Henry Mintzberg on MBAs

From Robbie's MIT Musings

# Can't create a manager in a classroom
# MBA programs don't create managers
# Management is the intersection of craft, art and science
# Don't close MBA schools, just recognize them for what they are. They are teaching analytical skills to future analysts.
# If you want to be a manager, get in an industry and be promoted to a manager. Then join a educational program that lets you enhance those skills
# MBA programs should be part-time so they don't cut students off from their experience
# Should earn managerial stripes, not get it because you have an MBA
# You are being trained well on business functions, but NOT on being a leader of tomorrow
# Cases are not a way to learn management (several digs at Harvard's style of teaching)
# Students should build the learning around their experience
# Management isn't like engineering or medicine – there is no such thing as a natural surgeon, but there are natural leaders, i.e., some leaders have never taken a single leadership course
# The problem with being in the rat race is that even if you win, you are still a rat
# MBA is so hyped up
# Only 5 of 19 Harvard superstars from 1990 were still "successful" in 2003
# He has a pretty dire perception and outlook on American business
# After Enron, schools added a course on ethics next to the 12 on shareholder value
# Shareholder value is not a value
# Softkills are blended in all courses, you don't need specific classes on it
# The biggest problem in leadership today is selection
# We almost never consult the people who have been managed by the candidates we evaluate

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