The Ten-Day MBA 4th Ed.: A Step-by-Step Guide to Mastering the Skills Taught In America's Top Business Schools Paperback – July 24, 2012

I am a Wharton MBA graduate who will be teaching a survey course on business on the MBA level. To do this, I researched far and wide for the best book I could find to serve as a textbook and this beats all others hands-down. Thumbs up. It is comprehensive, current, well-written, and delivers the skills taught in America's top business schools in a highly reader-friendly manner. Every "nook and cranny" of business is covered. Day 10 with its Minicourses closes the loop. Certainly, it is not a substitute for the in-depth manner by which these principles, concepts, theories, practices would be garnered by taking numerous courses needed to earn an MBA degree. It is not a substitute for earning an MBA degree. However, it will serve as a valuable source of material upon which to learn to some depth of the various business disciplines as you move into or early-on through earning an MBA degree. To serve you well post-degree as a reference relative a comprehensive view of business. Enabling one to go out into the business world with an interdisciplinary, synthesized knowledge of business' various disciplines upon which to draw upon and be effective, successful. This book delivers on its promise of a step-by-step guide to mastering the skills taught in America's top business schools. The best "guide" available.

I started with the second edition of the Ten Day MBA around the year 2000. I used both the second and third editions as a primer for business and MBA concepts over the last decade. At the time, I did not know if I would go back to get an MBA. Several years ago, I enrolled in an evening Professional MBA program at Radford University. I am about 80% complete with the PMBA; and I used the fourth edition to help consolidate my knowledge before moving on to the last few classes. Reading the fourth edition was a much richer experience, now that I had classroom experience to relate the material. It is true that you can use this book as a primer if you aren't going to get the MBA in the near term; and as a review if you are about to complete an MBA. I have purchased the second, third and fourth editions over the years, and read each of them with different purposes and goals in mind, depending on my situation. This book has never disappointed, no matter what stage of career and education I was in at the time. For the price, it is an amazing value.

I bought this book as kind of a "Business Speak for for the Computer Geek" self-study course. It's worthwhile from that standpoint, well written, and probably about as entertaining as such a book can be. But it is limited.That's not saying anything about the tome's quality, though. There is a limited amount to what you can learn from any single book, and Silbiger's book is no exception. Generally, there is only one example given to explain every concept, and for some concepts, that's not enough.For instance, I came away from his explanation of double-entry bookkeeping totally baffled, and had to go to the web for help. You also won't get the repetition, practical exercises, interaction with classmates and teachers, and pacing that you'd find in a real classroom."The Ten-Day MBA" won't replace two years in B-school. But it's useful if you want to learn the lingo, and if you know enough to know what you don't know (and are persistent enough to seek the explanations from other sources.)

After getting a number of business books from the library, I purchased this one so that I could keep it and also mark it up. It is at the perfect level for me, covering topics at a high level, as well as giving details, with an easy-to-read clear and straightforward tone.I particularly like that it is not just a "cram course" that lists what you should know, but that it talks about the tradeoffs of various approaches to things. It presents the historical background of various concepts, cites the contributions of others, and is full of real world examples. At various points there are summaries, and key chapter take-aways.But there is so much in here, you cannot just pick it up and breeze through it. There is a lot of knowledge concentrated on each page, and you have to pick through it slowly and take time to think and absorb what you have just read. This is a very valuable book if you are interested in these topics.

Before getting this book, I was really considering getting an MBA. I already took MOOC courses from business schools, and I ordered the GMAT study book. I run an e-commerce business, and it has been doing pretty well. I learned a lot from just watching other people on YouTube and paying attention to the work they did in order to succeed. I am also a freelance writer, and I wanted to break out of my former genre and get into finance and business writing. At the time, I thought getting an MBA would be one of the only ways to be taken seriously in that setting.When I heard about The Ten Day MBA, I knew I wanted to at least see what it was all about. I realized that all of my independent research had already prepared me for pretty much everything that was covered in this book. It was just re-affirming what I already knew about business. I think it's a really good way to either open your eyes to how much you don't know, or in my case, help me calm down and realize that paying for the MBA would actually be a huge waste of time and money.