Toyota Motor Company invented a problem-solving approach called the Five Whys. Read on to discover how can it help you with your MBA Essays…
According to Wikipedia, Five whys is an iterative, interrogative technique used to explore the cause-and-effect relationships underlying a particular problem. The technique was originally developed by Sakichi Toyoda and was used within the Toyota Motor Corporation during the evolution of its manufacturing process. The inventor of the Toyota Production System, Taiichi Ohno, described the five whys accordingly: By repeating why five times, the nature of the problem as well as its solution becomes clear. Sounds pretty simple, right? But the tool has seen widespread use beyond Toyota, and is now used within Kaizen, lean manufacturing and Six Sigma. You will surely learn about the five whys when you go to business school.
What do the five whys have to do with business school applications?
It’s pretty straightforward, actually. Business schools are looking to discover who you truly are, what makes you tick. Often, an applicant will only begin to scratch the surface in this area by describing at a fairly superficial level their achievements and their desire to go to business school. The five whys can help you peel back the layers to get to the root of your desires and thereby, allow you to demonstrate to business schools not only your true passions, but what drives them.
Business schools often supply you with the first whys in the questions themselves:
Why do you want to go to business school? Why is now a good time to go back? Why do you want to get your MBA here? These questions, however simple they seem, will trick many applicants into diving right into their answer and subsequently miss the opportunity to go deeper. The process is simple: answer the question in one sentence, then ask yourself “why” again. Answer once again in one sentence, and then keep asking yourself why until you reach the 5th iteration. Toyota claims that doing so will get to the root cause.
You will surprise yourself with how revealing the five whys can be. Let’s walk through an example:
Why do you want to go to business school?
To make more money.
Why do you want to make more money?
Because I am not happy with the money I make now.
Why aren’t you happy?
My job is not fulfilling.
Why is your job not fulfilling?
I don’t feel like I am reaching my full potential?
Why aren’t you reaching your full potential?
I am not able to apply my leadership strengths in the workplace.
You can see how going deeper with the five whys can expose core drivers and reveal potential insights which can show the adcoms who you really are. You don’t have to stop at number five either. Keep going to unearth even more revolutionary truths you can package up in a narrative for the admissions committees.
For information on how we can guide your business school application process, email us at mba@amerasiaconsulting.com or go to http://www.amerasiaconsulting.com/contact