Prospective MBAs are attracted to business school for many reasons. That said, the chance to take stock and spend two years reading up on some cutting edge thinking and ‘big ideas’ would be a common one.
For the benefit of those contemplating an MBA, currently studying, or even those who have graduated and simply wish to see what is still commonly read and discussed on campus, I have compiled the following reading list. It is my definitive list, though the use of the word in this context is entirely tongue-in-cheek. No such thing can exist.
If for whatever reason you go on to read one or more of the titles, I hope you find it valuable.
1. The Opposable Mind: How Successful Leaders Win Through Integrative Thinking, by Roger Martin: I heard author Malcolm Gladwell mention this is one of his favourite books in a podcast and I was not disappointed. Short, simple but incredibly effective, it gives examples of how successful people are often adept at taking opposable ideas, analysing the arguments simultaneously and blending them together to create a third course of action.
2. The Lean Startup: How Constant Innovation Creates Radically Successful Businesses, by Eric Ries: It is hard to be anywhere in business today and unaware of the ‘lean’ and ‘minimum viable product’ methodology. Ries suggests companies and individuals are better off iterating product releases at rapid rates and learning how their customers use them over waiting to perfect them in long research and development cycles. The ideas in this book are a large factor in the countless young people trying to make apps in bedrooms and incubators all around the world.
3. Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling Disruptive Products to Mainstream Customers, by Geoffrey Moore: Why do people start using new things? How many users are needed for widespread adoption? Although it was first published nearly 25 years ago, this remains the seminal book on technology adoption lifecycles and a valuable guide of how to ‘cross the chasm’ from late adopters to early majority users.
4. Capital in the Twenty-First Century, by Thomas Piketty: This was the runaway surprise bestseller of 2014 and it has been a privilege to be on a business school campus when this book came into conversation. The French economist makes a startling and compelling thesis: capitalism has a tendency to promote highly unequal distributions of income and wealth. If the full book is too much, you can find a consolidated summary on the web. ‘Capital’ will undoubtedly impact business and the way we hope to organise the taxation of our societies for many years to come.
5. The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World, by Niall Ferguson: No book in these two years gave me the breadth and depth on man’s relationship with commerce like this one. From Pizarro’s plundering of silver for the Spanish coin supply, to Lord Rothschild’s incredible bond trades around the Napoleonic War, this book outlines how people have innovated with money through the centuries and changed the course of history each time. Written for the layperson, it is a great read early in the MBA.
6. The Real Estate Game: The Intelligent Guide to Decision-making and Investment, by William Poorvu: Required reading for a Manhattan real estate elective I took while on exchange at NYU Stern, this remains the prescribed real estate text at Harvard Business School and elsewhere for a reason. Though many of us hope to make apps, consult to major companies or devise highly efficient business models, the simple truth is many of us will derive much of our capital from investments in property; firstly our family home, then often other investments. This book remains the fastest way to build financial literacy in real estate and be able to calculate a ‘good deal’ like it’s second nature.
7. Raising Venture Capital for the Serious Entrepreneur, by Dermot Berkery: For my first eight months at business school, I intensively networked and researched the world of venture capital with the hope of finding a summer role in a fund or start-up. This little-known book by an Irish Partner at Delta Ventures was recommended by an alumnus and I have yet to find anything that so simply lays out the important details of the industry. Very beneficial reading before a VC associate interview.
8. Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead, by Sheryl Sandberg: For all its acclaim and notoriety, it seems crazy to me that more men haven’t read this book. Every man should read this book. It helps to see the world through the eyes of our significant others (if we are lucky enough to have one). It helps to explain how half of the workforce think about success and view success for themselves. My favourite anecdote remains her point on leadership as children: if a boy is assertive, he is told he has great leadership potential but if a girl does the same, she is often called ‘bossy’.
9. What They Teach You at Harvard Business School: My Two Years Inside the Cauldron of Capitalism, by Philip Broughton: A list such as this couldn’t leave off the social aspects of business school. Much maligned by HBS but agreed to be reasonably accurate by peers in his graduating class, Broughton’s book gives an inside account of life at the most famous business school in the world. The parallels with any top programme are there for all to see: the personalities, the motivations, the small scandals, the cultivation of the ‘MBA bubble’. Funny, insightful and good for perspective while at business school: you weren’t the first student to experience these things and you won’t be the last.
10. Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage to the Antarctic, by Alfred Lansing: Simply the most incredible survival story of the 20th century. In 1914 with a crew of only 27 men, Sir Ernest Shackleton set out on a daring expedition to reach and cross the Antarctic. It was a total disaster. Their ship was crushed by pack ice and they had to overcome the most incredible chain of events to eventually seek rescue. Many inspiring speakers visit business school campuses to talk of leadership: this book is a peerless example of what some people are capable of.
11. Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, by Doris Goodwin: My final suggestion is a deeply personal one, given no other non-fiction book has had such an impact on me. The book charts the biographies of four men who enter the US presidential race in 1860. All of them believed the presidency to be something they were born to do and yet only one triumphed and held the US together for the next five years through a civil war. While reading this on exchange at NYU, I not only had the chance to learn about a truly incredible man but also had the time to think deeply on the nature of leadership, empathy and purpose. My sincere hope is that everyone who attends business school reads a book or takes a course that gives them the self-awareness and realisations they crave, much like I did with this wonderful 700-page tome.
Happy reading.
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