How to include resourcefulness and creativity in MBA Essays

When AdCom wants to learn about an applicant’s ability to lead, communicate, and work with teams from diverse backgrounds, they are looking for experiences that showcase the applicant’s creativity and resourcefulness. The word ‘Creativity’ flashes us with images of brilliance and ‘out of the box’ thinking, but AdCom is not expecting inventors. They are looking for applicants who can excel with limited resources. Efficiency and creativity cannot be taught in the 1-2 year MBA programs. Applicants develop these skills from school to college and apply them on real problems during employment.

Some of the iconic inventions are the result of resourcefulness and limitations. If you were born in the 80s, the game Mario would be a fond memory from your childhood. Shigeru Miyamoto, the maverick game inventor, knew the technological limitations of graphics during that time. Miyamoto gave Mario white gloves, red overalls, and face covering mustaches to hide the fact that the technology to convert pixels to recognizable facial features was not available at that time.

Related: Download Comprehensive MBA Essay Writing Tips

How can you include instances of resourcefulness and creativity in your MBA application essays?

1) Time

This is often the most cited challenge in projects. Employees have to coordinate fast, communicate efficiently, and complete the assigned tasks satisfactorily, every day. For project Managers, meeting internal and client deadlines are important key performance metrics, and the results reflect the team’s effectiveness.
When the time available to come up with solutions is limited, team members are forced to think creatively. The solutions might not be ‘out of the box’, but resourceful. Include the thought process behind the solution and demonstrate how it helped the team meet critical deadlines. For technical projects, avoid jargons, and cite examples in a simple, comprehensible manner.

2) Money

Lack of fund is a common challenge seen in startups. Often, the limited resources push the team to come up with cost effective solutions. The team developing Odeo – a podcasting platform was losing ground when Apple introduced iTunes. As a side-project, their principal Engineer developed a short messaging service inspired by the courier and tracking service. Most team allocates a small fund for such side projects and out of the hundreds; one Twitter is born.

Bootstrapping is not limited to startup ventures. At some point of the product life cycle, the budget shrinks, and entrepreneurial team members have to come up with creative solutions. The AdCom is keen to learn about the thought process and motivations behind the solution, more than the solution itself.

3) Team

Another reason for inefficiencies in a team environment is the size of the team. Any team with more than four members becomes a handful to coordinate. Although the project might have a team size of 20-100, dividing teams to smaller teams based on functional skills is a challenge.

For team leads or project managers, creating smaller effective teams require spotting talents, and finding the right mix of skill and temperament. If the project has limited resources, finding talents who can come up with creative solutions becomes a key criterion for building a team. If you had the opportunity to build a team ground-up, explain the thought process and methodology for the selection process.

Learn the secrets of writing a Winning MBA Essay