Elite MBAs are no Longer Relevant
by digitcatphd on Hacker News.
TL;DR // As someone who has spent a substantial amount of time reviewing top MBA programs, I have concluded that they are no longer relevant in an increasingly digital world, particularly in younger agile companies. Their relevancy is decreasing for the following reasons: (1) They are far too generalized in a world of specialists and in the case of the ‘many hat’ entrepreneur, most of these skills are learned from experience. (2) Hiring is increasingly based on unique profiles of candidates based on their experience and tangible contributions, this is particularly true with younger more agile companies that give its workforce a greater ability establish a colorful track record of performance. (3) They are inefficient in a mature digital learning environment, where one can pick and choose which courses they take or curriculum they follow based on their specific agenda and take this course at their own pace. (4) The hiring of an elite MBA over (2) encourages an elitism that disadvantages minorities and hinders social equality that socially aware tech companies seek to combat. (5) The ‘network’ of an elite MBA is diminished with democratized access to capital and executives (I.e. LinkedIn, Hunter/Snov.io, and Crunchbase) Notes:
– I’m not arguing that an elite MBA is not ‘worth it’ for everyone, but rather than its relevancy is/has been declining and will continue to be negatively correlated with technological advancement. – There are some focused arguments where one is making a career shift (E.g. Ex-Military), but even this is debatable considering (3) – An argument can be made that those in top management positions have elite MBAs. My counter-argument to this is a post hoc fallacy in that elite MBAs recruit the most competitive, intelligent, and high performing people and these characteristics are drivers for their success rather than the elite MBA itself. – I opted not to address the obvious monetary cost in this analysis as to isolate an analysis of its diminishing value rather than the more common argument against its cost.