The Startup MBA - Venture Hacks
http://venturehacks.com/articles/startup-blogs

I read all of these blogs. They all have incredibly useful archives. And they’re all written by people who teach and practice, so the advice is practical.

The impression I formed of the M.B.A. experience was that it involved taking two years out of your life and going deeply into debt, all for the sake of learning how to keep a straight face while using phrases like “out-of-the-box thinking,” “win-win situation,” and “core competencies.”

Taylorism vs. Mayoism: Both management theories fail.

Most of management theory is inane, writes Mathew Stewart, the founder of a consulting firm. If you want to succeed in business, don’t get an M.B.A. Study philosophy instead. [Atlantic Magazine, June 2006]

This was on the del.icio.us Popular Booksmarks list. I've only read the first paragraph, but I am finding myself inclined to agree with the general thrust of this article. To be read in full later.

So, if concepts from books are easy, what’s hard? Doing it. Picking up the phone, making the plan, signing the deal. Pushing ‘publish.’ Announcing. Shipping. We spent a lot of time on this area. Every morning, each person came in prepared to push someone in the group to overcome the next hurdle. This is what growth looks like, and it was energizing to be part of. We didn’t do this at all at when I was at Stanford. We spent a lot of time reading irrelevant case studies and even more time building complex financial models. The thing is, you can now hire someone to build a complex financial model for you for $60 an hour. And a week’s worth of that is just about all the typical entrepreneur is going to need. The rest of the time, it’s about shipping, motivating, leading, connecting, envisioning and engaging. So that’s what we worked on. It amazes me that MBA students around the world aren’t up in arms. How can schools justify taking $100,000 in cash and teaching exactly the wrong stuff?

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Always ask what can go wrong (Porterfield);

very cool summary of important things you should learn in b-school but that people don't seem to anymore...

Six Month Alternative MBA

The 6months MBA diary from the students of Seth Godin

Blog of Seth Godin's 'Six Month Alternative MBA' - some interesting thoughts on entrepreneurship and marketing.

Advanced game theory is exceptionally useful. Basic game theory is dangerous — because it assumes that you’re dealing with a bunch of rational “players”. It’s like trying to design a real car that’s going to be driven on a theoretically frictionless surface, with no air resistance and no idiots on the road.

ory is exceptionally useful. Basic game theory is dangerous — because it assumes that you’re dealing with a bunch of rational “players”. It’s like trying to design a real car that’s going to be driven on a theoretically frictionless surface, with no air resistance and no idiots on the road.

"No amount of strategic planning will ever substitute for managing your cash flow" - "There are always more things to do than there is time to do them" - "It helps not to call people “human resources”. They’re people. And, as it turns out, people like to be treated like people. Go figure" - "There’s a lot of value to being likable" - "Advanced game theory is exceptionally useful. Basic game theory is dangerous — because it assumes that you’re dealing with a bunch of rational “players”.

David Heineimeier Hansson, the creator of Ruby on Rails and partner at 37signals in Chicago, says that planning is guessing, and for a start-up, the focus must be on today and not on tomorrow. He argues that constraints--fiscal, temporal, or otherwise--drive innovation and effective problem-solving. The most important thing, Hansson believes, is to make a dent in the universe with your company.

Something happened to management culture decades ago and now being a Master of Business Administration, especially from Harvard, is rather on the nose. MBA, it's being said, can also stand for 'Mediocre but Arrogant', or 'Management by Accident'. Reporter, Stephen Crittenden.

"Fedex.com makes shipping so fast and easy, even an MBA can do it " (sweet ad) - education shaping culture, heritages squandered - Transcript of Henry Mintzberg, Phillip Delves Broughton, Russell Ackoff, Rakesh Khurana, Will Hooper et al on MBA's, admittance, arrogance, attitudes, best-and-brightest, compensation, elites, quantity over quality, risk averse people taking risks, syndromes, Taylorism and scientism, professions (over practices) - "educating for hubris" - Warren Buffet turned down by HBS, unlike Dubya who "was certainly decisive, let alone divisive, and he was decisive in utter ignorance. The case study method does that" - Leadership? "That's a disease in the United States. Everything is going to be cured by leadership. Look, every time you talk leadership, you're talking followership" - failed models, over-confidence that we have the right-answer - fast tracks (when there is no short cut), credentials over merit

The failure of business schools.

collection of links to resources

there is talk about the media world, as well as the open source world. And how businesses should "defeat" the masses. Timing, product features, and the skillful use of network effects across market segments [benefits of a business]. This is a very "odd" study

How can a business compete with a free product? It’s not easy, and it’s more than just a theoretical question. U.S. newspapers are finding it difficult to compete with free news and the commentary of bloggers and other internet sources. And in the software world, the rise of open source products, which are available for free on the internet, is reshaping the technology industry.

Ultimately, from the point of view of the buyer, free products provide an important benefit. “Even if consumers do not end up adopting the free product, it can act as a credible threat to the commercial firm, forcing it to both lower prices and invest more in product innovation,”

Businesses Can Win the Competition Against Open-Source Technology

"Now, I understand the use of students from elite business schools as a proxy for "talent" in the business world. But as the economy experiences the most deep-seated changes in decades, maybe it's time to change our minds about what kinds of people are best-equipped to become business leaders. Is our fascination with the comings and goings of MBAs as obsolete as our lionization of investment bankers and hedge-fund managers? Is it time to look elsewhere for the "best and the brightest" of what business has to offer?"

Good article on entrepreneurship

Brings out a great distinction between focusing on the 'cause' vs. the 'effect' -- the latter being more akin to Design Thinking. Note also in the explanation of the latter -- the message in effect is 'embrace the heuristics'.

The more Sarasvathy explains the differences in the two styles of thinking, the more obvious it becomes which style matches the times. Causal reasoning is about how much you expect to gain; effectual reasoning is about how much you can afford to lose. Causal reasoning revolves around competitive analysis and zero-sum logic; effectual reasoning embraces networks and partnerships. Causal reasoning "urges the exploitation of pre-existing knowledge"; effectual reasoning stresses the inevitability of surprises and the leveraging of options.

"Her work revolves around one big question: What makes entrepreneurs "entrepreneurial?" Specifically, is there such as thing as "entrepreneurial thinking" — and does it differ in important ways from, say, how MBAs think about problems and seize opportunities?"

Thought-provoking.

An american venture capitalist's blog with information on technology business start ups

Need to read these again once a week.

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