Welcome to our latest newsletter!
The study of the MBA programme presents an unparallel paradox! On the one hand, you are under pressure to understand and use all sort of theories for your different modules. They seem to have so little relevance on the real business environment but you are bombarded with how important they are! On the other hand, you are confronted with an ever increasing competitive job market where getting the job you need becomes very challenging. Little guidance and direction is given by institutions for how you can become more competitive in the workplace.
Students who embark onto the MBA programme often believe that the accreditation itself will allow them to land the job they want. Hence, the emphasis is on getting the title itself rather than understanding the learning process.
Things get even more confusing as the different modules you study display little connection between them. Business schools struggle to communicate the fact that they have to meet institutional standards themselves which you are not aware of at the time conducting your MBA studies. Accreditation standards present an ongoing institutional burden as business schools have to legitimise how and why their teaching practices are sufficiently delivered to accrediting bodies like the Association of MBAs (AMBA). This is information that no MBA tutor will communicate to you directly. It seem not to be relevant to you even though it directly affects the service you get.
In helping students to overcome their assignment our MBA Winner tutors have come to understand that MBA students are missing out an important part of their own learning process. Taking the initiative to understand how the different disciplines that you study are going to become relevant for when you are looking for a job is highly important. However, it remains a topic that little is done to address it. For this newsletter we want to stir our discussion for how you need to be ready when you finish your studies. Remember, what is going to help land you the job you want eventually comes down to knowing how you fit in the workplace. The MBA gives you the opportunity to enhance your qualities but you need to connect the puzzle for yourself.
It is like the elephant story!
You heard the story about the elephant and the five blind men in the room? They could not see the whole elephant. However, they were able touch the different parts on its body. Someone thought that the elephant is the ‘tail’. Another one thought that the elephant is the ‘horn’. Another thought that the elephant is the ‘foot’! Studying for an MBA it is like being in the same room where you are presented with all the different parts but it is difficult to see how they connect to the whole.
The study of Finance seems to be the more important field for understanding organizations according to your finance tutor! The study of Marketing and how organizations are able to convince consumers of the value of their products seems to be the most important function of the organization according to the Marketing tutor! Besides, you are confronted with all the theory stuff which makes the whole situation even more confusing. Tutors seem to be incredibly attached to the use of theory even though often, themselves, struggle to find examples to illustrate their application at times.
Whereas the business world is driven by results and outputs the academics are interested in what makes ‘knowledge credible’. This is what academia is all about. So the study of how something works sometimes becomes less important than finding out how to best explain how something works. The processes by which you reach you conclusions for academia are more important than the conclusion itself.
This is the reason for which MBA tutors spend so much time on the literature, methodology, and analysis. For them it is more important to understand how knowledge-claims are the result of different theories. This can leave you in a very awkward situation as an MBA student. This is because, like the blind men in the above story, it is difficult to see how to connect the pieces. Besides, by the time you finish the MBA very few managers will be interested in how many theories you are going to remember. Most employers will be interested in what you can actually do in the work place !
Mind the Gap!
You are familiar with the warning message echoed in the London underground ‘Mind the Gap!’? We want this newsletter to become a warning sign for how you need to think ahead and by getting the best out of your MBA course.
In our view the ‘gap’ is when you come to the point of finishing the MBA without having a clear understanding how you can add value to an organization and through your capabilities, knowledge and skills. It is important to remember that the different subject modules that you cover are nothing more than ‘windows’ which help you understand the different parts of the ‘elephant’. They are not the whole elephant but only different parts. Hence, the first thing you need to do is to understand how the different parts can affect an organization as a whole.
The second thing you need to remember is whether you are able to demonstrate your capabilities to an employer and through one or a combination of the above windows/modules. Put differently, in what way would you use your knowledge of Finance, Marketing, Strategy, Operations, etc to make improvements in an organization? The tricky bit here is to have knowledge of how changes within one area can have implications on others. So it is enough to only be able to demonstrate that you have knowledge in Finance but also how decisions in this discipline could have repercussions for marketing.
The third thing you need to remember is that importance of theory and for how your justification of knowledge happens is an academic requirement which is specific to academia. Corporations are not really interested in academic theories per se. They are interested in practical outcomes and implications. However, in contrast, universities are more interested in theory! The ability to analyse and critique your position is an important requirement for your MBA. However, you need to be able to ‘translate’ what this means within the business world.
How can you do this? The best way to develop this skill is to create imaginary scenarios of business situations and to consider the consequences by taking or not taking the theory into consideration. Once you do this exercise you will realise that at first becomes painstaking to try to explain an event in light of a conceptual model. However, your reasoning is the most important process. Employers value your reasoning and finding ways to develop it will certainly give you an edge.
Practical Advice
1. Accept
Accept that that the academic interest in knowledge justification is not the same with the corporate interests within the business world. Unless you are able to deal with this transition you will struggle to understand why academic fields are so attached into theory. Academics are interested in the process more than the output! In contrast, managers are more interested in outputs rather than the process! The study of the MBA gives you the leverage to see the interrelationship between the different fields but this is a connection that you have to make. Remember that each module (i.e. finance, strategy, operations, etc) is only a window/part and not the whole thing.
2. Develop Imaginary Scenarios
As you are working through your different MBA modules try to develop brief scenarios where the application of theory might be present or absent. What difference would it make to the outcome? How would you explain the difference? This is a crucial process for nurturing the implications of what you study in your mind. You need to be able to draw conclusions and try to see what corporations are more interested in, namely, results!
3. Are you fit to face the challenge?
In order to be able to answer the above question it is important to have a clear idea about your strengths in understanding what the organization represents as a ‘whole’ but through its different ‘parts’. Then you need to consider how best you are able to demonstrate your knowledge and capabilities to a potential employer. Imagine that you are having specific conversations about particular business practices. What methods of intervention would you suggest and why? How would you support them and in reference to what knowledge-pool? The more you think about the relationship between knowledge and practice the more you will realise your strengths and weakness. Our message to you is that you need to connect the pieces to the puzzle if you are to become a competitive candidate.
