The MBA Menace

There has been a lot being written on MBAs in general and particularly the US style of MBAs. I have touched about it before: here and here.

Check this.

I couldn't get too mad at the MBAs, though. They didn't create the system. Had the blogger been back in the Navy, where putting out fires is serious business, he'd surely have pressed more. But he was at Wharton now, where perception is reality, return on investment is all that counts, and the only fires worth putting out are the sparks inside ourselves

The entire article shows how much the MBA is all about money making and nothing else. Sometimes I wonder if I am in the right field at all, with my assertions that as an MBA I want to make a difference to the world and all. Is this course tell you anything that can help change the world?

Henry Mintzberg attacks the MBA again. He calls it the MBA Menace.

Sure, you've taken courses called "management" and "strategy." But these were about looking in from the outside. The truth is, no one can become a manager in a classroom. Management is not a profession, nor is it science. It is a practice that depends mostly on craft and significantly on art. Craft is learned by experience. Art can, of course, be admired in a classroom--think of all the visionaries you read about in cases. But voyeurism is not management, either, nor does it develop creativity.

I hope you learn. The world desperately needs dedicated leaders. Not heroes on some kind of fast track, but decent human beings who engage themselves and others substantially. That could be you--if you can get past your MBA.

There, that's it.

I have started to wonder if the Australian MBA is better than the US ones. My school does not use Case Studies much. Some of them use it, but it is not a case study approach. 80% of the students are part-time students who are working and studying at the same time. Somehow that seems to be a good combination.

Australian's do not put a lot of emphasis on rankings as much as Americans do and even Indians do. So most of the MBA schools are doing well and people go to the one nearest to them.

And frankly Australians do not believe that the MBA can make a huge difference to their career nor get them stratospheric salaries. They kind of follow the idea that it is good in the long term - some knowledge, some connections and a degree to brag about which can open some doors. Of course, the money comes with it I guess.

Due to the nature of the Australian MBA I am getting more freedom to find myself and the stuff that I want to do. There is no specific emphasis on ROI or Finance or technology. In a way it is helping me find myself.