,Contents
List of figures
Acknowledgements
About the author
About this book
Introduction
part 1 How to make The Every Day MBA work for you
1 Management and the MBA
2 You and your personal development
part 2 Tactical MBA thinking: how to organise resources
3 Processes and operations
4 People
5 Finance 1: accounting
part 3 Strategic MBA thinking: how to manage the big picture
6 Marketing
7 Strategy
8 Finance 2: corporate finance and governance
9 Global and international business
part 4 Critical MBA thinking: how to master management
10 Leadership
11 Corporate reputation, social responsibility and sustainability
12 Reflective practice: management stripped bare
Glossary
,Index
Introduction
Welcome to The Every Day MBA. This book is a guide to applying world-class MBA principles
and thinking at work.
Whether you have ambitions to do an MBA or already have one, in business and management
those three letters certainly seem to exert quite a hold over the imagination. Every year, tens
of thousands of managers around the world invest their time, energy and money to graduate
with a master’s degree in business administration. No book can equal that achievement or
capture everything that years of study contain. It can, however, highlight two things that
graduates from top business schools have discovered:
1. The most lasting benefit of an MBA is a change in your thinking.
2. Informed self-awareness is the key to new behaviours, better decision making and
continuing career growth.
Presumably managers already think, otherwise their actions would just be automatic. So what
is so special about the change in thinking brought about by an MBA? One answer could be
simply that MBA thinking accelerates promotion to the next level. True, but a more powerful
idea is that the best MBAs are people educated to see a special relationship between thinking
and action that can make a real difference to achievement at work, one’s career, and the
impact of business on a changing world. So, using clear and concise language, this book will
use the typical structure and experience of an MBA to challenge you to apply ideas and new
ways of thinking about what you do.
KEY POINTS ABOUT THIS BOOK
Each chapter covers a crucial area of management and leadership featured in MBA study. You
will find overviews of concepts, key models, frameworks and theories, as well as real-world
illustrations. You will be encouraged to practise the types of thinking developed in the top
programmes around the world.
Three assumptions underpin The Every Day MBA and I want you to keep them in mind as
you work through the book.
1 An MBA links practice and theory
Academic rigour mixed with practical, industry-specific knowledge of the kind that you
develop simply by doing your job is a powerful equation. MBAs are good at combining these
different kinds of knowledge. True, the more experience of the workplace you have, the more
you can get from this book, but if you are at an early point in your career, you will find many
, ways to apply MBA thinking to the lessons that the first few years of management always
bring.
2 An MBA challenges deep-set habits
What is required and rewarded early in a management career is not necessarily what is
required or suitable at more senior levels. Success at entry and middle levels needs certain
skills, but some of these habits can become barriers later in your career. Many of our habits
are deep-set and are often taken for granted. They are difficult to spot and even harder to
change or let go. An MBA is all about such personal development.
3 An MBA addresses what it really takes to
become a senior manager or leader
Business is now a global phenomenon. In only the last 50 years the world has changed beyond
recognition and no doubt it will be transformed again completely in the coming half century.
Business schools are no better or worse at predicting the future than the rest of society, but
they are great places to develop the critical and reflective thinking abilities required to work
in uncertainty and change. It is not about what you learn, it is about knowing how you learn,
how you think and how you act as a leader. With awareness and dedication, you can begin to
prepare yourself for leadership roles now.
STRUCTURE OF THE BOOK
The Every Day MBA is organised in four parts.
Part 1 (Chapters 1–2) is about management, MBAs and you, and how to apply this book. Like
many at the start of an actual MBA you may be tempted to skip the first section and jump to
the ‘real stuff’ in Part 2. Try to resist this because self-awareness and good preparation are
key to learning. Before you start to read about the various parts of management practice, you
need to invest some time becoming aware of yourself and your experience. Personal
development is knowing how to reflect on practice so that you can see immediate results as
well as preparing for the future.
Part 2 (Chapters 3–5) is about tactical thinking in management. We examine the core subject
areas of the first phase of an MBA, highlighting commonly used models and insightful
theories. Each part links to one of the types of thinking used by an MBA, and you will be able
to follow suggestions to apply these to your management practice.
Part 3 (Chapters 6–9) moves on to strategic thinking and concerns the internal and external
environment of organisations. This part of the MBA brings to the fore the idea of managing
relationships, including the ones an organisation has with its customers and its competitors,
as well as the complex task of understanding the rapidly changing nature of international
business.
Part 4 (Chapters 10–12) looks at critical thinking in leadership and management. This might
be the most challenging part of the book because it deals with visionary thinking in
List of figures
Acknowledgements
About the author
About this book
Introduction
part 1 How to make The Every Day MBA work for you
1 Management and the MBA
2 You and your personal development
part 2 Tactical MBA thinking: how to organise resources
3 Processes and operations
4 People
5 Finance 1: accounting
part 3 Strategic MBA thinking: how to manage the big picture
6 Marketing
7 Strategy
8 Finance 2: corporate finance and governance
9 Global and international business
part 4 Critical MBA thinking: how to master management
10 Leadership
11 Corporate reputation, social responsibility and sustainability
12 Reflective practice: management stripped bare
Glossary
,Index
Introduction
Welcome to The Every Day MBA. This book is a guide to applying world-class MBA principles
and thinking at work.
Whether you have ambitions to do an MBA or already have one, in business and management
those three letters certainly seem to exert quite a hold over the imagination. Every year, tens
of thousands of managers around the world invest their time, energy and money to graduate
with a master’s degree in business administration. No book can equal that achievement or
capture everything that years of study contain. It can, however, highlight two things that
graduates from top business schools have discovered:
1. The most lasting benefit of an MBA is a change in your thinking.
2. Informed self-awareness is the key to new behaviours, better decision making and
continuing career growth.
Presumably managers already think, otherwise their actions would just be automatic. So what
is so special about the change in thinking brought about by an MBA? One answer could be
simply that MBA thinking accelerates promotion to the next level. True, but a more powerful
idea is that the best MBAs are people educated to see a special relationship between thinking
and action that can make a real difference to achievement at work, one’s career, and the
impact of business on a changing world. So, using clear and concise language, this book will
use the typical structure and experience of an MBA to challenge you to apply ideas and new
ways of thinking about what you do.
KEY POINTS ABOUT THIS BOOK
Each chapter covers a crucial area of management and leadership featured in MBA study. You
will find overviews of concepts, key models, frameworks and theories, as well as real-world
illustrations. You will be encouraged to practise the types of thinking developed in the top
programmes around the world.
Three assumptions underpin The Every Day MBA and I want you to keep them in mind as
you work through the book.
1 An MBA links practice and theory
Academic rigour mixed with practical, industry-specific knowledge of the kind that you
develop simply by doing your job is a powerful equation. MBAs are good at combining these
different kinds of knowledge. True, the more experience of the workplace you have, the more
you can get from this book, but if you are at an early point in your career, you will find many
, ways to apply MBA thinking to the lessons that the first few years of management always
bring.
2 An MBA challenges deep-set habits
What is required and rewarded early in a management career is not necessarily what is
required or suitable at more senior levels. Success at entry and middle levels needs certain
skills, but some of these habits can become barriers later in your career. Many of our habits
are deep-set and are often taken for granted. They are difficult to spot and even harder to
change or let go. An MBA is all about such personal development.
3 An MBA addresses what it really takes to
become a senior manager or leader
Business is now a global phenomenon. In only the last 50 years the world has changed beyond
recognition and no doubt it will be transformed again completely in the coming half century.
Business schools are no better or worse at predicting the future than the rest of society, but
they are great places to develop the critical and reflective thinking abilities required to work
in uncertainty and change. It is not about what you learn, it is about knowing how you learn,
how you think and how you act as a leader. With awareness and dedication, you can begin to
prepare yourself for leadership roles now.
STRUCTURE OF THE BOOK
The Every Day MBA is organised in four parts.
Part 1 (Chapters 1–2) is about management, MBAs and you, and how to apply this book. Like
many at the start of an actual MBA you may be tempted to skip the first section and jump to
the ‘real stuff’ in Part 2. Try to resist this because self-awareness and good preparation are
key to learning. Before you start to read about the various parts of management practice, you
need to invest some time becoming aware of yourself and your experience. Personal
development is knowing how to reflect on practice so that you can see immediate results as
well as preparing for the future.
Part 2 (Chapters 3–5) is about tactical thinking in management. We examine the core subject
areas of the first phase of an MBA, highlighting commonly used models and insightful
theories. Each part links to one of the types of thinking used by an MBA, and you will be able
to follow suggestions to apply these to your management practice.
Part 3 (Chapters 6–9) moves on to strategic thinking and concerns the internal and external
environment of organisations. This part of the MBA brings to the fore the idea of managing
relationships, including the ones an organisation has with its customers and its competitors,
as well as the complex task of understanding the rapidly changing nature of international
business.
Part 4 (Chapters 10–12) looks at critical thinking in leadership and management. This might
be the most challenging part of the book because it deals with visionary thinking in
