Business Book Review: What They Don’t Teach You At Harvard Business School by Mark McCormack

McCormack’s What They Don’t Teach You At Harvard Business School is the manual freshly-minted MBAs need to read.

My Rating: ★★★★★

Length: 286 pages

Publisher: Collins

Released: 1984

Applying the book to personal branding

The late, great Mark McCormack had one of the most profound influences on the business world. The International Management Group (IGM) founder was once dubbed ‘the most powerful man in sport’. He is accredited by many as creating sports marketing.

The Yale Law School graduate took the sports world by storm. The IGM powerhouse also expanded into artists, celebrities, models, broadcasting and more. He never attended Harvard Business School, but his company’s success story has been studied as a case study there. While he doesn’t use the term, the book is a masterclass in personal branding.

Personal branding is often defined as:

• What people say about you

• How you make them feel

• What they say about you

• How they remember you

It can be difficult to compute that the success of your personal brand relies on how other people perceive you. But, McCormack’s book helps lead the way on how you can influence this.

Despite his clout, McCormack’s every interaction with others is centred around aggressively listening, aggressively observing and talking less. Then, you can act accordingly.

In a world where so many believe that a strong personal brand is a ‘strong voice’, McCormack’s legacy is a saviour for the art of listening.

Favourite Quotes

Listen Aggressively. The ability to listen, really to hear what someone is saying, has far greater business implications, of course, than simply gaining insight into people.

Observe Aggressively…Most visual statements are quite conscious and intentional - the way someone dresses, the way he carries himself, and all the other ways people go about trying to create a particular impression.

Talk Less. You will automatically learn more, hear more, see more – and make fewer blunders.

Coco Chanel once said that if a woman is poorly dressed, you notice her dress, and if she’s impeccably dressed, you notice the woman.

One of the best ‘long-term’ favours you can do for someone is to act as someone else’s middleman – putting together two parties in whom you have no immediate interest. Both parties will remember.

The most important asset in business is a sense of humour, an ability to laugh at yourself or the situation.

There is a business philosophy I subscribe to which says that if you aren’t making mistakes you aren’t trying hard enough.

What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School is McCormack’s gift to the future of business. The detailed account reveals his success in granular detail.

As the title implies, its originality will teach business professionals the hidden art of business.

When a legend reveals secrets for your benefit, the onus is now on you to aggressively listen.

What They Don't Teach you at Harvard Business School: Available on Amazon.