Anyone working in the Technology industry would attest that change is the only reality.
A leader should have the foresight to accept that holding onto processes, technology, and strategy of a bygone era is a losing pursuit.
Case studies of the 1980s and 90s have little relevance for the current generation, where with each iteration of technology or geopolitical development, iron-clad strategies have become fictitious narratives.
Leaders of the future should have the agility and temperament to constantly evaluate and re-evaluate their position and strategize according to changing customer preferences, technology integrations, and global power dynamics.
An open-mindedness to change is a trait that you should position for this essay if your leadership experience has been in technology integration (non-profit, start-ups, or consulting) and change management (designing processes for a new framework, manufacturing, supply chain management, or managing the disruption of AI).
Problem: In this example, the applicant works closely with an entrepreneur in retail, assisting with growth strategies. The focus was entirely on sourcing, strategic partnerships, and social media promotions.
The entry of a leading e-commerce venture’s offline shop in the neighborhood put the entrepreneur’s boutique business under threat. With footfall traffic falling by 60% and the team not focusing on their ’website and App,’ the boutique faced its biggest crisis.
Berkeley Haas Leadership Principle: Confidence without Attitude, Student Always
Theme: Adaptability
Theme (Explained): Adapting rarely happens without a crisis. In MBA essays, explaining the crisis in 20-30% of words should be the first focus. Once you offer just the right context for the crisis, talk about the solution and the impact and make the entrepreneur or the small business owner the second focus of the narrative. Don’t talk just about your intervention. And this 2-focus narrative is tricky. Script, edit, and script again.
Admission Consultant’s Note – SMB Narratives (Most Common Narrative)
Consulting engagements – helping a neighborhood shop, a small business of a friend, or a small business with minority ownership are some of the common essays I have read. While creating a narrative around such engagements, be careful and know that applicants with employment gap – forced (layoff) or otherwise, use the ‘helping a friend’s business’ the most. Such narratives trigger the guards of the admissions team against the authenticity of the narrative.
One way to break away from the most common form of non-profit engagement story is by narrating the story as an opportunity to learn about a new function and bring another person’s role/legacy into the narrative. Don’t take all the credit. Highlight the entrepreneurial skills and the achievements of the business owner.
Opener: Because in the middle of the essay, I am showing the applicant’s leadership in leading a technology team, the opener starts with his experience at Google and Meta in scaling a product. Once I established the experience, I quickly pivoted to the ‘student always’ mindset with the line, “To gain experience in Digital Marketing and Strategy for small businesses,”
Strategy: The narrative is all about the problem, the success of the entrepreneur to gain attention in her niche and how the success made the team complacent about their digital assets. Once the problem was defined, the narrative switches to the ‘how’.
2 Minutes: 232 words
Profile: Consultant
Industry: Retail
Beneficiary: Small and Medium Business
Traits: Intellectual Curiosity, Open Mindedness
Skills: Leadership, Technology, Strategy
Speed: Medium to Fast
250 words: Medium
250 words – 300 words: Medium to Fast
300 words and above: Fast
Sample Berkeley Haas Embody Four Defining Principles Video Essay (Small Business) (Adaptability, and IMPACT Oriented) (232 Words)
Q) The Berkeley MBA program develops leaders who embody our four Defining Leadership Principles. Briefly introduce yourself to the admissions committee, explain which Defining Leadership Principle resonates most with you, and tell us how you have exemplified the principle in your personal or professional life.
Please review the Defining Leadership Principles in advance and take time to prepare your answer before recording. You will be able to test your audio-visual connection before recording. Video essays should last 1-2 minutes and may not exceed 2 minutes.
I have worked with products of scale at Google and Meta. To gain experience in Digital Marketing and Strategy for small businesses and to help my friend’s boutique, I worked closely with her to strategize for the growth phase.
We developed processes that ...
