Roadside MBA

Back Road Lessons for Entrepreneurs, Executives and Small Business Owners

By: Michael Mazzeo, Paul Oyer, Scott Schaefer

Narrated by: Steve Gibbons

In this "refreshingly different" high-toned business book, three leading business school professors take to America's back roads in search of offbeat small businesses—enterprises that hold valuable lessons for executives and entrepreneurs everywhere (Bloomberg Businessweek).

While playing hooky from a conference in Boston a few years back, three former colleagues from Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management hopped in a car and embarked on a life-changing road trip. They pulled into a shoe store in Maine and noticed that the sales help was unusually pushy. After a few questions, they discovered the store had a "secret shopper" program, in which employees would be marked down if they were not sufficiently aggressive with customers. A lightbulb went off.

Instead of teaching the tried-and-true case studies involving GE and Microsoft, these three men decided to pull their heads out of their ivory towers and search for insights about product differentiation, pricing, brand management, building a team, and a host of other topics. Why take your cues on employee compensation from Wall Street when you can learn from a Main Street company like Couer D'Alene's best crime-scene cleaner? Want to learn about scaling a business? Come meet Dr. Burris, the flying orthodontist, who operates multiple, profitable practices in rural Arkansas.

Spiced with vehicular mishaps and unexpected finds, this is one business book you won't want to miss.

Critic reviews

"Roadside MBA succeeds admirably in providing fresh examples to illustrate the basic tenets of MBA theory."—The Economist

"For those who don't have the time or money to go to business school, but teem with ambition, or for burgeoning small business owners looking for creative ideas, Roadside MBA is an excellent primer. Pick and choose the businesses that illustrate what you want to learn, grab your favorite snacks, and then hit the road, because with Mazzeo, Oyer, and Schaefer at the wheel, you're in good hands."—Fortune.com

"A reminder of everything that makes business vital, fascinating--even fun."—Inc. Magazine

"An excellent primer on dealing with problems that keep managers...awake at night."—Financial Times

"A great new book that combines two quintessentially American things: the road trip and small businesses."—Jack Covert selects

"Refreshingly different from your typical high-toned business books....Timeless lessons for every executive, entrepreneur, and business student."—Bloomberg BusinessWeek

"Roadside MBA combines humor with business theory and practice in a fresh, amusing way. You'll be entertained and educated, ending up with a newfound admiration for the ingenuity of small-town businesses."—Success

Loved this book

Really great read - recommend for anyone looking to understand the applications of micro economics in the real world (or just looking for an entertaining read about small businesses across America)

worth the time, but still dissapointing

Would you consider the audio edition of Roadside MBA to be better than the print version?

It's probably about the same.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

The details about the businesses: their hiring strategies, information gathering were great. The discussions of the authors personal lives, choice of clothing, housing and navigation skills detracted from book.

Any additional comments?

Whiel I mostly enjoyed listening to this book and learning about the wide range of businesses around the country, the authors chose to litter it with self-deprecating humor, comments on their personal lives, and their troubles navigating. I would rather have heard more details about the businesses. For example, the compony mining old cars for precious metals was fascinating. I would like to have heard a longer discussion about the merits of risk sharing with their customers as opposed to earning from getting better estimates about the quantities of metals in the various car models.

Great Book

This was great book. It like going to MBA class without high overhead cost of time and money to attend a real MBA course.

Business version of-“The Goal” to Manufacturing.

Good anecdotes, solid fundamentals, painfully hokey at times. Well narrated and structured, slightly forced humor and story line.

Love it

I was lucky to have Prof. Mazzeo as a professor at Kellogg. Mazzeo, Schaefer, and Oyer do a great job of storytelling in this book. The examples give a common sense approach to business that is appropriate for any business owner.