Ahead of the Curve: Two Years at Harvard Business School

While the author drips the customary cynicism of a journalist, the insights were revealing. The real challenge is just getting into HBS. Once there, it's all gravy. I also found his perspective on how this effort impacted his family interesting.

Ex-journalist turned MBA jock Philip Delves Broughton aims for the business stars as he gains acceptance to Harvard Business School in this first-person account. As a French correspondent for the London Daily Telegraph, Broughton has an eclectic and "liberal artsy" background which differs from many of the hard core business and "quant" types who are his classmates.

Broughton offers genuine insights on this Berlitz-like total immersion into graduate business study, striving and struggling to maintain personal balance with his wife, two young kids and his ambivalence over the myopic chase for a big-bucks job.

"Ahead of the Curve" is an interesting read, and Broughton never does seem to completely drink the Kool-Aid that intoxicates so many of these Masters of the Financial Universe. The boom will be interesting to those who:
* Have a notion to try to shoot for HBS
* Those who are interested in an MBA program and want some insights on what it is like
* Those interested in an inside look at the most famous boot camp of graduate business education

In the end, Broughton - even armed with a Harvard MBA - struggles to find a job, just the right job. He has a wry sense of humor, perspective and does not let the Harvard Business School experience go to his head. As a writer, he is "ahead of the curve:" and I would recommend this book for one perspective on HBS and the demands, perils and rewards of an MBA education.

I had to give the book 5 stars because I couldn't put it down and because it was so thought-provoking.

I can't help comparing is book to Robert Reid's earlier book, Year One. Reid describes professors and fellow students more vividly than Broughton does. But Broughton seems to be describing an HBS that has changed since Reid's day. Reid didn't refer to expensive (and apparently useless) group trips, tasteless pranks and parties and psychological tests. HBS seems to have more students with military background as well as a higher number of twenty-somethings.

Of course, a big difference is that Reid actually understood and enjoyed business careers. As a career consultant, I was intrigued by Broughton's lack of direction and even more appalled by HBS's apparent lack of career and interview coaching.

For instance, Reid's book, Year One, described a female student who wanted to work for a small firm -- the kind that didn't recruit at HBS. She did her research, initiated an interview process, and found a job. Why didn't Broughton do that? And why didn't he study marketing, which would be closer to his journalism background, instead of finance? In fact, HBS was all wrong for him. He could have chosen Wharton, which has a big entrepreneurial center, or Northwestern, the marketing giant.

I hate expressions like "alignment of goals and values," but the book inadvertently presents a clear case of incongruence. In one disturbing paragraph (p 117), Broughton writes that, "business can never escape the fact that it is the practice of potentially thieving, treacherous, lying human beings." But what element of society is exempt from being practiced by people have might steal and lie? Michael Nifong prosecuted innocent Duke students -- causing enormous financial and personal loss -- to further his own career. He is not unique Doctors are seduced by pharmaceutical companies. A specialist at my college reunion said, "I have to perform a certain exam on pre-surgical patients. Often I find they don't need the surgery and I say so. So surgeons don't send me referrals." As for government...are our fearless leaders really free of greed?

At least we have consumer protection laws. We have far fewer protections in any other sector. More important, if Broughton despises business, he will have trouble finding success there.

Harvard does seem to waste a lot of the students' tuition money. I was especially horrified to discover that HBS endorses the Myers-Briggs test. Broughton devotes a lot of speculation to a value system that explains why so many Fortune 500 companies use Myers-Briggs. The real problem is that the test has no scientific value. Might as well use astrology. I recommend The Cult of Personality, by Annie Murphy Paul, published just before Broughton entered Harvard.

I won't comment on the "be your best self" exercise. In Year One they just built towers out of paper and cardboard.

Apart from describing what one learns at HBS, Broughton ultimately shows that if you're a maverick a prestigious MBA won't mold you into a corporate success story. That's a lesson I've learned myself, all too well.

I thoroughly enjoyed this account of the Harvard MBA experience. I definitely recommend this book to any student considering their career options whether in business or any other field since the author's reflections are worth considering no matter what field one is considering.

The book is also a fun read for anyone with an MBA from a school other than Harvard - especially if you have ever been curious about how your MBA program compares to a school like Harvard.

I've read most of the b-school books about student life and I truly enjoyed this one. It was an intelligent take on the experience. The b-school content - and the fever around recruiting/careers - is perfectly captured.

For many of us (and possibly you, the reader), this is an authentic perspective, albeit a somewhat conservative one. I'd also recommend Snapshots from Hell (also about Harvard) and The Blushing MBA (woman's view, based on Harvard or some top-tiered school).