Whenever I’m browsing through a bookstore, books with titles like “The 14 Hour MBA” always seem to catch my wondering eye. Certainly most people would rather have one fairly short book that provides all the content of an MBA degree. And last evening, as I was on my way out of Border’s, it hit me. We should team up with our Portuguese translation service, Japanese translators and Russian translation specialists to come up with a 12-minute MBA course for our clients. This would allow them to gain valuable knowledge, save money on a bunch of textbooks and improve their chances of landing a great job and the promise of big raises. But then I had another thought. Why does the program need to be that long, when I can provide a much shorter one?

Well, we know it’s impossible to get a graduate business degree from a single book and a 5-minute MBA is impossible. But just as a builder can sell a house before it’s built, we can provide the nuts and bolts of an MBA education. In a summary, the objective of an MBA is to provide managers with the knowledge and skills they need to run successful companies, so with some help of a few translation professionals we began our outline with some common characteristics of successful companies. Basically, business success occurs when a business creates its own demand and supplies its products efficiently.

Growing Your Business Through Demand
A few Portuguese Translation workers took the first stab at defining how demand is created. They found that really successful companies identify a need, produce the product or service and deliver it in a timely manner. However, this can only happen when an organization provides more value than its competitors, either in the form of lower prices or with products and services that have provide more favorable features.

How To Become Profitable
Whereas the Portuguese translation group worked on defining how to create demand, the Russian Translation team researched creating profitability. To the Russian Translators, successful companies must sell products or services at prices that are high enough to cover costs and adequately compensate investors. Often, companies have to turn a strong profit and hold the lead in market share. The difficulty arises in trying to simultaneously satisfy both investors and customers. Many managers earn MBA degrees because of the difficulty in meeting these needs.

Thus far we are well on our way to providing the first ever super quick MBA. We were impressed by the Portuguese and Russian translators’ comprehension of the difficulty involved in keeping investors and customers alike satisfied. Challenging as the task may be, some highly successful organizations have been able to satisfy both customers and investors.

While the Portuguese and Russian workers finalized their thoughts on the above subject matter, some Japanese Translation workers began to define the key attributes that they believe are necessary for business success. The Japanese translators reported that the majority of successful businesses hire only the most talented individuals at every level. They reinforced the importance of executives who create sound strategy, managers who provide positive motivation and make sensible decisions, and front line employees who provide outstanding customer service as a result of posessing the knowledge and skills required to effectively do the job. Other points made by the Japanese translation team were to highlight the importance of fostering strong relationships with external suppliers, investors and clients. Finally, the Japanese translators underscored the importance of having sufficient funds to conduct business and to carry out long term plans.

So there you have it, we successfully put together an MBA course in 15-minutes that can be taught in five minutes and has being given away for free to anyone who has read this far.