Essay#2: Cambridge MBA Difficult Decision Made
Describe a difficult decision that you had to make. What did you learn from this and how have you changed as a result? (up to 200 words)
Cambridge MBA curriculum is clearly oriented towards building the foundational skills that will help you make better decisions as a functional expert or as a leader. The core courses in Strategy, Organizational Behavior & Leadership, Organizations and Markets: Designs and Incentives demonstrate the importance of this learning objective.
Even in the electives, the school has clearly emphasized that in addition to acquiring the jargon of a new function, fundamentally - the school will hone your ability to make better decisions with limited, conflicting, and large information flow.
When you cite examples for this essay, make sure that you demonstrate the importance of decision-making in managing the complexity of an ecosystem, resolving conflicts, or making choices that are strategic and tactical in the same measure.
Follow these 5 strategies while creating the narrative:
1) Offer Context for an Outsider
The narrative on difficult decisions is easy to understand when the context is offered with such clarity that even an industry outsider will understand the limiting circumstances under which the decisions were made. This means removing any jargon that is tough to comprehend or affect the impact of the narrative.
Don’t use any technical term that takes the attention of the reviewer from the narrative to googling the phrase or word. Write for a college-level reading level.
Even better if you could simplify it for grade 8 or grade 9 reading level – at least the use of phrases and transition. Not necessarily the functional background of the narrative.
2) Demonstrate what was at Stake
Difficult decisions are not easy to comprehend when the stakes are not clear. Apart from the extreme consequence of losing your job that is tough to convey without some nuanced expressions introduced into the narrative, sharing the larger context of the growth goals – like fundraising or IPO or surviving the onslaught of a new competitor, all read well for this essay.
3) Failure or Success – Better Both
Narratives that include success and failure set the expectations immediately that the problem is not trivial. Preferably include a failure or a setback to indicate that the pressure was on before the decision was made. Don’t mention a successful outcome as the event leading to the difficult decision, as rarely do a person introspect after success.
4) Learning and Change
The second half of the essay asks, “What did you learn from this and have you changed as a result.”
If you are citing routine challenges, it will read poorly in the essays as apart from acquiring a new functional knowledge, such examples would have a limited impact on understanding markets, behavior (customer, team, competitor, or management) and give the opportunity to introspect on your own decisions.
It must be tough by any standards.
Preferably the change that you felt should be related to a change in values, outlook, or approach to a problem.
5) 200-Word Limit (Limitations)
When you just have 200-words to offer context on the challenges leading up to the difficult decisions, the learning and growth narrative after the event should also be precise without any scope for creating elaborate narratives.
