If only I have attained my MBA earlier, I could have helped my family better, not just my immediate family but my family at BOC and Carrefour. I was helping my family with our business and I worked for BOC and Carrefour. I feel like the problems we encountered could have been resolved easily through better planning, a skill which I lacked then. The problems that I have faced made me decide to pursue further studies and grab the next opportunity for learning more when it arrives. It became my goal to enrol myself in a good school with a good programme which can teach me the proper methodologies and all the necessary tools that I can use in my career.
Of course, one of the major reasons why I chose Imperial College as the Institution to nurture my MBA aspirations is that it has a long tradition of being a premier school especially when it comes to Business studies. Its MBA programme has a wide array of courses that can help me be a better entrepreneur. If there is any one significant learning that I have learned throughout my career, it is the importance of having strong analytical and financial management skills. While taking my undergraduate degree, Corporate Finance was the subject I was least fond of. At the MBA Programme of Imperial College, I could change all that and make myself better at that field. In a few years, even before I have finished the MBA, I see myself much improved capable of analysing and using financial information effectively before making business decisions.
One big advantage that I see in enroling at Imperial College is the freedom to choose an area of specialisation. I also see great rewards to reap out of the elective courses offered by the school which would allow me to apply the things that I would learn to my present job in the global procurement function. The subjects I would be taking in Imperial College would enhance my skills and teach me new things. For example, the Pricing Strategies and Policies course would help understand how decision making on market prices are done by suppliers. The Managing Negotiations and Organisational Changes course meanwhile would develop my managerial skills. They can really be beneficial when it comes to managing relationships with suppliers and stakeholders within an organisation. Other courses such as Private Equity and Entrepreneurial Finance would also be very helpful, especially at a time when my career is at its peek. What I will be learning from these courses would help me understand the various investment strategies in acquiring new businesses and how to raise capital from sponsors.
My next reason for choosing Imperial College as the Institution where I would get my MBA degree is because of the rich culture that the school provides. The school has a diverse number of students and alumni bodies coming from different parts of the world, as I have seen in some class profiles. My own diverse background fits well with this kind of setting I was born and raised in Thailand, studied in Australia, and I lived in Singapore and London. Now I am working for a German company. My experience with different cultures makes me feel like I owe it to my co-workers to share with them the knowledge that I have accumulated throughout my travels. I also believe that studying at Imperial would mean meeting some accomplished individuals in the world of business a great learning opportunity. What is more encouraging are the activities that the alumni organise. Such activities show that Imperial College is doing what they can to create networking opportunities not only to the current MBA students but also to the MBA graduates. It also shows that Imperial College is concerned with their students long after they have finished their studies.
When I was working for BOC, I was the head of several projects. Our aims were to drive growth and improve business processes in commercial supply management, financial services, and human resource management functions. My analytical and managerial skills went up a notch or two during my first two years with BOC. My commercial knowledge in general also improved. My experiences with BOC became my solid foundation that would benefit me later in my career.
After two years of international assignments between Thailand and Singapore, I was endorsed for a promotion. I was given my first commercial management responsibility. I was tasked to set up a new telebusiness, and I managed a team of internal sales specialists. The skills that I have developed the past two years or so proved useful as I was able to identify new business opportunities and I handled my team quite well. My sufficient knowledge of the business made me develop and optimise the work process to put telebusiness and sales and marketing together. My job as the head of this telebusiness allowed me to lead and influence my team members setting targets and attaining them.
Barely a year after the telebusiness was established, the number of our customers grew and so did our sales. Our sales grew by as much as thirty percent, and this prompted for another promotion. I was offered a regional product management position, and with my new role, I was assigned to develop product strategies for compressed gases and resale business in Asia. It is in this job that I was introduced to the concept of synergy. I learned how to see regional business opportunities and take advantage of whatever capabilities that the business had for the own competitive advantage of the business. A good example of how I managed the business well is our chain planning of Argon (a gas used for welding). One strategy I formulated was to strategically move the supply of Argon within the countries of Asia to maximise profitability. I was particularly proud of this strategy because we were able to get a lot of the raw materials by maximising capacity of deliveries and achieving a highly competitive product cost base. My experience in the regional level further enhanced my strategic thinking skills and provided yet another solid foundation for an international business management role.
I felt I have done enough with BOC and I wanted to gain more experience, so I left the company soon after. I left BOC to join Carrefour. I became a senior business development manager in Bangkok Thailand. My job this time was relatively easier thanks to the experiences that I have gained in my previous jobs. I used the project and people management skills that I have learned in my previous roles to spearhead a project of establishing a consumer finance and services business under Carrefour while assisted by two business development managers. As project leader again, my business development skills came in handy once again in identifying opportunities and risks to develop mitigation plans. To support the development of the business, I came up with a process to select a partner and establish a partnership agreement. I could say that of all the previous positions that I have had, the one at Carefour is most special to me because it gave me an insight into the world of consumer business and it also allowed me to generate business contacts in the industry. Thanks to these contacts that I have developed, my marketability, as far as my career is concerned, grew because of the career opportunities that were presented to me.
After some consideration of the career development and learning opportunities that I could grab, I came back to Linde Group March of 2008 and became the global procurement manager for the welding gas and safety equipment business. My primary goal for this new job was to change the organisational behaviour because before I took over, local businesses were making their own purchase decisions with little or no global advantage. Apart from managing global suppliers and negotiating contracts, I also visited local business units to figure out how we can be more cost effective. My job as a global procurement manager expanded my knowledge in international business, and it also allowed me to work with people of diverse cultural backgrounds. The job proved challenging but in the end, I was more aware of how a multinational company manages global sourcing activities.
Being at a relatively young age, I have to say that I am proud with the rate of my development, personally and professionally. I remember the time when I first travelled to Australia on my own I was fourteen, nave and innocent to how the world works, and alone in a foreign land. Just look at me now who would have thought that I would achieve all this My parents made me grow up fast I was just sixteen when I started to live on my own. I am grateful that I have chosen the path which led me to where I am now. Thing could have been very different had I made the wrong decisions. My discipline and drive forced me to work hard, and I made it out of college through sheer perseverance as I studied and worked part- time at the same time. By the time I was eighteen, I was already financially independent.
At thirty years old, I have seen and experienced more than the average man of my age. Because of all the travelling that I have done through work, I consider myself as a true international citizen, knowledgeable in diverse cultures, values, and people. Yet, it has not been all that good all that moving around can also have its disadvantages. I had to adapt to the new environment every time I moved. I made mistakes, yes, but I also learned from them. I am thankful that the opportunities presented to me turned out to be good and added to my personal development.
My ability to deliver good results within a short amount of time earned me a good reputation from organisations, so they trusted me with the big responsibilities that they assigned to me and it did not matter if I had no previous experience with the jobs assigned to me, like the time when I moved from industrial to consumer industry. Language has also been quite a challenge because English is not my first language. However, I believe it should and it has not been a limitation for my growth as I am able to communicate well with people from different countries.
I believe everyone should strive to be the best they can be. I always look for opportunities to improve myself on both the personal and professional level, and when opportunities do present themselves, I make sure that I make the most of them. I see the MBA experience as a treasure map The people and the places that I would visit are the landmarks on the map, and my career goal is the buried treasure. Like a real map, the MBA programme would be a tool for me to guide me to my career goal. My journey is enriched by the places that I would be able to go to, and in these places, I would be able to learn many things. The journey is just as important as the destination. That is why I have chosen Imperial College for my MBA it would provide the best travel package towards my destination.
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