MBA On The Go E-Book

Nicholas Bate

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 70

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Beschreibung

Neither the time nor money to study for an MBA? Skill-up with this 30 minute read! Make the most of your commute to work by discovering the critical models and hard-won wisdom of an MBA course in short form. MBA On The Go is an ultra-condensed, mobile guide to the essential thinking which will make your business fitter and stronger - quickly. MBA On the Go: * Can be read in 30 minutes - that's the same as the average commute time * Covers core business skills and problems to make your work life more productive and more successful * Provides the answer to pretty well any business challenge you might have * Is written in an engaging and punchy style with high impact

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Title page

What will this book do for you?

1: Strive to Be Different

The Concept

Consequences

Actions

Specific Tools/Concepts Plus Cautions

Case Study

2: Money: Make It and Measure It

The Concept

Consequences

Actions

Specific Tools/Concepts Plus Cautions

Case Study

3: People Not (Just) Metrics

The Concept

Consequences

Actions

Specific Tools/Concepts Plus Cautions

Case Study

4: Er, Wake Up, Get Real, Take Action: Brilliant at the Basics of Business

The Concept

Consequences

Actions

Specific Tools/Concepts Plus Cautions

Case Study

5: Kaizen: Constant, Never-ending Improvement

The Concept

Consequences

Actions

Specific Tools/Concepts Plus Cautions

Case Study

6: The Plan

The Concept

Consequences

Actions

Case Study

Quick Reference

About the Author

Copyright page

What will this book do for you?

The answer to almost any business challenge you might have – now or in the future – is embedded somewhere in the modern MBA. The Masters in Business Administration is comprehensive, well-researched and providing you choose the course carefully, stimulating. Yes, it's all in there: pricing, competitiveness and motivation; supply chain, strategy and ethics; macro- and microeconomics and psychometrics. The facts, the models and the implications.

The only trouble – the big trouble – is it takes time, it takes money and sometimes it's truly difficult to see the wood for the trees or the strategy you really seek for your business because of the matrices, layered pyramids and interlinked circles you'll be shown. Having taught as a visiting lecturer on one of Europe's leading MBA pro­grammes for six years I soon realized there was a need for something which did allow the wood to be seen for the trees and the correct strategy not to be lost in a swamp of essays, assignments and team work. Plus one or two missing sections, such as how to sell, needed to be addressed. I consult internationally and work with organizations such as Microsoft, the BBC, RSA and Oxfam. In MBA On the Go, tried and tested with many of those organizations, you'll get the essential thinking, the critical models and the hard-won wisdom, which will make your business fitter and stronger.

Quickly.

It will remind. It will kick-start. It will educate.

I've structured this guide to be high value and fast and easy to implement. The majority of each section is structured as follows:

1.The Concept. I'll explain the concept (e.g., “be different”) in a paragraph or two. At the end of this section you will understand what the concept is and why it is important.

2.Consequences. I'll then explain what that means for you and your organization. The good, the bad and the ugly.

3.Actions. Critically, I will then move to the actions you might consider to protect your organization from competition, economic challenges and intrusions on profitability.

4.Specific Tools/Concepts Plus Cautions. Then reve­aled are the practical tools to use at your off-site or awayday or brainstorms or planning meetings as you detail and implement these actions. And one or two cautions concerning their unskilled or even over-zealous use.

5.Case Study. And then to bring it all together a micro case study, which will illustrate in full relief the points made.

What's the best way to approach the material? It's concentrated with “guaranteed no padding” so read a section in a sitting and then consider what that means for you, your team and your business. Once you have read all the sections and summarized your own thinking, then perhaps run an off-site. Take your self-generated checklist and create a 12-month action plan for the steps you need to take to innovate, develop skill sets and revitalize that which you know but had forgotten. There's particular help with this process in Section 6. Work the plan and then re-start the whole process again in 12 months' time.

Importantly, they will not just address thinking and knowledge but also that vital implementation.

A note on symbols

The material is designed to be immediate and ready to go and in the text you will occasionally see three symbols. It is perfectly possible to ignore the symbols but if used they can bring another layer of depth to the material:

• The * symbol – This means that there is a fuller explanation of a generally intuitively understood word in the Quick Reference section at the back of the book e.g., segmentation*. Many readers will understand that “segmentation” is a formal term and they do not need further explanation. But some might want to clarify what it means: the option is yours without disturbing the flow.

• The + symbol – This means that we will build on this idea in a separate (identified) section and will not pursue it any further at this point. Thus motivation+(3) means more on motivation in Section 3. You could follow the connection to the referenced section if that is crucial to you. Or simply wait until you get to it in the natural flow of your reading.

• The ! symbol – This symbol will take you to the tools part where you will find the detail you need, if you need it, without disturbing the big picture of the narrative. Thus SWOT!

There are five key sections – the Critical Handful – that in turn will be introduced, expanded and turned into working business tactics:

1. Strive to Be Different

2. Money: Make It and Measure It

3. People Not (Just) Metrics

4. Er, Wake Up, Get Real, Take Action: Brilliant at the Basics of Business

5. Kaizen: Constant, Never-ending Improvement

6. The Plan

The key is to get good at working on and developing your business not just running around in your business.

This book isn't a full MBA. Nothing like it: that's clear and obvious. It's better than that: it will give you the essential thinking, insight, stimulus and planning tools to create a plan to reinvent your business in a matter of hours. What you do after that is what distinguishes the truly great businesses.

1

2

Money: Make It and Measure It

The Concept

Money is not the sole reason for being in business. Some people start a business for fun. Some for the pure challenge. Some because they feel they can do it better. But an awful lot do start a business for the money. After all, as a firm moves from being a one-man lifestyle business to becoming a global player it'll need to pay salaries, R&D bills and the occasional jamboree. And even if he or she does not do it primarily for the money, the entrepreneur realizes that their fun, their challenge, their “doing it better” will be thwarted unless they are making money. A charity has to make money. A corner shop has to make money. And, ultimately, what easier measure of success? Money is coming in!

It's true that sometimes there can be a delay in the process of making money, but ultimately there is a particular kind of money which everybody loves and that's profit.

What does an MBA remind you about making money and how to keep making money?

Consequences

To those new to the world of business it might seem that making money is about the ability to sell. Or having a cool product for which everyone is clamouring or the perfect advertising campaign. Or simply keeping costs down. The reality is that it's a subtle mix of all of these and if any one function is failing to function, to do its bit, the sales force is demotivated. For example, if there's a lack of innovation in R&D, or debtor days are right out at 120, then it'll be pretty tough to achieve that panacea of healthy, steady profit. You should be truly seeking a symbiotic* relationship across all of the functions to avoid the potential, real nightmare of departments sitting in silos, often working with skewed, non-aligned goals and plotting politically to damage “rival” departments.

Thus making money involves several functions within an organization; if you are a small organization, you will need to get used to wearing several hats:

•The marketing division/hat. Responsible for much of what was discussed in Section 1, that is, ensuring difference, driving difference and creating the difference story. Remember: with the right difference, you will be chased, able to charge premium prices and able to attract the best employees to ensure the success cycle continues to turn.

•The sales division/hat.