OneHaas

People working in a culture with a balance of boundaries and empathy are more motivated to perform well. That's what Laila Tarraf realized in her decades of experience as a recruitment and business leader. She carried this realization and successfully developed a work culture that effectively combines high-performance growth and caring culture.

Laila is the Chief People Officer at Allbirds, where she is responsible for guiding and strengthening the company's unique, mission-based culture. She wrote Strong Like Water: How I Found the Courage to Lead with Love in Business and in Life at a time when she experienced the grief of losing loved ones yet gained powerful realizations as a mother and business leader. In her view, connecting to our common humanity and bringing hearts to the workplace is the key to creating exceptional organizations.

Listen to this episode as Sean and Laila exchange inspiring thoughts on recruitment and its changes from the industrial to the information age, holistic leadership, and emotional resilience.

On creating the post-pandemic hybrid workplace

[00:15:05] I think a post-pandemic hybrid workplace and meeting greater flexibility in work is all about a very integrated holistic leadership style that can balance being empathetic and caring— compassionate while at the same time focusing on growing the business and holding people accountable. And while the two might seem like they're on opposite ends of the spectrum, they're really not. They're more like the DNA strands of a helix that are intertwined. I'm always drawing these two intersecting circles where I have business on one side and people on the other, and so there's an overlap, and that's the sweet spot. And for all of us, it's finding that mix, that alchemy that works for us, given our personal style, we all have it. It's just figuring out how to play in the middle. 

On treating employees as a team, rather than as a family

[00:18:24] While you may have made great friends that you think of as family, we're not a family because you can't quit your family. You can't leave your family. We're really a team, and not to denigrate the connections and relationships because being a high-performing team, when you ask people, what are the most inspirational times in their life where they have the greatest connections, it's usually when they're part of a team where they're trying to tackle a really tough challenge, whether it's in sports or business, and they came together and were able to overcome whatever this thing was. And that's beautiful.

On creating a balance between caring for people and communicating their areas for improvement

[00:19:46] The challenge is the counterbalance to being empathetic and being able to hold your boundaries. Because if you don't, then you're merging. I think there is a way that you can care for the person and keep your connection to the person while at the same time delivering a message that they're not meeting expectations or that something needs to improve. It really is as much an art as it is a science to drop into connection and show that you care.

On how she picked the title for her book

[00:24:43] I chose the title Strong Like Water after Lao Tzu's The Tao Te Ching it's verse 78, right? Be like water. Be like water is really about how water is actually very powerful, but in a gentle way. And in it, he says water is fluid, soft, and yielding, but water will wear away rock, which is rigid and cannot yield. As a rule, water is fluid, soft, and yielding, which will overcome whatever is rigid and hard. And he said that this is a paradox that what is soft is strong. And when I read that, I thought that's it. And I realized that really life, in general, is all about reconciling these dualities, where we fall into these false paradoxes where we think I'm either weak or I'm strong. But the reality is like the yin yang symbol; there is no hard, there is no soft. It just depends on your viewpoint. We are all both. 

• Laila Tarraf on LinkedIn
• Laila Tarraf Official Website
• Strong Like Water™ How I Found the Courage to Lead with Love in Business and in Life

Diversity in a learning institution challenges racial assumptions, promotes critical thinking, and allows students to interact effectively with people from varying backgrounds. Representation of minority groups in key leadership roles, including faculty positions, inspires young people to break stereotypes and reach their full potential. Élida Bautista is a brilliant woman of color who had to constantly deal with stereotypes, expectations, and lack of opportunities despite her academic strengths as a student. Élida regarded education as a protest against people who tried to discourage and suppress her due to her race and skin color. She earned a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology by not letting others dictate her path in life while competing with other well-resourced students.

Élida Bautista is the Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer at Berkeley Haas. She leads strategic initiatives for students, faculty, and staff to create an inclusive climate and equip students to lead in a diverse world.

This episode highlights the importance of diversity among the faculty and student body in a learning institution that produces global business leaders.

On why college is a big risk for students who come from low-income families

00:16:10] The expectation was to financially contribute to the family. Because I was making a choice to go to college and not be in a position to contribute financially, I also was not in a position to ask for anything. It felt like a risk because there was no choice but to succeed. Failure was not an option.

On creating programs that produce Ph.D. students and attract faculty who are rooted in diversity, equity, and inclusion

[00:34:02] Ph.D. program takes at least five years, depending on the student. So by the time somebody joins the faculty ranks and is teaching in that core course, it might take a few years to see the effects of what we put down now. But we have to start at least, you know, obviously, this is overdue, but at the very least we need to start to invest in that now, so that we see the fruits of those labors down the road, while we simultaneously make Haas a place that's appealing for faculty who want to do research that is rooted in DEI, who want to mentor students across a variety of identities that have continued to be under-represented. 

On mentoring as a way for alumni and current students to get more involved and promote DEI

[37:12:92] Mentoring is always another way that people can give back. If you don't identify as somebody from an underrepresented group and you are in a position of privilege and power in your respective organization and the leadership position - that's the opportunity to find somebody in your organization or at Haas. To mentor them and help them have access to those pathways that they wouldn't otherwise have access to.

• Élida Bautista on LinkedIn
• Élida Bautista on Berkeley Haas

Business Administration alumnus Neeraj Gunsagar knows that straight, even teeth aren't just for looks. Getting access to oral healthcare can greatly improve one's chances of finding a job, starting a relationship, and even preventing diabetes. And at one point, it even saved a life of a bullied teenager. He talks about his initial meeting with Scott Cohen, and before he realizes it, he is looking into an opportunity that allows him to help more people.

Neeraj also shares some of his experiences growing up in the Bay Area with his immigrant parents, working at DLJ (Donaldson, Lufkin, and Jenrette), and then at TrueCar. He emphasizes how his background in investment banking and focus on tracking and measuring KPIs helped him transition from CRO to CMO and finally as CEO. Make sure to tune in until the end to find out about his 15 minutes of fame with Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant!

How Haas Evened Out the Playing Field for Career Opportunities at Investment Banking

[00:03:26] Investment banking was like Google or Facebook, or wherever it was, five, 10 years ago from an undergraduate perspective. And to compete against the East Coast Ivy League Schools from a west coast perspective, Haas really helped level the playing field there.

On How Race Affects Access to Healthcare

[00:25:28] So, the U.S. population is about 65% white, 14% Latino, 12% black, and maybe five, or six percent Asian, something like that. But orthodontia work is like 80 to 90% white, the people who are getting it done in the communities that we all know are privileged, the higher income, and all these things. And when I realized that byte®, one of the first things I did was try to analyze. It’s literally 64% to 63% white, 15% Latino, 13% black, 5% to 6% Asians. Literally, that's our customer base. And you start to realize like, “Wow”. We as a country, we as a company, and we, as individuals, need to figure out a way more and more to break down some of these historic barriers that were created decades ago. And figure out a way to make oral healthcare more accessible and affordable to folks. 

Practical Areas in Life Where Oral Healthcare Matters

[00:29:19] I spoke to Bumble and some dating sites as well, they've done a lot of analysis on this. Women, I think it's through a survey that Bumble or Matched did, won't go on a second date with a guy if they have bad teeth. 72% of women said they wouldn't do that. Job interviewers, you probably don't want to say it out loud, but subconsciously, or consciously it makes an impression, right? If that person doesn't take care of their teeth, how are they going to take care of this job? Right?

When the Dentists Fear Became Their Pivot

[00:30:47] Before the pandemic started, I talked to a bunch of these big DSO, dental service organizations. They hated what we were doing. They said, you can't do this over, telemedicine or at home. And, and then as soon as the pandemic happened, they realized nobody could come into their offices. What were they doing? They were doing Google hangout, consults, Invisalign over zoom, all these different things because it was interfering with their monthly income.

Making Oral Healthcare More Accessible: byte®'s Moving Forward Goal

[00:35:04] We want to make oral care more accessible to consumers. At scale, we want to build technology and systems to allow that to happen. And we want to bring dentists, GPs, and orthodontist into that platform in the long run.

• Neeraj Gunsagar on LinkedIn
• Neeraj Gunsagar on Twitter
• byte® Official Website

Doug Galen is the Co-Founder and CEO of RippleWorks. Founded in 2015, RippleWorks connects leading expertise from Silicon Valley and the larger US tech sector with rapidly scaling ventures for short-term, high-impact projects that unlock the ventures' capacity for growth. To help social enterprises scale faster, Doug Galen works with CEOs to figure out their toughest challenges and connect them to leading Silicon Valley experts to gain startup and leadership skills.

In this episode, our guest discusses how entrepreneurs can make a difference in people's lives and the world as a whole.

On what prompted him to start RippleWorks

00:00:42] RippleWorks started seven years ago. I had one of those moments in life. I was having a conversation with my daughter, who was turning 13, and we talked about how to make the world a better place. And I was building a mobile shopping app, which didn't feel consistent with my purpose in life. So I made a big career change and started to explore how I might better use my time. And that's how I founded RippleWorks.

How do you help social entrepreneurs scale their companies?

[00:2:42] How we do it is that we at RippleWorks, vet for the best ventures in the world. We work with the CEO to figure out their top three challenges so we know whatever we do will have an impact on them. We staff all the project managers called Venture Growth Managers who will sweat all the details. Then we bring in a Silicon Valley expert who has solved that problem before that the CEO is facing, with scrappy resources in their career, who will volunteer two to five hours a week for the next month to four months, working on this problem. You, as the expert, get that amazing feeling of leveraging your skillset to give back. You, as a venture, have that problem solved and you probably formed a new friendship and advisor for life.

On why he decided to get an MBA

[00:08:07] I had a moment in the mirror when I was staring at myself and talking with my daughter. I did not like the path I was on. I didn't want to be a real estate broker. I didn't feel like I was adding value. So business school was a chance for me to reevaluate if I am on the right path? And that's a hundred percent why I went back. Didn't matter that I was building a career. I was heading down a path that was not gonna make me feel good. And either I subconsciously, or maybe a little consciously, knew that. And I don't believe in pursuing paths that aren't consistent with what gets you excited.

On how RippleWorks select social ventures to work with

[00:24:01] We look at the impact of a venture and there's three elements to the impact of a venture to pick who we're gonna work with. The first is the depth of impact on a human being. If we're helping a farmer in Northern Nigeria, how much are we increasing their income so they can move out of extreme poverty to poverty or poverty to lower middle class? So first is the depth of impact. The second is the breadth of impact. How many people are we impacting with that depth? And then the third is the target population. We are interested in helping people who are struggling with life. 

• Doug Galen on LinkedIn
• RippleWorks Official Website
• CNN Climate Change Quiz

One of the key issues that employers and job seekers face today is the overcompetitiveness of the job market. Many industries are affected by the pandemic, and companies are finding ways to efficiently spend budget by hiring the right person fit for the job. At the same time, the sheer number of displaced workforce contributed more to the already cutthroat employment marketplace. Our guest in this episode, Brett Waikart, leads a company that aims to reshape how corporate recruiters hire valuable team members, making the hiring process more effective, efficient, and equitable.

Brett is MBA 2020 and Co-Founder and CEO of Skilful.ly, an employment platform that focuses on demonstrated in-demand job skills, science-backed cognitive strengths, and drive to hustle. Through this platform, skilled job seekers can access opportunities that are otherwise only accessible to university graduates.

Listen to this podcast to discover how Brett and his team started creating an equitable and efficient hiring process for recruiters and job-seeking candidates.

What is Skilful.ly and how does it provide an equitable opportunity to job seekers?

[00:00:33] Skillful.ly at its core is building a more equitable alternative to allow the employment platforms that are out there today. And we reached that equity by focusing on the demonstration of relevant job skills first and foremost.

[00:01:31] It is built around the premise that what really matters and what's really most representative of someone's potential in a particular job is not the match in some of those factors that have become the heuristics, that have become the metrics that those systems really based themselves off of, but rather the affirmative confirmation that you actually have the skills that are required for a particular job. 

What do you consider the most important aspect of becoming a startup founder?

[00:35:10] I think what gets lost is just how meaningful it is and how important it is to find the team that you want to work with to build those relationships, to invest in them. I think that is maybe the hardest challenge, but the most rewarding pursuit in terms of the benefits that have accrued from that is to spend a lot of time and a lot of thought on how to build that team. That is the secret to your long-term success, as opposed to any idea that's locked up between your ears.

• Brett Waikart on LinkedIn
• Skillful.ly Official Website

Having endured a major health setback, Brad Kittredge was pushed to think of ways to address a lesser-known but more pervasive problem: the lack of quality mental health care. The healthcare sector faces many issues, including bureaucratic structures, guess and check diagnosis systems, and inadequate access. Fast forward to today, Haas alum Brad Kittredge has contributed to the digital health space by developing tools that enable data-driven health care services. 

Brad is MBA 09 and the Founder and CEO of Brightside, a company that provides expert depression and anxiety treatment from home comfort.

Listen to this podcast with Brad Kittredge as he tackles the gaps in our health care systems. He impacts the digital health space by building a whole new type of mental health care delivered with telemedicine technology and data.

How did the pervasive issue of lack of quality mental health care affect you on a personal level?

[00:06:55] It hit home for me because my father has managed depression my whole life. And I saw the ups and downs that he had as he went over ten years from seeking care to finding a treatment that worked. And so, it just really set me off on this mission of how do I take these tools that I'm excited about and this trend of empowering people to drive their healthcare and apply it to really fixing mental healthcare delivery. That one event of having a personal health setback turned into a positive and set me on a track to do work that I find really interesting and rewarding. 

Did you ever doubt that putting all your time, energy, and resources into digital health would pay off? 

[00:11:58] I never felt afraid of failing. Maybe that was something I already had, or maybe that was something I learned in part at Haas, being around great people and the things we talk about that you can't do anything great without trying and failing. And so I wasn't worried about that. It didn't hold me back. I, of course, had tremendous self-doubt about whether I could do it or what are my chances of succeeding. But that allure of really trying to build something and create something from scratch, and honestly, the thing that got me over the edge was picturing the people out there that needed help and didn't have any solutions today, and the potential impact we'd have, just feeling that inspiration or even imagining that made it really easy for me to want to take the risk. And it's the thing that really keeps me motivated and going every day.

On what inspires him to continue Brightside on difficult days

[00:14:44] It always comes back to the impact. There are hard days where I go look at our reviews page because the voice of the customer and the feedback of the impact that we're having never ceases to make me feel happy and inspired, and is the reason we're doing it. 

• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• Brightside Official Website

MBA alumnus Andrés Martell talks about creating lasting legacies. In this episode, Andrés retells his journey into the U.S. Marine Corps and fulfilling his childhood dream to join the military.  

After leaving the Marines at 22, he founded Vin Ambassador, a travel and events business. Growing up with an entrepreneurial father and a tourism background, he used these connections and experiences to offer something unique. But how did his Haas experience prepare him for this pivot? How did he survive the pandemic, and how did he recalibrate to a new direction? 

Discover how he forged his way to entrepreneurship and how he keeps reinventing himself to adapt to the changes, challenges, and struggles life throws at him. 

Did your childhood dream to become part of the military live up to your expectation?

[00:18:49] The organization is, is fantastic. The pride that everyone has in wearing the uniform is palpable. The standards that the Marines hold each other are pretty high, and to feel like you're part of a lineage is just really strong. The part that I wasn't expecting was —well, let me back up and say, the U.S. Marine Corps is not just an organization it's also a tool. You know, a hammer is not inherently wrong. A hammer to build a house is a phenomenal tool—a hammer to tear down a house, something else.

How did you end up as an entrepreneur and in the tourism and F&B sector?

[00:27:04] I don't know what I want to do next, but I want to learn more about wine, and I want to keep traveling. I think somehow that evolved into this frame that entrepreneurship would be the next great hurdle. This is the next way to identify that identity I would find for myself, the next hill I would climb. I was thinking about how do I put these two things together?

How did you pivot to a nonprofit?

[01:32:26] I’m working for a nonprofit, which I was not expecting to say when I came to Haas as an entrepreneur. Or even when I was looking around at potential pivots. But this is a unique nonprofit; it’s called Connected Places Catapult. It is the accelerator for the future of mobility and smart cities in the U.K. It does a lot of things because it has the capacity to not just run startup accelerators but to do research. To do research that potentially affects policy that can create a path for not just any startups but ones that have public good associated with them. As the Design Futures team lead, designing the strategy is to understand what those paths look like and create clear visions of the future scenarios that we all want to work towards.

Despite the many changes in your career path, how were you able to pivot quickly?

[01:34:27] A great deal of balance. Without balancing your life, you will become lost. If not right away, you’ll eventually find yourself off track. If your life is unbalanced you will find yourself going down paths, not necessarily good paths, that you are not expecting to go down. When you have balance in your life you can explore. You’re able to go down different paths. But there’s intentionality around that exploration.

• Andrés Martell on LinkedIn
• Andrés Martell on Twitter
• Catapult Connected Places

Technology enables us to work with various people around the globe, but can it also provide a secured interaction and prevent fraud? Alex Martin, our featured Haas alumni this week, specializes in accurate and immediate identification of fraud for diverse organizations in numerous sectors including insurance, government, and many others. 

Prior to founding Clearspeed, Alex served in the U.S. Marine Corps leading infantry, reconnaissance, and special operations units over 4 operational deployments. He also spent 2 years as a Team Leader in Nuru International, an organization that aims to end extreme poverty in remote and rural communities. 

Alex was inspired by a group of farmer entrepreneurs who bravely combat economic challenges every day through social ventures. He exited from his first venture and became the CEO and co-Founder of Clearspeed, an AI-enabled technology that identifies fraud in voice conversations. 

In this episode, we'll hear about Alex’s journey from the U.S. Marine Corps to entrepreneurship.

What led you to be a startup founder, given your US Marine Corps background?

[00:07:35] I realize I had a lot of gaps in my own knowledge and understanding and had no clue what a balance sheet was or an income statement. I didn't know what marketing was, the fundamentals of business we all learned at Haas. Entrepreneurship is really hard. It's a good thing to teach; it's really hard to practice. It can be learned. It can be done, but the first element has to be risk appetite and courage, and sometimes stupidity, but that first startup ended with a new beginning to the next thing.

What he learned from his first startup venture

[00:12:02] I realize I had a lot of gaps in my own knowledge and understanding and had no clue what a balance sheet was or an income statement. I didn't know what marketing was, the fundamentals of business we all learned at Haas. Entrepreneurship is really hard. It's a good thing to teach. It's really hard to practice. It can be learned. It can be done, but the first element has to be risk appetite and courage, and sometimes stupidity but that first startup ended with a new beginning to the next thing.

What was the inspiration behind the concept of your company, Clearspeed?

[00:19:58] The genesis of Clearspeed came about by meeting other veterans from the special operations world that were working on technology designed to help filter and clear people, and then taking that technology, working on it, enhancing it, validating it, productizing it, and bringing it to the market as a way for hiring to happen better and faster remotely.

How does Clearspeed provide value to the other businesses?

[00:21:45] Clearspeed is a technology company that identifies fraud and security risks using voice analytics. We have a very sophisticated AI-enabled software that's able to capture sound and transform energy into a model and understand when fraud is occurring, where that risk is happening, it's like a check engine light.

• Alex Martin on LinkedIn
• Clearspeed Official Website

Women belong in all places where decisions are being made. It shouldn't be that women are the exception. - Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Our guest, Commander Kelly Deutermann takes us back to a point in her life where she felt that no matter what skills she brings to the table, someone will always doubt her capabilities. Instead of being discouraged, she trained in the US Coast Guard and earned the respect of her colleagues when she was promoted as an Instruction Pilot. 

Kelly is MBA 2017 and currently a Program Examiner at the Office of Management and Budget. She talks about achieving things with extreme difficulties because of gender bias. Kelly shares how her time in the military led her to pursue an MBA and how she chose Berkeley-Haas because it resonates with her specific values. She also gives insight into how other women can focus on both their families and their careers.

Listen to this episode to hear an inspirational journey of perseverance, discipline, and hard work.

What is the proudest moment in your professional career?

[00:05:52] Becoming an instructor pilot. The next step after you become an aircraft commander is becoming an instructor pilot. And that's when you're the cadre of unit instructor, pilots, and your operations officer and your commanding officers say yes, this person has not only the skill set to teach younger folks but that demeanor, like if you think of bedside manner for clinicians of any sort, like you need to be able to communicate with people, you have to be able to connect with people. You have to be able to meet them where they are so that you help those light bulbs go off. 

Why did you choose Haas?

[00:15:04] When I was looking at schools to apply to, when I went to the Haas website, I saw the defining principles and I was like, wait a minute, these seem to really describe me. And I just became more and more curious about it. And when I compare that to all of the other schools, all the other schools seemed very generic in their descriptions of the schools and the student bodies, like teamwork, collaboration, but no school had so firmly and well-defined principles that would guide their student body and the program. And so, I went all in. I was like, oh my God, I got to get to Haas. I got to get there because that seems like it's the place for me.

What tips can you give to those who are pursuing success in their careers and personal lives?

[00:30:10] At this point, to be honest, it's a big balance between what works for my family and then what works for me as a professional in the coast guard. Life doesn't get simpler as you get older, you have a family and you have a partner, who's got a career of his own, his or her own. You have to find balance with that. And so I'm doing the best I can to find that balance.

• Kelly Deutermann on LinkedIn
• Kelly Deutermann on Berkeley MBA Blog

According to Global Energy Review 2021, energy-related carbon dioxide emissions may rise by 4.8% in 2021 as the economy's demand for coal, oil, and gas rebounds. It causes more harmful greenhouse gases to be released into our atmosphere, contributing to rapid climate change and global warming. Our guest in this episode, Kas Farsad, uses his expertise in Material Science and cement technology to lessen the CO2 emissions in the construction industry. His innovative solutions provide an economical way to get twice as much cement out of limestone. 

Kas graduated from the EMBA program at Haas School of Business. He started as an R&D tech and now serves as the VP of Corporate Development at Fortera Corporation. By listening to this episode, find out how Kas Farsad developed an environmentally friendly and economically feasible society.

What made you pursue a career path in cement technology?

[00:03:41] I went on a couple of interviews, found a laboratory technician job, essentially running analytical equipment, which is something that material scientists tend to do. Stumbled upon a cement company that was trying to change the world, basically develop a new way to make cement that was eco-friendly. Not a lot of people have a lot of cement background. Material scientists are obviously well-equipped. So, I ended up joining. The company was called Calera. Back then I was employee number 5. And that first job actually dictated a lot of my beliefs. A lot of the industries that I eventually started tackling and a lot of the problems that I started appreciating needed solutions, needed innovation. 

On the cement industry's potential to reduce global CO2 emissions.

[00:16:45] The biggest thing we're trying to do right now is just build awareness around this cement problem, but also the cement opportunity. There's not that many industries in the world that if you do somehow reduce CO2 emissions, it's a big number. A lot of people do a lot of small things, recycling, and it's all important to do. And if we all do it, it'll add up. But this industry has the ability to successfully adopt a new chemistry that doesn't release as much CO2. We're talking 5% of the globe's CO2 emissions produced. And this industry is so good at adopting. When they adopt a new technology or a new chemistry, they can do it fast. We have all these goals to get to net zero emissions by 2030 or 2050. This is an industry that can do that.

• LinkedIn
• Fortera Official Website
• Google Scholar