Personal Business Plan

Introduction
For this project, students will write a Personal Business Plan (PBP) and highlight how entrepreneurship and innovation could play a role in their personal and career paths. The entrepreneurial process is at its core concerned with “the pursuit of opportunity without regard to the resources already under control.” This process is as applicable to your career as it is to start a company. The goal of this assignment is to identify where you want to be and how you will get there. Do not worry about your current resources. Think entrepreneurially! Your personal business plan should include a long-term vision statement, the “external” opportunities that exist, your “Internal” (personal) strengths, and a strategy for yourself and your life over the next three to five years. In addition, please share at least one “failure” from your past and what you learned from it in terms of maximizing your potential for the future. The assignment should consist of about one page (up to 600 words) that summarizes as many of the areas below as possible, as well as the one “failure” wherever you feel it best fits. To sum up this assignment, an oral presentation will be due in week 15 in order to back up understanding and allow students a chance to justify their choices and further discuss their Personal Business Plan.

Part A: Written Report – Worth 100 marks
Consider the following topic areas and questions as you work on your Personal Business Plan Report.

1. Vision and Opportunity
• What are your goals (career and/or educational) after you leave your university?
• What are your purpose, your values, and your mission? List the 3 key questions that guide your choices. These should be essential questions that serve as touchstones to direct your life and work. For instance, how can I have an impact? What do I love? What do I fear? What engages my passions? How do I want to be remembered? The answers to these questions may well change over time, but when the questions themselves are fundamental they tend to last a lifetime.
• What are the market and opportunity that align with your goals? Don’t restrict yourself to matters of career or work; think more broadly about your opportunities to make a difference.

2. Marketing and Implementation Strategy
• Create your market positioning statement. This may be directed at a hypothetical employer, industry, organization, or the world at large.
• What compelling value will you offer to your employers and society?
• How will you differentiate from other UAE students? How about from the broader populace?

3. Risks and Mitigation
• What are the key milestones and checkpoints in your plan?
• How will you measure/determine if you have successfully attained these milestones? How do you define success?
• What external factors might affect your attaining success? (Positively or adversely)
• Develop contingency and risk mitigation strategies.
• Entrepreneurship is not all about personal financial gain. It concerns crafting a lifelong plan to make a positive impact on society. Character does matter. Failure is OK; unethical behavior is not. True wealth requires the creation of enduring value, which requires integrity and ethics.
• How do you plan to practice ethical principles in your daily actions?
• If you could assemble any three people to advise and mentor you, who would they be? They may be alive or dead, family or world leaders, friends or strangers. Why would you choose each? Is it their wisdom, their accomplishments, their words, their creativity, their character, their heroic deeds………..?
• Similar to popular “six-word memoir” exercise, please summarize your PBP in 6 words (e.g., “humanist engineer, global citizen, caring teacher”).

Grade Scale
Unacceptable
0 – 59 Minimum requirements
60– 64 Satisfactory
65-74 Above requirements
75-84 Outstanding
85-100
Errors so significant that the work is not passing quality Significant errors, information mostly unclear or incorrect Most information is correct and well-presented, with few errors Largely free of errors, and demonstrates critical thought with well-explained coverage of all topics. Clear, well-explained, error-free work demonstrating critical thinking, with clear evidence of independent work and authentic research.

Grading Rubric
Report Contents Comments Marks
Awarded
Vision and Opportunity
• The student clearly defines at least 3 of their career and/or educational goals after graduating from HCT.
• The student discusses in detail their purpose, their values, and their mission. Also, lists the 3 key questions that guide their choices. These are essential questions that serve as touchstones to direct the student’s life and work.
• The student provides at least 3 examples from the current job market and opportunities available to them. This must align with the student’s goals, taking into consideration their opportunities to make a difference. /20
Marketing and Implementation Strategy
• The student has created their market positioning statement, directed at a hypothetical employer, industry, organization, or the world at large.
• The student clearly describes the compelling value that they will offer to their potential employers and society.
• The student defines how they will differentiate from other UAE students or from the broader populace. /20
Risks and Mitigation
• The student clearly identifies the key milestones and checkpoints in their plan. In addition to describing how they will measure, or determine if they have successfully attained these milestones, and explain how they define success.
• External factors that might affect attaining success are clearly mentioned (Positively or adversely).
• The student has developed 3 contingency and risk mitigation strategies. /20
Ethics
• The student identifies how they plan to practice ethical principles in their daily actions.
• The student mentions their choice of mentors in addition to justifying why they choose each.
• Based on the “six-word memoir” exercises, the student summarizes their PBP in 6 words that are applicable and relevant. /20
Format
• Formatting is clear, used times new roman font, size 12, spacing is 1.5. Header and footer include student name, ID, and course details. Citation and referencing must be included in an attached page. /20
Total Grade /100

Part B: Oral Presentation – Worth 100 marks.
An oral presentation will be scheduled for week 15, allowing the student to further explain and defend their Personal Business Plan report.
• Teacher teaching the course can assess his/her own students.
• Each student will be assessed by two faculty (for purposes of standardization of the assessment results across the colleges). The assessors can be from the same college, and who are teaching the same group of students.
• Markers can share grades with each other.
• Video/voice recording of the assessment is a good practice that all colleges should consider. It helps moderation, or addressing any potential issues later.
• PowerPoint/Prezi can be a used as visual aid during the presentation.
• Submission of the Personal Business Plan prior to the scheduled presentation is encouraged.

Assessment 3 –Personal Business Plan Presentation – 30%
Organization and Visuals
Presentation is organized with a clear introduction, body and conclusion, with appropriate visual aids. Visual aid used is clear, lacks spelling mistakes, looks professional, and applies to content. Presentation is organized, but needs more structure. Visual aids used could use some editing and improvement. Presentation lacks organization or structure. Visual aids used were not of any use or relevance.
20 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2
Vision and Opportunity
The student demonstrates a clear vision of their career and/or educational goals after graduating from HCT, and discusses in detail their purpose, their values, and their mission. In addition to listing the 3 key questions that guide their choices. The student thoroughly describes the market and opportunity that align with their goals taking into consideration their opportunities to make a difference. Student includes a long-term vision statement highlighting “external” opportunities that exist. The student demonstrates a clear vision of their career and/or educational goals after graduating from HCT, but does not discuss in detail their purpose, their values, and their mission. The 3 key questions that guide their choices are presented, but the student fails to expand. The student describes the market and opportunity that align with their goals, but fails to expand or identify critical factors. Some form of a vision statement and external opportunity is mentioned. The student does not demonstrate a clear vision of their career and/or educational goals after graduating from HCT, and does not discuss in detail their purpose, their values, and their mission. The 3 key questions that guide their choices are not presented. The student is unable to describe the market and opportunity that align with their goals. Student didn’t mention vision statement or “external” opportunities.
20 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2
Marketing and Implementation Strategy
The student has created their market positioning statement, directed at a hypothetical employer, industry, organization, or the world at large. The student clearly describes the compelling value that they will offer to their potential employers and society. The student defines how they will differentiate from other UAE students or from the broader populace. The student created their market positioning statement, directed at a hypothetical employer, industry, organization, or the world at large. The student does not clearly describe the value that they will offer to their potential employers and society, and does not define how they will differentiate from other students’ competition. The student did not mention their market positioning statement, and does not describe the value that they will offer to their potential employers and society. The student does not define how they will differentiate from other UAE students or from the broader populace.
20 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2
Risk and Mitigation
The student clearly identifies the key milestones and checkpoints in their plan. In addition to describing how they will measure, or determine if they have successfully attained these milestones, and explain how they define success. External factors that might affect attaining success are clearly mentioned. The student has developed contingency and risk mitigation strategies. The student partially identifies the milestones and checkpoints in their plan. The student does not describe how they will measure, or determine if they have successfully attained these milestones, and explain how they define success. External factors that might affect attaining success are briefly mentioned. The student has broad and general contingency and risk mitigation strategies. The student does not identify the milestones and checkpoints in their plan. The student does not describe how they will measure, or determine if they have successfully attained these milestones, and does not explain how they define success. External factors that might affect attaining success are overlooked. The student has no contingency and risk mitigation strategies.
20 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2
Failure
Student shared a valid failure experience from their past and shared what they learned in terms of maximizing their future potential. Student shared valid failure experience, but did not provide specific reference to learning from their failure. Limited reasons were provided at maximizing their potential for the future. No failure experience identified. Inappropriate or inadequate responses.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Presentation Skills
Student is not reading, has clear eye contact, and is clearly prepared. When asked, student is able to explain any part of the whole presentation. Presentation is between 4 to 5 minutes. Student made eye contact every now and then, but needs more preparation. Presentation is more than 5 minutes. Student was not prepared and lacked self-confidence. Presentation is less than 4 minutes.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Total Grade /100