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Why MBA? Essay
Turkish news
nowadays carry vivid images which have
become terrifyingly commonplace: the surface
of the sea littered with dead sheep; a
landfill explosion leading to a number of
deaths; vendors offering
radiation-contaminated tea for half-price; a
little girl's death resulting from her fall
through an open sewage manhole in her
schoolyard; radioactive waste sold to
unsuspecting scrap dealers; a
twenty-year-old tanker breaking into pieces,
spilling hundreds of tons of crude oil into
the ocean and killing sea life all around.
The frequency with which these environmental
disasters fill Turkish news broadcasts --
along with the obvious insensitivity of the
authorities towards both environment and
health issues -- prompted me to learn about
ways to prevent these types of disasters. At
the age of fifteen, I decided to focus my
studies on environmental sciences in order
to equip myself with the technical tools I
would need to make a real contribution.
After earning a master's degree in
environmental sciences, I completed a
professional international management
certificate program in order to gain a
management perspective of the field. I then
realized that, in order to effectively
combine my technical knowledge and
management skills, I needed to accumulate
real-world experience. Specifically, working
at a large company would allow me to develop
insight into various industries, as well as
an overarching vision of the international
business arena.
I have now worked for nearly two years in
the energy and environment group of Koc
Holding, Turkey's first and biggest
diversified conglomerate. As a project
engineer, I am mainly responsible for our
holding companies' environment and energy
sector investments. This position has given
me the opportunity to interact with
businessmen from all over the world, thereby
expanding my international perspective.
Because of my outstanding work performance,
I was chosen to attend various meetings with
local and international governmental bodies
such as OPIC, IFC, and the World Bank. It is
highly unusual for a young associate to
represent the company at such events, and my
self-confidence -- as well as my management
skills -- was further enhanced by that
successful experience.
While working in various business lines,
including the automotive industry, consumer
durables, and the energy sector, I have
realized that the root cause of many
environmental problems is financial. I
believe that many people in the
environmental sector are so ignorant or
insensitive that they will cheat customers
to increase profits. Furthermore, businesses
do not prioritize environmental investments;
as a result, insufficient funds are
allocated to adequately prevent problems.
For instance, despite a population over
eight million people, Istanbul, Turkey's
largest city, still lacks a properly
operating sewage system. In most of the
areas of the city, waste water is discharged
directly into the Bosphorus.
In the long term, I hope to help solve my
country's problems by starting my own
environmental-services business in Turkey.
The company will serve both local and
international customers by providing
cost-effective, adaptable solutions ranging
from waste management to safety management.
In order to accomplish this goal, however, I
must deepen my knowledge of the field.
Despite my experience, I still lack some
important knowledge and management skills,
especially in finance, marketing, and
entrepreneurship. I am also aware that my
knowledge of American environmental issues
is insufficient. Since dealing with aspects
of international business will be an
integral part of my job as an entrepreneur,
it is essential that I fill in these gaps.
The NAME School's MBA program is the perfect
bridge from where I am to where I want to
be. I am attracted by the inventiveness and
uniqueness of its entrepreneurial and
finance programs, and believe that I will
increase my practical knowledge of
entrepreneurship by interacting with my
classmates. I value the fact that at NAME
entrepreneurial education does not stop at
the classroom, but rather continues through
internships and extracurricular activities.
I feel that a business school for
entrepreneurs should balance a dose of
theory with real-world application, and NAME's curriculum and hands-on experiences
through associations, internships, and the
management field study provide such balance.
I am also drawn to NAME because of the
school's emphasis on teamwork and
technology, reflected by such exciting
courses and programs as High Technology
Entrepreneurship, International Finance,
12-week field application projects, and the
global immersion program directed to teach
global thinking and global action.
Additionally, the school's profusion of
student groups and its flexible
entrepreneurial program -- with electives
from 200 courses -- will allow me to tailor
my course of study directly to my career
interests. It is precisely this flexibility
that I plan to draw on while at NAME and
beyond, by taking advantage of (and
contributing to) the school's strong
international alumni network.
Above all, a NAME MBA will help me
strengthen both the finance knowledge and
the entrepreneurial skills necessary to
secure a position as an environmental
specialist in a multinational American-based
firm. Such a position, in turn, will prepare
me to accomplish my long-term ambition of
building my own company. By developing and
maximizing the technical knowledge and
managerial skills I have already
accumulated, NAME will allow me to
ultimately make a concrete and substantial
contribution to Turkey's environment.
Uniqueness Essay
For the first
20 years of my life, my activities--and
self-confidence--were circumscribed by the
fact that I was a chronic allergic
asthmatic. I was underweight, not as strong
or as well as my peers, and unable to
participate normally in sports. At night I
was unable to sleep without an inhaler
beside my bed. I was forced to ingest heavy
medication on a daily basis.
At the age of 20 I started running (slowly
at first), because I discovered that this
exercise--although routinely precipitating a
mild asthma attack--would later enable me to
sleep through the night. Very gradually, my
runs became longer. My strength improved,
the severity and frequency of my attacks
lessened, and soon I was able to discontinue
all medication. More remarkably, after about
seven years I was actually able to run 20
miles with no problem at all. This
accomplishment was an enormous confidence
booster, as it demonstrated that a normal,
healthy life was possible for me and that I
could achieve anything if I set my mind to
it.
Eventually it was a logical step for me to
progress into competition. I found myself
running in marathons and, finally, competing
in triathlons. In 1983, in fact, I
successfully competed in the Hawaii Ironman
triathlon, arguably the most arduous and
certainly the most celebrated single-day
athletic endurance event.
I have assiduously pursued aerobic exercise
for the past 11 years, ever since I
discovered that such endeavors were finally
possible for me and were the means by which
I could attain physical strength and
well-being. It was a long and arduous
road--from huffing and puffing (and
wheezing) my way through tentative one-mile
runs to involving myself in the rigors of
the triathlon--but I was determined to
become fit and to stay fit.
It has made all the difference.
Qualifications Essay
As a
Marketing Manager with ADP's corporate
marketing department, I have been assigned
to lead various product-specific marketing
initiatives supporting a diversified group
of business segments. Among these tasks,
none was more important to the strategic
direction of the business than leading the
development of ADP's web site adp.com.
ADP, a leading $5 billion technology company
with over 425,000 clients worldwide, lacked
a consistent or aggressive Internet
strategy. Instead, each business unit or
division was driving its own website
strategy and execution. More often than not,
the result was a fragmented message: a
cluttered, company-centric website that
failed to effectively communicate our broad
range of products and services. Despite its
market leadership, ADP was meeting neither
the expectations of users nor the needs of
clients. The company was also missing a
tremendous marketing opportunity and risking
losing market share because our competition
was operating at a far higher level than
ours. Realizing that corporate marketing
could add value across the company's
business segments, I initiated and led a
plan to redesign the website and fully
leverage the Internet as a marketing channel
to drive branding, product awareness, and
sales leads through an integrated and
path-driven website.
My role was specific: develop a strategy to
improve navigation, communicate the complete
range of ADP's products and services,
optimize the flow of traffic to drive leads
for the business segments, persuade visitors
to purchase ADP products and services
online, and create a platform for ADP's
evolving E-business strategy. This
initiative was highly challenging because of
the complexity of the service offerings, the
diversity of the business, and the
overwhelming political bureaucracy within
the organization.
With a limited budget, limited resources,
and limited supervision, I designed a
four-phase strategy to re-evaluate the
current website and replace it with an
active, path-driven site. The strategy
included a review of the company's current
navigation and content, a strategic
assessment mapping navigation and
functionality against corporate and
divisional objectives, and the design and
architecture of the site. Furthermore, we
developed a plan to validate our
recommendation with market feedback through
client and prospective client focus group
interviews.
The first phase encompassed an overall
program review, analysis of all current ADP
and industry Internet market research, a web
traffic audit, and internal interviews with
senior management. In familiarizing
ourselves with current industry practices,
we also reviewed ten competitors and twelve
business-to-business leaders' websites.
These 22 sites were carefully evaluated for
their relative strengths and weaknesses in
the areas of navigation, content, degree of
user-centricity, and organization. The
second phase included a design exploration.
Working together with a web design firm, we
developed five different design options. In
phase three, we gathered market feedback
through focus group interviews conducted
with both clients and prospects based on the
current web site and on the new design
options. The final phase involved
feedback-based revisions to the designs,
which will be presented to ADP's Executive
Committee in April and launched in May
2000.
The project was a success. Our
recommendation was received with exceedingly
positive feedback by both the business units
and the Executive Vice President of
Marketing. In addition, I have been awarded
with the honor of presenting the project to
the Executive Committee in April. Our
long-term goal is to develop an entire adp.com team dedicated to servicing clients
and marketing on the Internet.
The management skills I have gained from
this project have been invaluable to my
career growth. I have learned the value of
qualitative and quantitative research,
experience in fiscal management and project
management, and the importance of matching
corporate strategy to Internet strategy.
More importantly, the experience has taught
me the value of gathering senior management
"buy in" through the progression of a
project. I was able to successfully gain the
support of senior management by maintaining
open communication and making them part of
the process. Ultimately, this support was
critical to the success of the project,
which has brought my department and me
increased visibility within the company -- a
development that, in turn, has led to more
important projects. Through the success of
adp.com, I am now regarded as an effective
and respected manager who has the ability to
analyze and lead complex projects from
concept to completion while gaining the
support of senior management.
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