‘Learning the hard way’ by Peter Bartram, Director, October 2010 and ‘Will an MBA keep your career buoyant?’ by Philip Delves Broughton, Management Today, October 2010.

These two magazines both included articles on the current state of the MBA and I am covering them both together. I suspect that their coverage of this topic is more about attracting advertising than increasing knowledge and both articles have elements of superficiality that are typical of these magazines’ contributions on learning and development. Nevertheless there are some interesting insights and recent statistics.

The Management Today article is much the better of the two, because it is written by someone who has an MBA from Harvard and has written a book and other articles on the topic, as covered in earlier blogs. Broughton makes the following points:

- The days of fat salaries and easy jobs for MBAs are over
- Employers are now looking for functional specialists rather than qualified generalists
- These trends have been made worse by the sullied reputation of the MBA following the recession; too many bankers and failed/crooked CEOs had those three letters after their names
- The result is that applications are well down and newly qualified MBAs - even from the top schools - are not finding it easy to get jobs
- Those taking an MBA to achieve a career switch from one sector or function to another are finding that this is not easy either
- Emerging markets provide the best opportunities; their economies are more buoyant and the MBA is more highly regarded

Many of the same points are made in the Director article and there are some specific statistics to confirm the downturn in MBA enrolments. It quotes some interesting and surprising research by ‘Beyond Grey Pinstripes’ which showed that only 5 UK schools were in the global top 100 and the highest was Nottingham University at 23 with London Business School trailing in the 90s. However a quick search showed me that Harvard and MIT were not even in the top 100, presumably because they did not respond to the researchers. It does the Director no credit to be publishing such superficial and misleading data.

This article also suggests that a major factor in the decline is major companies’ lack of willingness to invest in MBAs for existing managers, even though they may need that kind of broadening (an interesting statistic is that 60% of managers did not plan to be at that level and many are ‘reluctant’ and therefore unprepared for managerial life). However their employers are tending to prefer more tailored and targeted solutions, with on-line learning as the major growth area. Whether this can achieve the same benefits for a manager who needs to broaden horizons and enhance business acumen is not discussed. Our experience and strongly held view is that this is only possible from ‘face to face’ programmes or tutor-led virtual classroom sessions, not from conventional e-learning.

Click here to read the articles in full;
http://www.director.co.uk/MAGAZINE/2010/9_October/learning-the-hard-way_64_02.html/