Beware of MBAs: The business school curriculum teaches how to suck at startups

51–52 of 52 posts

Re: Beware of MBAs: The business school curriculum teaches how to suck at startups

#51

Post by dkokelley » Fri, Jun 04, 2010, 5:46 PM UTC

Maro wrote: post #45

dkokelley wrote: post #13

I like to think of this topic using an automotive racing analogy: Fortune 500 companies are the formula 1 cars. They need a great big team to perform efficiently, and minor tweaks applied correctly can yield significant results. The MBAs are the specialists who work the electronics and the advanced controls for the race cars. A team working on a formula 1 car could find a way to increase down force by 5%, or they cou…

I downvoted you because I believe your F1 analogy is off. F1 cars are highly optimized to do one thing: go around the given circuits in the calendar that year as fast as possible, within the rules. For a specific GP weekend, they are further optimized to go around that circuit, even if it means doing weird things to the car's balance. What are Fortune 500 companies optimized for? Certainly not for making money, they'…

I can't be sure if you are being sarcastic or not, so my apologies if I missed it. To say that large corporations aren't optimized for making money seems foolish. Of course the goal of a corporation is to increase shareholders wealth, and by extention earn a profit. The goal is the same for a small company or even a startup. There will be instances where a fortune 500 fails this goal, but that doesn't mean the analogy is off. There are some Formula 1 cars that break down or crash. The logic in your argument escapes me.

Re: Beware of MBAs: The business school curriculum teaches how to suck at startups

#52

Post by snowbird122 » Fri, Jun 04, 2010, 10:42 PM UTC

plinkplonk wrote: post #44

snowbird122 wrote: post #20

I am an entrepreneur, a hacker, and an MBA. I am intelligent enough not to apply big-company processes to a start-up and vice versa. An MBA is an education in business. That can't be a bad thing if you operate a business, large or small.

"An MBA is an education in business." So some people claim. Other people think it isn't that clear cut. On another discussion ( http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1330878 ), someone asked "I presume you get an MBA to give you a better understanding about business. And startups are in essence businesses. Then how come having a better understanding not impact your startup?" pg replied, "The cause of the apparent parad…

I have upvoted you for a very insightful and resourcful reply. The term "business" is big, kind of like the term "engineering" is big. Would you also say that studying engineering is harmful to a startup?

It is one thing to say that an MBA won't help you much with your start-up, but it is another to say it is detrimental. Other than the prejudice of investors, I just don't understand why education of any kind is harmful as long as it isn't filling your head with lies.

So suffice it to say that I disagree with my hero, pg, about the value of an MBA. I can tell you that I personally have gained greatly from the experience, and that I'm better at all facets of business (even startups) because of it.

Post reply on HN