Charting Your Personal Accomplishments with Skills and Abilities

MANAGEMENT 5333

Innovation, Creativity, and Entrepreneurship

I. Course Description

Waves of innovations are disrupting nearly every sphere of modern life. This course helps you understand and experience just how creative entrepreneurs in either start-up or corporate environments do it. Working with others, using cutting-edge case studies, experiential exercises, and field research, you will consider how innovations across a broad range of emerging technologies meet the market, financial, and environmental demands of a diverse set of current and future stakeholders. You will have an opportunity to put learning into practice.

Five major approaches will be used in this course:

1. Readings, group work, discussion and lecture

2. Experiential Exercises and Videos

3. Individual Project

II. Materials

· Entrepreneurship: The Practice and Mindset, by Heidi M. Neck, Christopher P. Neck, and Emma L. Murray. SAGE Publishing, 2017. ISBN: 9781483383521

Appendix A: Self-Understanding for Opportunity Creation

Authors: Andrew Corbett and Candida Brush

Description

A strong understanding of self is critical for entrepreneurs. Being able to not only recognize but also synthesize one’s interests, desires, skills, and network is a critical building block for entrepreneurial activity (Fiet, 2002; Nixon et al., 2006). This exercise offers you an opportunity for introspection and allows you to reflect on both what makes you who they are and what you can be as an entrepreneur.

This assignment should be between 4 – 6 pages in length.

Learning Objectives

Reflect on your accomplishments, things you are proud of, and think about what knowledge, skills, and capabilities were gained from these accomplishments.

Discuss the process of determining these accomplishments (awards are NOT accomplishments).

Connect your knowledge, abilities, and desires as a foundation for venture ideas.

Assignment

A. Using the worksheet below, discuss your personal accomplishments and knowledge, skills, and abilities.

1. Accomplishments: Please list at least five of your most significant personal accomplishments. Since we are using these accomplishments as the basis for entrepreneurial idea generation and potentially a future business, all accomplishments should be based upon something that you (1) are proud to have accomplished, (2) enjoyed accomplishing, and (3) think that you did very well.

The accomplishments should not only be work related (developing a new product or rolling out a large software transition or upgrade) but also include hobbies and other related interests (e.g., teaching young children how to read, running a marathon, cooking dinner). They can be recent or from back in your childhood, but they must satisfy the three criteria in the above paragraph.

After listing your accomplishments, rank the accomplishments based on significance to yourself (not what others think). The most significant accomplishment will be ranked number one, then two, and so on.

2. KSAs: Knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) are classic concepts deconstructed and used throughout management education and training. For this project, break down the KSAs that led to the listed accomplishments. Please remember, personality traits or characteristics are not knowledge, skills, or abilities

Reflect on your accomplishments and KSAs that underlie them by discussing the KSAs that you believe had the most influence on your success.

B. Next answer the following questions:

Are there indicators of categories where you think you possess unique experience?

Do you have special understanding of a specific activity or set of activities or a specific category of knowledge that has been a recurring theme throughout your accomplishments?”

Now make a list of three or four different themes. For example, a list might include: (1) social media expertise, (2) creative writing, (3) working well under tight time lines, and (4) team leader.

What ideas for new businesses or initiatives can you think of that build on your expertise, knowledge, or skills?

Discuss the top two ideas you like the best.

Why did you think this was a good business idea?

Why do you think you could make this idea work?

Charting Your Personal Accomplishments with Skills and Abilities

Accomplishment 1	Knowledge/Skills/Abilities that contributed to the success of this accomplishment My cohesiveness is very good, I believe this ability can help every department of the company cooperate very well.
Accomplishment 2	Knowledge/Skills/Abilities that contributed to the success of this accomplishment I am very good at discovering the different advantages of each person, I can let them volatilize their strengths.
Accomplishment 3	Knowledge/Skills/Abilities that contributed to the success of this accomplishment I have a very strong self-motivation. I am particularly attentive to the development of the company. I will use my strength for the development of the company.
Accomplishment 4	Knowledge/Skills/Abilities that contributed to the success of this accomplishment I am particularly sensitive to numbers. I can feel very sensitive when the numbers change. I feel that the company’s funds and flow can be seen clearly.
Accomplishment 5	Knowledge/Skills/Abilities that contributed to the success of this accomplishment Through this course, I learned how to start a business. This skill is very good. It allows me to take a lot of detours in the process of starting a business.