• Leadership-Focused Essay: What experiences have shaped who you are, how you invest in others, and what kind of leader you want to become? (up to 250 words)
Background Information: The applicant - a second-generation Asian American, reaffirms the values of fiscal conservatism, building relationships, and empowering the local community through a crisis.
Problem: Although encouraging to see his parents gain massive local support and financial security with the store, as a business graduate, the applicant felt that he could digitize the customer experience and maximize order value. Father disagreed.
Disillusioned, the applicant chose a co-working start-up to demonstrate his unique growth hacking strategies. Despite gaining a stronghold in the market, the pandemic crisis put an end to the dream run. He was furloughed and joined the family business during the break. The store lost 40% revenue.
Leadership Traits: Open Mindedness, Long-Term Thinking
Leadership Trait (Explained): Open-mindedness to learn from a mentor and even better – cite them in Harvard essay is one way to demonstrate your learning potential. Learning is not just about mastering academic concepts but peer to peer learning and assimilating values from the class.
Theme: Customer-Centric
Theme (Explained): Post-MBA – M7 or Harvard, or T10, you will work on maximizing value for customers. By showing your perspective about what is essential to thrive in a business, you would stand out from all the non-essential narratives on resilience and persistence that might not mean much if you are not focused on what the customer wants.
Profile: Consultant
Industry: Real Estate, Retail
MBA Essay Strategy: The applicant’s role in developing an App for the store is highlighted in the essay at a crucial part of the narrative so that the essay is not all about his father. I have also humanized the journey – by sharing how upset the father was when the revenues fell by 40%. The essay is about the transformation in the applicant’s value from a person chasing productivity and optimization technique to someone who is truly thinking about the customers.
Opener: When there are two threads of stories – one on immigrant values and the other on small business values, it is always a good idea to start with the lesser dominant identity as the opener.
Sample Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Small Business Values (249 Words)
Growing up as the son of immigrant parents had all the clichés of sharing a 1-bedroom apartment, lessons on frugality, and 20 years of hard work, culminating in owning our store.
When I tried to enforce contrarian strategies driven by maximizing order value, my father unanimously told me that number chasing is not how we build a business. I parted ways with my father and joined <X> – a co-working start-up. In just a year, we achieved 2nd position in the North American market. And then, the COVID crisis hit us in March 2020.
