Apurv Kamath

Apurv Kamath, Engineer 

I discovered the Certificate of Business Excellence (COBE) Program while attending my first Berkeley Executive Education program. I've considered executive MBA programs including Berkeley's, but I thought the COBE offerings met my requirements and allowed me to be systematic and focus on select skills. I am reluctant, given my work-life circumstances and a small child at home, to commit to an executive MBA program. The COBE Program for me has been ideal. In addition to the Product Management Program, I have benefited from the Berkeley Executive Leadership program, Financial Analysis for Leaders and Digital Transformation Strategy. Though I’ve completed the COBE, there remain programs that interest me, so I plan to return.

I didn't have formal training in product management, so the first step I took was to find training that could close that gap. The most in-depth training I was able to find was the week-long Product Management program at UC Berkeley. I brought one of my close colleagues with me, and we attended the class together. It provided such a broad and deep view of product management best practices that we have since sent all of our Product Management staff to the Program.

After the Product Management Program, I looked into additional training that would fill the toolbox needed for my new role. Financial planning and analysis is a key skill for our Product Management team. Not having been trained in finance, but now having to work on project prioritization, I took the Financial Analysis for Leaders program. It was excellent. Accounting and financial analysis would have been difficult for me to have self-taught. The Berkeley program was engaging, and the techniques were made immediately applicable.

My most recent class was the Digital Transformation Strategy program. I found it especially valuable because it provided tools and vocabulary to describe how our organization can and must continue to deliver the most valuable offerings in our space. How do we articulate value? How do we measure value? How do we articulate innovation and measure innovation effectiveness? It was a very pragmatic class, and it resonated with my engineering training and background.

To read more about Apurv's COBE experience, visit here.