Leaders? Or Just Pushy People with Pieces of Paper?
Tom Peters’ recent post re MBAs, leadership and the lack of reality in biz schools reflects what I see all too often in the real world. Folks hire brand spankin’ new MBAs and expect them to work miracles (particularly if they come from a name school like Harvard.) Or, an entrepreneur in start-up mode tells me how they got great “free expert advice” from a university group of MBA students. Then, they show me a textbook, boilerplate business plan. Both such scenarios are counter-productive and unfair to everyone involved, including the MBAs.
I’m not discounting “book learning” as I owe both my college scholarships and much of my career to my reading comprehension ability. However, it’s worth keeping in mind that finance management, for example, isn’t necessarily the top leadership skill to have, and not everybody is qualified to be a leader – regardless of training, books, and encouragement.
Full disclosure: I dropped out of an MBA program about 20 years ago (had already been working several years) when I found myself “teaching” more in the study groups than the professor did in class. I then went on to manage MBAs and even PhDs – and some were great, some weren’t. It all comes back to the person’s inherent brain power and ability – not a piece of paper.
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A while back I discussed the value of getting an MBA on my blog. I am a learning junky so I personally can’t get enough education. To me the value is in the experience of learning. It’s the discovery process that I enjoy.
Others are always looking for a tangible return on their educational investment. This is a practical point of view that I appreciate. Anyone with an MBA who is looking to increase his value is indirectly increasing the value of an MBA for everyone who has one.
There is one thing that we should keep in sight as we try to realize the potential value of an MBA. That one thing is that we get out of our education what we put into it. Academic ideals rarely translate directly into business realities. We must be able to adapt what we have learned in the classroom to the real life situation. I know many MBAs who can’t do that.
I agree that business schools need to update their curriculum to reflect the current best practice in the real world. Where I break with your thinking is in placing the responsibility for the application of theoretical learning with the student.
After all, would you blame a paint brush if a carpenter tried to use it to drive a nail through a wooden board? A good carpenter never blames his tools.
I don’t think I’ve used anything I learned directly in the process of going to grad school. All the “indirect” learning associated with grad school (handling a huge workload, working with others, speaking professionally, etc.) was far more valuable and are things that have certainly helped my career.
That said, you can’t dispute the economic value of advanced education. I’ve posted on it several times including these:
http://www.freemoneyfinance.com/2005/08/the_value_of_ed.html
http://www.freemoneyfinance.com/2005/09/is_your_degree_.html
Dave, in response to your last comment – I would expect a carpenter who has been trained and certified as such to know not to use a paintbrush as a hammer.
I love learning too – but we have to be careful to not confuse rote regurgitation with developing the ability to reason. As Dan Pink notes in a Whole New Mind – we’ve got to use our whole brain…and the old SAT, #2 pencil test-taking model ain’t gonna work in our ever-flattening world.
I got my MBA after two years at night school while working full time at one of the top programs in the country (well at least US News thinks so). The difference being, it was all practical knowledge which we could use in business. Not so much abstract theory. McKenzie pushed MBA’s as the silver bullet for corporations and created Enron. An MBA is just another tool, not a license.
And on that note, next week I’m teaching a graduate class in starting a business. This should be real interesting.
Ahh yes the MBA. I’m currently pursueing an MBA. A definite step up in networking and presentation skills. Aside from the limited “hard” skills like finance and accounting it is all related to the professor. If they have some “real” experience that is utilized in focusing the learning lens then the result is usually positive.
My only complaint is there is a huge lack of “real” experience for the majority of my professors. How can they teach about the “real world” when they have nothing but theory to rely upon? One of the best professors I’ve had is at Utah Valley State College. He ran his own business for 15 years before going back to school and deciding to teach. He brought life experience to the table and was able to filter out invaluable/unapplicable theory.
On the flip side, outside of some undergrad liberal art professors, a few of the worst professors I’ve had are teaching classes in my current MBA program. Other than some part-time side-work while obtaining their PhD’s they have no “real” world experience and its very evident in their pedagodgy.
Too make a long story short. If they want to get up to speed they should require X number of years in the “real” world for professors just as they try to do for students.
Poor MBA… what a bad rap it gets these days. And this coming from someone who does NOT have one…
For some reason, the MBA has been defined in recent years as being the end-all and be-all of business. To folks in the corporate world, you’re just nobody without one. Times they are a changin’, though. With the rise of the entrepreneur, it’s all about the tools you use, including experience and intuition. You’re lucky if you can find an MBA program that has pulled itself out of the 1950’s and one that teaches from a real, current world perspective. Til then, I’ll stick with what I’m learning in the School of Life.
I love this blog! Here’s a bit of advice for business students. One of the best ways to learn is to get involved locally with businesses and especially with non-profit organizations. I could use about 20 business students in a heartbeat – to develop a stategic plan of development, to organize finances and keep books, to create a marketing plan, to think of innovative ways to run a non-profit. It is the hardest thing in the world to get volunteers from our business department! One intern in accounting worked at our local arts council for a semester, and said it was the most valuable learning experience of his college career. He completely revised the accounting system, and saved the arts council lots of money. What power he had! They went back to the school, and even HE went back to the school to try to convince someone else to work the the arts council. Non-profit management is complex and challenging. We have some of the same problems and needs that corporations do (some of us ARE incorporated!) and we have more problems besides. This student accountant has gone on to better things, but his resume is packed with good experience.
Why is it so hard to get business majors involved in non-profits, anyway?
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