MBAs are strange products. Although the market may be saturated, there is always place for more offers. Although the products might be fairly similar, the deliveries are vastly different. Some business schools may require individual work, others may require no formal examination, some focus on action learning, others on e-learning.
The market dictates. And that market is the employer and the employee. Ultimately the power of the MBA is in the use of it and its value to the individual who spent one, two, maybe three years obtaining it.
As an information academic, I have spent my time determining — sometimes forcing — value from information. The value of information is difficult to determine. Information may be deemed highly valuable or it may be deemed worthless — especially with the growing notion of information as an essential product and valuable resource. Value through information is difficult to describe, sometimes it is calculable and other times not.
Broadly, it can be contended that the calculable value of information has two dimensions:
- There is value in the exchange of information. Essentially, value in exchange is calculated, or known, by the amount of money for which the commodity information exchanges hands; or
- There is value in the use of information. The value of information in this instance lies in the difference between expenses incurred in extracting or producing the information and the costs incurred in doing so. Unlike value in exchange, value in use is far more difficult to calculate because it has to be calculated by some means other than the amount of money for which it actually changes hands.
It would therefore seem that the value of information lies more in the cost the customer may incur in not buying or, more to the point, not having access to the information, or intelligence, about the product — in this instance knowledge about MBAs.
Moreover, one may value information according to these three dimensions:
- The time dimension. This deals with the ‘when” aspect, that is, a timeliness issue. It is not possible to make the correct decision at the correct time without the correct information at hand. It also includes a currency characteristic insofar as the information has to be up to date.
- The content dimension. This is generally considered the most critical dimension. It deals with the ‘what” aspect and its characteristics include accuracy, relevance and completeness.
- The form dimension of information. This deals with the ‘how” aspect of information and includes detail — information granularity or resolution — and presentation — graphics, reporting, style — of the MBA information at hand.
How does all this relate to the regular MBA surveys, the results of which are reported in the media? MBA surveys are no different in that the goal is to present up to date, viable information to customers such as corporations, students and academics. One kind of survey evaluates business schools and summarises their offerings in terms of one quantitative factor. Indeed the survey also conveys tacit information according to less distinct or measurable variables.
Are these the most appropriate ones? Here is my list of criteria for business schools or the MBAs they offer.
- Are they necessarily good because of the programmes they offer? Let’s face it, the programmes, including the revered MBA, are pretty generic. A good business marketer or consultant can sell any of the business management tools. Nothing to it, especially because they could all work if the organisation applied itself to it. Advertising is the key here. And the money to sell.
- A business school is good because the market perceives it as such. Good point. The market cannot lie, but the market is as inconsistent and choosy as a woman’s taste in clothes from one season to the next. A functional alumni association is very good for the business. In fact, the rule might be: Keep your ex-MBAs happier than the ones in the system.
- Good value for money. Is a fairly inexpensive MBA worth the long hours spent during the night and the many friendships ruined because of assignments and study? Alternatively, is an expensive one worth more? Or better?
- Internationally recognised. Tough one this, because in our region anything that has a United States/European flavour must be good — although I strongly believe that the hopes for our nation and our part of the continent do not lie in begging and getting. These are not our right. Our strength lies in our ability to create our own futures. It is our right and prerogative to use the successful business and economic models of the developed world and transform them to something of power in our developing state.
It is our right to create our own models, beliefs and leaders for problems and situations that are uniquely African and that only we have the deep understanding to make work. And it is the developed world’s privilege to assist us in this, but to let us develop our own leaders and forms of leadership and of masters to manage and sustain Africa.
- Applied theory/action learning-based. The notion that an MBA should be focused on its application is appropriate and without question. However, one should remember that it is first and foremost a master’s level academic degree that should not compromise on the academic integrity of the institution it is conferred by, nor the merit of the degree as job enhancement for business leaders. (If only our politicians could abide by and appreciate the same.)
- Excellent faculty. This one has no right answer and logic. The fact is that the best business consultants are not necessarily good academics. But they have the best stories to tell. And they are far more convincing than the bunch who repeat the Harvard cases and regurgitate the British Airways transformation of the Sixties/Seventies/Eighties as the model for business success in 2003.
Successful academics at business schools have the ability to change profiles like chameleons. They are a little bit of this and a little bit of that. They are strange masters of academic excellence and theory and innovators of success stories. Remember, modern corporations have not read the casebooks and react according to market stimuli — economic changes, new legislation, rules, customers — and technologies. They would not know how to conform to the spirits described in the scenarios we read.
The decision to enrol for this prestigious degree has far-reaching implications for the individual and his/her immediate environment. It should change your very soul. It should change the ways you act and interact; the mental models you develop in your own life, of the places of work you will encounter, of the places you inhabit, the countries you live in. It will empower you to personal mastery.
Professor Rene Pellissier is executive and academic director of De Montfort Southern Africa