Personal Development Plan Masters in Business Administration Studies - Essay Example

Personal Development Plan Masters in Business Administration Studies Table of Content Introduction........................................................................................3 Background.........................................................................................3 Vision and Objectives.........................................................................3 Masters Skill Acquisition Expectations..............................................4 Expectations from Wolverhampton.....................................................5 Critical Success Factors & Action Plan...............................................5 References............................................................................................7 Introduction This is my personal development plan (PDP). It shows the competencies and skills that I have acquired in life. It focuses on knowledge and competencies that I bring with me the MBA programme at the University of Wolverhampton Business School. This document outlines my vision and objectives. It goes on to show the targets that I seek to attain in my studies on this Masters Degree programme. It showcases important components of Postgraduate education that I hope to benefit from. The plan outlines my focus and intended achievements in my studies towards an MBA from the University of Wolverhampton and the community at large. Background I am an social entrepreneur. I own and run a Saudi Corporate Social Responsibility firm which has branches in Riyadh and London. My business focuses on Corporate Social Responsibility in the corporate sector. We achieve our objectives in conjunction with public sector organisations and global humanitarian organisations like the United Nations. We also gain support from the Saudi government and have a vision of maintaining sustainable development in Saudi Arabia in relation to social and environmental matters. I play a top level management role in the organisation, Mobarat CSR. Our core vision is to promote a sustainable society by ensuring that corporate bodies in Saudi Arabia give back to the society as and when they earn. I hold a Bachelors Degree in Sociology. I have ten years of post-graduation work experience. I commenced with Social Work and then proceeded to work for a company involved in Cultural and Rural Development. I also have experience in Tourism and other social related jobs. This set the stage for my career as social entrepreneur. Vision and Objectives A personal development plan can be successful only if the individual defines his goals and objectives (Cottrell, 2010). My personal vision and objectives are as follows: 1. To improve my management skills in order to be able to independently run a modern social entrepreneurship venture in Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf Region. 2. To attain the ability and understanding to appreciate the components of business [finance, marketing, human resources amongst others] and gain in-depth knowledge of how they interact with the larger society and the natural environment. 3. Understand the tools in scientific analysis in of each component of modern businesses and acquire a working knowledge of each of them. 4. Acquire skills in research methods and apply them in real-life situations. 5. Acquire good interpersonal skills. 6. Acquire international and cultural awareness about how to interact with people of different origins. 7. Improve my skills in English language and acquire familiarity of a second international language like French or Spanish. 8. To build core skills and competencies to be able to enrol into a Doctorate Degree programme after my Masters at Wolverhampton. Masters Skill Acquisition Expectations In attaining my personal goals in this course I hope to learn more about Corporate Strategy. Johnson, Scholes & Whittington (2005) identify three main components of corporate strategy. They state that: 1. Corporate strategy covers the whole organisation 2. It is of a long-term nature 3. It is set by top-level management Therefore my primary orientation is to get an intimate knowledge corporate strategy, its core components and the dynamics of how different corporate strategies work together in a given nation or economy. Therefore, there are some important elements of the MBA that I will emphasise my strengths on. I will learn about how corporate strategies and their components apply to my nation, Saudi Arabia and the neighbouring lands of the GCC. At the end of the course, I will want to get a good appreciation of internal analysis of organisations. I will want to understand the key elements of Marketing, Research & Development, Finance, Human Resource and Operations and how they work together to define organisations. I will want to understand how the components of a given business environment work. I also intend to study closely, the elements of the external business environment or the macro economy. Masters Scholarship From my background readings on business and management, I have come across some core components of research and analysis that I will want to gain a good familiarity with when I study in the UWBS Masters in Business Administration course. First of all, I aim to understand the core models and concepts for analysing things in the various components of businesses. So I will want to understand the tools and elements for analysis in Finance, Marketing, Research & Development and Operations amongst others. Secondly I will want to get a good appreciation of the methods of analysing the macro environment and industries. I hope to understand how to undertake SWOT analysis, PESTEL and use other ideal models that can be used for the positioning of businesses in the environment. Expectations from Wolverhampton I chose UK education ahead of education in other English speaking countries because of the heritage and history of British education. I am aware that Britain has become the melting point for many cultures and ideas. Due to that, institutions of higher learning have a pedigree and reputation that they strive to maintain. I therefore hope to benefit from the high quality of teaching that exists in tertiary institutions at the UK. I therefore expect to make the best use of the educational facilities that exist in the UK. Since the UK is now a melting point for many cultures, I believe it is a good place to learn about other different cultures and international management techniques and tools. I therefore hope to spend time learning about different cultures and ideologies in this highly regulated and developed country. Secondly, I hope that my studies at Wolverhampton prepares me for a good PhD course. I therefore hope to pay more attention to research methodologies and techniques so that I gain enough skills to complete a good PhD on a social entrepreneurship topic. From my initial research on Wolverhampton Business School, I identified that the university has experienced lecturers and professors. I hope to benefit from the guidance and directions of instructors that I will get in touch with at the university. Also, I hope to make the optimum use of the library and other resources that are available at the university. Through this, I plan to increase and improve my knowledge about social entrepreneurship, business administration and other areas of study that are worthy of study. This would broaden my scope and give me better opportunities. At Wolverhampton, I also hope to make contacts with people from different parts of the world. Through this, I hope to build strong communication skills and a strong network for business in the future. Critical Success Factors & Action Plan There is the need for every personal development plan to contain some key indicators that will enable it to be come measurable (Grit & Van Der Sijde, 2009: Markle, 2000). Due to this, there are some critical success factors that I have identified in relation to my objectives in studying at Wolverhampton University for an MBA. They include: 1. To enrol in an internship or part-time job that will give me independent responsibilities. My ability to meet my objectives without much instructions and directions will be measured closely. 2. My appreciation of the ability to analyse organisational structures will be based on successful analysis of cases that I will come across in course of my studies. My progress will be personally monitored over my stay in Wolverhampton 3. Every module related to components of business will be studied with a practical approach in relation to my experiences in social work and environmental preservation. This will involve questioning and further readings to ensure that I understand every bit of different businesses accurately. 4. Apply my skills in each unit of business during my internship and vacation training jobs so I get to understand how each component of modern business works. 5. I hope to acquire research skills by completing my final thesis in an aspect of social entrepreneurship. 6. I plan to take a very active part in group work and group projects and strive to maintain strong communication with my team members. 7. I intend to maintain a very open communication with everyone I come in contact with irrespective of his background. This way, I hope to learn about what other people think of Arabs and also try to identify differences in our cultures and how we can all live together in the corporate setting. 8. It is my intention to improve my English language skills by interacting more with people. I also hope to read more and get a good exposure to the language through lecturers and the British media. I also plan to increase the number of words I type in English by consistently increasing the number of words I type each quarter in my stay at Wolverhampton. References Cottrell Stella (2010) Skills for Success: Personal Development Planning Handbook London: Palgrave Macmillan. Grit Roel & Van Der Sijde Nico (2009) Managing your Competencies: Personal Development Plan London: Taylor & Francis Group. Johnson Gerry, Scholes Kevan & Whittington Richard (2005). Exploring Corporate Strategy. London: Financial Times Prentice Hall. Markle Garold (2000) Catalytic Coaching: The End of the Performance Review Greenwood Publishing Group Read More