[deconstruct]

"learn business" was mentioned but there seems to be a lot discussion here around accounting and finance - those aren't "business", at least not the core of it anyway.

Accounting for one is recording what has already happened in a business - its merely reporting, nothing more. Its a reporting function of business.

There is far too much focus I feel on accounting and finance in MBA courses. Its not business. An MBA degree these days is sort of an entry price or piece of paper into the C-suite. I don't see that MBA degrees actually teach a lot of business.

Business is finding people and having them pay for value - a product or service. If you have an accounting department or knowledge of accounting/finance, you don't have a business, you have reporting. That's all you have.

Business is far more about sales, marketing, pricing, psychology, product/market fit. Then there is the delivery of that value - the actual product or service.

I'd also say a big part of business is learning about and being about to solve problems in a certain market.

Accounting/finance in a discussion of "learn business" should come way down the list IMO - its nothing more than reporting.

(A lot of the resources here focusing on accounting or finance are great resources - if you want to learn accounting / finance or if you want to get an MBA but they don't necessarily equate to learning "business". Also there is no better way learn business than doing rather than reading about it. I heard someone once say that you'd learn more about business running a lemonade stand than doing an MBA - I tend to agree).

[mdorazio]

I have to hard disagree on this, but I think it might be a difference in size of company you're thinking vs. other people in this thread. Most companies where a developer will be asking this question have already figured out their product-market fit and sales pipeline. At that point and thereafter business is increasingly about "the numbers". The bigger the company, the more that is true. Understanding what "the bottom line" means for your team, department, and the company as a whole + what drives that is the core of "business".

Put another way, I don't care how great you are at product - if you don't understand what costs and margins are required to actually turn a profit you'll still fail anyway.

[deconstruct]

Large companies put people in very "tight"/narrow well defined roles (developers included) and like to hire MBAs in C-suite roles. And yes, I agree they will have well defined sales pipelines and product market fit.

Business is about numbers, yes - at all sizes of companies.

But what actually drives those numbers?

Its 1) value and 2) sales/and marketing. Its not the accounting department. That's my point.

Understanding costs and margins is crucial, yes. But its very much secondary to having a valuable product that people want and that you can market/sell effectively - that's business, not accounting/finance.

A developer asking questions about the value a product creates and the problems it solves or doesn't solve will do far better than learning accounting/finance as far as "learning business" goes or getting an MBA!

I'm not a Musk fanboy, but he has created multiple valuable companies (spolier alert, he didn't do that by focusing on an MBA but rather on creating valuable products) - here is what he has to say about MBAs in large companies:

https://youtu.be/Y6P8qdanszw

"Spend less time on finance and power points and more time on making your product as amazing as possible". Bingo. That's business.

[Hapapapa]

Completely disagree with this. To use an analogy the purpose of an artist is to communicate emotions from the artist to the public through works of art. But training to be an artist is learning brushstroke, chiseling technique and what not. Sure the purpose of business is selling products and making profit and that’s the big picture but a huge part of the daily practical reality of doing business will involve accounting/finance. They are fundamental and necessary skills for any business of decent size and unlike the other skills you mention which are more intuitive they can be taught.

[deconstruct]

Business will involve accounting/finance, sure. It will involve lots of other functions - but business is not defined by accounting/finance.

Its defined by people buying a product or service they find of value - that is core to business (just like the definition of an artist is someone that actually produces art). If you don't have that you don't have a business (no matter how many accountants or MBAs you have).

Any skill can be taught.

[Hapapapa]

Yes it is not defined by accounting and finance but those are crucial skills just like learning proper brushstroke is crucial to being a painter. And I disagree that any skill can be taught. Selling, marketing, innovation etc are very dependent on the area of business you’re in, market conditions, the current state of technology etc - too many variables and some skills that are important in one area of business are wrong in a different kind of business, there’s a lot of art to them. Accounting is mostly done one way and the same way whatever your business is and necessary for any business. It makes sense for business schools to teach that first in their core curriculum before teaching things like strategy and marketing. And things like product sense, market timing etc can’t really be taught

[deconstruct]

Sales and marketing, learned they can be.

A business without knowing accounting/finance, exist can. (An accountant, hire, one can).

For accounting/finance to be useful at all, a business exist, must first.

[j45]

Accounting and finance are the result of doing business. Accounting and finance are usually not the business though.

Without doing business and creating value, there is no accounting, or finance. Often Accounting and Finance exist to keep risk manageable and if you let it too long, avoid it entirely.

Creating Value is almost certainly working through some amount of risk.

In a business, Accounting and Finance on it's own may not always create value, unless it's an accounting/finance business.

Conversely, creating value without accounting and finance will make it harder to retain the value created.

Accounting and finance functions are mostly about retaining what is working and making it more efficient.

Innovation Accounting, is another thing that is not always measured on the P&L.

[tracerbulletx]

Eh, accounting breaks down to tax, financial, and managerial accounting and it's more like the modeling language of business. You definitely should learn to speak the language to run a business and your decisions will be expressed in that language. You can leave the specialists to optimize your taxes, and financial posture since they need to know all the little laws and GAAP rules and techniques, but you should definitely know more than the basics.