Paper has to be 5 pages single spaced:
One of the best ways to learn management is from biographies. You will read at least one biography book of a business leader that you admire, together with more Internet research on the organization they lead, and distill the management lessons such as its management process, style, and culture, and methods, and relate them to topics you have learned through the modules. You will upload a five page paper summarizing the management lessons organized into different topics from our class. Furthermore, it’s important to conduct critical thinking regarding what lessons you can adopt, and what may not fit your style or personality. List your biography book at the end of the paper, and if any other extra references e.g. articles, videos, books, etc.Elon Musk of Tesla and SpaceX, Eric Yuan of Zoom, Jack Ma of Alibaba, Ren Zhengfei of Huawei, Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook, Jack Welch of GE, Steve Jobs of Apple ……The following is a guidance to help you organize your ideas in the paper, although the actual structure depends on your content and you don’t have to strictly force it into this guideline.
Based on the past experience, I also have the following feedback:
- Be objective in your analysis instead of putting yourselves as the spokesperson for the company. To better understand strategy, we need to be objective in the analyses and not be afraid to talk about failures and mistake. Do not act like a spokesperson or promoter for the company, or include company videos (most of them promotional in purpose), except in the rare necessary occasion, e.g. to explain something complex.
- Your focus should be to present your research and analyses in simple and plain language, and steer away from the glossy language taken from company’s own website and propaganda, e.g. “we have the best people”, “we focus on innovation” in a general and abstract way, etc. Hone your ability to condense things into their essences and articulate them concisely, which is a key skill for management.
P.S. If you cannot find a good biography that interests you, alternatively you can read one of the books below and distill the management lessons learned from it and what could be most usefully applied to your own personality and style. Stephen Covey,
Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
One of the many books by management guru Peter Drucker
