Textbooks and most recommended books

Long-long time ago when I was applying to business school I wanted to find out which textbooks are used in the study process and what other reading professors recommend. If there's someone out there who is as curious for books as me, the following lists are for you.

First-term textbooks:

• Business Statistics: Quantitative Methods for Decision Makers (4th ed) by Mik Wisniewski
• Strategy: Contemporary Strategy Analysis: Concepts, techniques, applications (6th ed) by Robert M. Grant
• Corporate Finance: Principles of Corporate Finance (8th ed) by Brealey, Myers & Allen
• Financial Accounting: Financial Accounting (6th ed) by Harrison and Horngrenn
• Managerial Economics: Principles of Microeconomics (Version 4) by N. G. Mankiw

Most recommended books (students' survey, top-15)

1. The Goal by Eliyahu Goldratt
2. Good to Great by Jim Collins
3. How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
4. The World Is Flat by Thomas Friedman
5. Liar's Poker by Michael Lewis
6. Competitive Strategy by Michael Porter
7. The Innovator's Dilemma/Solution by Clay Christensen
8. The New Business Road Test by John Mullins
9. Are You Ready to Succeed? by Srikumar Rao
10. Barbarians at the gate by Bruan Burrough
11. Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
12. Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner
13. The Pyramid Principle by Barbara Minto
14. The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
15. When Genius Failed by Roger Lowenstein

I have only read 6 out of the Top-15 list before, so long way to go! (keeping in mind that the whole survey mentions more than 250 titles)

Getting Things Done

After Al Martine’s post I’ve decided to finally read Getting Things Done by David Allen. And... thank you, Al, that’s a very useful reading for future MBAs!

What I took from the book:

• Free you mind for creative thinking by organizing your commitments: write them down and don’t rewind them over in over in your head
• Create lists of what you should do, whom are you waiting for reply, what you may want to do someday
• Write actions, e.g. “call to book the table” instead of “birthday dinner”. Always ask “what’s the next action?”
• Instantly do things that you can accomplish in less than two minutes. If it will take more time, add them to your lists
• Review the lists regularly
  
• And a lot more…

I’ve reorganized my lists in Backpack (see earlier post) and the methodology is now working for me! Two lists are my favorite: what I am waiting from someone and Projects - to get a higher perspective on what’s going on.
If interested then check out this Wikipedia entry for more details and tools to implement this methodology (I’d like to try the Lotus Notes tool next).

UPD: Patxi's impressions of the book.

Book about IB, trading and consulting - "Fast track"

Couple of days ago I came across one interesting book and immediately thought of first year MBAs who are now torn between banking and consulting.

2Facts:
1. The "Fast Track" is written by Mariam Naficy who worked at Goldman Sachs (IB) and Gemini (MC), and then got her MBA from Stanford.
2. The book holds lots of interviews with insiders and a very good list of additional literature.

If you're interested look at Amazon reviews here.
Tip: don't check the book's website - it is useless.

Chicago Students Reception, 18th Sep, Moscow

Yesterday I managed to get to the reception organized by current Chicago GSB students, Oleg and Katya (Oleg has a LiveJournal in Russian).
Good example (and thank you, guys, if you’re reading)!
I hope to host a similar event when I'll be an MBA student myself ;). I only wish Russian LBS or Harvard or Columbia students could come to Moscow for a cup of tea and tell the audience about their experiences. We are not at all spoilt with b-school attention in Russia :)
It was long time ago when I attended such an interesting and useful meeting.
So... brief takeaway:
1. Why Chicago?

• electives, no 'core' (flexible study group as a consequence)
• much value is given to facts and figures
• big city (has consulting offices, but banks are mainly in NY)
  

2. Being a bookie I have added "The Goal" to my wish list (read at Operations course and Operations is the essence of Consulting).
3. Post MBA opportunity I haven't ever thought of: VC in IT. My experience will be valuable in accessing start-ups. Not that I viewed VCs as dream-job having heard about them only from developers' side :)

Have you read "Freakonomics"?

Even if you haven't, you've definitely heard about the authors idea - there was some buzz a while ago, blogsearch brings about 20,000 results - that legalization of aborts in seventies decreased crime rate in nineties.

Why?
Authors cite lots of convincing statistics, but I'd like to add my 2 pence.

My granny remembers the times when abortion was legalized in Russia. Death rate among young women and mothers dropped dramatically, she says.
You cannot stop that thing, legal it would be or not, but women suddenly could receive doctor service instead of being treated by some next-door healer.
So more kids had mothers, got better nursing and education, became good citizens, never went to prison and now phone their mothers every weekend. Of course you wouldn't be able to collect any trustworthy data for Russia at that time.

The book is very interesting, a must-read for everyone who likes to question "generally accepted practices". Articles from New York Times on their website and their blog are worth checking too.

UPD: Published in Russian in November 2006. Link to Ozon

Me in London

That's Hyde park on the sunny Sunday

My new job includes trips to UK, and right now I'm sitting at a client's office (and since it is the open space and I don't want at least six people around me to know what I'm doing - I'm not blogging for a long time). So now the only one who didn't blog about Rusgirl beeing in London - is me. I decided that this is unfair :)
*so... blogging*

I was lucky to be in London on the same day some LBS admits decided to organize a meeting - and I was invited by Angel Angie (and she IS an angel :)). What can I say? I enjoyed the event immensely! Everyone I've met from LBS so far are very interesting people (adcoms, well done! ;))
Next morning I met DivineMissN and KV for a brunch (if anyone from KV web-fans reading this - know, in real life he is even more cute than in his blog :))
Some information from the kitchen:
* Read The McKinsey way to have a good understanding of what consulting is about (not that I wanted to jump in their shoes, just of pure interest)
* People who get an MBA but do not have enough working experience (or Bachelor degree) can face difficulties in finding a job (and all that MBA thing is about finding a good job after all). Most well-known firms from Industry ask for 5 years of postgraduate experience. They just won't look at your CV no matter how good you are and how killing you CV is! Of course, you have chances with not so well-known companies, this means networking, networking and networking. Be prepared :)

As for my Oxford note, I've had an e-mail interview with them, where they asked me to solve a few problems. Sent it back promptly and they promised to get to me at the end of March.
(at the meeting I met a girl who's finishing her Masters and has been admitted to start MBA next year, so that's an option for me too. But if I happen to be in Oxford, I'll definitely work for a few years after graduation. Now I believe that I need that.)

By the way, I have a dream to skate in Hyde park. Maybe someone knows where I can hire a couple of rollerblades? (I don't want to bring any from Russia, you know :))

The book

I once was lost, but now am found

© John Newton

I’ve finished reading Atlas shrugged by Ayn Rand. And I can say this is a book!
* I read the first one (it consists of three) during two days (that was back in September), second in a week, began the third, but quitted and finished it only yesterday.
* The first one gave me and answer to the question ‘why do you do this?’ - I know, what to say now: ‘Because I want to and I can’.
* When I told a friend of mine the plot of the first book (how best men suddenly disappear from the world, and the main heroes are standing and struggling), and said that I wonder how it all ends, he replied: ‘Probably a mega-man builds himself a mega-house’. And he was right! :)
* When I read the book I always remembered where she was from. And I knew what she was writing about. I just thought that things never ever changed now matter what century it is.
* I wondered how soft were the bandits she wrote about. Almost humane. Only in last few chapters they (as a system) were beginning to obtain colours of real life. But after all people are not reading books about their real life. They have real life already, thank you.
* The third book was like a light switched on in the dark room. Now I see.
* Great book. Must read. And I will look for the Fountainhead now.
Thanks to Miss N and RSR for mentioning this book :) That’s what made me to read it.

And thanks to everyone who wrote me those encouraging words. I will write a brief summary of my thought on the subject later on.
Tomorrow I plan to attend an LBS information session (Ararat Park Hyatt, 4 Neglinnaya St, Moscow, 11:00), and I hope I will have something to write about :)

A bit more about books

Who knows what could happen?..
© Avril Lavigne

Things tend to happen all at once. For example, you receive an offer from a business school and on the same very day you receive a job offer you always dreamed about. Or you schedule an appointment with a friend and at the same very place (city with millions of people, thousands of places to eat) you meet another friend of yours. I call this luck. I am fascinated with it.

As I have said, it’s a pity that the book Peopleware is not translated into Russian yet – I would like to do it, but – alas! – don’t have time. I live with that idea for about half a year, but after pronouncing it aloud (writing actually :) ) – is there someone above us listening to such things? – yesterday I came across an interesting publishing company: there are three men, who read books in English, liked them and thought it’s a pity, that people can’t read them in Russian (just like I did). And they came up to an idea to start a company, buy rights of translation and publish books. They have already published a couple of books and wrote some books of their own. So I sent an e-mail to them about the wonderful book of DeMarco and Lister and in two hours received a reply from one of their directors: at the same very time he was writing an ad ‘Offer-Us-A-Book’ for their site, encouraging people to come up with the books, that were not yet translated, but were worth it. And here came my letter (what a coincidence!).

So I gave him a copy of Peopleware and we agreed, that we’ll get in contact after he reads it (and decides whether it is worth publishing). Maybe I’ll even participate in the translation (that’s the thing I like), though I don’t know if I am reliable because of my GMAT-essay-transcripts-project-work-and-so-on :)

Enough of Peopleware, there’s another book I’d like to talk about. I’ve just finished Michael Dobbs Whispers of Betrayal. It’s a wonderful book, that I would advise for light-reading to anyone. It is funny and good (don’t believe in words that are written on the cover, the make it sound like some kind of thriller which it is not).

It is about good Army soldiers, that ‘were retired’ and decided that they want an apology from politicians (because they were politicians who forced those cutbacks in the Army). Soon this ‘matter of honour’ transformed into a kind of war, in which soldiers made fun out of politicians and politicians made fun out of themselves. The right book about broken lives and clever men. It is impossible to get a happy end in a book like this, but the author manages it somehow. I enjoyed the Whispers of Betrayal very-very much.

And I also know, what I will be reading next week ;) – Harry Potter comes out tomorrow, so… Voldemort beware! :))))

Books must read

I'm gonna get dressed for success...

© Roxette

I have a credit card now, I have registered for GMAT and I can order books from Amazon. So it’s time to talk about books :)

I’m a books worm – I love reading. Commuting to work for about 2 hours a day, I have time to read (what else to do in a tube?) – and I use this time :) I also read books before going to bed (not now, now I read GMAT textbooks and do GMAT problems…)

I read both in English and in Russian (cannot say I read in German, because it was just one book so far). I like fiction and I also like good business books – the latter I’m going to talk about.
I’m not going to tell you about books in UI-design and eXtremeProgramming – if you are an IT-professional, you may know more than I do. If not – then it won't be interesting to you.

I’d like to talk about finance books, project management books and the like. Any comments about these are welcomed – I’m going to spend some money at Amazon ;) Pre-MBA reading lists are also welcomed.

Let’s get it started… yeah…

Project Management

• Tom DeMarco & Timothy Lister, Peopleware – is a definitely ‘must read’ book.
  
• Ed Sullivan, Under Pressure – is about project management in small and medium IT-company.
  
• Edward Yourdon, Death March – great book. And I read exactly at the time of participating in some kind of ‘dead’ project. You will get to know how to survive in them without this book (you'll have to), but this book gives all the necessary guidelines in painless way.

General books (just for a start and if you think of becoming an entrepreneur one day)

• Bill Gates, Business @ the speed of thought – this is a kind of book, that tells you: "What, you are still sitting on you a**? Go and grab that opportunity NOW!"
• Jim Collins, From good to great – another good book about why ordinary companies become great and why others don’t
• Jonas Ridderstrale & Kjell Nordström, Funky Business and Karaoke Capitalism – both books are short and extremely motivating

Finance books

I was advised to read David Bach, Smart Couples Finish Rich and Suze Orman, The Laws of Money, The Lessons of Life, so this is where I’m going to start.

Fiction, but business-related

• Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged - I wrote a post dedicated to this book here.
  
• Tom DeMarco & Timothy Lister, Deadline - a president of some country decides to make a great experiment: he launches a number of software projects to create rival products to software bestsellers. He also asks the manager to try different approaches with different teams (3 teams are working on one project in parallel) and see which one is better.
• Eliyahu Goldratt & Jeff Cox, The Goal - This is a theory of constraints described in a captivating way. A manager of a plant tries to make his plant work. He has 3 months to make it profitable. Day-by-day, week-by-week... will he succeed?
• Michael Ridpath, Final venture - this thriller combines four areas I am keen on: the hero is an MBA grad, works in a VC on the high tech and healthcare start-ups. Someone has killed his father-in-law and he needs to find the killer quickly or else the police is going to accuse him.
  

So, that was really a short list, but I think, it will grow larger (with your help too).