Business Administration - Essay Example

Master Business Administration – Pre Admission Essay Please describe your main interests and leisure activities, and any other experiences or involvement that has significantly influenced your career or personal development. 100 Words I was born in India where Cricket is played across the country. I received my inspiration and motivation to play this game after India won the 1983 World Cup Championship. I have played this game representing my school and college in various tournaments. During my leisure time I watch the television. The channels that I generally watch are the sports, movies, and entertainment ones. I also have an interest in the technological gadgets. During my childhood, computers were the only gadgets which influenced me and made me decide to continue a career in technology. 2. Please explain your principal reasons for wishing to join the Warwick MBA. Describe your career aspirations, the contribution you will make to the programme and, if you will be sponsored, the value you will add to your sponsoring organisation – 500 words I researched all of the universities in the United Kingdom (UK) and the Warwick MBA called my attention, since it is one of best reputed universities in Europe. This will give me an opportunity to introduce myself into business and understand the Financial Markets and Management. This will expand my horizons both in the theoretical (course content) setting and the praxis (networking). This will also enable me to obtain my degree without having to resign to my current job, especially, during this current financial turmoil. We spend almost three fourths of our lives in the professional world. It is, therefore, logical that we look into our professional lives not only to progress and get ahead in life, but also to learn new strategies and gain new experiences. An added experience only adds to a person’s richness in terms of thought and knowledge. Another important career objective is to keep in mind the experiences such as learning about the cultures of different countries, meeting new people and basically becoming familiarized with businesses´ customers taking into consideration their customs, cultures, history, traditions, idiomatic terms, and non-verbal communication on a worldwide basis. In five years I see myself managing the technology department of an enterprise. I also want to lead the team of professionals in providing services to the clients with the help of the state-of-the-art technology infrastructure. Using the knowledge that I will obtain from the Information Systems & Management Department at the Warwick research department, which focuses in various settings and technical involvement, including the E-Business model and business knowledge along with the Finance Group research will help me make my contributions to the Warwick MBA Programme given my experiences within these fields. By becoming part of the Warwick MBA program will place me in a position where I will be able to help the faculty members in their research endeavours. I speak several languages (mention them here) and that will allow me to perform research using primary sources in the native language. I will be in a position to not only translate the documents literally, but I will be able to use the elements herein mentioned (culture, traditions, history, idiomatic terms, non-verbal communication). We do not want to commit fatal mistakes as the Coca-Cola slogan translated into Thai – We will return your ancestors. Given the oriental respect for the elders, they did not want them to return. They wanted their ancestors to rest in peace. Another example was trying to sell Nestlé’s powdered milk in Africa (marketing and publicity negligence). Their instructions were clear, it seemed. All the mothers had to do was to mix the powder milk with water. Nestlé failed to tell the mothers that they had to boil the water first. The water that they used was contaminated. It is where they wash their clothes, perform biological needs, and bathe themselves. This caused thousands of infants to die. This was bad publicity for their company and bad bottom line failures in their balance sheets, not to mention, the loss of the infants. My obtained theory and experiences will also add value to the company if I am being sponsored. I certainly do not want to fall in a pot hole such as Nestlé´s experience. 3. Write about one of the following topics, taking no more than 1000 words. Either the key issues facing my organisation over the next five years OR identify the major strengths and weaknesses of an organisation of your choice. If you were the CEO, what three things would you change? – 1000 words Citigroup Inc. (Citigroup) is a world-wide financial institution based in The United States of America (USA). The company, along with its subsidiaries, offers many financial services to its consumers. It manages more than 200 million customers in six continents and in more than 100 countries. The company operates in four principal regions: North America, Europe, Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and Asia. Citigroup is successful concerning innovation. Their ideas are tested and developed in-house rather than seeking the competition´s or the industry´s trends. This means that Citigroup must not only be confident in the products and services that it offers to the public, but in its ability to deliver at the highest level of professionalism in accounting and banking standards. It also takes into consideration the regulatory practices and requirements. Should Citigroup miss them, it will fail. Building on its successes in leadership, innovation, generating earnings through hard work, and through the restricted or limited use of cash and cash equivalents, Citigroup, has the opportunity to produce profits for its shareholders. Its largest majority may be the employees of the Group producing according to its mission or vision of changing how money is used, applied, and valued today. These goals are not easy to achieve. The challenges are existent however they are able to be addressed. Citigroup is well prepared to successfully meet the challenges of the future. Within the next 5 to 10 years Citigroup will surpass its 200 years of existence and this will be a defining critical period within this current financial global crisis. The Group will literally reinvent and redefine itself in line given the global changes that will occur between now and the next 5 years in the following areas: science, arts, technology, human social affairs, and values. Funding is an area that the Bank has taken for granted due to the enormous resources available them to it to meet asset delivery, financial service, and debt service requirements. To grow more efficiently and successfully on a global basis, Citigroup will need to undertake an exhaustive study of funding options available to it given the international capital markets emphasising on how the new instruments and alternative sources will provide: 1) lower debt service cost; 2) better liquidity, terms, conditions, and options for refinancing; and, 3) aide in improving the client´s needs by developing or enhancing the financial products and services. Given the fact that I have worked with the Citigroup’s Technology team, I believe that the key issues that need to be addressed are Expense Management, Risk Management, and Personnel Management. Should these issues not be addressed in time and in the midst of an economical crisis Citigroup may fall into the “cracks”. The Expense Management area has to carefully evaluate its expenditures and make cutbacks within the expenditure area. Travelling to meetings would be one of those areas, since it would cut down on the personnel´s travelling time, per diems, air and ground transportation, lodging, and meals. The use of audio conferencing and video conferencing will help alleviate these costs. The problems with these technological devices are that it lends itself to misunderstandings and not understanding what is said. As previously mentioned, there are many countries involved in this process. As Centeno (1989) mentioned in her dissertation, there is a need to take into consideration the following elements to start, maintain, and develop business transactions. These elements are the culture, traditions, customs, history, idiomatic terms, and non-verbal communication. Knowing the English language is not sufficient. A mistake such as the one that took place in Brazil should not have existed. The Pinto automobile was being introduced into Brazil however the marketing or the publicity teams did not perform their research to the maximum. They introduced the Pinto with the name used in the USA and since Pinto in Portuguese means small male organ, the business transactions failed. The males did not want to be identified as an owner or riding a Pinto. Concerning Risk Management, the Citigroup has to make sure that the management is trained in all of its phases so that risks are lowered and minimised. Management has to be up to par with all of the details that need to be taken care in this day and age of economical crisis. The Personnel Management has to be addressed so that there is no multiplicity of tasks for one individual. It should also address hiring the needed personnel that is trained or train them according to the company´s expectations of results. Read More