2021年6月29日 星期二

Monday Blue Buster 每週一MBA生涯公益解惑日:Career Goal Essay疑問

Q:

大家看看我的Goal 是否有大漏洞:
I have a long term plan to build up my own software company in IT industry. China has so many talents of software engineering, but China dose not own world famous software companies. While, India’s software industry have boomed up and cultivated many well-known native software firms, such as InfoSys and Satyam. On the other side, foreign software and solution companies, such as SAP, Oracle and Microsoft ,almost occupied China’s software industry. Ironically, they hosted their R&D centers in China and hired a bunch of Chinese engineers. I aspire to take the responsibility to alter the situation and foster a world-class software service provider from China.

For this goal, first of all, I should build and sharpen my business capabilities before 35 years old. In Intel, I inspired my potential and learned a lot about various leadership styles, effective team work, customer orientation, and business operation. Especially, Intel’s open and global working environment cultivated me to be a pro-active and initiative guy with global thinking. However, only a MBA program can offer me systematic business management trainings to improve my general skill-sets of international business operation. Secondly, I need a business co-partner, who are smart and passion. In a top MBA school, it will be easy to get this task done. Thirdly, I should find out the venture capital to support the setup of my business. So I prefer study in US for my MBA program, where it is relatively easier to get capital support.

A:
根據筆者曾成功協助個案錄取哈佛MBA、拿下耶魯MBA獎學金,
及曾創下全年度所有個案以GMAT均分672、無接班無弱勢的凡人條件,皆拿下多校Top 30MBA獎學金的經驗,
以及曾成功協助眾多無身份、無背景、非學霸的個案拿下Apple、Google、Amazon、Facebook、McKinsey、Microsoft等各大企業巨頭面試,
並進入美國頂尖企業:如Google、Amazon、NIKE、SAP、eBay、Expedia、DuPont...等企業任職的經驗,

這篇essay除了不知為何要從硬體轉軟體之外,大問題不是太嚴重,但有很多細部問題,不解決是不會錄取的。
語氣平鋪直敘,沒有看到什麼熱情所在。
不過國際坊間交戰守則中的sample很多也都是這樣的語氣。
長程目標有大方向,但方向有點太大了。
講到大陸與印度趨勢都很好。
不過以上狀況都無關緊要。

主要問題有幾大點:
一是大陸與印度有這些趨勢,但只是總體經濟面。
跟您個人生涯的關係為何? 
要有細部的個人動機結合。

二是為什麼這樣的趨勢要由你來執行這樣的目標? 
有什麼個人能力或特別經歷與其他競爭者區隔?
為什麼十幾億人要由你來執行,而不是別人? 
你跟別人有什麼不同?
這篇essay主要問題就是:幾乎可以套在其他十億人身上,沒有很強的個人獨特性與區隔。

三是沒有明確的細部目標與具體實踐方式。
內容講的方向很大,有什麼細部目標與計畫,能一步一步將大方向目標完成? 必須要有break down細目,以及動機目標,跟你的獨特關係。

四是定義模糊。
software太多了,要講出是哪種software,然後為什麼是這種software?
市場在哪?為什麼會有這市場? 可能因為某某趨勢或市場需求~
您的公司要多大規模?資金來源為何?為什麼非得這樣做不可?當前業界狀況如何?你所看到的願景又是如何?為什麼你覺得這種願景會實現?...等等

這些基礎條件要先定義好之後,跟您現在的能力與資源有何差異?
找出中間的gap以後,才會具體知道需要加強哪些部分:
是需要marketing? 還是需要finance? 還是需要entrepreneurship?
必須要把這些細目都定義清楚,才會發現是否欠缺MBA訊練。

而需要的是MBA的哪些部份?又為什麼是UNC?非UNC不可?
UNC強項並不在entrepreneurship,而是在marketing communication,而且非常強。
但跟你的目標與現狀,都還沒有任何證據能夠結合。
必須要將這些證據明確列出,才會有面試機會,並且進而錄取,甚至拿獎。

第五是對生涯未來有預設前提。
為什麼會出現一個轉折點在35歲?而不是33歲或38歲?
需要有個理由或證據,不能無中生有。

然後回到定義模糊的問題。
你所指的business capability是哪些?要有明細。
你可以說需要有managing people and leadership,能夠帶領企業團隊。
那麼你目前的管理能力已經具備甚麼規模?是哪方面?
是vision?還是managerial economics?strategic planning?quantitative analysis?還是motivation skills?還是coordination skills?delegation?還是pitching and fundraising skills?還是project management?reward management?還是empathetic leadership?
還是哪個具象的領導力面向?
為什麼會需要這些領導面向?跟生涯目標有什麼關係?又跟學校有什麼關係?
為什麼非你不可?

例如:要有international economics、marketing research及consumer behavior能力,才能知道市場在哪; 
要有financial accounting與corporate finance,及investment management,才能知道如何企業籌資; 
有innovation management、IT product development and project management,甚至還要pricing、channel management、managerial accounting、international product marketing,才能知道如何開發新軟體產品,成本為何?定價為何?通路為何?以及如何行銷...等。

您下頭講到的這段就相當接近:
In Intel, I inspired my potential and learned a lot about various leadership styles, effective team work, customer orientation, and business operation. Especially, Intel’s open and global working environment cultivated me to be a pro-active and initiative guy with global thinking.
不過沒講完,要再往下延伸。

例如:要把customer orientation定義更精細完整。
customer orientation的目的是為了satisfy particular demands,並且capitalize feasible profit。
然後跟學校課程結合:所以你需要UNC的consumer behavior course,來知道消費者到底在想什麼?
以及 market research來找出市場需求...等。

後面這段有點抽象 :
Especially, Intel’s open and global working environment cultivated me to be a pro-active and initiative guy with global thinking. However, only a MBA program can offer me systematic business management trainings to improve my general skill-sets of international business operation.
不太知道你的pro-active and initiative定義是什麼?為什麼會需要這些特質?
又為什麼這會需要MBA訓練?

可以換一種更具體的講法,例如 :
Grown from a public servant family that nurtured me with bureaucratic parenting treatment, I’ve developed superior rationale to not only defend my freedom against such arbitrary parenting treatment, but also made me capable of building large-scale, million-layer structured logic framework to substantially boost CPU efficiency by 8.7%, while reducing thermal redundancy by 6.3%. As I’m the first person in the big family to graduate from college, I aim to achieve greater impact to honor my family, and I plan to expand my impact from CPU to related softwares, so as to achieve better software-hardware integration. As Steve Jobs once said, “If you want to build your own software you must build your own Hardware.” 

I hence need Hass’ signature Applied Innovation courses, including International Business Development (IBD), Design Sprint for Corporate Innovation, and Design, Evaluate and Scale Development Technologies to equip me how to assess international user behavior, and develop user-centered programs...

這些Essay並不只是在寫什麼故事,而是你的真實人生使命,並且能夠實際與MBA課程結合,才能將使命與管理工具結合,發揮到極致,而使產業烏托邦能夠實現。
不然即使念完名校,也沒辦法派上用場。

最後一點是外求於人。
找co-partner沒問題,但是這個人似乎比你的能力更為強大?
若是這樣,你本身的價值將會相對降低。
又這樣的co-partner如果真的要這樣找,何不直接飛到學校附近旅行幾天,到學校酒吧喝幾杯,交交朋友就行了。
不需要念個MBA這麼大投資。

簡單講是需要具體細項目標與執行方式,並跟個人獨特性與生涯方向結合;
再解釋學校的細項特性來做結合。
這樣才能超越學校,讓學校來追你。

Sincerely,
David Lee