This article was originally published in April of 2010 by The Insider Media Group. No copyright infringement is intended.
Despite our preconceived notions to the contrary, business students are not special. Taken as a whole, we are a hodgepodge of individuals with only vague appropriations of our own skills, abilities and interests; masters of few, if any, technical and non-technical skills. We are so bland and un-unique that the only quality which defines our collective aspirations is the desire to create and manage money. It is hard to find an alternate university program that is by definition as completely devoid of personal interests and passions. Dean Horvath may do his best to convince otherwise, but our school is not a collection of the best and brightest pupils from across the country. Nor is any other business school for that matter. No degree offered at any business school can guarantee success in the real world or offer an appropriate approximation of such. And it is a harsh, unforgiving, real world – rife with innumerable challenges and obstacles – that we face. Many of us are in for a cold dose of reality upon graduation, predicated by unwarranted self-confidence and an overstated belief in one’s ability.
But none of this is new. Business students have always had an inflated sense of confidence and an air of cockiness about them; it is perhaps our one defining character trait and often what guides us to top business schools in the first place. While attitudes have not adjusted, the working environment that we are set to enter clearly has. Undergraduate and graduate degrees in business are no longer as valuable as they once were and unless current expectations and attitudes are altered, business students face a short road to obsolescence. Overcoming this is our greatest challenge moving forward, punctuating an uncomfortable but unavoidable truth: business schools need to change the way they do business.
That the business degree is falling in value is virtually indisputable. The number of M.B.A.’s handed out has grown rapidly during the previous generation, creating a much larger and less distinguished talent pool. In the United States alone, the Department of Education reported approximately 139,347 M.B.A.’s awarded in 2004, up almost 800% from 17,795 in 1968. The M.B.A. is a distinctly modern invention in the overall history of business and until recently it was all that was necessary to guarantee a long and successful career. An M.B.A. used to represent the sort of natural ability and drive that companies need for executive positions. Today, it represents the ability and drive necessary to accrue many thousands of dollars in student loans.
The growing number of M.B.A.’s has been compounded by a general loss of faith in the utility of such a degree. Numerous studies, including one by McGill University management professor Henry Mintzberg in 2003, have demonstrated the poor workplace performance of M.B.A. grads. Said Mintzberg, “M.B.A. programs train the wrong people in the wrong ways with the wrong consequences. You can't create a manager in a classroom. If you give people who aren't managers the impression that you turned them into one, you've created hubris." Hubris, clearly, is something that schools like ours are in the business of selling. And business is good.
On the other side of the enrolment coin, undergraduate business programs saw steady decline in the number of degrees awarded throughout the 1990’s. This was likely due in some part to the dot-com bubble, which would have led many prospective students to believe that undergraduate business degrees were unnecessary thanks to the success of multi-millionaire 20-something wunderkinds with little to no business acumen or background. The subsequent burst probably dampened this sentiment slightly (though the wunderkinds can hardly be blamed for the irrational actions of foolhardy investors), but the general perception remained that an undergraduate degree in business was not required to enter or succeed in the corporate landscape. What had once been perceived as the greatest advantage of a business degree – that it is far-reaching and versatile, allowing entrance into any number of fields – had become its fatal flaw. After all, why pursue an undergrad in business when you can go into any other field and acquire business related skills easily through an M.B.A. or relevant work experience? Who would a company be more likely to choose for employment, a student with an undergraduate and graduate degree in business, or one with an undergraduate in some technical field and a graduate degree in business? Does a student with relevant work experience not trump both, regardless of undergraduate degree?
The answer is yes; relevant work experience – the type of real world, hands-on experience that schools are generally incapable of offering – is taken in higher regard than any degree or school ranking. The skills we learn in the classroom (if we even remember them past graduation) are very likely to be completely different from those we employ in our future careers. Many C.E.O.’s today have no business background at all, having learnt the necessary abilities on their tumultuous journeys to the top of the corporate ladder. This fact is underlined by studies performed as recently as 2006, which showed that only 162 of the 482 companies listed on the NYSE (less than 34%) had C.E.O.’s with master’s degrees in business. Business is not just for those who study it in a classroom and we should stop regarding it as such.
With the value of our degree sliding towards obsolescence, it is up to the students and administrators of business schools both present and future to re-establish the significance of the only product offered by the schools: us students. This is a battle that will be fought not in the classroom or through the teaching plan, but in the mind. Business students are in need of a major attitude adjustment.
The aforementioned inflated sense of confidence is first in line for necessary corrections. Much of this hubris derives from the inaccurate belief that those of us in business are somehow more important than others. Sorry chartered accountants, but you do not rule the world. Neither do investment bankers, consultants, financial managers, or any other business professionals. The world is ruled by unequal parts creativity, determination and capability; traits hardly exclusive to any one individual, industry or career path. Some of us will go on to accomplish great things. Many of us will not. It is our drive, resolve and pure ability that will take us to great places, just as it is the drive, resolve and ability of those in different professions that lead them across the same plains of achievement.
Business school, undergraduate or graduate, should not represent a culture of entitlement or excessive arrogance. It should represent a population that is confident in its abilities, proud of its accomplishments and humble in its successes. Somehow or another, the negative stigma surrounding business students needs to be replaced with the idea that we do make the most driven and able employees regardless of our general lack of relevant technical skills (those seeking professional designations excluded). The schools we attend must do their part to ensure this sentiment is justified by enforcing that only the most determined and committed are accepted and kept as students. I am certainly not suggesting something as drastic as cutting enrollment by increasing tuition or raising the entrance criteria (not until I have graduated, at least), but something must be done to light a fire under the free-loaders who hope to loaf their way through university and expect companies to line up for them when they graduate.
My only suggestion to our school and the many others like it is this: stop perpetuating the belief that we are the all-singing, all-dancing, pride of the world. No more letters from the dean telling us how smart we are or how well our school ranked in arbitrary listings. Push us harder. Constantly demand more. Turn us from those who think they are achievers into those who are achievers by heavily encouraging (or even enforcing) participation in non-academic competitions (such as case competitions or newspaper sponsored essay contests) that push the boundaries of our abilities and provide us with more realistic experiences. Let us know that simply going to class is not enough. Turn make-believers into leaders.
The process starts now, with this admission: I am a business student and I am not special, unique or accomplished. If I should one day be so lucky to become all three, I know it will be because of the sweat of my brow and not the name on my degree. I look forward to the challenge.
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