Ahead of the Curve: Two Years at Harvard Business School

by Philip Delves Broughton

Overview

Two years in the cauldron of capitalism-"horrifying and very funny" (The Wall Street Journal)

In this candid and entertaining insider's look at the most influential school in global business, Philip Delves Broughton draws on his crack reporting skills to describe his madcap years at Harvard Business School. Ahead of the Curve recounts the most edifying and surprising lessons learned in the quest for an MBA, from the ingenious chicanery of leveraging and the unlikely pleasures of accounting, to the antics of the "booze luge" and other, less savory trappings of student culture. Published during the one hundredth anniversary of Harvard Business School, this is the unflinching truth about life in the trenches of an iconic American institution.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780143115434
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	06/30/2009
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	660,852
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Philip Delves Broughton was born in Bangladesh and grew up in England. From 1998-2004, he served successively as the New York and Paris bureau chief for The Daily Telegraph of London and reported widely from North and South America, Europe and Africa. He led the Telegraph’s coverage of the 9/11 attacks on New York and his reporting has twice been nominated for the British Press Awards. His work has also appeared in the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Times of London, and the Spectator. In 2006, he received his MBA from Harvard Business School. He currently lives in New York with his wife and two sons.

Table of Contents

Preface 1

Chapter 1 Let's Get Retarded 5

Chapter 2 Starting Over 31

Chapter 3 A Place Apart 46

Chapter 4 Riding the Booze Luge 52

Chapter 5 Who Am I? 69

Chapter 6 Formin', Stormin', Normin', Performin' 80

Chapter 7 To Beta and Beyond 93

Chapter 8 The Risk Master 119

Chapter 9 Insecure Overachievers 130

Chapter 10 Ethical Jihadists 147

Chapter 11 Extreme Leverage 167

Chapter 12 Chasing the Curve 191

Chapter 13 Big Hairy Goals 210

Chapter 14 "Watching My Children Grow Longer" 227

Chapter 15 Graduation 251

Chapter 16 A Factory for Unhappy People 266

Afterword 284

Acknowledgments 291

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"The audio is valuable as people ponder deeply whether they should go to business school, given the current climate." —-Library Journal Starred Audio Review

Editorial Reviews

"Destined to become required reading for prospective B-school entrants. . . . As an insider's account of an influential institution, [it] hits every mark."
-San Francisco Chronicle

"An insightful and entertaining, behind-the-scenes glimpse at a powerful institution."
-BusinessWeek

" What makes this a particularly absorbing and entertaining read is the combination of journalistic detachment and the sense of personal alienation that Delves Broughton, a Brit in an American system, feels as he struggles to come to terms with what it means to be a Harvard MBA."
-Financial Times

From the Publisher

Ahead of the Curve offers a good sense of Harvard Business School's day-to-day workings, everything from what the other students are like to the merits of each lecturer to impressions of business titans such as Warren Buffett and Stephen Schwarzman, who revolve through the doors offering pointers on how to get filthy rich. Broughton makes a delightfully clueless guide.
—The Washington Post

Bryan Burrough

This debut by a former journalist at the Daily Telegraph of London chronicles the author's love-hate relationship with the Harvard Business School, where he spent two years getting his M.B.A. Beginning with a confessional account of his disillusionment with journalism and conflicted desire to make money, Broughton provides an account of his experiences in and out of the classroom as he struggles to survive the academic rigor and find a suitably principled yet lucrative path. Simultaneously repelled by his aggressive fellow capitalists in training-their stress-fueled partying and obsession with wealth-and dazzled by his classes, visiting professors and the surprising beauty of business concepts, Broughton vacillates between cautious critique and faint praise. Although cleverly narrated and marked by a professional journalist's polish and remarkable attention to detail, this book flounders; it provides neither enough color nor damning dirt on the school to entertain in the manner of true tell-alls. The true heart of the story is less "b-school" confidential than a memoir of Broughton's quest to understand the business world and find his place in it. (Aug.)

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Publishers Weekly

In 2004, 31-year-old Delves Broughton, then New York and Paris bureau chief for the London Daily Telegraph, gave up the rigors of daily international journalism to join 900 other would-be tycoons at Harvard Business School in a quest to become wealthy. He shares his experiences here. The rich, solid narration by Simon Vance (see Behind the Mike, LJ11/15/08) is distinctly British, the author's own background. This work arrives at an opportune time; the audio is valuable as people ponder deeply whether they should go to business school, given the current climate. Highly recommended for university libraries.
—Dale Farris

Library Journal

What it takes to become a Master of the Universe (aka, an MBA). Broughton, sophisticated Paris bureau chief for the London Daily Telegraph, figured he needed a change. Learning accounting might be just the thing, he thought. So he entered Harvard Business School, class of 2006. There, the naif in matters commercial joined a student body largely composed, it seemed to him, of McKinsey alumni, military veterans and earnest Mormons. He took the dodgy but requisite personality test and assiduously devoted himself to macroeconomics, entrepreneurship, operations management, regression analysis, spread sheets, growth projections and, of course, leadership. All around him, student industrialists, pretend hedge-fund chieftains, pubescent investment bankers, acolyte venture capitalists, pretend Gordon Gekos, Rupert Murdoch wannabes and eager beavers channeling robber barons-classmates the author treats seriously and with respect-acquired the slogans, buzz words, jargon and acronyms considered de rigueur accessories to the HBS Master of Business Administration. Broughton summarizes the history of the school, first of its kind when founded in 1908. He reviews the ubiquitous case studies and depicts the learned profs and puissant guest speakers who invariably promoted a passion for challenge and leadership. A naturally proficient writer, now facile in matters financial, the author asserts that he enjoyed his two-year stint. Yet he had the faintest suspicion that the "transformational experience" HBS sold was missing something in the way of humanity. Faculty and visiting autocrats of the boardroom preached that family always came first, but these pundits and plutocrats never followed their own advice.The astute Broughton (sole member of his class without a job at graduation) reveals much about a place that caters to smart students who seek a path to wealth beyond Trumpian dreams of avarice. A discerning tour through the vaunted Hogwarts of capitalism. Agent: Tina Bennett/Janklow & Nesbit

Kirkus Reviews

Author Philip Delves Broughton is a good writer who does not appear to have enjoyed and was not very successful at his two years at Harvard Business School. As narrator, Simon Vance takes on the persona of a very English interloper, who left his post as Paris editor for the DAILY TELEGRAPH to earn his MBA at what could be considered the most prestigious of American business schools. Using American twangs and a mishmash of accents for the international students, Vance depicts Brougham as alternately overwhelmed and smug, never quite leaving his Englishness behind. The strongest moments are the nuggets from courses on competitive strategy, marketing, finance, and even accounting, which offer the listener highlights of the business curriculum. R.M. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

JANUARY 2009 - AudioFile