Free Stanford MBA Essay Samples
The Stanford Graduate School of Business was founded in 1925, and its MBA degree is one of the most sought-after in the United States and globally.
The following MBA essays were written by ARINGO MBA candidates who got accepted to Stanford Graduate School of Business MBA program over the past few years. Read these free Stanford MBA Essay Examples to get a sense of what they are looking for at the Stanford MBA Program. Contact ARINGO MBA Admissions for help with your Stanford MBA essays!
To read more about Stanford Graduate School of Business visit the Stanford MBA page.
See below some Stanford MBA essay samples from MBA applicants:
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Post-MBA, I hope to become a Business Development Manager in a Homeland Security Technology company such as Lockheed-Martin, Raytheon, or Boeing. Thereafter I hope to advance to Business Development VP in a similar company, and finally to assume a position as CEO of a Global Business Unit, managing thousands, with annual revenues of over $500 million.
As a Product Manager in my company’s System Security Group, I’ve had the opportunity to work with the Group’s President, who is a Stanford GSB Executive MBA graduate. I’ve been inspired by his achievements, which are similar to my career goals, and hearing from him about his Stanford experiences has led me to consider Stanford GBS as my next career step.
My discussions with him have brought me to realize that, to advance from my current position as Product Manager with business development responsibilities to Business Development Manager, I need to grow in three areas: management theory, hands-on experience, and international perspective networking. After speaking with additional Stanford GSB alumni and students, I’m convinced that a Stanford GSB MBA is the best way to get all three.
Stanford’s “Homeland Security: Operations, Strategy, and Implementation” course, along with Prof. Lawrence M. Wein’s research, can significantly contribute to my specific industry knowledge. This, as well as Stanford’s strong ties with Silicon Valley and its impressive recruiter list, will all be great advantages when I seek to fulfill my short-term goal immediately post-MBA.
Coming from a multidisciplinary background that combines undergraduate studies of Computer Science and Biology, as well as experience in technology, sales, marketing, and business development, I hope that Stanford’s multidisciplinary approach will enable me to better utilize my knowledge. The D-School course, for example, will help me apply the knowledge I have gained as a Product Manager to my future decisions as CEO of a technology company, responsible for a full range of development and business activities.
Stanford’s new Curriculum and the opportunity to take up to 18 elective courses leave me considerable freedom to take finance, accounting, and investment management courses. I need these, in particular, to evolve my viewpoint from the tactical Product Manager view I hold today to the strategic CEO view I’ll need to manage larger processes. In addition to this theoretical knowledge, I want to practice in Stanford’s Center for Leadership Development & Research how to think and act like a CEO: strategically, in real-time, and with confidence. The Leadership Labs and the Executive Challenge are great opportunities to evaluate the performance of executive managers and to get my fellow students’ feedback on my decision-making.
Homeland Security CEOs today all have their eyes on India, one of the biggest Homeland Security markets. In my current position, I’m responsible for business development activities in India and have been on dozens of trips there, participating in hundreds of meetings with Indian officials and businessmen. Stanford’s Global Management Program with its Global Management Immersion Experience (GMIX) in India, as well as the Stanford and IIM(B) Link (SAIL) program in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore, can expose me to additional opportunities in the Indian market, strengthen my network there, and provide me with opportunities to contribute from my experience managing over 15 Indian tenders.
Stanford’s Center for Global Business and the Economy, International Development Club, international student body meeting in small classes, and global alumni network, will all give me ample opportunity to contribute from my experiences in over 30 countries, while also helping me to strengthen my global business network and learn new ideas about international management.
As a Sales Engineer in my company, I led the technical aspects of my company’s entrance into the Indian telecommunications market. Our conservative evaluations estimated $100 million in potential revenues for the company in the next 5 years from the booming Indian market alone.
I teamed with my company’s India Sales Director to create a strategic penetration plan. Our main competitor governed the market, so we approached big market players and lowered prices as a “door-opener”. I coordinated my company’s marketing and business development staff to implement this strategy. In parallel, I initiated the customization of collaterals to comply with Indian regulations. We hired an Indian Sales Engineer, whom I guided daily.
I traveled to India weekly to meet key local and international companies, establishing especially intimate relationships with xxx’s local branch. Our first door opened when I presented our product suite to xxx India’s CEO and 30 experts, convincing them to include us in their offering for a specific tender. I then presented with xxx to over 50 Indian officials from the national tender committee. xxx won the tender, awarding NICE the first $1.2 million order.
Within the first year of entering, my company’s presence in the Indian market is now solid and is expected to yield $20 million during 2008. Two months after the xxx tender win, I was promoted to Product Manager, responsible for all the products my company sells to the Indian telecommunications market, and for all the products’ Business Development activities there.
Recently, my company’s Security Group President referred to India’s telecommunication market as one of our division’s greatest growth engines. I believe that by opening this new, promising, growing market, I had a significant impact on my company, a contribution never made by a Sales Engineer before.
If there is one thing that I absolutely cannot stand, it is injustice – especially when it comes from people in positions of power, and hurts people’s lives.
In my military duty, I help screen applicants to the Navy’s elite Officer’s Academy. After passing several tests and interviews, applicants are split into groups, and officers such as I test each individual’s leadership potential, willingness and ability to work in a team, and ability to think and act under physical duress. After three days, each officer decides which applicants he feels should be considered for application and then presents their case to the commander of the navy’s instruction base.
Two months ago, my partner and I presented to the committee 3 candidates who we thought should be admitted. While the committee chairman decided that two of them should start the course, the one both my partner and I agreed was the most promising was rejected.
I knew this applicant’s file backward and forwards – he was better than any other candidate in our group. This young man wanted to contribute to his country and was fit for the program.
I couldn’t let it go. I talked with the academy’s psychologist in charge of the screening process and asked how this decision could be appealed. I then talked with the applicant’s office and convinced him to appeal on his subordinate’s behalf. When a few months passed and I saw that the formal channels were not working, I made a personal call to the commander of the naval academy and shared my feelings with him. He argued that the base commander must have had good reasons not to accept him. I asked him to please check the sailor’s file and get back to me if anything then so that I to sleep better at night knowing that there is a good reason this applicant wasn’t accepted.
A week later this young man started the Naval Academy.
In 2001, a child forgotten in a car in our city died. This bothered me so much that I decided to invent something that would prevent it from ever happening again.
I came up with the idea of creating a child-secure environment. I felt the idea was simple, inexpensive, and essential. However, instead of pushing it immediately, I hesitated and moved slowly. Five years later another company introduced it to the market. I still view my hesitation to move quickly as a failure.
Even though I invented several products for commercial use in the past, such as a mechanism to keep the freshness of food at restaurants, I felt this idea had the greatest potential.
When I first started to develop the idea, I initiated research and collaborated with specialists from different areas, such as car safety and childcare. After 6 months, I realized I had neither money nor business connections in the area, so I decided to wait for an opportunity to attract investors.
Two years later, in 2003, I revived my idea after attending a lecture from a successful local entrepreneur. I initiated a meeting with the manager of our largest patent company and persuaded him to work with me. Next, I began developing the prototype.
I created a business plan and presented it to 5 potential investors. I convinced them the idea had great potential, yet they preferred to start working only after the patent was guaranteed. However, this was a long and expensive process, so as before I hesitated from taking the next step until I had the funds.
In 2006, I read an article on a news website that a product very similar to mine was successfully released by a UK company. The headline was “How didn’t we think about it earlier”. I knew I missed my chance and was very disappointed.
Although I failed, I learned a lot about myself.
I learned that sometimes the fear of failing could stop me from moving forward. Instead of being afraid to fail, I should have considered this experience an important lesson heading up to my next venture. I learned that even a good idea has to be pushed as much as possible and that I cannot succeed if I’m too afraid to risk resources such as money or time.
I also realized that I cannot do everything on my own and that teamwork is a crucial element in success. Once you pick excellent people, you need to trust them with your ideas and with their work. For example, by cooperating with professionals and even starting a partnership, I could have boosted my idea.
This experience affects me to this day. For example, it reflects in my aspiration for a business career, including my MBA candidacy. I am not afraid to invest as much time or money as needed. I also believe I could leverage my MBA experience to meet partners I can cooperate with in the future. Most importantly, I now look for the opportunity instead of being afraid of it.
From an early age, education has always been the thing that matters most to me. I grew up in a family that emigrated to my country with nothing, and through education, built itself up, gaining financial security. My mother, who holds an M.A. in Educational Management and has been a teacher for 40 years, has always inspired me.
Education is important to me in two distinct ways: firstly, I believe that it is the best tool to enable people to take responsibility for their lives. I believe strongly in the old Chinese saying: “Give a man a fish, feed him for a day; teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime”. Secondly, although history has shown that even educated people can hate, I believe that good education is still the most effective tool we have to reduce unfounded hatred.
I devoted myself at an early age to teaching young people because I wanted to encourage social responsibility and community contribution. From age 10 to 18, I was a member of a youth movement that taught strong democratic values and social responsibility. At the age of 15, I was sent for a two-week youth leaders’ training course, following which I became a volunteer youth leader in the movement. From age 15 to 18, I led groups of 30 children in weekly activities. For 2 years, I also served as Chief Editor of the movement’s newspaper, managing 10.
In high school, I initiated and edited my school’s first newspaper, because I felt it was important that students would have a platform to publish their ideas. I also volunteered as a Big Brother for an economically disadvantaged child for 2 years, a child who had never been taught by his parents to value education. I worked hard to help him understand that education is the key to independence in his future life and was thrilled to see him graduate from high school with excellent grades that enabled him to apply to any local university.
I was educated in the army too, when I was selected to be the Platoon Commander for the Intelligence Corps’ leadership program training course. For 6 months, in an enclosed facility with no access to the outside world, and with limited vacations, I was responsible for every aspect of my 15 young cadets’ lives, being to them commander, teacher, and father, instilling in them the importance of responsibility and initiative in their future leadership roles.
I believe strongly in ‘first-hand’ and ‘hands-on’ learning. This is one reason I decided to continue with full-time work and community service even during my undergraduate studies. As a student, I volunteered weekly for two years with the “Youngsters Build a Future” organization, tutoring groups of 3-4 fourth-grade children from disadvantaged backgrounds and serving as their role models.
In my current job, I participate bi-weekly in a corporate-non-profit partnership between my company and a local youth cultural center, teaching groups of children from low-income families from the surrounding neighborhoods how to utilize education to build a better future, and strengthening their confidence to do so. I want to continue the community service I’ve been doing for 5 years through Stanford’s “I Have a Dream” Club, which is similar to the programs I participate in with my company.
I think that encouraging education should be the task of every capable person, not only a governmental task. When I achieve my goal of becoming a CEO, I would like to create at my company a corporate-non-profit partnership similar to the one I participate in now. The program will encourage employees to volunteer to teach disadvantaged youth, and youngsters who remain dedicated to the program will be given scholarships. I intend to use Stanford’s “Education” and “Social Venture” Clubs to brainstorm this idea with other Stanford students, and Stanford’s “Social Entrepreneurship” course to gain exposure to similar programs that might help me make this partnership a reality.
When I realized that I was gay, at the age of 20, education took on new importance for me. I realized that I now have another personal reason to promote education. Lucky for me, I was born to an open-minded family in a democratic country with an open society. However, I felt strongly that I must somehow help prevent other gay people from suffering unfounded hatred—and I knew that education is the most effective tool.
I acknowledged that, although I am not a public figure and not involved in political activities, I can set an “educational” example for my close friends and family, some of whom had incorrect stereotypes about homosexuals. Although it took some time, I decided that I would not be embarrassed about who I am and came out, telling all my family and friends, but otherwise not changing my lifestyle in any way. The real significance of my example struck me when the brother of one of my friends approached me discreetly and told me that he thought he was gay. He said that looking at me, he realized that a person can be both gay and live an “ordinary” life. I understood that, in addition to my educational work, I can educate and contribute to a better society just by living true to myself. I hope that I can continue to set this example not just in Stanford’s Out4Biz Club, but simply by being who I am at Stanford.
Sustainability is the cornerstone of my life and, ultimately, what matters to me the most.
At a very young age, I became aware of the inequity in our society and understood that I’d been blessed as one of the more fortunate. I felt a strong desire to help the children I saw begging on the streets and to contribute to the growth and advancement of weaker populations. I started volunteering in events such as polio drop day and food donations. When I asked my parents what more could I do, they taught me that to truly help others, one must be in a strong, stable position. Over time, this translated into looking for venues that would be both profitable and community-serving.
During university, I came across companies like A2Z Group, a privately-owned firm focusing on waste management, and SWach, a cooperative of rag pickers. Inspired by both, I began to form a commercially viable venture that would also serve society. The idea of working with the underprivileged sector for waste management and using new technologies for generating different forms of sustainable energy perfectly catered to all my aspirations, and I began to pursue environmental issues and related activities in my area.
Leveraging my position as the class representative, I first proposed a wastewater treatment plan for our 1,100-acre university campus and later introduced bio-composting for cafeteria food. The following year, as President of the Student Union, I partnered with the environment club and created competitions to promote awareness of the importance of renewable energy. This reduced food and electricity wastage by as much as 40%. Capitalizing on the Golden Jubilee year of the Student Union, we organized environmental awareness campaigns. Students began requesting that we reuse discarded bicycles, which were collected and auctioned, with the resultant income used to maintain the landscaping. They also asked for neglected areas on campus to be cleaned and cared for, with new grass and plants being sowed. I meanwhile oversaw the transformation of our Student Activity Center’s barren land into a lush garden, which soon became a popular spot for students and professors alike.
After graduating, I ventured into the field of plastic-to-fuel and recyclable waste collection, to increase my knowledge and build a foundation in waste management and sustainable energy. Coming to Japan for my first job, I was motivated to import various available technologies and methodologies, such as a highly efficient and systemized garbage disposal and segregation system, which is still missing in India and many other developing nations. As part of my job at _____, I regularly work with highly intellectual people from all around the world. Gaining access to a wide array of knowledge in the international market and working in an energy segment at _____, I became convinced that by sharing technologies we can quickly have a significant environmental impact. Today, my approach to sustainability goes beyond the environment, and into every aspect of life, especially the work I do to give back to the community. As a volunteer with an organization in India that helps educate disadvantaged children, I sought to ensure long-term financial sustenance – encouraging more than 10 people to become new volunteers and donors to this organization. I also introduced do-it-yourself technology solutions for underprivileged kids, such as air coolers made of cardboard and recycled bottles, and helped mount and market the organization’s donation drives.
I try to follow the philosophy of teaching how to fish rather than providing the fish. Over the past four years, I’ve regularly presented at university events and published articles for my university magazines and newspapers, on practical ways for skill enhancement to achieve sustainable growth. I believe that a smart yet ephemeral effort will likely reap few fruits, while a sustained effort is far more likely to lead to positive results. My beliefs have been further strengthened by witnessing the persistent working culture of Japan and the progress Japan has made.
Sustainability has positively influenced my life. From environment to general lifestyle, sustainability forms the bedrock on which my life rests firmly and I will continue to strive to bring sustainability to our society in every possible positive way.
Growing up I always wanted to be like my father, a serial entrepreneur running the family business. As I grew older, I discovered an unspoken truth standing between me and my dream: of my eleven paternal aunts, not one was involved in the family business. In fact, of the 3,000 professionals employed there today, only 5% are women. The business is now moving to the third generation, and I see us blindly inheriting that unspoken truth as my younger brother and male cousins are being positioned to lead the company. Regardless of the barriers, I’m holding strong in my dream and I aspire to be the first female leader in our family business. I believe that an MBA from GSB will empower me to achieve my aspirations.
After visiting the campus and meeting with several alumni and students in November 2016, I am convinced that GSB is the community I want to join. Given the conservative mindset of Saudi, I find it important to be in a diverse and collaborative community that will allow me to learn, share, and debate different viewpoints. In addition, the advantage of GSB’s small class size was obvious in the close-knit bond and the strong sense of community I noticed among the students, as well as the anecdotes alumni shared about regularly consulting faculty, even after graduation. As I am likely to continue to face many barriers in my country to achieve my ultimate goal, building lifelong relationships with alumni and faculty who will continue to support me and challenge me throughout my journey is extremely important.
Our family business must adapt to the country’s economic transformation and expand into sectors outside of the oil industry. I aspire to join the business to develop a new growth strategy and plan for its success through future generations. GSB’s location in the Bay Area will allow me to expand my horizons and expose me to new opportunities that I can introduce to my country.
One of the highlights of my GSB visit was a class I attended called Entrepreneurship: Formation of New Ventures in which John Morgridge led the discussion on his experience as the CEO of Cisco. The opportunity to learn from both academic faculty and great practitioners from different fields will prove invaluable.
Finally, the TALK experience and the Touchy-Feely class will help me build my confidence and develop softer leadership skills. GSB will provide me with an ideal environment to become an effective female leader who can drive change and be an active participant in the growth of my country.
The thing that matters to me most is dreaming.
Not the actual act of dreaming, but the ability to inspire others to dream, and dream big. For me, it all started with football. Yes, I like the physical aspect of football, but more than that, my experiences playing football growing up had a key role in shaping the person I am today, and it was my major source of dreaming. Growing up in a rough environment, football gave me a safe ground to socialize, it allowed me to gain important skills, and as my football career took off, it opened up my eyes to bigger and better things that otherwise I would have never deemed reachable. These days I only play football for fun, but I do it because it symbolizes how far I have come, keeps me grounded and humble, and reminds me to dream.
At nine I started playing football as a hobby. I quickly fell in love with the sport and invested every spare moment I had to practice and improve my game, spending many hours on the field. By 15, I had gained substantial success and started seeing football as an avenue for progress in life; By 16, I was playing for the professional team in the 2nd division and was even selected out of tens of thousands of players for the national team. Cutting was not an easy task, because of the politics involved; I was one of the only three players coming from clubs in the periphery. I proudly represented my country competing for the European title and played against some of the leading players in the world of football today.
To fulfill my dream to become a professional football player, I had to make many sacrifices; a restrictive lifestyle, a supervised diet, training eight times a week (not including matches), and even forfeiting my ambition to serve in a combat unit, but I was committed to my dream. Football taught me how to rely on what I have, make do, and influence others; as a goalkeeper, I served as the last link in the defense line. I had to constantly deliver instructions to the defense players, make split-second decisions, commit, and act. My team, the fans, and at times my entire hometown, we’re all counting on me. But, most importantly football gave me the option to dream big.
For me, dreaming big meant being the first in my extended family to complete a college degree. Again, committed to my success and defying the odds of making it out of my hometown, I chose to pursue a college degree. Financing my way through college while supporting my family required perseverance and sheer willpower; working over 50 hours a week while attending school, I had to give up playing football professionally, which also took a toll on my GPA. But, it was all worth the expression on my mom’s face during graduation, walking her son to get his diploma, something she could never have dreamed of.
Dreaming big also allowed me to be a believer and embark on an entrepreneurial path. Coming from a blue-collar family, I had neither the capital to take risks nor the practical know-how to build a company. Nonetheless, In 2012 I co-founded my first venture – RestCloud, a messaging solution for the online food delivery industry, capitalizing upon my experience working in restaurants as a student, to improve the operational process of communicating orders from various websites to restaurants. To be honest, growing up I never thought I would sell my business venture before the age of 30, but dreams, sometimes, come true.
Nowadays I’m helping other entrepreneurs dream big, taking their startup ideas to market. At StartupLink, I have been able to help startups from 18 countries collaborate with top US MBA programs, bringing fresh views into the organization, and making their dream reachable.
Despite, or maybe because, of these unique experiences and hardships I am proud to present my candidacy for the prestigious Stanford Graduate School of Business MBA program. I’m excited and ready to take my career to the next level and wish that Stanford would help me advance my mission in life to create dreams in the minds of many others.
What matters most to me is empowering small farmers in India to build sustainable livelihoods.
When I was eight years old, I accompanied my grandfather to a community farm he was involved in. There I met Raju who was my age and liked music even more than I did; we quickly became friends. We stayed at Raju’s house for a few days and Raju’s dad regaled us with stories from his village. On the last day there, I heard the story of my grandfather and his struggles during the Indian Independence movement. My grandfather, a follower of Mahatma Gandhi, had given away the 500 acres of agricultural land he owned to small farmers as part of the historic Individual Satyagraha Movement led by Mahatma Gandhi. Through this one act, my grandfather transformed the livelihoods of over a thousand farming families in the region, including the family of my friend Raju. For the rest of his life, my grandfather continued to work towards the upliftment of small and marginal farmers.
Several years later, I moved to a different part of the country to attend college and lost touch with Raju. One day my grandfather called me, choked up with tears: unable to pay the moneylender after multiple years of drought erased their finances, Raju, his mom, and dad had committed suicide. I was shaken to my core. Despite major investments in agriculture and irrigation, India continues to struggle in its efforts to address the growing needs of its farmers, as it faces the onslaught of climate change and is witnessing the highest number of suicides amongst its farmers as a result.
This tragedy solidified what matters most to me: helping small farmers build sustainable livelihoods.
Looking for ways to help me process the loss of my childhood friend, I felt an overwhelming need to understand what was driving this desperate situation. I volunteered with farming communities as a part of the National Service Organisation chapter at IIT Guwahati, offering training camps to educate farmers on techniques to improve yield and usage of pesticides. During this time, I learned from the farmers that the problems they were plagued with were far more complex, intertwined with social and religious beliefs, and coupled with a lack of access to financial resources.
I quit my first job to join an organization that helps rural households build sustainable livelihoods. I was given a front-row seat to the challenges faced by low-skilled farmers. While we could successfully identify local problems and offer specific solutions, the larger challenges continued it get bigger. I had a feeling that we were losing the war despite winning battles. Another constraint I noticed arose from the nature of the organization. As an NGO, we had limited financial resources and were dependent on donors to decide the issues we focused on. Also, I could not see how the solutions we were offering could be scaled to over 100 million marginal farmers in India and more across the world.
Eager to try a new approach to tackle this problem, I joined a for-profit enterprise a farm-to-table retailer startup that focused on uplifting small farmers. There I managed the procurement process that interacted directly with the farmers. As the goals of the organization aligned with the upliftment of small farmers, we could build scalable models to help our farmer partners prosper while being profitable. After years of hard work, I could finally see light at the end of the tunnel. My time there convinced me that a sustainable business, especially one that leverages technology to create a support ecosystem for marginal farmers and help them prosper would be the way forward. As I look back, I draw upon the inspiration from my grandfather and wish I could make him proud by following in his footsteps and achieving the change he fought so hard for during his lifetime.
I aspire to start my venture that offers marketplace support, financial resources, and technical know-how to help small and marginal farmers build sustainable livelihoods. Post-GSB MBA, I would like to work at a management consulting firm such as McKinsey or BCG to improve my managerial and problem-solving skills and gain valuable experience in global best practices that I can implement to build my venture.
The Experiential Learning opportunities at Stanford GSB, particularly the Social Entrepreneurship Program and courses such as ‘Problem-Solving for Social Change’ and ‘Impact: Taking Social Innovation to Scale’ would allow me to explore the issue I intend to tackle in-depth, refine my approach, and maximize the impact I intend to have. Becoming involved with the Stanford GSB Impact Fund will help me understand the perspectives of an investor on how they choose a social impact startup to invest in. I would be an active participant in the Social Impact Club to share my experiences of working with marginalized communities in India and connect with peers and alumni through the club activities. Global immersions such as the GMIX in Nairobi would allow me to gain deeper insights into the challenges facing other developing countries and explore innovative solutions that I could take back and implement in my venture.
As an aspiring entrepreneur, I look forward to electives such as ‘Creating a New Venture’, ‘Formation of Impact Ventures’ and ‘The Startup Garage’ to improve on my entrepreneurial tool kit to help me launch my long-term venture. Spending my summer in the Entrepreneurial Summer Program will provide unparalleled exposure to early-stage startups in Silicon Valley. I would utilize the extensive resources offered by the Career Management Center such as the one-on-one Career Advisor, and Stanford GSB Mentoring Network to transition into consulting.
I would also like to spend my two years at Stanford GSB to develop on a personal level and explore myself. I’ve heard a great deal about ‘Interpersonal Dynamics or touchy-feely’ and ‘TALK’ and I am curious about what I would find out about myself through these courses. Stanford GSB not only provides me with the professional tools to pursue my desired career path but also allows organized introspection and deep interpersonal bonding.
- When I first moved to _______ to manage their procurement team, the industry norm was to hire MBA or supply chain professionals to coordinate with the farmers and their core focus was on operational metrics. I felt this was a wasted opportunity to build meaningful relationships with our farmer partners and went with a different strategy. I hired a talented team of subject matter experts who majored in agriculture and had experience helping farmers. My team of agricultural majors devoted a bulk of their time assisting farmers in improving their yield and identifying ways to reduce their expenses. This created a significant level of trust within the farming community and soon we had an influx of farmers walking into our office to build partnerships. It was these strong relationships that helped us immensely during the covid pandemic. Our robust supply chains powered our revenue growth from $10 million in 2019 to $30 million in 2021, while our competitors struggled with supply side challenges. We also gave the necessary support to our farming partners during this challenging time such as providing them medical benefits and credit support.
- At ____, I was leading an effort to teach financial basics to farmers partnering with the Reserve Bank of India. The villagers would attend our sessions, listen to our lectures but then go home and invest their money in risky pooled financial instruments called chit funds. They would also borrow money from money lenders at exorbitant rates and fall into debt traps despite the availability of options from local banks. I realized the farmers were comfortable with these established systems and would not break their habits as they simply did not trust the banks. To break this habit, I identified a small group of interested people and set up a self help group that looked like a traditional chit fund from the outside but one that removed the inherent risks in the old systems by partnering with banks. After two crop cycles the small self help groups started to save significantly more than the rest of the village and other farmers started to take notice. These results convinced the larger village community to re-look at their old habits and move to access better financial services.
- In India, the use of sanitary napkins is marred with a stigma which made my task working with a microfinance firm and encouraging their use a real challenge. I knew that I didn’t stand a chance against cultural norms, etc. I chose instead, a different strategy, to recruit their support in helping make cheap sanitary napkins and earn profit from selling them. This micro-industry was a perfect fit for the village as many of the women had prior experience with knitting and tailoring. After a series of training sessions, several hundred women came forward to creating these sanitary napkins and earning an income from this setup. I’m proud to have taken a role in the shift in perception; we noticed that villagers started using them without any campaigns from our teams.
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