Education in top rated B-schools has become very expensive. Is it worth it? No, says Josh Kaufman in his book The Personal MBA. Kaufman, a former middle manager at Procter & Gamble and founder of the website personalmba.com, contends that much of what is being taught in B-schools, including the Harvards and Whartons, has little relevance to the actual business world. He substantiates his claim with a report based on analyses of 40 years of data pertaining to B-school graduates according to which “business schools do almost nothing aside from making money disappear from student’s pocket….Getting an MBA has zero correlation with long-term career success”.
From Kaufman’s perspective, by reading The Personal MBA anyone can get all the relevant knowledge that a B-school has to offer and much more without paying the high fee or mortgaging one’s future. The author, however, admits that there is one single benefit of getting into a top-tier B-school, which is better access to top recruiters. Well, for many that could be the only good reason to join a top-ranked B-school.
Kaufman has certainly put a lot of effort into collecting and distilling the knowledge created in the field of management, especially of the past few years, and presenting it in a reader-friendly way in form of 226 simple concepts. These concepts come with new learnings on how businesses work, how people work and how systems associated with businesses work. Each concept is presented in about 650 words and can be read in stand-alone form. Most of the quotes written along with each concept are apt and interesting. Kaufman has also listed relevant books in different areas for the benefit of readers who want further knowledge on the various concepts. However, the book doesn’t offer deep finance, accounting and quantitative analysis.
The book can be very informative for those MBAs who want to update their learning and an interesting primer for those who want to gain familiarity with the basic concepts of business. There are some interesting concepts in the chapters on human behaviour. For instance in the chapter “Working with yourself” the concept of Monoidealism, the complete opposite of multi tasking, was a new learning for me. It doesn’t, however, offer the breadth or depth necessary to build skills in some areas, especially those related to systems and finance, however.
Take the concepts of sampling, segmentation or confidence interval described in the chapter “Understanding Systems”. Being a market researcher with reasonable expertise in my field, I found the content under these concepts rather rudimentary; though I liked the quote under sampling concept: “If you don’t believe in sampling theory, next time you go to the doctor and he wants to take a little blood, tell him to take it all.” But from an MBA graduate much more knowledge is expected than what is offered. In concepts related to finance, too, there is insufficient detail — it is difficult to acquire basic finance skills like reading financial statements which, in my view, is important for a management student.
Kaufman’s comments on B-schools are also rather sweeping like “MBA programmes teach many worthless, outdated, even outright damaging concepts and practices” or “MBA programmes have become so expensive you must effectively mortgage your life to pay the price of admission.” The fee is no doubt very high in good B-schools but so are the returns in terms of placements and networking. There are, of course, black sheep among B-schools who fleece students but there are also many good B-schools.
I agree with Kaufman that B-school students are overloaded with complex financial formulas and statistical models that may not be relevant for running a business. But I don’t think a book can replace a good MBA programme. Besides placements and networking, a good MBA programme has much to offer for students. In areas like learning soft skills, developing the right attitude, interaction with industry and international exposure through exchange programmes a student still needs a good B-school. Innovations in pedagogy, like theatre in education, role plays and simulation exercises have made the learning process much more student-friendly in many B-schools; at least better than self-study of a long list of books. But for those who want to save time and money and still be equipped with contemporary business knowledge, this book can be a useful primer.
(The reviewer is Chief Executive of C fore)
The Personal MBA
Josh Kaufman
Penguin UK
374 pages; Rs 550
