YoungGoGetter has a post titled 3 Reasons To Skip Getting Your MBA written by Ryan Stephens which suggest three reasons why Ryan thinks you should skip obtaining your MBA. I don’t agree with his reasoning, particularly his third point:
I’m in too much of a hurry to waste time getting an MBA, when I could read some great books in one summer and get a very similar education.
…a couple of good professors, business people, or bloggers could provide me with a list of great books I need to read. I could read one every other day or so and get a lot of the same education I would get in an MBA program.
…and you can obtain a solid education by reading best-selling business books by brilliant authors that probably know a lot more about that particular subject than your professor.
Yes you can read about the subjects on an MBA course in a book. You could however say that for every degree course, including the MS in Marketing which Stephens is currently studying.
Equally, unless your professor is one of the top experts on a subject i.e. Kotler (Marketing), Grönroos (Relationship Marketing), Porter (Strategy), Hamel (Strategy), Mintzberg (Organisations) then yes there’s probably someone who knows more than your professor and has written a book on the subject. That doesn’t however diminish the expertise your professor has.
Not to mention the fact that if you look at the list of the top business gurus compiled for the Wall Street Journal by Harvard Business Publishing you’ll find three of the top five places taken by Friedman and Gladwell who are primarily journalists, and Gardner who is an educational psychologist. A fourth spot is taken by Bill Gates, only Hamel (No. 1) is a traditional business expert.
Even if you do identify all the experts and buy their books, you’re still not going to gain the same level of understanding from of reading them, as you will from reading, debating and critically evaluating them alongside the latest research (i.e. going through them in class, with your professor/classmates and writing an assignment).
Oh and why do people quote Seth Godin on the value of an MBA? If you really want to argue against an MBA why not use Mintzberg’s augmenters (see his book Managers Not MBAs). I agree with a lot of their criticism, but fortunately little of it is relevant to MBAs in the UK. For instance Godin argues that MBA courses should cover the following:
1. Finding, hiring, and managing super great people
2. Embracing change and moving quickly
3. Understanding and excelling at business development and at making deals with other companies
4. Prioritizing tasks in a job that changes every day
5. Selling — to people, to companies, and to markets
I’d argue that UK business schools do address 1, 2 and 3 but 4 is a personal skill that most professionals need anyway (and it should be taught at school) and I disagree with 5 - you only ever sell to people. Mintzberg raises another issue:
Because conventional MBA programs are designed for people without managerial experience, they overemphasize analysis and denigrate experience.
In contrast UK MBA courses generally require students to have three to five years of management experience and on many UK MBA courses the students have an average age of around 33.
As for me - I’ll continue to read every business book I can get my hands on AND I’ll pursue my academic studies as well.
This blog is about business opportunities and ideas that I spot, think of or hear about and think are useful and interesting. It is intended to provide ideas and inspriation for you to help you find the right business idea for you to then grow it into a successful business.
I value autodidact people. The fact that people are able to learn by themselves is a wonderful thing and these people have usually much more deep knowledge of the subject. Think of it like learning a Language: How much can you remember about the French you studied at school? And how good can you speak Spanish now after living in the country for 3 years?
My English was bad before i came to the UK, I knew the basics but had such a bad accent so people could not understand me at all. Now after 3 years I got used to the local language and dialect without any “going to school”.
The same can be with almost every subject. If you are keen to learn something, you do not need to go and spend thousands on a formal degree. Sadly, not many companies value autodidact people anymore.
The downside to that is it’s very easy to focus too narrowly on a particular area of interest and neglect other related areas that are required for genuine depth of knowledge and a wider perspective on the topic.
In my two main areas of interest (software development and business) I’m largely self taught, however in both cases adding a relevant degree did/is adding a breadth of knowledge.
John,
Unfortunatley it seems that I articulated my article in a way that made it seem as though I wanted each of those three reasons to stand on their own, and that is definitely not the case.
Would obtaining an MBA from a solid program in addition to reading the literature probably expand your breadth of knowledge? ABSOLUTELY. My article is an attempt to explain that there is an alternative to getting an MBA, and that you can still be successful without one provided you are navigating the three things I mentioned. Even then, there’s certainly a lot more to it.
Was I intentionally trying to stir the pot a bit? Certainly. But what I was -attempting- to get at was that if you’re reading the literature and that’s your foundation instead of classroom studies, and then you’re engaging people in the field, others that are interested in the subjects, perhaps blogging about the strategies, etc. then you are actively applying what you’re learning.
Not only that you are dictating your own course of action, which enables you to learn all about whatever is you want and you can skip aspects of a curriculum that would not necessarily interest you.
Nonetheless, definitely an inciteful contribution to the entire conversation, and I agree Mintzberg’s work would’ve been better justification for the points I was trying to establish.
I hope, in spite of the fact you disagreed, that you found some merit in the blog.
Best wishes.
Ryan Stephens
Ryan,
While I disagree with you, there’s definitely some merit to what you say (particularly in the comments you’ve added).
The problem that I see with book learning / self directed learning is that skipping aspects of a curriculum that would not necessarily interest you is too easy. Which can lead gaps in your knowledge.
I look forward to reading more of your posts and have subscribed to your RSS feed.
I understand the fact that you might select what you learn/study when doing it by yourself. But I’ve been to 4 different universities and have a degree form only one of them. The simple reason, I learned something new, not something I already knew. There should be some sort of examination way for self thought people to get a cheaper higher education. And before anyone suggests Open University, It’s still a course based home learning way of doing things. What I mean is like an institution where you go register for a exam, take it and get your degree/certificate. They would not offer any course materials or do any courses, only tests and exams.
Peace, J
I suspect they can’t do that however under the terms of the charter that allows them to issue recognised degrees.
Equally I suspect that few people would want that, most need some form of guidance on what to learn.
I would prefer a learning base that only offers courses, lecture packages and learning guidance than a system that only offered exams! I would prefer that our culture understood that learning and knowledge are the keys to wisdom and that exam certificates count for nothing. Given time, I could train a chimpanzee to pass a music exam, but I’d hardly credit him on being a learned human being!
Hi John,
As usual I think you may some excellent points about MBAs. From the academic perspective it’s easy to generalise and say, “Well I would rather skip the course and get what I want”… my response to something like that (to my students) is how do you know what something is worth until you have done it? It is impossible to say what the value of something is until you have studied it. Learning is not simply selecting and choosing, it’s exploring and developing. Most of my students often hate me at first … but as they are guided through what we think they need to learn they are often quite excited and give me good reviews. That doesn’t mean however that it has merit as Ryan says.
You do not need an MBA to be successful but I can say that a great percentage of people that undertake them get a lot out of it and see new perspectives about business that they weren’t previously aware of. Take for example the courses offer on soft systems methodology (a problem solving methodology) at Lancaster university. These have created world class scholars and developed new and exciting approaches to all areas of organisational development.
On the other hand I have noticed that a lot of business schools have lost touch with reality and I can understand Ryan’s point about self-directed learning. I am of course speaking from Australia so the UK and USA systems might contradict what I have said here. A professor friend of mine argues that the MBA stuff used to be a practical vehicle that enhanced a managers capabilities and gave entrepreneurial insight to problem solving. I am not sure whether that’s the case now, at least in this country.
There are many things we don’t know and doing a course at university is just one way to learn and develop skills that may not even know you need!
Thanks John - Great post
Luke
Thanks Luke.
“It is impossible to say what the value of something is until you have studied it”
That’s a very good point, certainly the value that I’m getting out of my studies is turning out to be higher than I expected and in areas other than those I expected.
Most academic courses are designed to cover just the right amount of ‘learning’ in the different aspects of a course. It’s a bit like a finely tuned engine and you having the knowledge to keep it that way, focus too much or not enough on a particular part and the engine stops working.