10 ms·

DIY MBA: My Reading List (2019)

211 points by rzk 3y ago

gumby 3y ago
His list begins with The 10 Day MBA which is an excellent book I recommend highly. It gives a brief overview constituting 90+% of what you need to know. The other books on his list, many of which I have read and enjoyed myself, “merely” give greater detail on the material covered by T10DMBA (except macroeconomics which is rarely MBA-relevant anyway). The book is humorous, but quite serious about the material.
- toomuchtodo 3y ago
  What would you recommend for the last 10%?
  - greggsy 3y ago
    Sounds cliched, but the remaining 10% is real world experience applying and reflecting on a myriad of (sometimes pseudo-) psychology concepts developed over the years in the areas of leadership, self awareness, and workplace behaviour.
    - ghaff 3y ago
      Probably more like 50%. I got an MBA and pretty much realized I had very little interest in actually being a manager.
      - greggsy 3y ago
        I think there’s a lot of ‘teachings’ in those books, but the applying and reflecting it is the ‘10%’. I also did an MBA, but my incentive was mainly for the technical skills. Ive been lucky in that I’ve always worked in high performing and highly experienced teams within my industry (th cybers), so the need to ‘manage’ people is somewhat moot, but it did teach me a lot about managing and influencing and coaching other less experienced (or unprofessional) teams and stakeholders.
- ghaff 3y ago
  It's probably useful to know something about the various macroeconomic theories so you can at least nod knowledgeably :-) But it's not that useful practically. Traditional micro is worth knowing. I was also lucky enough to take a behavioral economics course (before it was called that) and a somewhat related pricing strategy course.
- dotancohen 3y ago
  > 10 Day MBA Googling I see at least three different books with similar covers but attributed to different authors. Which one should I persue?
  - deskamess 3y ago
    The list specified the author: The 10 Day MBA by Steven Silbiger
    - dotancohen 3y ago
      Terrific, thank you.
ghaff 3y ago
As someone who got a long ago MBA (and has also worked as an engineer), a few comments. That's a lot of books. I'm not sure it's more total reading than I did in an MBA program but it's certainly more books than I read. I'm not sure the best way to replicate case study discussions--which is a big part of most actual MBA programs and is probably at least somewhat important. (Also projects as opposed to just reading.) Seems very light on finance and accounting. Honestly accounting doesn't need a lot--the main lesson is things are this way because the financial accounting standards board says it is--but the equivalent of core Finance 101 is probably necessary even if you're not going to be primarily a finance person. What I didn't have in B-school but would want today is a deeper dive into VC/startup/etc. term sheets and the like. There's no real operations on that list. Probably don't really need real operations research but some basic manufacturing lingo and concepts would be useful. I'd probably look for a basic Marketing 101 sort of book/course in addition to UX and things along those lines. I'll stop there but I'd probably encourage more reading along the lines of what's actually used in MBA programs and looking at ways/materials that are closer to case studies and learning by doing.
- dkjaudyeqooe 3y ago
  > That's a lot of books. When teaching yourself you need multiple sources as a stand in for things being explained different ways by a teacher or through discussions. A fair metric is about 3 books where you'd otherwise use 1 in class.
  - ghaff 3y ago
    I think if I were actually putting together a curriculum (and not worrying about copyright/access), I'd probably have a lot more chapters of books and articles/papers/webpages/videos than I would complete books. And I think you need to bring in discussions/projects in some manner in any case.
- youngtaff 3y ago
  > I'm not sure the best way to replicate case study discussions--which is a big part of most actual MBA programs and is probably at least somewhat important. (Also projects as opposed to just reading.) As someone who did an MBA twenty years ago, I think this is a really important point The value for me wasn’t the reading, it’s the discussion the exploration of different (sometime opposed) viewpoints and understanding the differences between them Talking to friends who’ve done other Masters degrees one of the key things we all agree on is they taught us how to “think better” and not sure you’ll get that from reading a bunch of books
xixixao 3y ago
For some reason my brain went the opposite way and I was wondering what would an MBA in DIY skills look like.
shay_ker 3y ago
Currently going through Andrew Lo's MIT Sloan course, Finance Theory 1, for free: https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/15-401-finance-theory-i-fall-2008/pages/video-lectures-and-slides/ https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/15-401-finance-theory-i-fall-200... The lectures are well structured. Class questions are good. And best of all... these lectures were done during the 2008 financial crisis, so you see how people react in real time. Fascinating.
- ghaff 3y ago
  You make a great suggestion. Not that B-schools get everything right or that they're on the cutting edge but, to the degree curricula and lectures are online, I'd probably lean that way more than bestselling business titles. (Which, truth be told, often have a chapter or two that distills down a lot of the key content. In some cases, they're worth the lengthier read to reinforce the key content but often they're not.)
  - shay_ker 3y ago
    I find lectures much better than books. A lot more engaging and good lecturers are also good storytellers. Especially if you watch lectures at 2x the speed, you can save A LOT of time. And I'd bet your understanding is better, since lecturers can think through problems out loud. Indispensable, IMO.
    - ghaff 3y ago
      I sort of hate doing the 2x thing but I agree with your broader point. My good lecturers were, as you say, good storytellers. Including the guy who won the (I know not really before some pedant corrects me) Nobel Prize for behavioral economics.
gargs 3y ago
Would this help in getting jobs as much as a real MBA would?
- ghaff 3y ago
  To the extent that a real MBA credential is important for a job as it was when I was initially hired out of B-school, no? To the degree that an MBA from certain elite institutions can create connections, no? To the degree that you are familiar with various concepts that may be relevant for your job, possibly? Especially later in career. Absolutely no one cares what degrees I have at that point.
justajot 3y ago
Josh Kaufman did a lot of work in this area for years, maybe still does -- Personal MBA. https://personalmba.com https://personalmba.com
- realusername 3y ago
  I'm currently following the marketing section of this one and it's been really helpful to compensate for my huge gaps in knowledge
- richardboegli 3y ago
  A friend bought this as a gift for me 10+ years ago: The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business by Josh Kaufman [0]. I've given it as a gift to other friends. [0] https://www.amazon.com/Personal-MBA-Master-Art-Business/dp/B0095PELTM/ https://www.amazon.com/Personal-MBA-Master-Art-Business/dp/B...
- afryer 3y ago
  PersonalMBA really is a my go-to reference because it is very comprehensive and extremely accessible online. First 5 chapters tackle the strategy behind the '5 parts of every business' 1) Value Creation 2) Marketing 3) Sales 4) Value Delivery 5) Finance The next 6 Chapters deal with the tactics involved in executing that strategy. 6) The human mind 7) Working With Yourself 8) Working With Others 9) Understanding Systems 10) Analyzing Systems 11) Improving Systems Then If you REALLY wanted to dive deeper, you can read the 99 business books he built the personalmba from: https://personalmba.com/best-business-books/ https://personalmba.com/best-business-books/ Josh Kaufman created something great here.
- j45 3y ago
  Glad this is posted here - rare for a single amazon product to have so many high views from people with so many backgrounds.
Frogeman 3y ago
As a previous M7 FTMBA student who dropped out halfway through to do a startup, the real MBA is starting a company. Venture, cash flow/lifestyle or otherwise.
- techwizrd 3y ago
  There have been a few companies advertising something like this (e.g., oneday.io) where you build a startup and earn an accredited professional MBA along the way.
silexia 3y ago
Autobiographies are the best way to learn firsthand from those who have "won" at business: Sam Walton - this is easily the best. Solid gold nuggets of wisdom every page. Henry Ford - strong business, science, and tech ideas. Plus his biography of his good friend Thomas Edison is great. Larry Ellison - pretty solid. Richard Branson - okay autobiographies, probably too many though.
- graemep 3y ago
  The problem with reading "winners" is the huge survivorship bias, and autobiographies are inevitably biased towards showing the author in a good light.
  - refurb 3y ago
    Business books are terrible in general for this reason. Even basic statistics is throw out the door in these analyses. The best book I read is “Halo Effect” which calls all this out.
  - max_ 3y ago
    What exactly isn't survivorship bias? Everything can be put in that bucket. Being born without autism, becoming a doctor, engineer, start-up founder, successful athlete et al. They can all be abstracted as lottery tickets. I think the survivorship bias arguments sweeps under the rug the fact that we might be able to learn something from successful people.
    - refurb 3y ago
      I think the point is that the “lessons” from these books suffer from bias. Sam Walton might say “this was the reason Walmart succeeded”, but plenty of people do the same thing and fail. So what’s the lesson?
      - max_ 3y ago
        Well, things like law school & medical school have high rates of failure. So if one of the successful that passed the bar & became doctors people say "They studied hard" — yet many failed, even when the also studied. Does that nullify the value of "studying hard"?
amb23 3y ago
This isn't a great list--it's a lot of fluff, and self-help books masquerading as business content. There are basically two skills you really need to hone in an MBA. The first are the hard skills/knowledge on finance, accounting, (basic) stats, and (basic) economics. The second is being able to assess and analyze business models, from both strategic and operational angles. The former can be learned in MOOCs, while the latter is best approached with case studies, ideally discussed as a group. I'd honestly suggest trying to start a business/entrepreneurs book club with ~12-20 people to try to replicate that experience over reading books on your own.
- aik 3y ago
  I agree some of these are fluff. However many here are great to have basic knowledge of for specific scenarios one may run into and then know where to dig deeper when needed. Agree though to marry being a ferocious reader / learner with being a do’er is the way to go. Personally I did not grow up with an opportunity to develop an intuition about business and self-motivated action. Has taken a lot of work to move that direction over the years.
- mi_lk 3y ago
  What specific MOOCs are recommended for the first one?
  - cheriot 3y ago
    I took some of the Wharton first year MBA classes for free on Coursera. Left me incredulous that people take out huge loans for that stuff. It's Wharton, though, so the signaling alone may be worth the price.
    - thruhiker 3y ago
      I always thought the sums people were paying for MBAs was absolutely outrageous. In tech I feel like MBAs can actually work against you and can be perceived as a red flag. I knew someone a decade ago who paid I believe $120k to Duke Fuqua for a mostly online MBA that also required travel to multiple international destinations. This was a person in their late 20s.
jimmar 3y ago
You can't get the MBA experience reading books alone. People expect MBAs to be able to communicate effectively, present themselves confidently, and to be able to manage projects. Every MBA program I know requires students to complete projects to apply concepts, often working with other students and real businesses. A DIY MBA experience would involve a lot of consulting with businesses to help solve their challenges.
- ghaff 3y ago
  There's some element of basic accounting/finance/operations/marketing/etc. that you can get pretty quickly. But, as you say, it's not the equivalent of going through a longer interactive program than reading a few books.
w10-1 3y ago
Schooling should ground one in fundamentals, to some degree. Maybe target fundamental principles instead of recent opinion if you have the time to learn and want to tranform your thinking for a lifetime? Both MBA and medical schools are instead practice programs, where case studies exercise knowledge and principles you learned deeply or crammed. If you crammed, you get good at diagnosing and become primary care or first-line specialist. If you learned deeply, you can do M&A or be a researcher or nth-line specialist - likely some combination - or you flame out for lack of political skills or interest in the small niche available. Because they are practical, they produce a large stream of knowledge, for every business or medical case, that outsiders can enjoy and get familiar with. But the knowledge wouldn't qualify them to take on responsibility. That requires a series of validation steps where you handle increasing responsibility. So DIY MD/MBA won't get you in any door. For business fundamentals, I would recommend reading transaction cost economics to understand the value of e.g., "disruption" or operations research in business. Marketing or product management is just hunting or bearing fruit; they make you a useful tool. TCE answers the real questions: what makes some companies huge or other markets scattered? It's grounding for strategic decision-making.
Dowwie 3y ago
That's really not what business school is about, but studying these and not just reading them could help
itsthecourier 3y ago
I would like a books describing how to build roles and systems, to grow from 50 to 200 employees, any ideas?
loughnane 3y ago
This list is long. The problem with long reading lists is that it forces you closer to a box-checking mentality. That's dangerous for learning because people aren't computers---we don't read a book, ingest all the information, go onto another one, and then end with the sum total of the information as useable knowledge. We need context. That's why the order of books, selections from books, and the discussion around books is so much more important than the books themselves, at least if your goal is true understanding. This list is a good start, but if it is to help someone learn, it should be more than a list.
- giantg2 3y ago
  "The problem with long reading lists is that it forces you closer to a box-checking mentality." Most MBAs are checkboxes so someone can get a higher paying job. Most people do not care about the theory, nor are they really concerned with being a good leader outside of their ego.
  - loughnane 3y ago
    Right, but with a DIY MBA you don't have a credential to point to. At that point isn't all you have what you learn?
    - giantg2 3y ago
      "At that point isn't all you have what you learn?" Yes, but without the credential will you be given the opportunity to use it? Is it worth anything without being used? These are not the kinds of questions readers are asking themselves when looking for MBA reading lists. Many see the MBA as a checkbox (which it is) and seek checkbox style lists of books. So the length/style of the list isn't leading to the checkbox mentality, rather that mentality is common in the context of credentialization.
      - loughnane 3y ago
        Maybe I midunderstood. I read this as "get your own MBA through reading", not "read these books to help get your official MBA". In any case, I think we agree that credentialization, flawed though it may be, is a reality that we've got to deal with, whether I like it or not.
deskamess 3y ago
Wasn't there an Udemy course that was really popular? Has anyone had any experience with that one?
sklargh 3y ago
Alternate reading / requirement list. Basically covers meaningful coursework and offers some useful books about how large organizations function (or do not), plus some mind-stimulation on power dynamics. In no particular order. - MOOC, Fin, Acct, Stat, Calc, Ops 101, 102 - Excel, SQL - Launch Decision - The Prince - Starboard Olive Garden Slide Deck - Ogilvy’s tips on writing (it’s what you don’t send that counts folks) - Barbarians at the Gate - Pearl Harbor Warning and Decision - On Bullshit - This is Water - Invisible Asymptotes - Toyota Production System - The meeting scene in Margin Call remains the most accurate portrayal of a high-stakes meeting as a junior staffer - Deploy a simple marketing and e-commerce stack and make some profit - Use slides to teach someone about something intensely uninteresting - Become effective at using CHAMPS KNOW forecasting heuristics - Read and understand a few mid-cap and large-cap 10-Ks and 10-Qs.
giantg2 3y ago
The author does acknowledge this in thier linked post, but I think it's worth pointing out. They are in the UK, where MBAs are not as credentialized. DIY MBAs are low value. You can get a BS in Business Administration, or even a minor in it, and have more knowledge and experience than from reading these books. Guess what? Even with those credentials, they will not help you. "I have an MBA from [prestigious school]" are the magic words. The hiring managers don't care about lesser credentials or actual knowledge.
- aik 3y ago
  It’s very likely this person doesn’t care about the credentials but rather just wants to gain the knowledge to do something themselves. I more or less did this for years by reading a ton of books + many years of HN / articles / interviews / videos + startup weekend events + tried starting things + coding hobby for years + enterprise consulting work, and now I’m fairly well equipped to co-lead the company that I do. The first 5+ years of doing this I debated attempting to go to a prestigious school for an MBA, primary reason (95%) was for the networking opportunity (meeting great likeminded or driven people), (0% because I would’ve been able to tell people I had an MBA from somewhere for job purposes, the snobbery from that would have been a detriment often instead I believe), and 5% for the education which I think has value but when it’s free and I had the motivation there was no reason to pay $100ks for that. At this point this company is doing fairly well so although I would love to meet more driven and likeminded people, I’m not sure it the best path to do so anymore for me.
- satellite2 3y ago
  A classic case of Goodhart's law. If your metric is convincing a (rather bad) hiring manager, why even bother? And once you've convinced them, what do you do?
- dylan604 3y ago
  > DIY MBAs are low value. MBAs are low value...depending on perspective. Around these parts, they are deemed very value, or at least in low regard. Look at Boeing as exhibit A. If you're an engineering company that allows MBAs to make the decisions, you won't be a good engineering company for long. At that point, you become the dead carcass that the MBAs point to as to what their purpose is.
rimeice 3y ago
Been running my startup for 7 years, not a unicorn but fairly successful. Can honestly say I’ve not made it through a single one of these books. Certainly have tried and have got a few nuggets, but nothing has compared to learning this stuff first hand, on the job. Sure having passable knowledge of this list is useful, but you’re going to hire in people/consultants/external providers to do almost every module on this list for you at some point, you’ll learn from them firsthand. You don’t need to read this list to get a business off the ground and by the time you do you’ll need to surround yourself with these specialists in some form pretty quickly.
wslh 3y ago
The author missed the Fred Wilson's MBA Mondays Archive [1] which personally was a great resource in the quest for my "business success" (whatever it means). There is a more organized and illustrated edition here [2]. BTW, I always return to some articles such as "Commission Plans" for Sales [3]. Regarding books: - Only the Paranoid Survive by Andrew Grove (Intel) [4]. It is always in my "pocket". It is real experience with pain points from a top CEO, not an academic exercise. - Other books that are not focused on business but are more "epistemological". For example, "How Life Imitates Chess" by Garry Kasparov [5]. I don't know who created this title for the book though. Many autobiographies, in general, or good business biographies such as "Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire" [6]. [1] https://avc.com/category/mba-mondays/ https://avc.com/category/mba-mondays/ [2] https://mba-mondays-illustrated.com/ https://mba-mondays-illustrated.com/ [3] https://avc.com/2010/08/commission-plans/ https://avc.com/2010/08/commission-plans/ [4] https://www.amazon.com/Only-Paranoid-Survive-Exploit-Challenge/dp/0385483821 https://www.amazon.com/Only-Paranoid-Survive-Exploit-Challen... [5] https://www.amazon.com/How-Life-Imitates-Chess-Boardroom/dp/1596913886 https://www.amazon.com/How-Life-Imitates-Chess-Boardroom/dp/... [6] https://www.amazon.com/Hard-Drive-Making-Microsoft-Empire/dp/0471568864 https://www.amazon.com/Hard-Drive-Making-Microsoft-Empire/dp...
erichmond 3y ago
You want a real DIY MBA? Start a company. That's it. :D
nprateem 3y ago
Shout out to Four Steps to the Epiphany, since the act of actually researching and validating business ideas, then developing a sales pipelines touches on the majority of things that are important for early stage startups. Add in some books on leadership, HR and accounting if your product takes off.
Quinzel 3y ago
I was going to give the list of readings I had for my MBA which I finished last year, but my comment was too long to be posted here. I read a lot. Probably at least 10x more than what is listed in this DIY MBA list. However, the reading was probably only 10% of the actual effort that went into my MBA. There were a lot of projects, group projects and case studies to do, as well as real-life consultancy work, and meetings... with other students, and with real companies. And then... there was also lectures, about 8 hours a week worth of lectures, and then annoying interactive activities I had to complete each week, which were designed to prove that I was indeed actually doing the readings. Some courses wouldn't let you progress to the next week of readings etc, unless you completed the interactive activities, which would then unlock the next week's coursework. Other courses would just take a percentage off your final grade for every activity that was missed. A list of readings is just kind of not really the same experience, even if it contains a bit of the same knowledge. It's also about how you take the knowledge and implement it in real-life situations.
primax 3y ago
I was surprised when I did my MBA how they didn't cover anything to do with entrepreneurship... but then again it is a masters of business administration. This is an alright list of books, but as other posters have said anyone following it will sorely miss out on practice experience.
- voisin 3y ago
  Entrepreneurship is the application of everything else they teach - marketing, communication, finance, etc etc. I have a hard time believing it can be taught. You either have the drive to apply other topics in a risky way or you don’t. In the entrepreneurship courses I took in my MBA, the approach was nowhere near what I did in practice starting a business nor what any other entrepreneur I know did. But the rest of the classes were of value (mostly…)
Ozzie_osman 3y ago
Ah, the book Hooked + the aspiring MBA... A match made in heaven. And probably more responsible for regrettable product decisions than any other combination in modern history. Signed, An MBA who read Hooked
kwar13 3y ago
This list is long on fluff and extremely short on any hard technical skills such as corporate finance and valuation. If you're interested in seeing if finance is for you, I highly suggest reading Investment Valuation by Aswath Damodaran. Highly respected professor and most of his stuff is free on his website as well.
WoodenChair 3y ago
Listening to our podcast episodes on Business Books & Co. won't quite get you as much as reading the actual books, but it will follow a sort of 80/20 rule in that I think our episodes cover 80% of the major points in each book. Here are the episodes we've done on books in that list based on the categories the author ascribed: Product, Design & Marketing - S4E2 The Lean Startup by Eric Ries https://pnc.st/s/business-books/5d9f9531/the-lean-startup https://pnc.st/s/business-books/5d9f9531/the-lean-startup Organisational Behaviour, Management & Communication - S1E1 High Output Management by Andy Grove https://pnc.st/s/business-books/095f226633d34496/high-output-management https://pnc.st/s/business-books/095f226633d34496/high-output... - S3E4 The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz https://pnc.st/s/business-books/1067de4d/the-hard-thing-about-hard-things https://pnc.st/s/business-books/1067de4d/the-hard-thing-abou... - S3E7 Never Split The Difference by Chris Voss (author interview) https://pnc.st/s/business-books/920fe358/never-split-the-difference-with-chris-voss https://pnc.st/s/business-books/920fe358/never-split-the-dif... Creativity & Getting Stuff Done - S2E2 Creativity, Inc: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration by Ed Catmull https://pnc.st/s/business-books/6e3f927715094617/creativity-inc- https://pnc.st/s/business-books/6e3f927715094617/creativity-... We also have 30+ more episodes... many are book summaries/discussions but about 1/3 of recent episodes are author interviews. You can find all of our content for free on your podcast player of choice here: https://pnc.st/s/business-books https://pnc.st/s/business-books
__loam 3y ago
List of books read by obnoxious people.
ipnon 3y ago
Munger recommended 6 intro textbooks that every businessman should know: one each in psychology, accounting, microeconomics, evolution, math and physics.
graycat 3y ago
(1) In finance, there is portfolio expectation and variance in the efficient frontier, e.g., by Harry Markowitz. For more, there is modern portfolio theory. Also might look at the Black-Scholes work. And there is more. (2) Might want some of the math of optimization, e.g., linear programming, quadratic programming, integer linear programming, dynamic programming. (3) Some people would suggest some statistics -- random variables, expectation, variance, convergence of random variables, central limit theorem, model fitting (regression), hypothesis testing (Neyman-Pearson, non-parametric and resampling), experimental design. (4) More generally, might just visit the Web sites of some MBA programs, get the list of courses and, when available, the texts, class notes, and references. The references in the collection of this original post, what fraction are references of courses in MBA programs?
dartos 3y ago
To people who actually aspire to be MBAs, why? Is there any incentive to the field other than money? I never hear anything good happen because of MBAs, but there must be something.

211 points by rzk 3y ago

His list begins with The 10 Day MBA which is an excellent book I recommend highly. It gives a brief overview constituting 90+% of what you need to know. The other books on his list, many of which I have read and enjoyed myself, “merely” give greater detail on the material covered by T10DMBA (except macroeconomics which is rarely MBA-relevant anyway). The book is humorous, but quite serious about the material.

toomuchtodo 3y ago
What would you recommend for the last 10%?
- greggsy 3y ago
  Sounds cliched, but the remaining 10% is real world experience applying and reflecting on a myriad of (sometimes pseudo-) psychology concepts developed over the years in the areas of leadership, self awareness, and workplace behaviour.
  - ghaff 3y ago
    Probably more like 50%. I got an MBA and pretty much realized I had very little interest in actually being a manager.
    - greggsy 3y ago
      I think there’s a lot of ‘teachings’ in those books, but the applying and reflecting it is the ‘10%’. I also did an MBA, but my incentive was mainly for the technical skills. Ive been lucky in that I’ve always worked in high performing and highly experienced teams within my industry (th cybers), so the need to ‘manage’ people is somewhat moot, but it did teach me a lot about managing and influencing and coaching other less experienced (or unprofessional) teams and stakeholders.
ghaff 3y ago
It's probably useful to know something about the various macroeconomic theories so you can at least nod knowledgeably :-) But it's not that useful practically. Traditional micro is worth knowing. I was also lucky enough to take a behavioral economics course (before it was called that) and a somewhat related pricing strategy course.
dotancohen 3y ago
> 10 Day MBA Googling I see at least three different books with similar covers but attributed to different authors. Which one should I persue?
- deskamess 3y ago
  The list specified the author: The 10 Day MBA by Steven Silbiger
  - dotancohen 3y ago
    Terrific, thank you.

ghaff 3y ago

As someone who got a long ago MBA (and has also worked as an engineer), a few comments. That's a lot of books. I'm not sure it's more total reading than I did in an MBA program but it's certainly more books than I read. I'm not sure the best way to replicate case study discussions--which is a big part of most actual MBA programs and is probably at least somewhat important. (Also projects as opposed to just reading.) Seems very light on finance and accounting. Honestly accounting doesn't need a lot--the main lesson is things are this way because the financial accounting standards board says it is--but the equivalent of core Finance 101 is probably necessary even if you're not going to be primarily a finance person. What I didn't have in B-school but would want today is a deeper dive into VC/startup/etc. term sheets and the like. There's no real operations on that list. Probably don't really need real operations research but some basic manufacturing lingo and concepts would be useful. I'd probably look for a basic Marketing 101 sort of book/course in addition to UX and things along those lines. I'll stop there but I'd probably encourage more reading along the lines of what's actually used in MBA programs and looking at ways/materials that are closer to case studies and learning by doing.

dkjaudyeqooe 3y ago
> That's a lot of books. When teaching yourself you need multiple sources as a stand in for things being explained different ways by a teacher or through discussions. A fair metric is about 3 books where you'd otherwise use 1 in class.
- ghaff 3y ago
  I think if I were actually putting together a curriculum (and not worrying about copyright/access), I'd probably have a lot more chapters of books and articles/papers/webpages/videos than I would complete books. And I think you need to bring in discussions/projects in some manner in any case.
youngtaff 3y ago
> I'm not sure the best way to replicate case study discussions--which is a big part of most actual MBA programs and is probably at least somewhat important. (Also projects as opposed to just reading.) As someone who did an MBA twenty years ago, I think this is a really important point The value for me wasn’t the reading, it’s the discussion the exploration of different (sometime opposed) viewpoints and understanding the differences between them Talking to friends who’ve done other Masters degrees one of the key things we all agree on is they taught us how to “think better” and not sure you’ll get that from reading a bunch of books

xixixao 3y ago

For some reason my brain went the opposite way and I was wondering what would an MBA in DIY skills look like.

shay_ker 3y ago

Currently going through Andrew Lo's MIT Sloan course, Finance Theory 1, for free: https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/15-401-finance-theory-i-fall-2008/pages/video-lectures-and-slides/ https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/15-401-finance-theory-i-fall-200... The lectures are well structured. Class questions are good. And best of all... these lectures were done during the 2008 financial crisis, so you see how people react in real time. Fascinating.

ghaff 3y ago
You make a great suggestion. Not that B-schools get everything right or that they're on the cutting edge but, to the degree curricula and lectures are online, I'd probably lean that way more than bestselling business titles. (Which, truth be told, often have a chapter or two that distills down a lot of the key content. In some cases, they're worth the lengthier read to reinforce the key content but often they're not.)
- shay_ker 3y ago
  I find lectures much better than books. A lot more engaging and good lecturers are also good storytellers. Especially if you watch lectures at 2x the speed, you can save A LOT of time. And I'd bet your understanding is better, since lecturers can think through problems out loud. Indispensable, IMO.
  - ghaff 3y ago
    I sort of hate doing the 2x thing but I agree with your broader point. My good lecturers were, as you say, good storytellers. Including the guy who won the (I know not really before some pedant corrects me) Nobel Prize for behavioral economics.

gargs 3y ago

Would this help in getting jobs as much as a real MBA would?

ghaff 3y ago
To the extent that a real MBA credential is important for a job as it was when I was initially hired out of B-school, no? To the degree that an MBA from certain elite institutions can create connections, no? To the degree that you are familiar with various concepts that may be relevant for your job, possibly? Especially later in career. Absolutely no one cares what degrees I have at that point.

justajot 3y ago

Josh Kaufman did a lot of work in this area for years, maybe still does -- Personal MBA. https://personalmba.com https://personalmba.com

realusername 3y ago
I'm currently following the marketing section of this one and it's been really helpful to compensate for my huge gaps in knowledge
richardboegli 3y ago
A friend bought this as a gift for me 10+ years ago: The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business by Josh Kaufman [0]. I've given it as a gift to other friends. [0] https://www.amazon.com/Personal-MBA-Master-Art-Business/dp/B0095PELTM/ https://www.amazon.com/Personal-MBA-Master-Art-Business/dp/B...
afryer 3y ago
PersonalMBA really is a my go-to reference because it is very comprehensive and extremely accessible online. First 5 chapters tackle the strategy behind the '5 parts of every business' 1) Value Creation 2) Marketing 3) Sales 4) Value Delivery 5) Finance The next 6 Chapters deal with the tactics involved in executing that strategy. 6) The human mind 7) Working With Yourself 8) Working With Others 9) Understanding Systems 10) Analyzing Systems 11) Improving Systems Then If you REALLY wanted to dive deeper, you can read the 99 business books he built the personalmba from: https://personalmba.com/best-business-books/ https://personalmba.com/best-business-books/ Josh Kaufman created something great here.
j45 3y ago
Glad this is posted here - rare for a single amazon product to have so many high views from people with so many backgrounds.

Frogeman 3y ago

As a previous M7 FTMBA student who dropped out halfway through to do a startup, the real MBA is starting a company. Venture, cash flow/lifestyle or otherwise.

techwizrd 3y ago
There have been a few companies advertising something like this (e.g., oneday.io) where you build a startup and earn an accredited professional MBA along the way.

silexia 3y ago

Autobiographies are the best way to learn firsthand from those who have "won" at business: Sam Walton - this is easily the best. Solid gold nuggets of wisdom every page. Henry Ford - strong business, science, and tech ideas. Plus his biography of his good friend Thomas Edison is great. Larry Ellison - pretty solid. Richard Branson - okay autobiographies, probably too many though.

graemep 3y ago
The problem with reading "winners" is the huge survivorship bias, and autobiographies are inevitably biased towards showing the author in a good light.
- refurb 3y ago
  Business books are terrible in general for this reason. Even basic statistics is throw out the door in these analyses. The best book I read is “Halo Effect” which calls all this out.
- max_ 3y ago
  What exactly isn't survivorship bias? Everything can be put in that bucket. Being born without autism, becoming a doctor, engineer, start-up founder, successful athlete et al. They can all be abstracted as lottery tickets. I think the survivorship bias arguments sweeps under the rug the fact that we might be able to learn something from successful people.
  - refurb 3y ago
    I think the point is that the “lessons” from these books suffer from bias. Sam Walton might say “this was the reason Walmart succeeded”, but plenty of people do the same thing and fail. So what’s the lesson?
    - max_ 3y ago
      Well, things like law school & medical school have high rates of failure. So if one of the successful that passed the bar & became doctors people say "They studied hard" — yet many failed, even when the also studied. Does that nullify the value of "studying hard"?

amb23 3y ago

This isn't a great list--it's a lot of fluff, and self-help books masquerading as business content. There are basically two skills you really need to hone in an MBA. The first are the hard skills/knowledge on finance, accounting, (basic) stats, and (basic) economics. The second is being able to assess and analyze business models, from both strategic and operational angles. The former can be learned in MOOCs, while the latter is best approached with case studies, ideally discussed as a group. I'd honestly suggest trying to start a business/entrepreneurs book club with ~12-20 people to try to replicate that experience over reading books on your own.

aik 3y ago
I agree some of these are fluff. However many here are great to have basic knowledge of for specific scenarios one may run into and then know where to dig deeper when needed. Agree though to marry being a ferocious reader / learner with being a do’er is the way to go. Personally I did not grow up with an opportunity to develop an intuition about business and self-motivated action. Has taken a lot of work to move that direction over the years.
mi_lk 3y ago
What specific MOOCs are recommended for the first one?
- cheriot 3y ago
  I took some of the Wharton first year MBA classes for free on Coursera. Left me incredulous that people take out huge loans for that stuff. It's Wharton, though, so the signaling alone may be worth the price.
  - thruhiker 3y ago
    I always thought the sums people were paying for MBAs was absolutely outrageous. In tech I feel like MBAs can actually work against you and can be perceived as a red flag. I knew someone a decade ago who paid I believe $120k to Duke Fuqua for a mostly online MBA that also required travel to multiple international destinations. This was a person in their late 20s.

jimmar 3y ago

You can't get the MBA experience reading books alone. People expect MBAs to be able to communicate effectively, present themselves confidently, and to be able to manage projects. Every MBA program I know requires students to complete projects to apply concepts, often working with other students and real businesses. A DIY MBA experience would involve a lot of consulting with businesses to help solve their challenges.

ghaff 3y ago
There's some element of basic accounting/finance/operations/marketing/etc. that you can get pretty quickly. But, as you say, it's not the equivalent of going through a longer interactive program than reading a few books.

w10-1 3y ago

Schooling should ground one in fundamentals, to some degree. Maybe target fundamental principles instead of recent opinion if you have the time to learn and want to tranform your thinking for a lifetime? Both MBA and medical schools are instead practice programs, where case studies exercise knowledge and principles you learned deeply or crammed. If you crammed, you get good at diagnosing and become primary care or first-line specialist. If you learned deeply, you can do M&A or be a researcher or nth-line specialist - likely some combination - or you flame out for lack of political skills or interest in the small niche available. Because they are practical, they produce a large stream of knowledge, for every business or medical case, that outsiders can enjoy and get familiar with. But the knowledge wouldn't qualify them to take on responsibility. That requires a series of validation steps where you handle increasing responsibility. So DIY MD/MBA won't get you in any door. For business fundamentals, I would recommend reading transaction cost economics to understand the value of e.g., "disruption" or operations research in business. Marketing or product management is just hunting or bearing fruit; they make you a useful tool. TCE answers the real questions: what makes some companies huge or other markets scattered? It's grounding for strategic decision-making.

Dowwie 3y ago

That's really not what business school is about, but studying these and not just reading them could help

itsthecourier 3y ago

I would like a books describing how to build roles and systems, to grow from 50 to 200 employees, any ideas?

loughnane 3y ago

This list is long. The problem with long reading lists is that it forces you closer to a box-checking mentality. That's dangerous for learning because people aren't computers---we don't read a book, ingest all the information, go onto another one, and then end with the sum total of the information as useable knowledge. We need context. That's why the order of books, selections from books, and the discussion around books is so much more important than the books themselves, at least if your goal is true understanding. This list is a good start, but if it is to help someone learn, it should be more than a list.

giantg2 3y ago
"The problem with long reading lists is that it forces you closer to a box-checking mentality." Most MBAs are checkboxes so someone can get a higher paying job. Most people do not care about the theory, nor are they really concerned with being a good leader outside of their ego.
- loughnane 3y ago
  Right, but with a DIY MBA you don't have a credential to point to. At that point isn't all you have what you learn?
  - giantg2 3y ago
    "At that point isn't all you have what you learn?" Yes, but without the credential will you be given the opportunity to use it? Is it worth anything without being used? These are not the kinds of questions readers are asking themselves when looking for MBA reading lists. Many see the MBA as a checkbox (which it is) and seek checkbox style lists of books. So the length/style of the list isn't leading to the checkbox mentality, rather that mentality is common in the context of credentialization.
    - loughnane 3y ago
      Maybe I midunderstood. I read this as "get your own MBA through reading", not "read these books to help get your official MBA". In any case, I think we agree that credentialization, flawed though it may be, is a reality that we've got to deal with, whether I like it or not.

deskamess 3y ago

Wasn't there an Udemy course that was really popular? Has anyone had any experience with that one?

sklargh 3y ago

Alternate reading / requirement list. Basically covers meaningful coursework and offers some useful books about how large organizations function (or do not), plus some mind-stimulation on power dynamics. In no particular order. - MOOC, Fin, Acct, Stat, Calc, Ops 101, 102 - Excel, SQL - Launch Decision - The Prince - Starboard Olive Garden Slide Deck - Ogilvy’s tips on writing (it’s what you don’t send that counts folks) - Barbarians at the Gate - Pearl Harbor Warning and Decision - On Bullshit - This is Water - Invisible Asymptotes - Toyota Production System - The meeting scene in Margin Call remains the most accurate portrayal of a high-stakes meeting as a junior staffer - Deploy a simple marketing and e-commerce stack and make some profit - Use slides to teach someone about something intensely uninteresting - Become effective at using CHAMPS KNOW forecasting heuristics - Read and understand a few mid-cap and large-cap 10-Ks and 10-Qs.

giantg2 3y ago

The author does acknowledge this in thier linked post, but I think it's worth pointing out. They are in the UK, where MBAs are not as credentialized. DIY MBAs are low value. You can get a BS in Business Administration, or even a minor in it, and have more knowledge and experience than from reading these books. Guess what? Even with those credentials, they will not help you. "I have an MBA from [prestigious school]" are the magic words. The hiring managers don't care about lesser credentials or actual knowledge.

aik 3y ago
It’s very likely this person doesn’t care about the credentials but rather just wants to gain the knowledge to do something themselves. I more or less did this for years by reading a ton of books + many years of HN / articles / interviews / videos + startup weekend events + tried starting things + coding hobby for years + enterprise consulting work, and now I’m fairly well equipped to co-lead the company that I do. The first 5+ years of doing this I debated attempting to go to a prestigious school for an MBA, primary reason (95%) was for the networking opportunity (meeting great likeminded or driven people), (0% because I would’ve been able to tell people I had an MBA from somewhere for job purposes, the snobbery from that would have been a detriment often instead I believe), and 5% for the education which I think has value but when it’s free and I had the motivation there was no reason to pay $100ks for that. At this point this company is doing fairly well so although I would love to meet more driven and likeminded people, I’m not sure it the best path to do so anymore for me.
satellite2 3y ago
A classic case of Goodhart's law. If your metric is convincing a (rather bad) hiring manager, why even bother? And once you've convinced them, what do you do?
dylan604 3y ago
> DIY MBAs are low value. MBAs are low value...depending on perspective. Around these parts, they are deemed very value, or at least in low regard. Look at Boeing as exhibit A. If you're an engineering company that allows MBAs to make the decisions, you won't be a good engineering company for long. At that point, you become the dead carcass that the MBAs point to as to what their purpose is.

rimeice 3y ago

Been running my startup for 7 years, not a unicorn but fairly successful. Can honestly say I’ve not made it through a single one of these books. Certainly have tried and have got a few nuggets, but nothing has compared to learning this stuff first hand, on the job. Sure having passable knowledge of this list is useful, but you’re going to hire in people/consultants/external providers to do almost every module on this list for you at some point, you’ll learn from them firsthand. You don’t need to read this list to get a business off the ground and by the time you do you’ll need to surround yourself with these specialists in some form pretty quickly.

wslh 3y ago

The author missed the Fred Wilson's MBA Mondays Archive [1] which personally was a great resource in the quest for my "business success" (whatever it means). There is a more organized and illustrated edition here [2]. BTW, I always return to some articles such as "Commission Plans" for Sales [3]. Regarding books: - Only the Paranoid Survive by Andrew Grove (Intel) [4]. It is always in my "pocket". It is real experience with pain points from a top CEO, not an academic exercise. - Other books that are not focused on business but are more "epistemological". For example, "How Life Imitates Chess" by Garry Kasparov [5]. I don't know who created this title for the book though. Many autobiographies, in general, or good business biographies such as "Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire" [6]. [1] https://avc.com/category/mba-mondays/ https://avc.com/category/mba-mondays/ [2] https://mba-mondays-illustrated.com/ https://mba-mondays-illustrated.com/ [3] https://avc.com/2010/08/commission-plans/ https://avc.com/2010/08/commission-plans/ [4] https://www.amazon.com/Only-Paranoid-Survive-Exploit-Challenge/dp/0385483821 https://www.amazon.com/Only-Paranoid-Survive-Exploit-Challen... [5] https://www.amazon.com/How-Life-Imitates-Chess-Boardroom/dp/1596913886 https://www.amazon.com/How-Life-Imitates-Chess-Boardroom/dp/... [6] https://www.amazon.com/Hard-Drive-Making-Microsoft-Empire/dp/0471568864 https://www.amazon.com/Hard-Drive-Making-Microsoft-Empire/dp...

erichmond 3y ago

You want a real DIY MBA? Start a company. That's it. :D

nprateem 3y ago

Shout out to Four Steps to the Epiphany, since the act of actually researching and validating business ideas, then developing a sales pipelines touches on the majority of things that are important for early stage startups. Add in some books on leadership, HR and accounting if your product takes off.

Quinzel 3y ago

I was going to give the list of readings I had for my MBA which I finished last year, but my comment was too long to be posted here. I read a lot. Probably at least 10x more than what is listed in this DIY MBA list. However, the reading was probably only 10% of the actual effort that went into my MBA. There were a lot of projects, group projects and case studies to do, as well as real-life consultancy work, and meetings... with other students, and with real companies. And then... there was also lectures, about 8 hours a week worth of lectures, and then annoying interactive activities I had to complete each week, which were designed to prove that I was indeed actually doing the readings. Some courses wouldn't let you progress to the next week of readings etc, unless you completed the interactive activities, which would then unlock the next week's coursework. Other courses would just take a percentage off your final grade for every activity that was missed. A list of readings is just kind of not really the same experience, even if it contains a bit of the same knowledge. It's also about how you take the knowledge and implement it in real-life situations.

primax 3y ago

I was surprised when I did my MBA how they didn't cover anything to do with entrepreneurship... but then again it is a masters of business administration. This is an alright list of books, but as other posters have said anyone following it will sorely miss out on practice experience.

voisin 3y ago
Entrepreneurship is the application of everything else they teach - marketing, communication, finance, etc etc. I have a hard time believing it can be taught. You either have the drive to apply other topics in a risky way or you don’t. In the entrepreneurship courses I took in my MBA, the approach was nowhere near what I did in practice starting a business nor what any other entrepreneur I know did. But the rest of the classes were of value (mostly…)

Ozzie_osman 3y ago

Ah, the book Hooked + the aspiring MBA... A match made in heaven. And probably more responsible for regrettable product decisions than any other combination in modern history. Signed, An MBA who read Hooked

kwar13 3y ago

This list is long on fluff and extremely short on any hard technical skills such as corporate finance and valuation. If you're interested in seeing if finance is for you, I highly suggest reading Investment Valuation by Aswath Damodaran. Highly respected professor and most of his stuff is free on his website as well.

WoodenChair 3y ago

Listening to our podcast episodes on Business Books & Co. won't quite get you as much as reading the actual books, but it will follow a sort of 80/20 rule in that I think our episodes cover 80% of the major points in each book. Here are the episodes we've done on books in that list based on the categories the author ascribed: Product, Design & Marketing - S4E2 The Lean Startup by Eric Ries https://pnc.st/s/business-books/5d9f9531/the-lean-startup https://pnc.st/s/business-books/5d9f9531/the-lean-startup Organisational Behaviour, Management & Communication - S1E1 High Output Management by Andy Grove https://pnc.st/s/business-books/095f226633d34496/high-output-management https://pnc.st/s/business-books/095f226633d34496/high-output... - S3E4 The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz https://pnc.st/s/business-books/1067de4d/the-hard-thing-about-hard-things https://pnc.st/s/business-books/1067de4d/the-hard-thing-abou... - S3E7 Never Split The Difference by Chris Voss (author interview) https://pnc.st/s/business-books/920fe358/never-split-the-difference-with-chris-voss https://pnc.st/s/business-books/920fe358/never-split-the-dif... Creativity & Getting Stuff Done - S2E2 Creativity, Inc: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration by Ed Catmull https://pnc.st/s/business-books/6e3f927715094617/creativity-inc- https://pnc.st/s/business-books/6e3f927715094617/creativity-... We also have 30+ more episodes... many are book summaries/discussions but about 1/3 of recent episodes are author interviews. You can find all of our content for free on your podcast player of choice here: https://pnc.st/s/business-books https://pnc.st/s/business-books

__loam 3y ago

List of books read by obnoxious people.

ipnon 3y ago

Munger recommended 6 intro textbooks that every businessman should know: one each in psychology, accounting, microeconomics, evolution, math and physics.

graycat 3y ago

(1) In finance, there is portfolio expectation and variance in the efficient frontier, e.g., by Harry Markowitz. For more, there is modern portfolio theory. Also might look at the Black-Scholes work. And there is more. (2) Might want some of the math of optimization, e.g., linear programming, quadratic programming, integer linear programming, dynamic programming. (3) Some people would suggest some statistics -- random variables, expectation, variance, convergence of random variables, central limit theorem, model fitting (regression), hypothesis testing (Neyman-Pearson, non-parametric and resampling), experimental design. (4) More generally, might just visit the Web sites of some MBA programs, get the list of courses and, when available, the texts, class notes, and references. The references in the collection of this original post, what fraction are references of courses in MBA programs?

dartos 3y ago

To people who actually aspire to be MBAs, why? Is there any incentive to the field other than money? I never hear anything good happen because of MBAs, but there must be something.