Is MBA degree beginning to lose its lustre?

Writing will never do justice to the transcript of this ad so you better go to YouTube and check it out for yourself as soon as you are through reading this article. It’s titled FedEx MBA ad.

It features a young man on his first day at FedEx. His lady boss, seemingly on the move, calls and points him to a room full of packages to be delivered at which his help is needed.

“We’re just in a bit of a jam. All this has to get out today.”

“Yeah, ah ... I don’t do shipping,” he replies. “Oh no, no, it’s very easy,” she answers. “We use Fedex.com. Anybody can do it.” “You don’t understand, I have an MBA.” He retorts. “Oh, you have an MBA?” “Yeah ...” “In that case, I’ll have to show you how to do it.” The voice over nails it with: “Fedex.com makes shipping so fast and easy ... even an MBA can do it.”

What this ad is trying to say, tongue in cheek, is what many of us have probably been thinking all along but never had the guts to verbalise our suspicions — that the MBA is over time simply becoming an overpriced piece of paper, framed and stuck on a nice wall. It may be glitzy but it remains just that …a piece of paper. Unfortunately, this view is not really that far-fetched as I will attempt to attest.

When the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration established the first MBA programme in the world in 1908, the name of the course was chosen specifically to signify the essence of business managers who were then primarily seen as administrators of systems.

As a result, historically, the degree had a strong bias of producing bean counters, good as policy system implementers seeking efficiency of work rather than fluency of thought.

Thanks to what we may want to term to as globalisation but which in this regard is basically a code name for intellectual laziness, our Kenyan/regional education system basically copy pasted this Harvard model adopted it as our very own MBA, which typically comprises three components: analytical, functional and specialisation spheres.

Each of these components makes a fully-fledged Master’s degree specialisation from scratch. However, in the ultimate wisdom of the pioneers, the MBA tried to create an all rounded individual with high business acumen in all spheres — basically a jack of all trades and realistically a master of none despite the late specialisation.

According to prospectus of one of the universities, its MBA has five key objectives. First is to equip the student with knowledge of key generic and specific areas of management. Second, to enhance self-confidence and the ability of the student to evaluate practical business experience from an academic, practical, and critical perspective. Third, to develop awareness in the student of the changing local and international business environment. Fourth, to provide specialised knowledge of the chosen area and lastly to instil a professional and problem-solving attitude in the practice of management.

Looking at the content and objectives of this course on paper, one has to be impressed with it as a positive addition to our business environment. Yet, at this juncture, I want to make the argument that the MBA has not had as much meaningful impact on the Kenyan business landscape as would be expected.

So what is wrong with the MBA?

First, much of the course is in itself misguided. It claims to teach management as if it is a profession in itself. The reality is that management is not a career; it is recognition of people handling skills which, when it comes to the crux of the matter, no business school will teach you.

Good management is about the right value system and optimal emotional intelligence, most of which the rigorous academic training of kindergarten coupled with the wise temperament of experience is supposed to suffice.

Second, the case study methodology adopted by the MBA, which is propagated as the best fit model of decision making, is slightly defective in itself. As noted in a study by Henry Mintzber, the method teaches decisiveness, not insight and good judgment. These case studies are not just inadequate, but they set up “dreadful simulation” that is set up within an academic angle.

Third, the MBA peaked up on the wrong footing. In the 90s, when it was in vogue, MBAs were rare and those that had them got plum jobs in senior management. As the millenials hit the job market in the 2000s, they were keen to gain instant success and hence were more than ready to model the success stories of their predecessors. Soon, the demand for MBAs shot up driven by an eager populace not motivated by business mastery, but seeking papers to satisfy the job market.

This new demand came at a time when universities were sprouting up left right and centre with village polytechnics being transformed into institutions of higher learning overnight and more private universities coming up even before you can utter the word “chartered”. Operating purely from a commercial perspective, these institutions saw the rising demand of this course and reacted accordingly.

Universities also increased the enrolment numbers to meet this demand. With slackening total quality assurance, the degree started losing its value.

Weak students, or busy executives who took up the course simply because it sounded prestigious and would make their resume brighter started engaging in corrupt practices to cheat their ways into a degree. Unfortunately, this is a racket that brings in even the faculty in some instances where money and sexual favours are exchanged for marks.

But the biggest failure of the MBA has been its inability to marry academic study and real world practice. Most of the faculty on MBA programmes are themselves pure academicians who have neither run a business nor held a senior management roles in the past.

For a degree that is supposed to end up with students with mastery of business practice, the number of unemployed MBA graduates in Kenya today is simply shocking.

All this is a pity because, ultimately, the MBA is an invaluable qualification whose purpose and intents are being liquidated by the current malaise we put our students through. We cannot throw the bathwater away with the baby. Indeed, to paraphrase the British colloquialism, the MBA is dead, long live the MBA!

Mr Sissey is a management consultant. [email protected]
Twitter @marvinsissey