MBA Questionnaire - Assignment Example

Essay A: What matters most to you, and why? 750 words To identify a higher purpose, a greater cause and a moral value in every stratum of personal and professional life, and working towards it is what matters to me the most. Being true to these values all along the aspects of personal growth, career development, entrepreneurship, and community services would help me discover the truth of life. These values were identified when I had to strive across the challenges and break out of the restrictions to achieve transcendence in personal growth. My passion for dancing was challenged when I had to quit as my physique out-grew other girls in the team and became the odd one. My determination kept inspiring me to get across the challenge and thus I identified a new trend in folk dance featuring a leader who was taller than others in which I could easily fit in. When it came to my passion in modeling, height turned to be a limiting factor once again, but this time in the reverse order. I identified my role as a coach and a team builder which helped others also to chase their dreams as I established university’s first modeling association. These experiences made me understand the necessity to search for higher values in each and everything you do in life. The endless competition in the job market has frozen the ethics behind the professional endeavors as many people experience a lifelong tug-of-war between professional success and these ethics. But for me career has higher purpose than mere money and reputation. I have always looked on to my mother who for ever stood for her values. .While she created profit-making enterprises during the open policy in the late 1970s, her prime aim was to help many middle aged Chinese women gain independence. It was the search for the higher values and morals which persuaded her to close her companies to rejoin the state-owned enterprise to help it survive a major transformation in the Chinese national economy. As being an early-driver of venture capital in China, I too believe that capital can be successfully combined with the search for social transformation .I have proved this by helping socially beneficial initiatives to have a higher growth by utilizing the possibilities of venture capital. More than money and economic sharing, charity should have a higher purpose. Since 2003, I assisted Net 263 CEO with his 10-year project, which had built 100 Hope Schools to ensure support and education to children who are deprived of the basic rights of schooling and other facilities. Rather than the capital involved in the charity, what impressed me was the time he spared from his busy business schedule to reply to the letters of those children. He ensured to have all those letters handwritten, as he could visualize the compassion and encouragement these letters could bring to those kids. I strongly believe that the greatest healing that one would ever offer to anyone would be the moments shared while being true to what you are. My role as a social negotiator to help my neighborhood shopkeepers in reinstating their livelihood was inspired by the identification of my moral responsibilities. The local government, as a part of the Olympics project was relocating their shops which were the only means for their daily bread. They were not properly compensated for the loss .The entrepreneurs had attempted to stop the reconstruction, but had made little progress. I utilized my business skills to arrange for a professional and mutually beneficial negotiation with the government, which ensured them a proper compensation. My education at Stanford has a higher purpose than learning as I am pursuing the degree for the sake of the development of my organization and eventually the improvisation of National economy. Venture capital is an apprentice job but I feel my current knowledge and experience as limiting factors to persuade my team to perform better. The Stanford MBA will enhance my ability to lead my team to excellence. Stanford can connect me to key energy companies located primarily in America or Europe through my classmates, alumni, and its faculty. By having a detailed perspective on American industries, I can replicate the methodologies in its Chinese version serving more towards the country’s economy. All through my life I need to keep alive the urge for a higher purpose, a greater cause and a moral value. This would be achieved by reflecting the actual human in me in each and every moment of life. Essay B: Tell us about a time when you went beyond what was defined, established, or expected. 300 words Tell us not only what you did but also how you did it. What was the outcome? How did people respond? Only describe experiences that have occurred during the last three years. The concept to replace the conventional capitalistic investment with strategic investment was well beyond the defined limits of a Chinese consultancy. My plan with Gravity, the financial consultancy co-founded by me was to initialize this concept in Chinese market. However the expectations on me were also not of high standard as I was a young female without an advanced degree. After extensive research, I could identify a flow battery company, still in the R&D stage as the potential client. Their energy conservation concept well fitted into my strategy and had high scope of gaining venture capital I could effectively lead the CEO of the company towards my thought. I could convince him that the strategic investors would look for long-term strategic value rather than short-term returns giving the company ample time for R&D to streamline a state of the art technology, well favored by the technological support by the investors. But the management poised concerns on the fact that the most ideal strategic investor were inexperienced in investing in China and also on the chance of loosing the current investors. Fighting across these limiting factors, I initiated relationships with potential strategic investors. I could get to know that one of them was enthusiastic about investing in flow battery foreseeing its market demand, but gave up the idea because of the inferior business and technical model of the companies they approached. This built in confidence with in the company. I made the impossible to happen as I succeeded in bringing in strategic investment from some ideal investors after ensuring the confidence of the client’s management team as well as the existing conventional investors. Resultantly, I achieved targets much beyond my limits as I raised 12 million dollars for the client from 4 investors and my firm acquired reputation in the industry. Essay C: Tell us about a time when you tried to reach a goal or complete a task that was challenging, difficult, or frustrating. 300 words Tell us not only what you did but also how you did it. What was the outcome? How did people respond? Only describe experiences that have occurred during the last three years. The challenge to get over a mistake committed and to compensate the losses incurred is at times is quite demanding. When I led the first investment venture for Net263, I was young in the industry and was eager to prove myself. The reviews written on the target company by industry experts confirmed the figures projected by the company as true and promising .Though, my team’s engineer doubted on the future of the target company’s operational plan, I completely ignored him as I was biased relying on the expert’s review .I underestimated my team’s expertise considering their lack of experience. The documents presented by the company convinced the management board of Net 263 as well. Ultimately, Net263 became one of the investors. But within a year the target company collapsed and was bankrupt. My company lost six million Dollars. The responsibility on me was huge to compensate the company’s loss. I made a self review and decided to have a check on my overconfidence .I then on, ensured to create an inclusive team by accrediting the experience of my team members and devised an effective communication system. I worked hard to gain confidence as an effective leader. I learned to review and correct my decisions. The team was inspired and encouraged to work towards a unified vision. I admitted my mistakes to team members and gained their understanding as well as support. I worked with the team to understand the specific skills and requirements of each team member and responsibilities were allotted accordingly. The team worked hard on researching the investment scope and vulnerability of all the prosing entities which came across. The combined effort of the team helped Net263 to acquire a company with essential strategic value within the next six months and thus I won over the challenge. Read More