Gifts for MBA graduates that aren't a pen
By Antoine Marchand · Last reviewed
How I picked these
Every book here passes three tests. It does not repeat the core curriculum, because a new graduate has just spent a year or two on case studies and textbooks. It is matched to what they are about to do next, not to what they have just finished. And it is a book someone will read, not one they will put on a shelf to show they own it.
That rules out most of the obvious choices. A strategy textbook is homework. A famous business biography is often more entertainment than use. What a new graduate lacks is practical judgment for the first years of the job: how to run a team, how to tell a real plan from a fake one, how to think about bets and failure.
I have matched each book to a type of graduate so you can pick by destination. If you do not know where they are heading, High Output Management is the safest single choice, because almost everyone with an MBA ends up managing people sooner or later.
All of these are inexpensive paperbacks. If you want the gift to feel more substantial, buy a hardcover where one exists, or pair two books from the list with a short handwritten note on why you chose them. The note is what they will remember.
What to avoid
Avoid the books they were assigned. If it appeared in a syllabus, they have either read it or deliberately not read it, and neither makes it a good gift. Check the course hubs, such as strategy or corporate finance, if you are unsure what is standard reading.
Avoid textbooks and reference volumes, however impressive they look. They are expensive, heavy and already available to graduates who want them.
Avoid self-help books promising success in a fixed number of habits or steps. A new graduate has had enough of frameworks for the time being.
And avoid anything that tells them what their degree was for. They already have opinions on that.
The gifts
For The new graduate stepping into their first real management role
High Output Management
Andrew S. Grove · 1983 · Core · about 8 h · $
“Grove wrote the most practical book I know on what a manager actually does all week: meetings, one-on-ones, decisions, reviews. Business school teaches the frameworks; this teaches the routine. It is a cheap paperback, short enough to read before the new job starts, and useful for years afterwards.”
For The new graduate going into consulting
Good Strategy Bad Strategy
Richard Rumelt · 2011 · Core · about 9 h · $
“Consultants spend their first years writing slides that claim to be strategy. Rumelt gives them a test for telling a real strategy from a list of goals, and the language to say so politely to a client. It is readable, opinionated and does not repeat the frameworks they have just been examined on.”
For The new graduate heading into finance, private equity or corporate development
The Outsiders
William N. Thorndike Jr. · 2012 · Core · about 7 h · $
“Thorndike profiles a set of chief executives whose results came from capital allocation decisions rather than operational brilliance or charisma.<!-- VERIFY --> For someone who has just learned the theory of capital budgeting, it is a readable account of how a few leaders applied it, and a good argument with their finance professors.”
Full review comingBuy on Amazon ↗
For The graduate founding or joining a startup
The Hard Thing About Hard Things
Ben Horowitz · 2014 · Core · about 7 h · $
“Horowitz writes about the parts of running a company that the entrepreneurship course does not cover: layoffs, hiring executives, and keeping going when the business may not survive.<!-- VERIFY --> It is candid and sometimes uncomfortable. That is what makes it a good gift for someone about to find out for themselves.”
Full review comingBuy on Amazon ↗
For The graduate who will be making calls under uncertainty: product, investing, operations
Thinking in Bets
Annie Duke · 2018 · Foundation · about 5 h · $
“Duke, a former professional poker player, separates the quality of a decision from the quality of its outcome.<!-- VERIFY --> New graduates are about to be judged on results they only partly control. This book gives them a better way to judge their own decisions, and it is short and lively enough to actually get read.”
Full review comingBuy on Amazon ↗
For The executive MBA graduate going back to a bigger job
The Effective Executive
Peter F. Drucker · 1967 · Foundation · about 5 h · $
“An EMBA graduate already knows how to manage. Drucker is about something harder: deciding where your time goes, what to contribute and which few things to focus on. It is decades old and still reads as current, because the problems of a crowded calendar have not changed. A small book that suits a busy reader.”
For The graduate who finished top of the class
Why Smart Executives Fail
Sydney Finkelstein · 2003 · Core · about 9 h · $
“Finkelstein looked at how capable, well-informed leadership teams still led their companies into serious failure.<!-- VERIFY --> It is a useful counterweight to the confidence that comes with a new degree, and gives a high achiever something to watch for in themselves. Give it with a straight face and a kind note.”
Full review comingBuy on Amazon ↗