HBS certainly looks The Business, but according to Philip Delves Broughton...
I was gifted with the Philip Delves Broughton's Ahead Of The Curve two weeks ago. In that time, I’ve managed to sift through it on the my commute to and from work. On the whole, I found the style of writing not to be as engaging as I thought it could be. If I were not going through this application process, I probably would have skipped reading the book after the first chapter. Here are the things that stand out for me from the book:
- Crikey, does this guy go on about work-life balance. He seems to have spent a lot of time worrying about how bad a father and husband he would be if he became a mega-powerful tycoon or took a job on Wall Street or in consulting. I almost felt like slapping him and saying, “what don’t you do one of these things first, then figure it out”.
- The relationship between staff and faculty does not seem to be strong, at least comparative to other schools. I found the incident with the Entrepreneurship lecturer discouraging. Broughton and his school-mate, Bo, try to approach him with their start-up idea and were shown disinterest. In the end, they got more help from someone who dropped out of their class; I was impressed that this other guy had contacts with VCs and was able to advise how to approach them. On the plus side then, perhaps HBS does attract truly amazing students?
- The hierarchy of people in the class determined by which job people end up in, i.e. high paying Private Equity and Hedge fund at the top followed by Investment Banking / Consulting then everything else. His impression was that people were caught up comparing themselves with others and becoming unhappy as a result. You could leave HBS with a job that paid $200,000 and still you could be considered a loser because others earned more!?
- He talks about the application process: he got a 730 in the GMAT when the average for HBS was 700. His essays were on topics such as reporting for The Daily Telegraph during 9/11 and the ethics of representing two different sides in a news story he had to write. i.e. his essays must have stood out like a hot girl in a night club.
- HBS leaves the students with a confidence that they can talk to anyone about business in any situation. Perhaps this is the arrogance that some others talk about? Broughton also mentions often that after HBS he felt he had the business tools for approaching any situation. I suspect these two things are what the Case Method must impart on the students.
- No mention of involvement in clubs. At Wharton the kids can’t stop talking about how the much the clubs help them prepare for interviews. I wondered whether he had made the most of his experience there.
- The job hunt: every job ad for Investment Banking or Consulting required 2 years previous experience in the industry. You needed to have set your path for a career change well before arriving there! For Broughton, who did not have clear career goals, this was disastrous – ultimately leaving him without a job on graduation.
- Some of the classes seemed impressive, especially Michael Porter’s take on using competition to drive quality of life improvements in industries, regions and countries.
- There are some useful lessons for all aspiring MBAs. A lot of what Broughton talks about I could imagine to be true of many business schools, particularly areas such as the trials of recruitment or a non-finance person keeping up with everyone in class. On this basis, I would actually recommend the book to anyone thinking of doing an MBA.
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