My Three Accomplishments and Setbacks - Admission/Application Essay Example

A. Three Accomplishments (600 Words) OIL SPILL I was standing in front of the worst environmental disaster in Lebanon’s history. More than 30,000 tons of fuel had spilled along 170 km sand shoreline, I did not want the shore to become another victim of man’s aggression, and hence I could not withstand the sight. Skimmers who would help clean the oil from sea would not be available for a month and therefore prompt action had to be taken before the oil penetrated deeper into the sand, making it impossible to clean. I researched similar oil spills to study cleanup efforts and contacted my professor who taught environmental chemistry for his expertise. I proposed a plan to Greenline, an environmental NGO that I deal with awareness campaigns. The plan was to clean the sandy beach using shovels and placing sponges to prevent oil in the sea from returning onto the sand. I coordinated with Greenline’s VP to secure the sponges and shovels, and contacted the Red Cross and schools’ community service groups to help. With more than 50 volunteers, we were able to clean 5 km of Beirut shoreline. As the news spread, more people joined arms, cleaning additional 15 km of shoreline. FAMILY “You will not inherit anything, only education.” This was my father’s often-repeated phrase. My siblings and I faced limited prospects due to our family’s financial situation and even dimmer prospects while in countries like Lebanon. The only way forward was through a top-notch education, which I had benefited from via a merit scholarship. I wanted to maximize my siblings’ chances of following my path. My youngest sister, Rula, had demonstrated high academic potential although the best education available at the American University of Beirut was beyond my parent’s financial capabilities. My sister however succeeded in her admission and I decided to finance her education. The decision meant many things at a personal level; it meant selling my car, and reducing the outings and other expenditures that are appropriate for man in his mid-twenties. Career wise, it meant taking up overtime and delaying my postgraduate plans for a year. Rula’s motivation and hard work paid off. She is soon to graduate from AUB before joining a private equity firm in Qatar. I know her life and surroundings will be changed for the better and I hope in some ways that I passed our father’s legacy to her. PROFESSIONAL SUCCESS I was hired amongst a team of four by Etisalat, the national telecom operator in the United Arab Emirates, to propose the next generation Information, Communication, & Technology (ICT) policy required when reshaping the market within 5 years. My role was to build a model that quantified the economic impact of the company’s policy. The task was daunting if approved by the board of directors my results would be published and presented to UAE’s government and rulers. The error margin that I presented was nonexistent. Over six weeks, I analyzed the goals of the industry, I met Booz leaders, and we brainstormed to come up with 11 policy levers that included liberalization, innovation, and Green ICT usage. I then researched comparable markets and held sessions with well-recognized international ICT experts to validate the type of impact the levers had on economy. My analysis verified that the proposed policy would double ICT growth within the next five years and increase GDP by 2%. The study was approved by the board, and it was scheduled for publishing and presentation to the government. Besides the deep sense of accomplishment in a society I was part of, this project demonstrated that environmental and economic sustainability are two sides of the same coin. B. Three setbacks (600 Words) Professional Setback It was my first assignment in Booz & Company, a major telecom operator in the Middle East. I was responsible for setting and implementing a strategy needed to improve overall customer experience, reduce churn and defend premium prices. After conducting over twenty interviews with sales and technology personnel and reviewing dozens of internal processes, I concluded that lack of a single point of contact was primarily behind poor customer experience. I therefore made recommended for the implementation of an enhanced call center. Going into implementation and proving my capabilities to my seniors, I spent most of my time trying to lead workshops and participate in all design aspects Rather than focusing on setting time plans and supervising teams. As a result, milestones for call center implementation were slipping. My manager approached me and advised that I should make better use of client’s resources to support my work. I called a meeting with the client and decided to appoint capable people to lead workshops and design aspects, allowing me to focus on time planning and the bigger picture. By realizing the power of “we”, and setting activities in parallel, the call center was implemented leading to a reduction of churn rate by 10% while maintaining price level. Entrepreneurial Setback: Investment in Socio economic development in Mumbai During my business visits to Mumbai, I could not help but notice the deplorable living conditions within the slums. However, the people I observed were energetic, perseverant and lived in basic tin structures trying to sell everything from rubber straps to nails in order to survive. I wanted to help by channeling part of this energy into something more productive. I organized a plan that would improve the living conditions of some of the families with young children and intended to present it to local businesspersons. My plan called for houses to be built by local workers from reusable natural resources (brick and clay) via grant funding. Better housing would open door for improved health and increased community cohesion. I headed to Mumbai and presented the case to the potential investors. As we discussed the revenue and investment levels, I realized that their enthusiasm was not equivalent to mine. My plan had a marginal return on investment that was well below my audience’s expectations leading to rejection of my proposal. I am planning a similar plan with an upcoming expedition to Ghana together with Habitat for Humanity. I therefore have built stronger business cases that show uplift on GDP, counterbalancing lower returns. I have engaged with community leaders who are more aligned to my profit agenda. I hope that my proposal now will face positive support. CAREER CHANGE: A leap of faith As an electrical engineer in the Oil and Gas industry, I have achieved many successes: I was the first engineer to go out on inspections abroad and supervise a team of more than ten engineers and designers. However, I was rarely able to see directly and control the impact of my work because my role was limited to optimizing and executing the refinery design rather than advising on the need for a refinery and the entailed benefits. I hoped that by shifting to Booz & Company I would directly see and control the impact that I was creating. At the beginning I had not been the case since my initial responsibilities was to offer assistance on isolated pieces of analysis. With every number I crunched, I was wondering whether I made the right choice. Nevertheless, I worked relentlessly and asked for increasingly larger project to manage, leveraging internal research, and the wider Booz team to ramp up my consulting skills and build up my knowledge in the telecom industry. Eventually I was assigned to lead a network and to share negotiation strategy between two telecom operators in UAE, my recommendations helped to end the stalemate by identifying potential savings for more than $500mm annually. Since then I have seen the impact of my work through advising telecom operators on enhanced sales channels and improved policies. C. Career Path (400 Words) “Environment, Technology, and Consulting,” blend them, and you will have the recipe for that makes me overwhelmingly happy. Growing up in deteriorating environmental conditions with a weakened economy has forced to shape my journey outside Lebanon. My career vision is to establish my own consultancy in Lebanon that will advise government entities and industry leaders on building a sustainable economy. Sustainability will be enhanced using environmental-friendly telecommunication and technology solutions across all sectors as opposed to relying on urban expansion or carbon based energy. I strongly believe that limited liberalization, narrow use of technology and lack of effective leadership impede growth of sustainable economies in Lebanon and the region. I hope to provide the leadership and strategic insights on policies and environmental friendly technological strategies that expedite liberalization efforts, spur innovation, and reverse deteriorating environmental conditions in the Middle Eastern region ravaged by decades of Oil & Gas exploitation and uncontrolled urban growth. Many regions around the world face the same kinds of obstacles to sustainable development similar Lebanon and the region and therefore they could benefit from the same contrived solutions allowing me to expand my vision globally in the long term. Regional growth potential is bright. While attending the Lebanon Sustainability Week, many industry leaders were enthusiastic about exploring new options for sustainable growth such as cloud computing and renewable energy. Engagements at Booz & Company in the Middle East such as formulating the next generation telecom policy and defining the technological journey of a telecom incumbent proved to me that effective telecom and technology solutions could spur growth, propel GDP, and improve environmental indices. Technological and environmental sustainability issues are often interlinked with complex factors such political agendas, economic priorities, and regulatory restrictions. The HBS Case study method teaches equally to consulting or applying effective business management to solve real case studies that often involve complex and sometimes conflicting factors. Electives such as Business and the Environment with Professor Michael Toffel and Innovating for Sustainability will allow me to have a deeper understanding of the environmental challenges that companies face and the innovative solutions required to ensure a sustainable business with the required leadership to drive these solutions through policies and business strategies. Candid discussions with HBS Alumnus Sany Kabbani and current first year student Samer Kallas convinced me that HBS is a chance to study with a group of like-minded individuals. No matter what country or industry they are coming from, they have something to contribute towards my understanding of what makes sustainability successful. D. Additional Essay (400 Words) I wished the admission committee could ask how genuine my commitment to the environment and sustainability was. For as long as I can remember, my family and I made a yearly trip to a village in the South of Lebanon. This was the highlight of the year, especially for a kid from Beirut. The village was undisturbed with abundant and pristine natural resources and a huge lake in the center. By contrast, my surroundings in Beirut were overdeveloped and overwhelmingly concrete. The contrast stuck since as I grew older, the lake grew smaller, and the contrast grew vaguer. Our village, in the name of progress, was developing. Everyone seemed excited. I failed to share their excitement, and we stopped our summer visits to the village. History books told me that Lebanon’s nature was unparalleled and pristine. Reality placed my history books to shame. Cedars of Lebanon, our national pride and once thought to be inexhaustible and designated as the dwelling of Gods where Gilgamesh ventured, represent a mere 2% of total wooded areas in Lebanon and are showcased in only 12 locations. The environment, let alone nature, was rarely on anyone’s agenda and I wanted it to be on mine. My commitment to the environment began in my teens when I distributed flyers to inform people about the benefits of recycling and the dangers of pollution. During college, I held environmental awareness campaigns, organized several trips to learn about the different landscapes of Lebanon, and took environmental and geology courses. I co-led cleaning the sand beach during the oil spill In UAE, I trained volunteers to setup environmental awareness campaigns on sustainable living in UAE, and I planted more than one thousand trees to mitigate climate changes. As an electrical engineer, I hoped that my oil & gas refinery designs and stringent equipment specification would reduce environmental impacts. I developed a proposal for the sustainable development of the slums in Mumbai and presented it to investors. As a management consultant, I led green initiatives that yielded 50,000 kg reduction in CO2 emission annually and a 20% reduction in energy consumption. I proved that policies involving green technology could double the sector’s growth within the next five years. The journey has taken me from humble efforts to improve the environment to proposing policies aimed at growing environmentally sustainable economies. More than ever, I want this journey to continue. I therefore want to become an agent of change by choosing HBS as my ally. Read More