What I Didn't Learn in Business School

Meet Justin Campbell. He's a newly minted MBA who's landed a coveted job in consulting. He's headed to Chicago to serve HGS, a large client with an intriguing new technology its executives haven't yet decided how to exploit. Constrained by a short timeline and limited information, Justin and his team use state- of-the-art strategy tools to analyze various possibilities.

Justin is energized by this challenging assignment, but soon finds the application of his strategy toolkit isn't as straightforward as he'd expected. The political and organizational forces swirling within HGS complicate his analyses and test his fundamental understanding of important strategic concepts.

Justin and his cohorts aren't "real" — What I Didn't Learn in Business School is a business novel. But they're realistic: they're just like us. They are humans, not human resources, and they each have their own personality, motives, and skills. Their story reveals both the strengths and the limitations of common strategy tools. And it demonstrates tactics for navigating the messy organizational dynamics that can make or break a company's efforts to craft successful strategies.

This engaging book uses the power of story to present potent lessons for anyone seeking to excel at strategy management. The action moves quickly, and at the end of each chapter, you'll find provocative questions that help you tease out vital insights that you can apply in your own work.

What I Didn't Learn in Business School is a compelling read — whether you're a recent business school grad struggling to apply your new knowledge or an experienced leader who already knows that no strategy is created in a vacuum.

• Prologue: A Little Turbulence

1. A Simple Problem
2. A New Shirt
3. A Moving Target
4. A Working Lunch
5. A Valuable Chain
6. A Thoughtful Workout
7. A Sweeping Vision
8. A Lone Ranger
9. A Team Effort
10. A Fitting Test
11. A Good Call
12. A Constructive Meeting
13. A Seamless Argument
14. A Tailored Presentation

• Epilogue: A Staffing Question

This was a surprise for me, as I started reading this book with some misgivings. Most of the business "novels" I read has been pretty bad, but this one managed to catch my interest. Probably because it didn't try to be great literature (it wasn't) or tried to force-feed you some ideas (except that management consulting isn't straightforward, which I agree with).

In my opinion, the authors succeeded very well with their stated objective of getting the reader to understand management consulting from the viewpoint of a new MBA, on his firsts assignment. They succeeded so well, that I would be willing to purchase a follow-up, just to see how Justin, Livia, Ken and Vivek handles more assignments.

Oh, and if you're like me, you will probably be surprised to hear that you may in fact learn a thing or two from this book (surprised old, cynical, me, I can tell you).

All in all, not a groundbreaking book, but very well written and well worth the effort to read it.