Letter of Motivation

Over the last decade I have gained expertise in Marketing Communication roles for national as well as
international brands in industries such as Bathware, Furniture Hardware, Audio-Visual and IT
Products & Services, together with advanced competency in the German and Spanish languages. My
experience of working in the UAE has also played a significant role in developing my potential. My
career roles have involved collaborating with Business Development Teams to achieve short- and
long-term goals by delivering Integrated Marketing Communication campaigns within the allocated
budget.

After an overhaul of my skill-set and acquiring new competencies and business intelligence during my
MA at the Mainz University of Applied Sciences, I plan to add value to the education sector in India. I
believe that education helps people broaden their field of vision and create livelihood. In my home
country, India, I have witnessed the impact of government educational schemes on students and the
role of corporates in transforming lives. However, I find that growth in the education sector still leaves
a lot to be desired. In the last decade, many private engineering and management colleges have sprung
up in the big cities, providing employment opportunities to technically sound graduates. On the other
hand, the developing cities have not seen a significant improvement in institutes that nurture
entrepreneurship. To establish such a set-up, it is imperative for me to understand the process and
nuances of setting up a socially relevant organization and to get first-hand exposure to such
organizations.

In the short-term, I therefore aspire to explore the intersection between my marketing competencies
and the education sector by taking up a position of leadership at an IT Products & Services firm. I
want to lead the strategy for creating a sustainable demand for technologically-enabled learning tools
such as Interactive LEDs, Projectors and Whiteboards among educators in smaller cities in India, and
to consolidate the supply chain to meet this demand. Thereby, I would want to promote the application
of modern education technology in classrooms to make learning more interactive, efficient and
enjoyable.

I would also like to explore various aspects of social enterprise and work with a couple of such
organizations to pick up practical experience. Having built up theoretical and practical knowledge over
a period of next five years, I see myself setting up an institute for entrepreneurial education in a
developing Indian city to ensure meaningful livelihood for the community and improved outcomes for
students. In doing so, I would use the tools and learning from my Master’s program and apply best
practices across my start-up such as effective use of technology, digital transformation, reduction of
waste and operating costs, setting standards, benchmarking and performance monitoring across a
range of activities. Looking further into the future, I would explore establishing international branch
campuses and tie-ups in Asian countries by seeking out overseas investors and partner institutions.
This is my long-term career vision.

To retool my career along the above roadmap, I want to pursue a Master’s at the Mainz University of
Applied Sciences that will update me on the competencies, methodologies and life skills required in
the business leader of today as well as re-purpose my multilingualism and cultural sensitivity in the
context of leading international teams. Given that my first Master’s degree dates back a decade, the
second Master’s would give me the timely opportunity to gain a contemporary perspective into
subjects such as Digital Transformation, International Business Environment, International Marketing
and Business Research, to name just a few.

An additional incentive to study at Mainz is the chance to do a semester abroad and earn a second
degree. While short-listing partner universities, I’ve selected the ones where I could major in a field
related to my interests, previous academic training and work experience. I would therefore go with
Karlstad University (Sweden), Università degli Studi Brescia (Italy) and University of Salford
(Manchester), as each would offer me a major in Marketing with a regional perspective, and two of
them, a degree.
Reflecting on my own career experiences during the last few years, I noticed a shift in the way
businesses were being run, requiring managers to rebuild skill-sets in order to stay relevant. The most
noticeable change was how the customer-base was no longer managed via field visits, phone and e-
mails. Instead, modern CRM software, dynamic homepages and mobile apps were being combined to
automate processes. This had the effect of unlocking new customer touchpoints, presenting businesses
with a wealth of new data across an increasingly fragmented online universe. This, in turn, created a
demand for experts adept at synthesizing complex data and funneling it through customer journeys to
create a positive customer experience. In the face of such disruptive change, I believe a systematic
upgrade is the best way I can leverage my profile to land career roles that challenge me.

The learning experience at the MA program will help me build the required expertise and astute
business sense to achieve my long-term goal of securing a decision-making position in the Education
industry. Furthermore, opting for a Masters from an international campus would give me a European
perspective, and the right connections to executives, investors, innovators and other leading social
entrepreneurs which would help me move towards my goal with the right network to leverage.

While considering an international campus for my Masters, Germany was an obvious choice as I see
my career experiences and personal interests leading up to it in many ways. Not only did my first two
career roles involve localizing German brands in India while collaborating day-to-day with colleagues
in Germany, but my sustained interest in the language and travel within the DACH region invariably
opens new windows to its people and the zeitgeist. My experience working with German brands made
me curious, for example, about the German core values, beliefs & assumptions, attitude towards the
environment, interests and aspirations. In light of this, while pursuing a Masters in Germany, I’d be
able to appreciate the underlying cultural context to the academic discussions/case studies and develop
a deeper aptitude for it.

Throughout my career I’ve driven several communication campaigns through a range of channels that
generated demand and consolidated brand visibility for my organisation. Particularly, my stint in the
UAE made me more mature and honed my interpersonal skills, such as working in teams with
multicultural make-up, negotiating differences of opinion and holding my own while exchanging
opinions with seniors. It also continued to challenge me professionally, as I overhauled my skills
across a range of areas through projects involving a high degree of complexity. An example of this
would be during the annual Gulf Information Technology Exhibition, where I had to set-up and
manage four exhibition booths at the same time, each fitted out with the product display range. Often,
such exhibitions ran concurrently in different cities on the same day, with demands on me to execute
them meticulously and accurately, using independent decision-making and within tight deadlines.

Such experiences have helped me sharpen my skills in areas such as organizing and planning,
communicating with clarity through organizational hierarchy, prioritizing tasks, prevailing upon
suppliers to ensure timely commitments, foreseeing scenarios that might threaten timely project
execution, and spending budgets judiciously and accountably. In fact, at ALMOE, by negotiating
supplier prices competitively, I was able to achieve up to 40% savings in the annual marketing budget.
I look forward to utilizing the expertise earned during such experiences towards my long-term vision
of bringing an impact to the society.

In conclusion, the MA from the Mainz University of Applied Sciences will help me seek positions of
leadership in the dynamic times of today characterized by disruptive change. Thanks to the teaching
methodology based on projects and cross-cultural groups, I look forward to applying my knowledge
into contemporary management issues and how to approach them in a solution-oriented manner.
Above all, the experience at the Mainz campus would aid in the overall development of my
personality and in broadening my concept from the narrower confines of nationalism to
internationalism.

I thank you for considering my application and I assure you that if given the opportunity, I shall bring
credit to your institution.

(Chandra Shekhar)