Harvard MBA Admission Letter - Admission/Application Essay Example

Running Head: Harvard MBA Admission Essay Harvard MBA Admission Essay [Institute’s Harvard MBA Admission Essay My three most substantial accomplishments An Amazing Opportunity In human life, experience and opportunities are two major factors that bring individuals toward their goals. Fortunately, I acquired an amazing opportunity during my tenure at Organization Excellence involving setting up of a new department that turned into an amazing opportunity. Before, the organization had no clear mandate, mission, or portfolio, and thus, setting mandate became the foremost objective as soon as I joined the P&G KSA. I put efforts to define proper mandate, set guidelines, test new processes, and subsequently create value for the company. Although I was successful in setting standards on paper; however, creation of a practical roadmap was something that made me contemplate further. Since Saudi Arabia has neither unions nor work councils, I seized at the opportunity to mold the new ‘Organization Excellence’ department into a platform as an internal employee work council, as well as an intermediary between the company and employees. After conducting employee interviews, reading extensive P&G archives on performance management, and seeking out thought leadership resources, I designed a completely new system for mobilizing and motivating human assets. Not only did strategy of unifying workers and developing a more-positive working environment pay off; however, also my approach to ‘Organization Excellence’ touched off productivity gains throughout the P&G facility. During a short period of two years, I facilitated the department in its expansion, and it set indexed performance and rising job satisfaction standards throughout the organization. P&G sites across Saudi Arabia, the Middle East and beyond are now replicating my model, and subsequently, the companys reputation, in terms of its human resources management, has also strengthened dramatically, and winning Saudi Arabia’s Employer of the Year Award is just an example of the accomplishment. The Global Benchmark After completion of the top-to-bottom redesigning of ‘Rewards and Recognition incentive system’, it was an understanding that the system was transforming into a global benchmark for P&G sites worldwide. For this reason, my inspiration stemmed from identifying performance gaps, and at that time, during the training of 350 employees on P&G success drivers and another batch on ‘High Performance Organizations Overviews’, I felt strongly that everyone should be able to take ownership initiative and feel valuation of their contribution. Simultaneously, I sought to transform trainings from a passive information transfer to an interactive experience involving self-motivated and self-driven individuals. To begin, I redesigned our Kaizens, the systems that was about integration of employees’ ideas into production policies and processes. In addition, I also set up Annual Work Plan systems to track and develop performances while encouraging them in terms of creativity. After placing of all the new processes, I realized out-of-date status of incentive programs, and consequently, began drawing up plans to revamp out rewards and recognition system on the course for delivering improved benefits to P&G’s organization. Ultimately, it increased the visible impact of our Saudi facility as a global benchmark site that was itself a huge accomplishment of my life. The Cultural Forum Building Al-Kaff Cultural Forum was an amazing experience for me that involved setting mission and vision, and moderating it for participants that present leadership across the spectrum of Saudi life. The panel participants included Ahmad Shugairy (social figure), Najeeb Al Zamil (National Council’s member), Ehsan AbdulJawwad (Globe Marine’s CEO) and Dr. Bakr BinBakr (ex-Ambassador to Tunisia and Syria). With strong interpersonal skills, I organized one forum event that generated so much interest inclining an alteration in the venue to a bigger auditorium for an audience of 2,000 people that was a huge accomplishment. Learning from a mistake "How did we end up here?" Khalid asked me. I was equally shocked, but in all honesty, not surprised. As team leader, I also felt responsible because he had done his part, and done it well. Nonetheless, instead of giving our team and department a last-minute boost just ahead of a pending internal audit, our floor management process control project failed to deliver the expected results. Looking back at the events unfolded, hindsight revealed to me a number of errors - both forced and unforced. This setback has certainly taught me that while being ambitious and courageous, I can be a better risk manager and planner, especially when I know at the outset that the path to project success will be challenging. First, I learned that it was not essential to mandate the completion of project before the audit without first mapping every aspect of it. For similar efforts of this scale, there had always been ample time in the past to create complete plan, strategy to guide, and steps to execute each milestone. However, on this occasion, my assumption did not hold, and time pressures overtook the ability to coordinate among team members properly, making strategy and execution an ad-hoc affair. Had I devoted more time to planning, that dynamic would not have undone our coordination and left us vulnerable. Even with mounting pressures, there was still time to correct the course. However, that correction thwarted after discovering severe limits placed on the budget. It was not that we started out short on funding but the budget simply did not allow a margin for error. None of us knew about the budget limitation beforehand, but in hindsight, I felt that someone in the team probably would have uncovered this hidden project risk in case of proper planning. Moreover, being aware of the approaching audit, I should have known the less-flexible attitude of upper management regarding project funding. From that point onwards, I resolved to assess both internal and external factors affecting any project in the future. Actually, I am glad that the situation unfolded the way it did, because it forced me to conduct my own personal audit of how prepared I ought to be in times when we do all the appropriate assessments and planning, and still encounter obstacles at each turn. Cover letter to the Admissions Board As a Saudi citizen living in a conservative society, I always wrestle with choices that affect my development, but this struggle has made me a stable and mature person in life that will be making an imperative contribution in this globe. I am a technical engineer by training, yet felt a calling to human resources and labor management; appreciative of tradition, yet progressive-minded; honoring cultural history, yet independently forging my own future. Ironically, all my strategic successes in human resources became possible only due to my contradiction of the notion that engineers are "more process than vision-oriented." It is my nature to challenge assumptions, even when working initially from a position of weakness or uncertainty. I am glad that I always chose to attempt that enabled experiences to reinvent myself, whereas lesser determination would have irrevocably changed who I am now. Believing in my capacity for growth, I dared myself to become a leader, to defy family expectations, and to face my limitations with the attitude that any disadvantages would teach me innovative things to adapt. I have attained Bachelor Degree; however, it is very imperative that an individual should continue the process of learning, in order to survive and compete in this world. For this reason, I believe that acquisition of Masters Degree in Business Administration will be a step towards achieving my goals of making a social contribution in the Saudi, as well as global society. In specific, I have researched extensively about your reputable institution, and have attained deep respect for excellent faculty and admiration for the learning environment that are some of the major factors of choosing your institution for the acquisition of MBA degree. Although representing a prominent family of Al-Dabbagh that includes members of the Saudi government; however, my branch of the family always struggle but continued the tradition of charity and moral responsibility for each other. In particular, I am the first person in the family to graduate from college, and will be the first to acquire an international MBA degree from your reputable institution. Besides academic achievements, I have gained enormous experience while organizing public service initiatives, multicultural forums, counseling and mentoring sessions, etc that allowed me to acquire a broad perspective towards life. Most importantly, I discovered that by constantly redefining my potential, I ensure that todays weakness can always become tomorrows strength, as long as I continue to choose courage over convention. Career Vision Now my utmost wish is to become a global human resource management executive who will be responsible for facilitating Middle Eastern companies, as well as governmental labor ministries in equipping their human resource with skills and vision that will be effective in acquiring a higher status in the global ranking. In addition, I have carried out comprehensive research about the HR profession and have gained tremendous respect for it, and I see how this profession has been playing a vital role in millions of human lives globally. I am enormously confident, love to confront challenges, and have been victorious in achieving my goals and objectives with effective utilization of intellectual capacity and emotional maturity. In addition, I always felt satisfaction in brining a positive change in people around me, and acquiring a career in the HR profession will be the best expression of the person I am, the value I bring to my expanding network, and the leadership I assert when steering groundbreaking initiatives. The Middle East, Eastern and Central Europe, Africa - these regions are among those where my local experience as a Saudi Human Resources Manager has already begun to have a much more worldly impact. From analyzing ideas with the floor workers that volunteer an inspiration to developing world-class systems and methodologies turning employees contributions into real value, I literally thrive on the energy I feel when I am engaging with employees at my global company (P&G) and getting the best out of them. Thus far, I have brought my energy to the roles of human resources process innovator, manager, and mentor, but I recently added another. Responding to demand from P&G sites, as well as other companies across the Middle East, I am increasingly providing consulting services on how to adapt the innovative programs, essentially acting in the capacity of strategic regional partner. This confluence of factors including technology, people, process lifecycles, career coaching and bottom-line profitability has prompted me to broaden my engineering and human resources-focused background. To develop critical fundamental operations management, finance, and senior-level leadership skills, I realized I would have to attend a business school with deep and broad expertise in leading organizations. Lastly, with the much that I have already accomplished in my life and strong enthusiasm for more, it is my belief that I will be taking to study the course as my own way of contributing to the development of my family, community, and the entire world. Read More