Certified MBA (CMBA), is it necessary?

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by incacity, Nov 28, 2003.

Loading...
  1. incacity

    incacity New Member

    Friends,
    After I finished my MBA I was bombarded with flood of emails from this website

    http://www.certifiedmba.com/

    They wanted me to be certified in order to add more credibility to my MBA. Did anyone hear of such organization? Why are they targeting MBAs and not other degreed programs.

    Your thoughts.
     
  2. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    The idea is to identify a body of knowledge in business, then test for it and certify it. In project management, the Project Management Institute has been quite successful with its PMBOK (Project Management Body of Knowledge) and its PMI certification. PMI certification is well-recognized as a credential. I think these folks are trying to do the same thing. But an MBA is quite able to stand on its own without being propped up by a test and certification.

    The discussion around here (which a search of the threads would reveal) had been about its potential impact on those with MBA degrees from unaccredited schools. Would their degrees be more valuable and acceptable if accompanied with such certification? My opinion: no.
     
  3. gnomic

    gnomic New Member

    I'd signed up for the CMBA beta exams, but thier high-pressure (email flood) tactics really turned me off. I never did get around to taking thier test.

    The problem is (IMHO) is that too many people got MBAs without having to do the work and far more don't apply what they have learned. I work with several MPAs and MBAs and marvel every day at the high-school level of decision-making (who do I like today).

    Which doesn't have much to do with the CMBA anyway. It really struck me as more of a marketing ploy to create a need than to really baseline the MBA credentials.

    I figure the best way to legitimize my MBA is with a (real) DBA or PHD.
     
  4. mfrankl

    mfrankl New Member

    2 points of view - against / open minded

    Two points of view –

    Agaisnt

    I am often surprised how easily we can be duped by marketing schemes invented by imaginative companies using the Internet to “sell their ideas”. The “MBA Certification” system certainly looks like one of them. Here are three reasons that support this statement:

    First “Red Flag” – no credentials

    This is a self-serving tool for some unscrupulous business people to make money on the MBA graduates and hoping to legitimize itself by the sheer number of people “falling for it”.

    “The MBA exam is a commercial venture, “designed as a signal to the market to make money,” Krogstad said. “In a way it’s like saying your diploma isn’t good enough.” Krogstad believes the exam will have no real value until it earns brand significance. Until then, it’s a waste of $450. “I’m pretty skeptical about the validity it measures in terms of the entire MBA package,” he said.

    For full text, see: http://press.creighton.edu/090602/MBA.html

    Are MBAs so naïve (or insecure) that after spending on average at least two years of hard studies and rightfully earning their MBAs, they still need another “body” (with no background, no recognition from any formal private or government institution) recognize them? Is it not enough that their school has been accredited, their professors are all reputable scholars?

    Why don’t we start and “universal” certification program – by selling tests to anybody who has finished any school on any subject – just in case they need another recognition for their newly acquired knowledge?

    Second “Red Flag” - profiteering

    Developed by ICI (the International Certification Institute – whatever that means ref: Item 16 http://www.certifiedmba.com/faq.aspx), the MBA test has sponsors that are obviously biased to the system: All three of them are in the business of developing tests and selling them. This is obviously another one of their schemes. All of them do profit from this scheme.

    Galton Technologies : http://www.galton.com/
    Prometric: http://www.prometric.com/default.htm
    The Thomson Corporation: http://www.thomson.com/


    Third red flag – who is a “member” of this group.

    Visit the website of AMBAI/AmbaiU – (http://www.ambai.org), “a Free International Virtual Teaching Institution”, non accredited, not licensed, offering “MBA” courses at $175 a course (!) – has been “accredited” by ICI and their program and meets their “Certification Standard”.

    Are we in this league? And if we feel that this is our league, should we be here in the first place?

    And this is only after browsing a few websites and reviewing the “facts” behind the facts.
    What do some of our peers think of this kind of a sham?

    Note that: “The AACSB was not involved in the development of the CMBA nor has it reviewed the exam for endorsement.”
    Ref: http://www.certifiedmba.com/faq.aspx (item 12)


    Another interesting point: I could not find any names identifying members of their various councils.

    Open Minded

    Well, I have read your post and have read many other opinions which both agree with your assessment and many who counter that opinion with an opposite one.

    The bottom line is there is no right and wrong answer on this question. If the individual feels that, based on forthright analysis, that it has benefit for their particular situation, then it will be the right thing to do.

    I find it somewhat ironic that your skepticism of the test is analogous to those hiring managers who are very skeptical and somewhat prejudiced of Touro graduates competence, being that it is a new untested manner of learning, profit making enterprise, and one without much historical perspective to base a reasonable judgement upon.

    One key aspect that is almost universal, even in the dissenting opinions as to the worth of this certification, is that it will probably help those graduating from MBA programs w/o significant status of their B-School and no AACSB accreditation. Not to mention the fact that Touro's program is all Internet based and the unfortunate but irrefutable fact that almost all hiring managers are somewhat skeptical of 100% Internet based learning.

    I am a graduate of Touro's program and feel I am as competent as an MBA graduate of those top tier programs. But many hiring managers - irrefutably - are very skeptical, and perhaps rightfully so as they have no rigid track record to base us graduates on, as opposed to those graduating from top 20 programs et al.

    As to the other arguments presented, I think none of them are conclusive as to their worth in determining the viability of the certification. Certainly, any licensure/certification program requires economic self-sufficiency unless it is governmentally or industry financed. Being MBA graduates, I think we can all surmise this requirement.

    Once again, there is no definitive right or wrong answer, especially at this early juncture in the program.

    For some further comments by others please see below:

    "I am not against students getting a certification for anything that will give them an advantage," said Trexler. "I just don't see the advantage [to the CMBA]." Trexler added that many of the MBA students she has spoken to at Lehigh about the CMBA were critical of it, if not insulted at the notion of getting certified after having earned their MBA.

    Offering Value to Some

    But Kathleen Trexler, associate dean and director of the MBA program at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa. >>did concede<< that students graduating from non-accredited institutions might benefit from the certification. It could demonstrate they possess the technical mastery of business administration skills. For students moving to regions where their >>non-accredited school has no name recognition<<, the CMBA might also be of value in demonstrating achievement.

    Note: AACSB accreditation.

    Students from less prestigious programs will have an incentive to take the exam because it gives them an opportunity to compete, said Steve Allen, the director of N.C. State University's MBA program.

    But Allen added that he thinks MBAs from top business schools will probably not want to take the CMBA unless employers consider exam results when hiring.

    Employers want to be sure MBA earners have these fundamental skills before hiring them, said Page Stephens, senior vice president of corporate banking at Bank of America. "I think the exam has its merits."

    But Stephens said that although where students earn their degrees is important, it is essential for an MBA to have mastered fundamental business principles.

    In the past, Stephens said, he has been disappointed by MBAs' lack of fundamental knowledge. He added that he would like to see applicants take the exam to show they have a basic level of competency, regardless of what program they graduated from.

    Companies spend $8.5 billion a year in salaries for new MBA hires and often "get burned," says Peter Navarro, a business professor at the University of California at Irvine.

    Navarro has seen companies pass over the top Cal-Irvine MBA graduate to take last-place students from Stanford. "The top 20 schools won't want this, because they have a brand-name monopoly," Navarro says.

    "There is no debate that there are incompetent MBAs," says Louis Lataif, dean of Boston University's highly ranked management school. But top schools can cherry-pick applicants already headed for success. Companies recruit at those schools because "the sorting has been done for them by the admissions committee," he says.

    Michelle Helms, a recruiting manager at Deloitte & Touche in St. Louis, said she hires several MBA graduates a year. She said that while test scores have less of an impact on MBA hires in the current system, students who opt to take the test could still benefit.

    “I think with all exams — to build credentials — it would certainly be a positive,” Helms said.

    “I think Wash. U.’s (Washington University) average starting salary for their MBA’s is around $110,000 a year. I think here it’s like $60,000,” Wilbers said. “There’s definitely an incentive there. I would be all for taking the test if it would help me compete with those schools,” he said.
     
  5. onlinephd

    onlinephd New Member

    CMBA is a waste of time. I am starting CMBA-2 certification next week -:) I really need some money quick.

    An MBA degree is not the same as a Microsoft or Cisco cert. What is next ... a CPhD ???
     
  6. drwetsch

    drwetsch New Member

    Here is an old USA Today article on the CMBA:
    http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/management/2002-08-26-cmba_x.htm

    I agree that the CMBA is controversial and personally I do not see the value of it.:( It strikes me as a money making means to try to insure that the knowledge gained by MBAs has been certified. We might as well present the CMBA with a license to practice business! Of course, such a license would be silly and hence I put the CMBA in the same category.

    Let's let the merit of the MBA holder and thus the reputation of the school stand on its own.

    John
     
  7. manjuap

    manjuap New Member

    Does Tulane's "MBA certificate" carry more value than CMBA ?
     
  8. RFValve

    RFValve Well-Known Member



    There are many credentials much more useful than this:

    CPA,
    CMA,
    CMC,
    CFA

    I you are going to spend time on a certification, make sure that is one that will pay off.

    I agree that MBAs are now a dime a dozen and one needs to stand out from the crowd.

    The one year-part time MBAs are making the credential to look like a Microsoft certification. As a matter of fact some certifications woud take longer than a year part time to get (CFA).
     
  9. RFValve

    RFValve Well-Known Member

    There are also Post-MBA's, Certificate of Advanced management and mini MBAs offered by many universities
     
  10. bo79

    bo79 New Member

    I think this is a complete waste of time and money. An MBA from a respected school is can stand on it's own two feet perfectly without any help from some garbage certificate. This is nothing more then some marketing plot and I must say that I am kind of shocked how any people fell for it.

    Bo
     

Share This Page