[留學] 第一輪檢討 essay - Why MBA

以下為WHY MBA(Chicago University)中，我覺得德國創業家寫的essay是一篇非常精典的一篇文章。以下幾點皆是我反省比較後得來。

整篇我覺得寫最漂亮就是第一句，同時提到"特殊點"及"Why MBA"。



作者非常清楚自己的特殊的點在哪，不是強項而是特殊的點。這點很多人會搞不清楚，包括我自己也是在面試好幾間學校後才發現這差異。”強”有兩種表現方式，絕對或是相對；”特殊”則較為複雜，我個人覺得很像同中求異，或者異中求同的表現方式。舉例來說，我本身在傳產工作(汽車維修工廠)，這其實跟其他申請者比較是非常大不同，因為大部分台灣申請者都是來自三大行業:外商金融顧問。但你在突顯差異點時，也會隨之表現出很多相似點，例如野心，摸索自己的過程，以及自信。這是不能寫出來而是透過字裡行間中流露出的，The real meaning is behind your words。

作者身為非native speaker，他的寫作功力只能算是普通，但它卻可以簡單直述的方式描述故事，他的故事，從開頭的破題到中間隨過去時間延伸及未來期許，Simple is powerful。

敘述成就可以用相對和絕對的概念交互應用，我個人不覺得一直提數字會是很好的策略，這點我覺得在我自己的文章就做得很不好。利用數字來表示對經濟系學生應該不陌生才對，但難在佈梗的方式，如何讓這數字顯得非常有力。在以下文章中，這位德國創業家就完美的演繹這個方式，例如他先提到創業時的capital對比數年後的revenue的爆炸成長，機台擴充數字配合者營業額的數倍提升，或許這絕對數字看起來沒什麼，但在用比較上就顯得非常有說服力。

最後也不忘記拉回來提到Why MBA，前面的佈梗就是為了這時候，妳的why mba一定是和career goal作結合。在這邊繞題一下，讀MBA對大部分老美而言：look for better job not change the world. Changing world is good but please find the god damn job! 我是很後面才體會這點，這讓我吃了很多苦頭。

總之因為Career goal而可以強烈連結到MBA甚至是學校本身，而這位德國人也完全沒有浪費字數，兩小段就表達為什麼他需要MBA，以及為什麼是Chicago。這是非常難的一件事情，用詞精簡但卻不遺漏。

我現在還是做不到這點，這篇文章讓我知道能夠上Top 7 MBA的人實力。學習是永無止境。

1. Why are you seeking an MBA from the University of Chicago?

As a German entrepreneur who would like to expand his current business, I believe an MBA is necessary for me at this time.

My career path has been rather unorthodox thus far. While still a student, I started my own firm. For the first four years, this consisted of embroidering terry-cloth textiles for department store chains. I began the business for two reasons. I had spotted this niche market which offered what I thought was a chance to make a fair amount of money. Also, I had a strong desire to work for myself, to “create” something, and was delighted to take the opportunity available to me.
Getting this business established required that I put in long hours making sure the machinery worked, that our deliveries would be made in spite of truck breakdowns, etc. I had to learn most things from scratch, since I had essentially no experience related to running a business. I learned as much as possible through doing library-type research and talking to everyone I could find who had experience with the issues involved. Then I pushed and pushed until something worked out.
I eventually had a bit of money put aside, so I was able to take the next step in building my business. I rented a store of my own in which to sell our textiles. I expanded our output by adding four machines, which allowed me also to expand the range of our output. This expansion allowed us to serve the hotel trade as well.

The business certainly expanded from a sales perspective as well. Turnover for the first year was 120,000 marks. By the sixth year, we enjoyed revenues of 2,400,000 marks. That year we designed a new store which was truly state-of-the-art and much larger than our old one. We then expanded our product line and added several more stores. Last year’s results showed a turnover of 10.8 million marks, despite Germany’s poor business climate.

I very much hope to continue “running my own show” in the future. However, I would like to run a much bigger, more complex one. To do so will require a much greater understanding of things which I have grasped at only the most practical of levels. In particular, there are two areas I must address if I intend to be successful in this expansion: control systems and finance.
Thus far, my business has been run through personal management, literally being on the spot to address any problems that arise. I would like to move toward a more “professional” management style, putting a management structure in place that would provide a built-in control mechanism. I have benefited from the fact that my business is a community-type enterprise, where I know my clients and employees personally. This has cultivated a certain loyalty to me, but in the long run, reliance on this overly personal view of things could be detrimental to the expansion of the business.

My desire to understand more about finance relates to my desire to expand my business. Right now I think that I understand too little about how to analyze my financing needs, and will consequently be unable to raise substantial sums of either debt or equity.

My interest in a rigorous, theoretical approach to such subjects—to balance my purely experiential understanding—drives my desire to attend the University of Chicago. Since I already have much practical experience, I am not interested in a case method program which simulates the “real world,” I am looking for a serious quantitative approach to finance, as well as hard-edged marketing skills to supplement the intuitive grasp I already have. I am in the fortunate position of having developed strong enough managers under me so that I can be away from the day-to-day supervision of the business, so this is an ideal time to pursue the MBA.

I think I would be able to contribute to the school in terms of being a German entrepreneur who has been running a business for ten years. I understand firsthand retailing in Germany, including the legal framework, customer attitudes, and the general business environment of post-reunification Germany. And I am an extremely outgoing person who gets along easily with others.

I believe the MBA would supplement my developed interpersonal and practical skills, and give me the necessary “hard skills” to see my business expand into the next decade.