What They Don't Teach You at Harvard Business School by Mark H. McCormack (1984-08-23)

by Mark McCormack

Hardcover, 1984

Status

Available

Genres

Publication

Bantam Books (1984), 256 pages

Description

Mark McCormack, dubbed 'the most powerful man in sport', founded IMG (International Management Group) on a handshake. It was the first and is the most successful sports management company in the world, becoming a multi-million dollar, worldwide corporation whose activities in the business and marketing spheres are so diverse as to defy classification. Here, Mark McCormack reveals the secret of his success to key business issues such as analysing yourself and others, sales, negotiation, time management, decision-making and communication. What They Don't Teach You at Harvard Business School fills the gaps between a business school education and the street knowledge that comes from the day-to-day experience of running a business and managing people. It shares the business skills, techniques and wisdom gleaned from twenty-five years of experience.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member martymojito

The book is a very easy read with plenty of practical advice and anecdotes. However McCormack spends most of the book dropping names of all the famous people that he has struck a deal and names many Chief Executives that he feels he has bettered in a deal. Some of the anecdotes are amusing, some

are relevant to the topic of the chapter, but most are there to show how much of a good business man McCormack is. I suppose it was the style of this kind of book in those days when it was written but I would guess that if you wrote some of the things he wrote these days that you would find yourself fighting a lot of law suits. He basically names these guys and points out their weaknesses and how he overcame their weakness to strike a deal. He mentions one CEO, whom he says had a really short attention span and knew that he only had five minutes to conclude a deal. This may be true but I'm sure the CEO was a bit cheesed off to read this about himself when it was published. There is lots of this stuff throughout the book. He even writes about some of the weaknesses of his own staff, but he doesn't name them.

The best advice in the book is the advice to stay silent and to listen. Not saying to much forces the other person to open up and maybe say more than they meant to. Pregnant pauses are good because the other person feels the need to fill the silence and opens up a bit more. All in all a good read, a bit dated at this stage, it was written 20 odd years ago, but most of the advice is still relevant. It is much more direct than some of the business advice books.

If you can get over McCormack's ego then you will enjoy this book.

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LibraryThing member starkravingmad

surprisingly good read for practical business advice 34 years after publication

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