Top MBA Books 2017

Sunday, March 26, 2017

What are textbooks used in university MBA programs?

Harvard Business School issues the following textbooks to first-year students:
Finance: Corporate Finance by Berk and DeMarzo
Finance (secondary book): Analysis for Financial Management by Higgins
Accounting: Financial Accounting by Stickney and Wiel
Economics (basic review book): A Concise Guide to Macro Economics by Moss

HBS relies primarily on cases and handouts rather than textbook reading, so we don't have textbooks for other courses.

A friend of mine who did an MBA and PhD at the Yale School of Management recommended the following books to me (commentary is his):

Finance:
Principles of Corporate Finance, by Brealey, Myers & Allen (excellent core corporate finance book)
Investment Analysis and Portfolio Management, by Reilly & Brown (excellent and comprehensive book about investment management)
Venture Capital and the Finance of Innovation, by Metrick (great intro textbook for venture capital)
Buyout, by Rickertsen, Lewis and Gunther (good intro book for private equity)
The Venture Capital Cycle, by Gompers and Lerner
Innovation and Its Discontents, by Jaffe and Lerner

Accounting:  Intermediate Accounting, by Kieso, Weygandt, & Warfield (a must-have; the bible of accounting)

Marketing:  Marketing Management, by Kottler & Keller (definitely the bible of marketing)

Operations: I don’t recommend purchasing a textbook, but read The Goal and Critical Chain by Eliyahu Goldratt.  They are easy reads written as novels and they will give you a good overview of the theory of constraints and the general principles of operations management.

Statistics: You’ve taken econometrics, correct?  I assume that you covered basic probability and statistics material in those classes.  If so, I would go ahead and buy Applied Multivariate Statistical Analysis by Johnson & Wichern.  The material is more advanced than anything you will likely see at HBS, but it is a great tool to learn, particularly in data-driven industries such as consulting and finance.

Strategy: Sharon Oster’s Modern Competitive Analysis is a commonly used book.  I would also read Nalebuff’s Coopetition if you haven’t done so already.  Finally, I would read Shell’s Bargaining for Advantage: Negotiation Strategies for Reasonable People and Getting to Yes by Fisher, Ury and Patton.

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