To MBA or not to MBA is eternal debate appearing in news and forums, especially when results of CAT , XAT are out. Admission season keeps the debate live with comments. Some say: MBA – oh that makes you mediocre but arrogant!
Examples of non-MBAs making it really big in the business world include Steve Jobs, Bill Gates who were college drop outs and yes our own Dhirubhai Ambani who built his entire empire without any MBA degree. On the other side there are blogs like Youthcurry and Pagalguy who are never tired of talking about MBA. No offense but majority of these comments lack any methodical support.
From another perspective recently an article was published in BusinessWeek (was also published in Harvard Business review). It is in fact a outcome of rigorous research by a professor of Organizational behavior at Insead.
Analysis of 1109 chief executives from 1995 to 2009 found that those with MBA performed on average better than without MBA. Important point here is – individuals with MBA reached pinnacle of CEO post before the age of 50. Research concluded definite correlation between holding MBA and achieving high performance as CEO over a long term by controlling many other variables that might have explained the superior MBA performance.
Purpose of this short note is not to put a weight behind the “MBA” argument but to understand the benefit of attending a business school. Some of the comments on those article are succinctly bringing it out. One is choosing to attend a business school is choosing to improve oneself. Diverse student community is bound to bring creativity out of you. A good business school, irrespective of one year diploma program, two year degree program or four year research program – grooms student to look outward, think out-of-box, to consider new models of growth, look at new geographies and new knowledge sectors. These versatile perspectives are the most valuable learning. It is an investment for all round personality development. You are bound to be successful once you develop such holistic and broader perspectives. MBA applicants and critics may please take note.
(Image Source – http://www.insidesocal.com/click/presentations/ )
This article is authored by Santosh. He is based out of Japan. An engineer and MBA, Santosh believes that – learning is continuous process and currently pursuing his PhD in Organizational Behavior and Human resource management at a top B-School in Asia. His hobbies include – Photography and Reading. You can contact him at: santosh dot sali at gmail dot com
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Great post.
Ppl are running after MBA now-a-day but they don't know MBA does not teach them what's required in industry.
Bill gates, Murthey, Steve Jobs are no MBAs