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2 Minute Review of The 80 Minute MBA

  

 This week I attended the 80 minute MBA at the B F I IMAX, London.

 Leaving at 7am, 20 of us, from various businesses around South Wales, travelled by coach through snow blizzards and rain for 4 hours to reach London. Arriving at the BFI for midday there was just enough time to take a quick trip on the London Eye, and have noodles at Wagamama – both excellent. I highly recommend a trip on the London Eye, midweek in January – there were – hurrah - no queues which made up for the slightly dingy weather. Nevertheless we had the capsule to ourselves and the views were good enough.

 Onto the institute , and I have to confess I had signed myself up to this trip with absolutely no prior knowledge whatsoever about what I was about to experience though I had assumed the title to the event pretty much gave it away.

 The crowd looking mainly young business types and the auditorium was packed perhaps with upto a 1000 people – there were barely any spare seats

 The start was rather underwhelming; a film clip and a bit of music, no brash lights and a crash, bang wollop of an entrance for the rather staid looking middle-aged presenters: Richard Reeves and John Knell. I thought they looked rather nervous and started quite shakily. With a packed audience at £150 a head they needed to pack a punch

The presentation started with a lot of banter between the 2. They went through areas they would cover and gave quick dismissal to the areas they perceived of lesser importance; economics and accounts. A massive digital clock was counting down the precious 80 minutes.

 Part way through, I couldn’t decide whether I was being entertained or educated. I guess it was a bit of both but the entertainment side lacked any kind of “punch” or “sock it to them” statements. It was quite a gentle meander through various aspects of the MBA.

 The areas to whch they gave the greatest weight and respect were to:

 ®     Sustainability

®     Leadership

®     Culture

 At least the first 10 minutes was spent on sustainability and how they predicted that all companies would really have to pay attention to this is the coming years. M&S’s Stuart Rose was hailed a hero for bringing this to our attention.

 There was a good section on leadership. We were told that there are 5 books on leadership published everyday, and after Charismatic, Balanced, Living, Courageous, Spiritual, Resonant, Primal, Servant, Liquid, Strategic, Down to earth, Authentic and Coaching leaders, what on earth would we need next? After months of studying successful leaders we are told to forget about the above and focus on the 4 areas below:

•  Where we’re going (strong direction and vision)
•  What’s going on (know your business and staff inside out)
•  Who am I? (successful leaders know their strengths and weaknesses and are often humble about themselves but intensely ambitious for the   business)
•   How to build a strong team ( Knowing their limitations they build a strong talented team around themselves)

 The section on CULTURE rand many bells:

   People work best when freer and with more flexible working arrangements

   People stay at a company because of their colleagues and leave because of their managers

   People are most productive when happy

 So this is what I came away with in 80 minutes, plus the 80 minute MBA certificate! Did I come out buzzing, inspired with all guns blazing? Definitely not, though I was slightly reassured that if the above was true, then there didn’t seem to be any magic ingredients in the must-have MBA.

 Did I think it was value for money? Well if I’d paid £150 out of my own pocket , then NO. I think I’d have been rather disappointed

 Anyway see for yourself http://the80minutemba.com/

 or get their  International Bestseller “The 80 Minute MBA”

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