What Makes a Great Business College? | (Is there any such thing?)

This one is funny.   I read the whole article, and then realized it was Michigan State University.  You know, THAT Michigan.  I’m thinking this puff piece is part of the concerted effort that the state is putting together to try something, anything, to get out of the hole they are in.

Education matters, but in business education matters much less than many other disciplines.  The reason why?  It’s because everything in business is a lesson.  Some can be quite expensive.  Did that Ad buy generate enough business to pay for itself?  Nope.. lesson learned, don’t do that again.   Did concentrating on the underserved market for individual sales payoff because everyone else was targeting groups?  Nope?  Now we know why everyone else is targeting groups, don’t we?  No classroom experience taught us that.     Even at the highest levels of success, was more learned from the prestigious business school or from counting bottle caps as a kid?

Really there really are only a few reasons to have a B school credential.  One is to go look at jobs where the credential is required by tradition and there are quite a few of those types of organizations.  It’s easy for large business organizations to hire a population that is now jumping around every few years if there is a common demarcation point like an MBA.  It’s why MBA preferred is so often seen on applications.  Saves the hiring manager from uncomfortable justifications.

The other is simply culture and comfort.  With any similar education  programs comes common language, common experiences, and increased chance of a good cultural fit.  Notice, a guarantee of outsized success isn’t part of that?  This is actually the only thing that is intensely valuable about a formal education, the cultural exposure.  We always feel comfortable around those who have had similar experiences to our own.  The technical knowledge we need can be found in our pockets.  Don’t believe me?  Ask, Google, Alexa, Cortana, or Siri what a good ROI is on an ad spend. Or maybe they know if it’s a good idea to get an MBA.  I asked that question and I got back this and this.

Apparently Cortana knows something that Nancy Taylor and David Cross missed.

Source: What Makes a Great Business College? | The EvoLLLution