Getting a distinction on your MBA

You'll find general MBA advice at Top MBA and MBA Jungle. Here are my own tips for success:

1. Preparing your case studies
There are lots of ways to prepare case studies. Find someone with a law degree to show you how they do it, because they get taught it properly as undergraduates. I found that the best way was like this:

First, quickly skim through the case to see what's in it. Have a look at the exhibits at the back as well, don't skip them, and read the captions so you know what data is available.

Now turn back to the beginning and read the case in full. As you're reading, have two different coloured highlighter pens. Use one to highlight the names of the people in the case and their job roles. Use the other colour to highlight any other interesting points in the text. This way, when you're in a class discussion you can easily find who's who.

2. Give concrete actions, not high-level waffle
In a strategy implementation class, or any of the case study classes where you're deciding what a company or a person should do, give concrete actions and not vague general statements.

For example, rather than saying:

"The CEO needs to get the field sales team on his side",

You should be saying something like:

"The CEO needs to get the field sales team on his side, and to do this, since they are a close-knit team that values trust, he should leave head office and go to the factory to speak face-to-face with the team."

Remember, companies don't do things, people do! Always say who should do what, and prioritise these actions. Who should pick up the phone, and who should he or she call?

3. Some cases are red herrings
Just be aware that not all cases are equal. Some are written with bias, and some are written to lead you down a particular way of thinking. Do you get the impression from the case that a particular person is a real loser? Is this a strong impression? Is it based on facts, or on the way the material was presented?

I won't spoil it by telling you which cases are written to lead you to the wrong conclusions just so that the lecturer can bring you back to earth again. There's a lot of learning that you would miss out on if I did that. But just be alert to possible biases in the material that you read.

4. "So What?" - Getting to the point
It's tempting to waffle, but you never have enough words in an essay. Don't talk endlessly about your methodology, make sure you give your results near the top of the paper, and then discuss their significance.

After you write a paragraph or a few sentences, imagine your readers asking "So what?" This forces you to be more insightful, and to give the real meat of the analysis.

5. Why, why, why?
Here's a useful analysis technique: ask the question "why?" three times (at least), questioning each of your conclusions. Each time gets you closer to the truth.

For example:
The CEO cut back on customer service.
Why?
Because his strategy is to dramatically reduce costs.
Why?
He wants to double short-term profits in the next year.
Why?
To fulfil the criteria for his bonus.

By now the real issue you could have uncovered might be that the management is acting irrationally due to a poor incentive system.

6. It's all about the people
What you will learn by the end of the MBA is that no matter what the issue, no matter what the topic, it's all about the people. How do people behave? How will people react to an issue? How can we shape people's perceptions? What are the personal agendas, are they hidden, and do they affect how their organisation reacts?

Never underestimate hidden agendas; things are rarely as they seem.

Even in finance, it all comes back to people. Are stock prices driven by fundamentals or by perceptions? For brands, perception is reality. And who creates perception? People!

Never forget the people, and analyse your cases from the point of view of the specific people involved.

7. Teamwork in assignments
If you're in a study group, it's tempting to split up to tackle the assignments, so perhaps two people do finance and two people do marketing. Resist this temptation!

If you split up, you won't learn anything in the subjects that you don't look at, and this will hurt you badly in the exam. You'll probably end up putting the best finance people on the finance task too, so the rest of you won't learn in the areas in which you are weakest.

If you have to split up to get the work done on time, try putting an expert and a novice in a particular topic on the same team, so that the novice can learn.

8. Work together, don't compete
You can view the other students on the course in one of two ways: either they're a source of help, inspiration and lifelong friendship, or else they're a sworn enemy to be defeated at all costs.

My strong advice is to work together with the other people on the course. That's how it works in the best business teams. You're on the same side. You need the other people in the class to help you get through all the work. Don't think you can do it all on your own because you can't!

Thinking long-term, after you graduate, would you rather have a network of dozens of friends all over the world that can help you, or dozens of enemies who will shoot you down whenever they can?

9. Catch problems in your study group very early
You might be unlucky enough to find someone in your study group who doesn't do any work, or who doesn't come to meetings, or who is generally unreliable. Don't give these people the benefit of the doubt. You must catch these problems early, before they get out of control.

Have a polite discussion with the underperforming group member, making it clear that his or her behaviour is not acceptable to the rest of the group, and giving him or her the opportunity to make amends. If an improvement is not shown, then don't feel bad about mentioning your problems to the academic faculty. If you don't solve these problems then your own grades will suffer.

10. Look for self-funders, not journeymen
There are two main ways of paying for an MBA: either you fund it yourself, or else you get a scholarship or company sponsorship.

In general, the people who are funding themselves will be much more keen to learn and more enthusiastic about the course than the people who just have to get the letters after their name in order to get a promotion within their company.

The entrepreneurs are often very enthusiastic. They know that if they don't learn they won't succeed.

So ally yourself with the enthusiasts.

11. Non-native English speakers
If you're in a group with non-native English speakers who do not have a strong grasp of the language, you might find yourself getting frustrated in meetings and feel that the other students are not making a valid contribution. This is your time to learn how to get the best out of people, so dig deep.

Try other ways of working, such as email, if a face-to-face meeting isn't getting results. For example, I found that with one of my study partners that if a first draft of an assignment was emailed to him, he could take the time he needed to understand the language and to formulate his comments. He then emailed back some very insightful comments that improved the work a great deal. For us, we found that email working overcame the language barrier.

12. Reading groups
If you have too much reading, you could always share the reading with a reading group. Each week the reading gets portioned out to the members of the group, who will then read the article or chapter given to them and summarise it for the rest of the group. You then only have to read the summaries.

Opinions differ on whether this is an effective method. It doesn't seem to work as well for those students whose first language is not English, since they may spend too long on writing the summary.

Some people find that they can scan the material quickly and get a quick summary without having to read a note that someone else has written. I personally found that the material that I summarised I ended up knowing very well.

I'd say give it a go and see what you think.

13. Reading lists
Your reading list will probably be much too long for you to ever get through it all. So here's a few tips to cut through the clutter:

Read the articles first, especially those from Harvard Business Review. They're quite short, very readable, not usually too dull, and serve as a good real-world introduction to the topic.

After the articles, take a look at the textbooks. You don't need to read every word. Try picking out the key terms, which are often in bold, and just reading a small section of the text around those key terms. This way you will know all the useful concepts, without reading the waffle.

I tried to slot in reading whenever I had some dead time, such as when I was cooking a meal. If you do this, it's surprising how quickly you can get through everything.

14. Go to events
Your business school will likely put on a lot of events and bring in a lot of speakers. Go and see as many of these as you can. You will often get good insights and quotations that you wouldn't get just from your lectures. Treat these extra-curricular lectures as another component of the course. You never know who will stimulate you into a new way of thinking, or suggest a new opportunity for you to follow.

Try and think up some questions to ask the speaker in advance, because you sometimes find yourself in a one-on-one situation with speakers, and it's useful to be able to talk intelligently to them.

15. Social life
Don't forget to enjoy yourself outside the course (as if you would!). By all means go to the parties, the meals, and all the fun stuff. But don't feel that you have to get to know everyone on the course in great depth. You don't. By the end of the course you'll know pretty much most of your classmates to some extent.

You'll probably be taught on the course about a thing called the strength of weak ties, meaning that basically you don't have to know people very well before they become a useful contact in your network. So don't feel you have to go to every social event on the calendar to get yourself known.

16. More Lectures Equals Less revision
The best thing to make your work stick in your head is to understand it, and the best way to understand it is to go to all your lectures and classes. Even if they're sometimes boring! Even if there are assessments due, you should work around your classes.

This way, you don't have to do much revision at all. (I find that I can never concentrate properly on revision, so don't kid yourself if you're the same, you'll just waste your time!)

If you've been to the lectures, and done some of the reading throughout the course, just have a quick read over your notes the day before the exam to remind yourself of the key terms and key concepts, and you'll be fine.

17. Doing Surveys
You'll often find that you need to carry out web surveys, especially for marketing courses. The site that we used for our surveys was Survey Monkey, at www.surveymonkey.com. It's very easy to use, and provides good analysis tools.

One word of advice: if there's a project due that involves lots of students creating surveys and asking the class to complete them, then get yours in early! Later on, survey fatigue will set in and nobody can be bothered to complete yet another survey, so you will miss out.

18. Careers
Your business school will want you to have a job lined up for the day you finish the MBA. This makes them look better in the rankings tables. So there's pressure on you to both do your MBA work and get a job. But doing applications and interviews takes so much time, a lot longer than you think.

The truth: you can get a job any time you like, but you only get one shot at the MBA! You cannot afford to take your eye off the ball with the coursework.

If you're not sure what kind of job you want, by all means go to the careers events and presentations, and find out what's going on. But don't feel like you have to rush your decision about what you want to do with the rest of your life. You don't.

19. Finance - don't panic!
If you're new to finance, there's a lot of numbers and some of them can be pretty tricky. By all means try your hardest, and seek help from both the academic faculty and your fellow students. But don't panic! Don't focus on finance and then blow all your other courses!

If you find that the numbers just aren't making sense, and you're running out of time preparing for exams, then just forget the numbers! Concentrate on learning the key concepts. What are the trends that make certain numbers go up and other numbers go down?

Find out what happens and why, rather than the precise way to price a bond down to the last penny. In the real world, as long as you know roughly what's going on you can always bring in an expert to get the numbers perfect.

20. Don't let the other students freak you out
Some of the people in my class were amazing. But some of them had done business studies as their first degree. Of course they were going to know more than me (to begin with!).

A lot of people might have covered some of the material in their previous jobs, especially the core courses at the start of the MBA, so if you're feeling left behind then don't worry too much, just keep going.

There's a lot of useful info on topics and frameworks at QuickMBA.com

There's really no magic to getting a distinction on your MBA, but there's no magic wand either.

By putting into practice the tips that I've shared with you here you stand a good chance of coming out alive!

Good luck!