American business schools are reinventing the MBA

Well doesn't it depend on the company and current state of the company, market, economy, that dictates who's put on the head of a company?

For example, in hard market conditions, or grim financial periods usually the CFO takes the leash as the CEO, in times where innovation is required a CTO takes the leash, and in times of abundance and room for growth CMOs come forward - I know it's not that linear, but in different stages companies bring forward different people with different backgrounds.

Also you can innovate in a lot of ways other than technical ways - brand, business model, operations, supply chains, distribution, market development, the list goes on.

I'm surprised education is even mentioned. Every MBA I know has always stated the real value of the degree was for the network is provided[1]. A general management degree would naturally be useless in a world that increasingly values specialization.

From this perspective, MBA programs are just expensive signaling, or even a luxury good. As usual for elite education, these who meet the strict and competitive entry requirements are highly talented individuals, so the programs real value to employers is the sorting they provide by filtering from a large set of candidates.

[1] I have a PhD, but I work and know many MBAs. My father, wife, and several former bosses have been MBAs. Very capable, but none mentioned much value in the degree program.

The MBA has lost its once held stature in most industries. It’s almost become an acronym for dumb business decisions in many circles: “This must be something the MBAs came up with.”

If schools want to stay relevant they need to create programs that produce leadership candidates for today’s modern business environment. For too long it’s just been a cash cow for schools and people went because it was the thing to do. With market attitudes changing and applications way down schools need to rethink.

Dare I say an MBA case study is needed on making the MBA relevant again ;-)

Yes the networking element is there but seriously you don’t need to pay 50+k a year to do networking!

It never made sense to me that one could specialize in business. Every business is radically different from one another, even from competitors.

Seems like it would be better to combine a few basic business courses with an advanced degree in a technical subject. Going deep into “business” seems to divorce a person from the reality of any particular company. It gets to the point where they’re in danger of disrupting a company’s successful strategy because it contradicts their business class theory. And then the elves leave middle earth [1].

[1] https://steveblank.com/2009/12/21/the-elves-leave-middle-ear...