Practice MBA

08/02/2019

“Organizations focus so much on efficiency that they fail to be effective. Instead of concentrating on their core goal, they pay attention to narrower measures like cutting costs, or reducing the inconvenience suffered by their staff. ... What they [business schools] tend to do at the moment is encapsulate the best practices of current businesses, codify them and pass them on. But the real challenge that business-school graduates will face is dealing with the unexpected.” -

Charles Handy explains the curse of efficiency

02/28/2017

Good advice on becoming 'equipped for rationality' - http://bit.ly/2m9uIK4

Charlie Munger offers timeless and pithy wisdom on getting rich, focus, fake knowledge, understanding our circle of competence, and so much more.

08/10/2016

An interview with the estimable Darren Joe during China Europe International Business School - CEIBS's pre-MBA program (Shanghai - Summer 2016)

Darren speaks with Ivan Kerbel of Practice MBA about what applicants need to know about MBA careers and MBA career strategy.

05/26/2016

"Considering that millennials are the most diverse generation — spanning many racial, ethnic and income categories — intragenerational differences are bound to play an important role when you’re talking about individual people. Though both are 'millennials,' a young immigrant working three sharing-economy gigs is likely to look at the world very differently from a trust-fund baby who’s tending his Tumblr in Brooklyn. Yet only one of these stereotypes tends to make it into media accounts of millennials." - http://nyti.ms/1TZfahZ

The expensive quest to discover what millennials want misses two things: Each is an individual, and collectively they are much like other generations.

04/11/2016

"A straightforward yet under-appreciated fact about instruction is that smart people make good teachers." Plus, "the right number of interviews per candidate" is four. - http://theatln.tc/1YqmczC

Hiring is hard. But tests, deliberate systems, and the wisdom of crowds can help.

04/01/2016

The relative value of professional networks for MBA vs. Law students. For law grads, academic performance drives career outcomes, whereas for MBAs, networking ability trumps grades ... perhaps in part because "[as] some researchers have suggested, there is no tight coupling between what is taught in business schools and the skills and knowledge that are required for business practice." - http://bit.ly/1XEvk3R

What you know affects who you know.

02/26/2016

Equal air-time and empathy for the things happening in one another's lives (there you have it: the hallmark of a successful team), c/o Yalies and Julia Rozovsky - http://nyti.ms/1TBWckw

New research reveals surprising truths about why some work groups thrive and others falter.

02/02/2016

"Britain’s business secretary, says the aim is to 'break the link' between studying and immigration. This is precisely the wrong approach." - http://econ.st/1RWtYBX

Shrewd governments welcome foreign students. Stupid ones block and expel them

12/14/2015

An important read for anyone in business - "increasingly, digital ad viewers aren’t human" (but you can buy their traffic anyway). - http://bloom.bg/1P2VknI

08/17/2015

There will be much good commentary about this article. The key issue remains whether all the things that should be celebrated about Amazon, particularly its efforts to "resist the forces he [Mr. Bezos] thought sapped businesses over time — bureaucracy, profligate spending, lack of rigor" can exist in steady state with a less edgy, more collaborative environment that doesn't remind one of 'Survivor'... - http://nyti.ms/1gKJTmk

The company is conducting an experiment in how far it can push white-collar workers to get them to achieve its ever-expanding ambitions.