Author Bio
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.