Several months ago, I made a business proposal for my capstone project. The project aimed at making a business plan for a start-up company, which provided travel service. As the founder, I was asked to present a projected income statement and statement of cash flow. To start, I searched financial statements and annual reports of the tourism industry leaders to learn about their operations and strategies. I observed that companies would closely monitor the current macro environment and industry trends to align their strategies, especially related to their capital allocation decisions. Despite differences in structure, I found that all companies paid much attention in cash flow and most of the founders said that managing the cash flow was the most critical thing for start-up companies—companies need to survive before success. I realized how financial metrics, ratios and earnings results could demonstrate and forecast the future performance of a company. Rather than expanding into all possible directions with all efforts, a “small” management team should understand its opportunities and risks.

While conducting research to identify factors that influence Chinese consumers’ intention to purchase organic food, I realized the importance of quantitative analysis and how it could help optimize and simplify the research. Since I designed my questionnaire just to meet the basic research requirements, I found that advanced analytic methods could not be applied based on those data. I restarted to look for theoretical documents, learning new analytic software, designing a new experiment and running a pilot test. Then I taught myself SPSS, spent days reading piles of documents, and studied AMOS for constructing a model based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). I concluded that attitude and ecological motive were the independent predictors of people’s intention towards organic food purchase, and I finally published my result in China-USA Business Review. I was convinced by the vital role data analytics play in this area, and how collecting, interpreting and applying data can ultimately lead to successful business decisions. Therefore, I continued learning about advanced analytic method during my graduate studies. I chose marketing analytics as my concentration and was introduced to R language and SAS language, using them to solve marketing problems and build research models.

In another project, our group was tasked to help restaurant owners to increase their booking inquiries within three months. After an early-stage search, we defined the UIS as a traditional BBQ restaurant and the competition was very intense due to the homogeneous services provided in the market. To improve their performance of digital marketing, we combined SEO and SEM to provide searchers with the most accurate information. However, after we launched the first-round of ads on Google, we found that bounce rate was high, yet session duration was low, inferring that online viewers weren’t interested in the content we offered and exited the page too soon. To solve this problem, we analyzed the keywords that guided people to our page. The results showed that people who spent the longest time searching for very specific questions, for example, who provided the best catering service in the long island city, and our page answered them thoroughly. Therefore, we made some changes to our bidding keywords. We added detailed service and specific location such as BBQ catering service and long island city in them. This change helped UIS differentiate from other BBQ restaurants, based on the improvement that it was identified as a catering service provider rather than a regular restaurant. This strategy broadened UIS’s scope of business and helped me learn that analytics tools are required to analyze and interpret consumers’ behavior pattern and instant change should be made to respond to their unmet needs.

I believe my experience provides me with a special perspective to observe the business world, as I care about details, real people and overlooked needs. Recently I was influenced by the outbreak of COVID-19 and I couldn’t help pondering how small and medium enterprises could survive from it. By the end of 2018, Chinese small and medium enterprises contributed more than 60% of GDP and 80% of job creation. However, compared to conglomerates, they are more vulnerable to the disruption brought by COVID-19. According to the latest report, 67% of small and medium business, with a cash ratio of less than 1, have a pressing need for more capital funding. Especially for companies in the service industry, which will be affected most, they will need more time to recover. Since the portion of the service industry in China has expanded to 54% in China, more people will be inflicted this time.

For business owners, liquidity becomes the highest priority. They need cash to pay for operating expenses and resume operations. Loans are required to help them get through the hard times until the whole industry returns to the normal level. Easing fiscal policy from the government and central bank is the main force in helping enterprises, particularly for small and medium companies. There is no one-size-fits-all resolution. Different industries and companies in different sizes require pertinent measures, while micro entities shouldn’t be overlooked under this circumstance either. This grey rhino event reveals the significance of incorporating risk management into enterprise operation. The current leverage ratio and trade-offs between cost and risk mitigation should be pinpointed. Emergency liquidity cushions are necessary for firms to deal with liquidity risk. Focus on cash reserves and liquid assets may help them through the crisis. Even for the micro entities, the core value of asset/liability management (ALM) can be applied.

I prepared for the CFA exams and kept learning coding to do quantitative analysis with my marketing knowledge. Therefore, I consider myself versatile to expand my career path into finance. I am impressed by your curriculum, which is very suitable for me, and would like to apply for this program. The integration of Investment Management program and Financial analysis program offers a broader range of courses to choose from. Corporate Risk Management and Statistical Methods for Risk Management can prepare me for a deeper understanding of ERM and its application in risk mitigation. As more enterprises begin to integrate risk management with balance sheet management and financing strategies, I aspire to learn about both the practical and theoretical perspective developed from real-world cases. The portfolio view of all risks adopted by large companies can enlighten micro entities on optimizing internal business process and noticing early signs of potential threats. Additionally, companies’ financial decisions can be influenced by other external forces such as peer groups, trade issues, geo-political situations and, as what we are experiencing, a health crisis. I believe pursuing further education will greatly strengthen my skillset to practice finance in today’s complex, fast-changing global environment and enable me to achieve my goal of becoming an investment analyst. For the long term, I aspire to provide wealth management service or be a financial advisor.

This is why I am applying for this program and I am ready for this exciting journey ahead.