The golden passport: Harvard Business School, the limits of capitalism, and the moral failure of the MBA elite (First edition.)

With The Firm, financial journalist Duff McDonald pulled back the curtain on consulting giant McKinsey Company.

In The Golden Passport, he reveals the inner works of a singular nexus of power, ambition, and influence: Harvard Business School.Harvard University still occupies a unique place in the publics imagination, but the Harvard Business School eclipsed its parent in terms of influence on modern society long ago.

A Harvard degree guarantees respect. But a Harvard MBA near-guarantees entrance into Western capitalisms most powerful realmthe corner office. And because the School shapes the way its powerful graduates think, its influence extends well beyond their own lives.

It affects the organizations they command, the economy they dominate, and society itself.

Decisions and priorities at HBS touch every single one of us.Most people have a vague knowledge of the power of the HBS network, but few understand the dynamics that have made HBS an indestructible and dominant force for almost a century.

Graduates of HBS share more than just an alma mater.

They also share a way of thinking about how the world should work, and they have successfully molded the world to that visionthat is what truly binds them together.In addition to teasing out the essence of this exclusive, if not necessarily secret club, McDonald explores two important questions: Has the school failed at reaching the goal it set for itselfthe multiplication of men who will handle their current business problems in socially constructive ways?

Is HBS complicit in the moral failings of Western capitalism?At a time of soaring economic inequality and growing political unrest, this hard-hitting yet fair portrait offers a much-needed look at an institution that has had a profound influence not just in the world of business but on the shape of our societyand on all our lives.