Back to school, 2023 edition
Also: Covid again, our energy transition, and staying cool in Espana
Friends - after a prolific July, Covid and a confluence of other circumstances led to a longer-than-planned break from this newsletter. On the bright side, thanks to a mid-August bout with Covid, I returned to the UC-Berkeley campus Monday equipped with a boosted immune system. I was also able to use the downtime to do some reading.
On tap for this semester:
Clusters: Locations, Ecosystems, and Opportunity, for MBAs and public policy master’s students; third edition
Competitive Strategy, for undergraduates; sixth edition
There’s a saying attributed to Seneca - “while we teach, we learn”. That very much applies to this fall’s edition of Clusters class. Based on feedback and input from the 2022 class, I’ve added the following themes for this year:
Clustering opportunities in our energy transition
The federal perspective: the national government perspective on clustering
On the first bullet, I’ll give thanks to one of last year’s student teams (hat-tip Drew Silverman, Carlson Giddings, Ray Chao, John Bolaji and Josh Folds), which put together a thoughtful project on Portland, Maine, and how it could be a potential “climate cluster”. As fate would have it, Portland provides an interesting template for Humboldt Bay and Morro Bay (or more broadly, the Central Coast). I wrote a first post on Morro Bay back in June.
So big thanks to that team for the inspiration. As part of of my diligence, it has been fascinating to learn how some renewable energy clusters (e.g. offshore wind in the North Sea) have been able to build upon existing infrastructure, e.g. existing port assets from oil and gas or fishing.
Or as an executive at one offshore wind company commented, if you were to pick one thing for the public sector to invest in, it would be a good port. I’ve taken the liberty of paraphrasing this guidance below.
On the topic of our energy transition, our shifting power mix is shown below.
What’s not shown in the chart above is the capex going into our energy transition. Estimates vary, but they all end in a T. Macquarie estimates that 2022 was the first year that a trillion was spent globally on this transition. What endowments and capabilities communities already have will influence how they can take advantage of this investment. Or, to borrow a phrase from my Haas colleague Flavio Feferman, communities looking to harness the transition need to know what they already have, and what they need to augment.
Our familiar cluster development framework
Re-reading last year’s back to school post, post-Covid or with-Covid teaching was on my mind then too. As was the usual pleasant surge in nerves for the first day of class, which I absolutely experienced yesterday during Class 1 of Clusters class.
This year’s new full-time MBA class - full-time MBA class of 2025 - sets a new record for Haas - over half are international students, building on FTMBA 2024, which was already close to 50% international.
This is, of course, wonderful news for the school. Earlier this month I joined a panel of faculty in welcoming incoming international students to campus. It was great to meet a thoughtful group, and reflect on some of my own experiences living internationally, from finding housing to getting on Japan’s national insurance plan, to day-to-day language struggles early in my stay.
As someone who has lived internationally and can attest to its transformative impacts, being with a more international group of students is a wonderful thing. That said, as instructor, it is something to be mindful of, on a number of dimensions. I tend to incorporate a lot of pop culture references into class. The “kiss the ring” scene from The Godfather below is a staple, when talking about the enabling power of reference customers or corporate venture.
“Sliding doors” moments in business history is another.
That said, one can get carried away. In spring 2023, after I incorporated a record four different cinematic references in one class, I was gently informed by an international student that the pop culture references were understood by some but certainly not by all. Which was very helpful feedback that I will incorporate into subsequent courses.
It’s been a long hot summer. In late July we traveled to Spain, where I appreciated various passive ways to help civic centers cool. Something I’m definitely seeing more of here in NorCal too.
Welcome shade in the square in Sevilla
This awning array with Madrid, with embedded greenery, lighting and misters, took shade to a new level.
Lastly, my family got me this mug to help me prepare for the semester.
A wonderful reminder to keep things lively and interactive.
Onward and upward!
Jon
I was thinking the other day of "Sliding Doors" as a cultural reference. The movie got mediocre reviews and earned less than $12M at the North American box office. And yet everyone who was around in 1998 knows what it's about, and how to apply the metaphor to other circumstances. It's hard to think of another movie whose plot has become a common metaphor that so few people actually saw!