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The decline of the MBA will cut off the supply of bullshit

economist.com

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Re: The decline of the MBA will cut off the supply of bullshit

#11

Post by mnemonicsloth »

noelchurchill wrote: post #4
ryanwaggoner wrote: post #2

First, Please avoid editorializing story titles. Second, this article has the facts wrong. MBAs from top schools aren't having trouble finding jobs, nor have those jobs started paying way less.

Also, I don't think it's the MBAs that are the problems. Rather, the job market was sending the wrong signals by paying people with MBAs far more than they're worth. Due to the inflationary monetary supply enabled by the federal reserve, the finance industry was able to grow and become extremely profitable, attracting lots of talent with large salaries. These people would have naturally gravitated to many different c…

Inflationary monetary supply enabled by the federal reserve... lots of talent with large salaries.

This sounds like a villain-hunt: a well-known cognitive bias that seeks to explain circumstances in terms of human agents with simple, understandable motivations to the exclusion of environmental, structural, or probabilistic explanations that lack such features.

In this case, while I'm sure the Fed bears some responsibility, a lot of the growth of the financial sector over the last 30 years is probably due to the fact that several billion Asians have entered the world economy in that time. Their work creates wealth, which is useful as capital, for which there are markets, which grow from the influx and thus offer larger rewards to clever people who work in finance, should they find a better/faster/more efficient way of getting things done.

Re: The decline of the MBA will cut off the supply of bullshit

#12

Post by takrupp »

One the hats I wear is that of a recruiter (its business we operate here) focused on finance and biotech. I couldnt agree more: MBAs aren't that hireable right now, even in banking. In fact a good junior, with 2 years of experience, are much more placeable. As for higher degrees, if you want into banking or business, comp sci, physics, applied math, statistics are better MS degrees.

I dont have an MBA, and havent pursued one thus far, but for the cost and knowing the job market, I think the article is mostly right. Good managers can teach business stuff as long as the talent is dynamic enough. Those analytical skills, though, are highly valuable in this market to smart hiring managers.

Re: The decline of the MBA will cut off the supply of bullshit

#13

Post by loganfrederick »

It's good to see The Economist addressing some of the fundamental flaws in how "business" is practiced today, particularly at the end of the article.

The past two decades transformed business from the valuable business-building concepts of management, distribution, and efficiency to obscure concepts like deal-making and arbitrage.

They have their place in the financial/economic systems, but they are not the foundation of business. With shows like "The Apprentice", these are the parts that are glorified, and it leaks into our business education.

Business isn't about finger-guns and handshakes. It's about creating value and then getting it to those who need it.

Re: The decline of the MBA will cut off the supply of bullshit

#15

Post by ig1 »

This article is bullshit. It's premised on a single piece of evidence: the decline of jobs for MBAs. Holding the decline of jobs in a recession as a sign a qualification is worthless is ridiculous. The demand for engineers has gone down as well, does that mean engineering qualifications are worthless ?

Following the same logic if the demand for MBA graduates went up then it would make sense to argue that MBAs are valuable. So if we look at the early 2000s where this was true was Lucy Kellaway writing articles calling out the merits of MBAs ? - well no, it turns out Lucy Kellaway has been writing articles slagging off MBAs since the 90s.

Ms Kellaway is just using the recession to ride her hobby-horse.

We shouldn't be any less critical when reading articles that support our personal opinions than those that oppose them.

Re: The decline of the MBA will cut off the supply of bullshit

#16

Post by colinplamondon »

mnemonicsloth wrote: post #3

If The Economist can use the word bullshit , in the technical sense -- self-conscious jargoneering intended to inflate the speaker's perceived importance -- then the rest of us can too, right?

This is as official as it gets!

Re: The decline of the MBA will cut off the supply of bullshit

#17

Post by agbell »

ig1 wrote: post #15

This article is bullshit. It's premised on a single piece of evidence: the decline of jobs for MBAs. Holding the decline of jobs in a recession as a sign a qualification is worthless is ridiculous. The demand for engineers has gone down as well, does that mean engineering qualifications are worthless ? Following the same logic if the demand for MBA graduates went up then it would make sense to argue that MBAs are val…

This article is from their speculative 'The world in 2010' publication, which attempts to forecast the coming year. That means its a bit more speculative than standard economist articles.

Wall-street bailouts definitely made business less sexy on main street

Re: The decline of the MBA will cut off the supply of bullshit

#18

Post by SandB0x »

To me studying business because you want to be good at business is like studying the concept of winning if you want to be good at a sport.

That could probably be phrased a little better, but I am just amazed at the number of smart young people I know who aspire to study an MBA rather than something tangible/critical that will give them a useful or scarce ability.

Re: The decline of the MBA will cut off the supply of bullshit

#19

Post by [deleted] »

agbell wrote: post #17
ig1 wrote: post #15

This article is bullshit. It's premised on a single piece of evidence: the decline of jobs for MBAs. Holding the decline of jobs in a recession as a sign a qualification is worthless is ridiculous. The demand for engineers has gone down as well, does that mean engineering qualifications are worthless ? Following the same logic if the demand for MBA graduates went up then it would make sense to argue that MBAs are val…

This article is from their speculative 'The world in 2010' publication, which attempts to forecast the coming year. That means its a bit more speculative than standard economist articles. Wall-street bailouts definitely made business less sexy on main street

[deleted]
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