Ahead of the Curve: Two Years at Harvard Business School

by Philip Delves Broughton, Simon Vance (Read by), Simon Vance (Contribution by)

Overview

Philip Delves Broughton abandoned his post as Paris bureau chief for the London Daily Telegraph to join nine hundred other would-be tycoons on the ivy-clad campus of the world's most influential business institution--Harvard Business School. Written with acute and often uproarious candor, Ahead of the Curve recounts the two years he spent chasing his MBA, offering a student's-eye view of the vaunted curriculum as well as its less savory trappings, from the "booze luge" to the pandemic obsession with PowerPoint. Surprising and richly detailed, this is a one-of-a-kind account of the institution that has, for good or ill, made American business what it is today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798200135288
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	03/01/2021
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 5.70(h) x 0.00(d)

About the Author

Philip Delves Broughton was born in Bangladesh and grew up in the UK. He spent ten years as a newspaper reporter mainly for the Daily Telegraph (London). From 1998-2002, he was the paper’s New York correspondent and from 2002-2004 it’s Paris Bureau Chief. During that time he reported on scores of events from more than twenty countries. He has worked at Apple, as a writer at the Kauffman Foundation for Entrepreneurship and Education, and as a contributing columnist to the Financial Times (London).

Simon Vance, a former BBC Radio presenter and newsreader, is a full-time actor who has appeared on both stage and television. He has recorded over eight hundred audiobooks and has earned fifty-seven Earphones Awards from AudioFile magazine, including one for his narration of Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini. A multiple Audie finalist, Simon has won Audie Awards for The King's Speech by Mark Logue and Peter Conradi, The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens, Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, Market Forces by Richard K. Morgan, and The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff. Winner of the 2008 Booklist Voice of Choice Award, Simon has also been named an AudioFile Golden Voice as well as an AudioFile Best Voice of 2009.

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

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

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

"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