2024 - Fall - Career Development-Project Guidelines - Updated

FOREIGN TRADE UNIVERSITY PROJECT GUIDELINES
HCMC CAMPUS KDOE441 CAREER DEVELOPMENT

Int’l Business & Trade Dept. SKILLS
Semester: I Academic year: 2024 – 2025
TOPIC: SOCIAL BUSINESS SOLUTION

DESIGN
Group Project – with 4-5 members/group

Overview:
The Social Business Solution Challenge: Creative Solution for Social Impact is an
interdisciplinary project aimed at empowering FTU2 students to develop innovative
and sustainable solutions for social challenges. Over the course of seven weeks,
students will engage in a dynamic creative problem-solving process, integrating critical
and design thinking methodologies, while guided by curated readings and self-
evaluation components to foster holistic learning and personal growth. The completion
of the project with successful teamwork, report writing and presentation will also
provide opportunities to hone other soft skills required for the students’ future career.
Part 1 Please provide an executive summary (in 120-200 words) of your

proposed solution in such a way that anyone can quickly grasp your
proposed solution, its innovativeness and profitability.
Tips:
- Reflect on your problem identification
- Reflect on your key value propositions to customers and beneficiaries
- Reflect on the uniqueness of the business, its level of innovation, the
time window before others can copy you
- Reflect on how you can create, deliver and capture the value?
Part 2 SOCIAL PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION - Empathize and Define
- Additional Readings:
1. "Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations
and Inspires Innovation" by Tim Brown
2. "Critical Thinking: An Introduction" by Alec Fishe
- Analyze the context and background of the problem.
- Conduct research and use impact gaps canvas/iceberg model to
identify a relevant social issue/problem.
- Analyze the social issue’s impact and significance.
1
- Use empathy mapping to understand affected stakeholders. Facilitate
empathetic engagement with s stakeholders through interviews, surveys,
and observations.
- Analyze data collected to define specific challenges and prioritize
areas for improvement.
- Reframe problem statements to focus on user needs and aspirations.
Part 3 PROPOSED SOLUTION - Ideate and Prototype with Critical
Evaluation
Additional Readings:
1. "Design Thinking: Integrating Innovation, Customer Experience, and
Brand Value" by Thomas Lockwood
2. "Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know" by
Adam Grant
3. "Thinkertoys: A handbook of Creative Thinking Techniques” by
Micheal Michalko
- Generate ideas through critical analysis of assumptions, challenging

conventional perspectives. Facilitate brainstorming sessions using
techniques like mind mapping or SCAMPER
- Follow a lean approach to develop your solutions.
Your Proposed Solution should contain the following:
- Who are the project’s target clients/beneficiaries or target client
segments?
- What is your economic/social value proposition to your customers/
beneficiaries?
- How are you going to create and nurture customer/beneficiaries
relationships?
- Through what channels do you distribute your products or services?
Through what channels do you create expected impact?
- What activities are key to deliver you value proposition?
- What are the key resources required to carry out the activities listed
above (to deliver the value proposition)?
- Who are your most important partners and suppliers?
- What does the cost structure of your business look like?
- What are your revenue streams?
2
Part 4 Validation Plan – How to implement internal and external validation
campaigns to test the solution?
Additional Readings:
1. "Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five
Days" by Jake Knapp
2. "Lean Start-up" by Eric Ries
- How to develop prototypes (with a critical eye towards feasibility,
impact, and ethical considerations)
- How to test prototypes rigorously, questioning assumptions and
seeking evidence to validate or refine ideas (e.g. produce flyers and
organize demo to potential users and buyers to get their feedback,
develop a fanpage, launch an awareness raising campaign, etc.)
- How to iterate on solutions based on critical analysis of feedback and
outcomes.
Mid-term Please create an Employability Plan that documents your skill audit
Assignment results, your goal setting, study planning and all the skills developed and
utilized throughout the course.
Additional Reading:
- Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle Model
- Employability Skills by various authors
Your Employability Plan should:
- Document the skill audit resutls
- Set your skill development goals for this course and your long-term
professional aspirations. Set specific intentions for how you plan to
grow your skills during the course.
- Identify challenges to your skill development
- Reflect on the skills you used and how they will be valuable in your
professional journey.
- Reflect on the skills you developed and how they will be valuable in
your professional journey.
Detailed Timeline with evaluation formats:

 Weekly presentation (for attendance)
 Mid-term Individual Test (50 MCQ in 25 minutes) (20%)
 A (Personal) Employability Plan documenting the diagnostic test results, your
goal setting, study planning and all the skills developed and used throughout the
course (10%).
3
 Day 13: Submission of the completed version of the project report (50%)
 Day 14-15: Project presentation (10%)
Evaluation Criteria:
- Group Presentation:
Presentation Contents 3.0
Presentation skills 3.0
Presentation Format and Styles 1.0
Q&A section, Eloquence 2.0
Time Management 1.0
- Group Report:
Problem Identification 2.0
Solution Development 5.0
Validation Results 1.0
Format and Style 2.0
Importance Notes:
- File naming format: 2024_Fall_KDOE441_Group no._Title of the Project
- All sources used, including the textbook, must be referenced. Paraphrased and
quoted material must have accompanying citations. Your document must be
formatted and references cited following FTU guidelines.
- Your written report should be no less than 15 pages, not including the title and
references pages.
- Plagiarism in the assignment both directly or indirectly is strictly prohibited
- Formatting: A4 paper, Time New Roman, font size 13, line spacing: 1.5 lines.
The title page should include the logos of FTU, name of the course, title of the
project, group number, names of group members, instructor, and place and year
of publication. (Please refer to the Report Cover Template provided by FTU)
- The report must contain an executive summary, and a table of contents.
APPROVAL
DEAN/VICE DEAN OF THE FACULTY LECTURER
Phạm Thị Mai Khanh

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FOREIGN TRADE UNIVERSITY PROJECT GUIDELINES

HCMC CAMPUS KDOE441 CAREER DEVELOPMENT

Semester: I Academic year: 2024 – 2025

TOPIC: SOCIAL BUSINESS SOLUTION

Group Project – with 4-5 members/group

Part 1 Please provide an executive summary (in 120-200 words) of your

- Generate ideas through critical analysis of assumptions, challenging

Detailed Timeline with evaluation formats:

Problem Identification 2.0

Solution Development 5.0

Validation Results 1.0

Format and Style 2.0

Phạm Thị Mai Khanh

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