Why I Can't Be Bothered With The Craze For An MBA

I completed my Bachelors Degree programme some six years ago but have not bothered to get an MBA. I know many of you learned people reading this article will wonder why I can't be bothered with an MBA or any other higher degree even in this time and age when the number of Degrees a person has acquired, is used by employers as the basis for hiring and as a number one criteria to determine career success. Honestly, I feel that the place of an MBA and the likes in the path to success has been exaggerated! 

 

I say with no regret that many people have been deceived by the status quo into believing that going to school and acquiring many degrees is the key to career success. I beg to differ on this...it is a form of PONZI SCHEME!

Before I say more, let me share the comments of some learned and highly successful business owners on the subject. These are people I share the same Group (C-LEVEL CONSULTANTS NETWORK) with on LinkedIn, a social networking platform. I started a discussion thread in the Group to elicit views across the globe because the group members are from different parts of the world. This was to confirm whether or not I was right in holding the view that the role of a Degree has been exaggerated in the path to career success. Here is the discussion I posted: "Steve Jobs has demonstrated clearly that, important as it is, the role of a University Degree has been exaggerated in the path to success. Do you agree? 

I must confess that this discussion made me the most influential person in the group for three weeks. The comments that were posted on this discussion were awesome. I wish I could share all of them here but space won't allow me. So I will share just a few of them (exactly the way they were posted). They are as follows:

Lee Perla said: "The more I consider the value of a degree, the less I value a degree. I will accept that certain levels of training – usually through education (degree) -- are essential for some specialties. However, the more I ponder the question the faster a degree tends to lose value for me, especially with so many nitwits in the intelligentsia pushing so hard for more and more education and for more and more status for those who have the education.

I think we can all agree on a few things:
1. A degree is not essential to be successful or professional for well over 90% of careers. In the remaining 10%, knowledge, ability, and value add would probably outrank a degree in any objective examination.
2. The correlation between degree and monetary success is absent, especially given today’s economy.
3. Degrees “unlock doors” in many instances, but that function is rapidly going away. A recent company I worked for did away with strict degree requirements (pass/fail) for all positions; it streamlined the recruitment process and brought in at least four superstars who would not have passed the earlier filters.

My position is that our continued reliance on a degree as a binary filter is a shotgun blast to our (capitalism’s) collective foot. Just as we have learned to look past race, age, ethnic background, nose studs, politics, religion, and spiked purple hair in order to find the person offering the best value-add, we need to look past degree and know that a diploma, albeit sometimes a measure of accomplishment, is just an indicator. We need to look past that and focus on the value-add from engaged contributors."   

More comments similar to the above kept coming in for three weeks before Mr. Riise sought to dismiss my discussion thread with the following comment:

Mr. Riise: "This discussion has gone on much longer than the subject warrants - in the words of the poet Piet Hein:
If your thoughts
are few - if any
never let your words
be many

Let's move on to something more important."

                                              


Interestingly, Mr. Riise's comment above rather incited more people to comment on the issue. The first person to hit Mr. Riis was Lee Perla. He wrote:

"Mr Riise

I disagree with your dismissal. This is an important discussion because it questions the value of the “conventional wisdom” and challenges the orthodoxy that esteems degrees. In many ways and for many people, higher education is a form of Ponzi scheme perpetrated on much of society by the “educational elite.” Just as so many people would try to close off discussion of the climate issue by calling it “settled science” there appears to be a penchant for sweeping discussions like these out of sight/mind. I personally believe that it is a valid form of and subject for interrogation."    

If you also believe that this subject is a valid form of and subject for interrogation as in the words of Lee Perla, keep your fingers crossed....To be continued....   

Regards,

Edem                              

Branding Series 3

In my last post, I examined the nature and characteristics of a weak brand. If your business name cannot be remembered easily by your clients or potential clients; you never get repeat business; what you do as a business entity is not easily understood by people (i.e. you have to explain over and over again what your business is all about before someone says "oh I get it now!"; 

OR no matter how hard you try to, and how much money you spend on advertising, you seem not to be attracting clients, then you know you have a weak brand. If the above signs are showing on your business, then you have to step up your game and re-brand your business. 

But before you even start doing that, you must first be fully knowledgeable about the characteristics of strong and well established brands. So that when you start the re-branding process and some good results begin to show, you will know immediately and capitalize on them to change the fortunes of your business for life!

Here are five signs that you have a strong brand:

1. Your brand is always praised and celebrated when it comes up in conversation.
2. Your customers keep thanking you for your services; and they keep coming back.
3. You spend little money on advertising but you seem to have a strong pull of clients, some of them coming from nowhere; and they start asking for other range of services
4. When your name comes up in a conversation, people are quick to comment positively on what you do or what your company stands for. e.g. if someone should ask "do you know about The Consulting Way? Someone should be able to say "Oh, that is Edem Ayiku's blog! He provides good business advisory services."
5. People keep recommending you to others who keep recommending you to others who keep recommending you to others.....and the cycle goes on.

These are signs that you are getting there! And you have to keep doing what you did to have created that response. That is one way by which you start building a strong brand. 

In this era of strong competition in business, you can't afford not to build a strong brand.