Page 270 - James Caan - The Real Deal

The Real Deal

the courses there. YPO held an ‘in transition’ forum for people who
were considering their options, and someone else who had been
through a similar transition advised me that the best course to do at
Harvard was their Advanced Management Program. One in four of
the CEOs of Fortune 500 companies are AMP graduates. ‘The
tutors are world class, the students are the best in their fields and
you will learn more from that course in four months than you will in
a year doing an MBA,’ he said. It was the most prestigious business
qualification in the world, and something about that appealed to my
ego. I didn’t have a qualification to my name; wouldn’tit be
something if the first certificate I got was from Harvard?
The admissions officer at Harvard told me I had another choice
to make: did I want to do the course for entrepreneurs, or their
course aimed at corporate executives and CEOs? The choice
seemed pretty obvious, and everyone expected me to do the course
for entrepreneurs, so naturally enough I opted for their corporate
course! I felt I could learn more being around the kind of people
who ran organisations like Intel or Pepsi Cola than I would
studying with entrepreneurs with whom I was more likely to share
characteristics. I thought I would learn about the skills needed for
growing and building really big businesses. I had seen my own
companies through the nought to £100 million stage: what was it
like to take a company to the £1 billion level?
The entry requirements for the course were pretty stringent – you
had to demonstrate a high level of success and recognition and to be
able to pay their fees – and this meant I could be guaranteed that my
fellow students would be a remarkable group of people. Without any
previous qualifications, all I could offer them was the Entrepreneur
of the Year award. I found everything about going away for four
months to study unbelievably exciting. I was now proficient enough
with a computer to know I could have video phone calls with Aisha
and the girls every night, and I knew that Stephen, my butler, would
make sure they were well looked after in my absence.

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