Professor Elam

Okay, think about this.  One of the things that makes something important is scarcity. If  few have it and there is value, it is valuable. If everyone has one, it tends to lose value.  Hence the price of television sets has fallen while quality has improved, now everyone has multiple tv sets but no one is rushing to buy stock in a tv manufacturer.

Now compare this to the college MBA.  When only   a few folks could afford to attend Harvard or some other toney in the day time in the late 1950s and 1960s, the MBA certainly had a cachet.  To be admitted one had to be in their late 20s, had worked at a major firm for a while, and well, got the firm to sponsor the, IE, they were comers.  Now every school in the country has mimicked that platform.  Yes it is somewhat difficult to get in the UT Austin program for example, but frankly I took some courses there just these past few years, and egads, they looked and acted about like any college student. 

Goodness knows we have eliminated the scarcity of MBAs. You can go daytime, nighttime, weekend, on line, or failing that, just log into http://www.quickmba.com and wing it!

Okay now that everyone who has one does, are business failures the lack of on staff MBAs?  IE, is there a shortage of MBAs at GM, Ford, WMT, MSFT, or other companies trying to improve their market share?  Answer-no.

There is however a mistaken idea that an MBA can run any sort of company, just ask GM about all those MBAs from Proctor and Gamble, and then what happened to Oldsmobile?  After producing Olds that looked like Cheerios, they took the proud Cutlass, once an in demand Olds,  made four different models of the same car (see the Cheerios Corn Flakes Captain Crunch comparison) and then put the division out of business to ‘help’ beleaguered GM.  Gee thanks.

Let’s look at the successful companies

Porsche
BMW
Apple
Target
Lands End

And then

MSFT
WMT
Dell
Ford

My point is that the lack of MBAs is not causing the hand wrenching at  the last four. 

It is the lack of clever innovative Design ideas.  After studying the iPod for the five years it has been out, MSFT’s ZUNE fell off the top ten electronic  best seller list after two weeks-swell…

Take a look at Pen Again.  Now here is a simple idea and a new design.  Did it come from BIC or Parker? Nope, a guy thought it up in detention hall.  Just like the auto engine, the airplane, the telephone, the Apple II, a clever designer had a goal and solved the problem.

My suggestion is that the MBA has run its course, it is time for a new curriculum-incorporate Innovation and Design into the curriculum of Grad Business School.  Appeal to types that never considered business before.  Innovate, study great designs of the past.  How many MBAs ever read a book about DaVinci (no not the fiction one,  a biography about the Leonardo himself

Well this is my call for a new curriculum, take a look at the Innovation Issues of Business Week, there are some cutting edge ideas, and cutting edge, not spreadsheets, are what the new innovators are all about.

Your thoughts!

DLE