Three Most Substantial Accomplishments in Life - Assignment Example

1. What are your three most substantial accomplishments and why do you view them as such? (600-word limit) Please combine the three stories into an essay under the theme that “I am a change leader”. Write 50 words for opening and ending while customize story 1 to 125 words, story to 125 words, and story 3 to 300 words To lead a change, aiding development and positive work environment has to be a leader’s priority. Several incidents in my life testify me to be a change leader. Right from my college days, I had generated within me the urge to lead a change in the hardships of the poor, as I organized numerous donations and activities along with my friends to help the elderly, poor students, and sick people. Further in my professional tenure with RRA, the business leadership perceptive gained was used to successfully lead the voluntary charity events. When Wenchuan was hit with the earthquake, the readiness of my team to serve the social cause needed an efficient leadership. Thus I led the team through a changed agenda to raise money for the sake of the rehabilitation process. Finally the change leader in me with an efficient team organized, 200,000RMB as donation and over 20 volunteers to assist the victims. To lead a change in the attitude of the team is what differentiates a successful leader. While being in the board of China Oxford Scholarship Fund, I realized the need of a change in the approach of the team. Conventionally, the only matter of concern to the board was the evaluation of scholarship candidates’ qualifications. To lead an expansion and change in the mode of the work of the board to spread the culture, ethics, and the philosophy of Oxford University, I persuaded my team for their support. A series of lectures and extension programs were organized and finally my leadership could bring effective changes as the board’s influence on the society was expanded by positively promoting the exchange of western and eastern cultures. Envisaging the prospects, redefining the limits of attainability and leading the team towards it is integral in the company’s prosperity. For the team around me RRA had achieved all it could. The company’s name and fame, list of achievements and much more appeared to them as over and enough. But I believed that a change towards development was still possible. The strategy consulting market was an emerging possibility in China. While one of the existing leaders in the field, McKinsey emphasized on industrial vision, the other market leader, AT Kearney concentrated on strategy execution. I realized that integrating the key concepts of industrial vision and strategy execution would help RRA to lead the show. Deliverance of on board consultation to help the clients meet investor expectations and concurrent capacity building of the team really could make a difference. A valorous leader won’t stop when met against factors challenging innovative changes. The decision makers were not sure on the feasibility of the idea as they feared that the innovation would affect performance and profits of existing business due to limitation of resources. However it was a reality that though they liked the idea, the fear for a change was forcing them to stop. I ensured this discouragement not to kill off my desire for change. I took a trial through part time consultations with out involving major investments. Resultantly, it was proved that board consulting would help RRA build a strategic partnership with Chinese public companies and accumulate a stronger client base aiding the executive search business. Meanwhile business competitors occupied the pioneer role in the envisaged business model which in turn urged RRA decision makers to build a board consulting business group of which I was appointed as the leader. Finally through persistent efforts change could be brought in. All through my life I had proved my skill to initiate change and to take forward the team to glorified success. 2. What have you learned from a mistake? (400-word limit) Please transform the materials into an essay on “mistake” My primary approach on renovating the recruitment process of RRA proved to be a mistake. The conventional system concentrated more on the number of candidates recruited without any reference to the quality standards. The need for a change was felt, as I could see the company loosing customers, while handling the recruitment of manager for a welding company. A major reason for this was the poor quality of the manpower of RRA which was result of inappropriate internal recruitment policy. The need of staff with rich consultancy background and experience in the headhunting industry was felt which would in turn demand a reform in the recruitment process. My approach towards renovating the system was very offensive and proved to be a mistake. I didn’t care to take the team into confidence on the prospect of the change. None of the team members joined me to avoid offending others who had developed an enmity against me. Moreover I was limiting the earning they used to have through internal referencing. I couldn’t convey the message that this loss would be compensated through performance incentives. I couldn’t gain the confidence of the decision makers as well, especially on the possibility of strategy consultants joining the working team of RRA. To add to the challenge, the Research Manager was insistent to stick on with the conventional system. Learning from the mistakes, I persuaded my colleagues to have a deep analysis into the market and to generate long term developmental strategy for the company. With their consensus on the fact that the company could not stand out without proper understanding on clients’ industries, corporate culture, strategy, and real needs, I approached the management. This time instead of a firm-wide reformation, I convinced them to let me pursue a trial version. I ensured to listen to the Research Manager, who opposed my plan the most. I invited her for a coffee and while listening to her shared my perspective in a friendly manner. The long term success of the company was reiterated to her as the intention of the plan. When a mistake was strategically rectified, success came my way. The success of the trial effort developed a strong trust on the integrity of my ideas. Resultantly the team was further strengthened by the recruitment of four strategic consultants. The successful strategy rectification helped the company make a remarkable progress in consultancy and other related industries. Discuss how you have engaged with a community or organization. Please highlight how “I” have transformed an organization called BCG. To transform BCG into a strategic client and collaborator of my company was a challenging task. When given a chance to lead the team to pitch BCG as our first client in consulting and open a new chapter for RRA, I found it as an exciting career opportunity despite the enormous challenges involved. My extensive global network helped me to make break the ice. I had a prior idea that BCG wont entertain specialty HR firms, as they were already frustrated involving them even at junior consultation levels. Leveraging RRA global resources through cross-cultural emails, telephone meetings, and referrals, I gained the support of the RRA Houston Office and their regional head helped me arrange a presentation to BCG’s global energy practice leader and China chairman. The challenge in front me was the prejudiced view of BCG on the capacity of RRA I could win their confidence with the reflection of my expertise and understanding of the industry. As I had a wide range of candidates in my database, I could present the company with the professional approach of RRA, which could win a trial contract for pre-search which valued up to $50,000. One month later, I led my team in providing a deep analysis to BCG on potential candidates, feasibility, and competence analysis, convincing BCG to sign a full contract favor of our company. This contract was a milestone for RRA. On the other side, as I accumulated detailed understanding of the candidates and as I knew their strengths and weakness, it was easy for me to find the right one for the right job profile. And more importantly, I knew what they valued most and their expectations on their career. Accordingly standing in the candidates’ shoes, I located the candidates whose career plans were most suitable with these offers. As my analysis of the industry and the career future of the candidates with deep insight could present the candidates with a clear picture of how precious this opportunity was, they made themselves ready to give up other popular and prestigious positions of the time, to take the opportunities in BCG. After the first batch of candidates was successfully onboard in BCG and subsequently proved to be the cream of the industry, we got high praise and more cases from them. With two years of relentless efforts, the initiated relationship with BCG was transformed into a strategic partnership. We turned to be global pioneers providing such services. Moreover, I could extend the executive search process beyond China to many countries like Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore, and Hong Kong. The cross-cultural executive search practices were generalized into cases and best practices by my team, helping RRA China’s international presence enabling them to find openings in other industries. Thus, the transformation of the relationship with BCG into a strategic alliance enabled me to have a wider perspective, courage to sustain in newer domains and to prove successful in striving against the challenges which come across. What are your three most substantial accomplishments and why do you view them as such? (600-word limit) Being a software engineer, accomplishment to me had never been limited to the technical jargons but was all about developing people, culture and organization. All through my life I have had achievements adhering to the positive spirit of life. Helping people develop personal attributes like integrity, confidence, courage and self esteem while working as college teacher and supervisor of 30 people in the continuing professional education program is counted as one of the most astonishing achievement of mine. Most of the students were elder than me and had no good academic records as they could not get through the National College Entry Test during their normal education cycle. They had their morale down considering that the society would never take them seriously. I boosted their confidence by assuring that the further they went, the wider will be the opportunities and acceptance. I helped them to revamp their self esteem and performance vigor. When some tried to take sentimental benefits in the name of family issues and other personal excuses, I preached them the need of personal integrity. The resultant achievement was reiterated as two students were accepted by graduate schools, an enormous achievement for anyone who has not received a four-year college education. I consider this incident as a significant accomplishment as it taught me the attitude of never giving up on oneself or on others. The incident that inspired me to have another accomplishment happened when I wanted to get my bag back from the office while Microsoft Silicon Valley. Being late at the closed doors of the office in the cold winter night, I tried my best to communicate with a Mexican janitor which failed as she didn’t understand even Basic English. It would not have waited for an hour if the janitor could speak Basic English. However this language inefficiency was a common problem of non natives. My previous experiences for the cause of the society in every realms of experience I have had, inspired me to do some thing on the issue. Moreover I have had experienced the hardness of culture shock and language difficulty when I moved to US. I shared my idea with my coworkers and a few weeks later, I initiated a program for Microsoft employees to teach foreign janitors English. I feel that I have had a significant achievement as I while helping people to own the crucial tool of language, I could also contribute towards building a work culture of social responsibility. My social responsibility to serve the hometown and its people made me to resign my job and to volunteer for IFRC .I was subsequently admitted into the IFRC’s critical course on catastrophe recovery which led to my intake as a field officer. Later I got promoted as a program assistant to the catastrophe recovery appraisal in which I participated in the recovery appraisal and was successful in establishing effective teamwork between the NPOs and the government. I was also responsible for the management of consultations and trainings and also the volunteer recruitment. Eventually I took over the management of the Emergency Response Units. I transferred my engineering, project management, entrepreneurship, and global team leadership skills to the IFRC environment. These skills helped me to establish a management system in the relief activities which facilitated a real time access into the logistics management and aided the quantitative analytical system which resultantly maximized the efficacy of the whole process. I count this accomplishment as a significant one as it had aided an organizational improvisation and added in me the attribute to contribute efficiently in differing situations. What have you learned from a mistake? (400-word limit) The core reason of failure in establishing a public brand for Hui Zhi Cheng Technology, the company co-founded by me was strategic mistakes. As the CSO of the company, I was also responsible for defining a promising strategy and creating a business plan to acquire the municipal government’s high-tech funding. After extensive market analysis, I identified the introduction digital TV middleware into China as a promising product with relevance to its performance in US. However despite all the other favorable factors the project failed as the government preferred to assist companies targeting highly populated markets with mainstream technology. Though the government suggested adjusting our strategy, we were drained in terms of financial resources leading to the team’s failure. The core error in the strategy was misunderstanding the government policies. The urgency of the board decisions was short of expertise in government funding. I didn’t involve a specialty consulting firm with expertise in this area to help the planning process. In addition, our team should have been more balanced. The team had involved 11 elites whose remuneration consumed a major share of the budget. A team with domestic presence with reasonable portfolio of talents would have reduced the cost tremendously. . Finally, we should have generated more strategic alternatives in the beginning. Had we considered more alternatives at the beginning, rather than waiting until a crisis arose, we could have sold our technology for a much better price. As a crisis management strategy, I inspired the senior management and our investors to persist in our goals. I had to invest my personal savings into the company to ensure finance. Our sincerity garnered respect and support from the team. Everyone offered to take a salary reduction as we brainstormed solutions. We ultimately decided to reposition the company as a technology provider for domestic companies. Four months later, we pitched three big clients and succeeded in selling our product. Although we preserved our angel investor’s investment and our product, our aims of establishing a public brand ultimately failed. The lessons from the mistakes committed however did serve as a benchmark to my career there on. This experience shaped me into a more mature leader. I learned the relevance of proper communication and strategic planning within the team. When the leader takes the responsibility of the mistakes and on the other side accredit the team’s success, it would inspire the team to work hard. Discuss how you have engaged with a community or organization. (400-word limit) My concern towards the society made me to associate with International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) which ideally fitted into my concept of community service. Though this professional repositioning from an IT expert and entrepreneur to the non profit position included a major loss in the percent of monetary benefits, the satisfaction counted over all those. My passion to find a position, contributing towards the world’s most pressing needs made me engage fully in the organization. I could successfully replicate my business skills into the social scenario. The fundamental pillars of every business operation including mission, money, management, and marketing as leant by me in the business ventures were to be replicated in the non-profit scenario so as to ensure the success of the project. My skills on engineering, project management, entrepreneurship, and global team leadership skills helped me to establish a management system in the relief activities. It facilitated a real time access into the logistics management and aided the quantitative analytical system which resultantly maximized the efficacy of the whole process. However it was quite hard to be true to the management theories as a number of challenges had to be crossed across. The gap in the understanding of government on the implementation process of IFRS was enormous. When the government funding targeted to cater for the victims of the earth quake, the IFRC’s mission was to target the vulnerable people. The government couldn’t understand this distinction. I reckoned some of the similar business scenario I had faced and took a relevant approach. Rather than a theoretical approach I took a practical outlook while conducting the cross-cultural communication with the government delegates. My approach not only amused everyone, but also reinforced the principle of humanitarian work to serve the most vulnerable people. Another challenge was the philosophical policy mismatch of the government and IFRC. While staying in Guangyuan city for a recovery appraisal, I felt guilty when the recovery team sponsored by the project stayed and dined in a 4-star hotel. When the victims suffered it was quite unfair to have such a luxury. The real issue was that the Government officials were not properly conveyed the policies of IFRC. I approached the problem by scientifically intervening with a training package. My engagement with the social organization was made meaningful by the proper integration of business theory and its application on practical social issues. Read More