FROM THE BOOKSHELFANDREW RUPPEL,
Feature Editor,
McIntire School of Commerce, We recall from our student days the various aids to help us compress study time. In elementary and high school, those aids were the plot condensations of famous books that we were assigned to read and the compilations of past exam questions that we prepped for the SAT's. In college, we may have again called upon the plot summaries to help with our literature assignments or used handy, paperback course summaries, such as those for the mathematical and physical sciencesþones with plenty of worked-out problems. Book summaries, plot summaries, course summaries.... Well, now we have summaries of whole degree programs! The MBA degree concept was `the face that launched a thousand' programs. Now there are day versions, night versions, Saturday versions, executive versions, home-study versions, and other formats, I'm sure. So why not a book-length version? Whoa, you say, how can you compress two years of material into a single volume?? Quick answer (at least for the Harvard-model programs)þleave out the cases. According to one recent account (Year One by Robert Reid, Morrow, 1994), a Harvard MBA covers some 800 cases in the two-year period. It should therefore be interesting to examine the coverage of these single-volume summariesþparticularly with regard to the fields within the decision sciences, namely: quantitative analysis, operations management, and information systems. Below we'll look at three single-volume summaries of MBA materialþone by twelve authors and two editors, one by a sole author, and one on CD-ROM.
by Andrew Ruppel, Feature Editor
THE NEW PORTABLE MBA: Revised & expanded edition This volume aims to provide "complete coverage from managing people to understanding the numbers and setting strategy." All but one of its twelve authors are academics; the outlier is a business journalist. Of the fourteen chapters, most seem to be extended essay format rather than the typical handbook, how-to style entries. The chapters of particular interest to most DSI members are those on Quantitative Tools (by Brian Forst), Information Technology (by N. Venkatraman), and Operations Management (by Linda Sprague). Forst begins his chapter with techniques for quality control, including root-cause analysis. Procedures for statistical forecasting are covered next, followed by a short segment on decision trees. The major models associated with operations research are briefly described in the concluding section. N. Venkatraman focuses on the evolution of information technology and its emergence as a potent factor in the strategic efforts of the firm. The historical evolution in information technology stages can be mirrored in the individual firm, says the author, who sees business process re-engineering as the current stage of thinking. Extending the re-engineering effort to business networks is the next stage. Linda Sprague's smooth-flowing essay on operations management employs a simple framework integrating capacity, inventory, schedules, standards, and controls. In the case of services, the inventory concerns shift from those of goods inventories to inventories of people, i.e., queues of customers. Sprague's chapter provides a good overview of operations concerns for the student and instructor alike. The same can be said about Fred Webster's contribution on marketing management. Overall, the volume is useful, but one readily appreciates the value that extended examples or worked-out cases would provide for the reader's benefit. It would appear that what the publisher would like the reader to do instead of studying examples is buy the other volumes in their Portable MBA Seriesþthere are eleven more in the series and four forthcoming. None, however, are in the decision sciences.
by Steven Silbiger William Morrow/Quill, 1993 381 pages Complete with certificate, replete with jargon, and peppered with some cartoons, this paperback is a clever summary of the essence of most MBA programs. The ten chapters (you are to read one per day) cover, in order: Marketing, Ethics, Accounting, Organizational Behavior, Quantitative Analysis, Finance, Operation, Economics, Strategy, and useful references/checklists. Concentrating on the chapters of prime interest to decision scientists (QA and Operations), one discovers Net Present Value and Cash Flow Analysis among the principal topics of the QA chapter, along with decision trees and statistical concepts. The Operations chapter hits the highlights of flow charting, Gantt charting, critical path charting, control charting, and inventory level charting. (The classic EOQ diagram is improperly drawn to include a horizontal line passing through the intersection of the ordering cost curve and the holding cost curve, labeled as the unit cost of the item being stocked.) Silbiger himself seems to operate on the principle that all the newly-minted MBA needs to do in examining operations activities is ask a few questions suitably laced with MBA-speakþ``Do you use Theory X,Y, or Z to run the plant? Could MRP help coordinate the entire production process?'' How about a squirt of WD-40?? Silbiger's book will appeal to the current and recently-minted MBA more than the Collins and Devanna Handbook. Benefitting from the consistency of single-authorship, THE TEN DAY MBA better fills the role of organizing the key ideas in the various functional and subject areas (MIS excluded) of an MBA program. Now if it only provided plot summaries of the tough cases....
Compact Publishing and Richard D. Irwin, 1995, CD-ROM Taking advantage of the CD's prodigious storage capacity, this `MBA in one-volume' product crams in textual material, still and motion images, plus assorted graphics. Microsoft's Windows is the screen display format and control. The text material is drawn from Irwin books covering entrepreneurship, business law, accounting, advertising, retailing, and human resources managementþthese seem to be undergraduate texts as opposed to MBA ones, though. Other material is drawn from Small Business Administration and EEOC reference publications. There are tutorials providing lessons on key topics to the user and dictionaries of terms. Extracts from all the materials can be bundled into a personalized 'briefcase.' Hypertext-style cross-linking is used. Examining the twenty tutorials for topics that might contain decision science material, I discovered some odd choices. For example, in the tutorial on total quality management, one would expect to find some discussion of quality control charts; instead one finds a treatment of Gantt and PERT charts. While it is true that such diagrams can be used to layout and oversee a quality improvement project, it is hard to see how they would take the place of quality control charts in any discussion of TQM. The treatment of continuous improvement itself is all text, no statistical tools or charts are presented. Some statistics is presented in the section on forecasting for retail operations. There, a diagram improperly labelled as a regression of population on sales indicates the weak handling of quantitative topics. But again, this is a 'publication' aimed at small business persons who feel they need to know more. The cachet of the MBA label coupled with the multimedia approach perhaps make this a more appealing way to digest the material. The cost of the CD, which started at $129.95 and has been special-offered at $79.95, is certainly cheaper than buying all the books and documents that are incorporated in it. Navigation through it is easy and interfaces with a word processor and a spreadsheet are available. This product, while nicely exploiting the storage potential of CD-ROM, fails to capitalize on what good animation and motion video could do for effective business instruction.
Dr. Andrew Ruppel |