That canapé crumb, or unasked question, might mean that an MBA is NOT for you......

A couple of weeks ago I accompanied my amazing wife to a presentation by a prestigious Australian Business School aimed at prospective MBA students. She had been invited, as a recent graduate of the school, to come and share her experience of the program, and it's benefits since graduating, in what was an obvious attempt to add an element of "I was just like you (4) years ago and look at me now". By now, you have hopefully worked out that I am married to an MBA graduate, and that may be making the title of this blog, just a little confusing - but stay tuned, all will be revealed!

The evening started with attendees being given a very impressive folder filled with equally impressive documents that explained, drew, graphed and illustrated why this particular Business School should be where one obtained one's MBA. All of the information is true and all of it is impressive. The obligatory drinks and canapés were circulating smoothly as the room filled with more and more people, most of whom were in their late twenties and early thirties. 5 minutes before the scheduled start time of the presentation, staff of the School started "suggesting" that attendees take their seats, and spot on go time, the "Head of Admissions" stepped up to the lectern and pressed the clicker to move on to the 2nd slide of the Power Point deck and we were away. The next 20 minutes were filled with beautiful images, more graphs, deep and meaningful quotes from previous graduates, and regular opportunities to name drop current captains of the business world who, you guessed it, we're all graduates of said business school. Once again, all of the information shown and presented was true and accurate, and then it was time for my wife and the other selected recent graduate to confirm how amazing, life changing and financially beneficial the process had been. Which both of them did very well, which added the required ring of authenticity to what had been shared, and gave the whole process the rubber stamp of "we have nothing to gain by you signing up for this School, so you can trust the fact that we appear to be confirming all the other things you have already heard" Then came the obligatory wrap up and thanks for attending content, and everybody was invited to stay and have a few more drinks and more impressive canapés, while asking any of the admissions staff, or selected faculty members in attendance, any questions they may still have had. We stayed for about 45 minutes after the end of the presentation, and many, many questions were asked and answered in that time. But nobody asked the critical question, that everybody should have been asking. You see, what had just happened was a sales presentation by an organisation whose product is academic content. The presentation was really good, and the academic content they offer is also very good, but nobody was asking if that specific academic content was what anybody in that room actually needed!

And it never will be asked. Because the business of a Business School is to present academic material of a business nature, and the job of the Admissions Department is to sell the sizzle of that particular pile of academic material. Whether you need it or not. So surely then, the critical question for very one of those prospective customers should have been "is this what I need?" And for every one of them that answered "yes", I can highly recommend that particular business school - but what about the ones who answer "no?".

Despite the fact that you have so many MBA options available - full time, part time, executive, on line, and the latest one - "blended", most MBA programs are aimed at creating corporate executives. I learned that night that the MBA as a qualification was originally designed for undergraduate engineers who aspired to management positions. Their technical qualification would get them to the top of the Supervisory ladder due to the technical nature of supervised projects, but they needed something to enable them to cross the rubicon from "technical" supervisor to "business" manager. Whilst you no longer need to be a graduate engineer, you do need to be a graduate something, in order to satisfy the entry criteria to any credible MBA program. So, if an MBA delivers a fully qualified corporate executive, and you need an undergraduate degree to gain entry to an MBA program, it follows that all successful businesses should have been started, or run, by a graduate of some description. But most of you reading this are hopefully already thinking about some of the most successful businesses in the world and the people who started, and run them. Apple, Virgin, Walt Disney Studios, Microsoft, Facebook, Dell Computing, Segway, Ford, and many more were started and run by people who do not have an MBA, or an undergraduate degree, and in some cases, they didn't even finish school!

Which then seems to confirm that an MBA is not for everybody, definitely not for anybody who doesn't want to be a corporate executive, and particularly not for anybody who has entrepreneurial aspirations. Every one of the companies listed above employs MBA's, so I need to make it absolutely clear that I am not in any way advocating against an MBA, but what I am saying is that it is not the right option for everybody. Many entrepreneurs realize they need "something" more, and fall prey to the usual MBA sales jargon, because it looks and sounds like what they need. But here we have to go back to the reality that the Admissions Department of the XYZ Business School, cannot sell said entrepreneur what he/she needs, they can only sell what they have! And what they have is designed to create a (usually competent) corporate executive.

So, to wrap this up, if you are considering an MBA, ask yourself these questions:

Do I want to be a Corporate Executive?
Is this the best way to invest my next 3+ years?
If I invested the $60 - 100K into my business idea instead of an MBA, would I be worse off 5 years from now?
Am I a loner?

If your answers are anything other than "yes, yes, yes and yes", I might consider wiping the canapé crumb off my lip and leaving the room to explore some other options.

If you need some help with answering these questions or knowing what some of the other options are, feel free to leave a comment below, on our Version 8 Coaching &amp Training Facebook page, or jump across to our contact page at www.version8.com.au and we will do whatever we can to help.