Berkeley Consulting is a non-profit student-run management consulting

Management consulting

Management consulting indicates both the industry and practice of helping organizations improve their performance primarily through the analysis of existing organizational problems and development of plans for improvement....

 group started at the University of California, Berkeley

University of California, Berkeley

The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...

 in 1996. The organization has completed deliverables for clients from various industries such as media, retail, technology, and healthcare. The group is sponsored by the Haas School of Business

Haas School of Business

The Walter A. Haas School of Business, also known as the Haas School of Business or simply Haas, is one of 14 schools and colleges at the University of California, Berkeley....

 and the Associated Students of the University of California (ASUC).

Structure

BC was founded when students recognized a niche market for a low cost, high quality strategy consulting service in the Bay Area. The founders of the organization saw the dual benefit of students applying classroom learning to real world business problems, as well as the unique perspective offered by college-aged consultants.

Each semester, BC takes on 4 clients, with one typically representing the nonprofit industry. BC teams are then staffed with undergraduate consultants that work on the project for the 10-week semester. Each team is led by a Project Manager (PM) who is generally a member of the organization with extensive project experience.

Besides the consulting members, BC also has executive members that focus on pursuing client leads, organizational development and recruiting, and professional training.

Projects

Some of BC's past clients include Fortune 500 firms, start-ups, and nonprofit organizations. BC has worked with clients such as Sybase

Sybase

Sybase, an SAP company, is an enterprise software and services company offering software to manage, analyze, and mobilize information, using relational databases, analytics and data warehousing solutions and mobile applications development platforms....

, Microsoft

Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...

, Monster Cable, Ask.com

Ask.com

Ask is a Q&A focused search engine founded in 1996 by Garrett Gruener and David Warthen in Berkeley, California. The original software was implemented by Gary Chevsky from his own design. Warthen, Chevsky, Justin Grant, and others built the early AskJeeves.com website around that core engine...

, General Electric

General Electric

General Electric Company , or GE, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in Schenectady, New York and headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States...

, Habitat for Humanity, and Pacific Gas and Electric Company

Pacific Gas and Electric Company

The Pacific Gas and Electric Company , commonly known as PG&E, is the utility that provides natural gas and electricity to most of the northern two-thirds of California, from Bakersfield almost to the Oregon border...

. Many clients have used BC, whose members often have better access to college markets, to identify trends in the younger demographic.

BC Love

BC culture is casually referred to as BC Love and attempts to emulate the culture of a professional consulting firm while still maintaining BC as a collegial student group. BC sponsors and organizes retreats, formal dinners, and other social activities throughout a semester in order to cultivate a close culture.