I think most MBAs are looking to work for a large company, climb the ladder and so on. The training focuses on that -- it's not called a Masters in Business Administration for the heck of it.
Study Finds Engineers Far More Likely than MBAs to Build and Run Companies
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Re: Study Finds Engineers Far More Likely than MBAs to Build and Run Companies
#12I think most MBAs are looking to work for a large company, climb the ladder and so on. The training focuses on that -- it's not called a Masters in Business Administration for the heck of it.
That or go work for Wall Street.
I think another issue could just be that Engineers aren't paid as much as MBAs. Which means we need to take that risk if we want to make the bucks.
Also its generally easier for us to take the risk. If you're an engineer making 120K its easier to take a paycut to 100k if you form a startup. If you're an MBA dude making 500K it just doesn't make sense to give up the Rolls etc and take a paycut to 100K.
Re: Study Finds Engineers Far More Likely than MBAs to Build and Run Companies
#13I find it odd that the data was mutually exclusive. They didn't find a single CEO with both an MBA and engineering degree?
I think they cast anyone with a MBA into the MBA category. I know of one CEO who has both an engineer degree and MBA. The CEO of Adobe. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shantanu_Narayen
It's pretty common for engineers to enter an MBA program in effort to accelerate their careers into management.
Re: Study Finds Engineers Far More Likely than MBAs to Build and Run Companies
#14I think most MBAs are looking to work for a large company, climb the ladder and so on. The training focuses on that -- it's not called a Masters in Business Administration for the heck of it.
Seems like it. I graduated from a business program, the curriculum is generally focused towards fitting into a large or otherwise existant organization.
Re: Study Finds Engineers Far More Likely than MBAs to Build and Run Companies
#15I think most MBAs are looking to work for a large company, climb the ladder and so on. The training focuses on that -- it's not called a Masters in Business Administration for the heck of it.
Exactly. MBA programs (traditionally, things are changing slowly) aren't really designed to create entrepreneurs, either.
Re: Study Finds Engineers Far More Likely than MBAs to Build and Run Companies
#16This is definitely food for thought. However, I'm not sure it tells the whole story. I'm interested in the size/valuation of the companies in addition to a count. I'd argue that it's a lot easier to found a tech startup and call yourself founder/CEO than it is with more traditional MBA-geared companies. Also, the survey sample is probably pretty skewed since it uses Identified and Facebook.
Re: Study Finds Engineers Far More Likely than MBAs to Build and Run Companies
#17I think most MBAs are looking to work for a large company, climb the ladder and so on. The training focuses on that -- it's not called a Masters in Business Administration for the heck of it.
Exactly. MBA programs (traditionally, things are changing slowly) aren't really designed to create entrepreneurs, either.
That's not necessarily a bad thing. Large companies need at least some specialist management types.
Re: Study Finds Engineers Far More Likely than MBAs to Build and Run Companies
#18I find it odd that the data was mutually exclusive. They didn't find a single CEO with both an MBA and engineering degree?
Hi refurb, I compiled the statistics behind the white paper. We found several candidates with both MBAs and engineering degrees. However it was on the order of low tens so the sets are largely disjoint. We excluded it for the sake of clarity. Sorry if it wasn't clear.
When you say, "I compiled the statistics behind the white paper" I'm assuming you were involved in the paper when I ask this, so please excuse me if you were not:
Did you look at whether the companies had any employees or not? Or try to split the data out by whether they were lifestyle businesses or not?
Re: Study Finds Engineers Far More Likely than MBAs to Build and Run Companies
#19Their data doesn't support that conclusion. Actually, you can't make any conclusion without knowing total number of MSinE vs MBAs.
Update: http://www.cgsnet.org/portals/0/pdf/R_ED2008.pdf (p.16) suggests there are a lot more business masters vs engineers masters (23.4% vs 7%). So at a first glance it does look like the conclusion is right.
Re: Study Finds Engineers Far More Likely than MBAs to Build and Run Companies
#20This is definitely food for thought. However, I'm not sure it tells the whole story. I'm interested in the size/valuation of the companies in addition to a count. I'd argue that it's a lot easier to found a tech startup and call yourself founder/CEO than it is with more traditional MBA-geared companies. Also, the survey sample is probably pretty skewed since it uses Identified and Facebook.
I didn't even consider the facebook issue. While lots of people are on FaceBook, busy, older CEOs are probably the least likely to be on it and the least likely to put "CEO or Founder" on their profile.
That would also explain why the average age has gone down so much.