Today I tweeted a giant thread where I tried to summarize what I learned during my MBA (or MScBA in Europe) at Rotterdam School of Management (I graduated 2012). The stuff I remembered and still practice is mostly strategy and marketing. Which is also most relevant for entrepreneurship (which I do). But to be complete, I’ve also summarized finance and management theory.
My credentials
Don’t believe anyone who talks on the internet! So why believe me? Well don’t, BUT I’ve studied business (both bachelor and master) at 4 different universities. 1 year of International Business Administration at Hogeschool Utrecht in 2007.
3 years of International Business Administration at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in 2010.
3 months of studying abroad at Korea University Business School in 2009 and…
1 year of Business Administration at Rotterdam School of Management where I graduated in 2012.
OH GOD SO MANY SUITS! PLEASE GET THEM AWAY FROM ME.
That’s A LOT of business theory to proces. So I have 4 different sources of the same concepts being explained in different ways!
Keep it short!
This is all 140 character tweets which forces it to keep it concise, something 300-page business books and 4 years of business school doesn’t. Honestly, I don’t think you should pay lots of money to spend it business school. The core is this and a lot of IRL practice, not theory. Go ship!
The TL;DR MBA
Hereby I present to you: the TL;DR (Too Long; Didn’t Read) MBA:
If you want to get a free MBA in 5 minutes: in this thread I will TL;DR what I learnt in business school @RSMErasmus
— Pieter Levels @ 🇺🇸 (@levelsio) July 20, 2017
Click each tweet to expand each sub topic thread:
Strategy
Porter’s Five Forces
Porter's 5 Forces: your competitiveness is based on threat of new entrants, substitutes, power of suppliers & buyershttps://t.co/RHvSpsNfvg pic.twitter.com/2ucHSTsSGb
— Pieter Levels @ 🇺🇸 (@levelsio) July 20, 2017
The Ansoff Matrix
Ansoff Matrix: a framework to pick a company strategy for growth (and stick to it) https://t.co/ZYxXMNTrnW pic.twitter.com/sWUUEuvuFh
— Pieter Levels @ 🇺🇸 (@levelsio) July 20, 2017
Scarcity in the value chain
Generally, 💰money flows to the part of the value chain that has highest scarcity. The product ppl want most, but there is few off (eg gold)
— Pieter Levels @ 🇺🇸 (@levelsio) July 20, 2017
Marketing
The Product Marketing Mix (or 7 P’s)
Now the most famous business theory: the Product Marketing Mix or 7 P's pic.twitter.com/mahKbQqtEQ
— Pieter Levels @ 🇺🇸 (@levelsio) July 20, 2017
Premium vs. Low-Cost Pricing
A low-cost airline sells 100,000 flights per day avg $50 with 1% profit margin: $50,000 profit per day
— Pieter Levels @ 🇺🇸 (@levelsio) July 20, 2017
The ideal business
Mid-thread TL;DR: make a unique high-value high-priced product that's hard to replicate in a market that's hard for competitors to enter
— Pieter Levels @ 🇺🇸 (@levelsio) July 20, 2017
Finance
Net present value
One of the most important concepts in finance is Net Present Value (NPV). Ask yourself: would you rather have $100 now, or $100 in 12mo? pic.twitter.com/pPUbM98sjl
— Pieter Levels @ 🇺🇸 (@levelsio) July 21, 2017
Reading Profit & Loss statements
A big part of finance is being able to understand companies based on their documents filed. Here's a profit & loss (P&L) statement… pic.twitter.com/WAZmpFVVlX
— Pieter Levels @ 🇺🇸 (@levelsio) July 22, 2017
Financial modeling
Next: Financial Modeling, we use it to accurately forecast future earnings performance of a company https://t.co/lnY57zyQhq pic.twitter.com/QisMZkAJQV
— Pieter Levels @ 🇺🇸 (@levelsio) July 22, 2017
Options & Derivatives
Next: Finance options, you might know them from the stock options you get if you work for a startup! https://t.co/SDRtDYXmZO pic.twitter.com/g5YEUJMvjw
— Pieter Levels @ 🇺🇸 (@levelsio) July 22, 2017
One of the most important formulas in finance relates to options: it's called Black-Scholes and is used to price options.
— Pieter Levels @ 🇺🇸 (@levelsio) July 22, 2017
Capital structure
If you're still here, I commend you! Next in finance: Capital Structure defines how a company finances its operations. pic.twitter.com/CGaUhsdKvz
— Pieter Levels @ 🇺🇸 (@levelsio) July 22, 2017
Management
Next: Management. Literally organizing people in, well, an organization. I'll discuss the foundations of management theory by Peter Drucker.
— Pieter Levels @ 🇺🇸 (@levelsio) July 22, 2017
Management by Objectives (MBO)
Drucker invented Management by Objectives (MBO). It means we measure the performance of an employee vs. typical standards for the job.
— Pieter Levels @ 🇺🇸 (@levelsio) July 22, 2017
The most important part is that we can't manage an organization if we don't collect data. We need to interpret this data to make decisions.
— Pieter Levels @ 🇺🇸 (@levelsio) July 22, 2017
S.M.A.R.T. goals
S.M.A.R.T. goals are highly useful in your own life too and I use them every day. If a goal doesn't pass the S.M.A.R.T. test, it's bogus.
— Pieter Levels @ 🇺🇸 (@levelsio) July 22, 2017
Decentralized management
Drucker was a proponent of decentralized mgmt: delegate tasks to employees and empower them to operate autonomously. Don't micro manage! pic.twitter.com/WFO0f5tPxU
— Pieter Levels @ 🇺🇸 (@levelsio) July 22, 2017
Most important
Mid-thread TL;DR: make a unique high-value high-priced product that's hard to replicate in a market that's hard for competitors to enter
— Pieter Levels @ 🇺🇸 (@levelsio) July 20, 2017
Conclusion
Obviously this is just a tiny summary of parts of a real MBA. It won’t cover an actual program. But it’s good to get it out there because MBA’s are treated as some “magical spell” you get, but that’s bullshit. It’s just learning a lot of theories, and then mostly networking. I personally think even the networking part is bullshit unless you go to Harvard Business School. I never had ANY benefit of anybody I met from my business schools, except having lots of great fun nights drinking beer and cocktails. I’m sorry guys!
Therefore, my advice is, use this thread as a starting point. Delve in specific concepts that you feel you need to know more about by Googling and using YouTube tutorials on business (there’s lots now!). Then if you want, start a company as soon as possible or start working at new company so you can quickly learn the in-real-life practical knowledge, which, when combined with basic business theory, is pure gold for your career!
Should you get a real MBA
I’d strongly say no. Also it’s highly disputable if you should study business. Business courses are sold as leading people to a career in upper management. But that’s bullshit. The real top positions in big corporations are generally reserved for high-skilled engineers.
Big business consultancies like McKinsey don’t even hire business graduates anymore, they hire from universities of technology like MIT or TU Delft. Business graduates have a severe lack of hard skills like math and programming. On the other hand, engineers are generally the worst at marketing and selling their inventions. But I’d say focus on getting that hard skill first, then add some business juice to it which nowadays you can easily find on the internet!
P.S. I just wrote a book on bootstrapping indie startups called MAKE. And I'm now on Twitter too if you'd like to follow more of my adventures. I don't use email so tweet me your questions.