Ahead of the Curve: Two Years at Harvard Business School

by Philip Delves Broughton

Two years in the cauldron of capitalism-"horrifying and very funny" (The Wall Street Journal)In this candid and entertaining insider's look at the most influential school in global business, Philip Delves Broughton draws on his crack reporting skills to describe his madcap years at Harvard Business School. Ahead of the Curve recounts the most edifying and surprising lessons learned in the quest for an MBA, from the ingenious chicanery of leveraging and the unlikely pleasures of accounting, to the antics of the "booze luge" and other, less savory trappings of student culture. Published during the one hundredth anniversary of Harvard Business School, this is the unflinching truth about life in the trenches of an iconic American institution.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Education, Biography, Economics, Memoir, Management

316 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

I grew up in England, graduated from Oxford University and was a journalist for ten years for The Daily Telegraph and The Times of London. I was The Telegraph's bureau chief in New York and Paris before going to Harvard Business School in 2004 to obtain my MBA. I now live in Connecticut with my wife and two sons."

Reviews

[Stuart Nachbar · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have read four “insider” accounts of life at top business schools, three written by Harvard MBAs, the fourth by a Stanford graduate. I read two of these: Peter Cohen’s The Gospel According to Harvard Business School and Peter Robinson’s Snapshots from Hell about the Stanford experience prior to going to business school. I read the third: Robert Reid’s Year One: An Intimate Look Inside Harvard Business School five years after I finished my MBA. Now I’ve read Philip Delves Broughton’s Ahead of the Curve, the first 21st century inside account of life in the Harvard fishbowl.

These inside accounts all share these things in common: criticism of school administrations and over-extensive commentary on the rigors of a demanding full-time education at a top business school. All Harvard stories also talk about the case method, where all material is taught through applied “real world” and fictional problems.

Broughton, however, takes things a little further than I expected. He spends more time talking about the quality of his classmates and a surprise networking opportunity from working among them. He gets the chance to present a business plan for an education and media podcast site to Boston and Silicon Valley venture capitalists through a classmate’s connections, though he fails to get funding.

Formerly a New York and Paris bureau chief for the London Daily Telegraph, Broughton constantly reminds readers that he is not the typical Harvard Business School student. He entered Harvard with ten years experience in journalism and a young family. His only previous business experience was a short stint in telemarketing. His journalist accomplishments and a 750 GMAT get him into Harvard, but he explains that students with prior experience in consulting or investment banking have a big leg up in the job search. Broughton is the first insider to write that he fails to find a summer internship or a permanent job offer at graduation. He did not find Harvard to be a springboard to a career change, though he learns to think like an entrepreneur.

However I sense that Broughton might have learned more from the experience than his classmates. He shows concern when guest speakers, successful financiers, entrepreneurs and chief executive officers, talk about work-life balance when their scales tilt too far towards work. He envisions a life where he is comfortably successful in business and as a family man. Then again, he is one of the few family men in his class.

Near the end of Curve, Broughton mentions that Harvard is considering admitting fewer students over 30 and rethinking its attitude towards admitting recent college graduates. The average student is 28, and too many come from the two-year analyst programs in investment banking and consulting; so, this is hardly a diverse student body. My hunch is that Harvard will continue to take very few recent college graduates, but will listen more closely to the recruiters. If more employers want candidates with banking and consulting experience, then Harvard will try to become a better matchmaker.

I did not earn my MBA from Harvard, though my experience was equally positive and negative. Like the Harvard students, I experienced some of the best and worst teaching I’d ever seen in my life. I had teachers who were very kind and wanted us to learn as well as those who just showed up. I also enjoyed the case method; it was in all of my marketing courses. However, there was one important difference: I worked at least part-time over the full two years. I needed the income and equally important, I needed business experience. Like Broughton, I did not come from business, consulting or banking. And I knew I would not get any work experience sitting in classrooms all day. Harvard does not appear willing to arrange such experiences for the students who need them the most, though it pushes expensive MBA study abroad programs at extra cost.

I strongly recommend Curve to anyone considering business school. Unlike the other inside stories, Curve shows that the intense full-time experience may not benefit everyone. Harvard and its kin all admit very bright people, and they graduate a little smarter than they started. However, it has become a much riskier investment for anyone contemplating a career change or wanting to start their own business.

[Jan-Maat]

A nice little memoir of the author's time spent studying for a Harvard MBA before the recent financial crash.

The author's experiences are for me summed up by two anecdotes in particular. The teaching of leveraging up a company with debt not as a strategy that can be pursued in certain circumstances but as a universally right answer and appropriate course of action; and the course taken jointly with the Kennedy School taught by Michael Porter when the MBA approach of being profit focused runs up against doing what is best for a business environment, the economy as a whole and the society that has to endure the consequences. And then you think that the graduates on release from captivity will roam free for up to forty years with attitudes more appropriate to an earlier age of golden entrepreneurship practised extensively throughout the Spanish Main.

However when it turns out that many of the wealthier students bought expensive new cars in order to reduce the cash in their current accounts to qualify for hardship funds (or equivalents thereof) that the school is only reflecting the values of the society in which it operates.

Judging by the teaching and studying style alone those values look to me to be horrific, with the curve grading and marks awarded for performance in class. No space here for contemplation and the development of knowledge, just a struggle to reach the top quartile. It is a long way from the author's folk memory of his Grandmother running a cinema in Rangoon. You get a sense of how it is a manner of study that encourages the brash, the arrogant, the certain, and the loud.

When in pursuit of being brash, arrogant and loud one student gets drunk and urinates on their neighbours door they apologise, apparently unironically, by saying that their moral compass had gone haywire resulting in a regrettable property damage incident. This they are obliged to put in writing and send out to the whole student body. A form of public penance that makes me think of Maoist China, or perhaps some peculiarly intense church in which the believers strives to be considered to be among the Elect. At the same time given that former US President Bush II was a graduate it puts some political discourse in a different light.

Considering the inputs the wonder is that things aren't considerably worse than they appear to be at present. But on an optimistic note perhaps the worst is still to come.

Some mild references to business concepts are included, but the faint hearted need not be frightened of them, this is an engaging and readable memoir.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

If I didn't work at HBS I wouldn't have touched this book with a 10 foot pole. But I do work at HBS and I know many of the players mentioned in this book and I was there for the stir this book created when it was released. Needless to say the institution was less than thrilled. However, I found the narrator, whose writing a memoir of his experience as a HBS student, very credible and honest. He's willing to admit his own flaws and his own struggles as much as he is willing to expose the perceived fault of his classmates, teachers and ultimately the institution that is HBS. I also felt a tinge of self defense as it feels like he's trying to prove to someone how much he learned in business school. Perhaps it is his classmates who took high paying jobs after graduation while he struggled to find work, clearly an embarrassment for him. Or perhaps it was the faculty or his family or his former journalism colleagues. I'm not sure who it is but his description of the subject matter of the classes, the hard core business principles, felt to me like he needed to show that the experience was worthwhile.

If you read this book you must do so with an understanding of the lens through which this person saw HBS, a 30+ married father (with 2 kids by the time he graduates from the 2 year program) who left a journalism career of significant substance at the London Telegraph to attend business school. This lens is much different than that of a 26 year old who enrolls in HBS after a few year working on Wall St. There is clearly a clash of world views within the classroom at HBS and he certainly falls in the minority as he is surrounded by younger, less mature peers who are closer to their halcyon college days and aren't afraid to act that way. Being a little older prove a challenge when surrounded by the hunger and drive of younger peers who are striving to earn enormous salaries out of the gate.

Also involved in the clash of world views is the idea of "selling out", sacrificing your personal life to make huge money. This is probably the true crux of the book. Despite countless CEO's and Alumni who come into the classroom and stress the idea of protecting your personal life because the money that big business offers is not worth the sacrifice of not watching your kids grow up, many of the students at HBS ignore the warnings and head for the high salaries anyway. This life couldn’t be painted clearer to the students yet most head off to earn hundreds of thousands of dollars and to 90 hour work weeks anyway. This theme came up again and again and the author clearly fell in the minority as he struggled to find a path that would allow him to use the business education he was getting while also being a visible father and husband.

By the end he realizes it is one or the other, commitment to family and personal life or commitment to career; it can’t be both. How much HBS creates and cultivates the culture of selling out is up to us to decide? The author clearly feels one way. His younger peers likly feel another way. I'm not sure HBS does anything more than provide a means by which the students can reach the goals they set out to reach in the first place. It seems that no matter how much you tell them that wealth does not provide the ideal lifestyle they think it does, they still are going to lead their lives toward it anyway. HBS simply brings out in them their best by pushing them and allowing them to live up to their potential.

The true irony to me is that HBS is a wonderful place to work. Employees are encouraged to find a work-life balance that works for them. In fact, resources are available to HBS employees to facilitate the work-life balance. So while many of the students in the classroom shun this balance for money despite being warned about the sacrifices they will be forced to make, the staff that supports the institution itself is actually encouraged to find and sustain it.

[مشاري الإبراهيم · Rating 4 out of 5]

هذا الكتاب رائع جدًا لكل من يفكّر في داراسة ماجستير إدارة عامّة (MBA) وأيضـًا لكل من أخذ هذه الشهادة ويود أن يتعرّف على التّجربة من زاوية أخرى.

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يحكي الكاتب عن تجربته التي امتدت لسنتين في جامعة هارفرد (HArvard). يفصّل فيها عن البيئة الطلابية والطريقية التدريسية والترتيبات الإدارية في هذه الجامعة. فيحكي عن اختلاف خبرات الطلبة، ووجود بيئة طاغية لهم في نفس الوقت.وأيضـًا يحكي في هذا الكتاب عن طريقة هارفارد المعروفة بـالـ(CASE METHOD) المبنية على تقمّص دور شخصية قيادية في شركة ومناقشة مشكلته المطروحة. كما يبيّن كيفيّة تعامل الإدارة الجامعية مع الأحداث المستجدّة. وإليكم نبذة مختصرة مع تقييمي للكتاب:

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.البيئة:

يصف الكاتب الطلبة بأنهم أتوا من بيئات مختلفة وكيف أنّ لهم خبرات مختلفة أيضـًا إلا أنه يتحفّظ على بعض الأمور. يقول أنه برغم أن الجامعة تقول أن 30% من الطّلبة من دول أخرى (International students) إلا أنهم في الحقيقة يعتبرون غربيين لأن أغلبهم درسوا وترعرعوا في الولايات المتّحدة أو الغرب.

كما يصف بعض الأحداث الغريبة في الجامعة تعكس البيئة التنافسية الشديدة هناك، حيث أن أحد الطلبة كان يُكثر من السؤال في الصّف، فجاءه طالبٌ آخر وهدّده بتعليقه في وسط قاعة المحاضرات إن عاود وأبدى رأيه! وهذه النوعية من الطلبة الذين “يفترسون” الطلبة الآخرين في الجامعة يلقّبون بالقروش (Sharks).

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طريقة التّدريس:

هنا تتغيّر نبرة الكاتب ويتحدّث فيها بطريقة أكثر إيجابية. يعتقد الكاتب أن الـ(case method) -الذي يضع الطالب كل يوم في مكان قائدٍ ما لشركة ما- يوجد لديهم نوع من الأريحية في التعامل مع المشاكل التي قد يواجهها الشاب في المناصب القيادية. ولذلك -يقول الكاتب- طلبة هارفارد لهم قدرة ممتازة على القيادة.

في الجهة المقابلة، يقول أن هيئة التدريس يخلتفون في طريقة تعاملهم حيث أن بعضهم فيهم نوع من الكبر (على حد وصفه) ممّا صعّب عليه مهمّة تحويل فكرته التجارية إلى شركة حقيقية. إلا أنه أيضًا يقول أن هناك محاضرين في قمّة الذّكاء والنّباهة وأن لهؤلاء أثر كبير جدًا عليه وأنهم أضافوا إضافة نوعية لمعلوماته وقناعاته وتوجّهاته.

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الإدارة

الجميل في إدارة هارفاد أنّهم صارمون عندما يتعلّق الأمر في أي قضية أخلاقية. يحكي الكاتب قصّة أحد ز��لائه الذي أفرط في شرب الكحول ومن ثم تبوّل على عتبات أحد البيوت المجاورة للجامعة. عندما علمت الجامعة أمرته أن يكتب رسالة اعتذار يعترف فيها بفعلته ويبدي أسفه فيها، ومن ثم تم إرسال الرسالة إلى جميع طلبة ومنسوبي الجامعة!!

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أيضًا من الأمور المختلفة التي تقوم بها الإدارة هي استشارة طلبتها بخصوص أي تغيير نوعي في إدارتها. إلا أنها لا تتعدّى استشارة في كثير من الأحيان وأن الإدارة تفعل ما تراه صوابًا بغض النظر عن رأي الطلبة.

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كلمة أخيرة:

الكاتب يحكي العديد من القصص والطرائف التي تعكس وتصف الجامعة وبيئتها، فيها قصص إيجابية وأخرى سلبية. بشكل العام يبدو أن بيئة هارفرد مختلفة كما هو الحال في كثير من الجامعات الرّائدة. وهذا الاختلاف قد يكون مميز أو سيء بناءًا على شخصية الطالب وتفاعله مع هذه البيئة. الكتاب فرصة نادرة لمن يريد معرفة الجامعة من الدّاخل. كتاب جميل جدًا مكون من 283 صفحة قرأته في يوم واحد. تقييمي: 7 من 10.

[Vaishali · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of those rare books where no amount of note-taking does justice to the actual account. In fact, the only reason it clicked hand-in-glove with me is because I was surrounded by its denizens for a decade. A look into the lives of the few and the privileged... the gilded gates into The Network, where upon entry & graduation, your life is basically set.

Random notes:
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“The banks, I heard someone say authoritively, tended to have huge short-term liabilities, otherwise known as the money in their customs accounts - which could be withdrawn at any time. And similarly, huge amounts of receivables, or loans made to its customers. For banks, loans are assets, while the money it holds for its customers is a liability.”

“The usefulness of decision trees depends on the accuracy of your probabilities, but the idea is not to find certainty, but to deal more comfortably with uncertainty - to find hand-holds however tenuous in the otherwise sheer rock-face in financial decision-making.”

“Study groups were pitted against one another in a mock financial negotiation. The subject was the acquisition of a tractor company. My side was the potential acquirer. We met into the night, preparing our strategy, trying to decide what we could get away with paying… In our group, the military guys took charge and turned out to be convincing liars and brutal tacticians. We did very well.”

“Francis Frye said now that we were at Harvard, the professors were at our disposal. They would help us to learn and build businesses. They would even help our children get into HBS if needed.”

“We were expected to craft our own best-self portraits by answering the following questions :
* What situations or contexts encourage your best self to emerge?
* What keeps you operating at your best more of the time?
* Are there certain contexts you can put yourself in to maximize your potential?"


“I had overheard students sharing jokes about Excel shortcuts and macros, a way of programming certain buttons on your computer to form calculations that come up again and again.”

“It turns out that finance is about one thing : valuation. How do you put a price on an asset? From that basic question flows everything else.”

“Inventory, as we would learn again and again, is a dirty word in business, and the less you have of it, the better.”

“The rest of the semester would be devoted to this one task : forecasting cash flows. It was the root of valuation…”

“The word leadership lurked in every corner of HBS… Every club position, no matter how menial, carried the title of vice president… Everyone at HBS, it seemed, could be a leader of one sort or another.”

“As venture capital has become institutionalized, the people in it have become less and less venturesome. Those who visited campus were overwhelmingly male and either white or Asian… a hardened monoculture… They enjoyed sitting in judgement, looking terribly pleased with themselves, to the point where all you wanted to do was slap them to life and demand they do something.”

“By the end of the summer, I had completed the first draft of (a) book. It was entrepreneurship, of sorts. After spending the past year struggling with work and feeling incompetent, it felt wonderful doing something on my own terms again and reconnecting with life before business school.”



Bonus Notes : How $$$ Works High Up The Food Chain :
---------------------------------------------

“Whereas ordinary mortals talk about debt as a burden that requires relief, bankers talk about the discipline of debt and the wonder of 'juicing the returns.'

Take two different companies. Each one has assets worth $1000. The first has funded its assets with $800 in borrowed money, and $200 in equity from investors. Lets say the interest rate on the borrowed money is 10% and the tax rate is 50%. Each year the $1000 in assets produce $200 in operating profits; $80 goes to pay interest on the debt, which the government allows you to charge as an expense. Of the remaining $120, $60 goes to pay taxes, an the remaining $60 goes to the equity holdrs. For their investment of $200, the equity holders receive an annual return of 30%.

Now imagine the same company in which all the assets were funded with equity. They produce the same $200 in operating profits. There is no interest payment; $100 goes to pay taxes, leaving the equity holders with $100, a 10% return. Which would you rather have? A 30% return or a 10% return? Juiced or not juiced?”


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[CatReader · Rating 4 out of 5]

In his memoir Ahead of the Curve, British journalist Philip Delves Broughton thoughtfully recounts his 2 years in the mid-00s as a full time Harvard MBA student. Broughton, seeking a career change, entered the Harvard program at the apparently advanced age of 32, making him one of the oldest people in his class, which he found filled with "the three Ms (Mormons, military, and McKinsey)." While most of his classmates made bank with their Harvard MBAs and subsequently took jobs at financial services, consulting, or technology firms (or went back to their countries of origin as their Harvard degrees had more cachet there), Broughton left with his diploma, six figures of debt, and no job lined up, having self-selected away from conventional paths and continuing to be skeptical about the merits of capitalism. As a rare MBA student with a partner and young kids at home, he was also wary of taking on an intense job that would compromise his ability to be a hands-on father and husband.

It appears in the almost twenty years since his MBA graduation, Broughton returned to journalism and writing, having authored several books besides this one.

As someone who already has several graduate degrees but plans on getting an executive MBA (one that's completed while continuing to work one's "day job") in the near/mid-term future, this was an interesting, provocative read. I've known many people who've completed MBAs, and it seems like those that benefit from them most a) already know what they plan to do with their degree when they start, and ideally have their current organization on board, and b) see one of the biggest assets to the degree being the alumni network they cultivate through the program, especially if they plan to stay in the same geographic area and/or job industry as others in the network.

My statistics:
Book 6 for 2025
Book 1932 cumulatively

[Deepak Imandi · Rating 1 out of 5]

I never wanted to abuse on Goodreads or at-least that's what I decided when I joined Goodreads. But, what the f*king bullSh*t book is this! Everything is so descriptive and no insights what so ever. Glad I realized after reading just 30 pages and then turned some random pages like 100, 130, 180, etc to see if it fits the pattern or not. Very Very annoyed by the book. Strongly recommend anyone with common sense, NOT TO READ the book.

[Aichi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some good quotes to summarize why I like this book:

Hank Paulson:

“Professional happiness would come from being very good at something difficult.”

“The victors are those who made change their friend. (1) Resist the temptation to be a short-termist; (2) Be honest with yourself about what jobs are the right ones for you; (3) Keep your moral compass; (4) Maintain the proper balance between your professional career and your personal life. Do not be career-engineers, but simply learn and grow at every opportunity.”

“Do the right thing and be seen to be doing the right thing.”

“Resist group-think and peer-pressure, that often makes good people do bad things.”

“No company was going help us with balance. We had to learn how to say no, and how to juggle our schedules to make time for our families, friends, and private pursuits.”

Philip Delves Broughton (the author):

“Measuring oneself against one’s friends or peers can only lead to misery; because always, in some area of life, there will be someone doing better than you. It is the misery of the curve.”

“HBS is not about getting a job; it is about putting in a structure for a more interesting life.”

“I thought by this point in my life, I would have more answers; and that by continuing to drift and agonize and wonder, I was letting a lot of people down.”

“Find a world-class tribe and stick with it.”

“If I kept searching with the education I had, it was well within my grasp.”

His straight-shooting buddy Justin:

“If you want to change the world, get on a f---ing plane to Darfur. HBS is about making money. Most of us, like everyone else in business, we talk about it (doing good) because it makes us feel better…..how many people in our class wrote in their applications that they wanted and MBA to do micro-finance in Uganda, and are now going into investment banking?”

“Business needs to relearn its limits. HBS needs to let some air out of its own balloon.”

His banker HBS-mate Cedric:

“HBS, is a factory for unhappy people. We have so many choices, and yet so few people seem happy about that. It just makes them anxious, and more anxious, then they make terrible decisions for their lives.”

His fashion industry HBS-mate:

“You have to be kind of risk-averse to go to HBS. The whole thing about the network and the transformation is for people who want to minimize in their lives when they go after opportunities.”

His entrepreneur Russian HBS-mate Oleg:

“You should never consider yourself the smartest guy in the room.”

“People can be annoying, but it is still worth listening.”

“If you are not sure what you want to do, or if you want to win some time to get some options, consulting opens some doors.”

[Mallika Saharia · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pretty accurate depiction. Of my first sem atleast

[Vismay · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a prospective B-school student, eager to devour the course content of the Harvard Business School, this book comes as a boon. Because it does just that, giving a blow-by-blow account of the curricula of this prestigious institute. But if somebody were to ask me to write such a book, I would readily decline. If you wish to explore Europe, go out and do just that, why study the itinerary under a microscope? That too a one, whose lens are smudgy.

The author is too judgmental and pessimistic for me to completely believe in the validity of his claims. Sample this: The author wants better monetary prospects. He enrolls in a HBS Program. He discovers, he is not ahead of the curve. He starts seeing dark lines under the eyes and sad faces of the super-successful equity investors and consultants. People who aren't encouraging of his entrepreneurial bend of mind, are stupid. Those who are smarter than him, are unethical. Everyone except himself, is a hypocrite. He doesn't land an internship, nor a job - not because something might be lacking in him (maybe, a drive!), but because Industry doesn't want people with varied backgrounds.The Indians and Chinese are competitive son-of-bitches. The Americans are over-optimistic buffoons (such fakers!). Me. Me. Me. Me. Me...

Maybe, HBS does not churn out tomorrow's leaders. But it does the next best thing. The author might do well to own up his own life.

While I didn't like the tone of this book, which I felt was too subjective and critical, I felt that this book did have an important life-lesson to offer. The work-life balance takes the center-stage in this book, and rightly so. But that doesn't mean that all bankers and consultants are sad working their mad hours. If you want to earn an outrageous sum of money, you have to work hard! In the end, you have to decide what you want. But the usefulness of the book ends there.

In conclusion, grapes are sour. Let's fling dirt at Harvard Business School. So, shovel up the shit. We have to paint the town, brown!

[Kristiana · Rating 2 out of 5]

I usually enjoy elitist pretentious books, so I was surprised when I didn't really enjoy this book. I went through a lot of "what does it all mean. What will I do in my life as a career?" during and after college. A lot of it. I guess this book helped me see that I'm no longer in that place. I had little sympathy for the British native who decided to get his MBA from Harvard and then struggled with not knowing what to do with his future. It seems like a first world problem.
Relevancy and timing may have something to do with my hesitancy toward this book. It was published in 2008, and discusses classmates going to be hedge fund managers and stock brokers. The market changed so dramatically in 2008 it leaves me wondering what has changed for the MBA students at Harvard since then. I find the more I read nonfiction the more relevancy plays into how I receive a book. Does it still matter? What has changed since the book was published? Reading fiction, I rarely ran into this problem.
The string of successful businessmen touting the importance of family is ironic and comes across as an ominous warning. There seems to be a level of discontent in success. Family, personal life and success in business come across as mutually exclusive. The hubris of the Harvard Business class is ironic and leaves the faint impression of a morality play.
I doubt this book has kept or will keep anyone from pursing their dreams of attending Harvard Business School or entering a career they have their eye on, but it allows the author to use his experience to further his goal of being with his family. Which seemed to be the point all along. He is the hero that escaped the draw or financial success for success' sake, and chose his family.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

(3.5) What it's like inside Harvard Business School (for someone who's not well prepared)

Just prior, I read The Idea Factory: Learning to Think at MIT, which is a similar project (though Idea Factory is MechE masters student experience at MIT, this one's MBA student experience at Harvard). I think I liked the MIT one better, but both were good about sharing actual problems, interview questions, case studies, so it felt more concrete.

The first half of this one is pretty good, the narrative moves forward, we're learning a lot. Then he kind of just goes adrift once he starts interviewing for (and failing to secure) a job. He dwells a lot on the fact that everyone at HBS is trying to get rich, and some are just more honest about that than others.

Makes me confident in my decision not to go to business school though. Maybe it'll have the same effect on you.

[Carolin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very personal account of two years at Harvard doing the MBA course. It explains some of the courses he is attending, some of the teachers and the different kinds of people attending the courses.

I really enjoyed it becasue PDB gives the course a human tone. For instance the courses are teaching all the management, acocunting and operational skills there are, to the extent that you forget that the numbers are actually real people who work in the company with families and dependencies and the word restructuring means making people redundant and impacting on their livelihood.

There is some Harvard bashing involved, however he always points out that he loved the experience and learnt a great deal. It is a good book that supports the idea that you should stick to your values and don't give in to the herd instint (in an interesting and not self-help style)

[Sophia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I truly enjoyed the first half of the book. It reminded me greatly of my own time at a business school. I was pondering when the author would stop descriptions and tell us already what he really thought of the experience. The second half was full of moralising yet still without a distinct feeling of authors actual position on the matters discussed.
It wasn't until the last pages, that I grew disappointed with ugly double standards.
Worth the read, nonetheless.

[Michael Folse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Busy season = Over. Books = Back. I inevitably failed in my pursuit of balancing reading and working. I was temporarily bested by the institutional beast manifest in arbitrary audit deadlines, but dammit there’s no time for excuses! We must continue onto my review for the book you didn’t know I was reading.

I first and foremost declare this book as a sham, as I did not obtain the knowledge that accompanies a Harvard MBA just by reading this book. That disappointment aside, a very interesting book indeed, and one that surprised me with its perspective. Phil was a big dog journalist type of dude who decided to attend Harvard Business School with no business background (something that’s non-traditional, but not crazy uncommon). He talks about how delirious and fascinatingly pretentious some of the program’s students are, as well as the institution of Hardvard itself at times. Bro knew he was spitting every time he recalled and subsequently shat on classmates who moaned and complained about how much they despised their pre-MBA corporate jobs which required 80+ hours/week from them, yet returned to those same or similar jobs after graduation because that bag just too juicy. Mega plot twist though, Phil sort of finds himself entrenched in the same career philosophies and idiosyncrasies as his once seemingly annoying and maniacally career-driven peers, hoping for and grasping at any job with social prestige that would accept him— a task at which he somehow fails, despite his class’s ~98% job placement by graduation. In the end, though, Phil seems like the real winner because he seems content with his family, career, and life as a whole — one that is devoid of abusive work environments and inhumanely demanding schedules. Though a harsh critic at times of the program, institution, and all of the accompanying flaws, he still proclaims the personal value in becoming an MBA.

On a personal level, I am Phil, but less smart and would get spit on if I applied to Harvard. I like to laugh at how preposterous corporate hedonism is and how silly its disciples are, yet Good Reads and my sweet sweet books have evaded me for 4 months straight because of “work.” You’ll have to subscribe to my service (friendship, it’s free) if you’d like to hear more. Thanks love you

[Rachel Wong · Rating 4 out of 5]

Move over, cost-benefit analysis; make way for humanity! Some of my (possibly inaccurate) notes and questions for this compelling book:
1. Finance — Focus on alpha (disregarding risk + making the right investments) and risk-adjusted returns instead of beta.
2. Accounting — Accounts / inventory / revenue (inc creativity / innovation / processes) are not economic truth, but the way to it. Debt can be leveraged to gain access to more assets and future profits.
3. Marketing -- Aim for the best marketing plan for your company instead of that in the world (eg. Walmart).
4. Negotiations — Be three dimensional negotiators — understand penalties and interests both at the table and away from it.
5. Strategy — Consider barriers to entry, supplier power, customer power, substitutes, and rivalry in capturing value. Strive for competitive advantage (gap between cost and what consumers are willing to pay) through continuous innovation and improvement (eg. Ford).
6. Leadership — Can leadership be taught? Is business the proper medium through which to teach it? How do we consider both formal (salary and hours) and psychological contracts (expectations) in leading a company? How can we treat humans as assets instead of costs?
7. Corporate accountability — How can businesses serve moral purposes and work with governments in policy development? Assess the quality of economic environments, and seek and develop countries’ competitive advantage.
8. ⁠Entrepreneurship — How do we pursue opportunity with the very scarcest of resources? How do you compose and sequence steps (eg securing funding, pitching, recruiting)?

[Whitney Sheng · Rating 2 out of 5]

Insufferable.

[C.G. Fewston · Rating 4 out of 5]

What They Teach You at Harvard Business School: My Two Years Inside the Cauldron of Capitalism (2008) by Philip Delves Broughton was originally published without a Postscript and under the American title Ahead of the Curve: Two Years at Harvard Business School (not to be mistaken for Brian Kenny’s 2016 book for baseball lovers called Ahead of the Curve). The Postscript for Philip’s book was added in 2009, after the economic catastrophe, and the title was changed in the United Kingdom and elsewhere outside of the United States.

Harvard Business School (HBS) was established in 1908 with its Roman motto “Veritas,” Latin for “Truth” and represented by a young virgin in white.

HBS has, however, had its problems with the truth and was criticized in the Bloomberg article called “A Harsh View of Harvard Business School” (July 11, 2017) written by Barry Ritholtz, who cites Duff McDonald, author of The Golden Passport: Harvard Business School, the Limits of Capitalism, and the Moral Failure of the MBA Elite (2017), who explained: “One of the most vaunted institutions in America—Harvard Business School—is not only a ‘failure’ but positively ‘dangerous.’”

Philip also has something important and damning to say about Harvard Business School (HBS) and he says it defiantly in the Postscript of his book:

“A financial era ended in the summer of 2008, one built on the availability of credit and the ability of an ingenious elite to exploit it. This elite consisted of investment banks, private equity firms and hedge funds…

“Throughout these weeks and months of crisis, the Harvard Business School’s alumni were exactly where the school wanted them to be: in positions of leadership. They were the President of the United States [George W. Bush, class of 1975], Treasury Secretary [Henry Paulson, class of 1970], head of Securities and Exchange Commission [Charles Christopher Cox, class of 1977], CEOs of banks and senior partners in investment firms.

“Which begs the question: what exactly had Harvard been teaching them?

“I realize now that they should have been unsettling to everyone: the narrow thinking, the greed, the disinterest in politics, the contempt for the non-business world and, most of all, the complete unwillingness to accept responsibility for its mistakes” (p 284-285).

He does, however, provide clues to why he is so critical later on in the Postscript:

“I felt two things,” Philip explains. “The first saw how privileged we were to see the world as Harvard MBAs. The brand was stronger than I had ever imagined. The second was how weird this perspective was…

“Instead of being part of society, the MBA überclass seemed to exist apart from the rest of the world, with its own set of standards. You needed to yank hard to get its attention” (p 120).

Philip is not alone when he calls HBS a place disconnected from the rest of the world, one that is pure and good and honest and forthright:

“A friend who had visited Baghdad’s Green Zone said that Harvard Business School felt eerily familiar. Whatever hell befell the rest of Iraq, the Green Zone was made luxurious with palm trees, swimming pools, and functioning electricity. Its occupants cocooned themselves from the unfolding horror so that they could focus on the broader mission of rebuilding a country. So, too, HBS smacks of an ivory tower, cut off from the world outside” (p 50).

One commenter named “Adam,” however, wrote about the Philip’s book at Goodreads.com on September 15, 2008:

“If I didn’t work at HBS I wouldn’t have touched this book with a 10 foot pole. But I do work at HBS and I know many of the players mentioned in this book and I was there for the stir this book created when it was released. Needless to say the institution was less than thrilled…

“Also involved in the clash of world views is the idea of ‘selling out’, sacrificing your personal life to make huge money. This is probably the true crux of the book… This theme came up again and again and the author clearly fell in the minority as he struggled to find a path that would allow him to use the business education he was getting while also being a visible father and husband.”

Recruiters also share Philip’s assessment of the low quality produced by Harvard and HBS:

“A Wall Street Journal poll had just come out ranking Harvard number thirteen. Numbers one and two were the business schools at the University of Michigan and Carnegie Mellon, respectively. Harvard’s low rank was in large part due to the negative opinions of recruiters, who had told the newspaper that HBS MBAs were ‘arrogant,’ with a ‘sense of entitlement’ and ‘ego problems’” (p 85).

The negative opinion of Harvard students, MBAs or otherwise, is no surprise to anyone who has ever met someone who graduated from Harvard—the real pretentious type who fail to listen closely to the conversation and ends up saying she’s never heard of the University of Southern California (Yes, that happened). A graduate of Harvard University and a nonfiction professor in the Writing Program at Columbia University, this same woman wore fishnet stockings and a tight miniskirt the night New York Times Bestselling novelist Andre Dubus III, author of House of Sand and Fog (1999), came to visit the hotel (the young woman later became a columnist for the New York Times Sunday Book Review). She’s also the daughter of a respected economist who teaches at the University of California, San Francisco (the irony is too rich sometimes), and the father is also a Harvard alumni, having received his Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University under Kenneth Arrow; the father also has a sister who taught at Harvard University in 2002. As they say, “Keep it in the family.”

Nepotism and the lack of a moral compass run wild among the Harvard alumni. Empathy, to say the least, is a byword for these Harvard pseudo-intellectuals who attend the university more for the “brand” and for the “networking” the university offers than for a real, honest education.

“Harvard was a brand as much as a school,” writes Philip, “and by attending, we were associating ourselves with one of the greatest brands in business. We were now part of an elite, and we should get used to it. I struggled with this idea. It seemed so arrogant on the part of the school, and somehow demeaning to those of us who had just arrived. Regardless of who we were when we arrived, or what we might learn or become over the next two years, simply by being accepted by HBS, we had entered an überclass. It was HBS, not anything that came before it, that conferred the ‘winner’ tag on all of us…

“They would even help our children get into HBS, if needed. It was a brutal acknowledgment of the legacy admissions system, whereby the children of alumni are preferred, and it immediately set me thinking: How many in this room were here simply because someone had pulled strings?” (p 20)

As you read you will begin to see a pattern of corrupted ideology forming, and it isn’t the good kind. It’s the kind that believes in the saying, “the second mouse gets the cheese,” meaning: have others work hard while one person reaps the rewards and fruits of labor (i.e., steal from those who do honest work). The kind of ideology that says, “Ask for forgiveness. Don’t ask for permission.”

One day at Harvard Business School (which seems to be taught mostly be immigrants from countries like Australia, India, Turkey, etc.), Philip encounters the following scene:

“During coffee breaks from Crimson Greetings, I had noticed how many of the class seemed to know one another or at least know people in common. The networks of certain universities and companies ran very deep. For those like me, who knew no one, it was a question of drifting through the crowds” (p 24).

Philip has more to say on the “networks” (i.e., favoritism through personal connections and not through merit or hard work) at HBS:

“I also met up with Vera, a Chinese woman who had emigrated with her husband to Silicon Valley and had worked for a large technology firm… ‘I hate all this stuff about the network and relationships and being able to bullshit in front of other people,’ she said. ‘That’s what we’re being trained to do. That’s not what Chinese immigrants think business is. We think it’s about good ideas and hard work’” (p 116-117).

There’s more:

“For some companies, especially the top-tier banks, private equity firms, and hedge funds, if you did not spend the summer with them you had no chance of working for them later” (p 132).

And more:

“His story was one of seizing opportunity, gathering resources, and deploying them. He knew the right people to finance him and help create and sell the game… We were taught to organize our thinking according to POCD, people, opportunity, context, deal” (p 177).

It is Einstein and Gandhi, in the end, who have the most to say about education and learning:

“At the end of our course, [Paul A.] Gompers presented us with two quotations, the first from Einstein: ‘One should guard against preaching to young people success in the customary form as the main aim in life. The most important motive for work in school and in life is pleasure in work, pleasure in its result, and the knowledge of the value to the rest of the community.’ The second was from Gandhi: ‘Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever’” (p 177).

Albert Einstein and Mahatma Gandhi.

Yes, they knew a thing or two, and neither one graduated from Harvard.

[Robyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, I think this book is a good description of one person's experience at HBS. Like all memoirs, this is a tale of one person's experience, formed by his own expectations, personality, and mindset. HBS, like everything else in life, if what you make of it.

I don't agree with many of the author's opinions - I had a great time at HBS despite entering with the lowest of expectations and serious dread of spending 2 years surrounded by arrogant a**holes, and I enjoyed the digression back to junior high/college since, like many of my classmates, I was too serious and focused the first time around to enjoy those carefree days - but he has every right to them and I can assure you that there are others who agree whole-heartedly with his points.

There is a scene in the book in which he describes sitting in his Section room first year when, after class, several member's from the previous year's section come in under the guise of discussing a serious issue. Eventually, all members of the previous years section enter the room and a rowdy period of practical jokes, teasing, and part planning ensues.

To be perfectly honest, I was one of the people from the old Section who was there during that scene. Yes there were some people who looked dour and annoyed (the author amongst them, I'm sure) but the majority of people were laughing and enjoying themselves. HBS, and especially first year, can be extremely intense and it's moments like these that can help break the tension, form bonds, and remind everyone that we're not actually the CEO of the business in crisis, we're just students trying to learn something.

HBS is far from perfect, there are people who embody the evil stereotype, the school goes overboard in reminding everyone who special and brilliant they are, and it's hard not to eventually believe the hype and develop an attitude of arrogance and entitlement. But, after 2 years, you get spit back out into the real world and are left with your normal attitude (i.e. the one you entered HBS with) and a lot more knowledge, friends, and memories

[Khánh Trình · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cốt lõi của quyển sách là tác giả không hề thích môi trường học tập ở Havard sau 2 năm ông học tập ở đây. MBA không chỉ là một con đường bạn buộc phải đi nếu như muốn học cách kinh doanh (ngay cả Havard danh tiếng vẫn không chắc chắn sự thành công cho bạn, tất cả vẫn phải phụ thuộc vào việc bạn có đủ đam mê và kiên nhẫn không). Thực tế người kinh doanh giỏi thường không học lý thuyết suông, họ phải kinh doanh thực sự thì mới rút ra bài học thành công cho mình.

Bên cạnh đó tác giả cũng phê bình lối sống chạy theo lợi ích vật chất của các sinh viên MBA sau khi tốt nghiệp, để rồi họ phải gặp bất hạnh vì không cân bằng giữa gia đình và công việc. Điều mâu thuẫn nữa ở đây là dù học MBA nhưng họ lại không tự kinh doanh riêng. Các sinh viên sau khi tốt nghiệp hầu như đều đi làm thuê cho những công ty lớn.

Tuy vậy, tôi vẫn khuyên các bạn những ai có ý muốn đọc quyển sách, cũng như có ý định học MBA vào một ngày không xa, vẫn nên kiên định với điều mình chọn. Tuy không thực tiễn và mang nặng tính lý thuyết, nhưng việc học vẫn có lợi ích đặc biệt, nó đem lại cho các bạn một tư duy hệ thống rõ ràng và cách giải quyết vấn đề cụ thể, hoạch định chiến lược mang tầm vĩ mô hơn. Bạn không phải mất nhiều thời gian để tự tìm hiểu vì kiến thức giờ đã trong tầm tay, tiết kiệm được nhiều thời gian nghiên cứu, chưa kể đến việc bạn còn mở rộng được nhiều mối quan hệ có thể có ích cho việc khởi nghiệp của riêng các bạn sau này.

[Daisy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Harvard certainly is not how I imagined it to be after I read this book. I found that it gives me hope as much as disappointment. I feel hope because apparently I can be Harvard MBA students' boss if I can. It does not really matter which college you are truly from, so many Harvard MBAs are having hard time finding jobs at google, yet my high school friend who is currently in pursuing of her San Diego State University Business bacholar degree is able to get the job with google. Just because you are from Harvard doesn't make you successfully. It really matters who you are. You learn a lot, certainly, but would you really give up your morals and life for a job that gives you a lot of money but no free time at all? It is the biggest question for so many college grads now. Sometimes you can learn all the Harvard stuff by borrowing books from the library, Harvard doesn't give you the leverage, but gives you the knowledge. God is fair, who you are matters more

[Michael Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

I very much enjoyed this ironic and witty account of the experience of graduating from the Harvard Business School (HBS). Mr.Delves finds the right balance between personal and objective (academic) experience, including details on the curriculum, the interviewing and learning experience, and the presentation of the top businessmen who lectured to the HBS studentship. On the negative side, I found the book too long, and the analysis of the HBS school very European-minded (read: focused on social responsibility and employees vs. money and business goals.) Overall, an enjoyable read and lots to learn from. Thumbs up!

[John Hibbs · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book for the fourth time. As I have matured in my business knowledge, focused on my upcoming transition into the business world, determined what I want out of my life, and seen the disastrous effects of the financial crisis, the more this book resonates. I recommend this book for everyone.

Great book that will be read by business students for decades. Raises serious questions about the role of business schools, capitalism and business leaders in society. Very surprising how insecure most of the students are. Whilst reading I experienced a severe amount of cognitive dissonance that combined whispers of Milton Friedman, Hugh Nibley and Faust. Thoroughly enjoyable read.

[Ryan Mac · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an excellent account of two years at the Harvard School of Business written by a journalist from the UK. I have a business degree from undergrad and have no interest in going back for more but it was still very interesting. I enjoyed his observations about his fellow classmates, his thoughts about the non-US born students (and how they saw many things differently) and his internal struggles between taking a job that you probably won't like to support (but rarely see) your family and worries of "wasting" two years at Harvard Business School by not taking a big finance job. A good book for business students and those thinking about going back for an MBA.

[Zahedul · Rating 5 out of 5]

A firsthand account of the business school life from the ivory towers of Harvard Business School. The humorous narrative takes us through the author's two-year journey through different intricate courses, summing up with his core takeaways. The author focuses primarily on the good, bad and ugly parts of business schools in general and HBS in particular. This book can be a good resource for those planning on pursuing a business degree from US, particularly in an Ivy League University.

[Joux · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely witty, it is obvious the author has a great penchant for autobiographical and earnest writing. He also has the same personality type as me so I could resonate with his character's interaction. The book has a good balance of the technical business terms, personal account and feedback of the HBS MBA system. A very light, entertaining and stimulating read.

[Vilmantas · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is like a gateway to land of HBS. You can get to know teaching, learning format, what subjects are mandatory etc. I've just got so much from this text - it's great.

[Peter Keller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting read. Probably mostly interesting to me since I went to B School at the University of Texas and wondered if I should have gone to HBS.

My highlights below:

the real secret to making money was wanting to make money


97
People in dire straights are inclined to take bigger risks for bigger rewards than those in comfortable situations, whose main goal tends to be preserving what they have.

98
Risk, he said, was not just the possibility of something bad happening, but also the chance of something good not happening

99
Focusing on beta is a near-certain way of denying yourself alpha- the true measure of greatness

171
The difference between corporate leaders and those who start their own businesses, I had observed, was startling. The latter came across as so much smarter and independent-minded, so much less prone to platitudes, so much more comfortable in their own skins. There seems to be an anarchic streak in anyone who has taken a real risk in his life.
The entrepreneurs who came to campus - from hedge fund pioneers such as Richard Perry; to Barry Diller, the media baron and founder of IAC; to Paul Orfalea, the founder of Kinko’s- seemed to be both enamored of their own skills and hard work and appreciative of the luck it had taken for them to succeed. Despite being dogged, competitive Darwinian types, they were more understanding of the world and its insanity, somehow more forgiving. They reminded me of generals who had experienced war, while all the corporate stiffs and consultants and lawyers and bankers were like the politicians who sent men into battle, with no grasp of the consequences.

173
When it comes to business and government, he believed ‘you can have your cake and eat it.’ There were two ways to do this. Either you started in government very young and then moved into business, or you made lots of money and then moved into government.
…
with money comes freedom
…
with freedom, he added, come the opportunity to do interesting things.
…
career advice
…
‘be a principal or decision maker, not a service provider.’
…
the grail: control over their time

177
POCD, people, opportunity, context deal

187
The tough-minded have a zest for tackling hard problems. They dare to grapple with the unfamiliar and wrest useful truth from stubborn new facts.

206
the real secret to making money was wanting to make money

207
what they don’t teach you is what they can’t teach you, which is how to read people and how to use that knowledge to get what you want

227
‘An unexamined life is not worth living’
Socrates

232
This was why people hated MBAs. Too much cost-benefit analysis, too little humanity.

236
Rivkin told us that in order to influence company strategies early in our careers, we should learn about all of our employer’s operations, especially those that drove the business or faced change. We should find companies where new ideas were encouraged and developed and stay close to the people that were in charge. Finally he told us that to be a great strategist required intellectual restlessness combined paired with a grounded competence. You needed to understand your business from top to bottom, but also be ready to tear it up and start again, to listen to evidence that challenged your biases and ceaselessly revise your judgements. He was telling us that however secure we felt, we should always be alert for tremors.

238
Numbers and money follow, he said. They do not lead.
…
He went on to say that you could tell everything about a company from its top line, its revenue. All of its creativity, innovation, and processes were there in the top line. Revenue was proof of your ability to win customers, which would determine your success more than your ability to squeeze a few pennies out of your costs.

251
‘People are delighted to accept pensions and gratuities, for which they hire out their labor or their support or their services. But nobody works out the value of time: men use it lavishly as if it cost nothing.'
Seneca, On The Shortness of Life
…
Peter Drucker’s article “Managing Oneself”

257
Either your children were the center of your life, or they were not.
…
‘Your problem is this: You wanted to make all this fucking money and you went to Harvard Business School so you’d have the opportunity. But all the time, you couldn’t quiet the voice inside your head telling you that just making money is a ridiculous way to spend your life. I know this is your problem, because I suffered from the same thing until I got over it.'

270
You have to be kind of risk-averse to go to HBS. The whole thing about the network and the transformation, it’s for people who want to minimize the risk in their lives when they go after opportunities.

[Synthia Salomon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Blinkist Book of the Day!

The ABCs of business

When he applied for his MBA at Harvard, Philip Delves Broughton was living in Paris with his wife and daughter, and working as a correspondent for The Daily Telegraph. It’s fair to say that business was never his passion. But something about the prestigious Harvard Business School, or HBS, attracted him. The school's website promised to teach students leadership, passion and a “moral compass”. 

Once accepted into the program, Broughton found a sheltered, elite campus far from the rest of Harvard. Much of the campus facility felt like a hotel resort, and Broughton quickly understood what people meant when they referred to the “HBS bubble”. 

Over the next few months, Broughton became acquainted with the subjects taught at HBS. The first year’s curriculum covered finance, marketing, operations, among others. In the second year, students could choose the courses they wanted to focus on. 

HBS makes students work on case studies almost exclusively. For instance, in Broughton’s accounting class, students were asked to crack the case of a feudal landlord who wanted to know which of his peasant farmers was the most successful. The case was meant to show the difficulty of divining economic truth.

Broughton quickly realized that he was one of the few people with no experience whatsoever in business. While many students came from a managerial, accounting or entrepreneurial background, Broughton hadn't even used Excel before. He was convinced this high-pressure Ivy League trial could lead him somewhere entirely new, however, so Broughton joined a study group with students of varying backgrounds to prepare the case studies for his classes. 

In marketing, they analyzed Black & Decker's decline and its unpopular DeWalt tool line. The professor emphasized that companies need to understand the customer's wants, not just their own abilities.

In finance, a lumber company called Butler Lumber kept needing more credit as it grew. Mismanaging cash flow was its big mistake. Broughton realized he'd done exactly this in his own life as an undergrad.

In accounting, the professor promised to help them pursue "economic truth", even when it was extremely hard to determine. The mantra to this was assets = liabilities + equity. 

For Technology and Operations Management, they dissected Benihana's novel restaurant model. The detailed case studies had given him the sense that he could waltz into any business and reengineer it for more profitability. By semester's end, Broughton felt more confident. He learned that the older HBS students called this overconfidence syndrome "Beginnihana".

Broughton found that preparing all of his case studies took much longer than expected – the administration told them they should expect “only” about 60 hours of work a week. He found the hours to be longer still.

Slowly, Broughton began getting the hang of business terms and concepts that had seemed totally nebulous before. 

One of his greatest lessons was understanding the importance of risk. He realized that in business, risk is paramount. Not just the risk of something bad happening, but also the risk of something good not happening. The more advanced MBA students measured everything in opportunity cost – the risk of missing out on something good. 

More than that, Broughton learned that risk was almost impossible to assess definitively. Indeed, many business measures turned out to be more of an art than a science. In accounting, for example, messy rules and biased interpretations obscured economic truth. Companies frequently played the “numbers game”, meaning that they adjusted their earnings to appear more profitable than they actually were.

[Jon]

When Philip Broughton arrives at Harvard Business School, or HBS, to study for his Masters in Business Administration, or MBA, after ten years as a journalist, he's in for some culture shock. Quantitative analysis of business cases stretches his computer and math skills to their utmost, and only his extensive travels have prepared him for the mixed bag of fellow students with whom he must team to succeed.

Broughton gives us some background on his upbringing and his journey from England to Massachusetts to attend Harvard, and a bit of history on the school, as well, before jumping into a narrative about each of his classes covering two years of study.

Random takeaways:

A bit of advice we could probably all benefit from in our lives, "HBS is not about letting everyone do everything. It is about forcing you to make choices. What are your ambitions? What are your obligations? Do they tally? If not, what should you do to change one or the other? How should you spend your time to get what you want?"

My first time encountering the Forer Principal, "In 1948, the psychologist Bertram Forer created a personality test for a group of students and then gave them an analysis based on its results. He asked the students to rate the accuracy of the analysis on a scale of zero to five, with five being a first-rate description of their personality. The average rating was 4.26. But Forer had played a trick on the students. He had given each one exactly the same analysis, once he had cobbled together from various horoscopes."

Think of that next time you're taking one of those Facebook personality quizzes.

An interesting bit about why Microsoft's balance sheet was always cash-heavy, "Bill Gates said...'The thing that was scary to me was when I started hiring my friends they expected to get paid...so I soon came up with this incredibly conservative approach that I wanted to have enough money in the bank to pay a year's worth of payroll, even if we didn't get any payments coming in."

We could all learn something from Gates about having a decent emergency fund for the tough times.

A passage I found amusing from his description of his journalistic experience in covering the G8 summit in 2003,

"It was a sunny day and everyone sashayed along to reggae and chants of 'Kill George Bush.' Among the twenty five thousand marchers were Zapatistas from Mexico, Maoists from Italy, French high-school teachers, Palestinian nationalists...a large British contingent organized by the Socialist Worker newspaper...furious about the war in Iraq... A Belgian kid in a Jacque Chirac rubber mask said he was there to celebrate the 'good dope coming out of Afghanistan' since the American invasion..."

And if you're looking for a sign as to where the stock market is headed,

"Ray Soifer...had been keeping track of the relationship between the condition of the American equity market and the percentage of Harvard MBA graduates choosing careers in financial services. Ten percent or less was a long-term buy signal. Thirty percent or more was a long-term sell."

I'll let you do the research to see where we are right now.

A book that left me feeling as if I'd gotten a mini-MBA myself. Interesting glimpse into life on the other side.

By the time he graduates, he still hasn't found a job, disdaining some of the financial services, banks and consulting firms as "soulless", and I have to wonder what he found to offset the $175,000 cost of getting his MBA, aside from writing a novel and this non fiction work.