The Personal MBA

Traditionally there has always been two easily identifiable people in a tech start-up, the beard and the suit. I’m a beard, well a shaven one… which I guess makes me a chin… But I’m digressing. One of the great things about the ‘net is that it’s so easy to stroll in to someone else’s world. With people like Seth Godin and Hugh Macleod posting their thoughts (and a decent RSS aggregator) I can get an insight in to the marketing world. I can even drill down in to certain markets with sites like the Lip-Sticking blog.

One of the more interesting topics to come from these blogs (and a huge number of others) this year has been the personal MBA. The basic idea is that you can get as much information from 40 (well, 42 at the moment) top of their field books as you could from an actual MBA. While a real MBA has other values, good on the CV, social networking etc. the ability to learn all the important things without leaving your job for two years and spending huge amounts of money is one I more than welcome.

For a short summary of the books have a look at the ChangeThis Personal MBA Manifesto.

Update: It’s just popped in to my head that this is a good opportunity to get some free PR for a book seller. Put the whole set in to a bundle and offer a discount. I’m sure it’d generate some good buzz among people who buy a lot of business books…