I&#x27;m a chemical engineer and self taught programmer who turned strategy consultant. Graduated from my MBA a few weeks ago, so I might be a bit biased :)<p>I&#x27;ve found that different people find different things valuable in their MBA. We had an entrepreneurship prof who was also an investor who took us yoking from term sheets to buy outs. Found that super valuable, but yes, no doubt could read up more on this online as well. 
Same for finance, which was a topic that I didn&#x27;t know that well before. From a course perspective also got more out of strategy than I expected, but that seems to be very dependent on the prof teaching. (Read &#x27;profit or growth&#x27; by bala if you want a book, but more suited for large corporates)<p>Above all though, i think you get more out of the MBA in personal development (leadership in group work, dealing with pressure, being confident with new material, etc.) and network (after 1-2 years you are at least well connected to a group of people that have high business ambitions, plus alumni). In that sense it&#x27;s difficult to replace the full MBA experience with a set of MOOCs.<p>Finally, I&#x27;ve always found it powerful if someone in a room full of technical people knows more about business than any other tech guy in that room (or vice versa, being the only biz guy who understands tech or can program in a room full of biz guys). The MBA is one way for technical people to make that step.<p>realizing that I didn&#x27;t answer the question... Here are some things I think would also be interesting, regardless of the paper for more tech oriented people:<p>- time value of money (finance)<p>- basics of accounting (p&amp;l vs cash flow, you&#x27;d be amazed how many startups die by running out of cash even though their p&amp;l is positive)<p>- understanding competitive advantage &amp; successful market entry (strategy)<p>- basic operations: the difference between efficient and market responsive supply chains (right supply chain for right product, i.e. Don&#x27;t typically airfreight toilet paper); and the newsfeed or model if you make real products<p>- lots around marketing (pricing, channels, etc.)<p>- some stuff on more executive lvl management (do executives have most impact by the decisions they make themselves, or by the premises they set for others in the organization within which they make decisions? If the latter, how do you work best as an exec?)<p>- negotiation 101: there are some great HBS cases available online, it&#x27;s even fun as a Friday afternoon to negotiate between people and see what works best.<p>- governance and boards<p>- basics of investing, leveraged buyouts, private equity&#x2F;VC