Business Schools Don’t Teach Business
I spent a year in the UK studying for my MBA – a Masters in Business Admin. I had a great time! But there were a lot of surprises I encountered during that year. Still, there's one big reason why you shouldn’t do an MBA, but also, three reasons why you might still want to.
Business school doesn’t teach you business.
So to start off, here’s why you might not want to. I remember our very first class. All of us piled into the hall, all excited to start off on this wonderful, enlightening journey to become business experts in just one year.
The MBA director started off with asking us why we were there. We all had similar reasons really. One said she wanted to learn how to start her business. Another wanted to know how to grow a business. Yet another wanted to learn how to run teams effectively. And I wanted to learn how to strategize better to improve profits.
The Director listened to us all with a smile, nodding. And then when it was his turn, he busted all our excited little bubbles with one sentence – ‘business schools can’t teach you business.’
I was confused. And so was everyone else. Ugh? How can business school not teach me business? Ooookaaaay…what am I here for?
But as the program went on, I realized how correct he was. No business school, taught by academia, can ever teach you business because you can’t learn business in a classroom, writing exams and academic papers. You only learn business by practicing.
Starting, running and growing a business is such a unique experience. Because the scenarios each business person faces through the course of work is so different. Staff and customers are so different and unpredictable. You face ‘wicked problems’. There is no way to learn and have a pre-approved formula for the different situations you would face.
In fact, you leave business school being more confused than ever, realizing the full extent of what you don’t know, and all the uncertainty and complex problems you’re sure to face.
But you know what? Despite my overall confusion at the end of the program, it was still worth it, and I’d do it again for three main reasons. And these are the reasons you might still want to consider an MBA.
Even though business school will give you absolutely no answers, it will teach you to think critically about everything. You start to ask ‘why, why, why’ about everything you read, and every argument you hear. You end up challenging things more, and asking more questions because you realize that nothing may be what it seems so you try to dig deeper.
Also, the connections and networks you’ll make will be priceless. My cohort was small – only 36 people. This meant that I got to work with each person at some point during the year. Within this 36 people, we had 26 countries represented! Now THIS meant that we all got to hear stories and get exposed to perspectives and experiences that we never would have gotten without attending the program. And even now, I’m still in touch with so many of them.
And lastly, the curriculum in my MBA program was structured a little differently – there were a lot of practical business challenges we had to go through in teams throughout the year. For example, a case we did was to come up with an idea, and test that idea with real people in the community to find out if it was really viable.
There were also numerous opportunities to hear from practicing business men and women, plus a major module that ran throughout the program around mindfulness and reflection as a manager. These were opportunities to at least, get our hands a little dirty in a controlled environment.
But what does this all mean for you?
If you’re considering going to business school, trust that you will also have many surprises, the largest of which being that you still won’t really know how to run a business. But the skills and experiences you will get are still worthwhile if you apply them in real life…critical thinking, networking, and getting into the habit of reflecting about your experiences.
At the very least, look for programs that can give you these. Just don’t expect to come out of school a business expert because that outcome can only come from practice.