The Rise Of the MBA And The Fall Of Business
May 1, 2009 by Miki Saxon
I’ve never been a lover of the MBA, its almost holy status, depending on the school, and especially its dominance on Wall Street,
In a recent post Justine Larbalestier said, “I was fascinated by Background Briefing’s recent documentary about the emergence of business schools and their effect on corporate culture and its relationship to the current crisis: MBA: Mostly Bloody Awful.”
I agree with Justine regarding the illogic of assuming that people can walk in and manage or advise a business of which they know little to nothing, especially with little to no experience.
It’s said that MBA can also stand for ‘Mediocre but Arrogant’ or ‘Management by Accident’; I would add Muddled by Ascendancy and Master Bull Artist.
The podcast by ABC Radio’s Stephen Crittenden is excellent. I hope you’ll take the time to listen and, hopefully, rethink some of your hiring assumptions.
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So I take it your not an MBA?
Like every other field, degree or career, the group of people who have earned an MBA has its share of under-performers. Maybe even a double portion. I even have some of the same feelings around the engineering fields. However, like all other educational programs it depends on the person. I agree that few people can walk in to any job and excel without some time to learn. But there are a few.
You’re right, Billy, I don’t.
But it’s interesting that 56% of MBAs and 84% of Business undergrads admit to cheating vs. a measly 72% of engineering students (sarcasm intended).
Those numbers are more than high enough to be termed a majority. Of course there are exceptions, there are always exceptions; remember The Mule in Isaac Asimov’s classic Foundation Series?
I disagree that anyone can walk into a job and succeed without any learning curve. Lou Gerstner had years of experience and still took time to learn about IBM and its business and its markets. Yes, he learned faster than most, but learn he did. (BTW, his book “Who Said Elephants Can’t Dance” is a great read.)
Having a certain type of degree from a certain school is no guarantee that a person is going to perform and the damage done by decades of people who see themselves as ‘above the rest’ because of a piece of paper is real.