LSS 2403 Fundamentals of Innovation & Entrepreneurship Project 03

Personal Business Plan

Project 3: Individual
Worth 40%
Due Week 15

Part A: Written Report 10%

Part B: Presentation 30%

Learning Outcome Addressed

1. Students will appreciate how to connect design thinking, innovation, and

entrepreneurship to their own career development and paths. LO 6

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.

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LSS 2403 Fundamentals of Innovation & Entrepreneurship Project 03

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

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LSS 2403 Fundamentals of Innovation & Entrepreneurship Project 03

Grading Rubric
Marks
Report Contents Comments
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 /20
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.
Marketing and Implementation Strategy
 The student has created their market positioning statement,
directed at a hypothetical employer, industry, organization, or the
world at large.
/20
 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.
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. /20
 External factors that might affect attaining success are clearly
mentioned (Positively or adversely).
 The student has developed 3 contingency and risk mitigation
strategies.
Ethics
 The student identifies how they plan to practice ethical principles
in their daily actions.
/20
 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.
Format
 Formatting is clear, used times new roman font, size 12, spacing /20
is 1.5. Header and footer include student name, ID, and course
details. Citation and referencing must be included in an attached
page.
Total Grade /100

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 LSS 2403 Fundamentals of Innovation & Entrepreneurship Project 03

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
Presentation is organized, but
conclusion, with appropriate visual Presentation lacks organization
needs more structure. Visual aids
aids. Visual aid used is clear, lacks or structure. Visual aids used
used could use some editing and
spelling mistakes, looks were not of any use or relevance.
improvement.
professional, and applies to
content.
20 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2
Vision and Opportunity
The student demonstrates a clear
The student demonstrates a clear
vision of their career and/or The student does not
vision of their career and/or
educational goals after graduating demonstrate a clear vision of
educational goals after graduating
from HCT, and discusses in detail their career and/or educational
from HCT, but does not discuss in
their purpose, their values, and goals after graduating from HCT,
detail their purpose, their values,
their mission. In addition to listing and does not discuss in detail
and their mission. The 3 key
the 3 key questions that guide their their purpose, their values, and
questions that guide their choices
choices. The student thoroughly their mission. The 3 key
are presented, but the student fails
describes the market and questions that guide their choices
to expand. The student describes
opportunity that align with their are not presented. The student is
the market and opportunity that
goals taking into consideration unable to describe the market
align with their goals, but fails to
their opportunities to make a and opportunity that align with
expand or identify critical factors.
difference. Student includes a their goals. Student didn’t
Some form of a vision statement
long-term vision statement mention vision statement or
and external opportunity is
highlighting "external" “external” opportunities.
mentioned.
opportunities that exist.
20 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2
Marketing and Implementation Strategy
The student has created their
market positioning statement, The student created their market
The student did not mention their
directed at a hypothetical positioning statement, directed at
market positioning statement,
employer, industry, organization, a hypothetical employer, industry,
and does not describe the value
or the world at large. The student organization, or the world at large.
that they will offer to their
clearly describes the compelling The student does not clearly
potential employers and society.
value that they will offer to their describe the value that they will
The student does not define how
potential employers and society. offer to their potential employers
they will differentiate from other
The student defines how they will and society, and does not define
UAE students or from the
differentiate from other UAE how they will differentiate from
broader populace.
students or from the broader other students’ competition.
populace.
20 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2

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LSS 2403 Fundamentals of Innovation & Entrepreneurship Project 03

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.
20 18 16
Failure
Student shared a valid failure
experience from their past and
shared what they learned in terms
of maximizing their future
potential.
10 9 8
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.
10 9 8
Total Grade
The student partially identifies the The student does not identify the
milestones and checkpoints in milestones and checkpoints in
their plan. The student does not their plan. The student does not
describe how they will measure, describe how they will measure,
or determine if they have or determine if they have
successfully attained these successfully attained these
milestones, and explain how they milestones, and does not explain
define success. External factors how they define success.
that might affect attaining success External factors that might affect
are briefly mentioned. The student attaining success are overlooked.
has broad and general contingency The student has no contingency
and risk mitigation strategies. and risk mitigation strategies.
14 12 10 8 6 4 2
Student shared valid failure
experience, but did not provide
No failure experience identified.
specific reference to learning from
Inappropriate or inadequate
their failure. Limited reasons were
responses.
provided at maximizing their
potential for the future.
7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Student made eye contact every Student was not prepared and
now and then, but needs more lacked self-confidence.
preparation. Presentation is more Presentation is less than 4
than 5 minutes. minutes.
7 6 5 4 3 2 1
/100

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