I’m not sure we can blame ACCA or CIMA for not giving people business skills though. They are not really designed for that. Although anyone going through CIMA in particular ought to have a better understanding of some of the financial issues around owning and managing a business.

With respect to the MBA it’s an academic qualification, not a vocational one, something that far to many people fail to recognise.

Personally I love his books. As an accountant I can relate to a lot of the ideas around traditional education preparing you to be an employee. And the more traditional education you get the more prepared you are to be an employee, or self employed, as opposed to a true business owner.

Pretty much all the people I have worked with are ACCA, CIMA, and/or MBA qualified and as good as they all are at making sure contingent liabilities are disclosed properly most of them couldn’t run a fish n’ chip shop. I don’t even know if I could!!!!

I’m not sure I’d agree that Cashflow 101 fits the bill. Yes it’s good (although I prefer Cashflow 102) but in my mind it’s much more aimed at teaching people to manage their personal finance rather than a business.

While I like those of his books that I’ve read, I can’t say I’d consider them to be business books.

Robert Kiyosaki’s cashflow 101 is pretty much what you are describing. While it is a board game it is a fast forward through so many essential business skills that he himself spent years educating people on before Rich Dad fame. I’m sure you would have read at least a couple of the books. It’s a bit cliche going on about him because he is so well read but there is a very good reason for that.

Incidentally he is also opposed to the MBA!

“it is impossible to unwind – you can’t not know what you know” nicely put. As far as Seth’s opinion I have a lot to say on that, but that’s the topic of a future blog post.

I agree with you on the need for experience to relate it to. One problem with the debate is that most people focus on the top business schools and the ROI of attending them.

The reality is that most people spend far less and go to business school for a far more mundane reason.

On the Seth point it is impossible to unwind – you can’t not know what you know.

I think that people who rush into MBAs in the mid 20s after a short working period won;t get much out of it. They haven’t had the management experience to relate to it.

But for people with years of senior management experience, I found myself looking back and wishing “I only I’d known that when…”

It’s an interesting idea, when I’ve got a little more time later this year I might look at pursuing it.

Tom,

That sounds good, I know a few of the business schools in the UK do similar courses aimed at entrepreneurs and SME owners.

Thanks – that was a very interesting dialogue to watch unfold. You both have a lot of passion and a lot of good points.

I like your final proposal John – short books that each capture a subject in a focused and engaging way that can be combined and collected to form an “MBA in a box”.

There is an appeal to short books that can be read on a plane or train commute for a price and time commitment comparable to a paperback novel. There is also almost a compelling need to collect, and having a series of books will motivate people to collect them all. It also enables you to be flexible in packaging them – by topic, by level, by type of business.

And of course there is the fact that it is theoretically easier and quicker to write shorter, smaller books that can be brought to the public, assessed for feedback, and then applied it to the subsequent books. (similar to the “scum” method of software development!)

Good Luck with your endeavor, John!

And Yvonne, thanks for the insight into the perspective from the publishing world. It is quite encouraging to hear that you believe the majority of people still read!