Review: What They Don't Teach You at Harvard Business School: Notes from a Street-smart Executive
What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School: Notes from a Street-smart Executive by Mark H. McCormack
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Mark’s book on what to learn about business outside of the educational realm is not too bad. The best way to describe Mark McCormack is that he is the Bruce Springsteen of business. He has built his own company and has learned from the school of hard knocks. Topics in this book such as people, negotiating, getting things done are straight from the gut given the experiences he has had over the years.
This is certainly a book that aligns with the title of learning the things they wouldn’t teach you at Harvard Business School. They are the types of lessons that you wouldn’t really learn in any university. It very much aligns to the big debate on education and what we really should be teaching the next generation; times tables or how to lead and make decisions. Either way Mark is on the right track with this title and the book in general. Enjoyed the read and was able to pull out a few good ideas and strategies for the future.
Three key takeaways from the book:
1. The best person to sell to is someone who has just arrived at a new company or is just leaving
2. When you have made a sale it is best to change the topic straight away
3. Apparently there are 8 billion people in the world. Given this was written in the 80s I’m not sure how that fact passed the editing stage
