Cornell University Graduate School Essay – Example 243 words
1.Why are you seeking an MBA from the Johnson school? What do you hope to experience and contribute here and what are your plans/goals after you receive your degree? What factors have influenced your career decisions to date?
In 20xx, I might be in the middle of wrestle with my brain in terms of purchasing conditions such as local buyer, price, and market in the xxx trading firm. I might have to decide how the change in the market will happen and also how the decision-making procedure should vary.
My short-term goal is to conduct the business as a trading manager who can analyze current situation of market, grasp the tendency of future, and make accurate decision as well as to maintain and develop the flow of efficient business with all the partners in East Asia including Korea. My long-term goal is to establish a professional trading company, introducing new selling technique based on a cutting-edge mechanism such as Internet Web Site. Highly necessary is the professional knowledge in the sense that I will have to learn through the curriculums of Cornell University such as marketing research, international marketing, integrated marketing communications.
To the best of my belief, I am confident that my experience for the past x years will serves as great help achieving my goal. During the xxx Company, I learned the technique such as bridge loan, project finance, and risk hedge in the field of international finance as well as international marketing utilizing positioning in the field of international trade. In addition, I have analyzed the market price and the factors of demand fluctuation such as exchange rate occurred in international deal and the oil price. While working at xxx. for about x years, I have improved my capability to conduct business based on a rational decision through my main work of the collecting and analyzing the market data. I learned the role as a member of our team and a coordinator in the sense that we can create synergy effect that might go beyond each and every one’s ability based on the teamwork. I chose Johnson Business School for the following reasons:
First, small-scale classroom and small group interactions that Johnson Business School provides are the primary reason why I apply for. My colleagues and I will be able to learn the importance of cooperation in supportive environment that Johnson Business School will provide. Moreover, a variety of ethnicity of my colleagues will enhance my global perspective. Secondly, Johnson Business School will help me achieve a series of processes such as strategic pursuing, negotiation skill, finalizing business deals with the limited data in an efficient manner. Third, the program of Johnson Business School will serve as a decisive role in cultivating leadership in terms of the role not only as a manager on the spot in the short term, but also a leader in the establishment of a trading firm in the long term.
2.Describe a recent national or international event that has had a negative effect on the business or economic climate of a paticular region of the world. How would you address this issue? What are the implications of your approach?
In 1997, an extreme shift in economy, which changed the structure of mindset of the Korean people, happened in Korea. In the wake of IMF regime, the invincible banks collapsed all of sudden. In addition, some big businesses-the so-called ‘Chaebol’- were bound to go out of business unless they rationally respond to the change in the business environment. In my company, xx% of all employers were destined to suffer from the massive dismissal due to restructuring of the company. Although I survived from the turmoil, I recognized many problems derived from the restructuring. The biggest problem was that arbitrary state-led restructuring could undermine the potential of the company. As a matter of fact, in case of xxx, the department of xxx- the prospective field that will reflect its outcome 5 years later – was abolished due to its weak return on investment during that time. Since xxx, however, reestablished the same department a year after abolition, I realized the restructuring coerced by the government would bring about considerable damage on a national scale.
Secondly, it is a matter of the means and the criteria of implementing restructuring. A number of Korean companies that selected the department system before IMF regime enforced the restructuring by each department. That is to say, while the team/department with good business record was bound to keep it as it had been, much more the status of the employees, the team/department with poor business record was likely to break down, much less the layoff of employees. In addition, as the size of restructuring regarding the number of employees in the context of the whole company was established, restructuring was implemented by ambiguous standards such as the layoff of women and the employee with longer career in the company. The means of restructuring should be formalized in the direction of enhancing the motivation of the employees and the productivity by utilizing the evaluation data and objectifying the coordination of labors through vocational training.
While the concept of ‘lifetime employment system’ in Japanese companies collapsed, Korea suffers from lots of problems such as distrust between the labor and the employer, the decline in motivation of members, moral hazard among members, and etc., in the wake of IMF regime. Many people say that the restructuring in 1997 was inevitable course of action. As far as Korean companies, however, do not establish proper business plan nor figure out the way of accomplishing its plan and appropriate number of labors in the project, it is not safe to say that there will be no more restructuring like that of 1997 in Korean economy.
3-b. The Johnson School is well known for its leadership curriculum and for building great business leaders. Please describe your most significant leadership experience.
On December 7th in 19xx, I had serious conflicts with a general manager in our department as hard as I should consider the resignation as a last option when our xxx heading for the xxx with x million dollar’s worth of xxx was caught on the rock. Through this experience, I realized the important fact that the role of leader is basically the coordination of the group rather than the implementation for the purpose of obedience. In this case, I also experienced the fact that leadership is derived from the fairest judgment by collecting and analyzing information after the accurate evaluation of the situation. At that time, I had conflicts with my general manager in terms of the benefit in the future and the cost at the present. The net profit in a xxx trading was about xxx$ worth, whereas it required xxx$ worth of expense to pay for the repair in place of missing ship owner after declaring general average. In the situation in which there was more possibility for ship owner to declare bankruptcy, I powerfully insisted on managing all business in the burden of our company because I judged that there was grand anxiety to lose long-term customers if we spent more time.
General manager, however, avoided making a decision which could serve as major damage in his career. Therefore he was wasting lots of time by ignoring my opinion although I was in charge of the matter. As a consequence, we were able to deliver the xxx to the buyer in xxx after refilling the xxx under the instruction of the boss who recognized the seriousness of situation through the interview with me around 5 months later. Since then, however, Buyer in xxx got our firm to disqualify in the same bid in 19xx, which produced serious conflicts as to who was to blame inside the firm. No matter what is big or small problem, we are always in the situation where to find out the solution, and meet a great turning point in life by what decision we make. I found the important lesson from this case in the sense that the decision was not performed by the same fixed standard in every situation. In addition, it required accurate judgment of situation, the rational assessment of one’s own capability, and the bold determination for the purpose of more desirable decision-making procedure.
4. Optional essay:
I would like to account for the worse mark than expected in the listening section of TOEFL even though I graduated from xxx University. Although I sustained the availability of TOEFL, I would like to point out the vulnerability of objective assessment due to the problematic facility that implements the test. As a matter of fact, since each and every TOEFL is conducted in the classroom of university in Korea, the level of facility is different ranging from college to college. In one university, it is possible to take a test in as high quality of facility as the communication lab. In other university, it is almost impossible to take a decent test because of lots of noise and terrible echo in the listening test. In this context, it depends on the place s/he is supposed to take to get a good mark in TOEFL. That is, the mark in the listening section of TOEFL has a lot to do with the place where s/he takes it. In my case, I was able to take only one TOEFL because the time was running out. Besides, the level of facility in which I took the test couldn’t be worse enough for 40 students to ask for retest.
But the chances were so slim that my listening mark eventually turned out just as half as the original score that I had usually got in the tests. When I was in college, I took as many as 15 credits of English subjects. In that context, I tried to develop my command of English in terms of communication. In addition, when I was a senior in college, I made every effort to develop my communication skills through the courses such as English rhetoric and presentation for six months at the xxx Program provided by xxx University English xxx. I am confident about my English ability particularly in terms of communication skill because I reflected my fluent command of English while I prepared for the international conferences such as International xxx Association, xxx Seminar. Moreover, I was granted the citation of the top among xxx employees in the English test implemented by English institute in the company when I was working at xxx. If necessary, I am willing to prove my listening ability by taking TOEFL again. Once again, I hope your school will not assess my English proficiency only based on TOEFL result. Thank you.