MBA in a Book: Fundamental Principles of Business, Sales and Leadership by Leslie Pockell and Adrienne Avila

Full Description:
MBA IN A BOOK offers the kind of information graduates of MBA programs ought to have, but usually gain only after years of hard-won experience. This volume contains essential advice about the fundamentals of business, sales, and leadership from some of history's most influential thinkers and doers: entepreneurs, executives, scholars, statesmen, and philosophers.
The business principles section includes wisdom about the fundamentals of business practice and theory and important advice on investment, leadership, management, marketing, and success. The following section includes observations and insights that offer useful sales advice and ingenious techniques. Readers will discover gems of wisdom that address both the daily practicalities and the grand ideals of leadership in the final section.
Updated with a new introduction, this valuable collection will provide readers with the keys to mastering timeless and essential business skills. MBA IN A BOOK will inspire, guide, and support anyone interested in mastering the complex strategies that lead to success in business.

©2009

About Author:
Leslie Pockell
Some years ago I created an anthology called EVERYTHING I’VE LEARNED—100 Great Principles to Live By. It occurred to me that it might make sense to apply this concept to business, giving young people entering the workplace (and perhaps some veterans as well!) an opportunity to benefit from the wisdom of those who had gone before. Three volumes resulted: THE 101 GREATEST BUSINESS PRINCIPLES OF ALL TIME, THE 100 GREATEST SALES TIPS OF ALL TIME, and THE 100 GREATEST LEADERSHIP PRINCIPLES OF ALL TIME. Now that they are combined in one omnibus hardcover volume, I feel that they provide a compendium of essential business insights that should be learned in every MBA program, but in large part are not. These principles are not theoretical—they are practical applications and explanations of phenomena that are to be found in every workplace environment, and accordingly in this book readers will find a fundamental grounding in the realities of the business world unavailable anywhere else.
Some may ask where I get the authority to compile such a work, and attach such lofty claims to it. I have no advanced business degrees myself, but I have labored in an assortment of metaphorical vineyards over the course of the past four decades, from entry level to senior management positions, in government and in the private sector, and I have paid attention to the commonalities and repetitive patterns around me. In an era when hit television programs like The Office and award-winning novels like And Then We Came To The End are documenting the futility and anomie that is so often a part of our shared work experience, and the economic chaos all around us demonstrates the inadequacy of so-called professional expertise, the universal verities of business presented in MBA IN A BOOK are more relevant than ever.

Adrienne Avila
Adrienne Avila is the co-author of "Everything I've Learned".


My Take on the Book:
It's really hard to judge a book of quotes. And that happens to be exactly what this was. If you are looking for a book that describes actual business, sales, tips or advice, then look elsewhere. This is a beautiful collection of quotes, but that is all. I really am not putting this on my recommendation list.

Here is the first quote in the book:
"Buy Cheap, sell dear." ~ John Greenleaf Whittier

~I did not receive any compensation for this post. This is my honest opinion.~