Master the fundamentals, hone your business instincts, and save a fortune in tuition. The consensus is clear: MBA programs are a waste of time and money. Even the elite schools offer outdated assembly-line educations about profit-and-loss statements and PowerPoint presentations. After two years poring over sanitized case studies, students are shuffled off into middle management to find out how business really works. Josh Kaufman has made a business out of distilling the core principles of business and delivering them quickly and concisely to people at all stages of their careers. His blog has introduced hundreds of thousands of readers to the best business books and most powerful business concepts of all time. In The Personal MBA, he shares the essentials of sales, marketing, negotiation, strategy, and much more. True leaders aren't made by business schools-they make themselves, seeking out the knowledge, skills, and experiences they need to succeed. Read this book and in one week you will learn the principles it takes most people a lifetime to master.

The authors give the most comprehensive, authoritative and compelling account yet of the troubled state of business education today and go well beyond this to provide a blueprint for the future.

Discover the secrets and tips to get the business education you need, the faster and cheaper way. The average debt load for graduates of the top business schools has now exceeded $100,000. For most young professionals, this means spending the first half of their career in the red and feeling pressure to take the first position offered to them so that they can start paying off their debt. However, it doesn’t have to be that way. Author and businesswoman Laurie Pickard discovered a way to get the business education she needed to land her dream job while avoiding the massive school loans that plague so many. In Don’t Pay for Your MBA, she shares all that she learned so that others can benefit as well. Pickard discovered that the same prestigious business schools that offer the MBAs so many covet also offer MOOCs (massive online open courses) for low or even no cost. Within these pages, you will learn how to: Define your goals and tailor a curriculum that is geared toward your dream job Master the language of business Build a strong network Choose a concentration and deepen your expertise Showcase your nontraditional education in a way that attracts companies Don’t fall for the lies that pressure countless graduates every year into MBA programs and insurmountable debt. Self-directed online learning can fill gaps in your training, position you for promotions, and open new opportunities--at a fraction of the cost!

The 10th anniversary edition of the bestselling foundational business training manual for ambitious readers, featuring new concepts and mental models: updated, expanded, and revised. Many people assume they need to attend business school to learn how to build a successful business or advance in their career. That's not true. The vast majority of modern business practice requires little more than common sense, simple arithmetic, and knowledge of a few very important ideas and principles. The Personal MBA 10th Anniversary Edition provides a clear overview of the essentials of every major business topic: entrepreneurship, product development, marketing, sales, negotiation, accounting, finance, productivity, communication, psychology, leadership, systems design, analysis, and operations management...all in one comprehensive volume. Inside you'll learn concepts such as: The 5 Parts of Every Business: You can understand and improve any business, large or small, by focusing on five fundamental topics. The 12 Forms of Value: Products and services are only two of the twelve ways you can create value for your customers. 4 Methods to Increase Revenue: There are only four ways for a business to bring in more money. Do you know what they are? Business degrees are often a poor investment, but business skills are always useful, no matter how you acquire them. The Personal MBA will help you do great work, make good decisions, and take full advantage of your skills, abilities, and available opportunities--no matter what you do (or would like to do) for a living.

When it comes to being a good leader, we've read the sports analogies, we've read the war analogies. But how about hitting a little closer to home? As a mother, the following rules and tactics probably sound familiar to you: - Never Underestimate the Power of Kiss-It-Make-It-Better - Hold the Line on Tantrums - Remember the Magic Word Count to Three Before Giving a Time-Out These are good, solid rules for how to raise children. But can these same rules make you a better boss? Absolutely. In her impressive first book, Shari Storm takes the lessons attributed to parenting and shows how they can be directly applied in the workplace, making you a more effective manager and giving you the confidence to lead and shape your staff into the employees you want them to be. Shari gathers a wonderful collection of funny and inspirational stories from a wide range of executive mothers---TV producers, firefighters, accountants, teachers, baristas, corporate leaders, pilots---for an engaging, easy-to-absorb read. These pages will provide both laughs and enlightenment. For the woman who wants to excel in her business, this goes beyond your average management book.

This guide provides a detailed overview of the top MBA programs with sure-fire strategies for getting into the school of one's choice. The book tells what business schools are looking for in their students and shows how applicants can improve their chances with grades, GMAT scores, and work experience.

The best minds in business—at your service MBA in a Box brings together some of the best brains in business who show how the core curriculum of an MBA program works in the real world. People like Michael Porter, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Adrian J. Slywotzky, Warren Bennis, and Bill George give you a box full of ideas and tools that can boost your career and help you add value to your organization. For example: • Why finance is not just about manipulating numbers but of immense importance in sustaining growth, building widespread wealth, and creating jobs. • The profit zone and how to tell if a business is in one. • The skill of turning an idea or invention into a product that solves a problem for a market. • Merging the need of business to produce and grow with the environment so they are both sustained. • The latest thinking in marketing about branding, pricing, reversing a product’s life cycle, and turning what has become a commodity into a specialty. • And much more.

In this "refreshingly different" high-toned business book, three leading business school professors take to America's back roads in search of offbeat small businesses—enterprises that hold valuable lessons for executives and entrepreneurs everywhere (Bloomberg Businessweek). While playing hooky from a conference in Boston a few years back, three former colleagues from Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management hopped in a car and embarked on a life-changing road trip. They pulled into a shoe store in Maine and noticed that the sales help was unusually pushy. After a few questions, they discovered the store had a "secret shopper" program, in which employees would be marked down if they were not sufficiently aggressive with customers. A lightbulb went off. Instead of teaching the tried-and-true case studies involving GE and Microsoft, these three men decided to pull their heads out of their ivory towers and search for insights about product differentiation, pricing, brand management, building a team, and a host of other topics. Why take your cues on employee compensation from Wall Street when you can learn from a Main Street company like Couer D'Alene's best crime-scene cleaner? Want to learn about scaling a business? Come meet Dr. Burris, the flying orthodontist, who operates multiple, profitable practices in rural Arkansas. Spiced with vehicular mishaps and unexpected finds, this is one business book you won't want to miss.

A totally revised new edition of the bestselling guide to business school basics The bestselling book that invented the "MBA in a book" category, The Portable MBA Fifth Edition is a reliable and information-packed guide to the business school curriculum and experience. For years, professionals who need MBA-level information and insight-but don't need the hassle of business school-have turned to the Portable MBA series for the very best, most up-to-date coverage of the business basics. This new revised and expanded edition continues that long tradition with practical, real-world business insight from faculty members from the prestigious Darden School at the University of Virginia. With 50 percent new material, including new chapters on such topics as emerging economies, enterprise risk management, consumer behavior, managing teams, and up-to-date career advice, this is the best Portable MBA ever. Covers all the core topics you'd learn in business school, including finance, accounting, marketing, economics, ethics, operations management, management and leadership, and strategy. Every chapter is totally updated and seven new chapters have been added on vital business topics Includes case studies and interactive web-based examples Whether you own your own small business or work in a major corporate office, The Portable MBA gives you the comprehensive information and rich understanding of the business world that you need.

The all-inclusive guide to exceptional project management The Fast Forward MBA in Project Management is the comprehensive guide to real-world project management methods, tools, and techniques. Practical, easy-to-use, and deeply thorough, this book gives you answers you need now. You'll find the cutting-edge ideas and hard-won wisdom of one of the field's leading experts, delivered in short, lively segments that address common management issues. Brief descriptions of important concepts, tips on real-world applications, and compact case studies illustrate the most sought-after skills and the pitfalls you should watch out for. This new fifth edition features new case studies, new information on engaging stakeholders, change management, new guidance on using Agile techniques, and new content that integrates current events and trends in the project management sphere. Project management is a complex role, with seemingly conflicting demands that must be coordinated into a single, overarching, executable strategy — all within certain time, resource, and budget constraints. This book shows you how to get it all together and get it done, with expert guidance every step of the way. Navigate complex management issues effectively Master key concepts and real-world applications Learn from case studies of today's leading experts Keep your project on track, on time, and on budget From finding the right sponsor to clarifying objectives to setting a realistic schedule and budget projection, all across different departments, executive levels, or technical domains, project management incorporates a wide range of competencies. The Fast Forward MBA in Project Management shows you what you need to know, the best way to do it, and what to watch out for along the way.