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Question: Discuss your career goals. What skills do you expect to gain from studying at INSEAD and how will they contribute to your professional career.
I was not born with a love for economics nor was it my forte in college. Technology was always the hidden 'thing' in me. A decade later since earning my bachelors, I have therefore struck a well-maintained balance of acquiring technical prowess and an international work experience. Thus far I have been extremely successful.
By the summer of 2001 however I had begun reflecting on my career till date and where I wanted to take it. It was when I was leading a technical team of engineers in my first job and we were amidst designing a fixed telecommunication network for an operator in Sri Lanka. Placing a technically sound and highly competitive offer, my best guess was a few rounds of price negotiations and the deal was ours. Surprisingly that was not to be. It took an external consulting firm to assess the worth of that business opportunity for our company, a complete financial analysis of the operators’ annual report, a tough call on whether to use debt or equity to fund the prospect and endless meetings convincing Goldman Sachs to secure a financing loan. Towards the end we clinched the business but the experience was an eye opener and brought to light how much more there was to learn about business in general. The anecdote also brings to forefront my short and long-term career goals.
Today I believe I have chalked up some solid professional experience in all my previous positions as technical sales and planning lead and have also achieved significant international exposure to how telecom business is conducted around the globe. I now strongly feel that to advance further I need to consolidate what I have learnt and the three elements of business – strategy, technology and finance. I want to have a multifaceted role of an operational business manager, relationship manager, strategy planner and a business developer. From the current responsibilities as a senior planner, a career in account management or business development manager in telecom therefore fits perfectly for me as the next logical step in career growth. This also formulates my short-term career goal.
Most managers in an organization are identified with a particular business discipline. The most common are operations, finance, marketing, information and human resource. To achieve my goals I must communicate effectively and work productively with people from these disciplines. At INSEAD I want to learn the "language" of each of these functional specialty. I want to learn how to analyze a financial report of a company; how to price an option; what does shareholder value really mean; what makes the stock market tick; what does Alan Greenspan do; what are the implications of an interest rate cut by the European Central bank; what an investment banker really does. At INSEAD, I believe such core courses as Financial Markets & Valuation and Prices & Markets can teach me the business fundamentals while subjects like Strategy and Managerial accounting can equip me with core functional skills that make me a business developer.
As environment of organizations - including economic, political, competitive, regulatory, and cultural factors-becomes more complex, there will be an increased need for managers with the necessary skills, understanding, courage, and energy to tackle the difficult demands facing organizations of all kinds. These general managers would organize the work of others and decide on the course of action an organization must take.
After a few years of experience in account management or as a business development manager and armed with an MBA, I intend to set foot into general management. With a punishing work schedule and a rigorous curricula that imitates the pressures on our time in real world, with a global perspective and reach, with real life case studies in classroom where one can instantaneously apply the theoretical skills in a context of constraints, opportunities and alternatives I truly believe INSEAD can help me transform into a corporate leadership role – something I envisage as my long-term career goal. Also in Johanna Hellborg's own words, "INSEAD can develop general management and entrepreneurial skills that many 'techies' don't have when they arrive at B-school".
Probably a decade from now, en route to the big corner office I would stop and ponder how I enhanced my knowledge, how I raised my visibility and built a strong personal network and thank INSEAD came my way.
По материалам сайта
www.mbagameplan.com
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