I am NOT an MBA, and I am so far – so good.
I do get the honor and pleasure of interacting with lots of MBA’s and doing business with them. I also feel deeply privileged that I was invited to speak at Harvard Business School a year back on Entrepreneurship and Starting Up!
However, I increasingly ponder:
Will the Internet KILL the MBA?
Consider:
CASE STUDIES
Case studies used in teaching MBA’s are now rapidly becoming redundant. Take for instance the case studies on Nokia and Yahoo for example – would they be relevant today even they were painstakingly put together just a few years back?
Similarly, if an MBA school commissioned a case study on Facebook today, how relevant will that be 1 year later?
Isn’t it easier to follow successes and failures as they happen (via online) and quickly learn what made Companies great?
Take Angry Birds for example – It has become a great global case study of content, marketing, persistence and brand extensions. Success to Angry Birds came almost overnight.
BUT, the Brand may not be relevant in the next few months – so, will it be RELEVANT to learn about it in an MBA class 2 years later?
I guess learning, dissecting and understanding HISTORICAL successes of Companies may be still useful – but then who needs an MBA class for it? Wikipedia will do as well!
Distance has no meaning.
A few years back, an American or European MBA was really also about ‘exposure’ and ‘culture’ and just imbibing the way successful markets ‘behave and exist’.
In the age of youtube, do we need to GO to these countries for an MBA to learn that?
Sure, GD’s and Class Discussions etc are good – but don’t most blog sites and discussion forums give you the same kick?
Knowledge has become ‘Open Source’
Just examine the way knowledge is being shared today. If you unfortunately killed 10 people and were sentenced to 99 years in prison without Parole, just an Internet connection in your Jail Cell would be enough to make you as wise as Athena (the Greek God of Wisdom).
I mean there are blogs and sites and universities online that teach you EVERYTHING!
100K USD can be put to better use!!!
Seriously – if you are going to blow 2 years of your life and spend 100k on an MBA – learning ‘entrepreneurship’ and how to do business – why not START UP AN INTERNET venture yourself TODAY??!!!
With a 100k cash, and with a bit of luck, you can easily get VC funded and then TEACH IN MBA’S Classes a few years down the line!!
Networking
The one BIG BIG plus I see that MBA’s have is that they really NETWORK with achievers and the rich and famous and then leverage that as they grow older. I see that amongst VC’s who found their partners in MBA’s schools, etc etc
Linkedin and Facebook allow you to FIND anyone and everyone in the world, but they MAY NOT accept you as a friend. So spending 2 physical years with the same folks in an MBA class ‘may’ help you in that aspect. But that alone is a very weak excuse.
I think that the Internet offers too much dynamism, connectivity and just immediacy to spend time loitering along the haloed corridors of Ivy League schools in the hope of finding business nirvana.
Starting up, succeeding or even better – failing in a couple of Ventures is probably the BEST MBA you could ever earn!!!
*****
UPDATE – 26th Feb 2012:
