Business School is a Joke
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Business School is a Joke
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Re: Business School is a Joke
#2For a different point of view.
Coming from an engineering background, I sat in on an entrepreneurship class at UChicago Booth and I was totally blown away.
The angle was completely different. The previous class the students were all given the details about hypothetical ventures with some background on the market and they were asked to say whether they would invest or not invest should such a proposal cross their desk.
Then the class I was in, the big twist was that a lot of the ventures were real, and the founders were there that day.
The experience of being there when a room full of really bright and really accomplished kids learned that the company that 9/10 had passed on became a multi-million dollar success was priceless (and vice-versa). The message was unmistakeable.
Regarding the student body: I struck up a conversation with an enrolled student next to me, and it turns out the guy was one of the first 10 employees at ICQ. Pretty cool.
Take which anecdote (mine or the author's) you will. Also consider that the author's program was an undergraduate program and try to remember how experienced or useful you were at 18-21.
Re: Business School is a Joke
#3It's all about what you do when class is out.
Re: Business School is a Joke
#4Most of the ivies do not have undergraduate business programs, probably for this very reason. In that context the MBA makes more sense; acquire a broad quality liberal arts education as an undergraduate (electrical engineering, math, Spanish, philosophy, sociology, ...) and then supplement with the best parts of management, marketing, finance, supply chain management, IT, and accounting. The undergrad major is more a supply and demand story; students irrationally demand it so it gets supplied. Good luck getting a management position with your management undergrad degree and good luck going to graduate school with the skills you've acquired. But they sign up in droves so...
That said there are definitely skills acquired in a finance or accounting or IT program. I can't say for sure with marketing but I would suspect to a lesser degree them too. His beef seems to be primarily with a management major and I'm totally sympathetic to that point.
Re: Business School is a Joke
#5For a different point of view. Coming from an engineering background, I sat in on an entrepreneurship class at UChicago Booth and I was totally blown away. The angle was completely different. The previous class the students were all given the details about hypothetical ventures with some background on the market and they were asked to say whether they would invest or not invest should such a proposal cross their desk…
What exactly does your story prove? Even YC and successful VCs guess incorrectly frequently. Was the unmistakable message that the future can't always be predicted?
Re: Business School is a Joke
#6First, being consistently ranked beside MIT’s, UPenn’s, and Stanford’s is not the same thing as being at MIT, UPenn, or Stanford. Second, this kind of thing is much more valuable once you're older and have some perspective (hence the MBA). Business degrees are generally about operational aspects of running a business, not the startup aspects, so if you expect them to teach you how to build a run-away success you're in for a disappointment. That doesn't mean a business degree isn't valuable (in and of itself it doesn't mean it's valuable either, but at least you should know what you're getting into).
Re: Business School is a Joke
#7For a different point of view. Coming from an engineering background, I sat in on an entrepreneurship class at UChicago Booth and I was totally blown away. The angle was completely different. The previous class the students were all given the details about hypothetical ventures with some background on the market and they were asked to say whether they would invest or not invest should such a proposal cross their desk…
consider that the author's program was an undergraduate program and try to remember how experienced or useful you were at 18-21.
This is important. I got an undergrad business degree and I got a nice background in accounting, finance, marketing, and to a lesser extent IT.
When I think back on it, either it doesn't seem useful or I've forgotten the useful bits (had some great classes on branding that taught me a lot more than what you'd learn from reading blogs or articles on it; but I couldn't write an insightful paper on it now).
But then, I've dealt with people with no background in these things and watched them make some pretty stupid mistakes that could've been prevented with basic knowledge of these subjects. (I once got a sick feeling--justified--when asking a partner about our finances after he insisted on handling them, and getting an email where he referred to "the books" in scare quotes).
On the MBA side -- the MBA program at my alma mater has placed several of my friends in jobs that were a big jump in salary and growth potential from where they were coming in -- and none of them were bankers.
I heard someone say once that an MBA is a great preparation for an entry-level CEO job, but no such job exists. That's why real world experience matters; not only do you gain perspective that will benefit your MBA education and post-MBA career, but it also helps you "know thyself" so that you don't bother with an MBA if it's not the right move for you.
Last thought: business education doesn't really prepare you for entrepreneurship, but entrepreneurship can help you benefit from a business education. Best example would be an entrepreneur who has had some failures and moderate successes, but now has the experience and skills to command a 100K+ salary and is ready to further prepare (or for the cynical, get credentialized) for a job at that level.
Re: Business School is a Joke
#8For a different point of view. Coming from an engineering background, I sat in on an entrepreneurship class at UChicago Booth and I was totally blown away. The angle was completely different. The previous class the students were all given the details about hypothetical ventures with some background on the market and they were asked to say whether they would invest or not invest should such a proposal cross their desk…
What exactly does your story prove? Even YC and successful VCs guess incorrectly frequently. Was the unmistakable message that the future can't always be predicted?
Whereas the author's experience was that "[they were being] designed to be investment bankers and management consultants", this Booth professor had designed a lesson around the unpredictability and inadequacy of the standard analytical techniques. That is the difference.
Re: Business School is a Joke
#9I have always thought business school would be a lot better off if people were forced to read people like Seth Godin or even Chris Anderson.
My problem with business people is that they learn buzz words and jargon, and often treat the "makers" as tools. I would have a lot more respect for b-school if business majors were forced to pick a "concentration"- engineering, CS, etc. They wouldn't be expected to be great at their concentration; they just would need to know enough about what the people they're managing do.
I love this line: "For one, it’s harder to teach engineering to a marketer than it is to teach marketing to an engineer."
It's my belief that most engineers or programmers could be great marketers or business people, if they didn't have to spend all their time creating things. Business people have time on their side- they don't really have to make anything, so they can spend more time getting ahead.
Re: Business School is a Joke
#10I have always thought business school would be a lot better off if people were forced to read people like Seth Godin or even Chris Anderson. My problem with business people is that they learn buzz words and jargon, and often treat the "makers" as tools. I would have a lot more respect for b-school if business majors were forced to pick a "concentration"- engineering, CS, etc. They wouldn't be expected to be great at…
I don't think anyone is going to be cured of buzzworditis by being forced to read Godin and Anderson.
Can I interest you in my biz, which is a freemium play on a purple cow concept? We just need enough money to get through The Dip.