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Digitization - Kellogg MBA: Leadership Difficult Decision Essay

Background Information: A consultant puzzled by the hesitation of stakeholders to embrace digitization reevaluates incentives to streamline the implementation of digital tools, processes, and frameworks for the hospital network.

Theme: Change

Theme (Explained): Change narratives are critical to building an engaging story. 

Either a change in the protagonist or their ability to take the team/organization through a period of rapid and drastic change – both read well in MBA essays.

Profile: Consultant

Industry: Healthcare 

MBA Essay Strategy: Writing an essay with the change narrative needs a strong understanding of the ‘solution.’ 

The solution is often one-third the narrative. 

The more technical the solution, the tougher it is to include the example for your essay.

Always add more context by sharing the resistance of the stakeholders to embrace the change. 

Is it an incentive problem?

Is it a technology adoption problem?

Is it a cultural problem?

For the essay example, since the protagonist is a consultant and the change was in a hospital, there were several opportunities to include behavioral, hierarchical, and technology adoption challenges to demonstrate the evolution of the applicant’s leadership style.

Opener: The frustration with the technology is the first line. The reader is directly taken to the crux of the problem.

Kellogg MBA Leadership Value, Difficult Decision and IMPACT on leadership Style Essay (Digitization and Change Management) (431 Words)

There was visible anger on the Doctor’s face as he opened the App. 

The patient record was running on an App from one vendor, the doctor’s notes had poor integration with the records, and the insurance details from a third vendor slowed down the preview of the record. 

The first week of on-ground data collection required us to observe doctors. The information flow about referring patients to another department happened through phone or email or a note that were stuck in the workflow of the slow App. The hierarchical nature and specific chain of command around seniority made the customer – the patient an afterthought.

As a consultant, I developed  ..

....


For the full narrative on how the applicant demonstrated leadership in the Digitization of the hospital as a consultant, Download F1GMAT’s Kellogg MBA Essay Guide

 

About the Author 

Atul Jose

I am Atul Jose, Founding Consultant of F1GMAT, an MBA admissions consultancy that has worked with applicants since 2009.

 

For the past 15 years I have edited the application files of admits to the M7 programs: Harvard Business School, Stanford Graduate School of Business, the Wharton School, MIT Sloan, Chicago Booth, Kellogg School of Management, and Columbia Business School, together with admits to Berkeley Haas, Yale School of Management, NYU Stern, Michigan Ross, Duke Fuqua, Darden, Tuck, IMD, London Business School, INSEAD, SDA Bocconi, IESE Business School, HEC Paris, McCombs, and Tepper, plus other programs inside the global top 30.

 

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The reason I still write and edit essays every cycle: a good MBA essay carries a real applicant's voice. Writing essays for F1GMAT's Books and Editing essays weekly is how I stay calibrated to what current admissions committees respond to.

 

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