, who will discuss their successes and failures, analyzing the lessons they have derived from each.
Executive Course Details
- “The Program is a very good program for entrepreneurs … Visiting different sites helped us network much more effectively.”
- “The program was really excellent. I didn’t expect what would happen. Everything was amazing.”
- “The program was very informative. The concepts are really clear and show you how to transform a small company into an enterprise.”
- “I think it was very useful and efficient. I really learned a lot and I hope to use this newly acquired knowledge and skills in practice.”
- “I learned quite a lot. I think the program was very well organized.”
Boot Camp Activities
Lectures by professors and pioneers to hands-on projects, and visits to relevant Silicon Valley companies. All Boot camp components, including lectures, projects and visits will address local needs and requirements.
Lectures: Lectures will be delivered by world-class UC Berkeley faculty members and practitioners from Silicon Valley. Emphasis and content will be adjusted to fit the backgrounds and requirements of the participating group.
Projects: Participants will be split into teams of 4 or 5 to work on hands-on realworld entrepreneurial opportunities and challenges derived from their contexts. The course is designed to make the experiences of participants as meaningful as possible by enabling them to hone their entrepreneurial skills in real-life settings. Participants will be required to think through and apply what they learn in class in teams. Each team will be paired with and mentored by a coach. Teams will present their projects on demo day to a panel of judges, who will evaluate their solutions and provide them with feedback.
Visits to Silicon Valley: The foremost global innovation hub. Visits to various Silicon Valley entities will be organized to maximize the visit’s relevance and utility to the participating group’s interests and concerns.
Fireside Chat with Pioneers: This boot camp will also be enriched by insights from academics and innovative leaders, who will discuss their successes and failures, analyzing the lessons they have derived from each.
Advantages
Project-Based Learning Approach: The boot camp is composed not just of a series of lectures, but the formulation and completion of a real-world hands-on project. Upon arriva participants are placed into teams which, operating under the supervision of a coach, wor on projects that will be presented to a panel of judges at the end of the boot camp.
Contextualization: Boot Camp contents and activities, including lectures, projects and vis are organized to augment their relevance to the countries, industries, and companies from which the participants are drawn. The contextualization approach is designed to maximize the benefits that accrue to participants.
Certification: Upon completion of the boot camp, participants will receive a certificate issued by the UC Berkeley-Haas School of Business.
Features
- Participants will be introduced to the fundamentals of technology entrepreneurship, gaining familiarity with the processes that will allow them to go from ideas to implementation. This boot camp will cover best practices on recruiting and retaining talent, forming teams, pitching ideas, raising capital, prototyping solutions, testing markets, selling and marketing products and services, and launching scalable enterprises capable of creating value in both economic and social terms.
- Participants will also learn how to define problems and determine which ones to solve, becoming familiar with formulating solutions that are “usefully different” from and superior to what exists on the market.
- Throughout, theoretical and conceptual approaches will be supplanted by case studies and visits to Silicon Valley, where students will be exposed to practical examples of both budding and thriving startups, renowned technology companies, venture capitalists, angel investors, as well as incubators and accelerators.
- The bootcamp will be enriched by insights from entrepreneurs and VC’s, who will discuss their successes and failures, analyzing the lessons they have derived from each.
Objectives & Outcomes
- Learning to define effective and dynamic organizations and new tools for improving performance.
- Better understanding management challenges —both unique and shared — and best practices for addressing them.
- Learning to organize and lead multicultural, geographically distributed teams, and keeping them aligned and productive.
- Learning to maximize your influence and persuasion through improved negotiation skills and techniques.
- Learning to attract, develop, motivate, and retain talent by engaging and energizing the people you lead.
- Learning to use innovation to improve decision making, grow your business, and improve organizational health.
- Learning to use advanced digital technologies in your work.
- Learning to use innovative ideas and critical thinking techniques to improve organizational performance.
- Learning to use advanced design thinking methodology and problem solving methodologies to improve organizational performance.
Program
Day 1
Arrival
Day 2
5:00 pm Registration
6:00 pm Reception
Day 3
9:00 am – 10:30 am Session 1: Orientation
10:30 am – 11:00 am Break
11:00 am – 12:30 pm Session 2: Entrepreneurship in a Box
12:30 pm – 2:00 pm Lunch
2:00 pm – 4:00 pm Session 3: Entrepreneurship in a Box
Day 4
9:00 am – 10:30 am Session 4: Entrepreneurship in a Box
10:30 am – 11:00 am Break
11:00 am – 12:30 pm Session 5: Entrepreneurship in a Box
12:30 pm – 2:00 pm Lunch
2:00 pm – 4:00 pm Session 6: Fireside Chat: Silicon Valley Expert
4:00 pm – 4:30 pm Break – Networking
Day 5
9:00 am – 10:30 am Session 7: Entrepreneurship in a Box
10:30 am – 11:00 am Break
11:00 am – 12:30 pm Session 8: Entrepreneurship in a Box
12:30 pm – 2:00 pm Lunch
2:00 pm – 4:00 pm Session 9: Innovation Field Trip
4:00 pm – 4:30 pm Break – Networking
Day 6
9:00 am – 10:30 am Session 10: Entrepreneurship in a Box
10:30 am – 11:00 am Break
11:00 am – 12:30 pm Session 11: Entrepreneurship in a Box
12:30 pm – 2:00 pm Lunch
2:00 pm – 4:00 pm Session 12: Innovation Field Trip
4:00 pm – 4:30 pm Break – Networking
Day 7
9:00 am – 3:00 pm: Silicon Valley Visit 1
Day 8
Free Time
Day 9
Free Time
Day 10
9:00 am – 10:30 am Session 13: Design Thinking
10:30 am – 11:00 am Break
11:00 am – 12:30 pm Session 14: Design Thinking
12:30 pm – 2:00 pm Lunch
2:00 pm – 4:00 pm Session 15: Fireside Chat – Silicon Valley Expert
4:00 pm – 4:30 pm Break – Networking
Day 11
9:00 am – 10:30 am Session 16: Design Thinking
10:30 am – 11:00 am Break
11:00 am – 12:30 pm Session 17: Design Thinking
12:30 pm – 2:00 pm Lunch
2:00 pm – 4:00 pm Session 18: Fireside Chat: Silicon Valley Expert
4:00 pm – 4:30 pm Break – Networking
Day 12
9:00 am – 10:30 am Session 19: Project Workshop
10:30 am – 11:00 am Break
11:00 am – 12:30 pm Session 20: Project Workshop
12:30 pm – 2:00 pm Lunch
2:00 pm – 4:00 pm Session 21: Fireside Chat: Silicon Valley Expert
4:00 pm – 4:30 pm Break – Networking
Day 13
9:00 am – 10:30 am Session 22: Project 1
10:30 am – 11:00 am Break
11:00 am – 12:30 pm Session 23: Project 2
12:30 pm – 2:00 pm Lunch
2:00 pm – 4:00 pm Session 21: Fireside Chat: Silicon Valley Expert
4:00 pm – 4:30 pm Break – Networking
Day 14
9:00 am – 3:00 pm: Silicon Valley Visit 2
6:00 pm Reception – Certificate Awarding
Day 15
Departure
Registration
Costs including lodging, breakfast, lunch, and visits:
$16,000
Attendance, Cancellation, & Late Arrival
Please keep AMENA Center informed of cancellations and delays. Arriving late and/or leaving early can be extremely disruptive. It is your responsibility to make the necessary arrangement to be present for the entire duration of the course.
Your presence and participation in the seminars is essential for receiving a certificate from the Berkeley Haas School of Business.
Should you have questions, please contact us at:
amenaced@haas.berkeley.edu
Housing & Transportation
Lectures and class sessions will be held at University of California, Berkeley – Haas school of Business.
Transportation from/to site visits will be provided.
Housing
Participants will be housed at the Berkeley faculty guest house or in the Shattuck Hotel in the city of Berkeley.
Visa Information
VISA Support
Some participants are eligible for the “VWP” (Visa Waiver Program). The VWP enables citizens of certain countries to travel to the United States for tourism or business for 90 days or less without obtaining visa if they have registered online through the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA). The first step is to see if your home country is one of the thirty that fall under this category. Participants can find this information on the US consulate’s website of their home country. If a student’s home country or country of citizenship is a member of the VWP, then the participants from that country will need to follow the procedures for the visa waiver.
Non-American / Non-VWP Citizens
If the participant’s home country is not a part of the VWP, the student would have to apply for the B1 business visa. Do not apply for a student visa because the application will be denied. The term “business” includes conventions, participation in seminars, conferences, consultations, and other activities of a commercial or professional nature. Students may need to specify the nature of the boot camp. The official description of your presence in Berkeley, California is as follows: attending a full-time Executive Training seminar. Participants are required to check with their local consulates for the most up-to-date procedures for obtaining a visa.
Documents for Visa Application
As for the documents needed for this visa, participants will receive an official invitation letter from the UC Berkeley-Haas School of Business once registration has been approved and endorsed by the AMENA Center. US visa policies may vary from country to country. The US is sometimes very strict when making decisions about issuing visas, and is not obliged to justify visa refusals. In such cases, AMENA center will provide you with options to reschedule your boot camp or to receive a refund per registration policy. Nevertheless, a common reason for visa refusal is that the applicants fail to demonstrate sufficient ties to their home countries. Below, is a list of documents we recommend prospective participants take to their visa appointments:
- Boot Camp Program Guide
- UC Berkeley – Haas School of Business Acceptance Letter
- Certificate of Tuition Payment
- Copies of return plane ticket
- Proof of residence in home country
- Bank account information
- Job details or University registration