The Personal MBA

Josh Kaufman's alternative to business school argues that an MBA is costly and hard to justify, and that even elite programs spend more time on slide decks and needless financial models than on running a real company. Kaufman, who founded PersonalMBA.com, gathers the core ideas of business into one volume built around simple mental models. It covers marketing, sales, entrepreneurship, negotiation, operations, productivity and systems design. Concepts include the Iron Law of the Market, on how the size and quality of a market limit a business; the 12 Forms of Value; the Pricing Uncertainty Principle; and four ways to increase revenue. The result works as a thematic encyclopedia of business concepts.

SquarePlanet founder Brian Burkhart praised its short, digestible lessons spanning finance, marketing and organizational development. Populum co-founder Ola Olusoga named it in an interview among the business books he recommends.