(Steven Silbiger/HarperBusiness/July 2013/448 pages/$19.99)

A Step-by-Step Guide to

Mastering the Skills Taught in Americas Top Business Schools

THE TEN-DAY MBA

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THE TEN-DAY MBA A Step-by-Step Guide to Mastering the Skills Taught in

Americas Top Business Schools MAIN IDEA When you strip away all of the expensive embellishments, the real basics of an MBA

education fall into nine disciplines which you need to have knowledge of and practical

experience in. If you were to spend a day immersing yourself in the best thinking in each

of these topics and then allocate your tenth and final day to putting together some

worthwhileminicourses, youll grasp the fundamentals taught in the best MBA programs

without losing two years wages and incurring $175,000 in

tuition fees and expenses.

The synthesis of knowledge from all of these disciplines is what makes the MBA

valuable. In the case of a new product manager with an MBA, she can not only see her

business challenges from a marketing perspective, but she can recognize and deal with

the financial and manufacturing demands created by her new product. This coordinated,

multidisciplinary approach is usually missing in undergraduate business curricula. By

learning about all the MBA disciplines at once you have the opportunity to

synthesizeMBA knowledge the way you would at the best schools. My goal is to make

you familiar with the significant MBA tools and theories currently being taught at the

leading business schools and to help you understand and develop the MBA mind-set.

Steven Silbiger About of Author STEVEN SILBIGER is senior director of marketing at Plymouth Direct. He was previously director of new products at National Media, a senior competitive analyst at

Nutri/System and a senior auditor at Arthur Andersen. He is a graduate of the University

of Virginias business school and the University of Kansas. He is also the author of

Retire Early? Make the SMART Choices and The Jewish Phenomena

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While the overall marketing process is not generally easy to define or to execute, most marketing tends to be built on the foundation of a seven-step circular process:

1. Consumer analysis you identify specific segments within the population whohave

similar needs so your marketing can be targeted and directed at them. You then look at the buying process they are likely to use which are usually: Learn / Feel / Do Attention / Interest / Desire / Action Awareness / Search / Alternatives / Purchase / Evaluate

2. Market analysis you then review whether the target market youre going after is

large enough to be able to provide the return you want to make on your marketing investment. This will include taking into account where your product is in its life cycle, the prevailing key competitive factors and all the competitive dynamics of your target market. Smart marketers try to hitch their wagon to rapid growth products with the potential to quickly ramp up sales rather than to mature or declining products.

3. Competitive analysis once youve chosen a market to go after, you then tend to look

at who is already serving those customers and what it will take to beat them in the

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future. This is where aSWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis gets used. You figure out what core competencies you bring to the equation and analyzehowthat mix compares to what other competitors have to offer. You analyze where your product or service will be positioned against the competition, the resources you have available and howyou can exploit the weaknesses of your competition. MBAs do a thorough competitive analysis so they can make their offerings stand above whatever the competition offers in the marketplace.

4. Review your distribution channels you have to work out how you will get your

product into the hands of customers. This will often be a matter of figuring out how to split the projected profit between the various parties in the distribution chain. Whoever has the most power in that chain will expect to garner the biggest share of the profit. You will need to allow for everyone, potentially: Wholesalers Distributors Affiliates Sales forces or your salespeople Retailers

5. Develop your marketing mix which to an MBA means figure out how you will get the

word out. The marketing mix is commonly built around the Four Ps of Marketing: Any changes which get made to one P in the marketing mix generally means all the other Ps must subsequently be adjusted in some way as well.

6. Go into the underlying economics of your plan and decide whether or not you have

a plan which is reasonable and profitable. Obviously to be sustainable, you have to determine what your costs are, what your break-even point will be and how long the payback period will be on your ingoing marketing investment. You also have to figure out whether its reasonable to get to that break-even point in your targeted market or not.

7. Revise and iterate your plan once youve been through the planning exercise the

first time, you then look at how your plan needs to be tweaked and improved. This frequently involves asking questions like: Should I target another market segment? Are there alternative channels to tap into? Will cheaper prices move more product?

Every MBA knows there is no such thing as the right and wrong answers when it comes to marketing. How consumers will respond to various 4P mixes cant be easily and systematically predicted. Creativity, experience, skill and intuition all need to be injected into the planning of marketing to come up with a plan that works. Its the process that counts and your capacity to stay in the game until the marketing plan comes together that will make the difference. Numbers-oriented students tend to view marketing as one of the soft MBA disciplines. In fact, marketers use many quantitative or scientific techniques to develop and evaluate strategies. The art of marketing is trying to create and implement a winning marketing plan. There are literally an infinite number of possibilities that may work. McDonalds, Burger King, Wendys, Hardees, and White Castle successfully sell burgers, but they all do it in different ways. Marketing plans undergo many changes until all the parts are internally consistent and mutually supportive of the objectives. All

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aspects of a proposal need to work together to make sense. Steven Silbiger

MBAs are aware of the ethical business environment in which they work and which they help to create. This environment is built on the foundation of the idea that corporations dont exist solely to make profits. They also have social responsibilities and obligations to be good citizens of society as well. Therefore, decisions should be made taking the socially responsible approach that is, decisions should be made which are to the benefit of all stakeholders which includes customers, suppliers, employees, local communities and owners. MBA students learn about two major ethics topics:

Relativism explains why ethics gets ignored in decision making so often. People arent

necessarily trying to do wrong, they just look at decisions from the context of their own beliefs rather than more universal standards of good and bad.

A stakeholder analysis is a reasonable framework for organizing your thoughts

whenever an ethical dilemma arises. To make a defendable decision: 1. Figure out the cast of main characters. 2. Look at harms and benefits to each player. 3. Determine their respective rights and responsibilities. 4. Consider the relative power of each. 5. Factor in short- and long-term consequences. 6. Formulate contingency plans for alternative scenarios. 7. Make a judgment.

You should also be aware of the provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 which legislates ethics in corporate America. This includes financial accounting rules, internal

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control rules, executive conduct rules and ethical conduct rules for related parties. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act is intended to control fraud and corruption although its track record suggests it has not really stemmed the tide. Knowing what obligations the Sarbanes-Oxley Act creates is important in real world settings. The purpose of ethics in the MBA curriculum is not to make students model corporate citizens. Rather, the intention is to make students aware of the ethical implications of business decisions. In any case, ethics is a good topic for speaker forums and great fodder for articles and dissertations. Since ethical problems often have no definitive answers, the area will remain fertile academic ground for years to come.

Steven Silbiger

The governing rules of accounting are called Generally Accepted Accounting Principles or GAAP. To have a good working knowledge and solid grounding in accounting you dont really need to understand GAAP in detail. Instead, you need to understand how accountants generate and use numbers. Or more specifically, you need to have a working knowledge of accounting which means that you understand: Accounting can be cash basis (record transactions when cash changes hands) or

accrual basis (match revenues and expenses regardless of cash movements). Balance sheets list what a company owns and owes at any particular point in time.

The Income Statement of a business is a summary of its profit-generating activities during the specified period of time. The Statement of Cash Flows summarizes how a company generates and uses cash during a period. With these three basic accounting statements, you can understand any business model that exists.

The fundamental accounting equation is: Assets = Liabilities + Owners Equity Working capital = Short-term Assets - Short-Term Liabilities Gross margin = Revenues - Direct cost of goods sold Depreciation is the cost of using equipment allocated over its useful life. Activity-based costing is a method of allocating overhead expenses based on actual

usage rather than arbitrary measures. Accounting records and statements always balance. Financial statements can be interpreted and compared to industry standards by using

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eight basic ratios: Current Ratio = Current Assets / Current Liabilities Leverage = (Tot. Liabilities + Owners Equity) / OE Long-term Debt to Capital = Debt / (Liabilities + OE) Assets Turnover per Period = Sales / Total Assets Inventory Turns = Cost of Goods Sold / Average Inventory Days Inventory = Ending Inventory / (Cost Goods Sold / 365) Return on Sales = Net Income / Sales Return on Equity = Net Income / Owners Equity (OE)

Operating results can be analyzed and managed by using variances. Whenever your

organizations performance varies from that of your peers, the reasons why will be important to analyze and understand.

All corporate activities must eventually be measured in dollars, and that is where accounting comes in, like it or not. Although this area may appear tedious, you must have a working knowledge of accounting to function in the business world. Because knowledge is power, MBAs need to be literate in accounting to understand its function; more important, they must be able to ask for and use accounting information for decision-making purposes.

Steven Silbiger

10-Day MBAs are taught to think before they act when it comes to dealing with people and to not let their own personal preferences get in the way. The underlying methodology in this area is:

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In order to have enough background knowledge and the right vocabulary to discuss organizational challenges, MBAs get a good grounding in these theories and topics: APCFB Model assumptions affect the perceptions people have, perceptions affect

conclusions, conclusions prompt feelings and feelings drive behaviors. Motivation Theory people are motivated to act one way or another by their

expectancy of a reward they value. The VCM Leadership Model leaders need to have vision, commitment and

management skills in equal proportions. Power Sources power comes from five sources: coercive, rewards, referent

(charisma, etc.), legitimate and expert know-how. You need to understand how to work with each type of power.

Organizational structures can be along many different lines including functional,

product, customer, geographic, divisional, matrix, amorphous or hybrid mixes. Organizations must develop systems for allocating, controlling and monitoring money, resources and people.

Human talent can usually be grouped into a pyramid where at each successive level,

there are fewer individuals who assume greater authority. Evolutions organizations exhibit five predictable stages of growth and five period of

crisis during a changeover from one stage to the next. Those stages are: Growth through creativity Growth through direction Growth through delegation Growth through coordination Growth through collaboration

MBAs are not really trained to be organizational experts as such but get a good grounding in all these theories so they have a better chance of acting effectively. They seek to analyze and think before they act.

The five basic tools of MBA-level quantitative analysis are: 1. Decision tree analysis developing diagrams and flowcharts which bring together a

problem and its alternative solutions, risks and uncertainty. A decision tree is a chart

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which can be exceptionally helpful in trying to visualize the logical flow-on effects of different choices.

2. Cash flow analysis where you answer the simple yet pressing question: What will

this investment cost and how much cash will it generate? You have to be able to calculate the current investment and the projected value of the future benefits which might be derived and their timing in order to be in a good position to evaluate projects.

3. Calculations of net present value figuring out the future value of something and its

net present value is possible once you can calculate the future cash flows and how these should be discounted to their present-day value. Discounted cash flow is also used to determine the internal rate of return of investments. To evaluate the merits of any project, you need to figure out the magnitude of the projected future cash flows, the timing of when those cash flows will happen and a discount rate which reflects the risk of the project.

4. Probability theory how practical statistics can be applied to business decisions.

Most people shy away from this so this is an area where MBAs can differentiate themselves. The bedrock concept of statistics is the bell curve or the normal distribution curve. Simply stated, when a large number of samples are taken, around 70% will be average, 15% above average and 15% below average. Many different business metrics fit this curve and an understanding of means and standard deviations go a long way in helping to describe the performance of diverse markets.

5. Regression analysis and forecasting linear regression relationships crop up in a

variety of business situations. When relationships between variables can be shown to exist, that relationship can then be used to forecast the future. For example, regression analysis can be used to forecast sales when price, promotion and market factors vary and calculations such as how production costs vary with production volumes. You gather lots of data and then use regression to produce the line which best depicts the underlying relationship. The maths involved in developing a regression analysis is quite well known and once you have the ability to use these, you will then be well equipped to articulate underlying trends, regular cycles and other patterns which occur in the broader business world.

These are practical tools that MBAs use to meet business challenges. They give MBAs the power to make informed decisions and to distinguish themselves on the job. Quantitaive analysis is probably the most challenging and most important course in the MBA curriculum.

Steven Silbiger

When you get to the heart of the matter, finance breaks downinto two distinct yet

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interconnected areas of specialization:

For investments, the key driving principle is always risk-versus-return. Unsurprisingly, everyone is trying to maximize their returns while at the same time minimizing their risks. The challenge is to find investments where the return is commensurate with the amount of risk youre willing to take when you buy and own an asset. So how do you value the various investment alternatives? It always come back to discounted cash flows and net present value the concept that a dollar held today is worth more than a dollar received in the future. To compare investments: Bonds are valued on the present value of their future cash flows taking into account

the reliability of their issuer. The issuer pays interest semiannually (a coupon) and then the principal (the face value) at a stated maturity date. Value is derived from the stated interest rate, the length of time until maturity and the risk of default of the issuer.

Stocks are valued by their dividend cash flows, by price-earnings ratios, by their

assets, by their price-to-sales ratios or as a multiple of cash flow per share. Different groups of companies are valued by different methods because of the nature of their business models and numerous other factors.

Options are contractual rights to buy or sell an asset at a fixed price on or before a

stated date. Options are termed derivatives because they are not an actual asset but the right to buy or sell some asset. Options always have a theoretical value (the difference between the assets current value and the options exercise or strike price) and a market value (what people are willing to pay for that option.) You value an option for public stock by factoring in: Time until expiration Difference between current stock price and strike price Price volatility of the stock Market interest rate on short-term government securities Dividend payments on the stock

Other derivatives such as futures (contracts to buy commodities like gold or oil or

financial assets) or swaps (where a financial institution insures against changes in value for an agreed fee) can also be valued using various methodologies which are refinements on the concept of net present value. Companies use options and other derivative investments to either hedge their risks or to speculate on future changes in underlying asset values.

Very specialized valuation techniques and best practices have sprung up around the valuation of all these asset classes but they are all based on risk-versus-return in one way or another. When it comes to financial management, the two major questions are always:

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There are always a large number of potential investments companies can make and

its the management teams job to come up with viable choices. This is termed capital budgeting. To evaluate alternatives, most companies tend to calculate the projected payback period and the net present value of the future cash flows which will be generated by the investment. In making those net present value calculations, coming up with the correct discount rate which is commensurate with the risk of an particular project is the hard part. If youre trying to value the viability of a group of related projects, you can also develop a profitability index which brings the returns on a portfolio of projects together into the one calculation.

Finding the financing for the capital needs of businesses is an area of specialization

for many MBAs. The goal of corporate finance is always to raise sufficient capital at a level of risk that the management is willing to live with. The underlying risk is if a company cannot service the debt it takes on, it will be forced into bankruptcy.

The five basic ways companies obtain finance are: 1. Trade credit or extended payment terms from suppliers 2. Obtain lease financing on equipment and assets 3. Bank loans or other forms of borrowing 4. Issue bonds as fixed-interest-rate commitments 5. Issue stock to shareholders or sell ownership shares

Financing often comes down to figuring out the optimum mix of debt and stock. There are no magic MBA formulas for establishing this ratio but the issues which are generally considered will include flexibility, risk, income, control and timing. All of these issues will factor in sorting out capital structure issues.

Mergers and acquisitions are also a key area of corporate finance. Companies seek mergers and acquisitions in order to: Diversify their operations Improve sales and earnings Attempt to unlock unrealized value Lower their own operating costs through economies of scale The key to making a merger or acquisition work is to correctly establish the value of the other entity. This is a very specialized area of expertise but it usually comes down to cash flows taking into account capital investments which will be required to replace or upgrade operational equipment. The value of the target is then calculated by determining the net present valuation of the firms future cash flows, discounted by some factor which represents the likelihood those cash flows will in fact be available in the future. The potential opportunity to gain access to other assets which can be sold off also comes into the equation.

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M When you strip away the layers, the five critical issues which arise when trying to produce a product or service are: 1. Capacity How much can you produce?

This will be a matter of analyzing your methods, materials, manpower, machinery, working capital levels and systems for sharing information for obvious inefficiencies.

2. Scheduling How are you going to do whats required?

The perennial favorite approach here is to develop Gantt charts which allow everything to be planned and coordinated. The overall idea is to identify bottlenecks and address them before production is affected.

3. Inventory How much is there and how to reduce it?

Inventory levels are the great balancing act of the business world. You want to have enough stock on hand to be able to meet the sales demand but you dont want to have vast amounts of precious working capital tied up in finished products sitting around waiting for buyers to be found. To approach this like an MBA, an analysis needs to be developed which compares holding costs with ordering costs to determine optimum order quantities. Concepts like just-in-time inventory and material requirements planning are also important for inventory management.

4. Standards How do you keep your standards high?

Benchmarking and best practices feature prominently in any discussion about keeping standards high. To contribute to a business in this area, MBAs are well versed in total quality management principles, in the work of W. Edwards Deming and others. This also meshes very well with managerial controls.

5. Control Is the production process working?

At heart, the term quality means a product or service meets the standards set by either the manufacturer or the end consumer. Quality doesnt mean a flawless product any more than it means the most expensive product in the marketplace. Concepts like fitness for use, statistical process control, six sigma and total quality management all come into play here.

Other topical issues when it comes to operations include: Cycle time how long it takes for a company to take an idea and convert it into a

product which is available in the marketplace. The role of new technology and integration to allow concepts like mass

customization to be applied.

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How better information technology impacts on existing operational processes cloud computing, customer relationship management, enhanced capacities to interact with customers and so forth.

Operations is the only MBA subject that concerns itself with actually making products and providing services the ultimate purpose of business.

Steven Silbiger

Economics studies how society allocates the limited resources of the earth to the insatiable appetites of humans. Supply and demand are the forces at work. At what is referred to as equilibrium (E), the market price allows the quantity supplied to equal the quantity demanded. Suppliers are willing to sell, and consumers are willing to buy. Supply equals demand for a price. That, in a nutshell, is the basis of all economic theory.

Steven Silbiger The three big divisions in economics are: 1. Microeconomics which deals with the supply and demand of individuals, families,

companies or industries. Here supply equals demand at an equilibrium price. Consumers are trying to minimize their costs and at the same time maximize the utility of what they buy. If customers respond to price changes, economists call their behavior elastic.

2. Macroeconomics which is concerned with the aggregated economies of cities,

countries or the world. The two opposing schools of thought are Keynesian (named after John Maynard Keynes) and monetarists. Keynesians like government spending and proactive governments which control the markets. Keynesian theory suggests spending and consumption are the main drivers of an economy. Monetarists place their faith in the operation of free markets and the control of the money supply as ways to drive growth. Monetarists believe the size and growth of the money supply determines the rate of growth of a nations economy.

3. Global macroeconomics where nations keep track of their international transactions

by balance of payments accounting which reflect changes in foreign exchange over a period of time. If a nations government is doing a good job, inflation is low, economic growth is steady, foreign reserves are increasing and the local currency is highly valued.

To be up to speed about economics, you have to be familiar with the work of:

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John Maynard Keyenes who wrote The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money in 1936.

Adam Smith whose book The Wealth of Nations published in 1776 described the

invisible hand of competition as underpinning an economic system based on self-interest.

Joseph Schumpeter who wrote Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy in 1942. He

was the Harvard economist who coined the phrase creative destruction as an inevitable and desirable consequence of capitalism.

John Kenneth Galbraith who wrote books in the 1950s and 1960s which made the

case for labor unions, public services and the gradual move towards socialism in the United States.

Arthur Okun of Yale who found that higher levels of economic growth are

accompanied by lower unemployment. Arthur Laffer, the father of supply-side economics, who developed the Laffer Curve

which has been used to explain the incentive effects of tax rates on the economy.

Business strategy is a broad brush term. It often describes big picture thinking but in practice, there are three levels of strategy:

Functional strategies are the value-adding activities you choose to be engaged in. For

example, you lower costs by utilizing the most advanced processing technologies available.

Business strategies are your plans for fighting competitors in the industry you

currently operate in.

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Corporate strategy is where you decide what business you want to be in and why. The most widely used tool for strategy development and discussion is the Five Forces Theory of Industry Structure developed by Michael Porter of Harvard. He suggests the five forces which drive industry competition are:

1. The threat of substitute products or services. 2. The threat that new entities may enter your market. 3. The collective bargaining power of suppliers. 4. The aggregated bargaining power of buyers. 5. The level of rivalry amongst existing firms. Using this framework, you can formulate survival and growth strategies for your business, evaluate the attractiveness or otherwise of other industries for possible expansion and investigate the level of profit in an industry. When the five forces framework is used, three generic strategies for success frequently come to the fore:

With cost leadership, you achieve the lowest cost of production and therefore you can

either reduce your prices or use the increased profits to invest in research and development of next-generation products. Here youre trying to use economies of scale and the learning curve to maximum effect to generate benefits for your firm.

Differentiation involves making your product or service distinctive in the mind of the

consumer and therefore you can charge more. Focus is where a company concentrates on either a market niche, a geographic area

or a product and tries to establish a franchise a loyal following. Another widelyused strategy tool is the portfolio balancing model introduced by the Boston Consulting Group. They classify companies into four categories:

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1. Stars businesses which have high market share and are in high-growth industries. Stars grow and finance themselves.

2. Cash cows companies which have a large market share in low-growth industries.

These gems can provide the cash to fund other businesses. 3. Dogs small-market-share businesses in low-growth industries. These firms are

going nowhere and do not warrant further investment. 4. Question-marks businesses which have a small market share in high-growth

industries. They need cash to grow but this is risky because its not yet clear whether they will ultimately become stars, cash cows or dogs. Many startups are question-marks in their early days.

Not to be outdone, McKinsey & Co. suggest a better approach to juggling a portfolio is to classify companies by a number of industry factors instead. Under the McKinsey strategic approach, you classify the companies in your portfolio as: Invest and hold Invest to grow Invest to rebuild Selectively invest in promising parts of the business Harvest (the equivalent of milking the cash cow) Divest (you sell the dog) Strategy is an area where many fads come and go. Some of the more memorable or enduring have been: In the 1990s, it was fashionable to talk about figuring out your core competencies and

focusing on what you do well. Next, customer retention became the Holy Grail of business Reengineering came to prominence in the 1990s as well and has been a consulting

industry juggernaut. Economic value added or market value added the difference between net operating

income after taxes and a firms cost of capital also had its moment in the spotlight. Globalization has been a consulting and business strategy buzzword in recent years.

Forces which either facilitate or impede globalization are studied in fine detail. Synergy combining two or more businesses to generate greater performance than

the individual businesses would have generated has also been popular. Its generally accepted the key to business success is not so much the strategy which is employed as it is the depth and quality of the strategic implementation which results. Business strategy is dynamic and constantly evolving but its the doing that counts, not the thinking about doing.rategy

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Research Minicourse The right places to look for up-to-date information about people, competitors or an industry are: Internet search engines and company Web sites Books and free and paid online databases Interviews with people in the industry Attending trade shows Newspapers and magazines which are industry specific

Speaking Minicourse To give good public presentations: Know your audience and their interests and preferences Know your own delivery capabilities KISS Keep it short and simple Deliver a central idea and motivate

Negotiating Minicourse To be a good negotiator: Know your opponents temperament and capabilities Understand your own temperament and resources Do your homework on the impact of different scenarios Determine your strategy and limits ahead of time For best outcomes, avoid a win-at-all-costs mentality Use each encounter to learn how to improve in the future

Business Writing Minicourse To be good at writing business communications: Present your purpose in the first sentence Use a personal, accessible and respectful tone Use the active voice whenever possible Eliminate extra words, unnecessary facts and long sentences Use good spelling and grammar Always read the final draft of everything you send

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Real Estate Investing Minicourse The basics of sound real estate investing are: Cash flow is king when it comes to real estate Analyze real estate before you buy, not after Real estate involves fixed, variable and planned expenses Use the financial leverage offered by real estate astutely Get a good tax advisor and use all deductibles Learn how to evaluate properties intelligently Cultivate multiple sources of financing Learn about real estate as an investment Develop a plan and invest to that plan Manage your investments to realize your financial goals

Financial Planning Minicourse

Rule #1 Always pay yourself first If you automatically and habitually save a minimum of 10 percent of your career earnings, you will be in a good position by the time retirement rolls around. Be sure to take full advantage of and maximize all of your tax-deferred savings opportunities by using any 401(k) or 403(b) plans which are available to you.

Rule #2 Own your home Renting a place doesnt build wealth. If you own your home and pay a mortgage, the federal government is in effect subsidizing your accumulation of wealth by offering a tax deduction for your mortgage interest. That deal is hard to match any other way so harness it. To accelerate the benefits, set up biweekly payments and make extra payments to principal each month or each year. Have a goal to pay off your house in ten years or less and then start buying rental properties once your own home is paid off.

Rule #3 Create both an emergency fund and an investment portfolio Everyone needs an emergency fund which has enough moneyto meet three- to six-months of your expenses. Create that nest egg and youll sleep better. Save a set amount each month until you have that fund in place and then take that monthly amount and use it to create a long-term investment portfolio for yourself.

Rule #4 Invest wisely Admittedly easier said than done but remember investments arent meant to be creative. Diversify widely across asset classes, investment styles, mutual funds, bonds and certificates of deposits. If you want, speculate with a small proportion of your nest egg but keep those activities very limited in scope.

Rule #5 Be selectively extravagant but pervasively frugal Be selective about how you spend your money. By all means spend on things which are important to you but for everything else, be frugal. For example, if you drive a moderately priced vehicle and invest what you would otherwise have spent leasing a luxury car, you might be able to add a million or more to your investment portfolio over

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the course of a lifetime. The key to efficient and productive research is to know where to seek information.

Steven Silbiger The mystique and the livelihood of the Top Ten business schools are predicated on making their curriculum appear as unique and complex as possible. Companies pay thousands of dollars to send their executives to drink from these hallowed fountains of knowledge for a few days. From my interviews with graduates from Wharton, Harvard, Northwestern, and other top schools, I learned that all of their programs serve up the same MBA meal. Only the spices and presentations of the business banquets vary. The basics of MBA knowledge fall into nine disciplines. As you learn about them, you too will begin to think and talk like an MBA.

Steven Silbiger

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