Rich Lyons, dean of the University of California at Berkeley’s Haas School, yesterday unveiled a new strategic plan for the school centered on developing leaders who redefine how business is done.
The strategy calls for changes to the school’s core curriculum, commitment to faculty and resource development and campus improvements designed to showcase the school’s distinctive culture and help develop in students the skill sets required of this new kind of leader.
“We live in a world where value in the marketplace is increasingly driven by ideas that are not yet widely known nor fully proven. This is true whether you’re producing cars or producing what are clearly products of the mind,” Lyons said in a statement. “We wanted to be out in front of this shift and produce the kind of leaders who can deliver into these future needs.”
The new Haas Strategic Plan is built around four defining principles that the Haas community identified in discussions over the past year as differentiating the school from others. They are
• Question the status quo
• Confidence without attitude
• Students always
• Beyond yourself
“These principles have always been important elements of Haas culture, but they have not been articulated until now,” Lyons said. “Having awareness and consensus around who we are will help us work toward a shared goal and attract the strongest talent for faculty and students,” he continued.
Moving forward, the school will implement its new strategy along three main areas of focus, with funding provided by an ongoing $300 million capital campaign.
Those areas of focus will include redefining the business graduate through key changes in the core curriculum and new extracurricular programs; realizing Haas’s intellectual future by expanding its tenure-track faculty and developing new centers for business innovation and teaching excellence; and transforming the Haas campus through implementation of a new facilities master plan. Among other things, this new facilities plan calls for an active Haas central courtyard with café and work space where people can convene and collaborate, a building addition to house new classrooms and new executive education space.
To view the strategic plan in its entirety, click here.
