Ricky’s Online Business Blog

This is the original version of my article sent to be published in MBA Edge Quarterly magazine October 2010 issue. The edited version published in magazine might be a little different. Your feedback is much welcome.

Continued from previous…

The personal stories of Dato’ Muni, Lisa and Rocky tell us why people choose to embark on an MBA journey. The reasons people buy this brand called MBA appear to be very diverse, depending on whether they are business people, working people, or fresh graduates. Even within these same category of students, one may not assume all others take MBA having the same reason he or she has. We all have different motives in doing the same thing.

For business people like Dato’ Muni, they do not need MBA for the purpose of getting a job. Having been in business, they know a paper qualification does not speak of the whole person, if it speaks anything about the person at all. They want to excel in their study in MBA but are not too obsessed with getting A for all subjects. To them, they know the difference between grade A and grade B is not significant. What they value most are the practical knowledge learned, useful insights gained, ideas inspired, skills acquired, character developed, teamwork and leadership training undergone, and friends made during their MBA study. But they can become disinterested when the subject matter gets too academic and theoretical that they do not see practical value in learning it.

For working people like Lisa, MBA offers a solution to their career advancement. Many of them face dilemma whether to invest money in MBA education, or buying a house or a new car. Many of them need to choose between devoting quality time to their spouse and family, or spending endless hours everyday going through reading materials, doing assignments, attending group discussion, and preparing for presentation. But for those who decide to forgo valuable time and money for an MBA are likely to have strong utilitarian view of the course and expect high payoffs in future. To quote a few business jargons, they must have, though unknowingly, gone through benefit-cost analysis, calculated the returns on investment (ROI), checked the net present value (NPV), and justified spending one or two years going through taxing schedules with high enough consumer utility in taking the course.

For fresh graduates like Rocky, an MBA is likely another course of study same as those they have gone through in the past 15 years or so. For some of them, for the first time in life they have a real choice to study a course they are really interested in. For others, they study MBA because they have heard it is a good qualification for job market, or their close friends are doing it. To be frank, not all of them know why they are in the course. They may not really know what they might get out of the course, and what to expect after they graduate from MBA.

Because of the different reasons and motives people choose to study MBA course, the values they regard highly also differ from one another. It follows that their expectations and behaviours are also quite different. A business person values most in learning, knowledge, practicality, self-development, training, experience, sharing, discussion, brainstorming, networking, recognition and even the self-actualization they may get out of the course.

I personally know of customers who were already successful in business but studied MBA for the sake of challenging their potentials. Sometimes their behaviours can be quite strange to the rest of us. For example, it is OK for them to take longer than normal duration to finish the course in order to learn as much as they can from each subject. They may self-study a subject more than what is covered for the sake of learning. They may purposely choose to take up assignments and research areas according to their interest, no matter how tough and challenging they may be. They may write up an assignment much more than what is expected by lecturer. They may be the most outspoken ones in class asking questions and sharing ideas, though some areas are not directly related to what will come out in exam.

Whereas, a working person values most in utility, payoffs, speed, effectiveness and efficiency. Most of them have to juggle life between work, family and studies. For them, the years spent in MBA could be the most hectic years they will ever have in life. As such, they cannot afford to study a subject as extensively and leisurely as do the business people. They need to finish the whole course in the fastest time at the lowest costs in terms of time and effort. They can do very well and pass the course with flying colors. But they are not likely to spend too much effort in any one thing that they work on.

For the fresh graduates, doing an one-year MBA course is like doing one extra year in university after their final year as undergraduates. They are likely to use the same study methods they been trained in to tackle an MBA course. Due to the very exam-oriented culture in our education system, these students are very exam-oriented too in MBA study. They value tips for exam questions more than learning a new thing in business. They value studying more than learning, memorizing points more than appreciating business concepts.

Due to lack of working experience, they might know what is being taught without really understanding it, or they might understand it without really appreciating it or knowing how to apply it for practical use. Anyway, these do not matter. What matters most is that they get good grade in examination, something they have been trained well as professional students. For them, examination is a time they cram everything into their head for the big test. But after examination, it is a time of unlearning and releasing all that in the head, so that they may have space to put in another subject or other more entertaining things in life. Some of them may not be really interested in what they study. To them, MBA is just one final stage they need to finish up before being freed from study life into working life, thinking it is a better world out there working than studying. As such, some of them can consider MBA quite a waste of time.

Of course, we cannot stereotype all business people, working people and fresh graduates as having all the same characteristics respectively as above. There are many exceptions. For example, in my own MBA course, the best presenter I have seen so far happens to be a fresh graduate. However, examining more closely, this classmate actually has some working experience as a part-time DJ, whose job has trained him to do well in presentations . Therefore, not all fresh graduates are totally fresh as we may think.

Read on here…

This is the original version of my article sent to be published in MBA Edge Quarterly magazine October 2010 issue. The edited version published in magazine might be a little different. Your feedback is much welcome.

Dato’ Muni is finally back to school. Having spent over 20 years working and building his business, an education courseware provider for homeschooling kids, first of its kind in Malaysia. He just enrolled himself in an executive MBA program. Already in his late 40s, does he really need the qualification? Of course no. So why waste time studying for MBA when he has achieved so much success already?

But Dato’ Muni has his own reason. He wants to expand his business regionally and bring it to the next level. He also plans to list the company in Bursa Malaysia later. He believes an MBA can help him gain new knowledge and insights to attain another new height in business. He enjoys discussion and brainstorming with classmates so that he may be inspired with new ideas. He loves to learn from the experience of others and he likes to share his too. He may even find future business partners in the class. But honestly, it is not so nice telling people in IPO that you as a company director have only a bachelor of arts in accounting. To him, a master degree in business will just fit the bill nicely.

Lisa is a bank officer. Since joining as a management trainee five years ago with a bachelor degree in economics, she has gone through job rotation in various departments to get familiarized with the bank operations. Her pleasant personality and ability to work with people of every temperament earn her the reputation of being able to get work done well. In terms of ability, she is well poised for promotion as a manager. But she has one problem. She does not have a postgraduate qualification. It is difficult for the bank to justify promoting her when there are others who possess master degree.

Lisa has reached a plateau in her career. She lacks the necessary qualification to climb up the corporate ladder to earn higher salary. Something must be done. That is why she has chosen to do an MBA for a breakthrough in her career. As her boss keeps telling her, she also wants to learn to look at problems more holistically and solve them from a managerial perspective. She believes MBA will teach her the right problem solving skills she needs, and trains her to see things from a vantage point she never experiences. Furthermore, an MBA qualification will give her some insurance in job prospect. As her supportive husband advises, even if one day she is downsized by the bank, armed with an MBA, she still could have a good headstart in another company, or even a different career.

Rocky is a young aspirant. He is ambitious, independent, outspoken, entrepreneurial, Internet-savvy and wants to make a difference in the world. He maybe just a fresh graduate in bachelor of business administration (BBA) having very little working experience. But he already has high ambition to chart a career in corporate world. He even speaks of making it big in business one day when opportunity strikes like Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, though he does not know yet exactly how.

Rocky too has chosen to take the MBA course. He does not know how useful it might turn out for him. But an MBA seems to be a natural progression path for a BBA holder like him. After all, the economy is not doing so well and many seniors do not get the job they want. His parent’s advice makes sense to him to stay in the university for another year to acquire a master degree so that he may have a competitive advantage over others next time in the job market. To him personally, he also hopes to find a girl friend in the course. This is evident from his status update on Twitter the week before his MBA starts. His tweet reads, “I hope can meet some leng lui lah!”

Read on here…

This is the original version of my article sent to be published in MBA Edge Quarterly magazine January 2011 issue. The edited version published in magazine might be a little different. Your feedback is much welcome.

May Lee and Muralee parted as MBA coursemates as they graduated from business school. May Lee continued working for her employer and sponsor. Muralee applied for Cradle Investment Programme (CIP) to set up his own multimedia production house. Now armed with MBA qualification, both graduates hope high for better life to come. However, the reality is not as rosy as they dreamed of.

Far from becoming a capable manager, team leader and player in the company as expected by her company, May Lee does not seem to have improved in these capacities except an increase in head knowledge. Her China-man boss starts to wonder what kind of “shit paper” she has acquired in her MBA certificate sponsored out of employee development fund.

No doubt May Lee’s paper qualification shows her straight A results. But her performance is not up to the mark at all. Her MBA course was conducted in English, but her English does not seem to have improved. She may have spoken in many class presentations, but she still reads from the slides and her presentation does not excite the audience at all.

She may have completed piles of assignments and case studies, but she does not seem to have any clue when asked to comment on the strategic direction of her company. She may have worked in teams and groups, but she still does not seem to be able to work independently, much less handle tough negotiations with clients competently.

Muralee is in no better situation. In order to apply for pre-seed grant from the Cradle fund, he needed to draw up a business plan for his new proposed business. However, he does not remember having learned about business plan in his MBA course. Well, he did write a marketing plan in Marketing Management class. He also submitted one assignment on financial projections in Financial Management class. But there is no one single class or project requiring him to combine all these individual pieces into one complete business plan!

Moreover, Muralee never learned how to pitch his idea to judges who must pick the best business ideas out of so many. He has never been taught to communicate and sell his ideas to venture capitalists and angel investors. His MBA did not even talk about venture capital! Of course, the judges rejected his application in favour of much better ideas and pitches by non-MBAs who know the trade better. To them whether they have MBA or not does not really matter. In fact, the higher qualification you have, the better piece of work you are expected to produce.

What went wrong with May Lee and Muralee? Well, they may have thought MBA qualification is the panacea that makes us better person at work and in business. They were once convinced that MBA is the passport towards higher salary, promotion and prosperous future. After all, business schools tout slogans like “Shaping Business Leader of 21st Century”. But is this the truth? Has MBA failed to address the real needs in the marketplace?

Read on here…