(From A Manager)
To whom it may concern:
I think extremely highly of Hongbin Wu, and therefore it is my great
pleasure to write a letter of recommendation on his behalf, for
entrance into your MBA program.
I have known Hongbin for more than one and a half years. I hired him
to work for me as a Research Analyst at SRR in July of 1996. SRR is
a full-service marketing research firm whose clients are primarily
large radio stations and other music oriented media companies such
as Capital Records, and MTV Networks. My roles at SRR include
manager of new product development (research products and the
software to analyze the results), and internal research consultant
(sampling methodology and multivariate statistical analysis). In
addition, as a member of the management team at SRR, I am charged
with constantly working to find more efficient, cost-effective means
of gathering respondent level data and producing our research
products. Since joining SRR as a Senior Research Analyst, and more
recently as Manager of Research and Development, Hongbin has been a
major weapon in my arsenal of tools for accomplishing these tasks.
Hongbin is a creative and original thinker. He has native
intelligence, great curiosity about people and ideas, and plenty of
common sense that he has applied to solving many problems at SRR. In
addition, he has demonstrated excellent powers of observation, and
an ability to communicate and suggest change in effective but
non-threatening ways. To illustrate…
Early on, Hongbin was assigned to an important research project as a
fill-in Project Manager. In this role he was responsible for the
technical aspects of creating a computer-based survey questionnaire
(from one given to him by our client services department),
monitoring the telephone data collection process, and completing the
data processing and analysis of the survey results.
From the beginning of this assignment, Hongbin began to re-define
our expectations of a good project manager. He started by
participating in discussions with the client and suggesting and
implementing several changes to the script that shortened its length
and clarified the instructions to respondents. Without prompting or
precedence he spent several days working odd hours, observing and
monitoring interviewers and supervisors as they began to field this
2000 person study. Within a few days he had shortened and clarified
the script even more - removing redundant questions, collapsing
multiple questions into one, and improving the flow from question to
question and screen-to-screen - all to the great praise of both
interviewers and the director of our phone center. He had also
observed something about a particular aspect of the interviewing
process that was common to all surveys at SRR. He wrote a memo to
several managers outlining his proposed change in methodology that
clearly demonstrated the value of his idea: an annual cost reduction
of close to $50,000. At the end of the project, he wrote a several
page critique of our interviewing and supervisory staff. He
described the characteristics and skills employed by the best
interviewers he'd observed and made suggestions for how these skills
could be taught to the entire staff. His recommendations were well
received and soon implemented by the very manager whose staff was
being critiqued; such was the value of his contribution and the
skill and sensitivity with which he presented his ideas.
In processing the survey results, Hongbin also quickly learned to
use several advanced statistical techniques including Cluster
Analysis and Discriminant Analysis with which he had only a passing
knowledge prior to the project.
Hongbin has also demonstrated his technical and analytical abilities
in helping create a new model for bidding on new business, and in
spearheading the development of tool that used a Maximum Likelihood
algorithm for ascribing missing respondent data. Recently, Hongbin
helped me identify the most desirable qualifications and background
of computer programming candidates, and he assisted me in the
recruiting and mentoring of two Chinese student interns to this
position. They have both made significant contributions in only a
few months of employment.
Hongbin is not a native English speaker or writer, and thus, he has
had to work very hard to clearly communicate his ideas. I have seen
him grow in this area tremendously over the last one and half years.
His attentive listening and great enthusiasm has helped him overcome
any language limitations. He is both self-confident and
self-deprecating, and has a great sense of humor that has helped him
form strong relationships with subordinates, peers, and members of
our management team. Managers in other departments frequently seek
his advice, and his name is always at the top of the list when
choosing team members to spearhead important company initiatives.
In all of these areas, Hongbin Wu has gone beyond expectations, and
has out-shined all others in his peer-group at SRR. His efforts were
recently rewarded with a promotion to the position of Manager of
Research & Development.
Hongbin is very likeable and ambitious person. I have no doubt that
he will be a serious and enthusiastic student, and someday a quite
successful senior level manager or entrepreneur that you would be
proud to call an alumni.
Sincerely,
Mark Peterman
Vice President
SRR
|
|