Although we publish a large range of business books in Palgrave Macmillan and in Pan Macmillan I must confess to a deeply-held scepticism about the whole area of business studies and management education. In the early nineties I enjoyed a wonderful twelve weeks attending the Advanced Management Program at the Harvard Business School.

It was a privilege to be there and I made a lot of friends, had a wonderful time, and deepened my understanding of American corporate executive dynamics. I also learned what I was really bad at. Top of my incompetence list was office space planning. I'll keep the rest of the list to myself. However, I wasn't convinced that the academic basis of the curriculum was really as rigorous as it might have been and I came away believing that common sense was probably the best way to run a business profitably.

It was therefore with some surprise that I came across the Stanford Business School's Bob Sutton and his 'Ten Things I Believe'. I think I believe them too.

1.    Sometimes the best management is no management at all -- first do no harm!

2.   Indifference is as important as passion.

3.    In organizational life, you can have influence over others or you can have freedom from others, but you can't have both at the same time.

4.    Learning how to say smart things and give smart answers is important. Learning to listen to     others and to ask smart questions is more important.

5.    You get what you expect from people. This is especially true when it comes to selfish behavior;   self-interest is a learned social norm, not an inherent feature of human behavior.

6.    Getting a little power can turn you into an insensitive self-centered jerk.

7.    Avoid pompous jerks whenever possible. They not only can make you feel bad about yourself, chances are that you will eventually start acting like them.

8.    The best test of a person's character is how he or she treats those with less power.

9.    Err on the side of optimism and positive energy in all things.

10. Work is an over-rated activity.