MBAs Reinventing Management Is Like Locusts Reinventing Corn
By Tim Berry
I clicked over to MBAs Aim to Reinvent Management at BusinessWeek.com when I saw the headline. I expected to read about trends towards revising the standard MBA curriculum to deal better with community, environmental, and social concerns. Instead, it was MBA’s revising management: As part of a contest, MBA students were asked to suggest game-changing... Read More »
The Nature-Nurture Debate on Entrepreneurship
By Tim Berry
Is entrepreneurship something people are born with, or do they learn it? Good question, I suppose, but not one I expect anybody will ever be able to really answer. Emily Malby does a good balanced job of reporting about it in Entrepreneurship: A Look at the Nature-Nurture Debate on the Online Wall Street Journal (WSJ.com).... Read More »
Is Networking Friendship, or Just MBA Speak?
By Tim Berry
What do you think about this? The networking connections are one of the most valuable benefits of an MBA. Five to ten years down the road these people will either be running their own businesses or have high-level positions in large companies. That’s a comment to my post here and on Small Business Trends. I... Read More »
What’s An Entrepreneur’s MBA Degree Really Worth?
By Tim Berry
[Note: I posted this first on Small Business Trends … I’m posting it here too because this is my main blog. Tim] I’m an entrepreneur. The last time I was an employee was in 1983. So what did I get from my MBA studies? It wasn’t about earning power. I quit the fancy high-paying MBA... Read More »
Beware of One-Size-Fits-All Business Advice
By Tim Berry
Last Tuesday I had the privilege of taking 10 half-hour appointments with student entrepreneurs developing business plans. The idea was listening, talking, suggesting, and maybe helping with a thought or two. What a kick that is. No wonder I love what I do for a living. I started each of these sessions with a warning... Read More »
The Best Argument for Business Education…
By Tim Berry
… is having a better idea of what’s going on. It isn’t about making more money. It isn’t about becoming entrepreneurial. No. It’s about having a reasonable idea of the whole business, rather than just the specific function. If business education works — and I think we have to admit it doesn’t always — then... Read More »
On Teaching Business With Business Plans
By Tim Berry
Remember that old saying about teaching people to fish, instead of giving them a fish? That applies to business planning as well: don’t give a person a business plan, help them do their own instead. I’m in San Antonio Texas today attending the annual conference of the Association of Small Business Development Centers (ASBDC), where... Read More »
Is it Possible That MBAs, Like Wine, Need Aging?
By Tim Berry
It occurs to me that I’ve had many good experiences, with hires and colleagues and business contacts, with people who had MBA degrees and years of experience. And I’ve had generally bad experiences with young MBAs fresh out of business school. You could guess the reasons. Arrogance and entitlement come to mind. Maybe it’s a... Read More »
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