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The 12-Week MBA: Learn the Skills You Need to Lead in Business Today
Based on award-winning leadership development programs experienced by over 100,000 professionals at Fortune Global 500 companies, The 12-Week MBA offers practical tips for aspiring business leaders while making an impassioned case for a new approach to management education.
Getting an MBA takes time and money, making it inaccessible to many people who want to take charge in the business world. The 12-Week MBA offers an alternative way to learn business essentials by focusing on the skills and knowledge required to succeed as both a manager and a business leader. The 12-Week MBA’s unique premise is that business leaders in any industry, any function, and at any level need the same core knowledge, skills, and attitudes to effectively manage and lead. That core consists of working through and with other people to create value while using financial concepts and metrics to maximize the value created for all company stakeholders. The timeless essence of managing numbers and leading people can be learned in less time and at a lower cost than in a traditional two-year MBA, where much of the curriculum may become obsolete by the time students graduate. Authors Bjorn Billhardt and Nathan Kracklauer are senior executives at Abilitie, a global leadership development company that has served over 100,000 learners in fifty countries. Abilitie’s clients include some of the world’s most recognizable brands such as Coca-Cola, The New York Times, and Dell. Now the key lessons from Abilitie’s 12- Week MBA curriculum are available in this accessible and engaging guide.
Getting an MBA takes time and money, making it inaccessible to many people who want to take charge in the business world. The 12-Week MBA offers an alternative way to learn business essentials by focusing on the skills and knowledge required to succeed as both a manager and a business leader. The 12-Week MBA’s unique premise is that business leaders in any industry, any function, and at any level need the same core knowledge, skills, and attitudes to effectively manage and lead. That core consists of working through and with other people to create value while using financial concepts and metrics to maximize the value created for all company stakeholders. The timeless essence of managing numbers and leading people can be learned in less time and at a lower cost than in a traditional two-year MBA, where much of the curriculum may become obsolete by the time students graduate. Authors Bjorn Billhardt and Nathan Kracklauer are senior executives at Abilitie, a global leadership development company that has served over 100,000 learners in fifty countries. Abilitie’s clients include some of the world’s most recognizable brands such as Coca-Cola, The New York Times, and Dell. Now the key lessons from Abilitie’s 12- Week MBA curriculum are available in this accessible and engaging guide.
352 pages, Hardcover
Published February 6, 2024
148 people are currently reading
2113 people want to read
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July 2, 2024"The purpose of a company is to create value for a range of stakeholders: investors, customers, employees, suppliers, the community, and the environment.
The value of a company is in the eye of the beholder; the price at which a company is bought and sold is where two people's perception of value overlap, making an exchange possible.
Shareholder value originates in a company's discounted future net cash flows.
The main drivers of stakeholder value are profitability, growth, and risk" (11).
"Profit compensates shareholders for contributing their capital to a business endeavor for an indefinite period. Profit is the difference between the monetary value of sales and the monetary value of the expenses within a given accounting period.
The P&L statement:
--shows the sales achieved and the expenses incurred over a given period, usually a quarter of a year
--Categories expenses according to the purpose they serve
We define different profit levels by including or excluding some of the expenses to answer different questions about the health of a business. The most common levels include gross profit, operating profit, and net profit.
Common-sizing by calculating profits as a percentage of sales--gross, operating, and net margins--allows us to better compare performance across time and between different companies.
Profitability can be increased in two ways:
1. Reducing expenses, for example by negotiating aggressively with suppliers, consuming fewer inputs per unit sold, or improving processes in all the different areas of the business.
2. Creating more value for customers and asking them to acknowledge this value by paying a higher price.
Managerial choices almost always involve trade-offs. Understanding the trade-offs lies at the heart of managing for value" (26).
"Growing sales is the most sustainable way to achieve profit growth.
Companies can try to capture the underlying growth in the markets they currently serve; they can grow by gaining market share or by addressing new markets.
Growth has to be projected, not reported. Projects may or may not come true.
Managers instill confidence in investors by setting appropriate expectations for future performance" (39).
"Companies make future promises to stakeholders--promises usually made in terms of cash flows. Future cash flows are always subject to uncertainty.
Investors feel more anxious the higher the stakes they are playing, and they will feel more anxious when the range of possible outcomes is wide. They value more highly the business opportunities that instill less anxiety.
As managers, our words and actions create and destroy value by raising and undermining investor confidence. Managing for value includes improving the predictability of cash flows, not just their size" (50).
"The balance sheet is a record of past transactions. It displays what the company owns or controls (its assets) and what it owes (its liabilities and equity).
The accounting identity (assets = liabilities + equity) is true by definition. Whatever the company controls, someone ultimately has to claim to it. If the balance sheet is unbalanced, then there must be an accounting error.
The balance sheet embeds a time structure by distinguishing between current and noncurrent liabilities and assets.
The equity value reported in the balance sheet should not be confused with shareholder value.
As a statement of financial position, the balance sheet provides insight into what opportunities and threats loom in the company's future" (68).
"Cash flows and profits are not the same thing.
Cash flow and profits diverge because of timing issues:
--Investment activities may require more cash than operating activities generate in a given period.
--Financing activities may not align perfectly with the cash needs for investment and for shortfalls in cash flow from operations.
--Cash flows from customers may not align well with cash payments to suppliers.
The cash flow statement tracks the cash flows that occurred in a specific period and thereby helps reconcile the balance sheet and the income statement.
Only when used in concert do the cash flow and P&L statements tell the full story about how the company evolved between balance sheet snapshots and reveal many of the company's strengths and vulnerabilities" (76).
"The 'cash flow from operations' portions of the cash flow statement displays information about routine cash flows in a way that is counterintuitive but that helps reconcile the balance sheet an P&L statement.
Trade Working Capital = Accounts Receivable
+Inventory
-Accounts Payable
Positive (and growing) trade working capital makes the company vulnerable to several risks, including
--The need for ever more capital when the company grows
--The threat of customer nonpayment
--The threat of losses due to perished or obsolescent inventory
Negative working capital results when companies collect from customers quicker than they pay suppliers while keeping inventories low. When cash flows in faster than it flows back out, the resulting pool of cash can be deployed to fund growth-oriented investments without the need for other people's money" (92).
"A company's cost structure is the relative weighting of expenses that increase with sales volume (variable costs) and those that do not (fixed costs).
The economic concepts of fixed and variable costs do not match up precisely with the accounting categories reported in the P&L statement.
Cost structure influences a company's profitability as it grows:
--In a high-fixed-cost structure, growth turns into rising profitability, but slow sales quickly lead to losses.
--For companies with high fixed costs, variability in sales tends to lead to even higher variability in profit margins.
--In contrast, a high-variable-cost structure allows companies facing declining or less predictable sales to control costs and maintain profitability but limits the upside.
The breakdown formula tells us how high the sales volume has to be to make up for fixed and variable costs.
Much of the cost structure of a business depends on its business model, but managers at all levels make decisions that affect the company's cost structure" (107).
"The intrinsic value of a company is the sum of its expected future net cash flows, discounted by the cost of capital.
The cost of capital is the minimum return investors demand as compensation for forgoing the risk-free rate they could earn by investing in a safe asset and for the risk that the cash flows will not materialize as expected.
Estimating the cost of capital is an art and a science best left to true experts. The many considerations that flow into it include:
--The typical variability in the sales and profits of the company and its peers.
--The extent and nature of the promises the company has made to all its stakeholders
--Its track record in setting and meeting expectations
--The extent and nature of the company's knowable risks
--Other investors' beliefs about the cost of capital, as revealed in the prices at which they are willing to trade shares" (127).
"As managers, we contribute to value creation in many ways simultaneously, and not always positively. Our actions and decisions involve trade-offs between profitability, growth, and risk.
The insights from company valuation and discounted cash flow analysis can be applied to individual company investment projects that require an up-front outlay of cash in the interest of generating net cash flow over a multiyear horizon.
The fact that much of the intrinsic value comes from the indefinitely projected future implies that the needs of all stakeholders have to be met sustainability and indefinitely as well" (139).
"Markets and management are two ways we try to coordinate the work of specialists in the division of labor, allowing us to achieve much more than we could individually" (148).
"Trust is the foundation of any relationship, and in an organization, the basic building block of trust is the manager-employee relationship.
Trust is built up over time by repeatedly setting expectations and meeting them.
Although senders and receivers share the responsibility for setting expectations, managers shoulder the primary responsibility for modeling what good expectation-setting looks like and for setting the tone of communication.
Day to day, the most frequent arena of expectation-seting will be around tasks. Setting expectations around a task should include clarity about several issues:
--What the outcome will look like and how success will be measured
--When the task needs to be accomplished, and what intermediary steps will be reviewed
--What kind of feedback to expect, and when to expect it
--What support the employee will receive and from whom
--What consequences success and failure will have, individually, for the team, and for the company
Absent contrary evidence, attribute to others the motives you wish they would attribute to you.
Above all, do no harm to trust" (158).
"People managers strive for twin goals that lie in tension with each other:
--Delivering results in the present
--Building capacity to deliver results in the future
Feedback uses present performance to improve future performance. It should be specific and timely, and it should be delivered in an appropriate (private) environment and an appropriate context.
Both praise and constructive feedback can strengthen the manager-employee relationship and can lead to deeper trust.
A framework for feedback is the Center for Creative Leadership's SBI(I) model:
--Describe the specific situation in which the behavior occurred.
--Describe the behavior nonjudgmentally.
--Describe the impact the behavior had on you or on the organization
--Ask the person about their intent with the behavior" (171).
"A sometimes-helpful construct is the Gallup's organization's categorization of engagement:
--Engaged employees go above and beyond their job descriptions.
--Employees who are not engaged do the minimum required to keep their jobs.
--Actively disengaged employees undermine their organization's goals.
People's intrinsic motivators may keep them engaged or at least not actively disengaged.
To avoid demotivating employees, managers should not assign tasks or create a workplace environment that robs people of their intrinsic motivators.
Managers may be able to use intrinsic motivators to their advantage to drive extraordinary individual performance if they do so with great care and respect.
People's motivation may be influenced by their life situation and other circumstances. Common motivators include achievement, autonomy, companionship, mastery, purpose, recognition, security, and status" (187).
"Leaders enable collective action by actively building and nurturing the belief that everyone is working toward a common goal. Life in general and business in particular are full of social dilemmas. As contingent cooperators, we're happy to deliver our contribution as long as we believe that others are doing so, too.
Incentive structures are one possible way to overcome social dilemmas, but they can be costly and vulnerable to being gamed by less scrupulous actors. A company whose managers establish norms of corporation will have a competitive advantage over companies relying solely on incentives.
Anyone can act like a leader, but the most visible you are, the more impact you will have as you
--Communicate the organizational vision
--Model cooperative behavior
--Call attention to and recognize cooperative behavior" (201).
"One of most important and difficult dimensions of coordinating individual activity is collective decision-making.
Organizations structure themselves into interlocking small teams, and these teams form the basic decision-making units.
Under uncertainty, the quality of a decision's outcome is not necessarily an indicator of the quality of the decision-making process.
Good decision-making is about having a process that uncovers false assumptions, that delivers good results more often than not, and whose costs don't exceed the benefits of any option on the table.
Action bias leads teams into the content trap, where they focus on the content of the decision before considering the decision-making process.
Common structural errors in decision-making include
--Misidentifying which decisions are important
--Exploring either too few or too many options
--Failing to aggregate relevant data; spending too much time aggregating data
--Failing to define the mechanism by which the decision is made
--Failing to execute: to follow through with aligned downstream decisions" (214),
"Many organizational coordination problems are similar in getting everyone to drive on the same side of the road. It doesn't matter which side you choose, as long as everyone makes the same choice.
Externally, a company's strategy may help it navigate competitive relationships, but internally, a strategy serves to get everyone driving on the same side of the road. It constrains the number of options for decisions at all levels of the organization.
As teams explore options and predict outcomes, they often fail to take advantage of the ideas and insights of all their members. Rather than find fault with less outspoken team members, teams may be far more productive if they institute procedural solutions to make sure all voices are heard.
Leading a formal structure to a discussion through simple and effective methods like the round robin can ensure that the loudest voices aren't drowning out equally useful but quieter ones" (226).
"Three representative concluding mechanisms for a collective decision are consensus, majority rule, and sole decider.
Each mechanism has its strengths and weaknesses with respect to cost (time and resources), commitment, and accountability.
Different types of decisions may require different decision-making procedures:
--Routine decisions
--Decisions about setting team norms (including decision-making rules!)
--Decisions in the face of unexpected crises and opportunities
When decisions are made according to the established norms, they enjoy legitimacy and team members are more likely to execute the decision with alignment even when they individually disagree with it.
It can be helpful to designate someone as a process guardian to ensure that the team sticks to its norms. That role can be divided and rotated, or it can be assigned to someone from outside the regular team" (237).
"Teams that come to consensus quickly and frequently may be suffering from groupthink. In a state of groupthink, dissenting views on a decision are withheld by people who are afraid of repercussions or simply don't want to disrupt team harmony.
Teams need a certain amount of friction to generate better information and better options and, in the long term, to maintain credibility, internally and externally.
Institutionalizing dissent may help protect teams from groupthink. The devil's advocate is a famous example; in practice, teams are better off sharing responsibility for raising dissent so that no single person faces reputational risk and so that the team doesn't form the habit of discounting that one person's dissent.
Building teams with cognitive diversity helps ensure that diverging views emerge. Hiring for identity diversity--itself a worthwhile goal--may also increase cognitive diversity" (248).
The value of a company is in the eye of the beholder; the price at which a company is bought and sold is where two people's perception of value overlap, making an exchange possible.
Shareholder value originates in a company's discounted future net cash flows.
The main drivers of stakeholder value are profitability, growth, and risk" (11).
"Profit compensates shareholders for contributing their capital to a business endeavor for an indefinite period. Profit is the difference between the monetary value of sales and the monetary value of the expenses within a given accounting period.
The P&L statement:
--shows the sales achieved and the expenses incurred over a given period, usually a quarter of a year
--Categories expenses according to the purpose they serve
We define different profit levels by including or excluding some of the expenses to answer different questions about the health of a business. The most common levels include gross profit, operating profit, and net profit.
Common-sizing by calculating profits as a percentage of sales--gross, operating, and net margins--allows us to better compare performance across time and between different companies.
Profitability can be increased in two ways:
1. Reducing expenses, for example by negotiating aggressively with suppliers, consuming fewer inputs per unit sold, or improving processes in all the different areas of the business.
2. Creating more value for customers and asking them to acknowledge this value by paying a higher price.
Managerial choices almost always involve trade-offs. Understanding the trade-offs lies at the heart of managing for value" (26).
"Growing sales is the most sustainable way to achieve profit growth.
Companies can try to capture the underlying growth in the markets they currently serve; they can grow by gaining market share or by addressing new markets.
Growth has to be projected, not reported. Projects may or may not come true.
Managers instill confidence in investors by setting appropriate expectations for future performance" (39).
"Companies make future promises to stakeholders--promises usually made in terms of cash flows. Future cash flows are always subject to uncertainty.
Investors feel more anxious the higher the stakes they are playing, and they will feel more anxious when the range of possible outcomes is wide. They value more highly the business opportunities that instill less anxiety.
As managers, our words and actions create and destroy value by raising and undermining investor confidence. Managing for value includes improving the predictability of cash flows, not just their size" (50).
"The balance sheet is a record of past transactions. It displays what the company owns or controls (its assets) and what it owes (its liabilities and equity).
The accounting identity (assets = liabilities + equity) is true by definition. Whatever the company controls, someone ultimately has to claim to it. If the balance sheet is unbalanced, then there must be an accounting error.
The balance sheet embeds a time structure by distinguishing between current and noncurrent liabilities and assets.
The equity value reported in the balance sheet should not be confused with shareholder value.
As a statement of financial position, the balance sheet provides insight into what opportunities and threats loom in the company's future" (68).
"Cash flows and profits are not the same thing.
Cash flow and profits diverge because of timing issues:
--Investment activities may require more cash than operating activities generate in a given period.
--Financing activities may not align perfectly with the cash needs for investment and for shortfalls in cash flow from operations.
--Cash flows from customers may not align well with cash payments to suppliers.
The cash flow statement tracks the cash flows that occurred in a specific period and thereby helps reconcile the balance sheet and the income statement.
Only when used in concert do the cash flow and P&L statements tell the full story about how the company evolved between balance sheet snapshots and reveal many of the company's strengths and vulnerabilities" (76).
"The 'cash flow from operations' portions of the cash flow statement displays information about routine cash flows in a way that is counterintuitive but that helps reconcile the balance sheet an P&L statement.
Trade Working Capital = Accounts Receivable
+Inventory
-Accounts Payable
Positive (and growing) trade working capital makes the company vulnerable to several risks, including
--The need for ever more capital when the company grows
--The threat of customer nonpayment
--The threat of losses due to perished or obsolescent inventory
Negative working capital results when companies collect from customers quicker than they pay suppliers while keeping inventories low. When cash flows in faster than it flows back out, the resulting pool of cash can be deployed to fund growth-oriented investments without the need for other people's money" (92).
"A company's cost structure is the relative weighting of expenses that increase with sales volume (variable costs) and those that do not (fixed costs).
The economic concepts of fixed and variable costs do not match up precisely with the accounting categories reported in the P&L statement.
Cost structure influences a company's profitability as it grows:
--In a high-fixed-cost structure, growth turns into rising profitability, but slow sales quickly lead to losses.
--For companies with high fixed costs, variability in sales tends to lead to even higher variability in profit margins.
--In contrast, a high-variable-cost structure allows companies facing declining or less predictable sales to control costs and maintain profitability but limits the upside.
The breakdown formula tells us how high the sales volume has to be to make up for fixed and variable costs.
Much of the cost structure of a business depends on its business model, but managers at all levels make decisions that affect the company's cost structure" (107).
"The intrinsic value of a company is the sum of its expected future net cash flows, discounted by the cost of capital.
The cost of capital is the minimum return investors demand as compensation for forgoing the risk-free rate they could earn by investing in a safe asset and for the risk that the cash flows will not materialize as expected.
Estimating the cost of capital is an art and a science best left to true experts. The many considerations that flow into it include:
--The typical variability in the sales and profits of the company and its peers.
--The extent and nature of the promises the company has made to all its stakeholders
--Its track record in setting and meeting expectations
--The extent and nature of the company's knowable risks
--Other investors' beliefs about the cost of capital, as revealed in the prices at which they are willing to trade shares" (127).
"As managers, we contribute to value creation in many ways simultaneously, and not always positively. Our actions and decisions involve trade-offs between profitability, growth, and risk.
The insights from company valuation and discounted cash flow analysis can be applied to individual company investment projects that require an up-front outlay of cash in the interest of generating net cash flow over a multiyear horizon.
The fact that much of the intrinsic value comes from the indefinitely projected future implies that the needs of all stakeholders have to be met sustainability and indefinitely as well" (139).
"Markets and management are two ways we try to coordinate the work of specialists in the division of labor, allowing us to achieve much more than we could individually" (148).
"Trust is the foundation of any relationship, and in an organization, the basic building block of trust is the manager-employee relationship.
Trust is built up over time by repeatedly setting expectations and meeting them.
Although senders and receivers share the responsibility for setting expectations, managers shoulder the primary responsibility for modeling what good expectation-setting looks like and for setting the tone of communication.
Day to day, the most frequent arena of expectation-seting will be around tasks. Setting expectations around a task should include clarity about several issues:
--What the outcome will look like and how success will be measured
--When the task needs to be accomplished, and what intermediary steps will be reviewed
--What kind of feedback to expect, and when to expect it
--What support the employee will receive and from whom
--What consequences success and failure will have, individually, for the team, and for the company
Absent contrary evidence, attribute to others the motives you wish they would attribute to you.
Above all, do no harm to trust" (158).
"People managers strive for twin goals that lie in tension with each other:
--Delivering results in the present
--Building capacity to deliver results in the future
Feedback uses present performance to improve future performance. It should be specific and timely, and it should be delivered in an appropriate (private) environment and an appropriate context.
Both praise and constructive feedback can strengthen the manager-employee relationship and can lead to deeper trust.
A framework for feedback is the Center for Creative Leadership's SBI(I) model:
--Describe the specific situation in which the behavior occurred.
--Describe the behavior nonjudgmentally.
--Describe the impact the behavior had on you or on the organization
--Ask the person about their intent with the behavior" (171).
"A sometimes-helpful construct is the Gallup's organization's categorization of engagement:
--Engaged employees go above and beyond their job descriptions.
--Employees who are not engaged do the minimum required to keep their jobs.
--Actively disengaged employees undermine their organization's goals.
People's intrinsic motivators may keep them engaged or at least not actively disengaged.
To avoid demotivating employees, managers should not assign tasks or create a workplace environment that robs people of their intrinsic motivators.
Managers may be able to use intrinsic motivators to their advantage to drive extraordinary individual performance if they do so with great care and respect.
People's motivation may be influenced by their life situation and other circumstances. Common motivators include achievement, autonomy, companionship, mastery, purpose, recognition, security, and status" (187).
"Leaders enable collective action by actively building and nurturing the belief that everyone is working toward a common goal. Life in general and business in particular are full of social dilemmas. As contingent cooperators, we're happy to deliver our contribution as long as we believe that others are doing so, too.
Incentive structures are one possible way to overcome social dilemmas, but they can be costly and vulnerable to being gamed by less scrupulous actors. A company whose managers establish norms of corporation will have a competitive advantage over companies relying solely on incentives.
Anyone can act like a leader, but the most visible you are, the more impact you will have as you
--Communicate the organizational vision
--Model cooperative behavior
--Call attention to and recognize cooperative behavior" (201).
"One of most important and difficult dimensions of coordinating individual activity is collective decision-making.
Organizations structure themselves into interlocking small teams, and these teams form the basic decision-making units.
Under uncertainty, the quality of a decision's outcome is not necessarily an indicator of the quality of the decision-making process.
Good decision-making is about having a process that uncovers false assumptions, that delivers good results more often than not, and whose costs don't exceed the benefits of any option on the table.
Action bias leads teams into the content trap, where they focus on the content of the decision before considering the decision-making process.
Common structural errors in decision-making include
--Misidentifying which decisions are important
--Exploring either too few or too many options
--Failing to aggregate relevant data; spending too much time aggregating data
--Failing to define the mechanism by which the decision is made
--Failing to execute: to follow through with aligned downstream decisions" (214),
"Many organizational coordination problems are similar in getting everyone to drive on the same side of the road. It doesn't matter which side you choose, as long as everyone makes the same choice.
Externally, a company's strategy may help it navigate competitive relationships, but internally, a strategy serves to get everyone driving on the same side of the road. It constrains the number of options for decisions at all levels of the organization.
As teams explore options and predict outcomes, they often fail to take advantage of the ideas and insights of all their members. Rather than find fault with less outspoken team members, teams may be far more productive if they institute procedural solutions to make sure all voices are heard.
Leading a formal structure to a discussion through simple and effective methods like the round robin can ensure that the loudest voices aren't drowning out equally useful but quieter ones" (226).
"Three representative concluding mechanisms for a collective decision are consensus, majority rule, and sole decider.
Each mechanism has its strengths and weaknesses with respect to cost (time and resources), commitment, and accountability.
Different types of decisions may require different decision-making procedures:
--Routine decisions
--Decisions about setting team norms (including decision-making rules!)
--Decisions in the face of unexpected crises and opportunities
When decisions are made according to the established norms, they enjoy legitimacy and team members are more likely to execute the decision with alignment even when they individually disagree with it.
It can be helpful to designate someone as a process guardian to ensure that the team sticks to its norms. That role can be divided and rotated, or it can be assigned to someone from outside the regular team" (237).
"Teams that come to consensus quickly and frequently may be suffering from groupthink. In a state of groupthink, dissenting views on a decision are withheld by people who are afraid of repercussions or simply don't want to disrupt team harmony.
Teams need a certain amount of friction to generate better information and better options and, in the long term, to maintain credibility, internally and externally.
Institutionalizing dissent may help protect teams from groupthink. The devil's advocate is a famous example; in practice, teams are better off sharing responsibility for raising dissent so that no single person faces reputational risk and so that the team doesn't form the habit of discounting that one person's dissent.
Building teams with cognitive diversity helps ensure that diverging views emerge. Hiring for identity diversity--itself a worthwhile goal--may also increase cognitive diversity" (248).
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 4, 2024
Good groundwork but didn't feel like MBA material. Fast read.
April 30, 2024
Summary:
It involves creating substantial value for shareholders, customers, employees and society at large with shareholder value at the core, driving profitability, growth and effective risk management. Financial fundamentals, including understanding balance sheets, cash flow, working capital and cost management, are crucial for assessing and guiding a company's financial health and sustainability. The process of valuation and value creation is key to determining a business's worth and strategizing for growth.
This includes employing discounted cash flow analysis to evaluate projected financial health and making strategic decisions to enhance shareholder value. When it comes to building and leading successful teams, effective leadership and the ability to motivate and manage people are central. Cultivating trust, setting clear expectations and providing impactful feedback are essential skills. An emphasis on trust, collaboration and mutual support sets the stage for transforming decisions into action and achieving business success.
It involves creating substantial value for shareholders, customers, employees and society at large with shareholder value at the core, driving profitability, growth and effective risk management. Financial fundamentals, including understanding balance sheets, cash flow, working capital and cost management, are crucial for assessing and guiding a company's financial health and sustainability. The process of valuation and value creation is key to determining a business's worth and strategizing for growth.
This includes employing discounted cash flow analysis to evaluate projected financial health and making strategic decisions to enhance shareholder value. When it comes to building and leading successful teams, effective leadership and the ability to motivate and manage people are central. Cultivating trust, setting clear expectations and providing impactful feedback are essential skills. An emphasis on trust, collaboration and mutual support sets the stage for transforming decisions into action and achieving business success.
April 30, 2024
This book is perfect for the personal mba shelf - it offers a distilled essence of an MBA program, highlighting critical insights and actionable strategies to elevate your leadership and management skills. Gets 3/5 because I think the team and leadership info was generic, outdated, and forced.
Notes:
- Shareholder value, defined by the potential future net cash flows a company can generate, remains central. Managers must master financial metrics to align decisions across the organization with the goal of holistic value creation.
- There are three things to consider when driving shareholder value: profitability, growth, and risk management. Profitability, the foundation upon which value is built, comes from the delicate balance between revenues and expenses. Strategies for enhancing profitability often involve making operations more efficient, innovating products and services to command higher prices, and judiciously managing costs without compromising the quality or value delivered to customers.
- value creation, encompassing the expansion of sales through both organic and inorganic means
- Organic growth, like nurturing a tree from its roots, focuses on increasing the volume of sales by attracting more customers or encouraging existing ones to purchase more. Inorganic growth – more like the grafting of a new branch onto an existing tree – often involves mergers and acquisitions to rapidly expand the customer base and enter new markets.
Financial health:
- Understanding and managing a company’s financial health requires a deep understanding of several key areas – specifically balance sheets, cash flow, working capital, and cost structures.
- Balance sheet - Think of this as a financial snapshot, showing what a company owns – assets – versus what it owes – liabilities and equity – at a specific point in time. This lets stakeholders gauge a company’s stability and liquidity.
- Cash flow - distinguishes between operating activities, investing activities, and financing activities, highlighting the company’s ability to generate cash, invest it wisely, and finance its operations. Unlike profits, which can be influenced by accounting practices, cash flow provides a more tangible measure of a company’s financial performance and its immediate health.
- Working capital - focuses on the day-to-day financial operations of a company. It involves managing the balance between a company’s short-term assets and liabilities. Efficient management of working capital ensures a company has sufficient fluidity to meet its short-term obligations and invest in growth opportunities.
- Valuation is a lens through which companies assess their potential to grow and prosper in competitive markets. It involves understanding how every aspect of a business, from subscriber growth to strategic decisions, contributes to its perceived value in the eyes of investors and the market at large. Netflix’s experience illustrates the volatility of market valuation and the need for businesses to continually adapt and innovate to maintain and enhance their value.
Notes:
- Shareholder value, defined by the potential future net cash flows a company can generate, remains central. Managers must master financial metrics to align decisions across the organization with the goal of holistic value creation.
- There are three things to consider when driving shareholder value: profitability, growth, and risk management. Profitability, the foundation upon which value is built, comes from the delicate balance between revenues and expenses. Strategies for enhancing profitability often involve making operations more efficient, innovating products and services to command higher prices, and judiciously managing costs without compromising the quality or value delivered to customers.
- value creation, encompassing the expansion of sales through both organic and inorganic means
- Organic growth, like nurturing a tree from its roots, focuses on increasing the volume of sales by attracting more customers or encouraging existing ones to purchase more. Inorganic growth – more like the grafting of a new branch onto an existing tree – often involves mergers and acquisitions to rapidly expand the customer base and enter new markets.
Financial health:
- Understanding and managing a company’s financial health requires a deep understanding of several key areas – specifically balance sheets, cash flow, working capital, and cost structures.
- Balance sheet - Think of this as a financial snapshot, showing what a company owns – assets – versus what it owes – liabilities and equity – at a specific point in time. This lets stakeholders gauge a company’s stability and liquidity.
- Cash flow - distinguishes between operating activities, investing activities, and financing activities, highlighting the company’s ability to generate cash, invest it wisely, and finance its operations. Unlike profits, which can be influenced by accounting practices, cash flow provides a more tangible measure of a company’s financial performance and its immediate health.
- Working capital - focuses on the day-to-day financial operations of a company. It involves managing the balance between a company’s short-term assets and liabilities. Efficient management of working capital ensures a company has sufficient fluidity to meet its short-term obligations and invest in growth opportunities.
- Valuation is a lens through which companies assess their potential to grow and prosper in competitive markets. It involves understanding how every aspect of a business, from subscriber growth to strategic decisions, contributes to its perceived value in the eyes of investors and the market at large. Netflix’s experience illustrates the volatility of market valuation and the need for businesses to continually adapt and innovate to maintain and enhance their value.
April 30, 2024
"The 12-Week MBA" by Nathan Kracklauer and Bjorn Billhardt offers a condensed yet comprehensive guide to mastering essential business and leadership skills without the need for a traditional MBA program. The book distills the core concepts of managing numbers and leading people into actionable strategies that can be implemented in just 12 weeks.
The authors emphasize the importance of understanding financial fundamentals, which extend beyond profit maximization to include creating value for all stakeholders. They discuss the significance of profitability, growth, and risk management in driving shareholder value, highlighting strategies for enhancing each aspect.
Financial stability is another key focus area, with discussions on balance sheets, cash flow analysis, working capital management, and cost structures. These elements are crucial for assessing a company's financial health and guiding its strategic decisions.
Unlocking a business's value involves valuation and value creation strategies, such as Discounted Cash Flow analysis, to determine a company's worth and identify opportunities for growth. Strategic decision-making plays a vital role in enhancing shareholder value and aligning business initiatives with broader objectives.
The book also delves into the human element of team leadership, emphasizing the importance of trust, clear communication, and effective feedback in building high-performing teams. Understanding individual motivators and fostering a cooperative culture are key to maximizing team potential.
Finally, the art of leadership and decision execution is explored, highlighting the role of leaders in guiding teams toward shared success through effective communication, role modeling, and decision-making processes.
Overall, "The 12-Week MBA" offers a comprehensive guide to mastering essential business and leadership skills, providing actionable strategies for success in today's dynamic business landscape.
The authors emphasize the importance of understanding financial fundamentals, which extend beyond profit maximization to include creating value for all stakeholders. They discuss the significance of profitability, growth, and risk management in driving shareholder value, highlighting strategies for enhancing each aspect.
Financial stability is another key focus area, with discussions on balance sheets, cash flow analysis, working capital management, and cost structures. These elements are crucial for assessing a company's financial health and guiding its strategic decisions.
Unlocking a business's value involves valuation and value creation strategies, such as Discounted Cash Flow analysis, to determine a company's worth and identify opportunities for growth. Strategic decision-making plays a vital role in enhancing shareholder value and aligning business initiatives with broader objectives.
The book also delves into the human element of team leadership, emphasizing the importance of trust, clear communication, and effective feedback in building high-performing teams. Understanding individual motivators and fostering a cooperative culture are key to maximizing team potential.
Finally, the art of leadership and decision execution is explored, highlighting the role of leaders in guiding teams toward shared success through effective communication, role modeling, and decision-making processes.
Overall, "The 12-Week MBA" offers a comprehensive guide to mastering essential business and leadership skills, providing actionable strategies for success in today's dynamic business landscape.
March 19, 2024
This is a good book for basic concepts of business and/or for a refresher for those who have gotten their MBA many years ago. The authors have used their teachings in corporations supplemented by simulations and exercises. I think having those experiences would make the teachings here more powerful -- because to learn about how to run a business and lead an organization is more than understanding the mechanics, principles and concepts. It requires critical thinking, relationship building, managing through conflict and power dynamics, managing diverse stakeholders and keeping your eye on the financials. So if the authors are implying that this is a cheaper, more efficient alternative to getting a MBA - then they are overlooking the critical intangibles you also get by immersing yourself in a program with other students who have different experiences and perspectives than you as well as faculty who will challenge you and push you outside of your comfort zone. But if this book is intended to supplement as opposed to replace a MBA, as I mentioned above, it is a good refresher or foundation for basic business and organizational concepts.
Thank you to Netgalley and Hachette Books for an ARC and I voluntarily left this review.
Thank you to Netgalley and Hachette Books for an ARC and I voluntarily left this review.
April 20, 2024
Developed around the premise that the fundamentals of a traditional MBA curriculum can be distilled into two main parts: 1) effective management & 2) financial literacy, the 12-Week MBA manages to capture the core of business accumen and delivers each concept with clarity, relatability, and a thoroughly engaging tone throughout. The examples included within, whether analyzing real-world case studies or exploring hypothetical scenarios ("Imagine you are the owner of a taco truck...") help to drive these concepts home in memorable (and often humorous) fashion. The authors' combined experiences and gifted communication style keeps the impressive breadth of material within a surprisingly accessible range (including for those readers who, like myself, do not have any prior background or formal business training). For my money, I'd highly recommend this book to anyone considering an going to school for an MBA or simply to anyone who is curious to develop a better sense of business/management.
January 16, 2024
The 12-Week MBA is a must read if you are in a corporate environment or involved in any type of business across any industry. It is immensely helpful to understanding the inner workings of a company and why things happen the way they do (both from a financial and people perspective). It's also written in a very digestible way so that even if you never had a financial background (me!), you are provided with easy examples and breakdowns to grasp the key takeaways. It answered a lot of questions I've had throughout my career of being in a room and not understanding why certain decisions are made or even what a TCV is! This isn’t solely for those focused on business though, as the book unlocks deeper revelations that can help you do your job better whether collaborating with different people, departments or communicating with senior executives and stakeholders.
January 22, 2024
This book is a concise survey course in how to operate as a manager, including an elegant breakdown of complex, "math-y" topics. It gives a clear explanation of often-misunderstood ideas like shareholder value, risk, and growth, and does it all with a sense of humor that makes it easy to keep reading. The book starts with the part many business books gloss over -- the numbers -- before moving on to the "soft" skills of people management, using the former as a foundation for the latter. Highly recommended for anyone interested in becoming a more well-informed manager who can make intelligent decisions.
January 22, 2024
I think this book is excellent, really, especially for the not-insignificant number of folks who might be thinking of an MBA, but will not fall into the miniscule fraction of students who will be at institutions that are very likely to lead directly to career advancement. I definitely intend to recommend this to any advisees who cross my desk and mention that they are considering (but are not 100% committed to) an MBA.
In particular, I think the organizational structure (the poets/quants split) works well. I also appreciate the extent to which the authors included, but communicated in a straightforward way, relevant research and psychological phenomena
In particular, I think the organizational structure (the poets/quants split) works well. I also appreciate the extent to which the authors included, but communicated in a straightforward way, relevant research and psychological phenomena
April 30, 2024
In the 12-Week MBA by Nathan Kracklauer and Bjorn Billhardt, you've learned that mastering the business world extends far beyond simple profit maximization. It involves creating substantial value for shareholders, customers, employees and society at large with shareholder value at the core, driving profitability, growth and effective risk management. Financial fundamentals, including understanding balance sheets, cash flow, working capital and cost management, are crucial for assessing and guiding a company's financial health and sustainability. The process of valuation and value creation is key to determining a business's worth and strategizing for growth.
March 29, 2024
This is an excellent book if you are looking for digestible and practical advice on how to be a productive manager. With a little bit of delightful humor baked in, this is an easy read that will leave you with lots to ponder and new skills to apply to the workplace! Highly recommend for anyone looking to take their career to the next level.
January 9, 2025
The 12-Week MBA is not a conventional MBA book. It is differentiated by the way it extracts vital elements of an MBA curriculum to help learners lead in business without the cost implications that come with it. If you are someone interested in leading people and understanding the financial aspects of running a business, this book will definitely address your concerns. I highly recommend the book!
January 17, 2025
Excelente libro.
Perfecto para quienes dirigen sus propios negocios como yo para familiarizarse con la gestión empresarial. Parte desde lo más básico a lo avanzado, dando definiciones de los términos y explicando con ejemplos entendibles y aplicables.
Está escrito para que sea fácil consultar el tema que necesites en cualquier comento.
Perfecto para quienes dirigen sus propios negocios como yo para familiarizarse con la gestión empresarial. Parte desde lo más básico a lo avanzado, dando definiciones de los términos y explicando con ejemplos entendibles y aplicables.
Está escrito para que sea fácil consultar el tema que necesites en cualquier comento.
October 1, 2025
I got it as an investor looking to understand the fundamentals. I wanted a full understanding of the financial terms that I only half understood.
I got that and more. Very up to date, pulls examples from recent business news and the post pandemic workspace. Recommend for investors, entrepreneurs, and managers.
I got that and more. Very up to date, pulls examples from recent business news and the post pandemic workspace. Recommend for investors, entrepreneurs, and managers.
January 7, 2025
Great overview of fundamental business concepts! Presented in a very readable and digestible way, the authors help readers come away with a better sense of how companies truly operate and how to talk to the different personas that make companies tick.
April 24, 2025
Considero que es una buena guía principalmente para las personas que están comenzando en los negocios, administración y finanzas , si tú ya eres una persona con conocimientos en estos rubros no lo leas es demasiado básico !! no es malo pero te aseguro que ya te sabes la mayoría de los temas
March 11, 2024
Did this as an Audible, and wished I would have read instead. Rapid fire content I would have loved to re-read and marinate on. Is 48 too old to go to grad school, because this book made me want to:)
April 7, 2024
Very good book for a business owner. Has some common sense basic accounting info as well as critical thinking ideas like building relationships and putting profit first. I enjoyed it.
September 3, 2024
This book further convinced me of the absolute uselessness of an MBA, so, thanks I guess?
Currently reading
November 25, 2024just need to know more about business ig
February 21, 2025
Chock full of business wisdom
June 5, 2025
Makes learning from a textbook style easy and quick. Very high level but very applicable concepts to real world business
November 29, 2025
Lo doy por terminado habiendo llegado al capitulo 15. Me recordó que los estados financiero están conectados entre sí.
Evidentemente, lo volveré a estudiar.
Evidentemente, lo volveré a estudiar.
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