What I Didn't Learn in Business School
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Review
"Written as a novel, this book is an engaging way to give readers a glimpse of what's really involved in developing business strategy." T+D Magazine
"A worthwhile read if you are taking your first steps to developing corporate strategy." Business Standard (India)
.".. interesting, important, unique, and realistic business novel..."
"Highly recommended." - CHOICE Magazine
"A worthwhile read if you are taking your first steps to developing corporate strategy." Business Standard (India)
.".. interesting, important, unique, and realistic business novel..."
"Highly recommended." - CHOICE Magazine
Product Description
Meet John Downs. He's a new MBA graduate who's landed a job with a strategy consultancy. His engagement team is on a mission: help HGS Inc., a specialty chemicals firm, define and execute a strategy for exploiting a textile technology the company developed.
John and his team deploy state-of-the-art strategy tools to analyze the attractiveness of potential markets for the technology. But they soon realize the tools don't help them grapple with the human side of strategy including political forces swirling within HGS. Everyone involved in the engagement is biased and insecure, brilliant and hardworking, selfish and lazy, loyal and dedicated.
John and his cohorts aren't 'real', What I Didn't Learn in Business School is a business novel. But they're realistic: they're just like us. Their story reveals the limitations of strategy tools and demonstrates tactics for navigating the messy, human dynamics that can make or break a company's strategy efforts.
This engaging book uses the power of story to present potent lessons for anyone seeking to excel at strategy management. It's a compelling read whether you're an MBA grad struggling to apply what you learned or in the fray and eager to see what MBAs get wrong when they land in the real world.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
The entire experience of buying this book from Amazon was pleasing. Finding the book and ordering it was convenient. The book was delivered prior to the time (this is an Amazon USP), which was also great.
The book itself is a good read for people trying to learn about strategy but cannot understand the heavy doses that academic tomes convey. It is a narrative of a newby consultant and his experiences in the world of consulting and provides useful insights into the theory and actual practice of strategy
The book itself is a good read for people trying to learn about strategy but cannot understand the heavy doses that academic tomes convey. It is a narrative of a newby consultant and his experiences in the world of consulting and provides useful insights into the theory and actual practice of strategy
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
14 reviews
13 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Indispensable Strategy and Consulting Edification.
27 Sep 2010
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Contemporary conception about strategic management practitioners - consultants or corporate citizens - is rather unreal and hyped. It is based on the notions of `cracking cases' and forcing favorite frameworks popularized in bestsellers as well as business schools. Acquiring these, one could get excited about `doing strategy' as learnt through literature, lectures, and make-believe group exercises. This happens with many aspiring strategy professionals, including also consultants, especially fresh entrants. Their predicament is reflected in "What I Didn't Learn in Business School," which is a novel approach to enlightening the reader about the realities of strategy development and implementation.
The book takes the reader through Justin's journey of his first strategy consulting experience which becomes full of surprises, counterintuitive contexts, and personal pains. As he takes on a `sprinter study,' Justin realizes that many of his frameworks would not apply, or were misfits, or lacked bigger (strategic) sense, or were remote to realities of the client. He also learns directly the nature of tensions within an organization despite the apparent need to align, the nature of `data' that is (or is not made) available outright, and the collaborative role of a strategy team. Business behaviorism, divisional disparities, data dependence, `revenue power,' team tensions, etc. all are real and play crucial role in the strategic study. Simultaneously, what seems to be working well for the more experienced team members of his consulting firm - is also an enigma to Justin, all the way through the end as he learns and unlearns. Full of edutainment!
The content is full of reality, not idealism. The style is engaging. It is a fast, absorbing read; an experienced strategist can chuckle through it over a weekend and a strategy student/practitioner can appreciate it fully in a week. The strategy basics are rooted is academic rigor (Jay Barney is a doyen of strategy and Trish Clifford an accomplished consultant). Though not a strategy text, it ensures and enlightens about the underlying theory's practice. The assumptions and cautions are introduced at the right times. This is a more realistic coming to life of strategy in a corporation than many a book and lecture profess but do not deliver so well. Not since Bob Blake and Jane Mouton wrote "The Diary of an OD Man" has a consultant's development been narrated so absorbingly. This is not a critique on business schools like for example, Mark McCormack's "What They Still Don't Teach you at HBS," or Anita Simonton's "Confessions of a Management Consultant Turned CEO." Rather, "What I Didn't Learn in Business School" is an experiential evolution expressed in the strategist's own words as he rapidly matures into a role (and career) that he will own for the rest of his life.
The book has an excellent chapter-wise Reading List which is actually a good backdrop for a short strategy course with the various `core topics.' An essential reading for all strategy practitioners - present and future - and aspiring consultants , this could also serve as a pre-reading (and post-revision) for fresh MBA students, especially before they take their required strategy capstone courses.
The book takes the reader through Justin's journey of his first strategy consulting experience which becomes full of surprises, counterintuitive contexts, and personal pains. As he takes on a `sprinter study,' Justin realizes that many of his frameworks would not apply, or were misfits, or lacked bigger (strategic) sense, or were remote to realities of the client. He also learns directly the nature of tensions within an organization despite the apparent need to align, the nature of `data' that is (or is not made) available outright, and the collaborative role of a strategy team. Business behaviorism, divisional disparities, data dependence, `revenue power,' team tensions, etc. all are real and play crucial role in the strategic study. Simultaneously, what seems to be working well for the more experienced team members of his consulting firm - is also an enigma to Justin, all the way through the end as he learns and unlearns. Full of edutainment!
The content is full of reality, not idealism. The style is engaging. It is a fast, absorbing read; an experienced strategist can chuckle through it over a weekend and a strategy student/practitioner can appreciate it fully in a week. The strategy basics are rooted is academic rigor (Jay Barney is a doyen of strategy and Trish Clifford an accomplished consultant). Though not a strategy text, it ensures and enlightens about the underlying theory's practice. The assumptions and cautions are introduced at the right times. This is a more realistic coming to life of strategy in a corporation than many a book and lecture profess but do not deliver so well. Not since Bob Blake and Jane Mouton wrote "The Diary of an OD Man" has a consultant's development been narrated so absorbingly. This is not a critique on business schools like for example, Mark McCormack's "What They Still Don't Teach you at HBS," or Anita Simonton's "Confessions of a Management Consultant Turned CEO." Rather, "What I Didn't Learn in Business School" is an experiential evolution expressed in the strategist's own words as he rapidly matures into a role (and career) that he will own for the rest of his life.
The book has an excellent chapter-wise Reading List which is actually a good backdrop for a short strategy course with the various `core topics.' An essential reading for all strategy practitioners - present and future - and aspiring consultants , this could also serve as a pre-reading (and post-revision) for fresh MBA students, especially before they take their required strategy capstone courses.
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Excellent
18 Oct 2010
Format:Hardcover
I had the pleasure of having Jay as a professor for my MBA course in strategy, and with that class, we read the transcript for this book. When I was reading it, two things struck me specifically. First, it was a very quick and pretty entertaining read. I certainly didn't feel like I was getting my teeth pulled out to read it. Second, you realize you are being taught, and at the same time, you don't realize it. It is a great and simple book to help build, strengthen, and reinforce strategy tools and lessons learned.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Wonderful and insightful
16 Oct 2010
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book was refreshing! A quick, easy read and so pertinent to anyone in the business world. I HIGHLY recommend reading this, and of course keeping it on the shelf to review and keep yourself on track periodically.
A pleasure to read! I have been telling all my friends about this book!!
A pleasure to read! I have been telling all my friends about this book!!
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