Ahead of the Curve: Two Years at Harvard Business School

Product Description:
As One L did for Harvard Law School, Ahead of the Curve does for Harvard Business School—providing an incisive student’s-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 HBS’s plush campus. Over the next two years, he and his classmates would be inundated with the best—and the rest—of American business culture that HBS epitomizes. The core of the school’s curriculum is the “case”—an analysis of a real business situation from which the students must, with a professor’s 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 Liar’s 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 school’s success at teaching the traits it extols as most important in business—leadership, 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.

Browse for similar items by category:

• Books » Specialty Stores » Custom Stores » New & Used Textbooks » Business & Finance » Economics » General AAS
• Books » Specialty Stores » Custom Stores » New & Used Textbooks » Business & Finance » General AAS
• Books » Specialty Stores » Custom Stores » New & Used Textbooks » General AAS
• Books » Subjects » Biographies & Memoirs » Memoirs
• Books » Subjects » Biographies & Memoirs » General

Customer Reviews

Rating: - I'd like to buy this book
It sounds pretty interesting, but I would only want to buy the Kindle version.However, I'm not going to pay a premium for the ebook, not only does it cost more than the paperback version, it is more expensive than the hardcover.It shouldn't even be the same price, the publisher is saving the cost of paper, ink, labor, and shipping, while Amazon's only added cost is the ten cents or so they have to pay Sprint for wireless distribution.

When Amazon or the publisher wakes up and prices ... Read More
Rating: - A witty outsider's view of Harvard Business School
This was an unexpected and seredipitious purchase and I have highly recommended it to several people already. Amazon's marketing tools "got me" with a last minute "Amazon Recommends" on my way to check out. Without reading much on the book, I assumed it was more of a business or textbook-like work that would give a high level overview of what 2-years at HBS was like. But this is so much more. Having the author be from outside traditional "business" career paths, and coupled with the 10+ years of journalist ... Read More
Rating: - Witty with dry humor.
The author has different view of business school and business world. He is more of an idealist. The story was full of witty humor but somewhat boring in the half-way of the book. Otherwise, I would have enjoyed it more.
Rating: - Interesting Take on the MBA
During this time of economic upheaval, I have a lot of friends who are restarting their careers by going back to business school, or people who thinking about getting an MBA. Its as if the MBA was a golden ticket that would get you the career and recognition you wanted. Reading this book fills you in on what you are missing out on, not attending HBS. It seems the most valuable lessons he learned in school was not a bunch of nifty formulas, or secrets to success on Wall Street, but rather, critical thinking ... Read More
Rating: - Life's deeper meaning and a Harvard MBA
This author joined Harvard MBA a little late in life compared to his classmates. He had seen significant success and tasted the comforts of a stable job. As a result, he wasn't as driven by naked ambition as some of his peers. This inner conflict made it hard for him to relate to the academic exercises and relentless pursuit to the prevalent definition of success.

The book started well and the core theme was evident early on. However, somewhere in the middle it started going downhill and it wasn't ... Read More