Stanford GSB Admissions Essay - What matters most to you, and why? - (Version 2).
January 15, 2009
“One of man’s oldest exercises in moral philosophy is the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness - John Kenneth Galbraith”
In 2008 capitalism was challenged, the global financial system was in a turmoil and the world economy was on a brink. More than 99 financial institutions kicked the bucket and countless more were listed on the FDIC watchlist of banks in distress. Banks went bowl in hand one after the other for handouts from the government. Two government sponsored entities were rescued in a conservatorship that ended an era in which the duopoly of Freddiemac & Fanniemae operated simultaneously as private and public companies. The largest fraud in the history of mankind unraveled when an erstwhile non-executive chairman of NASDAQ confessed that his hedge fund was infact one big lie. Millions of homes were foreclosed after the prospects of owning a home was oversold to the unwary public by a mortgage industry that preys. 401ks plummeted in value while congress looked the other way and failed to regulate a self-destructive financial system. At the root of the above unfortunate incidents are greed, arrogance, ego, narcissism, insecurity, lack of integrity and ethical standards and an executive remuneration system that is dangerously tied to financial performance. We can no longer afford to let the core values that hold the social fabrics of our communities together be relegated to the background and all hand must be on deck to enforce changes in the ways our companies are managed. Like President Obama said, we must commit to a new declaration of independence — from ideology and bigotry — and vehemently denounce the old and discredited notion that only people of certain hue are capable of management and leadership.
The days of enforcing ethical behaviors by merely requesting business executives & middle management to fill out a code of conduct and conflict of interest form are long gone. Though, I agree with Professor Raghuram Rajan that executive bonuses paid in periods of boom be kept in escrow accounts and used to offset losses made in periods of economic downturn, this proposition erroneously assumes that greed and unethical behaviors are driven solely by monetary incentives, however, empirical evidence has shown that unethical behaviors are motivated both by pecuniary and non-pecuniary factors. Consequently, a mandatory attendance at a yearly Ethics and Leadership immersion program that uses creative teaching techniques such as role playing, visual aids and case studies like the one I am currently developing and planning to teach at the Black Herald Leadership Institute (BHLI) is a more holistic approach .
The most important thing to me therefore is ethical leadership and to this end, I intend to dedicate my life to the study of management & ethics and develop solutions to help executives act with integrity and in the interest of all stakeholders at all times whether they are making financial or non-financial decisions. I want to teach business executives my time tested decision making matrix to enable them develop competencies to navigate the deep gray sea of ethical decision making. In making any decisions, I will implore business executives to first analyze the consequences of their actions: who will be affected, who will be harmed, the short and long run effects of their actions, benefits and disadvantages. After analyzing the consequences of their actions, I will again implore them to consider alternative courses of action and determine how those actions measure up against moral principles such as fairness, equality, integrity, honesty and respect for the dignity of others.
I am confident that this yearly ethics & leadership immersion program will help us develop leaders who are the conscience of their organizations, always striving to do what is right. The Stanford MBA school prides itself as a place where people are helped to develop leadership mindsets and I look forward to leveraging my Stanford education to make a difference in our constantly changing world!!!
This essay is dedicated to Rosa Parks for standing up against tyranny. Because of her courage, we don’t have to seat at the back of the bus anymore and lets face it, that would be uncomfortable for everybody. Look at how far we have come.
NOTA BENE: This is a draft and designed to help you with your MBA applications. Created under the Creative Commons rule and it is copyleft. Use as a guide for your essays. I plan to collate and refine the essays I have posted on Black Herald and publish a book of MBA essays in the future.
If you like this essay, stay tuned for the following write-ups:
- Color of God.
- The Circle of Life - Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Need.
- What matters most to you and why? Stanford essay (using Belief & Leadership as themes - I have written this essay twice now but I can write it in 20 different ways. I am probably going to write the third & fourth versions and move on to another topic)
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