Nicholas Bate - Instant MBA: Think, Perform and Earn Like a Top Business School Graduate

Careful now

More and more organisations are demanding MBA-level thinking from people across a broad spectrum of roles and specialisms; more and more people are looking for a career boost which can take them to the next stage or into the world of successful self-employment.

A formal MBA might seem to provide a convenient solution, but its not the ticket to fabulous fortune that it once was. Learning to think in an MBA way, however, can really help youand this book might well aid you on your way. But you have to be willing to put in the work yourself, of course. Wed love to, but we cant hold your hand all the time or guarantee you the advancement you hope fornor, it has to be said, are we responsible for the consequences of any actions you might choose to take. Think about what you do and how you set about doing it, and you should reap the benefits.

Now, the Internet is a great resource for anyone studying an MBA, whether an Instant MBA or a more formal one. However, there are both good and bad sources of information online and the web is a constantly changing phenomenon. Be circumspect and bear in mind that websites change, so if you cant find the recommended blog by a particular business guru, do a search to find its new home.

Copyright Infinite Ideas Limited, 2008

The right of Nicholas Bate to be identified as the author of this book has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First published in 2008 by

Infinite Ideas Limited

36 St Giles

Oxford, OX1 3LD

United Kingdom

www.infideas.com

All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of small passages for the purposes of criticism or review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except under the terms of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of a licence issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP, UK, without the permission in writing of the publisher. Requests to the publisher should be addressed to the Permissions Department, Infinite Ideas Limited, 36 St Giles, Oxford, OX1 3LD, UK, or faxed to +44 (0)1865 514777.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 9781905940837

Brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

Designed and typeset by Baseline Arts Ltd, Oxford
Printed in India

Brilliant ideas

You know that you have become stale; thats why the MBA is attractive to you. Lets get those synaptic pathways sparking again.

Michael Porter: man of strategy, man of the value-chain. Is this any use in the real world? And how can you get the essence of his thick books in a few minutes?

Its not about serviceits about the experience. Disney got it. Starbucks gets it and, increasingly, so does M&S. Do you get it and, more importantly, can you create it?

Youll live or die by your ability to present. And youll die a slow deathor maybe your audience willif you keep doing that old PowerPoint slide stuff.

Lets forget the endless navel-gazing discussions about leadership. Lets get on with it. Lets live by the consequences of our actions. Lets make it happen. Thats real leadership!

You will never, ever have enough time. Thats because you are an interesting and interested person and you live in interesting times.

Dont mess about. In the New World of Work there are a few simple strategies for making money. You dont need to read any Harvard Business Reviews to be clear on this.

He of Leading the Revolution fame andunfortunately for himthe one who used Enron as his model case study.

There are various forms of money. And the danger with business schools is that it can all get too theoretical

Business schools are a lot of fun: a year of fresh ideas, new friends, new thinking, etcBut the case studies and syndicate group work can get a bit much.

How much for a coffee? It depends. How much for a bottle of water on a cold day in Moscow? On the edge of the Sahara? Quite. Its all about perception.

Whatever way you look at it, a business course wouldnt be a business course without great models: triangles and 4 by 4 matrices and nested circles

Excellence! Love Peters or hate him, hes still banging away at a core idea: make excellence your minimum standard and youll always be in demand. Thats a nice position to be in.

Step back for a moment and make sure youre up and running on one of the basics of businessthe importance of a vision and how to implement that vision.

Ugh! Dont you hate that term? Lets get back to peoplehow to find them, keep them and motivate them.

You know much of advertising is just pure bullshit and you dont believe it, so why should your customers believe your messages?

How to plan in a world of rapid change, and how to create a winning strategy when there is no winning strategy.

The grand old man, sadly no longer with us, and a prolific writer. If I only had about 1000 words (and I do, actually), what would you need to know from himand what can you use?

What raising standards really means

Heres the first detailed look at the background to the new management, leadership and strategy practices which are needed in the New World of Work.

Its the one thing which never gets properly covered in the business school modules and yet its the one thing which is essential to a successful business: how to sell.

However much you study the great business leadersthe Richard Bransons or Jack Welchesyou cant be them. What you can be, though, is the best version of you. How?

Dont wait for permission: do itand 99% of the time you will get away with it. The other 1% of the time you can always apologise!

Most MBA lecture notes go into folders, never to be looked at again. Many reading lists are never acted upon. So many case studies are, well, not used as case studies.

One of the reasons you may be doing an MBA is to become a consultant, maybe internal, maybe external. Heres how to start a consultancy which is high-end and successful.

How to read those statements.

Time for another look at what lies behind the management and leadership which is needed in the New World of Work. Now, its the impact of technology

If there is one thing you must leave this MBA with, its a personal development plan: how will you stay employable for the next decade? One heck of a question

Youve been avoiding them, havent you? Those terms such as liquidity make you feel a little edgy! And those ratios?

Thats the HR function at its best: recruiting excellent people, helping you get the best out of them and then ensuring you dont lose them too soon.

You can still have tutorials with an instant MBA, you know! Heres your first, on that thorny topic which concerns all students: how to get to grips with the material.

Heres the third detailed look at what lies behind management and leadership in the New World of Work. Offshoring, outsourcing: call it what you will.

Manufacturing and distribution: how to make it, how to ship it. How to have the right amount of stock, just in time working, total quality management

Its a risky world out there, especially in the commercial sector. Companies might get forecasts wrong, fall victim to fraud or have their computers stolen

You have a brand whether you like it or not. Its what people say about you when youre not there