Ahead of the Curve: Two Years at Harvard Business School
by: Philip Delves Broughton
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As One L did for Harvard Law School, Ahead of the Curve does for Harvard Business Schoolproviding an incisive students-eye view that pulls the veil away from this vaunted institution and probes the methods it uses to make its students into the elite of the business world
In the century since its founding, Harvard Business School has become the single most influential institution in global business. Twenty percent of the CEOs of Fortune 500 companies are HBS graduates, as are many of our savviest entrepreneurs (e.g., Michael Bloomberg) and canniest felons (e.g., Jeffrey Skilling). The top investment banks and brokerage houses routinely send their brightest young stars to HBS to groom them for future power. To these people and many others, a Harvard MBA is a golden ticket to the Olympian heights of American business.
In 2004, Philip Delves Broughton abandoned a post as Paris bureau chief of the London Daily Telegraph to join nine hundred other would-be tycoons on HBSs plush campus. Over the next two years, he and his classmates would be inundated with the bestand the restof American business culture that HBS epitomizes. The core of the schools curriculum is the casean analysis of a real business situation from which the students must, with a professors guidance, tease lessons. Delves Broughton studied more than five hundred cases and recounts the most revelatory ones here. He also learns the surprising pleasures of accounting, the allure of beta, the ingenious chicanery of leveraging, and innumerable other hidden workings of the business world, all of which he limns with a wry clarity reminiscent of Liars Poker. He also exposes the less savory trappings of b-school culture, from the booze luge to the pandemic obsession with PowerPoint to the specter of depression that stalks too many overburdened students. With acute and often uproarious candor, he assesses the schools success at teaching the traits it extols as most important in businessleadership, decisiveness, ethical behavior, work/life balance.
Published during the one hundredth anniversary of Harvard Business School, Ahead of the Curve offers a richly detailed and revealing you-are-there account of the institution that has, for good or ill, made American business what it is today.
As One L did for Harvard Law School, Ahead of the Curve does for Harvard Business Schoolproviding an incisive students-eye view that pulls the veil away from this vaunted institution and probes the methods it uses to make its students into the elite of the business world
In the century since its founding, Harvard Business School has become the single most influential institution in global business. Twenty percent of the CEOs of Fortune 500 companies are HBS graduates, as are many of our savviest entrepreneurs (e.g., Michael Bloomberg) and canniest felons (e.g., Jeffrey Skilling). The top investment banks and brokerage houses routinely send their brightest young stars to HBS to groom them for future power. To these people and many others, a Harvard MBA is a golden ticket to the Olympian heights of American business.
In 2004, Philip Delves Broughton abandoned a post as Paris bureau chief of the London Daily Telegraph to join nine hundred other would-be tycoons on HBSs plush campus. Over the next two years, he and his classmates would be inundated with the bestand the restof American business culture that HBS epitomizes. The core of the schools curriculum is the casean analysis of a real business situation from which the students must, with a professors guidance, tease lessons. Delves Broughton studied more than five hundred cases and recounts the most revelatory ones here. He also learns the surprising pleasures of accounting, the allure of beta, the ingenious chicanery of leveraging, and innumerable other hidden workings of the business world, all of which he limns with a wry clarity reminiscent of Liars Poker. He also exposes the less savory trappings of b-school culture, from the booze luge to the pandemic obsession with PowerPoint to the specter of depression that stalks too many overburdened students. With acute and often uproarious candor, he assesses the schools success at teaching the traits it extols as most important in businessleadership, decisiveness, ethical behavior, work/life balance.
Published during the one hundredth anniversary of Harvard Business School, Ahead of the Curve offers a richly detailed and revealing you-are-there account of the institution that has, for good or ill, made American business what it is today.
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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: 
- Excellent Read
I'll keep my review brief as there are already several excellent reviews below that capture the book excellently. This is a charming account of the author adventures at HBS, I found the book excellently written. This is definitely a page turner, I read it in 3 sittings and found myself laughing out loud many times. I think this book would be valuable to anyone attending any MBA program, not just HBS. Its been my experience that many of quirky personality that Phillip writes about are present in most ... Read More
Rating: - an interesting book
I found this book very interesting. It gives a different view of the current business world from a HBS student's point. The author used many examples and incorporated the ideas and thoughtsofmany famous business people. You may agree or disagree with his opinions but they are worthy reading.
The book talked about leadership, risk taking, ethic, extreme leverage and other aspects of the business world. Those are the authors observation or quotations of the professors or those famous business ... Read More
Rating: - Eye opener
While the author drips the customary cynicism of a journalist, the insights were revealing.The real challenge is just getting into HBS.Once there, it's all gravy.I also found his perspective on how this effort impacted his family interesting.
Rating: - Dissident Dispatches from America's Iconic Capitalist Boot camp
Ex-journalist turned MBA jock Philip Delves Broughton aims for the business stars as he gains acceptance to Harvard Business School in this first-person account.As a French correspondent for the London Daily Telegraph, Broughton has an eclectic and "liberal artsy" background which differs from many of the hard core business and "quant" types who are his classmates.
Broughton offers genuine insights on this Berlitz-like total immersion into graduate business study, striving and struggling to ... Read More
Rating: - ahead of the curve but behind the 8-ball
I had to give the book 5 stars because I couldn't put it down and because it was so thought-provoking.
I can't help comparing is book to Robert Reid's earlier book, Year One. Reid describes professors and fellow students more vividly than Broughton does. But Broughton seems to be describing an HBS that has changed since Reid's day. Reid didn't refer to expensive (and apparently useless) group trips, tasteless pranks and parties and psychological tests. HBS seems to have more students with military ... Read More
- Excellent ReadI'll keep my review brief as there are already several excellent reviews below that capture the book excellently. This is a charming account of the author adventures at HBS, I found the book excellently written. This is definitely a page turner, I read it in 3 sittings and found myself laughing out loud many times. I think this book would be valuable to anyone attending any MBA program, not just HBS. Its been my experience that many of quirky personality that Phillip writes about are present in most ... Read More
- an interesting bookI found this book very interesting. It gives a different view of the current business world from a HBS student's point. The author used many examples and incorporated the ideas and thoughtsofmany famous business people. You may agree or disagree with his opinions but they are worthy reading.
The book talked about leadership, risk taking, ethic, extreme leverage and other aspects of the business world. Those are the authors observation or quotations of the professors or those famous business ... Read More
- Eye openerWhile the author drips the customary cynicism of a journalist, the insights were revealing.The real challenge is just getting into HBS.Once there, it's all gravy.I also found his perspective on how this effort impacted his family interesting.
- Dissident Dispatches from America's Iconic Capitalist Boot campEx-journalist turned MBA jock Philip Delves Broughton aims for the business stars as he gains acceptance to Harvard Business School in this first-person account.As a French correspondent for the London Daily Telegraph, Broughton has an eclectic and "liberal artsy" background which differs from many of the hard core business and "quant" types who are his classmates.
Broughton offers genuine insights on this Berlitz-like total immersion into graduate business study, striving and struggling to ... Read More
- ahead of the curve but behind the 8-ballI had to give the book 5 stars because I couldn't put it down and because it was so thought-provoking.
I can't help comparing is book to Robert Reid's earlier book, Year One. Reid describes professors and fellow students more vividly than Broughton does. But Broughton seems to be describing an HBS that has changed since Reid's day. Reid didn't refer to expensive (and apparently useless) group trips, tasteless pranks and parties and psychological tests. HBS seems to have more students with military ... Read More
