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Essay Question:
Why are you applying to the Full-Time Carlson School of Management and what do you hope to experience and contribute, and what are your plans and goals after you receive your MBA?
I have learnt the benefits and importance of real-life experience in the last one and a half years. During my internships with accountancy firms I only worked with creating books of accounts, verifying documents and as such had no decision-making authority. ABB was an entirely different experience where I was placed into a loss making division with the immense responsibility of working on the finances and towards wiping out the accumulated losses within a year. During the past one and a half year I have learnt to manage working capital, create cost budgets and manage finance and foreign exchange exposures. I created a costing sheet, which eased the tedium of costing dramatically. I also had the opportunity to work on preparing tenders for various bids. However, as Finance Controller, I had to take quick decisions even in circumstances where information was inadequate. In spite of my in depth knowledge of accounting and finance, I faced hiccups while taking such decisions and pushing the division back into the black. I observed other senior managers taking decisions comfortably in similar situations. I understood that their ability stems out of their on hand experience and quality management education. I realized that because of my lack of adequate knowledge about other functional areas I was facing problems. To solve complex company-wide problems a broad understanding of various functional areas is indispensable. My Chartered Accountancy qualification has provided me amazing depth in one particular field but I lack the breadth, which is essential to my long-term objective of working in consulting specializing in corporate finance. I hope to gain this depth by fulfilling my short-term objective i.e. obtaining quality management education. Studying for my MBA from Carlson School will be of immense benefit to me as it puts greater emphasis on learning through experience. My experiences have taught me that the best way to learn is not by studying theoretical possibilities and reading textbooks only but also by applying it to real life situations. That is why I have chosen Carlson for its unique emphasis on experiential learning as a major learning tool. Moreover Carlson has a strong focus on ethical issues, which is very important to me. I have first-hand experience of corporate ethics and its implementation, as our department in ABB was the first in Asia to undergo a bribery and corruption audit. I also hope to contribute my experiences of working on a successful turn around of a loss making division in an international manufacturing company and the in depth knowledge gained from my professional qualification. On completion I will have not only widened my knowledge of the various aspects of management but also learnt much more from the experiences of my colleagues and through internships and field consulting projects. Having completed my MBA, the next step for me would be to work with a reputed international financial consultancy firm. My MBA degree combined with my chartered accountancy qualification will allow me to work in a company of my choice and thus, gain work experience in corporate finance field. My experience of working with a transnational company and my quality education will eventually propel me towards my final step: becoming an independent financial consultant specializing in corporate finance.
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Essay Question:
Evaluate yourself as a leader. Where have you demonstrated excellence?
I have always liked to lead. I got a real-life opportunity to demonstrate my leadership qualities when I joined ABB as finance controller in the Power Transformer Division. The division was 5 years old but had accumulated losses to the tune of 72 Million Rupees. The goal was to turn around the division in 1 year. I realized that there were several problems plaguing the division. Productivity was low, expenses were increasing, coordination of expansion was demanding and non-hedged foreign currency exposure was perilous. The job was difficult as I was a newcomer and I had to liaise with different functional heads for tackling each problem. For productivity I had to convince the production department to start a third shift. As productivity improved I concentrated on costs and coordinated with the logistics department to improve the economies of scale. To tackle the foreign currency exposure a consultant was appointed. Further, keeping in mind the history of cost overruns, I devised a system whereby at the time of ordering one can find the deviation in tendered cost and purchase cost. Now that the division is profitable, I am working towards improving its profitability.
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Essay Question:
What do you consider to be your most important personal and professional accomplishments? Please limit to three.
My most important personal achievement is becoming a Chartered Accountant. It is one of the toughest and sought after qualifications in India. I had worked hard preparing for the final exams. But four days before the exams I had a nervous breakdown. I feared failure and decided not to appear for the exams. Seeing me in such a state my parents were taken aback and tried to convince me to at least appear for the exams without worrying about the results. After much convincing and deliberation before two days I decided that I would appear for only four out of eight papers. The day before the exam I thought deeply and realized that I would fail if I didn't sit for the exams and it would be cowardly to not even try. I decided to give all the papers. Putting in extra efforts for the couple of days I had not studied I appeared for all the papers and passed each one of them. This incident has considerably changed my outlook to life. When at any time I face a tough situation or feel dejected I always remember those twelve days. But now I face my challenges head on and never shy away from them. One of my most important professional accomplishments is developing a costing sheet. When I joined ABB I found that the marketing department did the costing for tenders. This was a carryover from the initial days of the division when the division had to establish in the marketplace and hence had to take orders at any price. I realized that majority of the projects, which were profitable on costing sheet, were yielding losses and nobody knew what the problem was. On studying the products and the processes in detail I realized that activity based costing, rather than product costing, was more appropriate. I undertook cumbersome exercise of finding time and cost devoted by various departments for various functions. I created a new template for the costing sheet keeping in mind that it should be accessible to the production employees. This has helped the division to obtain normal orders without sacrificing profitability and strategic orders with accurate loss estimates. The cost sheet earned me commendations from my CFO as well as the parent company in Sweden and is now being used throughout the company.
