Of course you can’t get an MBA degree in a day ask anyone who has put in the months and years needed to accomplish this challenging and rewarding achievement but this book is where you will find, in basic, easy-to-understand language, MBA concepts and principles that are presented in the gold standard of business education throughout the world the master of business administration.
The story behind this book comes from my years teaching in a full-time MBA program where I began to notice something I found very interesting.
Every semester, in addition to the traditional MBA students who had taken time off from their corporate life to enroll in the MBA program, I would find one or two students who were clearly “outliers” to these mainstream corporate types for example, a physician, an attorney, an executive director from a nonprofit organization, or a small business owner or entrepreneur.
It did not take long to realize this trend was an indicator of an underlying interest, and need, for these well-educated professionals well trained in the education of their profession to learn about the “business side” of their professional lives.
These non-business-trained professionals wanted to fill a gap and learn business principles and concepts needed in their professional practices but not taught in medical schools or other professional schools such as law, engineering, architecture, veterinary, or other highly specialized training programs.
I also realized that for every physician, attorney, architect, or entrepreneur who can take the time to enroll in an MBA program, there are many more who are pressed for time and focused on the day-to-day challenges of running a successful practice, operating a small business, or launching a new venture but who would benefit from learning the essential principles and concepts found in the coursework of an MBA program. It is for these successful albeit time-sensitive professionals that this book is written.
In this book, you will learn the fundamental concepts and principles that full-time MBA students learn and that also have applicability to professional services providers, small business owners, and entrepreneurs as well as corporations and industry.
These principles and concepts are not industry or profession specific they are classic, strategic, and essential in performing in today’s complex economic environment.
The book begins with Section I: People, Management, and Policy, which focuses on the human side of business.
“Human Re-sources,” explores how human assets are critical to success and competitive advantage.
“Organizational Behavior,” explores the dynamics of how people work together in an organizational setting.
“Leadership and Team Building,” explores the differences between managing and leading and presents concepts behind the effective use of teams as a means to achieve organizational goals.
“Ethics,” focuses on the complexities and issues that managers face in doing the right thing in an increasingly ambiguous and uncertain organizational environment.
“Negotiation,” presents essential processes for navigating through the dynamics of conflict and agreement, providing a useful understanding of how this subject is critical to managers who must negotiate to some degree, on several levels, every day.
Section II: Money: Economics, Finance, and Accounting, focuses on the concepts and principles we associate with the financial side of an organization and its economic context.
“Accounting and Finance,” explores the way we keep score in business, providing the essentials of accounting systems and financial statements. Chapter 7,
“International, National, and Local Economics,” provides a vocabulary of economic fundamentals to understand how nations, corporations, and individuals behave in markets to efficiently apply and allocate scarce resources and make their way through global economic systems.
Section III: Markets and Strategy explores the way organizations read, adapt, and communicate with their customers, competitors, and constituencies.
“Marketing, Strategy, and Competitive Analysis,” we review how organizations analyze their industry and their competition and then develop the way they communicate with their target customers. “Advertising and Promotion,” looks at the specifics of companies’ communication with customers and clients.
Communications and Presentations,” presents principles and concepts about an increasingly important part of managing a business today how to present our ideas and communicate effectively.
Section IV: Systems and Processes explores the key areas for organizations to implement their strategies and maintain competitiveness and sustainability. ,
“Project Management,” explains how managers can tackle specific projects from start to finish and efficiently manage them.
“Management Information Systems,” we explore the increasingly important essentials of today’s cyber-environment and how technology can be harnessed to achieve organizational excellence.
“E-Commerce and Uses of the World Wide Web,” explores the use of the Web both as a means to communicate with customers, clients, and constituencies and also as a tool for organizational efficiency and productivity.
And finally, in a world where quality is the key driver to market success and sustainability, Management Systems,” explores the concepts and principles of developing a culture and organizational purpose focused on quality.
