Indeed, these are radical times. Theyre exciting times. Sure, in some ways, its more challenging than ever to do business. Thats undeniable. The economy today isnt growing as it once did, to put it mildly; governments everywhere are more intrusive; global competition is fiercer every quarter; and technology just keeps propelling things forward faster and faster and faster.
At the same time, were in an era of dazzling innovation. Not just in terms of cool new products and engineering processes, which seem to improve every time you blink, but in terms of how companies and people get work done. Back in 1925, President Calvin Coolidge famously said, The chief business of the America people is business. Today, nearly a century later, wed jigger that quote to read, The chief business of the world is business. Practically everybody, practically everywhere, is making something, selling something, creating something, building something. This is the era of perpetual entrepreneurism, personal and professional, in organizations both small and massive, in economies old and brand-new.
Stand still at your peril. Or to be more precise, stop learning at your peril.
Better yet, embrace learning, and watch what happens to your organization, your team, and your career. Excitement. Growth. Success.
Our hope and intention is that The Real-Life MBA will be a part of that embrace. A big part, actually; a very current, highly useful, immediately applicable part.
You might want to use this book to supplement the MBA youre getting right now, either at a traditional campus or online. But this book is actually for anyone and everyone who is looking for a down-to-earth, no-BS primer on the big ideas and the best learn-it-today, apply-it-tomorrow techniques of an MBA. You may have already finished business school, for instance, but theres some dust on your diploma. Or you may be in a place in your life where suddenly knowing about business matters. Your first job out of college. Your first promotion to boss. Your first managerial role at a nonprofit. Your first day as CEOand employee No. 1of your own start-up. (Go for it!)
This book, in other words, is for anyone who doesnt want to do business alone.
Now, does The Real-Life MBA contain everything you need to know about business? Of course not. We urge you to learn about business from every possible source: colleagues, bosses, TV, websites, newspapers, conferences, podcasts, and, yes, other books. Find experts in your industry that you respect and follow them. Find experts in your industry you disagree with and pay attention to them, too.
Our goal here is not to make you into a functional specialist of any sort. Our goal is to codify the business of business today,
to give you a framework for understanding what business is about now, and how the game is played, no matter what industry youre in or hope to enter someday.
To that end, The Real-Life MBA opens with a section called Its About the Game. Its chapters explore the ways in which companies, no matter what their size or type, should organize and operate to win in the marketplace: how they can get everyone aligned around a mission and behaviors, for instance, create strategy that never gets stale, rebound from a competitive drubbing, galvanize growth even in a slow-growth environment, and impel innovationnot just among the big brains in R&D, but among everyone. The first section of this book also takes a look at how to think about marketing and finance, two subjects that generate a lot of sound and fury and a big dose of anxiety, but definitely need not. And finally, the Its About the Game section of The Real-Life MBA talks about how to deal with one of the realest parts of real business today: a crisis. After all, almost no one can avoid the #RomanColiseum of public opinion anymore.
The second part of this book is called Its About the Team. It contains our new model for leadership; its just two imperatives, each one incredibly hard to implement yet incredibly necessary. Weve also found this model to be incredibly transformative at the companies that have adopted it. Also in this section of The Real-Life MBA, we describe whats involved in building what we call a wow team, covering the blocking and tackling of hiring, motivating, developing, and retaining your best players. Keeping it real, this section concludes with a chapter that looks at managing and working with geniusesthat is, people whose work you couldnt do yourself, a growing phenomenon in this ever more high-tech, high-brain, high-expertise world. It also examines managing and working with people who are someplace youre not. By some estimates, 20 percent of all professionals work remotely, and the number is only growing. That doesnt make it easy or productive; we look at the practices that can make it more so.
The Real-Life MBA ends with a section called Its About You, which focuses on career management. One chapter helps you answer the question What should I do with my life? Another examines, How do I get out of my career purgatory? And the last explores what you should do after youre officially done with your career. You will probably not be surprised to see that our answer is not Retire.