Certificate of Business Excellence
BENEFITS & RESOURCES*
HOW IT WORKS
ACADEMIC PILLARS & PROGRAM LIST
*Global Partner Programs
Leadership & Communication
The Berkeley Executive Leadership Program (Online or In-Person)
High-Impact Leadership (Online or In-Person)
New Manager Bootcamp (Online or In-Person)
Women's Executive Leadership (Online or In-Person)
Communications Excellence (Online or In-Person)
Leading Strategy Execution through Culture (Online or In-Person)
Entrepreneurship & Innovation
Product Management Studio (Online)
Customer Obsessed Design for Product Management (Online)
Venture Capital Executive Program (Online or In-Person)
Corporate Business Model Innovation
Digital Transformation Strategy
Open Innovation for Leaders (Online or In-Person)
Blockchain: Technologies and Applications for Business (Online)*
Digital Transformation: Leading People, Data, and Technology (Online)*
Artificial Intelligence: Business Strategies and Applications (Online)*
Fintech: Frameworks, Applications, and Strategies (Online)*
Business Analytics for Leaders: From Data to Decisions (Online)*
Finance & Business Acumen
Strategy & Management
Leading Strategy Execution through Culture (Online or In-Person)
Negotiation & Influence (Online or In-Person)
Executive Decision Making with Data Science (Online or In-Person)
Digital Transformation Strategy
Product Management Studio (Online)
Customer Obsessed Design for Product Management (Online)
Digital Transformation: Leading People, Data, and Technology (Online)*
Data Science: Bridging Principle and Practice (Online)*
Artificial Intelligence: Business Strategies and Applications (Online)*
Business Analytics for Leaders: From Data to Decisions (Online)*
SAMPLE 3-YEAR TIMELINE


CERTIFICATE COST
Individuals pay for each program toward their certificate at the time of registration in that program. This gives participants the option to spread the cost of the certificate over the three year period.
The average cost of the required minimum of 17 days of programs is $15,000-$29,000 varying by program selections.
Berkeley Executive Education met and exceeded my expectations by challenging my thought process, the speed of execution, and leadership. I went back after the class and had a leadership off-site and challenged my team on how we can execute faster, improve results, and implement innovation quicker. Over the past three weeks, we have aligned our resources in the right areas and improved our productivity by 10 plus percent. We will be implementing a few more key changes in the near future.
- General Manager of West Coast Operations"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. Though I've completed the COBE, there remain programs that interest me, so I plan to return."
- Senior Director of Strategic Product Management, Dexcom"Look no further. UC Berkeley Executive Education has all the offerings that you need whether you are an executive in the field or on your way to becom(ing) one. The courses are magically structured with these needs in mind."
- Professor of Radiology, UC Davis Health and Associate Chair, UC Davis School of MedicinePARTICIPANT PROFILES


Start-to-Finish, Virtual COBE Journey in Nine Months
For John Hui, living in the greater New York area and arranging his schedule to attend UC Berkeley Executive Education in-person programs would be akin to completing a Rubik’s cube. His work, travel, family obligations and personal life colored his schedule with precision, leaving little to no wiggle room. It was a year ago during an online search for product management training courses that he discovered Executive Education, but at the time it would have been nearly impossible to fit such an endeavor into his busy life.
Fast forward to 2020. When Covid-19 forced the nation into sheltering in place, John turned to UC Berkeley Executive Education’s online offerings with serious consideration. After all, he had more time on his hands to focus on learning, plus he could do it all from home.
John is an entrepreneurial business executive in the healthcare industry who has more than 17 years of expertise in digital health, healthcare management, clinical laboratory, diagnostic imaging, medical device and pharmaceuticals. John was aware of many programs at other top tier business schools, but his interest in UC Berkeley Executive Education was piqued not only because of the institution’s reputation, being a part of the Silicon Valley ecosystem and inclusion of likeminded individuals – but ultimately because of Exec Ed’s speedy navigation to offer online programs when the pandemic first took hold.
“When I learned that Executive Education made a quick pivot to online learning because of Covid-19, I was impressed. I believe UC Berkeley was one of the few top business schools to start offering many online programs so quickly. As an entrepreneur I was looking for a way to pivot my own business – so I wanted to learn from an organization that could do that I signed up for my first Exec Ed program, online Digital Transformation,” says John.
“Right away I was impressed by the teaching quality and the way the instructors combined the coursework with live online sessions. In Product Management Studio, we had access to a product coach who followed up with us regularly. The facilitators were more hands-on than I would have ever expected from an online program,” says John. He got the bug.
“I became addicted to learning. I was interested in other courses and I realized that a COBE was a great way to tap into the Berkeley ecosystem to continue to build my business network and connect with other professionals like me,” he says. John committed to focusing on a COBE.
Completing an online COBE, with remarkable speed
John already has an MBA from Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School of Management under his belt, but he says the Financial Data for Analysis for Leaders live online program amazed him. “Surprisingly, I thought this course would be the least valuable to me, but it was a great refresher and the professors were extremely knowledgeable – they really understand how to simplify the subject of financial data and make it really easy to grasp, while providing concepts that I continue to use on a regular basis.”
To learn more about John's COBE experience, visit here.


Reena Miglani, Director – CX Cloud Applications, Oracle Corporation
Reena is head of global sales engineering at Oracle, overseeing Marketing, Sales, and Service Cloud products. Her customers are hundreds of Oracle sales consultants located around the world. Reena also manages Oracle’s portfolio of acquired new products, communicating the value of each product, and ensuring that it becomes part of the Oracle ecosystem. “It’s exciting work. These aren’t back-office application, the CX market changes and evolves constantly – there’s always something new going on,” she says. Reena has worked for Oracle for 20 years.
Discovering UC Berkeley Exec Ed
In 2018 as Reena’s responsibilities at Oracle were expanding, she went online to look for training and development opportunities to expand her knowledge level. Her online search led to the UC Executive Education Digital Transformation Strategy program description. The thought of learning under the guidance of reputable Haas faculty was appealing to her and, reading further, she learned about UC Exec Ed’s Certificate of Business Excellence (COBE) program. She knew instinctively this was her path so she launched her COBE journey.
“With my first program, Digital Transformation Strategy, I was looking to energize and refresh my knowledge in this area. In three days, I got a semester’s worth of learning!” Most of the learning came from stories and experiences shared by other students in the program. Reena explained, “The information and knowledge I gained from that program and my fellow cohorts was significant. Within a month after this program, I was itching to learn more.”
Next on Reena’s list of programs was the Women’s Executive Leadership program. “This program was amazing – it was unlike any other for its ability to help me grow as a person. It was less academic and more about learning to be authentic,” she says. In the program, Reena connected with other professional women around the globe and learned how other women leaders navigate the same challenges and face the same realities, all the while they forged meaningful relationships and bonds because of their time together in the program. “I am still deeply connected with the women I met. We stay in touch via LinkedIn, and those of us who are local regularly meet for lunch, dinner, and coffee. We’ve stayed in close contact – especially now during the pandemic – often daily, through texting, direct messaging and video get-togethers.
“In the Corporate Business Model Innovation program, I was inspired to learn from professor Henry Chesbrough because he invented the open innovation concept – there is no better person on this topic to learn from!” Reena says. “I work with cross-functional teams at Oracle and I learned a lot about how to leverage innovation across a large corporation.” Reena also met cohorts from across the world who have 10-20 years of experience in the field. “Hearing the global perspectives from others in the class was enlightening. Since the program ended, we’ve remained a very tight group. We are active daily on WhatsApp. Because innovation is constantly evolving, there is much to share regularly. Most of us work in corporate innovation within large organizations so the knowledge sharing is invaluable.”
To learn more about Reena's COBE experience, visit here.


Craig Fulton, Chief Product Officer
My COBE experience started with the Product Management Program, which six of my colleagues and I attended. Our company was changing and I was moving into PM and growing into a leadership position at the time. The program revolutionized things for our company and it was great having someone from Silicon Valley come in to tell their story.
I've always been a public speaker so then I decided to take High-Impact Leadership to improve my speaking skills. I never imagined I'd be learning from an acting director/coach and I got quite a lot out of the program, actually using some of the techniques later onstage while speaking in London.
Another topic I tackled - and one of my weaknesses - was data analysis. In Executive Decision Making, I learned how to analyze and understand data and then make decisions driven off of that. While in this program, I was truly inspired by one of the speakers and his deep passion for social responsibility in business.
I've really enjoyed my Berkeley Executive Education experience overall. The people I've met are quite amazing - with diverse views and a wide variety of knowledge. This is one of the reasons that brought me here in the first place.
Also, the proximity to Silicon Valley is great. Our company is located in Florida, so we really wanted to know what's going on over here and coming to Berkeley has opened up peer-to-peer communications for us.
My organization, at large, has especially found a ton of value in the Product Management program. It has shaped our entire product team and we have since transformed into a product-centered company... just from what we have learned at Berkeley. There's now a waiting list of people in our company who want to attend a Berkeley Executive Education program.
As for myself, I am now the Chief Product Officer at my company and I've really been incorporating things I have learned at Berkeley into my day-to-day. I've never found that with other training.


Ramit Lamba, Professor of Radiology, Associate Chair, Chief of Abdominal Imaging, CT Director
The business world has always been an interest of mine. I was at a stage in my career where I felt like I already had leadership roles, but was also at a point where I wanted to learn more.
Physicians are very good at taking care of people but are generally not trained in understanding the operations of a business. They tend to be change-averse and sometimes resistant to learning about fields outside of medicine. In contrast, the business world focuses a lot on dynamic leadership, change, nimbleness, and strategy.
Going into the Berkeley Executive Education Program, “strategy” was just a generic term to me. Examples of ‘strategy’ included things such as: ‘this is my strategy to prepare for an exam’, or ‘this is my strategy in dealing with a difficult situation’. Taking the executive education programs at Berkeley Haas gave me not only a better understanding of organizational leadership, but also what strategy means in the context of a business, it's importance, why we need to learn it, and also illuminated how physicians sometimes lack the skills of building and implementing strategy in their practice environments.
Developing a strategy for your practice is a good start, but there's a huge component of how you execute it. My time at Berkeley Executive Education has helped me realize how important it was for me to get out of my current mindset and grow my understanding of business and leadership. Completing the Certificate of Business Excellence (COBE) Program at Berkeley thus has helped me immensely. I realized that just like medicine is a structured science, business is a structured science and to be an effective leader, it must be learned.
The Berkeley Executive Education program, particularly the Certificate of Business Excellence, interested me because world-renowned Haas Professors teach it, and Berkeley has a brand presence and a reputation that is hard to match. Berkeley Haas consistently ranks among the top 10 business schools in the country. It has fueled innovation in Silicon Valley. The reputation is just amazing.
To learn more about Ramit's COBE experience, visit here.


Dr. Jane Melia, Ph.D., Vice President of Strategic Business Development
I was very interested in expanding my knowledge, refreshing some parts of my training, and expanding it broadly as part of my job in QuintessenceLabs and I decided the Berkeley Executive Certificate of Business Excellence (COBE) was a good match.
The Berkeley Executive Education Financial Analysis for Leaders program was the first program I took at Berkeley. It was excellent because, as a leader in a small company, you need to understand the consequences of decisions that are being made. The Financial Analysis Program gave me an excellent overview of some of the fundamentals of corporate finance while giving me the tools needed to understand the impacts of different decisions that we needed make in our company. I was able to convey my perspective in a data-driven way to the other stakeholders.
I found the Product Management program extremely useful because we recently created the position of Product Manager within our company. QLabs had engineering development, marketing, and business development, but we didn't have product management. As we planned and developed that role within QuintessenceLabs, figuring out what those roles and responsibilities would be and how a product manager would fit into our organization was very important. What I learned in the Product Management program also helped as I interact with our new Product Manager. It gave me clarity regarding our roles and responsibilities, mission, what I could expect and request from a Product Manager, and ideas on how to divvy up the roles that previously had been shared with an existing organization.
The Communications Excellence program was very beneficial. We learned a lot about the delivery and preparation of verbal communications in the context of meetings such as team meetings or executive meetings and conference presentations. I liked that we went deep into this constrained area. We also learned how to think about the delivery and how to have an impact when sharing your perspective. While obviously, you need to practice and remember to implement the tools, the tools we gained in the Communications Excellence Program aren’t any that I've seen presented anywhere else. I liked that we were hands-on right from the beginning and had to get up in front of the group and present. It was both a safe environment and a challenging environment. You are presenting things in front of a group of strangers, and you have to put yourself out there. It was interesting to watch this affect other people in the class. I saw their presentation skills change from the morning of the first day to the end of the second day as they learned to implement their new tools and skills.


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.


Steven Hubert, Regional Vice President, Salesforce, U.K.
I’m not over exaggerating when I say this — the initial program I completed, High-Impact Leadership, was life-changing for me. It sparked a passion and put a new emphasis on the value of education for me. It has challenged me to learn more. I now look for the attribute of continual learning in individuals whom I bring onto my team.
The High-Impact Leadership program also gave me practical tools that I took back to my role, that is, new ways of thinking and methodologies that I use on a regular basis. To me that’s the greatest testament to the value of the program. I had asked myself, if I am going to invest time in becoming more educated, will I use what I’ve learned? On the one hand, I could learn something and put it on the shelf and never use it. On the other hand, I could learn something and use it regularly in my work and beyond. For me, it’s been the latter. What I learned in this first course are things that I come back to time and time again.
Moving into my new role at HPE, I needed my new leadership to support my educational journey. When I heard about the new Advanced Executive Presence program, I knew I wanted to participate. During negotiations for the new position, I presented a strong business case on why continuing my education was a good idea, detailing what I had learned in the first program and how I brought new skills to my role. The thought of spending more time with UC Berkeley faculty — individuals who had changed the course of my life — well, I jumped at it. I was chomping at the bit to take this program.
Berkeley Executive Education offers a unique learning environment. I feel that I have found a spiritual home on the Berkeley campus. Everything feels right. The culture. The learning environment. It challenges me in many, many ways — especially to be my authentic self. I have learned that being my true self is the best way to thrive as a leader and to invigorate others around me. Because of my experience at Berkeley, I have a deeper sense of appreciation for diversity and for individuals who challenge me to see things differently. Now, as I build my teams at work, I look for candidates who bring different thought processes and backgrounds. I make it a point to bring in diverse individuals — ethnically, experientially, through thought processes, gender diversity, geographic origins, and so forth — to make a stronger team.
To learn more about Steven's learning experience, visit here.


I was looking for ways to gain new tools and new knowledge to keep a competitive edge in a dynamic landscape. That’s when I came across Berkeley Executive Education and the Certificate of Business Excellence program. The first course I took was the New Manager Boot Camp because I wanted to see what Berkeley had to offer. The course appealed to me because there were several managers within my organization who were up for promotions, and I wanted to experience the classes before recommending them to others. I quickly saw how beneficial this class would be for a new manager –– I also learned some useful tips in the program as well! I recommended the course to the new managers and they came back full of excitement and eager to test their new-found knowledge. I believe this course helped them move effectively into that next phase of their careers. It’s rewarding to help others succeed, and to have the tools to make it a reality.
Even though I’ve been in finance my entire career, I was pleasantly surprised at how much I learned in the Financial Data Analysis for Leaders program. Having studied finance in India, I was especially intrigued to learn about financial processes in the U.S., so that I could apply best practices in my current role. The most significant take-away from the class was learning how to present financial information to non-finance people. The short formulas I learned enable me to take complex financial concepts and communicate them in a stripped-down, simple fashion for the lay person. I will continue to use this method throughout my career.
As I’ve mentioned, I lead the finance operations for Rahi Systems, and my accounting and finance team comprises 11 employees, 10 of which are women. My team has the most women of any function within the organization. It’s no secret that our industry is male-dominated. I was drawn to a course focused on women in leadership not only for my own development, but also to help the women on my team develop as professionals. The Women’s Executive Leadership program gave me tangible tools and skills that have resulted in noticeable improvements in confidence and performance for me and my team. I could see a noticeable improvement in a recent presentation I gave, and the best part was noticing how confident I appeared being on stage in front of all of those people. That was not how I felt in the past! I have nothing but praises for UC Berkeley and this amazing class.
I elected to take the Venture Capital Executive program because Rahi Systems was looking into venture funding possibilities. I had absolutely no experience or knowledge about that area of finance, and I was eager to learn more. I wanted to determine if venture capital made strategic sense for my organization. I learned a lot in the course, especially the case study of another company’s model. Taking the course has helped me in my conversations about venture capital; I am much more fluent in this specialized area of finance.
To learn more about Rashi's COBE experience, visit here.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Here are some tips for how to successfully approach your employer:
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Frame your request. Highlight the return on investment by aligning the program with your organization’s strategic objectives and cite examples that potentially connect to your desired outcomes. Remember, all programs after your first one are eligible for a 15% off Executive Education Alumni discount!
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Come prepared. Share the program brochure, schedule and objectives with your manager for a deeper understanding of the program and its relevance for your organization and role. Be sure to download the COBE planner to quickly review your selection and track your plans.
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Pace yourself. The program is designed for a 3 year completion so plan to take 2 programs per calendar year.
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Let us know how we can help. We’re here to support whether it is to work with your employer or establish a payment structure. Just contact us at executive@berkeley.edu
Participants enroll in the Certificate of Business Excellence Program for a variety of reasons. Often, it’s to advance from a current position, transition to a new role or develop the skill set to confront multiple challenges in their role or industry. Students leverage the four pillar, general management blended program to fill in perceived gaps in the executive toolkit and become a stronger leader. Berkeley is the right choice because it provides an immersive learning environment and rigorous research based curriculum with an executive level cohort in the thriving Silicon Valley ecosystem. The 17-day commitment to the four pillar program is an excellent way to gain a mark of distinction from a world-class university.
Each Certificate of Business Excellence learning journey is customized for the participant, and prices are subject to change. In general, the average cost of the required 17 days of executive programs is $15,000-$29,000 varying by program selections. There are no upfront or additional fees to register. After your first program, participants are eligible for a 15% off alumni discount on all remaining programs.
Deciding to pursue a master’s degree in business or a business excellence certification is a matter of personal preference. Decision points generally include price point, commitment level, range of topics, accessible resources, classification and available financing options. Contact Jennifer Arvai at +1.510.561.4018 or jarvai@berkeley.edu to schedule a 15-minute phone consultation to get started.
You can become part of the Certificate of Business Excellence community with the very first program or join later and apply program hours towards the 17 day requirement. If you already know that you want to pursue a general management curriculum to advance your executive skill set, we can schedule a consult to plan your journey or you can enroll now.
View our General Program FAQs for more insights or schedule a personal consultation call to discuss your interests and concerns with our Associate Director of Customer Experience.