A Brave New MBA

Venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, and other innovation-minded folks are always knocking the MBA. Some (ala Guy Kawasaki) say that an MBA is actually a mark against you. I disagree.

These naysayers seem to have forgotten that science and technology aren't the only products of innovation--education has changed too. Their illusion about MBAs is that we are a bunch of type-A, PowerPoint savvy, conformists, who all want jobs at McKinsey or Goldman, but would consider a startup only if no other offers come to pass. They hold fast to the archaic idea that all we do is sit around reading Harvard cases and "solving" business problems with Porter's Five Forces (well maybe that's what they do at Harvard).

Those notions just aren't true anymore. They may have been at one time and they may still be for some MBAs, but not as a matter of course. My MBA hasn't just been about learning how to innovate--even better, it's been about actually doing it. I've had the opportunity to manage a small venture capital fund, and in so doing I've assessed hundreds of business ideas, plans, and models. I've been able to share my writing again, through this blog, the Cornell Business Journal, and VentureViews (BRV's newsletter). I'm now working on my second business plan (the first one didn't pan out but the learnings were invaluable). I've studied the psychology of consumer behavior, which I will take to the next level this semester with a graduate psych course on automatic decision making. I've examined disruptive technologies under Don Greenberg. I've spent my summer at Novell working on a multi-million dollar strategic alliance. I could go on.

The point isn't that we don't read cases or learn the MBA staples (finance, accounting, economics, strategy...). We do that. But we do so much more, and I for one feel armed to innovate in ways that I couldn't have dreamed up before stepping within the walls of Sage Hall.