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Re: MBA Books - Good books to read prior to MBA [Merged] [#permalink]
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jb32 wrote:
Three more to add: M&A Titans - about some of the legendary dealmakers in Wall Street's golden era, and Deals from Hell: M&A Lessons that Rise Above the Ashes(especially relevant for future Darden IB's since it was written by a Darden prof.) - case study about 10 of the worst deals of all time. I thought the first was outstanding, and the second I'm in the process of reading. I'll edit the first post to give my thoughts when I am finished.

Also, the last book I'll recommend as a sort of encyclopedia of deal making is The Big Deal by Bruce Wasserstein. The book is loooooooooonnnngggg (like 1,000+ pages), but provides a history of deal making by industry from the 1950's up through 2001 (published in 2002). It's amazing how much M&A shaped many of the familiar brands we know today. Then, the second half of the book chronicles how a deal gets done and who the main players are. I would recommend this book for anyone that wants to be a dealmaker.


Added the first 2 - actually started a new M&A section.

For the "Big Deal Book" - there are 3 different ones on Amazon - though none that I am finding are available for sale....
this one? https://www.amazon.com/Big-Deal-Bruce-Wa ... 551&sr=1-5
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Re: MBA Books - Good books to read prior to MBA [Merged] [#permalink]
bb wrote:
Added the first 2 - actually started a new M&A section.

For the "Big Deal Book" - there are 3 different ones on Amazon - though none that I am finding are available for sale....
this one? https://www.amazon.com/Big-Deal-Bruce-Wa ... 551&sr=1-5

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/044667 ... 0446675210

Here you go, BB.
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Re: MBA Books - Good books to read prior to MBA [Merged] [#permalink]
The Art of War is a fantastic overall management book. It's also a very quick read.

I'd recommend Nudge, which was written by a lawyer and an economist from the University of Chicago. The book sort of sits at the intersection of public policy and business, and provides examples of how consumers can be 'nudged' towards decisions that are in their economic/physical/emotional/etc... best interest. You get the point after the first few chapters, but it's worth finishing nonetheless.

https://www.nudges.org/
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Re: MBA Books - Good books to read prior to MBA [Merged] [#permalink]
I've met rather interesting article "Summer Reading List: The B-School Edition" on the BusinessWeek site. Hope it'll be useful at least for any of you).
Sorry, I'm unable to post urls cause I haven't wrote 5 posts yet, but those of you who are interested in this article can find it in google.

Edit: https://www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/jun2009/bs20090629_491096.htm

Originally posted by juliastudent on 23 Aug 2009, 09:47.
Last edited by bb on 23 Aug 2009, 14:29, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: MBA Books - Good books to read prior to MBA [Merged] [#permalink]
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Thank you for the suggestions!
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Re: MBA Books - Good books to read prior to MBA [Merged] [#permalink]
What about the wolf of Wallstreet ? ;p
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Re: MBA Books - Good books to read prior to MBA [Merged] [#permalink]
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Bookmarks
This discussion is quite long now, so perhaps the author has already been mentioned. At any rate, I found Investment Biker and Adventure Capitalist, by Jim Rogers, worthwhile.
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Re: MBA Books - Good books to read prior to MBA [Merged] [#permalink]
I would say to take any of the MBA memoirs with a grain of salt. To a very large extent, your bschool experience will be what you make of it, and will vary greatly from student to student. There are just so many variables involved: different classes/professors, different career paths and recruiting focuses, different clubs and activities, different social choices, etc. So definitely use these books as another view into the bschool experience, but don't necessarily assume that the author's experience at School X is the same as any other student's experience at that school.
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Re: MBA Books - Good books to read prior to MBA [Merged] [#permalink]
Hello friend,
Nice post..I liked it and got some useful info also..I also like reading Business Management Books.they give a more knowledge about some of the basic business skills like team building,leadership development, management development and many more.
I always feel that every reader has different taste of reading as I have so I always first test before reading then go for it.
Well it's a long topic to discuss..
Thanks !! I really got some really good info here which will help me in my project.

Regards,
Nelson
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Re: MBA Books - Good books to read prior to MBA [Merged] [#permalink]
Thanks for all the great suggestions!
I had "The World is Flat" on my long list of "to reads" but have since removed it based upon feedback here.
I am a HUGE fan of Malcolm Gladwell and recommend all 3 books: "Blink," "Outliers" and "The Tipping Point." We make the latter book a required read in our Marketing dept at work.
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Re: MBA Books - Good books to read prior to MBA [Merged] [#permalink]
My recommendations :

Concise Guide to Macroeconomics: What Managers, Executives, and Students Need to Know -- 189 pages, short and sweet intro to basic Macroeconomics

MBA Fundamentals Statistics (Kaplan MBA Fundamentals) --- This is the only decent book in Kaplan's MBA fundamentals series,
this book goes beyond number crunching in statistics.

Macroeconomic Patterns and Stories -- I am a macro buff, this one is another great macro econ book, for those who want to dive into the subject while reading graphs and stories

Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science --- A real light read that offers more than just and intro to Econ. No graphs and curve shifting here :)
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Re: MBA Books - Good books to read prior to MBA [Merged] [#permalink]
For anyone interested in real estate development, I would recommend Jane Jacob's The Death and Life of Great American Cities.

Jacobs, described as a "lay" person to the urban planning community(she didn't have a formal education in it), through this book, turned the academic community and profession on its head and completely changed many philosophies regarding cities and neighborhoods. Though written in the 70's (I believe), the book is still highly relevant and requires no previous understanding in architecture or urban planning principles. It's also a very easy and immensely interesting read.
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Re: MBA Books - Good books to read prior to MBA [Merged] [#permalink]
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Re: MBA Books - Good books to read prior to MBA [Merged] [#permalink]
"The Dhandho Investor", by Mohnish Pabrai . A must read for anyone who is into stocks/ wealth management. Honestly, I've followed this advice and not made a single investing mistake.

Read it, unless you're an investing guru already.

-wg
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Re: MBA Books - Good books to read prior to MBA [Merged] [#permalink]
Guys, I'm not from a business or finance background. Can any of you recommend a good book in corporate finance? I went through the list on this thread but don't know which one of them would suit a beginner. I just need some basic knowledge so that I won't feel too overwhelmed when I start at INSEAD in 6 months time =)
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Re: MBA Books - Good books to read prior to MBA [Merged] [#permalink]
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Many believe the Brealey Myers to be the bible when it gets to corporate finance handbooks: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/007336 ... 0073368695

You may be able to find an earlier edition but it is a Business School textbook (not an easy to use guide). You may want to look into the Dummies series - they make it easy to jump into complex topics - I generally like their books.
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Re: MBA Books - Good books to read prior to MBA [Merged] [#permalink]
Thanks buddy, I've added both to my list. The Dummy series is a really good suggestion. I've read some of their books and they were very helpful.
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Re: MBA Books - Good books to read prior to MBA [Merged] [#permalink]
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