“Many of Chris Dalton’s lessons form key parts of my memories of the whole MBA.”
Some takeaways…
- An excellent all-in-one business handbook explaining all the key business ideas covered in a top-tier MBA.
- Personal development activities are weaved into the content throughout.
- Brings all the content together masterfully at the end.
A book review of ‘MBA Day by Day’ by Chris Dalton
I was very pleased to read Chris Dalton’s excellent MBA day by day recently, and have recorded my thoughts for anyone interested in picking up this latest addition to the business literature shelves.
At a glance:
- An excellent all-in-one business handbook explaining all the key business ideas covered in a top-tier MBA.
- Personal development activities are weaved into the content throughout.
- Brings all the content together masterfully at the end.
- Will require deeper dives to master the concepts, but all associated further reading lists are provided.
- The personal development content will require you to ‘get your hands dirty’, or else some of the effect will be lost.
I was very keen to get my hands on MBA day by day. I was taught by Chris Dalton at Henley Business School and was always most impressed by him in person, but had not previously had the chance to read one of his books.
For reference, I finished my MBA just under two years ago, having done it as a flexible executive MBA over what turned out to be three years. When choosing my school, I was between Henley and one other, and ended up going with Henley on the strength of their personal development module. This is a central underlying tenet of the whole course, and is presided over by Chris, who uses a number of effective techniques to systematically turn your thinking inside out. Much of the personal development syllabus stays with me even now, so I can testify to the longevity of its value, and many of the lessons form key parts of my memories of the whole MBA.
It was, then, with great excitement that I picked up this book by Chris, and I was not disappointed. The book’s structure is very much akin to that of the MBA itself. Key modules, such as ‘managing people’, ‘managing systems and processes’, ‘managing financial resources’ and the like, all feature in much the same order as they are tackled during the three phases of study, and the personal development aspect is the red thread running through it all, tying it together. In the actual MBA, the personal development workshops feature in every stage and you are encouraged to keep track of your evolving self as you go, through journaling and reflective assignments. That theme is echoed here in the book, with a range of thought-provoking and challenging activities cropping up throughout, each designed to make one rethink how one thinks, challenge one’s own assumptions, try to apply more critical thinking to day-to-day life and generally be much more reflective.
The thing that always struck me about Chris was his ability to make you question everything with one well-placed, insightful comment – he is somewhat Jedi-like in this ability, and it comes through strongly in the book. Allow yourself to be immersed in the personal development aspect of it, and you can take yourself a long way from where you are towards… well, who knows where? I think that is the joy of just ‘starting walking’, as he describes it. We know not where the journey will take us, but that is surely the key reason for taking it in the first place.
Throughout the book I found myself wondering how it would come across if I had not had the MBA experience and memory behind me. Without doubt, the book would be different – I have read similar sorts of books in the past where I have had no personal attachment or frame or reference to draw on, and I confess I would have skipped past some if not all of the personal development tasks that are sprinkled throughout – I think that would be a shame in this instance, as these have great value, but I wonder how apparent that value would be to someone who hasn’t had the exposure to the personal development concepts referred to. There is such power in the phrase ‘know thyself’ and the ability to understand your likely reactions, assumptions, limitations and self-limiting beliefs, but I wonder how much of that would be captured by someone who hasn’t the benefit of being taught or at least exposed to these ideas.
That said, this book delivers on many different levels, so don’t read into this any form of criticism – it is just me conjecturing as to how the book would hit home with varied audiences. Taking the book at its most basic level, and taking the personal development aspect out of it, this is a very fine MBA textbook which covers all the main concepts of the syllabus. All the key models studied through the modules are here, with clear and concise explanations of all the salient points, so it very much fulfils the remit of being your all-in-one handbook of MBA concepts, which can be dipped into as required. True, you would have to dig into them in a fair bit more detail if you really wanted to go a mile deep, but helpfully at the end of each chapter there is a further reading section, which, when put together, reads like the definitive who’s who of business literature. Get through this book and the associated reading lists and you will be able to converse with anybody about anything in the business world.
It is beyond all that however where I believe the book really comes into its own, specifically in the reflective piece. At the end of the real MBA, you undertake a dissertation where the idea is to bring all of the learning into one place, and for me, this is where the real value of MBA day by day lies. Chris artfully ties it all together, leaving you with challenged ideas and assumptions and ultimately more questions than answers… exactly as it should be! Rise to the challenge, become curious, question everything and you will be a far better manager at the end of it.
One thing that sticks with me from my interactions with Chris, which I have quoted numerous times and which only becomes more and more apposite as time goes on, is the point he makes at the very end of the book – one day you will realise you never needed to do an MBA at all, but you can only realise this once you have done it. If this turns your head upside down, let it. I have been wrestling with this for a while now, and find it not only true in the MBA world, but in many real-life business cases. Members of my team ask for certain specific training which I know they won’t ultimately need to be able to perform their role brilliantly, but it is all part of the development process that you need to go through to become yourself. In the long run, it is all part of the journey to wherever you are, and this book can help you capture that journey – you just have to ensure you are open to taking it, and recognise the signposts along the way.
Whoever you are, prospective MBA student, recent graduate or seasoned professional, you should get a great deal from this book, regardless of what level you choose to engage with it on.
Thanks for reading.