As a long time tech guy (software engineer), I'd love to learn the basics of business. I don't have the time/money right now to do any sort of actual MBA program but was wondering if any folks on here had suggestions on resources/books/videos/etc. that would help give a high level overview. Keep in mind, this is just for my own edification at the moment - if I am ever at a point where I feel like having that type of knowledge is critical to the next steps in my career, I'd look for more official paths....

That said, wondering if there is any sort of place that can at least give good pointers on what type of stuff to learn. With the internet, I'm sure free resources are plentiful, but I'm definitely at an "I don't know what I don't know" kind of place, so a list of topics worth diving deeper into would be a good starting point, I think.

Hope that makes sense. Thanks!

I've recommended this $20 book to managers who want to get ahead in their career and don't have a finance background. It does a good job of introducing finance terminology, so you can participate in discussions around the office.

Financial Intelligence, Revised Edition: A Manager's Guide to Knowing What the Numbers Really Mean https://a.co/d/1UzOq1d

I'll say, not much experience starting from scratch since business is my educational background, but a few comments on topics to learn and places I've done research on certain topics. To start, you probably know more and have absorbed more than you think.

Basis of it all is going to be accounting and finance. Start there. A place like AccountingCoach.com may work for you to explain the basics of financial accounting to learn the details of financial statements, specifics about the line items on those financial statements, general accounting theories, basic gaap, taxes, etc…. Then learn management accounting (operational ratios and kpis, and budgeting/planning basics, etc.) Then move onto Finance (time value money and DCF, valuation models, financial market theories, investing basics). That'll get you most of what you need to know and what most people consider "business". Add in some micro and macro economics as well.

After Finance & Accounting, I'd focus on a little bit on supply chain basics, marketing theory, user/customer experience theory, and then just general strategy (industry analysis models, game theory, pricing strategies, M&A process/approaches, etc.). You'll find most of this is really just common sense packaged up in frameworks and models that are easier to remember and apply quickly.

For resources, it really depends on how you learn (and how much time you want to spend), but MIT posts many of their college courses (https://ocw.mit.edu/) with syllabi, readings. PowerPoints, and recorded lectures. Plenty on coursera as well. I'm sure there's plenty of stuff at a place like Khan Academy as well. YouTube seems to have everything, so you can search there.

For just pure reading on business topics, I'm not sure if there's going to be a better way than reading the course materials from earlier if you're looking for a broad understanding. Most of the self-help or managerial books don't really discuss larger business strategy or reasoning beyond their narrow focus/scope, but can still be helpful. I'll always recommend "extreme ownership" as one good general one though.

There's lots of great books on investing, branding, etc., but they're all pretty focused in my experience. I'm sure someone else with more experience in specific books will be along shortly.

These are great - thank you both!

really neat tip with the MIT site. I was bummed to see that only a handful of the classes actually have the video lectures

This one looks pretty cool though

https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/15-s50-how-to-win-at-texas-holdem-poker-january-iap-2016/pages/syllabus/

Diggity said:

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really neat tip with the MIT site. I was bummed to see that only a handful of the classes actually have the video lectures

This one looks pretty cool though

https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/15-s50-how-to-win-at-texas-holdem-poker-january-iap-2016/pages/syllabus/

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Hmm, disappointing. When I first used it they almost all had the video lectures. When I was actively using it, they would often have a few years worth of sections on there, at least one would have a video.

That one does look fun though.

Maybe look at Coursera and EdX, I did a 3-4 module tax program a few years ago hosted by U of Illinois and it was pretty good. About to start a few IT courses this month to help fill in some gaps like you are.

A problem is that they are starting to charge for things that used to be free five years ago but there is still plenty of free content and the subscriptions are not crazy if you stay invested.

Another thing I have done in the past is buy college textbooks (usually Kindle) when I want to learn something new and want it presented like it would have been at A&M, they are pricy (nothing has changed over the past 25 years) but the format is thorough.