[HN Gopher] Ask HN: How to learn business being a software engin...
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Ask HN: How to learn business being a software engineer?
Hi, everyone! I'm a recent-transitioned CTO, and I feel I lack a
lot of business background when discussing with others C-Level. Is
there a way (books, courses or even College material) to help
improving this gap? Thanks!
Author : leonardo2204
Score : 117 points
Date : 2023-01-08 17:13 UTC (5 hours ago)
| robviren wrote:
| I took the long road after graduating with a mechanical
| engineering degree in 2012 and working in industry. I quickly
| realized that engineering often meant executing and not
| strategizing, which frustrated me to no end. I learned that being
| right was secondary to making people above you look intelligent.
| So much of what drives action at larger orgs revolves around a
| small group of people with their own special social dynamics,
| opinions, and egos.
|
| As others have indicated an MBA would give you the language and
| credibility most orgs require to get into "business" positions. I
| do not feel the actual coursework is needed to understand the
| concepts and theories that have meaning for any given org.
| Businesses largely want growth, diversity, innovation, cost
| cutting, and future profitability. But I swear you could shortcut
| all that for just making the primary business stakeholders happy.
| Whatever they care about, what they perceive, what their goals
| are, that is what makes or breaks your position.
|
| Being able to present ideas is key. I got a lot out of some of
| the MIT open course material [1]. I am certain some exploration
| on that channel for the business topics will yield more excellent
| content. Soft skills often separate talented and business minded
| engineers from the business side of the org. I cannot stress how
| little being "right" actually matters once you get into business.
| I have to constantly make forecasts as a product manager and
| often have frighteningly little to work with in terms of data.
| Capture assumptions, build out strategy, believe your story. You
| will be wrong sometimes. Being able to check your own ego, guide
| an org towards what you believe is right, and dealing with a
| bunch of different people who all think their view is the right
| view all play into it. I love the challenge and enjoy seeing my
| contribution play out. Would highly suggest it for those who
| enjoy those sorts of challenges.
|
| [1] https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Unzc731iCUY
| boppo1 wrote:
| 'Financial Markets and Institutions' by Modigliani and Fabozzi.
| Really focus on the sections about benchmark rates and DCF/NPV
| valuation. This will help you work backward on an enormous number
| of business topics and really assess business models.
| kidgorgeous wrote:
| Start a Shopify dropshipping website, or learn SEO/PPC/Organic
| TikTook/Facebook ads, hire a VA, and pitch local businesses on
| marketing services.
| fxtentacle wrote:
| Get some public P&L sheets and learn how to read them. Once you
| can argue about the financial effects of your own and your
| competitors' decisions, the other C levels will take your advice
| much more seriously.
|
| Also, understanding where money comes from, where it goes to, and
| how budgets were allocated allows you to learn A LOT about how
| different industries work.
|
| Also, which country?
| nimzoLarsen wrote:
| Paul Graham has some great essays on business / startups:
|
| http://paulgraham.com/startupideas.html
|
| http://www.paulgraham.com/growth.html
| fenesiistvan wrote:
| His Zuckerberg example doesn't sound as well now
| danuker wrote:
| This site is teeming with book recommendations.
|
| Here is the all-time top of the Business category:
| https://hacker-recommended-books.vercel.app/category/7/all-t...
| tracyhenry wrote:
| Author of the site, thanks for plugging it.
|
| Disclaimer that this site hasn't been updated since Sept 2021.
| So the book list is not the latest. I do want to give it a spin
| some time later using the latest language models and make auto
| updates.
| sanswork wrote:
| Startup CXO will give you an overview of all your fellow CXOs
| responsibilities.
| dgs_sgd wrote:
| A lot of knowledge falls under the business umbrella. Have you
| asked the other C levels where they learned, or what you should
| focus on? I think that would be more helpful then turning to
| general learning material first.
| cdiamand wrote:
| You could (should?) ask others in your company at the C-Level to
| give you a high level briefing on what they work on, and how they
| think about their work. They may also have favored books,
| materials etc.
|
| Coming from a technical background where you've likely had to
| understand and work on complex structures, I think you're well
| positioned to understand the structures in your organization.
| [deleted]
| verdverm wrote:
| Crossing the Chasm is a must read. The Challenger Sale too. Among
| the other references in sibling comments
| ssss11 wrote:
| Speak with colleagues to understand how the business works - what
| is it's core competency - service or product, and how does your
| company build and sell that.
|
| Then get a basis in accounting.
| chiefalchemist wrote:
| Lots of finance-based suggestions already. But, if you're willing
| to use history as a guide, then first up should be marketing &
| sales. In many cases, those who bubble to the top have an M&S
| background.
|
| Financials are important, but not as important as having a bias
| for customers and revenue.
| baxtr wrote:
| Hi! Could you give an example or be a bit more specific? What
| kind of things are you struggling with?
|
| Is it certain topics or business lingo?
| leonardo2204 wrote:
| Thanks for your time! Basically, business in General,
| understading whether or not The company numbers are doing ok or
| not, how much to invest in the tech team, cut costs and so on.
| baxtr wrote:
| Ok. Thanks. Sounds like you are mainly struggling with topics
| around numbers, investments, costs etc.
|
| Unfortunately I don't have a specific resource to recommend.
|
| But I can share from my experience.
|
| I have advised some tech people on this specifically and it
| usually boils down to: explain everything you want to do in $
| figures. $s is the language the CFO and the CEO speak. So you
| need to translate anything into their realm.
|
| Most tech folks talk team, tech, servers. CFOs/CEOs don't
| bother and don't understand. So try to calculate some basic
| business cases for most of your requests and for their
| questions to you. Nothing basic, but have some rudimentary
| logic ready.
| giantg2 wrote:
| CFA offers a free foundations certification. That should cover
| basic finance.
|
| On a side note, your company/HR should have an executive
| education plan. They should be able to recommend the materials or
| courses to help you learn what they want you to. If not, they
| probably should start something like that.
| giantg2 wrote:
| Why disagree with this?
| marban wrote:
| Ray Dalio -- How the economic machine works, Principles, etc.
|
| Jim Collins -- Good to great
| themarketbyte wrote:
| Twitter is a great start.
|
| Create an anon account, follow investors & business people, ask
| questions, and over time start engaging in conversations.
|
| A couple good follows to start: 1. @patrick_oshag (also listen to
| his pod) 2. @trengriffin 3. @secretCFO - read newsletter as well
| 4. @onlyCFO - read their newsletter as well 5. 10k diver (read
| his threads on his website)
|
| From there, look at who they follow and engage with. Twitter is a
| one-stop shop for all your business learning.
|
| P.S. we write a daily tech & markets newsletter @
| themarketbyte.com. Having a daily email outlining top business
| information is useful to stay on top of news and develop a pulse
| for the market. Cheers to your jorney!
| j45 wrote:
| Hi welcome to the front role. Spent a good amount of time in the
| CTO role.
|
| Happy to chat offline.
|
| Things I wish I knew:
|
| The first law of learning business is tech folks can learn
| business far easier than business folks can learn tech. You have
| this.
|
| Second law is no one should represent your voice. They should
| help present it.
|
| The leadership team should be facilitating introductions to learn
| more about the business how they see fit. If it's not proactively
| happening.. keep reading.
|
| Learning business is as much about understanding what the
| business needs and how it can get there as accounting and
| finance.
|
| Understand the type of cto you are there to be, there are many
| kind. I have a book somewhere that broke it down well but
| effectively it can vary.
|
| Read into CIO roles and responsibilities as well as traditionally
| they made the decisions about tech
|
| If your position is net new you are extra capacity. Be mindful of
| absorbing work from other areas that upholds the past vs change
| for the future.
|
| Find a framework you like for your first 30-60-90 days.
|
| First, tech should never ever roll into Finance, only CEO. You
| are now the leader of possibility and capability in the
| organization. It may ruffle feathers. Find all the reports from
| McKinsey, etc making this clear why. This will mean you'll need
| to be a better communicator and self manager out of the gate.
|
| Get an executive coach or mentor immediately. Once a week at
| minimum if not twice a week for the first few weeks. You will
| know when to ease off.
|
| Setup your own way to communicate regularly with the entire
| company. Find all the meeting you May want a slot on.
|
| Learn the phrase innovation accounting- how to measure what can't
| be counted by dollars and cents. Your world can be undermined by
| folks who want to measure what suits them.
|
| Digital transformation - take a few classes or certain
| immediately. Quicker than books. Be clear in whether the business
| is building the future, or catching up to the present.
|
| Change management - take a cert immediately for it, it's fine to
| read but only a 2-3 day thing. It will keep mbas with no track
| record at bay.
|
| Togaf/Cobit - having something like this doesn't hurt. At least
| read about it.
|
| Agile/scrum - make sure you can talk the talk and walk the walk.
| Those words belong to you now. I'd probably lean towards agile.
|
| Six sigma - this overlaps with others a over however a bit better
| known in the business world. Consider it.
|
| If you want to become a better speaker look into a course like
| Roger Love's speaking courses, you will discover how simply your
| voice is just an instrument like keyword and you can use it as
| well as the best.
|
| Learn how to read and summarize simply when needed. It helps
| tremendously to present complex ideas simply to folks who just
| need to know to put the car in drive.
| headelf wrote:
| I would start by reading High Output Management by Andrew Grove -
| It really gives a great lens to view a business through and helps
| you focus on the right problems
| SnowHill9902 wrote:
| You learn business by becoming a businessman.
| meekaaku wrote:
| I think getting basics of accounts/finance will go a long way.
| Being able to read a balance sheet/profit & loss
| statement/cashflow statements will help you understand the health
| of business.
|
| Next I would say, reading up on basic marketing/consumer
| psychology will help develop/acquire product and sell it.
|
| Since you mentioned being CTO, I am assume you have
| development/programming background. This series [1] is good read
| targetted to developers who want learn a bit of accounting and
| finance.
|
| [1] https://www.moderntreasury.com/journal/accounting-for-
| develo...
| giantg2 wrote:
| The CFA has a foundations course that should be more
| comprehensive than this, instead of focusing just on financial
| accounting. It's free, online, and you can earn a cert for it.
| autodev1 wrote:
| I second this, immensely.
|
| I learned basic accounting at a community college-- Financial
| Accounting (3 hr course) & Managerial Accounting (3 hr course).
| I later took Intermediate Accounting 1 which was also super
| insightful.
|
| But those first two... Wow. They really opened up the "black
| box" of internal financial operations within a business, to me.
| Prior to those first two courses, I had no idea what happens
| when I pay a cashier a dollar, and how that dollar flows
| through a company to pay their vendors & employees (as well as
| taxes).
|
| Intermediate Accounting 1 & 2 (dropped out of 2) taught me more
| about how accounting statements relate to the stock market &
| financiers.
|
| If you'd like a free intro, you can check out this free online
| college-level textbook on accounting:
| https://www.principlesofaccounting.com/ [1]
|
| Accounting knowledge + Digital Marketing experience has been
| invaluable to me as a Software Engineering consultant (in the
| digital marketing & small + medium sized business space)-- I
| understand the language of business and can predict what a
| customer needs much better than I could before.
|
| [1] About the author: Larry M. Walther is Professor Emeritus
| from Utah State University. He previously served as the EY
| Professor, Head of the School of Accountancy, and Senior
| Associate Dean of the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business. Dr.
| Walther has authored numerous accounting textbooks and
| articles, and has served as director and/or consultant to a
| number of public and nonpublic companies. Dr. Walther earned
| his Ph.D. in accounting from Oklahoma State University and has
| public accounting experience with the audit firm of Ernst &
| Young.
| starwind wrote:
| Agree on taking financial accounting at a community college
| or a university. Accounting is a way of thinking and I can't
| imagine learning it on my own.
|
| Finance on the other hand is a bunch of mathematical formulas
| that are usually dumbed down. With OP being technical they
| should be able to learn the finance stuff on their own.
|
| I'd venture to say with a solid understand of financial
| accounting they can probably learn financial statement
| analysis on their own too. I really like this book:
| https://www.amazon.com/Financial-Statement-Analysis-
| Practiti...
| mooreds wrote:
| For finance knowledge, I'd volunteer to be a treasurer at a
| local non-profit, or HOA, or similar organization. That's a
| great way to get to read balance sheets, income statements, and
| more, in a real world scenario.
|
| The world of business is large. I'd probably read up on the
| particular domain your focusing on (real estate? sales?
| telephony? etc). Find subject matter experts at your company
| and take them to coffee and ask what they read or recommend.
| danielmarkbruce wrote:
| The Personal MBA by Josh Kaufman.
|
| https://www.amazon.com/Personal-MBA-10th-Anniversary-ebook/d...
|
| Great resource to go from zero to some basic understanding of a
| lot of stuff.
| lta wrote:
| I've read it a long time ago, and while it doesn't contain
| anything that will change your mind, it's a concise coverage of
| all the important topics in a single and easy to digest
| package.
|
| I feel that it gives solid foundations to start learning and
| build upon. I've read it and recommended it to a lot of people
| [deleted]
| blowski wrote:
| Agreed. There are a lot of "popular business" books which are
| basically a blog post stretched out over 200 pages. They're
| full of wonkish ideas that might, at best, only work in a
| specific context. Kaufman's book is a thorough grounding in
| the different aspects of running a business, without the
| faff.
| saasdev wrote:
| Great question. As a founder and CTO, I too have been through
| this. Couple recommendations:
|
| Books: -The Personal MBA by Kaufman is a great start -Financial
| Statements: A Step-by-Step Guide to Understanding and Creating
| Financial Reports
|
| Next advice is to learn investing. I've learned a ton by studying
| public companies, listening to earning calls, reading 10Ks, etc..
|
| Audible books are great for consuming biz books on marketing,
| mgmt, teamwork, etc..
|
| Founders podcast for just learning entrepreneurship and it being
| awesome.
| magicloop wrote:
| I was also at the same juncture and found the 'The Personal MBA'
| Josh Kaufman book highly valuable. Because this book is an index
| book. Each couple of pages is the distilled top level
| wisdom/knowledge of a separate business domain. If that section
| takes your attention it provides a curated book list for digging
| in deeper.
|
| So you just read the entire book for a wide-but-shallow
| understanding, and then drill in to topics that interest you
| most.
|
| Getting into the business domain is firstly an issue of
| awareness. Once you have an awareness of the landscape you build
| your knowledge bit by bit.
|
| For me it was obvious that sales was my weakest area, so I
| focussed on that with further reading and practice. (Turned out I
| was quite good at it in the end - a total shock to me as I am the
| nerdy techie type personality).
| eof wrote:
| Others have said CFA. CFA is the obvious paved path to what you
| are looking for. A few grand to add some letters to your name,
| and it will forever alter the way you think about business. But
| probably just ask someone who you think knows a lot to teach you.
| Dowwie wrote:
| A CFA is completely absurd for a CTO to pursue, even if that
| CTO were working for an investment management company. The OP
| wants to study to learn, not study to pass an exam. You can do
| one or the either for the CFA, but not both. Also, one doesn't
| learn "business" with the CFA but finance and accounting.
| ioblomov wrote:
| I second seeking a mentor. Unless your goals specifically
| require it, getting degrees is costly, in time, money, and
| opportunity cost. As an engineer/CTO you too have specialized
| knowledge and experience to offer. Offer it up in exchange for
| theirs.
| jonfw wrote:
| Has anybody here had experience with having a technical
| background, and then getting an MBA?
|
| I'm curious just how much this fast tracks someone into
| leadership
| gretch wrote:
| MIT free course on finance from first principles. Answers
| questions like the difference between price and value. Why do
| interest rates exist
|
| https://youtu.be/HdHlfiOAJyE
| m3affan wrote:
| Real LPT in the comments
| jewba wrote:
| I tend to watch a lot of MIT open courseware, most of the times
| not really paying that much attention. But this professor
| (Andrew Lo) is the best one by far. Makes the syllabus really
| engaging and easy to understand
| lcall wrote:
| A few books I read or am reading now, though I'm not in business
| or management currently:
|
| The Personal MBA: master the art of business, by Josh Kaufman
| (and personalmba.com has more info, maybe). Seems to want to be
| the practical guide.
|
| MBA in a Nutshell, by Milo Sobel. Seems slightly more academic
| than the one just above.
|
| Start Your Own Business: the only startup book you'll ever need,
| from Entrepreneur
|
| At least the first two come with lists of recommended further
| reading, by topic, including on finance, marketing, etc etc.
| schimmy_changa wrote:
| This book is an easy-to-read and short reference for all of the
| financial jargon / skills you'll need to know:
| https://financialintelligencebook.com/. Worth it to read and to
| be able to reference quickly. (Covers cashflow, balance sheet,
| working capital, etc)
|
| Agree with others here that working with someone else at the
| C-level to help you come up with your own small curriculum would
| be great, even if they don't need to teach you themselves.
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