Follow on Facebook
Follow on TwitterYoungGoGetter 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.
Email This Post
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.
hi all,
i can see the both sides of formal education through uni/colleges etc and also dedicated self taught education. im 22 living in wales, i have no uni business education BUT since 13 i have studied businesses – especially why one fails and one succeeds even if they are the same business in the same area e.g two hairdressers or butchers you get my drift.
Now ive spent thousands of my own personal hours studying recognised experts, reading and re-reading every report, books by gurus etc. this has also cost me hundreds, isit an education in its own right? YES i beleive so as for me it increases my knowledge for what i want to do. This has also led to a skill where i can walk into most shops/ takeaways/ retail and clothing stores and be able to rip that business apart in my head and rebuild it in a more profitable way etc, its amazing. Also i used to work as a business consultant for vodafone and through that job i met 9 Rags to Riches SELF MADE MILLIONAIRES 3of which were (MULTI MILLIONAIRES). I nagged them till i got all of them to give me at least 30mins of their time for me to pick their brains. Now to ME that was better than any guru report (regardless of how well known) or any academic course, it was frontline trench stuff, it was exactly what i was looking for, it was a perspective many people miss, it was a sort of raw survival instinct which cant be really taught or read, you need to meet them people ton appreciate.
So maybe what would be very useful i think is very specific courses for what individuals would need, like i will soon be looking for niche market businesses to work with rather than a wide range, as i know i will personally excel at targeting certain businesses i know i could make a big difference to. My reasoning is that if you was a health/fitness enthusiast and worked in that industry then maybe what would be needed is to learn from proven people in them industries maybe that combined with self taught AND academic will enable one to excel more in that industry but at a cost of a generalised knowledge of being an executive across the board that may transfer from industry to industry. Just my thoughts and my experiences. Maybe it depends on what career acheivements your aiming for because a very successful entrepreneur with no academic qualifications is a different beast altogether of say a high academic acheiver whose high ranking in a big company by climbing the corporate ladder.
Im personally looking to go into the field of running intensive workshops and producing high quality niche business reports for businesses all over the uk covering maybe 7-10 different businesses to start with. Here’s some humour for you guys, as i said im not uni graduate or have a degree, the difference with my 8years of learning doesnt pass out with paper qualifications and isnt formally recognised. My qualifications will be represented in money lost or money gained in my bank account. I once had a conversation with some woman whose an area manager of a retail chain, and i was talking about my visions of why most business flunk or never see even 10% of their potential, and i mentioned about what im about to embark on and she said it wont work, i have no business degree so no one would use me. Adamant that she was right i said tell me, would you pay for advice to grow the sales and profits of this company if the advice was bullshit but it came from an ‘educated’ man, definetley not, what about the bullshit advice from an ‘un-educated’ man, no obviously, exactly i said bullshit is bullshit regardless. People pay for results regardless of where its come from, if it works and its put in a way you can understand then its worth its weight in gold, period. Conversation ended then as i could see she was miffed off that an ‘un-educated’ 22year old made her look quite amateurish for a highly ‘educated’ woman on her strongest area of expertise.
keep good peeps
scott mathieson