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The Personal MBA: A World-Class Business Education in a Single Volume [Paperback]

Josh Kaufman (Author)

4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (41 customer reviews)

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Book Description

Publication Date: 3 Feb 2011 | ISBN-10: 0670919519 | ISBN-13: 978-0670919512

Are you searching for your next challenge? Are you tempted to go to business school? Before you do, save your money and read The Personal MBA.

Getting an MBA takes two years of your life. And most of it is spent on PowerPoint presentations and outdated financial models, rather than learning what it takes to run a real business.

The Personal MBA distils the most valuable lessons of the finest business schools and the best business books of all time into simple, memorable ideas and tools. It covers concepts such as The Iron Law of the Market, The 12 Forms of Value, The Pricing Uncertainty Principle, and The 4 Methods to Increase Revenue.

This book is all you need to learn the fundamentals of business quickly, and discover exactly how to apply them to transform your career.

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Are you searching for your next challenge? Are you tempted to go to business school? Before you do, save your money and read The Personal MBA.

Getting an MBA takes two years of your life. And most of it is spent on PowerPoint presentations and outdated financial models, rather than learning what it takes to run a real business.

This book is all you need to learn the fundamentals of business quickly, and discover exactly how to apply them to transform your career.

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Product details

Paperback: 416 pages
Publisher: Portfolio Penguin (3 Feb 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0670919519
ISBN-13: 978-0670919512
Product Dimensions: 15.3 x 2.9 x 23.4 cm

Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (41 customer reviews)

Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 163,434 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #5 in Books > Business, Finance & Law > Reference & Education > MBA

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› Visit Amazon's Josh Kaufman Page

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Product Description

Review

File this book under: NO EXCUSES. (Seth Godin, author of Purple Cow and Linchpin )

No matter what they tell you, an MBA is not essential. If you combine reading this book with actually trying stuff, you'll be far ahead in the business game. (Kevin Kelly, founding executive editor of Wired )

Few people know how to get things done better than Josh Kaufman. (David Allen, author of Getting Things Done )

Josh has synthesized the most important topics in business into a book that truly lives up to its title. It's rare to find complicated concepts explained with such clarity. Highly recommended. (Ben Casnocha, author of My Start-Up Life )

Fundamentals are fundamentals. Whether you're an entrepreneur or an executive at a Fortune 50 company, this book will help you succeed. (John Mang, Vice President, Procter & Gamble )

These concepts really work: I'm booked solid with clients, making eight times more money, feeling far less overwhelmed, and having a lot more fun. If you want to live up to our potential, you can't afford to miss this book. (Tim Grahl, Founder and CEO, Out:Think Group )

A creative, breakthrough approach to business education. I have an MBA from a top business school, and this book helped me understand business in a whole new way. (Ali Safavi, Executive Director of International Sales & Distribution, The Walt Disney Company )

About the Author

Josh Kaufman is an acclaimed blogger and consultant who helps people improve their business skills. He previously worked at Proctor & Gamble, where he was responsible for new product development and delivering in-store campaigns for key customers like Wal-Mart, Target, and Costco. Since 2005 Josh has been helping people learn about business without remortgaging their lives through his website, www.PersonalMBA.com

Inside This Book (Learn More)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Lots of decent and useful content 11 Feb 2011

By The Emperor TOP 1000 REVIEWER

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

The premise of this book is that MBA courses are a waste of money and that just by reading business books you can learn all that you would do on a business course. In this book he sets out to provide all the basics that you will need.

He actually does a pretty good job. He is a decent writer and as far as I can tell all the information in this book is accurate. It is certainly very comprehensive. Occasionally it does seem a bit shallow and he doesn't always provide a lot of detail. A lot of this information is available for free from other sources.

His argument about MBA's providing poor value for money is convincing but there does seem a bit of a contradiction as he offers online courses that seem expensive to me. His website provides a lot of useful information for free though. He also has a reading list of 100 recommended business books.

One thing that I personally wasn't so keen was the section on "working with yourself" The information that he provides is mostly decent but he does quote from and recommend the books of several self-help bloggers who don't seem that credible to me.
I did really like the chapters on analysing and improving systems. I have a finance background and his chapter on finance seemed very credible and knowledgeable.

For a single volume it does a great job in providing the reader with the fundamentals of business. It is a lot better written than the average business book and it seems like a pretty useful resource to keep on your desk.

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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Doesn't quite live up to the hype... 14 July 2011

By Clair Fisher

Format:Paperback

'A world-class business education in a single volume'... a big claim on the front cover, and one that is only partly fulfilled. Once I'd forgiven Kaufman his very extensive rant against the formal MBA programmes (one which is very geared towards the uber-corperate USA model and ignores the much more valuable workplace based experience of many of us who have done UK based MBAs) I did enjoy the broad range of subjects covered, and the concise breakdown of a variety of management theories and concepts. It is a very simple and simplistic approach to a complex subject, and does pack a huge amount of material into a relatively short and readable form. Kaufman is a huge fan of 'book based learning'; this work is result of a serious amount of time spent trawling and cherry picking from the best literature, articles, blogs, and research. He's done a lot of the hard work here for us; the list of suggested reading looks very impressive and interesting.

My criticism of the book, is that there's very little real life application. It's very thin on case studies, or encouragement to apply to your own situation... ironically it was this element that I loved the most in my 'real' MBA experience. And for a man who loves his 'book learning', there is an annoying lack of academic referencing to the many useful theories and concepts that he presents. Evidence as to which of these theories might be more useful or proven is also lacking - but Kaufman's own intuition for these things seems to be good, and certainly has earned him a lucrative career! One thing that Kaufman admits to creating himself, and an exception to my criticism about lack of application, is the excellent exercise right at the end of the book '49 questions to improve your results' which is a polished model of reflective practice.

In summary: a good read, a good introduction to a panoply of management concepts, a fantastic resource to crib from if you're doing consultancy type work, a good refresher if you're feeling a little stale in you're own management practices and want some new ideas - but really no substitute for a properly applied MBA programme where you engage with real people in the real world.

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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic entry-level business book 29 Mar 2011

By E. Boyd

Format:Paperback

I read this book in three days flat - I couldn't put it down! Kaufman does a very good job of introducing a wide variety of business topics, giving a little explanation of them, and then pointing you in the direction of further reading. Easily the best business book I've ever read.

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› See all 41 customer reviews (newest first) on Amazon.co.uk

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Crammed full of information

Very well written and easy to understand, broken into short chapters for easy reading and quick reference I found it really helpful

Published 19 days ago by freelance

5.0 out of 5 stars Cannot rate this well enough

I bought the book because I first heard the writer narrate the book on Amazon Audible (Audible is a rubbish service by the way). Read more

Published 1 month ago by Winterhalder

4.0 out of 5 stars Bear with it! After a slow start there's some good stuff in there.

Overall a good purchase, I would recommend it.

Minuses - 1) The author starts off with an attack on MBAs and a justification for the book. Read more

Published 2 months ago by Al

4.0 out of 5 stars Very useful. Business and Self-Help book

Though I have never attended a business course (not to mention an MBA) I was very interested in the book. Read more

Published 3 months ago by Eva

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book!

This book gives great detail about busienss and teaches you what it is. I highly recommend it _ _ _

Published 3 months ago by Samih

2.0 out of 5 stars What is the fuss about?

The premise of this book is that MBA courses are a waste of money and that just by reading this book you'll get all the basics that you will need. Read more

Published 3 months ago by Edward Matthews

5.0 out of 5 stars Basics of Business all in one volume

Not having studied business but being in business for 30 years, I found all the lessons I have learnt in the last 3 decades described and discussed with evidence behind it to... Read more

Published 4 months ago by rara

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Book

Good book packed with everday usefull information. The author kind of has a chip on his shoulder towards MBA's though, which is irratating at times throughout the book.

Published 6 months ago by William Hackett

4.0 out of 5 stars A good primer

Good book, easy read, useful for the novice, really structures the essence of business, finance part is too superficial though. Sometimes a little tedious. Recommended as a primer.

Published 6 months ago by JanvdB

5.0 out of 5 stars Gifting an MBA

Not everyone can go to college to get an MBA so this was a gift to my son who always wanted to do so but now is not in a position to do it. Read more

Published 7 months ago by Borders Lynn

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