This year, Harvard Business School (HBS) will celebrate its centennial anniversary. From 1908 through 2008, HBS has firmly established itself as one of the most influential institutions in global business. Its alumni include twenty percent of the CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, the current President of the United States, George W. Bush, some of the world’s savviest entrepreneurs like Michael Bloomberg, and some of our most notorious felons, such as ex-Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling. Among the ranks of these illustrious alumni is Philip Delves Broughton, a reporter who abandoned his highly successful journalism career to get his MBA degree from HBS and who now brings us Ahead of the Curve: Two Years at Harvard Business School, his revealing insider’s account of this vaunted institution.
In 2004, Delves Broughton headed to HBS to join his 900 classmates, most of whom were fresh out of analyst programs at Wall Street’s most prestigious investment banks and consulting firms, and were hoping that a Harvard MBA would be their golden ticket into the elite worlds of hedge funds and private equity. Once there he learned the core business values of HBS—leadership, decisiveness, ethical behavior, and work/life balance—and studied over 500 assigned case studies. In Ahead of the Curve Delves Broughton shares the most revelatory, real-life lessons from these cases, gleaned from some of the world’s foremost institutions, and also notes some of the unpleasant aspects of business school life, from the booze luges and the obsession with PowerPoint to the high rate of depression among the student body. He ultimately learns that “the languages, practices, and leadership styles taught by HBS affect us all—MBAs determine the lives many of us will lead, the hours we work, the vacations we get, the culture we consume, the health care we receive and the education provided to our children.” With cutting insight and uproarious candor, Delves Broughton exposes the methods HBS uses to mold its students into the future leaders of our business world and how they impact our culture at large.
Delves Broughton’s Ahead of the Curve offers a richly detailed portrait of Harvard Business School—an institution that has for better or worse made American business what it is today.
“What it takes to become a Master of the Universe (aka, an MBA)…the astute Delves Broughton reveals much about a place that caters to smart students who seek a path to wealth beyond Trumpian dreams of avarice. A discerning tour through the vaunted Hogwarts of capitalism.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Cleverly narrated and marked by a professional journalist’s polish and remarkable attention to detail.” —Publishers Weekly
“Delves Broughton…describes his experiences as a student at Harvard Business School from 2004-2006, providing a needed update to other entries in this genre of students turned authors…an entertaining tale.” —Library Journal
“Informative, wry, and well-written, Delves Broughton's book will make rewarding and pleasurable reading for anybody wishing to understand why American business is the way it is.”
—John Cassidy, staff writer for The New Yorker and author of Dot.con
“An important exposé of life in the most famous educational institution in the world. Delves Broughton deftly chronicles the pathologies, shrewdness and effectiveness of an elite whose training and attitudes shape not only our modern economies but also our civilizations.”
—Rory Stewart, author of The Prince of the Marshes and The Places in Between
