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Aside from the value of the degree itself, can anyone attest to the usefulness of any particular knowledge gained from doing an MBA, particularly around running

Aside from the value of the degree itself, can anyone attest to the usefulness of any particular knowledge gained from doing an MBA, particularly around running small companies and startups? If so, any recommendations for resources, books etc? This whole issue (usefulness of MBA in tech management) sounds very similar to the usefulness of CS degree in development issue. We can talk all day about the effect the CS degree has on getting jobs in the first place, but putting that entirely aside, as a developer with a CS degree, I can certainly point to some very useful things for the job that I learned in the course of doing the degree, and I could tell somebody without a CS degree what those were and where to read about them. Ignoring the entire issue of whether or not the 'piece of paper' would help them in their career, this knowledge certainly would. If anyone (MBA or not) has any such advice, I'd be very grateful to hear it!

analog31 11y ago
Carrying the analogy further, the value of getting a CS degree is relative to how you learn. If you're good at learning a lot of stuff in a classroom (as I was in my college majors, math and physics), then getting a degree makes sense. If you're good at learning stuff at home (as I was with computer programming), then getting a degree might be less useful. A person could adopt the strategy of using college for learning the stuff that's hard for them to learn at home. Regarding business, same thing. Some folks can pick it up by reading books, the newspaper, and just soaking it up at work. Others might benefit from learning it in a classroom.
- davnicwil 11y ago
  I agree. Veering slightly off on a tangent but another major (and oft-forgotten and undervalued, I think) advantage of the degree path is that a good course will lead you down the best and possibly most efficient paths of discovery for the important things, and also give you a bit of a kick in directions you maybe wouldn't naturally go on your own, but which turn out to be very valuable after some uphill struggling. These are things you can figure out, and discipline yourself into, but on your own time and with a fair probability you won't do a great job, when self-learning. With a degree much of that work is outsourced to specialists who have a lot more context and ability to iterate on experience, and that gives you a much smoother path to just focusing on your main job - learning. So, a good compromise, and the reason I ask this question, is to get recommendations on what to learn, then decide myself how I will do it and on what schedule, etc.
hectormalot 11y ago
I'm a chemical engineer and self taught programmer who turned strategy consultant. Graduated from my MBA a few weeks ago, so I might be a bit biased :) I've found that different people find different things valuable in their MBA. We had an entrepreneurship prof who was also an investor who took us yoking from term sheets to buy outs. Found that super valuable, but yes, no doubt could read up more on this online as well. Same for finance, which was a topic that I didn't know that well before. From a course perspective also got more out of strategy than I expected, but that seems to be very dependent on the prof teaching. (Read 'profit or growth' by bala if you want a book, but more suited for large corporates) Above all though, i think you get more out of the MBA in personal development (leadership in group work, dealing with pressure, being confident with new material, etc.) and network (after 1-2 years you are at least well connected to a group of people that have high business ambitions, plus alumni). In that sense it's difficult to replace the full MBA experience with a set of MOOCs. Finally, I've always found it powerful if someone in a room full of technical people knows more about business than any other tech guy in that room (or vice versa, being the only biz guy who understands tech or can program in a room full of biz guys). The MBA is one way for technical people to make that step. realizing that I didn't answer the question... Here are some things I think would also be interesting, regardless of the paper for more tech oriented people: - time value of money (finance) - basics of accounting (p&l vs cash flow, you'd be amazed how many startups die by running out of cash even though their p&l is positive) - understanding competitive advantage & successful market entry (strategy) - basic operations: the difference between efficient and market responsive supply chains (right supply chain for right product, i.e. Don't typically airfreight toilet paper); and the newsfeed or model if you make real products - lots around marketing (pricing, channels, etc.) - some stuff on more executive lvl management (do executives have most impact by the decisions they make themselves, or by the premises they set for others in the organization within which they make decisions? If the latter, how do you work best as an exec?) - negotiation 101: there are some great HBS cases available online, it's even fun as a Friday afternoon to negotiate between people and see what works best. - governance and boards - basics of investing, leveraged buyouts, private equity/VC
- davnicwil 11y ago
  This is really useful, thanks!

analog31 11y ago

Carrying the analogy further, the value of getting a CS degree is relative to how you learn. If you're good at learning a lot of stuff in a classroom (as I was in my college majors, math and physics), then getting a degree makes sense. If you're good at learning stuff at home (as I was with computer programming), then getting a degree might be less useful. A person could adopt the strategy of using college for learning the stuff that's hard for them to learn at home. Regarding business, same thing. Some folks can pick it up by reading books, the newspaper, and just soaking it up at work. Others might benefit from learning it in a classroom.

davnicwil 11y ago
I agree. Veering slightly off on a tangent but another major (and oft-forgotten and undervalued, I think) advantage of the degree path is that a good course will lead you down the best and possibly most efficient paths of discovery for the important things, and also give you a bit of a kick in directions you maybe wouldn't naturally go on your own, but which turn out to be very valuable after some uphill struggling. These are things you can figure out, and discipline yourself into, but on your own time and with a fair probability you won't do a great job, when self-learning. With a degree much of that work is outsourced to specialists who have a lot more context and ability to iterate on experience, and that gives you a much smoother path to just focusing on your main job - learning. So, a good compromise, and the reason I ask this question, is to get recommendations on what to learn, then decide myself how I will do it and on what schedule, etc.

hectormalot 11y ago

I'm a chemical engineer and self taught programmer who turned strategy consultant. Graduated from my MBA a few weeks ago, so I might be a bit biased :) I've found that different people find different things valuable in their MBA. We had an entrepreneurship prof who was also an investor who took us yoking from term sheets to buy outs. Found that super valuable, but yes, no doubt could read up more on this online as well. Same for finance, which was a topic that I didn't know that well before. From a course perspective also got more out of strategy than I expected, but that seems to be very dependent on the prof teaching. (Read 'profit or growth' by bala if you want a book, but more suited for large corporates) Above all though, i think you get more out of the MBA in personal development (leadership in group work, dealing with pressure, being confident with new material, etc.) and network (after 1-2 years you are at least well connected to a group of people that have high business ambitions, plus alumni). In that sense it's difficult to replace the full MBA experience with a set of MOOCs. Finally, I've always found it powerful if someone in a room full of technical people knows more about business than any other tech guy in that room (or vice versa, being the only biz guy who understands tech or can program in a room full of biz guys). The MBA is one way for technical people to make that step. realizing that I didn't answer the question... Here are some things I think would also be interesting, regardless of the paper for more tech oriented people: - time value of money (finance) - basics of accounting (p&l vs cash flow, you'd be amazed how many startups die by running out of cash even though their p&l is positive) - understanding competitive advantage & successful market entry (strategy) - basic operations: the difference between efficient and market responsive supply chains (right supply chain for right product, i.e. Don't typically airfreight toilet paper); and the newsfeed or model if you make real products - lots around marketing (pricing, channels, etc.) - some stuff on more executive lvl management (do executives have most impact by the decisions they make themselves, or by the premises they set for others in the organization within which they make decisions? If the latter, how do you work best as an exec?) - negotiation 101: there are some great HBS cases available online, it's even fun as a Friday afternoon to negotiate between people and see what works best. - governance and boards - basics of investing, leveraged buyouts, private equity/VC

davnicwil 11y ago
This is really useful, thanks!