Business School is useless, books are better
While I’ve been to business school (not MBA), I recently saw the book “the personal MBA” and found it interesting.
While the author missed the point as the value of a business school is obviously the brand name and network more than the classes themselves, there is some merit to argue that one could substitute the classes for some good books if you’re a self learner.
For example, the following books & online contents should cover the key business topics one would learn in business school
- WSO guide on finance/accounting
- Books by Ray Dalio / Howard Marks on market cycles
- Famous investors (Buffet, Munger, Probai, etc.) on investing / business
- The Lean Startup / Zero to One on startups
- Porter’s Five Forces / The McKinsey Way on strategy (+ any consulting interview prep materials)
- Influence (R. Cialdini) + some good sales books on sales & marketing
- Some personal development / psychology books (Atomic Habits / R. Greene books)
- Some entrepreneurs bios on entrepreneurship and motivation (Elon musk, Steve jobs, shoe dog, etc)
- Legal / Operations i just remember a couple of frameworks which anyone could find online, there are probably a couple good books covering the basics
- You could add some books on micro/macroeconomics
- Languages you can just learn yourself
- The clear loser is communication / presentation skills which you don’t learn by reading
Any thought ?
Yes, books are good. HOWEVER, I would take all the books by the great investors with a large grain of salt.
Most of these books are written from their perspective or some fanboy. They are not objective evaluations of their decisions, rarely attribute luck to their big wins, and often are just not honest. I think you can sometimes learn the wrong business lessons if you are given a rosey view of what happened.
Completely agree but all the books in the world do not give you the stamp of approval HBS does.
Yeah for sure, just talking learning wise
I think about this all the time as it relates to higher education in general. Once you "learn how to learn" you can make some serious strides in acquiring knowledge and advanced understanding in the digital age. I think the real value of the traditional degree path is in the understanding of how your peers and professors process ideas and draw conclusions. There is definitely something to the in-person teaching learning dynamic. It's almost as if the teacher lends their cognitive function to the student mind who then absorbs and adopts that cognitive function and applies it to their own existing processes' and understanding.
theoretically true but I've yet to meet a single person with this view who has actually embarked on a self-study and read all these business books in their spare time
I mean it’s just like two dozen books we’re talking about, it’s far from insurmountable (I’ve ready all the aforementioned books just for pleasure)
we go for the prestije not to learn
btw on law I can recommend 2 books:
- anatomy of corporate law
- working with contracts
Books are the best complement of any field of study! They help you to go further, but they didn’t give you basics, case studies or networks…
Employers largely don't care about your technical knowledge. They are essentially looking for fast learners with good social skills willing to grind. It's difficult to filter those attributes for employers objectively without looking at your work experience, education, interviewing skills, etc...
The reason employers want you to have an MBA is for the leadership skills. They don't really care much about the academics of an MBA. If they cared about academics they would be recruiting people out of PhD programs in CS, Math, and Physics.
You don’t really learn Leadership in business school though do you?
The only way IMO to learn real interpersonal leadership is when your juniors are failing or unmotivated, your seniors are pushing, and you somehow take the lead and manage to make it work and make everybody better in the process. You don’t learn those skills in the classroom. Open to reaction though.
Amet et quia nesciunt veritatis commodi deleniti. Consequatur nihil tempora incidunt sunt ut iste expedita. Nemo itaque minus in perspiciatis veniam et.
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