The document describes two examples of the applicant's leadership. In the first example, the applicant successfully started up a dry laundry operation in South Africa that faced challenges from heavy rain. Through breaking problems into action steps and motivating the team, the applicant ensured the operation started on time. In the second example, the applicant helped their product development function exceed cost-saving targets by engaging management support and restructuring project approaches. The applicant believes an IE MBA would broaden their knowledge and skills in leadership and organization development to strengthen their career and enable starting an engineering consulting firm.

1. D. CITE AT LEAST ONE EXAMPLE OF WHEN YOUR
LEADERSHIP HAD AN IMPACT ON OR CHANGED A CERTAIN
SITUATION, AND JUSTIFY HOW AN IE MASTER’S DEGREE
PROGRAM WOULD HELP YOU TO STRENGTHEN OR IMPROVE
THIS COMPETENCE.
IE MBA
Application
By
Sherif
AbdelRehim

2. MY LEADERSHIP COMPETENCIES
We are all strong in our own ways. For me my core leadership strength
is in 3 areas that complement one another.
I see the light in the darkest times
I translate the vision into reality
I ask my team and myself this very simple question when they think
it can’t be done; What needs to be true to do this?
In this presentation I’ll take you through 2 examples that will
demonstrate my strength in the above areas and I’ll highlight how
studying at IE will further enhance these areas.

3. EXAMPLE 1: SOUTH AFRICA
OPERATIONS STARTUP

4. SOUTH AFRICA OPERATIONS START
UP
Last year I was asked to start up a dry laundry operation in South
Africa. The scope was clear and seemed straight forward. We planned
to finish construction of the operations facility, install the process
equipment and start it up.
However, due to schedule delays a lot of activities where done in
parallel to make the deadlines.
The Challenges:
Incredible amount of rain!
Leaking ceilings
Equipment electrical units soaked in water!

5. SOUTH AFRICA OPERATIONS START
UP CONT.
The Pressure:
This is one of the companies greatest projects and already announced the
expected start up date in Wall Street!
The rain is not stopping
The team is losing hope day by day!
My Role:
After looking at the resources I have, I decided that we will still make this
happen. I just had to come up with a plan and get everyone onboard. We
needed to meet the dead line, so that meant, what needs to be true is the
following;
 Dry operations
 Working electrical components
 In 3 days!

6. SOUTH AFRICA OPERATIONS START
UP CONT. 2
Translating the vision into reality:
Now, the team was looking at me trying to understand how can we do
this? So I started breaking down the 3 requirements set earlier into
actionable activities.
Dry Operations: Cover the equipment with plastic sheets and build water
channels to divert the rain water away from the areas we work in.
Working Electrical Components: Dismantle all parts, put in a dry room with
heaters for 2 days. Monitor progress every 2 hrs. In anticipation for
unrecoverable damages, I’ve reduced the scope to the bare minimum
required by the project.
In 3 Days: Redirect various team members from “task driven” to “flow to
work”. Prioritized work based on fundamental business need only vs value
added scope and drafted an hourly plan for every person and every task.

7. SOUTH AFRICA OPERATIONS START
UP CONT. 3
Day 3:
Operation started on time with required capacity!
2 Weeks Later:
Recognized and awarded by our Global Technology Director for
exceptional leadership agility and technical mastery.

8. EXAMPLE 2: BUSINESS
COST CHALLENGE

9. BUSINESS COST CHALLENGE
In any business, cost saving is always a continues challenge. We are all
trying to achieve best value creation for our consumers by reducing
our cost to be able to price down and increase our sales and profits.
Recently I joined the Product Development function. This is the
function that is most concerned with value creation. Consistently,
management have been giving us savings targets that are needed to
deliver share holders returns and stretch targets to deliver better
results than forecasted to gain share holders confidence in continuous
growth.
Historically PD function has been delivering between the committed
target and the stretch target. However, in my section we decided that
we want not only to deliver the stretch target, but even exceed it.

10. BUSINESS COST CHALLENGE
CONT. 1
Seeing the light:
At first the global teams thought that this is unrealistic and
historical data show that it was not done before. But I saw a different
reality, historically the teams were always delivering and getting the
base target was not a challenge for them. Which meant that this was
not their full potential!
Moreover, some members didn’t want to over commit to
management this plan as they had a lot of doubts that we can
deliver.
For me, management needed to be part of the team rather than
customers in order to enable my ambitious plans and relief the
pressure of over commitment from the team.

11. BUSINESS COST CHALLENGE
CONT. 2
What needed to be true:
This was what I went to management with to deliver my plans and
made them part of the team.
1. I presented the estimated savings and got their full attention
2. I told them if you want these projects, you need to help me remove
obstclas
3. Then I engaged them in periodic meetings to solve actual projects
problems rather than going to them with just updates as we’ve
historically done.

12. BUSINESS COST CHALLENGE
CONT. 3
Vision into reality:
This was the most difficult part. Historically the team did typical loss
analysis and elimination exercises. However, I knew that this wasn’t
going to get us to where we wanted to go. So I asked the team to do
the following.
1. Focus on the “ideal case” (value stream mapping approach)
2. Don’t jump into action to reach a stage between the current and
the ideal stage, but analyze the gap instead.
3. Determine a plan to close the gap based on available resources
and priorities.
4. Break down the projects into smaller projects for faster execution
and early wins

13. BUSINESS COST CHALLENGE
CONT. 3
Results:
Delivered more than double our functions typical annual savings
Recognized by our Vice President for achieving more than 25% of
the total business unit annual savings
Asked to write the new global “Current Best Approach” to be the
new standard for delivering saving projects in the company.

14. IE EMBA –
EMPOWERMENT
Work in one of the best companies globally.
Develop managerial skills and gain
operational experience.
Enroll in a top EMBA school
Partner & Startup a
Consulting Firm
ScaleThe IE EMBA for me is the best way to
achieve:
1. Knowledge is power, looking at the
program and talking to several
graduates, this is exactly what I
need. The IE EMBA broadens the
knowledge of it’s graduates much
beyond their core expertise.
2. The Executive program in specific
is highly focused on leadership and
organization development, this will
boost my career and make me a
better multi skill leader.
3. I envision to start my own
Engineering and Operations
Consulting firm after graduation