Technology as a lever is a common theme for applicants from developing economies. African applicants use this narrative to demonstrate the gaps in policy and infrastructure. Many such essays feel like the FIELD courses that Harvard Business School initiated for their MBA program. Some MBA admission consultants nudge clients to include the narrative to show fit with Harvard.
When I read some of the rinse-and-repeat narratives about bringing electricity and water to the village, the one that still remains in my memory after a decade is a story of an applicant who learned braille and painstakingly wrote the script for a popular children’s storybook. The effort and how she described the mission brought tears to my eyes. I don’t think any policy narrative overshadows such a human story.
For applicants from developing economies who are inspiring a generation with their ambition to join Harvard Business School, keep these 2 pointers in mind:
1) No Shame in Shaming
It is corruption. The good old corruption. Now, how do you present this fact in a sanitized way so as to not insult your country? You don’t have to. There are international agencies doing research and publishing this finding. Quote them to validate the magnitude of the problem mixed with the opportunities to turn it around. You can smoothen corruption with words like inefficiencies or systemic inefficiencies. The admissions team will understand the intent.
Many efforts are from a new generation of entrepreneurs who have had enough of the inefficiencies. Many are from the integration of global technology companies into the infrastructure. Many from exposure to the wealth and lifestyle in developed economies. Without describing the day-to-day challenges of living in an infrastructure-deficient region, the admissions team who grew up in an integrated city life where power outage is national news is unlikely to understand the mile long walk to get potable water.
2) Innovation = Resource Restriction + Collaboration + Inspiration
Even if I appreciated the applicant’s forceful approach to overcoming the lack of braille books for children, she also scaled her book translation for visually challenged kids with strategic collaboration.
Whenever I read essays of African applicants, the first plot point I am searching in the draft is where the collaboration happened. The lone wolf narrative is a clear hint that the person doesn’t have the social skills or the network to unite technologists, policy experts, investors, and expats with a strong emotional connection to the motherland for the vision.
Without such vision or examples of collaboration, Harvard MBA resources are unlikely to solve problems of such scale.
For the Sample Harvard MBA Essay about a Technologist who wants to transform the Kenyan Education System with Computers, the interaction with an Oxford Educator is quoted as a Eureka moment. Her idea is generously borrowed for an approach that doesn’t require a computer for each student.
Such innovation in a resource-constrained ecosystem often involves collaboration with unique thinkers. Use them strategically in the essay.
