Thunderbird Personal Essay - What international and cross-cultural background will you bring to Thunderbird and how will those past experiences add value to your classmates from around the world? Furthermore, what are your career aspirations immediately after graduation from Thunderbird and later in your long-term career path? How and why will a Thunderbird degree (combined with your past educational and professional experiences) enable you to achieve these objectives?

My Contribution to Thunderbird Classroom

The virtues of punctuality, importance of making the right decision in a business and the life changing implication of some of our actions has honed me to be a successful businessman with a progressive and positive mentality. Growing up in a family full of successful professionals from fields as diverse as medicine, social service, engineers, entrepreneurs, finance experts as well as politicians has helped me to observe their  roles and responsibilities from a very close quarter. This kept me abreast with the latest happenings in diverse fields.

Add to this my diverse, in depth, hands on business experience in – real estate, education and automobile sectors and a sound interpretation of financial management gained from working alongside astute chartered accountants has enabled me to come up with innovative ideas in critical situations. I believe I would be a valuable teammate, as my experiences combined with their experiences would help us evolve to become better professionals.

India being a land of  diverse culture and home to countless religion, customs and traditions have germinated a desire in me to learn about varied cultures. The fact that I would now be mingling with students from all parts of the globe adds to my enthusiasm or learning newer cultures.  Having friends from different cultural backgrounds gave wings to my desires to know more about different traditions and customs. While at school, I was part of the school’s team and have toured different parts of the country. My passion for the game gave me international exposure. My encounters have raised my awareness and sensitivity to different cultures. Travelling to Australia for Cricket tournaments as part of the sports-cum-cultural exchange with Australian families playing host has molded me into an individual more accepting of and receptive to change. I desire to leave a positive impact on my team members and be equally inspired with their experiences.

My leadership skills helped me take the sole responsibility of leading a team of 50 individuals on an election campaign for State Assembly Elections where I was involved in preparing election manifestos, stringent budget computing, extensive surveys, organizing public and party workers rallies and meetings, advertising and print and electronic media management. This enriching experience has heightened my understanding of societal problems, market research, people management and strategizing thus evolving my team player capabilities. This experience also helped me to sharpen my understanding of delegating responsibilities thereby raising the productivity of one’s time. Organizing fashion shows and cultural events within my institute has compounded my awareness of budgetary constraints and accustomed me to working to produce quality results irrespective of finances available. I am confident about being a valuable source of knowledge to my classmates with the rich expertise I have in hand.

Career Aspirations:

My long-term career goal is to diversify and expand my family businesses. My aim would be to develop strategies to amplify human potential thus raising the productivity of time invested with the primary emphasis on globalizing our real estate business and educational institute. To be one of the globally recognized brands in the business I would ensure that our business managers, faculty members are on par with their global counterparts. This endeavour would help the students to secure placements with leading global professional establishments. My personal and professional responsibilities are bound to drive me to excel and stand apart from my competitors. I would strive to grow the business in a manner, which is conducive to not only to my employees but their immediate family members. In the future, as a part of my social responsibility, I wish to set up a charitable institute that focuses on imparting scholarships to brilliant minds with otherwise limited resources, and offering medical help to the underprivileged.

Value Addition with a Thunderbird Degree:

Pursuing a Master’s at Thunderbird will gift me the chance to network with a set of uniformly motivated careerists in addition to widening my understanding of the functioning of global business establishments. Theoretical knowledge combined with practical knowledge will propel my proficiency in elucidating complex concepts and enable their successful implementation. The opportunity to study under academic luminaries comprising of internationally renowned management experts will enlighten me on how to invest my time intelligently in managing business needs besides fortifying my understanding of business practices needed to climb up the corporate ladder. International networks forged will keep me in sync with current business trends worldwide thus allowing me to diversify into commercially and economically viable spheres in addition to illuminating me on the art of establishing better systems to aid the growth rate of business ventures.

Why Thunderbird:

Thunderbird is a brand in itself and its ranking is amongst the top business schools internationally in communion with primary emphasis on churning out visionary entrepreneurs only beefs up my resolve to be a part of the program. Thunderbird’s belief in collating interdisciplinary principles from various domains thus developing business modules that infuse efficiency and cost effectively besides instilling courage to take informed decisions is the prime motivating factor for me to study at this institute.