Book of the Week: "What They DON'T Teach You at Harvard Business School" by Mark McCormack

If not a business person or don't have a business mindset, then "What They Don't Teach You at Harvard Business School" probably is not going to be of much interest. But for me I've always had a passion for business. I like managing, people and operations, and I'm pretty good at it. I know how to make things run smoothly and get others to do things that they may or may not actually want to do.

Managing a business or an office can be a scary thing. Everyone wants to be well liked, but it doesn't scare me. It's actually exhilarating. Then again I may also be a bit bossy - or have "leadership skills" like the image of the little girl yelling at the little boy dictates.


Getting back to the book, it's really interesting. The book was written by Mark H. McCormack, who founded IMG (International Management Group) as a way for athletes - primarily golf and tennis - to make money with endorsements. McCormack goes into great detail about building and running his business, and even mentions that sometimes it's 'ok' to get lucky. He got lucky with the first three clients he signed: Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, and Jack Nicklaus. Three-for-three, he batted a 1.000. You don't get much luckier than that.

Much of what McCormack covered can be relayed back to Dale Carnegie's "How To Win Friends and Influence People," but then again that's what business is, it's dealing and interacting with people. (If you haven't read my reaction to Carnegie's all-time best-selling book, click here it is a must read.)

One point that came up in both books was, if you're trying to sell someone on an idea or topic, then you have to make it seem like it is their idea. People will more likely agree to your thoughts if you present it to them like it was there idea - i.e. "how I won the summer of 2018" - and will most likely again win Summer 2019. LET'S DO IT!!!

Another point this book references is the concept of structure. While it is important to have a sense of structure and order, it is also can lead to stagnation hence limiting the future growth of the business. It's important to continuously push the envelope at times - that's where innovation comes from. But don't be fooled, structure is important to get the rote tasks done. It becomes a balancing act that executive need to learn how to master.

Speaking of balancing rote tasks, two things come to mind: delegation and time management. Delegation is important because it's taking those small, menial tasks off your plate allowing you focus on the bigger things. I've hear this multiple times over the course of my career - most recently at Harvard "never do a task that somebody else can do." By delegating some of the small tasks it frees up my time to focus on bigger projects and featured content that I thoroughly enjoy doing more.

The second concept is the importance of time management. I'm not going to dive into detail with this topic because I've already beaten this dead horse multiple times, but I will say he opened the section mentioning the number 168. If you're unsure of the importance of that number I'll link a blog post from June, 2018 right here: "There's Not Enough Time."

And finally the concept of meetings remains the same. They're great for making sure people are on the same page, but they all suck without a clear objective and goal you want to accomplish.