Customer Reviews

What They Teach You at Harvard Business School: My Two Years Inside the Cauldron of Capitalism

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

An extremely interesting, although critical view on HBS. 100% recommended to anyone looking at an MBA. I was compelled to come back and read each new chapter to see how the time at HBS unfolded for Peter.

I thought this was an excellent overview of the MBA process at Harvard, well written, easy to read and reasonably light-hearted. I think it's a real eye-opener about what this type of course is like day to day, and also that types of people that you would encounter. However, it is told with such enthusiasm and optimism that it made me wish I was going to Harvard to do an MBA - I wouldn't want to do it anywhere else after reading this! Great read for City types.

This is a must-read for any student thinking of going to Harvard to study. Delves Broughton presents a very balanced view of the place, listing the many plus points as well as exposing the negatives. Clearly, Harvard is an immensely stimulating place to be and can be also be immensely rewarding and beneficial BUT only if you are the right kind of student. The downside of Harvard is that if you do not come from the right background (business/banking), and are of the wrong age group (over 30), or have seriously worked as an entrepreneur already, Harvard will not help your career. Delves Broughton, as a successful journalist in his early 30's, without a finance background, did very well on the course but found doors did not open for him. That does not surprise me. Years ago when I thought about studying for an MBA at one of the UK's top business schools, and having passed the entry exam, I was (honestly) advised by an entry tutor that with my (non-finance) background I would only have a 30% chance of a job after the course, compared to 80% for others. Happily I took heed of the advice and did not do the MBA - it would have been a waste of my money. With regard to Harvard, on the less pleasant side, is the attitude held by many tutors and students that being a Harvard graduate automatically makes you a world business leader - a sort of business aristocrat. Just reading of such attitudes provides a wonderful insight into how the current world financial crisis has occurred!! Back to the book - it is extremely well written and does not set out to do a hatchet job on Harvard. In fact, it is clear that Delves Broughton found his time there personally rewarding, but he proves that you need to be a round peg in a round hole to really gain the maximum from Harvard.

This book comes across as an honest account of Delves Broughton's experience of, and reaction to, the Harvard Business School MBA course. Delves Broughton highlights well some of the strengths and weaknesses of the institution and the course, though the recent departure of the Dean (Kim Clark) will probably already have lead to changes in the mix.

I would particularly recommend the book to UK readers considering applying to a 'top-tier' US business school, not least because the author highlights some of the cultural differences that hit a British student most forcefully and can come as a bit of a surprise. Delves Broughton's experience also provides a useful reality check. Contrary to the author's apparent expectations, graduation from a business school of this type does not guarantee entree into the well-paid specialised world of hedge funds, private equity, investment banking or consulting. Many of the businesses in these industries have built into their business models recruitment from HBS and other similar schools, but they are looking for a very particular profile and the MBA badge is only one small component. If you don't fit more broadly you probably won't get the job. The author's criticisms of the cost to personal lives entailed in careers of this type are also worth thinking about hard.

For the general reader, Delves Broughton provides a useful flavour of the mindset and approach taught at these kinds of institution. Don't expect to come away with more than a vague impression though - this is not a primer of what they teach at Harvard Business School (title notwithstanding). He raises concerns that this 'business' mindset leads to problems when applied to other arenas of life, particularly if used naively or by people lacking decent ethical standards. (If HBS alumnus George W. Bush had shown any inclination to use this kind of approach in his decision-making, he would have made an easy stick with which to beat the institution). Whatever the merits of his argument, it's something that the HBS faculty (and many companies) worry about a lot, even if their attempts to discuss such ethical issues lead to stomach churning management-speak. Encouragingly, most of his fellow students seemed to take the point, though, even at this early stage in their careers.

One point of criticism of this book (and others of its kind). By publishing it Delves Broughton has arguably betrayed a tacit contract of confidentiality that exists between participants (faculty and students) in such institutions. 'Betrayals' of this kind are an everyday occurrence for daily newspaper journalists and this is perhaps why Delves Broughton seems unaware of this aspect; a couple of the professors in particular might feel justifiably aggrieved.

[This review is actually for the US version of the book Ahead of the Curve: Two Years at Harvard Business School, but since this is the main UK version I thought I'd post here instead.

Firstly, I'm a recent HBS graduate, and like Mr Delves-Broughton, I was also from the UK, though I had more of a traditional business background before attending. This book has been gaining quite a lot of interest from the HBS community with various debates as to how fair a representation it is.

My major criticism is that the book really doesn't know what it wants to be. Is it a description of the day-to-day experience of HBS?, Is it a commentary on American Capitalism and the HBS adminstration? Is it the author's own introspective look at his own life and what he ultimately wants to be? It is in fact of all of these things, but due to lack of consistency in the writing style it ends up feeling quite disjointed and a difficult read as it switches at random from excruciating detail about particular classes to broad ruminations about the author's overall view.

As for the content, everything that's mentioned in the book are fair criticisms of the school. Every single point that is raised is based solidly in fact and the HBS administration would do well to pay heed to many of the observations. In fact the back cover of the US edition, highlights a particular bug-bear of mine, the gaming of the financial aid system by many HBS students who benefit despite having huge financial resources - and these are the same students who debate from the moral high ground in a class about ethics! However, in his haste to highlight these failings of the school I feel that the author is really missing the big picture. As you read you can't help but feel that he decided that he would never fit in before he went to HBS and has written a book that picks out all the bad elements of the school to justify his position.

During my time at HBS I found all the things that the author mentions equally frustrating but they were far out-weighted by the school's positives. The outstanding quality of its faculty, the supberb facilties, my fellow students who were not only academically bright but incredibly active in a huge range of activities (setting up businesses, running charity campaigns etc..) all made it a very rewarding place to spend two years. Sure, there was plenty of idiots who get caught up in the rush to banking or consulting or are ultra-competitive and lacking in social skills, but nobody's perfect and if you let other people ruin your day then you're the idiot.

Overall I'm wavering between 3 and 4 stars. 3 stars because its not that well written and the author seems to never want to be part of it (you can't help the feeling that he always intended to write a book), 4 stars because if you've ever wondered what its like to go HBS its a reasonable expose. Just read it with a pinch of salt.

Speaking as someone who is moving from academia to business, and from the UK to Boston, Philip Broughton's book about his experience as an English journalist also moving out to Boston for the MBA resonated very strongly with me. A cultural outsider by virtue of his background, culture, and has he suggests several times, his age (32 vs average of 27 at HBS), this book gives the kind of insight that a prospectus never could. Compressing two years of education into a paperback is quite a tall order, so Broughton gives a flavour of each of the modules he took there, from financial models to ethics and corporate strategy, as well as touching briefly upon the typical case studies he encountered there.

Where this book was at its most interesting for me were in some of the the narrow-minded, self-serving, and even dangerous beliefs of his fellow peers, who have little time for ethical considerations and firmly believe that a free-market business rationale should be applied to all spheres of life, regardless of little externalities like corporate responsibility. I also particularly enjoyed Broughton's almost comical experiences with the "milk round" recruitment circuit, with students all repeating the same rote-learnt mantras to get through rounds of interview. The author, being typically British about it, tries to be honest and open, and doesn't get invited back.

Where I do reserve some judgement, though, is the fact that if I had been in his class, I'd feel a little like the author hadn't fully committed to the process. He came to HBS ostensibly to get away from journalism, and two years later here he is publishing books, hardly a massive change in direction for two years and some £90k in forgone earnings and fees. Of course, this seems to be quite typical for HBS grads; all the bankers, consultants, and hedge-fund managers who came for a career-changing experience all obediently trotted right back to where they'd come from once the mortgage needed paying.

All in all this is an entertaining and engaging read if you have even a remote interest in business, the MBA, or Harvard Business School. Maybe it'll teach you that HBS isn't for you, maybe it'll have you submitting an application when you didn't think you were interested at all. Maybe now I should read "What they DON'T teach you at HBS" just to be thorough!

This book is really about 3 things

1) The author's discovery of world of business (70% of the book)
2) The HBS experience (20% of the book)
3) Unstructured ramblings about business ethics (10% of the book)

The book is well written but apart from that is disappointing.
For the author it's a missed opportunity of a potentially more interesting work.
The fact that the author apparently didn't have any knowledge of business and finance makes his report of HBS mostly a report about what any economics/finance/strategy course is about, could be HBS or any university around the world.
Much better are the parts where the author sticks with doing a chronicles of specific events or days, this really makes it an interesting read and particularly the report about the interview processes, career opportunities, and characters the author met at HBS are interesting.

But the author feels he's on a mission of building a better world and spends quite some time insisting on the fact that HBS should teach ethics to its student and make them feel responsible for their impact on society.
Also the author states multiple times that HBS should inject in its student some interest for a work/life balance.
If people who will rule the world can make it till the age of business school thinking that their next porsche is worth compromising the global economy stability (and their family) I doubt this can be fixed by retrofitting some ethics at business school.

It might be true that HBS attracted and educated the people who engineered the system that triggered current global crisis.

But the problem is rather how comes that these are the people our society expresses consistently as leaders and put them in charge?
The idea that we should try to "fix" these people and drive them to instead be mindful about the consequences of what they do seems weird. What if instead society just expressed as business/government leaders people who are conscious and with solid ethics in first place?

We are not forced to pick our business/political leaders out of HBS, or are we? Iis HBS that needs to be changed or companies and governments should just pick from a different talent pool?

I really enjoyed this book. It was very well written and easy to read. Good descriptive prose, interspersed with insights and clear explanations of one or two key concepts, and a fair amount of humour. It was an easy read and I thoroughly recommend it.
Dave

Clearly, it depends what you're looking for from this book as to how you would rate it. I'm going back to school this year for my MBA, so some of the curriculum detailing was insightful into what might be coming my way soon.
I'm not sure why else you'd buy this book if if you weren't either interested in an MBA, are an MBA or a Harvard Alumnus.
It does seem slightly dated in light of 2008 crisis etc. but it's still an intriguing romp.
On the whole, I think it's an interesting journey of one blokes journey through a prestigious school. In another country, dealing with the pressure of $120,000 worth of debt.
Definitely worth seven quid.

As an account of life at Harvard Business School, an outline of what is taught there, and a pen portrait of the class, this is enjoyable reading. As someone who has also been incredibly fortunate to go there, even although just for one week, there was much i recognised. Harvard for me was a wonderful experience - , very hard work certainly, the case study learning is transformational and i found world class teaching and facilities, and incredibly talented class mates. This book reflects all of that, but it is also a little preachy at times about the lives of Harvard graduates- and in a way i didn't relate to. The author went to Harvard it seems, seeing himself as an outsider, and maintained a slightly cynical approach throughout. He was the only member of his class not to get or take a summer job, and one of tiny few not to be employed after he graduated. His gripes seem to be more to do with capitalism itself than HBS. He seems to think being successful must make you unhappy

HBS is what is described - it is fascinating, it does build confidence, it can be exhausting, and it is ethical in its approach to business. It does stimulate ambition and focus - but is it a factory for unhappy people as the author suggests - i don't think so - certainly not what i observed or felt there.

A good enough read though - if you approach the author's cynicism with some scepticism of your own