Read the article Can MBA teach 'hunch' and 'inspiration'? on PaGaLGuY.com
But the real question to ask is - Should MBA teach 'hunch' and 'inspiration'?.
Transacting business does not always need 'hunch'. Most business transactions require insight, they need the ability to look through the obvious, through truckloads of mundane data and spot the right trend.
What Ms. Gauri is probably talking about is Entrepreneurship - her examples of Microsoft and napster indicate the same. The question one must ask is whether even today Microsoft is being managed by Harvard dropouts?? Microsoft is headed by Steve Ballmer who graduated from Harvard University with a bachelor's degree in mathematics and economics. After college, he worked for two years at Procter & Gamble Co. as an assistant product manager and, before joining Microsoft, attended Stanford University Graduate School of Business. Same with Napster whose CEO is Chris Gorog.
However, one should acknowledge that General Management Education does kill entrepreneurial skills. But the question is why should they hone entrepreneurial skills?? The industry needs management skills in much larger numbers than entrepreneurial skills. It is first important to run existing businesses before creating newer ones.
Entrepreneurship is a rare skill - while there are few schools who do try their best to 'teach' entrepreneurship, however I guess entrepreneurship is more about attitude than aptitude and hence is probably something that must be learnt than taught.
As Gauri says - most students learn to ape actions of few experts during their MBAs - but I am sure there are few who take inspiration from the same case studies which the others cram. These self inspired learners will become entrepreneurs of tomorrow.
But the real question to ask is - Should MBA teach 'hunch' and 'inspiration'?.
Transacting business does not always need 'hunch'. Most business transactions require insight, they need the ability to look through the obvious, through truckloads of mundane data and spot the right trend.
What Ms. Gauri is probably talking about is Entrepreneurship - her examples of Microsoft and napster indicate the same. The question one must ask is whether even today Microsoft is being managed by Harvard dropouts?? Microsoft is headed by Steve Ballmer who graduated from Harvard University with a bachelor's degree in mathematics and economics. After college, he worked for two years at Procter & Gamble Co. as an assistant product manager and, before joining Microsoft, attended Stanford University Graduate School of Business. Same with Napster whose CEO is Chris Gorog.
However, one should acknowledge that General Management Education does kill entrepreneurial skills. But the question is why should they hone entrepreneurial skills?? The industry needs management skills in much larger numbers than entrepreneurial skills. It is first important to run existing businesses before creating newer ones.
Entrepreneurship is a rare skill - while there are few schools who do try their best to 'teach' entrepreneurship, however I guess entrepreneurship is more about attitude than aptitude and hence is probably something that must be learnt than taught.
As Gauri says - most students learn to ape actions of few experts during their MBAs - but I am sure there are few who take inspiration from the same case studies which the others cram. These self inspired learners will become entrepreneurs of tomorrow.
nikhil... a course in MBA can not teach 'hunch' or 'inspiration' or '6th sense' or intuition... or guts or even enterpreneurship...
ReplyDeletethat's something within an individual and he hones it up as he acquires knowledge around himself... (~self inspired!)...
and for readers who are still confused abt MBA, it does help in understanding a bigger picture and looking beyond the obvious... also take better and informed decisions by eliminating/ reducing the in-feasible options...