The pitch is a tad gimmicky: a book called MBA in a Box that is packaged in—wait for it—a box! But this canary-yellow tome has more going for it than a clever concept. Editor Joel Kurtzman, a former chief of the Harvard Business Review, has rounded up fresh writings from a winner's circle of business thinkers in order to present in an approachable format all the bits of knowledge that anyone with an MBA should have as a matter of course. There are essays by the likes of Michael Porter discussing clusters, Rosabeth Moss Kanter on empowerment, and other Harvard Business School folks such as Kim Clark, Benjamin Shapiro, and Bill George.
Kurtzman and colleagues Glenn Rifkin and Victoria Griffith, both professional writers, have divided the essays into ten subject areas including innovation, strategy, human resources, and marketing. Readers will also find short excerpts from Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations, Niccolo Machiavelli's The Prince, and Alfred D. Chandler Jr.'s The Visible Hand, among others.
It's no substitute for a two-year degree program, of course, but at the list price one could do a lot worse than spending some time inside this box. —Martha Lagace