MBA Personal Statement
Taremeredzwa Samuel Chipepera Abstract
A personal personal statemen statementt relatin relating g a progressive progressive journ journey ey towards towards new new technol technology ogy solution solutions s and and innovation innovation through through fanatic fanatic discipline disc ipline and experience experie nce
Growing up around IT professionals, from my father and 3 other closely related family members a career in i n technol technology ogy seemed tailor made for me. The The years precedi prec eding ng my tertiary tertiary education saw a growing passion passi on for new new gadgets gadg ets and ever-progressing dev de vices ice s in the world world of Computers. C omputers. With this background I got nurtured to become a young man with much curiosity in Sciences and Technology. From a High School Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry combination I moved to The University of Zimbabwe to further my passion for new technology.
I received my undergraduate undergraduate degree degre e in i n Computer Science Sci ence and Mathematics from The The University of Zimbabwe in i n 2006 August. After completing co mpleting my undergraduate undergraduate degree degree,, I started my career iin n IT IT training with Sutherland Sutherland Computer Serv Se rvices ices during which which I interacted with most cooperates coop erates and a nd executives. During this time I realized the major gap in Technology knowledge and the advantages of its i ts use. I identified a strong need for training in i n the the general g eneral personnel in the the then business community. I moved to Education as a Computer Science Teacher/ IT Administrator at Rusununguko High School. It It is here where where I managed to create a training trai ning program for the the school sc hool community community during my extra hours, which significantly impacted on the staff and community as everyone now had a basic basi c understanding understanding of o f the computer. computer.
After a short short stint stint in Education I then then moved moved to SFG In Insuran surance ce as a Database Administrator Administrator.. Whil While e working with this company I was able to learn different aspects of business and explore new horizons. Some of my duties included providing functional business consulting to fulfill extensive business related needs, providing p roviding business support in i n business business areas a reas such s uch as ERP E RP functionality functionality and technology, Disaster Recovery and System maintenance through development of new products and data extraction through report writing. I was also exposed to strategy formulation and took charge of the department in a company with 4 branches across the country. It is here that I realized a strong need need for a good g ood foundatio foundation n in Business Administration and Management. I later joined Africansun LTD as a Graduate Trainee in the Business Information Systems Department in February of 2008 on an 18-month program. Due to my performance and extensive experience in the field I got an early appoint appoi ntment ment to to The Victoria Victori a Fall Fa lls s area as a Systems Support Analy Analyst in December of the the same year. ear. In this this region I had under my arm 4 of the the groups’ groups’ major hotels to support. Due to the nature of my work, I got the opportunity to travel to different client locations to provide pro vide and cater to their both short and long-term long-term business needs while also gaining ga ining a different industry sector experience. e xperience.
I am currently working as a Technician with Solution Centre and this has given me a deeper
understanding understanding of the Mac and all related products. p roducts. As a Certified C ertified Apple A pple Machin Mac hine e Techn Technici ician an I now now have have in i n my arsenal of certifications certific ations another edge to creating creati ng relevant relevant solutions solutions seeing seei ng the the direction di rection in which which business i s drivin dri ving g towards. Apart from the several certifications certificati ons in Apple, I have have also a lso embarked on Adobe Ado be certificatio ce rtifications ns that that will find my expertise expertise reaching out to the the Desi D esign gn community community and Media Medi a professio p rofessionals. nals. For a wider reach in current Technology echnology I have have also attained a ttained a CCNA CC NA certification certifica tion giving me the baseline bas eline requirements for any Networking Networking project pro ject I get on my lap. With close to 5 years experience in user support all the above have have devel de veloped oped my knowledge knowledge to an extent where I can fit into the shoes of the consumer on the street and create or lead a team of developers to create a relevant solution that meets their exact need. However, from my walk in this business arena I hav have e found a need on my profile to understand understand better Business Administration and Strategy formulation.
Working as a business professi onal, I have have realized the importance of a Post Graduate degree. deg ree. The The Business B usiness Strategy and Chan C hange ge Management aspect of o f an organization has always always int i ntrigued rigued me. After working for a few years, I have understood that the amount of knowledge that can be gained is endless. Therefore, I would like to continue my education and pursue an MBA. Getting this degree would help me immensely to better compete with the fast-paced business world. If I were given the opportunity, I would reach closer to achieving my goals of applying my knowledge to develop the business sector and make technology the chief corner stone of an economy as all else rests on how information is manipulated. manipulated.
At th the top of my my quality quality list is Discipline. From Jim Collins Collins in his book Great Great By Choice “Discipline “Discipline in essence, is consistency of action – consistency with values, consistency with long-term goals, consistency with performance standards, consistency of method, consistency over time,” this has been my guide over the years in service to the community through innovation and creativity. Over the years I have have learnt the the art a rt of fanatic disci d iscipline, pline, which which relates to self-discipline, self-disci pline, the perseverance to stay the course and not jump to quick fixes. Excellent Excellent project and time management, management, and strong commun communica ication tion skills ski lls are some so me of my strengths. strengths. I also excel working in a team environment, which has always been commended and recognized very well by my superiors in various instances. My ability to get along with people also makes me a likeable person in any kind of environment. However, I would like to develop greater strength and enhance my abilities in the field of Strategic Business Management. I am always hungry for more knowledge knowledge and I believe that that more finan fi nance ce and a nd administration knowledge is i s going go ing to take me further further in my career.
Therefore, Therefore, to be b e able ab le to compete compe te with the the world by dealing deali ng with more more complex co mplex business business related issues I would have to make myself stronger by obtaining more knowledge. I believe that obtaining a Masters Degree D egree in Business Administration would would help me to do so. so . While I was searching for graduate schools, my search ended with The University of Zimbabwe not just because it is where where I obtained my first first degree de gree but also due to the extensive extensive experience in i n Business Development the the inst i nstitute itute has grown to become beco me evident evide nt with with its products worldwide.
Some of the the biggest bi ggest challenges challenges to business in the the 21 st century are communication, diversity and technology. With globalization and advent of the Internet, the world has become smaller. Nonethel Nonetheless, ess, communica communication tion still persists persi sts as a huge huge problem p roblem to businesses. If proper means of communication between employees and executives within the office branch and global branches are maint mai ntained ained effectively, effectively, many business business objectives o bjectives could be easily easi ly met. met. Div Di versity is another another major challenge challenge faced by businesses worldwide. Proper P roper knowledge knowledge and intercultu intercultural ral sharing are the the
remedies remedie s for diversity d iversity related issues in i n businesses. businesses. Today Today technology technology is moving at a fast pace and it has become beco me very hard for businesses to keep up with it. With the the adven a dventt of cloud comput co mputing ing managers and business owners alike are investiga investigating ting the ways ways in which a move to cloud computing could potentially benefit their organizations. In essence, this represents a departu depa rture re from onsite o nsite IT solutions solutions such as file fi le servers and temperament tempera mental al email emai l platforms in favor of always-on, always-on, secure platforms that are able a ble to grow and shrink according accord ing to business requirements. Understandably, businesses are wary of hosting sensitive information within a cloud environment. Data security is a large focus area for every organization let alone with very shaky SLA’s from local loca l service providers. p roviders. However, However, the the promise of security and guaranteed guaranteed uptime within the virtual private cloud environment is far more reliable. As SLA implementation matures so are the standards that govern them them as they become more stringen stri ngentt giving users greater peace of mind when when opting for this new phenomenon phenomenon for for applicatio ap plication-based n-based public cloud serv se rvice ices? s? Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) opens up to the business community an opportunity to reduce capital expenditure whilst ensuring data security. Such solutions at their core aim at reducing the hassle associated associ ated with on-premise IT while while reducing costs.
It is evident that the business world today is going through a huge economic downturn. Lots of businesses worldwide worldwide are facing difficul di fficultt times right now now due to the the global economic eco nomic crisis. crisi s. Focusing more on o n their their own business business with an eye on what what competitors compe titors are doing, doi ng, monitori monitoring ng day to day activities, fully documenting every major business steps taken are some of the things that might help these businesses to emerge out of this hardship. It is intuitively clear that the ability to solve problems is greatly enhanced if you can effectively handle all the information you're getting. On the other hand, hand, extracting extracting information from data coming co ming in from differen di fferentt sources may become a nightmare if you try to do it on your own, with only the help of miscellaneous tools. Business Intelligence comes to the rescue here, ensuring that the extraction, transformation, and consolidation consolidatio n of data from disparate sources so urces become totally transparent transparent to a decision deci sion maker. Business Intell Intellige igence nce consolidates information from disp disparate arate sources so urces so that that you need need not concern yourself with with it. Business Intelligence Intelligence is used to provide a business-centric view of data, da ta, eliminating as much of the the technol technology-specifi ogy-specific c logic as possib po ssible. le. However However such a solution may take a business back to creating creati ng a whole team of analysts analysts working on data capture, consolidation and analysis. It is here that I have seen great opportunity in local business for providing pro viding such a concise and relevant relevant solution to local businesses. With the the stren s trengths gths I have have amassed a massed over the the years in i n Database management and and support, Network Security and and a wide platform experience from insurance background to financial and hospitality industry sector, Business Intelligence is my next solution to the business community. As a Service, Business Intelligence can be coupled with cloud technology where enterprise tools like Oracle’s OBI can be rendered as a service giving access to the customer all analytical reports they require on the fly. All data will wi ll be stored and securely accessible with the the inf i nfrastru rastructur cture e cost co st burden on the the service s ervice provider, leaving the business owner to worry only on the day-to-day decision-making. Reducing cost and risk ri sk whilst at the the same time increasing i ncreasing profitabi lity and and product prod uctivity ivity..
Lastly, I am hopeful to get an admission into the MBA program at The University of Zimbabwe and be able ab le to learn more regarding regardi ng the the complexities of the business business world.
