

Just Enough MBA to Be a Programmer - moserware
http://www.moserware.com/2009/07/just-enough-mba-to-be-programmer.html

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iguanatom
As an MBA graduate I'd say these Cliff notes are well said. There is a lot
more that goes into an MBA program, but programmers, engineers and other "non-
business" people should understand what the business is all about. Saying
that, it's also important for us MBAers to understand what programmers and
engineers do.

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Edinburger
Could you elaborate on what goes into an MBA program that isn't covered by 10
Day MBA? Case studies, exercises, networking oppos, what else? Thanks!

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pegobry
Hmmm...

Obviously there's a lot more to learn about finance, both market finance (the
various types of securities, how they work, how to value them, how to do
arbitrage on them...) and corporate finance (financial analysis, stock
analysis, stock buybacks, LBOs, mergers and acquisitions, generally how a
corporation is/should finance itself, especially debt vs. equity, all that fun
stuff...)

Financial controlling: ie how each unit reports its costs and revenues and how
to control those and establish budgets and targets. Something which is quite
dull when you're sitting in a classroom but is actually fantastically
important to running any reasonably large company (50+ employees). It's
particularly important because it's tied up into all manners of human
resources and corporate culture: how you measure someone's performance impacts
how you will reward it, which in turns impacts how people behave, what kind of
culture you have, etc.

You might also have supply chain courses (God how I hated those): inventory
management, supplier management, etc.

There might be some legal courses as well depending on your program.

Also, the main takeaway of a business course is that they're course- and
discussion- based. The post gives a good idea of the theoretical takeaway from
business classes, but you learn about those from reading and performing case
studies as groups and discussing them with the professor, which also gives you
a great sense of what can be done and what can't.

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Edinburger
Cool, thanks. I think it would be interesting to compile an online free
resource which covered all of this material. There are plenty of free course
videos online...I feel a side project coming on...

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pegobry
Absolutely. Really the main benefit of a business program is the people, and
spending two years with really smart people who have wildly different
experiences and are passionate about business. Seth Godin had a great post
about this. That said, I believe there are a few things they teach you in
business school -- the basics of finance and accounting, some business
strategy... -- that everyone should know. A business OCW would be a great
public service project.

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Edinburger
Ten Day MBA is a great little book. I bought a bunch of copies for the
engineers here and we ran a discussion group, chapter-by-chapter over a few
weeks. The exercise really improved the quantity and quality of business ideas
and useful input into strategy from the engineers.

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pchristensen
"Economics is the magic that allows me to write software in exchange for steak
burritos."

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mtpark
Watch out!

That equation for the macroeconomy (Quantity Theory of Money) went out of
style in the 80s when people realized velocity wasn't a fixed constant, i.e.,
it only appeared attractive given the small set of data at the time.

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baha_man
"Ethics seems easy to understand: Do to others as you would have them do to
you."

"Do not do unto others as you would expect they should do unto you. Their
tastes may not be the same." - George Bernard Shaw.

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notirk
Nice review of the book and the concepts. I have just finished reading the
same book, although I read it just as a primer because I am starting a part-
time program at NYU in the fall. Although not a programmer, I plan to try and
keep my technical knowledge up-to-date, it should help with the management and
work with the engineers/developers.

