Archive for February, 2011

Family Benefits

MBAs may make your family healthier! Former research done in New Zealand by Massey University shows that families of MBA graduates tend to be better educated and have fewer health problems than families of high school graduates or even of people with Bachelor degrees.

So gaining an MBA is not only a way of building a more satisfying and rewarding career for yourself, it can have real benefits for your family as well.

Social Saturdays

Oh great, the weekend. For me, the weekend is almost sacred, and I really try not to work or even study then. But if you are studying an online MBA, you’re going to have to face the fact that you need to study on weekends.

A colleague of mine is studying an online MBA at the moment, but he tells me that for him it has become more fun than he thought. A group of students have decided to study in tandem, and so they start the weekend off with a Saturday morning online chat, talking about what they’ve done during the week and any salient points that have arisen. Usually Saturday is the day to concentrate on group work projects, and he tells me that it’s usual for him to not only chat online, but also to make several phone calls and sometimes meet up with his group to work together.

This social activity lifts the whole program for him, and as it’s largely self-directed, it has grown and developed as the program has progressed. He now looks forward to Saturday mornings. Apparently the group is now discussing how they will stay in touch when they’ve finished their MBA program.

Knowledge Management

This discussion about knowledge workers is really in the center of my thoughts at the moment. In New Zealand, as in many other countries, there is much talk about the “knowledge economy” and how this idea affects how we work within organizations.

There is little doubt that we need to think carefully about how this shift affects the management function, and, as Failing Economist says, about the ownership of organizations. However, many Management Schools are still teaching the traditional models of organization and management.

This discussion is beginning to be opened up in management schools, and no doubt it will affect some thinking — which will be reflected in MBA programs. I think there is little doubt that what we see at the moment is just the beginning of a major change in the way we view organizations, and possibly in business thinking as a whole.

Online assessment for MBAs

Many of the projects that MBA students work on during their programs are group work projects, as they simulate real life situations (in the business world, few people work outside teams). However there are problems in assessing an individual’s contribution to a project. It can be very difficult to work out who has done what, and to what standard, when you are presented with a total project.

However, one way of dealing with this when you are teaching MBA courses is to give the problem to the students. They have to either work out how to identify individual contributions to the project or to be confident that there was equal effort and equal talent in each part of the whole.

Just another management dilemma.

Chinese MBA

I’m in conversation with a Chinese university about the possibility of offering a joint degree program in Business and Information Systems. They are looking to do this as a platform for the development of a joint MBA.

There are some really interesting problems associated with joint programs. Personally I prefer to work with single programs, because those working in them are totally familiar with them. On the other hand,  in joint programs those maintaining programs are often not the ones who developed them, which means they might not totally understand what they are teaching. When you bring in a mix of cultures, the problem can be made worse.

In order to overcome these issues, we need to work with the university both here and in China. So if some of my future blogs come from China, you’ll know why.

Climbing the Greasy Pole

I recently took a new job and I’ve been looking over CVs of my new staff. Of the twenty people who will be reporting to me, two of them have recently earned their MBAs.

I’m now considering how I can best use them. This is going to be interesting, because I know that one of the MBAs applied for the job that I got, and obviously failed. So I have a feeling that I may have a little fight on my hands.

I usually don’t have great problems in these kind of situations; apart from anything else, my management style tends to be to give people roles and to let them get on with things, as long as they inform me of results (and if they have a problem). If they don’t do these two things, then they are in trouble.

If the MBAs have any sense, they’ll enjoy this stuff and realize that I’ll let them do things their way. They can practice on the present situation and then start working out how to further their careers – if they’re good enough, they should be able to get my job in a year or two.

MBA Specialization

The days when just having an MBA degree was a competitive edge are long gone. As more MBA holders enter the job market, employers are looking beyond an MBA to find the right candidate.

This is not to say that MBA holders are not currently in demand. Among the many types of business degrees, employers still find an MBA degree desirable. The real differentiating factors are where you get your MBA and what specialization you add to your MBA.

As businesses become more focused, many industries require that their executives and managers possess specific skill sets. In this environment, getting a generalized MBA won’t help you as much as an MBA with an added specialization specific to your chosen industry. After deciding to pursue an MBA, pick a focus, for instance Accounting or IT Management, and build your MBA curriculum around that specialization.

This information is also valuable in choosing a school. Knowing what specialization you’d like to pursue will help you weed out schools and programs that don’t meet your specific career requirements. An MBA program taught by an instructor who also has experience in your specialization should be considered along with schools and programs that are highly regarded.

The Secrets of the Effective MBA Essay

Your MBA admission essay is an important exhibition of your potential. There are some very easy ways to ensure that your MBA essay communicates both your desire to purse an MBA and your value to the school.

The first rule? Check your aspirations to write the great American novel at the door. Weak writers tend to overstate their case, use fancy words, and pepper their papers with colloquialisms. These mistakes should be avoided if you want to impress admissions officers with your MBA essay. Here are some other rules that should be in the back of your mind:

Topic Choice: Nothing spells disaster more quickly than a topic that is uninteresting. Many MBA essays focus on Mom and Dad and family hardships. If you want to stand out, find innovative ways of calling attention to your upbringing. Try hard to NOT become a cliche (or at least don’t try TO become a cliche).

MBA Essay Length: Communicate your idea in as few words as possible. Just because the school doesn’t put a cap on MBA essay length doesn’t mean there is no limit. The key to great writing is: Concise with Detail.

Avoid Overly Creative Writing: It’s hard to write a poem as an MBA admission essay without it coming off as an ode to Dr. Seuss. If you’re going to do it, you better have a background in poetry.

Keep these rules in mind and your MBA admission essay should work for you rather than against you.

Minority MBA Associations

People from all walks of life pursue an MBA. In fact, one of the biggest reasons to pursue an MBA degree is the opportunity for interaction with people of different backgrounds, races, cultures and perspectives.

But at the same time, it’s good to connect with others with whom we share common threads. MBA associations, such as the National Black MBA Association, are groups that can help you stay connected to people who share your background and education once you complete your MBA program. Two of the more prominent ethnic MBA associations are the National Black MBA Association and the National Society of Hispanic MBAs.

The National Black MBA Association has 39 chapters all over the United States. The National Black MBA Association is a professional membership organization of black graduates with MBAs, advanced degrees, and/or are entrepreneurs. Their goal is to increase the number and diversity of successful black people in the business community.

The National Society of Hispanic MBAs was created in 1988, has 28 chapters and more than 6,000 members in the United States and Puerto Rico. Known as the Premier Hispanic Organization, the NSHMBA exists to foster Hispanic Leadership through graduate management education and professional development. Another goal of the NSHMBA is to prepare Hispanic leaders for positions in a corporate America that has seen a steady increase in the number of Hispanic workers.

Some of My Best Friends

Hmm, looking back on this blog, I realize that it looks like almost every person I know has an MBA. This is not true: some of my best friends are mathematicians. And artists. And architects. And even computer scientists.

But I do seem to know a lot of people with MBAs. Maybe because so many more people realize what a great career advantage they can have with an MBA.

How many people who you know have MBAs? What are they doing with their lives right now?