Personal Statement
Applicant：xx    Program： MPhil in Management/xx University

For me, the refusal to accept the status quo has allowed me to continuously discover my underlying potentials, which I have tried to tap to their fullest extent. That was the moral I learned when I, though unable to attend classes for two semesters due to a severe illness during my middle school, I still managed to enter a key senior middle school as the top student in qualifying exams. As a student of management, I have managed my past academic and professional career by exploiting my potentials; hence I have been more fruitful academically and professionally.

My endeavors have come into fruition first in the form of academic excellence. At University of xx, I received a systematic education in International Enterprise Management as an undergraduate. A comprehensive framework of management knowledge was constructed through the study of a whole gamut of core courses, in all of which I excelled. I learned how to undertake management through quantitative approaches, optimized decision processes, financing through banks, market expansion, customer relations management, and international trade. I gained theoretical understanding of all those aspects of enterprise management that are of decisive significance to the overall operations of an enterprise.

My study of management was particularly enlightened by a classic work on management Administrative Behavior: A Study of Decision-Making Processes in Administrative Organizations by Herbert A. Simon. I was illuminated by his idea of how human decision making precedes and informs management and how, in view of the rational and emotional factors of management, the decision-making processes are affected by the relationship between the organization and the individuals and how human decisions are possible within an organization.

My concern for the humans as the determinant factor in management led me to study two important concepts—“flexible management” and “rigid management.” Aided by my voluminous reading of a variety of management books, SLOAN and Harvard business reviews, I made a critical study of an articled carried in SLOAN—CKO, Trendiest Job in Business by Part Paquette and came up with two course papers xx and An xx. My research achievements was further demonstrated in the formal publication of a research paper xx in which I constructed a theoretical model that covered four components of a decision-making process—the participants of decision making, the types of decisions to be made, the degree of the uncertainties in the information for decision making, and the pattern of interactivity in decision-making processes. My theoretical model was empirically verified by the statistics derived from Chinese enterprises.

My management experience commenced from the very outset of my undergraduate program. Apart from serving many leadership positions such as president of the grade and of my class throughout four years and as director of social practice of the student union, I also worked on part-time jobs in local industries, including xx tourism industry survey for xx Company, market promotions for xx Co. Ltd and for xx Co. Ltd, conference organization for xx Forum and for the xx, sales representation for xx, and pre-and post-sale service operations for xx Co., Ltd (xx Branch). A special feature of my undergraduate program is that I had the initiative to audit two MBA courses. All those activities prepared me for effective teamwork, interpersonal communication, broad perspectives and corporate organization necessary for a formal professional career.

My academic training, extracurricular contributions and part-time professional experiences proved immensely helpful to my formal professional career, for I have continued to excel as client manager at xx Bank (xx Branch) since July 2002. After receiving necessary vocational training, I was involved for 6 months in real estates financing and credit business for two high-end projects. My work performance topped the entire branch in issuing housing loans and won a “New Talent” Award from the top management. In undertaking those two projects, I proposed improvement plans in the corporation’s internal control and the idea of developing new financial products geared to the individual needs of clients.

In developing the individual financial planning scheme, I again became No.1 in developing VIP clients and issuing credit cards. I also participated in financing projects involving 5 billion RMB. I received rotational training at the xx and the xx. As client manager, I paid special attention to the particularity of the professions and enterprises individual clients work in and designed effective financial schemes tailored to their particular needs. A close familiarity with financial products and services, and the development of strong skills in originating and researching on large-scale financial projects have been my most rewarding professional achievements.

Working in the banking industry has allowed me to gain in-depth knowledge of China’s microeconomic operations. As our banking business is oriented to both public and the private sector, I have had contacts with the top management of different enterprises, with their different corporate philosophies and cultures. This professional input has provided a solid platform for me to embark on an advanced academic program to develop my research potential. My academic and empirical knowledge of management, together with my distinctive background of China as the most rapidly growing economy of the world, will give me much food for thought. As China switches to the competition-dominated market economy, management will be of paramount importance in enterprise development. As I have already acquired some tentative research experience in management science, I am bent on developing this potential to its fullest possible extent.

As a research-led institution, the School of Management of the University of xx is most suited to my research impulses. I am prepared to undertake a Ph.D. program starting with your Mphil program. Through your program, I will be exposed to supervised research at the leading edge of my chosen subject. Your school possesses a strong track record of international recognized research into management and provides a strongly supportive, vibrant research culture. The accomplished faculty are constantly working to expand the breadth, depth and the impact of their international research and your well-designed program scheme will permit student to research in any of the five issue-based groups.

In my proposed program, I would like to study enterprise supply-chain management models, which is one of the key concepts and methodologies in promoting the core competency of an enterprise. I want to transcend both the strategic design model and operation coordination model to work on the subsidiary supply chain model which is really aimed at solving practical problems. I am also interested in the theory and application of risk analysis, investigating on how VAR (Value at Risk) technology can be applied in the operation management and how investment and financing risks can be reduced.
 
Throughout my academic and professional career, I have been a person of action and reflections. I like to ponder on those things which I deem to be meaningful and useful. The more initiative I have, the more unlimited I find my potential to be. In pursuing an active life, I find myself entering a wholly new realm of self-actualization.