My Interest In Effective Management

Having been born into a family of avid readers and thus exposed to a wide variety of topics from an early age, I have long been deeply fascinated by the successes and failures of history’s greatest managers and the businesses and societies they built. My readings about the profound impacts of such effective managers as Deng Xiaoping and Ray Kroc have inspired me to study management with the aim of honing my managerial acumen so I may one day follow in their footsteps and change the world for the better. Through my recent investigation of the rise of China and the factors that facilitated it, I have gained an appreciation of the importance of agricultural productivity in expediting industrialization and economic development.

This topic is of great interest to me, as it combines my fascination with nation building with my passion for vertical farming, a technology that I believe to be a potential cornerstone of the fight against climate change and world hunger due to its potential to dramatically shorten the global food supply chain. Moreover, since the current global trend toward isolationism and protectionism is causing many nations to pursue a higher degree of self-sufficiency, I believe that vertical farming’s offer of sustainable, local food production creates a lucrative business opportunity that I intend to pursue after I graduate from university. I have pursued my interest in management in subjects such as IB Economics, from which I have gained insight into some of the factors that influence businesses’ pricing decisions through an exploration of the theory of the firm, and IB History, in which I have enhanced my comprehension of strategy and economics.

Outside the classroom, I have taken business courses online to improve my understanding of organizational structures and global markets, and have read about successful managers and the organizations they led in books such as Ezra Vogel’s Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China and Ashlee Jackson’s Elon Musk. Additionally, I attended a two-week business course at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School in the summer of 2017 in which I was introduced to business analytics, the Lean Startup model and other fascinating management-related topics. At present, I am working with classmates to build a controlled-environment agriculture system as part of my school’s 2050 Project. Not only has this undertaking greatly improved my understanding of vertical farming, it has also allowed me to hone my collaboration and problem-solving skills, as my peers and I have had to work together to overcome significant technical and budgetary constraints.

I was also able to hone my managerial acumen through my work as an analyst at my father’s company last summer, where I was responsible for analyzing opportunities in renewable energy storage and clean alternative fuels and discussing my findings with a panel of investors. This discussion illustrated the rhetorical value of Occam’s razor, as it underlined the ease with which a single false assumption can negate an argument. Outside of school, I spend the majority of my time reading biographies and other volumes about history, economics and business. Faced with a busy schedule and a prodigiously long reading list, I have been experimenting with Pomodoro Time and other productivity strategies with the aim of cultivating more efficient work habits and creating more free time. I have also taken a speedreading course, as a result of which I have quadrupled my reading speed.

Reading aside, I am a passionate athlete and a provincial silver medalist in the discus throw, in which I have also been recognized for my role in mentoring younger throwers. Recent trends such as the rise of populism in the West have underscored my belief in the importance of effective management. I look forward to continuing my exploration of this discipline in university, where I hope to deepen my understanding of management theory and economics and investigate game theory and other quantitative decision-making tools that will help me succeed as a manager in the future.