The MBA is in crisis

Discussion in 'Business and MBA degrees' started by Kizmet, Aug 23, 2019.

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  1. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

  2. JoshD

    JoshD Well-Known Member

    It makes sense. Personally, I do not regret my MBA, but I am much more ecstatic about my MS Finance program. I felt the MBA gave me a broad overview of different aspects of business whereas the MSF will give me a detailed and in depth view of MY chosen field of study.
     
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  3. LearningAddict

    LearningAddict Well-Known Member

    The MBA is meant to be general in the sense of giving you bits and pieces of key business areas, even the ones with specializations still don't really change that much.

    The MBA decline was inevitable given the number of schools offering it. However, it's still a Masters degree and a holder of one is still setting him/herself apart from a very large percentage of other workers, so as long as that remains the degree will continue to have strong value in the job marketplace.
     
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  4. GregWatts

    GregWatts Active Member

    "Still a Masters Degree"... is it?

    Obviously it is on paper but I saw minimal difference between my undergrad business studies and my MBA in reality.
     
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  5. JoshD

    JoshD Well-Known Member

    I did not do an undergraduate business degree but I think that is the sole purpose of an MBA is to give a broad overview of different business areas. It is not a degree that is supposed to dive in deep into any one topic therefore I can see it being eerily similar to what you did in your undergraduate studies.
     
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  6. LearningAddict

    LearningAddict Well-Known Member

    Business is not that complicated. Success in business is a different story, that's why so few ever achieve it.
     
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  7. JoshD

    JoshD Well-Known Member

    I partially agree. Management, marketing, etc. is not that complicated. Finance and accounting on the other hand...there is a reason they make more than other disciplines in business.
     
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  8. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    The article makes the case for elite MBA programs running into trouble. But it notes that other, more available MBA programs are eating into the troubled programs. It makes me wonder if the MBA as a whole is in any trouble at all.

    When I was pursuing mine, the MBA was the "it" degree. Science majors did them to become managers. People from the liberal arts did them to move their careers. The MBA became the entry-level degree for a lot of companies.

    When "nontraditional" degree programs came onto the scene, the MBA was almost always one of them. Everyone, step up and get one! But with so many degree options available these days, I can see the popularity of the MBA being watered down a bit. That, and people realized that someone with an MBA didn't automatically become a wizard of the business world.
     
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  9. Phdtobe

    Phdtobe Well-Known Member

    When the MBA supplement a hard skill it gives the holder a competitive advantage. Combinations like CPA, MBA or P.Eng, MBA are hard to beat.
     
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  10. SnafuRacer

    SnafuRacer Active Member

    Might the decline also be credited to the current blooming job market?
    After the last recession, everybody raced to get a graduate degree. Now, fewer people are interested in getting one just yet, or already have one from recent years past? The article mentions full-time application number drops.

    If the news and prognostications are to be believed, and if we're supposedly headed into another recession in the upcoming years, we might see another ascent in the number of applications submitted.
     
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  11. Vonnegut

    Vonnegut Well-Known Member

    That used to be the standard accepted practice of the industrial and manufacturing realms, at least with many of the old legacy companies. Seasoned engineers that showed promise, were groomed for senior leadership positions and sent to grad school for MBAs. There even was a paper awhile back on the transition away from that model to non-technical MBAs, and a correlation with many negative facets of current manufacturing models.
     
  12. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    Another factor is the increasing availability of more specific practitioner-oriented master's degrees. When I did my MBA, that was usually the only option. Now, especially online, you have hundreds or even thousands of business-related degrees to choose from. The MBA's generic nature may be hurting it.
     
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  13. TEKMAN

    TEKMAN Semper Fi!

    Wall Street Journal just published this video clip, "Is Business School Worth It? How MBA Programs are Revamping in 2019". It is include Boston University's Questrom Business School's Online MBA via EdX.


     
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  14. chrisjm18

    chrisjm18 Well-Known Member

  15. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    They have made some decent points but they also have a clear bias.
     
  16. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    It's my opinion that the modern MBA should be more about strategic leadership and decision-making, less about management and operations. Less about how information is produced (accounting, finance, and operations/logistics/analytics) and more on how it is used. And way more on how to develop your employees (and yourself) to later stages.

    I'm being considered for re-vamping a very well-known school's MBA program, so we'll see how far I can take it.

    (I won't say which school--ever. Nor will I discuss this school--or any other with which I am associated--for as long as I'm associated--without such a revelation.)
     
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  17. Maniac Craniac

    Maniac Craniac Moderator Staff Member

    Would an MBA be a good degree for someone (who may or may not be me... but may look and sound suspiciously like me...) who is not currently in the business of Business, but who could possibly benefit from a graduate degree and wants to present himself as highly educated and well-rounded?

    This person who is quite like me also likes the idea of keeping the door open to transition into other fields if necessary. Judging solely as an outsider from scans of online job postings over the years, it seems like, without years of experience, an MBA is more and more a degree for people starting all the way at the bottom of the ladder, rather than a solid head start closer towards the middle of the ladder. Or, maybe it's always been that way and I just didn't know it. o_O
     
  18. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    The MBA is the "Type O" of degrees. It is almost never considered irrelevant, even when it sometimes is.
     
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  19. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    I think that this is true. It probably comes closest to being universally useful. The only other one I could think of was a JD.
     
  20. Phdtobe

    Phdtobe Well-Known Member

    The MBA is in trouble because many people like me have gone on to earned one. No regrets. If you want an MBA, please go an earned an accredited MBA from any accredited university in any country. Sorry elitists, you will have to share the mba with proletariats like me. The saving grace for gloomers is that they can play the aacsb card, are some other alphabet obstacles; ah, I prefer barriers to entry because that is what they are.
     

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