The Personal MBA

Description

Cover Page Praise Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Page Contents Chapter One: Why Read this Book? You Don’t Need to Know It All No Experience Necessary Questions, Not Answers Mental Models, Not Methods My “Personal” MBA A Self-Directed Crash Course in Business The Wheat and the Chaff The Personal MBA Goes Global Munger’s Mental Models Connecting the Dots For the Skeptics Should You Go to Business School? Three Big Problems with Business Schools Delusions of Grandeur Your Money AND Your Life Breaking Out the Benjamins What an MBA Will Actually Get You Where Business Schools Came From In Search of Distribution Playing with Fire No Reason to Change The Single Benefit of Business Schools I Owe, I Owe—It’s Off to Work I Go A Better Way What You’ll Learn in This Book How to Use This Book Chapter Two: Value Creation The Five Parts of Every Business Economically Valuable Skills The Iron Law of the Market Core Human Drives Ten Ways to Evaluate a Market The Hidden Benefits of Competition The Mercenary Rule The Crusader Rule Twelve Standard Forms of Value Form of Value #1: Product Form of Value #2: Service Form of Value #3: Shared Resource Form of Value #4: Subscription Form of Value #5: Resale Form of Value #6: Lease Form of Value #7: Agency Form of Value #8: Audience Aggregation Form of Value #9: Loan Form of Value #10: Option Form of Value #11: Insurance Form of Value #12: Capital Perceived Value Modularity Bundling and Unbundling Prototype The Iteration Cycle Iteration Velocity Feedback Alternatives Trade-offs Economic Values Relative Importance Testing Critically Important Assumptions (CIAs) Shadow Testing Minimum Economically Viable Offer (MEVO) Incremental Augmentation Field Testing Chapter Three: Marketing Attention Receptivity Remarkability Probable Purchaser End Result Qualification Point of Market Entry Addressability Desire Visualization Framing Free Permission Hook Call-to-Action (CTA) Narrative Controversy Reputation Chapter Four: Sales Transaction Trust Common Ground Pricing Uncertainty Principle Four Pricing Methods Value-Based Selling Education-Based Selling Next Best Alternative Three Universal Currencies Three Dimensions of Negotiation Buffer Reciprocation Damaging Admission Barriers to Purchase Risk Reversal Reactivation Chapter Five: Value Delivery Value Stream Distribution Channel The Expectation Effect Predictability Throughput Duplication Multiplication Scale Accumulation Amplification Barrier to Competition Force Multiplier Systemization Chapter Six: Finance Profit Margin Value Capture Sufficiency Four Methods to Increase Revenue Pricing Power Lifetime Value Allowable Acquisition Cost (AAC) Overhead Costs: Fixed and Variable Incremental Degradation Breakeven Amortization Purchasing Power Cash Flow Cycle Opportunity Cost Time Value of Money Compounding Leverage Hierarchy of Funding Bootstrapping Return on Investment (ROI) Sunk Cost Chapter Seven: The Human Mind Caveman Syndrome The Gas Tank The Onion Brain Perceptual Control Reference Level Conservation of Energy Guiding Structure Reorganization Conflict Pattern Matching Mental Simulation Interpretation and Reinterpretation Motivation Inhibition Willpower Depletion Loss Aversion Threat Lockdown Cognitive Scope Limitation Association Absence Blindness Contrast Scarcity Novelty Chapter Eight: Working with Yourself Monoidealism Cognitive Switching Penalty Four Methods of Completion Most Important Tasks (MITs) Goals States of Being Habits Priming Decision Five-Fold Why Five-Fold How Next Action Externalization Self-Elicitation Counterfactual Simulation Parkinson’s Law Doomsday Scenario Excessive Self-Regard Tendency Confirmation Bias Hindsight Bias Performance Load Energy Cycles Stress and Recovery Testing Mystique Locus of Control Attachment Personal Research and Development (R&D) The Growth Mind-set Chapter Nine: Working with Others Power Comparative Advantage Communication Overhead Importance Safety Golden Trifecta Reason Why Commander’s Intent Bystander Apathy Planning Fallacy Referrals Clanning Convergence and Divergence Social Signals Social Proof Authority Commitment and Consistency Incentive-Caused Bias Modal Bias Pygmalion Effect Attribution Error Option Orientation Management Chapter Ten: Understanding Systems Gall’s Law Flow Stock Slack Constraint Feedback Loop Autocatalysis Environment Selection Test Uncertainty Change Interdependence Counterparty Risk Second-Order Effects Normal Accidents Chapter Eleven: Analyzing Systems Deconstruction Measurement Key Performance Indicator Garbage In, Garbage Out Analytical Honesty Context Sampling Confidence Interval Ratio Mean, Median, Mode, and Midrange Correlation and Causation Norms Proxy Segmentation Humanization Chapter Twelve: Improving Systems Optimization Refactoring The Critical Few Diminishing Returns Friction Automation The Paradox of Automation The Irony of Automation Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) Checklist Cessation Resilience Fail-safe Stress Testing Scenario Planning The Middle Path The Experimental Mind-set Not “The End” Acknowledgments Appendix A: How to Continue Your Business Studies Appendix B: Forty-nine Questions to Improve Your Results Notes Index