If you can’t afford to devote one to two full time years to graduate business study, can you get the equivalent by reading the books?  The central thesis of the PMBA concept is that you can come close.

While you won’t derive the equivalent by reading alone, and while you won’t actually read all of the books that you might encounter in a traditional MBA, and while you won’t benefit from the lecture and team-based project components, you will absorb a lot of the content.  The reading program has the potential to extend your leadership potential and familiarize you with core concepts.

One of the books, “How to Read a Financial Report” by John Tracy provides a startlingly clear “dummies” guide to wading through financial reports.  This is useful.  It is less than comprehensive however, the natural shortcoming of a primer.

Josh Kaufmann lists several PMBA resources on his site with extensive discussion.  There is also a PMBA site for participants to gather and discuss individual books.  Well worth a serious look if you are interested in business concepts and in acquiring new skills and insights.

Josh Kaufmann

The Personal MBA