The New MBA Playbook: An Updated Skills Mix for the Future Business World

by Bart Tkaczyk

Overview

The job market is heating up, standards are higher – and competition is becoming fiercer. Want to accelerate your professional development but can’t because life is moving fast and time is short? As long as you have The New MBA Playbook, an innovative "MBA in a book", now is the ideal moment to, at your own pace, anywhere and anytime, boost your managerial proficiency so as to move forward positively, strategically, sustainably and ethically.

By an award-winning industry expert and executive educator who’s had success in both corporate boardrooms and executive classrooms worldwide, The New MBA Playbook is a different kind of MBA sourcebook. It is humanity-centered (and beyond the AI hype!) and is organized into seven relevant, rigorous and readable two-unit modules ("mini-lectures"). This educational package condenses key MBA disciplines and topics into a playbook format that fits the work schedules of busy executives and professionals on the go, and delivers top MBA-quality intelligence in a matter of days, not years. Through The New MBA Playbook, you can deep dive into the essentials of business, creative strategies and fresh new thinking, and gain effective working knowledge of behavioral economics and policy, positive leadership and followership, strategic transformation, dialogic organization development, design thinking and innovation execution, brand coolness and storytelling, modern management consulting and executive coaching, global management strategies, cultural intelligence, and behavioral ethics, among other issues. The playbook, although designed to be worked through systematically, provides room for critical interpretation, enabling learning by "self-insight" and personal adaptation (the easy-to-use material is an "on-demand" resource from which you can "mix and match" modules freely and in any order, as all modules can stand alone, and you can customize the course to your needs).

Re-imagining MBA education and challenging existing business practice, The New MBA Playbook, designed to bridge the gap between the MBA classroom and real life, will be invaluable to potential and current MBA students, seasoned business executives seeking to refresh and update their skills, management consultants, successful entrepreneurs – and to anyone who simply refuses to stop learning. This book is like having your own personal MBA professor!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781032805559
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	01/31/2025
Pages:	342
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Bart Tkaczyk, Fulbright Scholar at the University of California, Berkeley (the No. 1 public university in the world), and Managing Member with Energizers, LLC (the premier North American provider of positive organization development, executive leadership and strategic human resource development consulting services), has extensive experience in executive education/MBA teaching gained in Europe, the Middle East and North America, moving new concepts from the academic to daily application in highly interactive environments. He is also an executive coach, trusted leadership, organization development and strategy advisor to major corporations and governments worldwide, and the bestselling author of Leading Positive Organizational Change (Routledge). Email: [e-mail] Visit: www.drtkaczyk.com Follow: @DrBTkaczykMBA

Table of Contents

MODULE I Breathing humanity and new life into organizations: Humanizing the enterprise 1. Behavioral economics and policy 101: For humans 2. The kindness advantage: Cultivating positively energizing leaders and followers MODULE II Strategizing for the future: Setting, communicating, and executing a positive strategy 3. Strategic transformation: Strategy choice-making 4. SOAR: Fueling possibility thinking in positive strategic dialog MODULE III Organization development and design innovation: Tools for dramatic change 5. Dialogic organization development (OD): Leading positive organizational change 6. Design-driven organization: Human-centered design thinking and innovation execution MODULE IV Creating and managing WOW brands: Energizing your brand 7. WOW! It’s cool! Crafting a coolness strategy for your brand 8. Once upon a time… Strategic brand storytelling MODULE V Helping genuinely: Always aim higher 9. Professional management consulting for real people: The advice business demystified 10. Executive coaching: Whoop it up! MODULE VI Global management strategies: Going places 11. So, you want to go global? Becoming an instant international 12. Small world: Are you a culturally intelligent organization? MODULE VII Behavioral ethics: Achieving ethical practice for the greater good 13. Progress with purpose: The "good" enterprise 14. Oops! I messed up: Why good people do bad things every so often

Editorial Reviews

A remarkably all-inclusive one-stop guide to corporate citizenship.” — Kirkus Reviews

The New MBA Playbook provides a good overview of the strategy, organizational, and branding elements of business integrated into a comprehensive business model that leads to a thriving business while still addressing societal challenges. With illustrative case studies, it’s easy to read.”

– Professor David Aaker, hailed as the “father of modern branding”, E.T. Grether Professor Emeritus of Marketing Strategy and Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley-Haas School of Business, Vice Chairman at Prophet, a global consultancy, and author of 18 books, including The Future of Purpose-Driven Branding

"This book will help MBAs in translating what they are getting in the classroom with the real world of work. It highlights many of the important aspects of management and organizational behavior today and in the future”

– Professor Sir Cary Cooper, ALLIANCE Manchester Business School, University of Manchester

"The New MBA Playbook offers a refreshing take on executive development and education, addressing the evolving standards of leadership and business strategies in our hyper-connected world. Dr. Tkaczyk’s comprehensive approach integrates diverse disciplines, from behavioral economics to brand storytelling, and guides readers through essential MBA concepts with a fresh perspective. This book fosters self-insight and personal adaptation, allowing readers to tailor their learning experience to their unique needs. With its engaging style and practical insights, The New MBA Playbook is an invaluable resource for those seeking to excel in today’s dynamic business landscape."

– Dr. Marshall Goldsmith is the Thinkers50 #1 Executive Coach and New York Times bestselling author of The Earned Life, Triggers, and What Got You Here Won’t Get You There

"In The New MBA Playbook, Bart Tkaczyk brings a new energy and excitement to the fundamentals of management by approaching the core issues and challenges of business as seen through a lens of positivity, creativity and motivating ideals. Filled with real world examples; opportunities for individual engagement and reflection; and accessible introductions to some of the latest research insights and practical tools, the Playbook’s operating and motivating premise is that business can be a positive force in the world and that these tools can help readers make that happen."

– Mary C. Gentile PhD, Inductee into the Thinkers50 Hall of Fame and Author of Giving Voice To Values: How To Speak Your Mind When You Know What’s Right. Formerly, the Richard M. Waitzer Bicentennial Professor of Ethics at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business

"Why spend two years and a ton of money for an MBA when you can get the most important concepts from this book? The New MBA Playbook cuts through the unnecessary parts and gets right to the core concepts that can make for a successful business leader."

– Professor Patrick M. Wright, Thomas C. Vandiver Bicentennial Chair in Business, Chair, Department of Management, Darla Moore School of Business, University of South Carolina

"A brand-new take on a well-established topic of global relevance! Bart Tkaczyk applies some fabulous creativity and some pretty bold and imaginative thinking to refresh the concept of the MBA and corporate strategy. This is perfect reading for any executive or aspiring executive building on their professional and academic education. I particularly really loved the ‘Your Take’ on integrative thinking, absolutely spot on in how to turn ‘strategy setting’ from theoretical into practical. Very highly recommended!"

– Professor Moorad Choudhry, University of Kent Business School; formerly, CEO of Habib Bank AG Zurich, Treasurer at The Royal Bank of Scotland, Head of Treasury at Europe Arab Bank, Head of Treasury at KBC, Vice President at JPMorgan Chase, Author of The Principles of Banking

"In The New MBA Playbook, Dr. Bart Tkaczyk redefines leadership engagement leveraging both deep research expertise and significant practical global leadership experience to accelerate managerial careers. He distills the essence of practical leadership success to create an approachable, useful, and highly credible guide for managers at any point in their pursuit of professional excellence."

– Professor Jeff Flesher, iMBA faculty at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Gies School of Business). Formerly, VP of Learning & OD at Underwriters Laboratories

“The New MBA Playbook is a leadership primer that meets this complicated moment. In it, Bart Tkaczyk blends theory and practice, idea and application, to help individuals bring empathy, creativity and thoughtfulness to their management approach. The world will be better off if we can bring ever more humanity to business leadership, and this book provides very helpful guidance in that direction.”

– Jennifer Riel, COO of IDEO, the global design and innovation firm, and author of Creating Great Choices: A Leader's Guide to Integrative Thinking. Adjunct Professor at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto

“If you are interested in concise descriptions of the differences between traditional economics and behavioral economics, between leadership and followership and the importance of kindness to organizational sustainability, I highly recommend The New MBA Playbook by Dr. Bart Tkaczyk.”

– W. Glenn Rowe, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, Professor of Strategy, Ivey Business School at Western University, and coauthor of Cases in Leadership and Strategic Analysis and Action. Formerly, the director of Ivey's Executive MBA Program

“The MBA degree is a key that will open many career doors and opportunities. However, that key stays in the door and the individual needs to be able to present and apply their experience and MBA learning to the role and task at hand. The New MBA Playbook is a superb aide memoire for someone starting their MBA journey or having achieved it, are well into their career. The topic areas covered go beyond the technical business topics and delve into the behavioral science of how people communicate, connect, build trust and develop healthy and harmonious relationships. The old saying is that 'People join brands and organizations but they leave because of managers'. The New MBA Playbook is an essential companion guide that can bring out the best in all of your people and provides an updated perspective about business knowledge and practical application.”

– Dil Sidhu, Professor of Management Practice, Head of the Birkbeck Business School, University of London 

From the Publisher

2025-04-22
Tkaczyk offers a comprehensive guide to navigating the evolving intricacies of the modern business landscape.

Drawing on his long experience as a corporate educator, the author presents a wide array of granularly detailed information about all aspects of the business world, from communication to strategizing to design innovation to product management and beyond. Each of the book’s chapters comes with extensive source-citations, and they are broken into many subsections: These include “sneak peeks” that provide bullet-pointed previews of the chapters’ contents; “pause ‘n’ reflect” moments to vary the pacing; numbered units to further break down information (“Practical ‘choice architecture,’ which refers to designing user-friendly environments, can effectively nudge individuals toward the best decision without limiting their freedom to choose”); general discussion points; identifications of key elements; “journal entry” spaces for answering prompt questions; and so on. Tkaczyk peppers his various discussions with questions for his readers—these can range from asking what readers would do in a specific circumstance to far broader inquiries into philosophical matters (“What do wegenuinely care about?” the author asks. “Do we assume that all human systems are inclined toward the highest aspirations of humankind?”) The text is deeply grounded in executive theories of all kinds (the “deep dive” reference listings are invaluable), with regular reminders to readers about the dynamic nature of the modern, internationally connected business world. These reminders frequently take the form of questions: “Chinese companies are reinventing management,” Tkaczyk writes. “What can Western companies learn from innovative Chinese companies when doing business with the new China?”

The most remarkable feature of the book is the enormous amount of highly detailed data Tkaczyk manages to cram into 300 pages. He’s helped in this by the book’s design: The chapters contain almost no long-form narrative content—instead, the author lays out a fragmented, bullet-pointed, typographically varied landscape full of margin-symbols, bold type, and numbered lines in place of paragraphs. Of course, all the format-fiddling in the world wouldn’t matter if the book weren’t also engagingly written; Tkaczyk employs a very clear and direct prose style that’s both highly readable and very specific. He has a knack for stating blunt truths without scorn or blame, as when he mentions the demands of critical strategizing: “Most people lack the proper educational foundation for it,” he points out, “and organizations don’t typically provide the necessary training either.” The author’s fondness for management guru Henry Mintzberg hits a sour note with his quote of Mintzberg’s grandiose and very questionable assertion that “No job is more vital to our society than that of the manager,” and some of Tkaczyk’s own proclamations may also raise eyebrows: “In today’s knowledge-creative economy,” the author writes, “enterprises of all sizes, in all industries, are under growing pressure to uphold social and ethical standards from the public, investors, and the government.” (Considering the “social and ethical standards” displayed by some of those institutions, readers may wonder what planet he occupies.) Still, Tkaczyk’s focus is refreshingly centered on people as well as profits—as he reiterates at many points, in his own field of consulting, an assignment is only successful if it leaves the client in a better place; not necessarily only financially, but also creatively…and, yes, even ethically.

A remarkably all-inclusive one-stop guide to corporate citizenship.

Kirkus Reviews