MAP Section Headings and Content:
I. Executive Summary (2 – 3 pages): Although this will appear at the start of your MAP, please prepare this at the end as it is a summary of your portfolio’s highlights. Please include an Acknowledgement paragraph in this section.
II. Resume and Career Autobiography (2-3 pages – each part (4-6 total pages)): Include your resume here. Part 2: Auto bio: Also create a career autobiography: a separate narrative version of the employment portion of your resume. If any personal elements were important in your career development note in auto-bio as well. Focus on important professional accomplishments, skills acquisition, leadership roles, and career maturity.
III. Formal Educational Experiences (5 pages): Please include educational experiences you’ve done a) For credit, b) Not for credit and/or c) Employer sponsored. While some of these were not strictly “business related,†they may have contributed to your career and leadership development so please include them here For each of the above educational experiences explored, focus on the learning you experienced, not its “syllabus.†Questions to respond to include:
– What were the key learning moments or activities?
– How have you grown or matured professionally as a result of these activities?
– Are there overall “themes†or directions that emerge from these experiences?
IV. MBA Curriculum Highpoints & Milestones (3-5 pages): Include a ½ to 1 page summary of learning reflections for five important assignments from several different courses in the MBA program which you feel illustrate your increased performance level and/or skills and/or accomplishments. Moreover, in the Appendix,post each paper as written.
Please use this section in part to explain where your “Voice†(from Covey’s Eighth Habit) was at the beginning of this MBA program and where it is now? How has it changed? How and where are you expressing your new voice?
- Please also spend a little time looking back on your life and then into your future, and then use your reflections on this to explain how you feel this MBA program (has already or) can be a very valuable bridge between your past and your future?
- Note: Please post the edited assignments you reflect on in this section in the MAP Appendix.
V. Leadership-Learning Experiences (3-5 pages): What leadership roles have you had in the past three to five years and what have you learned from these? Describe and then reflect on your experiences in at least one leadership role you’ve had professionally and/or one where you volunteer (or have volunteered—this could be in the community, at your place of worship, etc.). Leadership or participation in events such as those that follow below are evidence of a student’s contribution to their profession and/or community, and in working on the advancement of their career. These opportunities include, but are not limited to:
- Attending a national, regional, or state professional conference.
- Delivering a formal presentation or (co-)author an article in an area of professional interest.
- Organizing an educational or professional meeting, symposium, or colloquium.
- Serving on a University policy committee.
- Participating on a task force or special purpose committee in a professional setting.
- Serving in a leadership position for a professional organization, non-profit board of directors, etc.
- Participating in a research project with a college or university faculty member.
- Assisting in the teaching of an upper-division course in a content area related to your profession.
- Achieving certification in an area of professional interest.
VI. Industry Analysis (IA). Total of 25-30 pp. double-spaced pages in which you can choose which aspects of your industry are the most important to you. To do this, while you’ll want to analyze the history, current state and future of the industry you’ve focused on, you can decide which of these you want to write about. You should scope a particular aspect of the industry that you want to research as well. Your mentor will take your through this scoping in one of the sessions.
Below are possible questions regarding your industry which you can use as a guideline to write up your analysis (pick the ones which are most important to your IA). Note can also develop your IA using another method of your own choosing (there are a couple of alternative ways of structuring this in the literature on IAs). Choose what works best for you. Note: In this section you should weave a story about your analysis of your industry which should be based on the research you have done about it. Also, any information that comes from an outside source needs to be properly cited in APA format! This necessitates a properly APA formatted References page in your MAP.
History:
- What are important events in your industry’s history? [My suggestion is you provide a timeline summary of this in your Appendix. Whether you choose to reference this is up to you, but you may want to reference the less commonly known aspects of your Industry.]
- What economic, environmental, legal, political, social and/or technological forces have significantly shaped your industry in the past? As part of this, you could possibly identify 2-3 major technological discontinuities your industry has faced.
- What were your industry’s past drivers?
- What are the present drivers of your industry?
- What are 3 key things you learn about your industry from using Porter’s Five Forces Strategy framework?
- Who are the key players in your industry?
- Which players would you bet on as your industry moves into the future?
- What do you think some of the future industry drivers of your IA will be?
- My suggestion is you focus on just one or two of the following:
Present:
Future:
- Using Scenario Planning, what are 3 possible future scenarios for your industry? (I.e. what do you think will come of this industry as it moves into the future?)
- What do you feel is your industry’s current “evolutionary trajectory�
- What are 2-3 of the “Blue Ocean†opportunities for your industry?
- Do you want to be a part of this industry – is there a place that would align to your goals in the future.
and/or
and/or
VII. Conclusion: (2-5 pages)
- Summary of your FIELD WORK from the Skills Assessment. Take a post SKILLS ASSESSMENT. Compare to your Semester One Skills Assessment. How have you evolved? It is possible you may see a decline based on a better understanding of the material and you position. That is fine since it is about knowing more of yourself and where you add value. Where do you see your next steps?
- Include Action Plan development of the skill(s) you enhanced during the field work and sessions with your mentor. (What have you developed over the course of the MBA 705 sessions with your mentor? – your mentor will provide details on the questions to think about for this section) How successful have you been in developing the skill(s)? What will you do to fill the gaps?
- Provide some examples of how you have been able to use your enhanced skills.
- D.What has this journey meant to you in bridging your pre-MBA past to your reflective post-MBA future? How will it help you to self-management your career and your life?
- E.Who helped and supported your efforts through this journey (acknowledge their support)? Who do you wish to thank for supporting your efforts in this demanding effort?
VII. References
VIII. Appendices (as needed)-including the Milestone papers noted in Section IV above
