The Visual MBA: A Quick Guide to Everything You’ll Learn in Two Years of Business School

by Jason Barron

Learn an entire MBA course without spending thousands and waving goodbye to two years of your life.

If you want to succeed in business then an MBA programme is the best way to build expertise, knowledge and experience. But an MBA programme at any top school is an enormous investment in time, effort and money. In The Visual MBA, Jason Barron offers a radical solution, explaining all key business school concepts through illustrations.

When Barron started his MBA course, he decided to draw all his notes so that other people could benefit from them. And it's a good thing he did, because research shows that more than 65% of us are visual learners and that our brains process illustrations 60,000 times faster than text.

From Marketing, Ethics and Accounting to Organisational Behaviour, Finance, Operations and Strategy, The Visual MBA distils the most important principles of an MBA into an accessible, informative and easily-digestible guide.

Jason Barron is a product manager and illustrator who helps people realise their creative ideas through visual learning. He spent 516 hours in class and countless hours studying at home completing his MBA. Along the way, rather than taking notes that he would never read again, Jason created sketchnotes for each class and has turned them into an interesting and engaging resource so that you don't have to sit through another class again!

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Management, Self Help, Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Economics

289 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 16, 2019

Reviews

[☘Misericordia☘ ⚡ϟ⚡⛈⚡☁ ❇️❤❣]

I'm not persuaded that this oversimplification / visual approach is the best there is. Anyway, DNF-ing this one pretty early.

Plus: Nice graphics.
Minus: I sort of don't see the point of learning common sense things.

[Erin Weigel]

Correction: 10 stars.

I think some of the people poo-pooing this book misunderstand its purpose and/or don’t like the fact that things they consider to be complex (yet are also kinda common sense) can be distilled and understood on a superficial level. By making this kind of content more accessible and engaging to not-your-typical-MBA-student, the sketch-note “author” removes some elitism associated with business school and/or academia.

I’d be curious to see how some people would respond to the same content but with refined diagrams instead of cartoons and with slightly different design and framing.

That said, I think the subtitle of the book needs refined to better set people’s expectations when they read it, and ultimately—when they review it.

It’s a “quick guide” to everything you’ll learn in business school. It’s not just “everything you’ll learn in business school”. For some reason people miss the “quick guide” part.

That’s my review of other people’s reviews.

Anyway, as a designer/creative who has a deep interest in business and now has well over a decade of proper work experience, I’m exactly the target audience.

So, if you have better learning recall from visual mental cues, this book is for you.

This book is perfect jumping-off point to learn more—it’s not meant to be an exhaustive resource. It’s a great refresher to flip-through—it’s meant to capture high-level themes and most valuable frameworks to remind you to use them.

He even points out at the end that “70% of learning is experiential”. So, give it a read—go try some of concepts, misunderstand them, fail, try again, and actually learn.

Side note:
Did anyone else notice in the back of the book he thanked his wife for not complaining once as he attended an MBA program for years while raising their FIVE children? If there’s a hero in this story, it’s definitely her.

[Ishan Korde]

This book is probably best suited for those who have already done a MBA course and want to use this as a reference material. For everyone else, this book offers little to no value in my opinion. While the sketch-notes are pretty, the book does not go into the details for any of the business concepts. While I obviously was not expecting this to be a substitute for an MBA course, I did not expect to be reading a glorified table of contents.

[Thanawat]

ผมจะเก็บหนังสือเล่มนี้ไว้ ไม่ยกให้ใครอย่างแน่นอน

หนังสือเล่มนี้ เป็นหนังสือที่บรรจุ “สรุป” แนวคิด หลักการ เนื้อหาของหลักสูตร MBA ที่ใช้ภาพ ตัวย่อ อักษรช่วยจำ และการบรรยายประกอบสั้นๆ ที่ครอบคลุมทุกหัวข้อของหลักสูตรเลยก็แทบจะว่าได้ ไม่ส่าจะเป็น ภาวะผู้นำ, แนวคิดด้านการตลาด, การบริหารทรัพยากรบุคคล ฯลฯ เข้าใจว่าผู้เขียนใส่ลงมาอย่างครบถ้วนในหนังสือเล่มบางเฉียบ

ทั้งๆ ที่เป็นหนังสือสรุปหัวข้อของ MBA แต่ผู้เขียนก็ได้สร้างความเป็น originality ของตัวเองขึ้นมาผ่านการ shortnote ด้วยภาพกับคำอธิบายสั้นๆ ซึ่งบอกได้เลยว่ามันให้ความรู้สึกเหมือนยืมสมุดโน๊ตวิชา MBA ของเพื่อนที่จดเก่งจดเทพมาอ่านยังไงยังงั้นเลย

เนื้อหาในแต่ละหัวข้อจะสั้นมาก เน้นภาพกับคำอธิบาย concept สั้นๆ เป็นหลัก
แทบจะไม่มีตัวอย่างมาให้เห็นเลย ซึ่งสำหรับเนื้อหาระดับ MBA การใช้ตัวอย่างอธิบายจะช่วยให้เข้าใจ concept ได้มากขึ้น

แน่นอนว่าหนังสือเล่มนี้เป็น “สรุป” จึงบอกเลยว่าเหมาะกับผู้ที่ผ่านการเรียนหรือการอ่านเนื้อหามาบ้างแล้ว เพราะผู้เขียนใช้รูปเป็นตัวดึงดูดและสร้างความเชื่อมโยงกับเนื้อหาโดยการใช้รูป เพื่อหวังให้มัน imprint ลงไปในสมอง มากกว่าจะบรรยายแบบอรรถาธิบายอย่างละเอียด ดังนั้น ถ้าไม่เคยเข้าใจเนื้อหาในเรื่องนั้นๆ มาก่อน คิดว่าค่อนข้างยากที่จะเข้าใจอย่างลึกซึ้ง แต่ถ้าคุณเคยผ่านตาเคยอ่านมา รับรองว่าการจำด้วยภาพมันช่วยได้แน่

[Melody Warnick]

Gleaned some useful info, but there's a reason MBAs take two years and not a few hours.

[Fred Forbes]

Packed is the word! Distilled to the essence is the result. Quick read due to the diagrams and illustrated notes.

As an MBA holder, I must admit he covers the topics fairly well, but as in many things, the devil is in the details. And frankly, doing the assignments is what really leads to a level of comfort and understanding so no book of notes will ever replace that.

Still, a useful guide for those who wish to "hold their own" in basic business discussions but who have no desire to get bogged down in scholarly academic writings. The book also makes one appreciate the use of real life case studies common to most MBA programs and the interaction among the students of various specialties that tend to mimic real life interactions.

[Midori]

Cuốn này là tổng hợp sơ lược nhất các đầu kiến thức sẽ được học trong ngành Quản trị kinh doanh, bao gồm các môn Quản trị - Tài chính - Marketing. Các kiến thức sẽ được thể hiện bằng hình minh hoạ theo style sketchnotes, nên trực quan và rất dễ hiểu.

Cuốn này phù hợp để tổng hợp và liên hệ các đầu kiến thức trong QTKD với nhau, hợp nhất là các bạn sinh viên bắt đầu học ngành này và các bạn mới bắt đầu tìm hiểu ngành, để tổng hợp và visualize kiến thức chính.

Nói chung kiến thức khi vào học sẽ rất chi tiết và đi theo mảng miếng, để kết nối các mảng kiến thức này lại với nhau thì bạn cần một cái nhìn bao quát và tổng hợp kiến thức kiểu như thế này.

[roxi Net]

I loved this book -- as I try to get motivated to get my master's degree (preferably in Library Science), I've been debating on MBA. Just the thought of going back to school makes me tear my hair out. Why can't there be more books like The Visual MBA where we can read, take a test, and be done with it all? It's a great resource (I just wish it came with a degree).

[Sara]

The book is clearly not a replacement for an MBA program, but it is a good refresher on common frameworks and topics. Having earned an MBA from a top program, I prefer some of the models specific to my professors, and I got more in-depth and useful critical thinking structures from my classes, but many of the basic "must know" items are covered decently here (e.g., Porter's Five forces, Steve Blank's entrepreneurship process, 4 Ps of marketing). What's missing is application, examples, and the stories, cases, and simulations that help these concepts stick. The visuals are nice, but it's hard to internalize these tools until you've used or practiced them. This is especially true with networking and leadership principles - and therein lies the real value of an MBA. It's a 1-2 year laboratory where you can try on new ways of thinking, behaving in teams, and approaching problems. If you really want to maximize the value of this or any similar business book, get together with friends or coworkers and put this knowledge into practice.

[Rahul]

Such a good book, surely not detailed, but the illustrations are brilliant, at times teaching more than business, teaching about life. Surely a good starter for any MBA aspirant.

[Mike Kowis]

The best way I can describe The Visual Mba is a book of simple drawings that depict some of the basic concepts that are covered in an MBA program. The drawings are very simplistic, but seem to do the job as far as relaying the basic concepts. I don't know that these drawings give enough details to be particularly useful, other than as a nice way to introduce the concepts to the reader and give the reader opportunities to dig deeper via additional research. In that respect, this book does seem helpful.

The aspect about this book that I enjoyed the most was reading the concepts and being able to recognize some of the concepts (e.g., processes to identify the business's target audience, select a successful product/service that meets the needs of the target audience, create an effective incentive plan to motivate and measure employee performance, etc.) being used in the corporate world today (based on my experiences as an employees of a fortune 500 company).

If you are looking for a high level overview of the basic concepts covered in an MBA program, this book is a good start. However, the book alone is no substitute for an actual business degree and should be supplemented with additional resources that go into greater details of the covered concepts.

[Erica]

Who knew an MBA could be this fun? Jason Barron has turned what’s usually a textbook marathon into a doodle-filled joyride. As someone who also sketches to learn, I found this super engaging—suddenly, formulas and frameworks I’d usually gloss over felt approachable and even enjoyable.

It's a great crash course if you want to get the big picture without diving into a hundred PDFs. I’ll definitely come back to it for quick refreshers—but for the real deep-dive stuff, I’ll need backup.

[Chanh Nguyen]

After reading Visual MBA, I wished I read this earlier, don't agree with these dimension in depth. However, It's a fantastic combination ever that you have a full picture of how to run a business, become GM. It reminded about my favorite quote:

“Thinking is difficult, that’s why most people judge.” ― C.G. Jung

Leadership
Corporate Financial Reporting
Entrepreneurial Management
Managerial Accounting
Business Finance
Marketing
Operations Management
Strategic Human Resource Management
Business Negotiations
Strategy
Business Ethics
Entrepreneurial Finance
Judgment and Decision Making
The General Manager’s Role
Strategic Thinking
Creativity and Innovation
Startup Marketing Essentials
Performance and Incentives
Global Management”

[Eric]

Fun read, though important to be realistic about what can and can’t be gleaned through this format. I was hoping for more of a cheat sheet, but instead found it to be closer to an appetizer sampler…the concepts discussed in the book are not only lean on examples, and explanations, but also on detail/nuance (e.g. no mention of depreciation in the chapter on financial reporting). It was helpful for mapping concepts to course names for in-depth, however, and is very fun/consumable.

[Michael Wolcott]

Unique idea that aligns well with visual thinking and combines a large amount of information succinctly. The book itself takes only about 1-1.5 hours to read. The downside of the visual aspects is it did not allow for too much depth in the information so it feels like major principles were missing or that it would be difficult to apply without sufficient understanding.

[Jason Smith]

A good reference material. It's like reading the powerpoint slides for various lectures covered in the span of an MBA's coursework. The inclusion of course numbers by some of the sections is superfluous unless you're attending the same institution as the author. Overall it achieves its purpose.

[chaw]

Overall : Learnt very very superficially. May be just some business terms.

Not for a beginner learner in business which I was.

Some chapters are confusing to me which I only binge read for those.

Very few I can apply.

(Review : Honest and Personal)

[Omar El-Mohri]

Very nice approach where you get right to the idea, I think this is mostly for people who are already familiar with the business world and want to have a quick overview than maybe going deeper into ideas when needed, but for someone who is not, he will be mostly lost

[Querube Panamá]

Buena guía visual, pero general y aveces confusa. Sin detalles de los conceptos y con ejemplos básicos

[Edde Jansen]

2.5 ⭐️ I liked reading about some business concepts I was not yet familiar with, but overall a bit disappointed about the quality of the visualisations and various frameworks/acronyms used for explaining business concepts. Obviously it would/should not serve as a substitute for a MBA education, but given that I tend to learn best through visualisations and examples, the visualisations in this book were in my opinion not always that auspicious to understanding/memorising the concept (they could also simply be in bullet list formats or have made some key words bold), and most of the chosen ‘insights’ and their acronyms/description seemed rather obvious instead of valuable for someone who previously never really took business courses or anything of that sort.

[707 unknown]

Tựa Việt: MBA bằng hình

mình nghĩ tác giả hơi liều và xứng đáng lãnh gạch đá khi tuyên bố là cuốn sách bao hàm 2 năm MBA

mình nghĩ những kiến thức này thì giỏi lắm là 1 học kỳ đầu thoi

nhưng again thì cũng là một reminder cho việc nhiều khi MBA cũng chẳng quá ghê gớm gì hơn là việc bạn có cơ hội hệ thống mọi thứ và back to basics

cơ mà nếu newbie non xanh như mình đọc còn thấy hơi nông, sách kiểu mỗi thứ lướt qua một chút thì k ngạc nhiên nếu những veteran cảm thấy khó ở sau khi đọc xong cuốn sách. nhiều người rõ ràng sẽ kỳ vọng MBA đem tới một tư duy sâu sắc và ở tầm cao hơn để giúp họ điều hành và xử lý các vấn đề kinh doanh hiệu quả hơn so với trước, và mình nghĩ cuốn này đã k đáp ứng được điều đó

[Dejan Pekter]

Interesting overview of MBA program, but without previously being at least informed on the topics covered it would be pretty hard to follow.

Since I’m visual learner, this book definitely delivers on that field. Graphics are creative and beautiful, some pretty hard concepts are illustrated very simply.

Structure of program gets lost from time to time, and I was like: this doesn’t belong here.

I really liked some of the frameworks mentioned here, so I definitely learned something new in this book.

[Ioannis Apostolou]

Δεν είναι το MBA σε εικόνες, είναι η εισαγωγή στην διοίκηση επιχειρήσεων 1ου έτους σε σχολή άσχετη με τα οικονομικά με εικόνες.

Δεν είναι κακό βιβλίο για κάποιον ή κάποια που δεν ξέρει τίποτα σχετικά με επιχειρήσεις (από άρθρα, podcast, μάθημα σχολής). Αλλά ο τίτλος είναι αρκετά παραπλανητικος θεωρώ.

[Daniel]

If you expect to learn anything, skip this book. Like others have said it's more like a glorified table of contents for an MBA program. I honestly don't understand why anybody would consider this a useful book, even just as a reference collection. It must be the shallowest title I've ever "read".

[Matt Jackson]

Awful, truly awful. Terrible book with ridiculously poor descriptions. Imagine reading an MBA Students note book that dont make any sense. Well thats how this book is. Dont waste your money and time on this.

[Reyhan Ismail]

Sebuah panduan praktikal yang berisi seluruh ringkasan ilmu manajemen wirausaha MBA. Seperti memasuki rumah, buku ini seperti lanskap yang berisi gambaran visual materi yang diajarkan dalam sekolah bisnis. Karena bersifat lanskap, tentu saja sifatnya masih selayang pandang. Tapi setidaknya, buku ini berhasil membangkitkan rasa penasaran untuk mendalami ilmu bisnis lebih jauh lagi.

[Sinta Zaiyan]

Cocok untuk awam yang ingin mengenal proses berbisnis, mulai dari personal branding, pemilihan produk, neraca keuangan sampai performa dan manajemen perusahaan. Semua dijabarkan dengan visual yang menarik dan memudahkan untuk dipahami.

[alfred]

Really good. Chewed through it. Will return to this for reference heaps.

[Spencer]

Lots of nice, helpful info, but could use more concrete examples.

This is my WHOLE MBA, Jason!

[Alex Boyd]

Financial stuff was good, rest was very meh