Are MBAs becoming irrelevant?
by Idris Mootee
Are business schools preparing students for a flat world where organizations and national boundaries are becoming blurred?
Looking at this year MBA rankings by Financial Times, there aren't many changes in the Top 10 list. The surprise is that #10 is a Hong Kong Business School and #12 is an Indian Business School. Other top schools (some are more local) in the rankings: IMD (Swiss) ranks 15, HEC (French) ranks 18, CEIBS (Chinese) ranks 22, Haas (American) ranks 28, Cornell (American) ranks 38, Ivey (Canadian) ranks 49. Here's the latest FT Global Top 10 MBA Rankings for 2010:
- London Business School
- University of Pennsylvania: Wharton
- Harvard Business School
- Stanford University GSB
- Insead
- Columbia Business School
- IE Business School
- MIT: Sloan School of Management
- University of Chicago: Booth
- Hong Kong UST Business School
There are a lot of criticisms around MBA programs on different fronts. I was advising some folks that this is still the best all round business education. The last three months, I have written 4 recommendations for some folks. One was accepted by London Business School, one by Stanford Business School, one by Chicago Graduate School of Business and one by MIT Sloan. I am happy for all of them. I still think it is one of best paths to change the world.
There are arguments around whether it needs to be two years and almost all European MBAs are one year with only exception of LBS. The traditional two-year MBA curriculum, grounded in the core functional disciplines — strategy, marketing, organizational behavior, accounting, finance etc. — has been in existence since it was first pioneered in the US in the late 50s. MBAs were very much an American thing. US companies placed more value in an MBA than European companies. In the UK, a general management program combined with solid work experience is generally accepted to be sufficient.
The world of business is on the verge of transformation, a transformation, and so should business education. Where technological advance, geo-political forces, rapid globalization are all putting pressure on the business education system. I attended an event a while back at the Yale School of Management; there were 20 education institutions from around the world all struggling with the relevance of the MBA to 21st century organizations. Everyone sees the need for transformation but not many knows what and how to transform. Asking any B-school's Dean the question how their business schools must change to better prepare our students for the challenges that they will face in a hyper competitive and uncertain world is a good start.
Yes the world is flat. Organizations are becoming increasingly flat, and social technologies are blurring the boundaries of a corporation. Leaders of modern enterprises competing in the global economy need to look for truly global managers who are capable of leading and managing across the boundaries of function, geography, and organizations and industries. Are business schools ready for this? Or should we change the old paradigm that an MBA is an elitist qualification which can enable the holder of the degree to fast-track his/her career to power and fortune? An MBA should mean less as a qualification. It is a sense of empowerment and commitment for an individual to take on big challenges, transform oneself and create win/win strategy for shareholder, employees and societies.
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Idris Mootee is the CEO of idea couture, a strategic innovation and experience design firm. He is the author of four books, tens of published articles, and a frequent speaker at business conferences and executive retreats.Labels: education, Idris Mootee, Leadership, Management
posted by Blogging Innovation at 12:01 AM
5 Comments:
Interesting post Idris. I graduated with my MBA in August of 09, however rather than try to find a job, I had been running my own business for a number of years, and still do. One bone I have to pick with the MBA is that the greater focus seemed to be on keeping a stock price high so that your shareholders are happy. With advances in technology and the pace of the world, I feel that this way of thinking can greatly stifle the innovation of top management, as they are more focused on numbers than anything else.
Now this paints quite a broad stroke across the landscape, however, I personally feel that while money keeps business going, stock prices up, and shareholders happy, that really what an MBA should be about is being a leader first.
Interesting post. Talking about management education, most European undergraduates (i. e. Bachelor) have or should at least have a sufficient background in management after 3 years of managerial education. For those students most MBA programs are simply repetition of old stuff, they already (should) know. I think most MBA programs make only sense if you have for example an engineering degree and want to acquire management basics. The real and unique value of the top ranked (!) MBAs is the network you buy.
Nevertheless there is a need for advanced education on a real master's level for those students who have already acquired a good or even excellent background in management theory and practices. Here is exactly were we started designing our full-tme masters program "Leadership" at Karlshochschule (in Karlsruhe, Germany). We do not repeat all those managerial accounting cases, math or legal stuff. We don't teach them law, for example, but let them answer the question "Why do we have Norms and Rules?" "Where do we apply them in society or in business situations?" "How can we avoid to get misleaded by accepted norms?" Simply said: It is our goal to educate critical thinkers and rule breakers being able to deal with uncertainty, changes in the game, ambiguity and so on. Young professionals for being able to make change and innovation happen in corporations, administration or NGOs.
The article is an eye opener for the institutes who still follow the old pattern and its high time for those universities to make things better by changing their educational system to address & satisfy the changing business needs by their students.
Change is the only word that doesn't changes! :)
Everything is becoming irrelevant. That is the nature of the world. Change or die.
Idris, it is definitely soul-searching question that many MBA prospective and students shy away from. Because the majority is there for resulted financial gains and for administrator role—“the promised ROI”. Moreover, a large number of them have no other technical or non-technical qualification besides an MBA degree.
MBA contains old-age militaristic style education that put emphasis on hierarchy of the organization. As you have mentioned of flattening of the world that is a recent phenomena but it was written on the wall for long time, and no one tried to keep it in the perspective. MBA has become irrelevant in the perspective of the social, economical and political change. We should revisit it with solid objectivity. There is a definite need to rearranging the priorities, changing the curriculum and infusing something relevant to the time. There should also be a need to change MBA Admission policy and also the pre-requisites such as replacing GMAT with some other optimized test that consists of other areas of knowledge in addition to language skills and mathematics.
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