Instructions for the book report are provided below (you can also download the attached copy).
The link for submitting the Shoe Dog assignment will be available in the Assignment List, but a copy of the scoring rubric is provided below, as well. To see a larger version of the rubric, click on the My Grades link in the main menu and scroll down to the Shoe Dog Report and click on View Rubric.
Shoe Dog book report
The purpose of this assignment is to familiarize you with a current book about entrepreneurs, their thinking, personalities, and leadership styles. This gives you an opportunity to read a book in the popular press, as a class assignment, that explores in depth the entrepreneurial mindset and the practice of entrepreneurship. The assignment also gives you a context in which to reflect your own entrepreneurial strengths and weaknesses and how these tendencies might affect you success as an entrepreneur. For the assignment, you will read the book Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike by Phil Knight. you will turn in a report that highlights your key insights from the book and how your thinking about entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship was impacted by reading this book. Note that reading the book will take time, so I suggest starting to read it early in the term.
Your paper should clearly address the following content requirements:
Discuss three or four points made in the book that made the biggest impression on your thinking about entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship, in general. For each of these points, explain why it was important to you and whether/how the point still applies to entrepreneurs/entrepreneurship today, fifty years later.
What were some of the things covered in the book that reinforced some of the lessons you have learned from the other materials covered in this class? Make three explicit links (with references) to other readings / materials covered in the class. NOTE: You should not simply repeat what you have included in previous assignments in this class. You need to make new points and connections in this paper.
Was there anything covered in the book that contradicted some of the other materials we have covered in this class? Please explain. You should identify and explain at least one point of contradiction. NOTE: Simply stating that you did not observe any contradictions will not suffice for addressing this requirement.
Explain what you think about Phil Knight as an entrepreneur and why, based on your reading of this book.
