The 12-Week MBA

Learn the Skills You Need to Lead in Business Today

By: Bjorn Billhardt, Nathan Kracklauer

Narrated by: Michael Butler Murray

Based on a business leadership program taught to professionals at global Fortune 500 companies, this indispensable guide offers practical tips for managers and aspiring business leaders.

Getting an MBA takes time and money, making it inaccessible to many people who want to take charge in the business world. The 12-Week MBA offers an alternative way to learn business essentials, with a unique premise—business leaders in any industry, any function, and at any level need the same core knowledge, skills, and attitudes to effectively manage and lead. That core consists of working through and with other people to create value while using financial concepts and metrics to maximize the value created for all company stakeholders. The timeless essence of managing numbers and leading people can be learned in less time and at a lower cost than in a traditional two-year MBA, where much of the curriculum may become obsolete by the time students graduate.

Authors Bjorn Billhardt and Nathan Kracklauer are senior executives at Abilitie, a global leadership development company that has served over 100,000 learners in fifty countries. Now the key lessons from Abilitie’s 12- Week MBA curriculum are available in this accessible and engaging guide.

Critic reviews

“An excellent read for people considering entering management and leadership positions and a great refresher for those who have been there."—Scott Collins, PhD, CEO of Austin Innovation Group

"An essential guide to practical business leadership that covers both the 'numbers' and the 'people' side of running a business." —Alex Davern, former CEO, National Instruments

“The 12-Week MBA is transformational—it helped me lead the largest transaction in my company’s history.”—Martin Jones, Head of Studios, Austin Film Society

“The 12-Week MBA is an invaluable guide, providing the essential business acumen needed to confidently navigate the corporate world.” —Roberta Pomponio, Customer Success Manager, GoGuardian

"The 12-Week MBA offers small, bite-sized insights essential to business covering both financial leadership and people leadership."—Ketan Patel, Senior Corporate Counsel, Envision Healthcare

“The 12 Week MBA encapsulates 2-3 years of graduate level courses into easily digestible chapters anyone can understand.”—Dave Bush, Engineer, Apple

“The12-Week MBA distills an expensive degree into enduring leadership insights for a world that desperately needs a more diverse range of leaders.”—Christine Looser, PhD, Senior Director, Minerva

"The 12-Week MBA provides an introduction to the key quantitative and people-centered knowledge and skills that lie at the heart of successful strategic thinking."—Art Markman, Vice Provost, The University of Texas at Austin; author of Bring Your Brain to Work

Easy and educational listen - well organized, thoughtful, and entertaining

I appreciated the break-up into two parts, helping listeners either take it all in or focus their energies on the numbers/objective side and the softer/more subjective side. The organization of chapters is also going to make it much easier to reference back to in the future.

Another clear organizational win: the key takeaways at the end. I appreciated this quick recap which on occasion prompted me to re-listen to parts of a chapter.

The 12-Week MBA was not your typical e-book listen. Management books can be quite boring, but this one was not! The quips were well timed so as to re-engage listeners. They were also not overdone which could have risked a move into wincing at the forced effort. It was an easy and educational listen. I highly recommend!