Wake up and smell the coffee sunshine

Yep, in about a week I'm starting an executive MBA at the Universiteit Antwerpen Management School (long for UAMS). We are talking about a two-year program with an intensive schedule - 8 days per month in class and some lonesome study hours that come as a perk with the job. We're kicking off with two modules:

- from Group to collaborative Team
- Integrated Performance Management

I still have to Google my lecturers though but for the moment, I'll just stick to paper. When I was in Hong Kong for a reporter's assignment; I saw the following book in the stand which drew my attention: What They Teach You at Harvard Business School: My Two Years Inside the Cauldron of Capitalism... Now, the blurb states that it is "Witty and revealing... For anyone thinking of doing an MBA, this is a must read (Luke Johnson, Chairman of Channel 4 Television)
I guess Luke is talking from experience and that he survived an MBA - actually it's pretty easy nowadays to check someone's credential nowadays... just google the person and yup this is what I found in a spit-second:

Luke Johnson. Chairman. Channel 4 Television ... After graduating from Trinity College, Cambridge, and gaining an MBA at the Wharton Business School, ...www.50lessons.com

Anyway, the book I just mentioned, is written by an English journalist Philip Delves Broughton who abandoned his career to do an MBA course at HBS. HBS is short for Harvard Business School so we are talking about the big boys here. Curious-to-read type of book so I will take it along on my "first school day" next week. En résidence for four days and can do with some bed literature - will keep you posted as the chapters and classes pass but do want to share one review of the book with you:

Fascinating read, but interestingly in the 2009 postscript, the author claims he was "too timid".
He argues that aspects of the school which were unsettling to him at the time because of who he happened to be, should in retrospect "have been unsettling to everyone".

Furthermore, in the shadow of the recent financial crisis and the role HBS alumni have played in the meltdown, he comes down heavily on the prevaling mentality at HBS that all the world's ills can be solved by the leadership methods of the School, its alumni, and by "what we [HBS] do".

Food for thought...