Quality Inexpensive MBA – Oxymoron?

In My Humble Opinion
21

Business school is not “all about contacts”. All your school contacts will graduate the same time you do into jobs at similar levels. Ten to twenty years from graduation when you’re actually in a position to help each other, how many classmates do you think you’ll still be in contact with. How many of your classmates are you in touch with now?

Second, you do actually learn real stuff in business school. Do you already know accounting, finance, economics, business law, marketing, management, and business strategy? If so, you probably don’t need an MBA. But I never had those courses in undergrad, so for me an MBA wasn’t a waste of time. If you are going into business, you should learn how business works.

People who go to top tier business schools like Wharton or Harvard tend to have a bit higher aspirations than “tidy six figure income as Director of Sourcing for the equivalent of a Fortune 500 company.” Many aspire to C-level positions, top tier management consultancies, investment banks, hedge funds and private equity firms. Jobs that can pay seven or eight figures or more.

That said, most MBA grads will probably go on to jobs in the $150,000 to $200,000 range 5-10 years out of school. If you can figure out a way to earn that kind of money without an MBA, then by all means, have at it.

Business school is similar to law school in that it’s not just about getting a professional credential. It’s about fundamentally changing the way you think about your career. In particular, it’s to train you to be a business leader.

Like anything else, there is a hierarchy and a bit of elitism. In addition to the actual rankings, full time programs are generally considered more prestigious than part time. Like the consulting firms and investment banks that hire out of Wharton or HBS want the sort of kids who can afford to take 2 years off from working as analyst at whatever investment bank or consulting firm they worked at out of undergrad.

22

I was making that before I got my B.S.

Which I did get from crappy state school.

My husband makes that without a B.S. He’s an IT VP.

23

Well…congrats on your rise to middle management in spite of a not particularly impressive education, I guess.

The tone of most of your posts seems to be rather disparaging towards top B-schools and education in general. I’m not really sure why. If you are pursuing a career in business management or finance or marketing, why wouldn’t 2 years of formal study in those disciplines be advantageous?

Out of curiosity, do you have an MBA?

I ask because many MBAs don’t consider working for the Fortune 500 to be the epitome of a career in business. The reason for that is “Fortune 500 tasks” (which no one ever refers to them as) usually consist of being some mid-level functionary paper pusher.

24

I’m not disparaging of MBAs, you can learn a lot of things with a business degree - which is why I went back and finished up my degree and switched fields to Accounting. Its especially useful if you are making a career switch from a non-business bachelors (like Engineering or CSci) and into a management position - although it is also possible to learn strategic planning and capital allocation on the job - my undergrad business courses were taught by MBAs (and a few PhDs in business) and few had much information to impart to me that I hadn’t picked up in terms of things like strategy and logistics management - they didn’t know it better than I did from doing it. And if you are still young enough for it to make a career difference. I have enough self awareness to know that an MBA for me is a vanity exercise, I’m too old, too female, too Midwest and not nearly ambitious enough to get an ROI from an MBA - I’m also already “semi-retired” or maybe “on sabbatical” - I’m not working by choice and while I’ll probably go back because sitting at home drives me a little cook-coo, I’m home for at least another six months and don’t need to earn big bucks when I do work - and don’t want the stress associated with the big bucks either. So for me, an MBA isn’t advantageous - except that I’d get to go to school some more.

What I’m disparaging about is the idea that everyone needs an MBA from a top school or it isn’t worth pursuing. Sure, if you want to be a CXO at an East Coast firm or work for McKinsey or on Wall Street - that should be part of your plan. But, as general advice to the masses - no, you don’t. In the Midwest at least, its quite possible to do fine with an MBA from a local school - or even no MBA at all. For top companies - yeah, prestigious MBAs count - to move up the management chain at Kohls and get an office with a door and get yourself a nice tidy life with an adequate income to support a family - no, not needed. Yes, you will probably push paper - the vast majority of people who work in business do in some fashion.

I’m also disparaging about the MBA as a gate - although the reality is that it often is a gate - and if what you need is a MBA to jump that gate, then know what the height of it is - if its a “online through an accredited state school” gate, don’t spend the money for a top tier MBA - if its a “well, maybe we’d hire you if you went to Yale for business school - although we really prefer the top ten” then you need to clear THAT gate. And we don’t know enough about the OPs gate to tell him the height of that gate. The reason I don’t like MBA as a gate is intelligent people can pick up MBA skills through reading, finding a number of good mentors at work, and getting the chance to apply the skills they gain from those sources. In my experience - the really HARD part is not in having an academic understanding of capital allocation (for example) - but in learning the individual systems and processes unique to each company to get the capital allocated - and move it around as you react to changes in the business environment. KNOWING that the money you had earmarked nine months ago to do X will now be better spent doing Y isn’t hard for a strategic thinker - and can’t be taught in B-School to a non-strategic thinker their brains just don’t work that way - moving it in a process bound corporation with cobbled together systems IS. Other things you can’t teach - ethics, people skills…I’ve worked for non-strategic thinkers and frankly idiots who have MBAs. And I’ve worked for really fantastic CXO level folks without them.

25

Very interesting, Oredigger77. I long considered getting my MBA but gave up the idea when I started my own business (and didn’t need to “gate” myself). Do you find the education part that worthwhile with the distillery?

I’ve wondered if a law degree is more important as an entrepreneur.

26

According to the mailer I just got, AAA offers a 10% discount at Capella University. :wink:

27

Now, that is for when there is a gate, but its so low you might trip over it. :wink:

28

I think it has been very helpful. First of I was just a drilling engineer and in the oil field drilling engineers have no exposure to the business side. I’d read about cash flow on Motley Fool but until I sat through two semesters of finance I didn’t understand how a business ran or how it is different that your personal finances. My distillery is going to have huge paper profits from year 1 but be very tight on cash flow for the first several years. Know which one is important and how to manage cash flow is going to help us get through.

The other thing that I think is going to be very helpful is my exposure to decision modeling. I’ve always thought that there should be a way to prove that decisions are better. By getting my exposure to probabilistic analysis, I’ve taken 4 semesters worth, I think it has gone a long way to cleaning up my thinking.

The last thing that has been very helpful are the people that I’ve met. I just secured one of my finance professors for my board of directors last night who also owns a couple of breweries in the area. By being able to lean on him I’ll be able to focus more on other parts. I’m also working to bring in another Ph.D. to my board this time in Entrepreneurship who also has owned and sold a brewery in the past. These are people I never would have been exposed to let alone developed relationships to get them on my board.

For starting a business I think a lot of it depends on what to goal is. If you are looking to be your own boss, pay your bills and do something you love I don’t think a MBA would help. I’m looking to take over the distilling business in Colorado which takes a different way of looking at business.

As for the lawyer thing, there are about 50% of students in my Start-up execution class that are lawyers so it is a good background. I can hire a lawyer for $200 an hour to review contracts or set up the structure of my company so I can invest with my 401K. Running the company is a full time job and I think which path you take would be determined by what you think will take up more time in your business law or business, for me I don’t see it as even close but that’s probably by training.

29

I guess that’s kind of the point. I wanted to work at prestigious Manhattan consulting firms, not climb the ladder at some big corporation in the Midwest.

The business school I went to is actually one of the top ranked MBA programs for entrepreneurship. As you said yourself, you didn’t know anything about how a business runs. I can’t imagine any business taking a way of looking at business that’s so “different” that a business education isn’t helpful.