Clean bill of health - Harvard - Successful business personal statement

Successful business personal statement

It is the year 2015. I am sitting in my office in Mumbai, India, where I am working as the regional manager of an international consumer goods company. I am brand manager for the country’s most popular soap. The objective of this brand is twofold. The company is running a profitable business and through their business contributing to public health. By washing their hands with our soap, over a million children are saved from death caused by diarrhea-related diseases every year. Pearls of sweat manifest on my forehead due to the tropical heat and the difficult decision I am facing.

Just now I learned that our soap has unexpected negative environmental consequences because it is polluting the drinking water, resulting in a threat to public health. The twofold mission of profits and public health has turned into a paradox. On the one hand, if we pull back our soap from the stores, people will get ill if they cannot wash their hands with soap and our profit will go down the drain. On the other hand, if we keep selling the soap, people will get ill from drinking polluted water. What I will need in this challenging situation is to first create transparency by estimating the actual size of the issue. During my third year at McKinsey I expect to refine these skills. Second, I will have to make a judgment call based on my personal values of justice and social responsibility. My personal values, which also guide me in my professional role, are largely established and will continue to grow in time. Third, at Harvard Business School I hope to further develop the skills to take decisions and to convince others of them. These skills will facilitate me when communicating my decisions and delegating tasks, enabling me to focus on a long-term plan. 

Fourth, at HBS it is my aim to evolve the longterm planning skills that I have gained through my strategy experience. Finally, interaction with fellow students and professors who are bound to have different views on ethical issues will allow me to understand my ethical standards in the light of theirs. Moreover, visiting the classes on Corporate Citizenship and (at the Kennedy School of Government) Public-Private Partnerships, I realized that through the Harvard MBA program I would develop meaningful mentor relations. The mentorships that I have established at McKinsey have proven to be invaluable when facing challenging issues.

Analysis

The author’s purely forward-looking approach and vivid storytelling set this essay apart from the pack. In contrast to a majority of essays that reference past experiences and extrapolate more generally toward the future, the author of this essay chose to craft a specific example of a difficult ethical challenge she may face in the future as a consumer goods executive. Though this purely forward-looking, fabricated example is risky, the author captivates the reader with vivid imagery. Anxiety seems to bleed from the page as the reader envisions the author facing the dilemma as “pearls of sweat manifest” on her forehead. The author balances her futuristic story with a pragmatic, step-by-step outline of the skills and resources she must develop to appropriately respond to this dilemma. From her third point on, however, the author weakens her essay by straying from her forward-looking approach and wandering into a discussion of development needs, mentors, and the HBS experience. The author could have improved this essay significantly by more clearly tying her development plan into the ethical dilemma concept. The author could have further improved this essay by sharing more explicit insight into her personal values. While the author tells an interesting story, describes why this challenge would be so difficult, and demonstrates an ability to think carefully through the issues at stake, she somewhat hides herself behind the story. Ethics can be extremely personal, and applicants should not be afraid to shed light on their fundamental beliefs.

From 65 Successful Harvard Business School Application Essays edited by the Staff of the Harvard Crimson. Copyright (c) 2009 by the authors and reprinted by permission of St. Martin's Publishing Group