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The MBA Distilled for Project & Program Professionals

The MBA Distilled for Project & Program Professionals

Up-Level Your Skills & Career by Mastering the Best Parts of an MBA Program

Bradley D. Clark

The MBA Distilled for Project & Program Professionals: Up-Level Your Skills & Career by Mastering the Best Parts of an MBA Program

Copyright Business Expert Press, LLC, 2022.

Cover design by Charlene Kronstedt

Interior design by Exeter Premedia Services Private Ltd., Chennai, India

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other except for brief quotations, not to exceed 400 words, without the prior permission of the publisher.

First published in 2021 by

Business Expert Press, LLC

222 East 46th Street, New York, NY 10017

www.businessexpertpress.com

ISBN-13: 978-1-63742-125-3 (paperback)

ISBN-13: 978-1-63742-126-0 (e-book)

Business Expert Press Portfolio and Project Management Collection

Collection ISSN: 2156-8189 (print)

Collection ISSN: 2156-8200 (electronic)

First edition: 2021

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Description

Certifications in project management are like birthdays: everybody has one. These days, you need something more to distinguish yourself in this profession. This book is a practical guide for project and program managers who want to increase their professional skills by incorporating relevant theory, formulas, and other learnings from the Master of Business Administration (MBA) curriculum. The book provides an overview of core classes taught in most MBA programs, but with a specific lens on how to make the material practical for project practitioners.

The book starts with strategy, and works its way through economics, finance, operations, leadership, and other core areas. Each chapter introduces the reader to fundamental subject matter, then brings it to life in terms and experiences that resonate with project and program managers. Real-world challenges and experiences are shared to bolster the relevance of the material being taught.

Project and program managers will learn new tools to improve critical decision making, formulas and techniques for making recommendations to leadership, and an assortment of theories and techniques for up leveling their management skills with teams and stakeholders.

The book concludes with a fresh and honest look at whether the reader would benefit from pursuing an MBA themselves. It helps the reader understand the benefits and challenges associated with pursuing an MBA. Finally, it helps the reader determine whether an MBA is right for the reader at all, and if so, what type of MBA program would be the best to pursue based on the readers own circumstances.

Keywords

project management; program management; career advancement; management; project; program; career; business; process; value; decision; analysis; change; people; advancement; MBA; market; employees; analysis; risk; professional; financial; benefits; promotion; analysis; skills; tools

Contents

I remember the day I was accepted into the Evening and Weekend MBA program at U.C. Berkeleys Haas School of Business (Haas). I had applied to three other schools in case Haas didnt want me. In my mind, Id just hit the lottery. Haas was a top 20 MBA program, and the Evening and Weekend program was in the top three. I had a feeling that I had just caught a tiger by the tail, and I was right. Haas was rigorous, intense, and costly.

There are a lot of reasons to pursue an MBA. Some do it to advance in the career they are in. Some do it to learn entrepreneurship. Still others want to switch careers. I was toying with the idea of becoming an entrepreneur. I felt I was stagnating in my project career, and I just didnt know if I had the passion to stay with it for several more decades. The MBA delivered a lot of benefits, chief among them was a first-class ticket to understanding the way all parts of modern business run. It also helped me clarify thatat that time of my lifeI would have been a terrible entrepreneur. I avoided a big pitfall, and I am grateful for what I learned. It also helped be become a better project manager because it exposed me to so much business knowledge that could be applied to my project management practice.

This kind of knowledge came at a cost. The time commitment was enormous. I missed out on three years of watching kids grow up. My wife paid a price by shouldering the burden of being a Haas widow. The bill for this privilege was north of $80k. Was it worth it? Yes, but. The but is why I wrote this book. What I do know is that the tools and strategies I learned have been and continue to be of tremendous value both professionally and personally. It is my goal to share with you the highest value learnings for a much lower cost than I had to pay. It is also my goal to arm those considering an MBA with the information they need to make the right decision for themselves.

I have been managing projects, programs, people, and PMOs for more than two decades. In this book, I will distill the most important elements of a typical MBA to those of us who practice project and program management. Not everything in an MBA program is of importance to project and program managers, but some of the knowledge can help project professionals rise to new levels in our profession.

Most MBA programs dont talk much about project management. To them, its a tactical necessity to achieve a strategic end. In my career, Ive learned that shrewd business leaders understand that a strong project management function is as critical as any of the other functions taught in an MBA program. What MBA program teach can make us better at what we do. Combining the skills of project and program management with those of an MBA gives us a broader professional range from tactical to strategic.

This book covers the courses in a typical MBA core curriculum..

Within each chapter, I will introduce key concepts and terminology related to the subject under study. The concepts will be broad because there is no way to pack an entire MBA course into a chapter. Once the subject basics have been outlined, the chapter will cover those parts that crossover into the project management world. Each chapter will examine concepts and tools that can be adopted to and improve your professional toolset. The book covers decision-making theories, financial analyses, business accounting concepts, and much more.

This book uses the word distilled on purpose. Its not possible to cover two years of rigorous academic teaching in a single book. You wont be earning any degrees at the end of the book, but you will come away with an understanding of what I consider the choicest parts of an MBA program. Better yet, you will be introduced to new skills that, with a little practice, can be applied to your projects right now. I wish I could promise mastery just by reading, but these are complex topics that take regular MBA students concentrated lectures, homework, and study to master. As such, I have included links to additional resources to help you continue your studies. My website www.mbadistilled.com is also a great resource as you continue your studies.