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We're very fortunate to have a young and motivated MBA in my company. We're full of engineers, scientists and tech nerds. Our CEO is an experienced engineer wit

We're very fortunate to have a young and motivated MBA in my company. We're full of engineers, scientists and tech nerds. Our CEO is an experienced engineer with a decades long background in software. But for many of the basic business processes, the grease in the cogs of the machine, our MBA keeps things moving along very nicely. In just a matter of a few months he reduced costs by 40% without reducing the capability of the company in any way by cutting back on unnecessary expenses, putting in place standards for expenditures and R&D, finding inefficiencies in our contracts and partnerships and other such things. Could we, a bunch of engineers done all that? In theory yes, but we hadn't managed to do that in a couple years since we were so focused on tech and not spending our time learning some of the more arcane businessy things -- like renegotiating technology contracts to be more favorable. We're not yet profitable and he probably single handedly managed to extend our life out another year on the same funding, giving us a much better chance of reaching the magical 5 year mark.

pw0ncakes 17y ago
I don't think anyone would argue that you don't need business people, e.g. the type of people who tend to get MBAs. But are the degrees themselves necessary? I'm not sure. (Although the OP is obviously a one-sided advert for his own content.) I don't think MBA programs encourage immorality, and I'm surprised at the 56% figure he quotes, but they nurture extreme arrogance of a sort that leads to all kinds of unethical behaviors.
- elblanco 17y ago
  > But are the degrees themselves necessary? I'm not sure. Good point, probably no more than a CS degree is necessary for somebody to be a good developer. If somebody likes businessy kinds of things as their hobby, in the way a developer codes for fun, than they could probably do a good job just the same. I think the MBA has the same effect as a CS degree, it formalizes and focuses the person on what they should know as a foundation to what they practically need to learn.
daniel-cussen 17y ago
That's great. Maybe the question of hiring a tech guy versus hiring a business guy does not fall in favor of one side all the time, but is rather about limiting factors. A tech company that is only business guys may find its first technical hire goes an incredibly long way, just as your counterexample found the hire with an MBA produced great results.
anamax 17y ago
The results that your company got from hiring someone to take care of biz issues does not imply that said employee's MBA is relevant. > In theory yes, but we hadn't managed to do that in a couple years since we were so focused on tech and not spending our time learning some of the more arcane businessy things Those aren't arcane things. They're SOP, Let's look at it another way. Would you excuse a software house that didn't use source control because they wanted to spend all their time on programming? A tech biz is still a biz, at least if it wants to be successful.
- elblanco 17y ago
  Yes, all true. But just like I can drive a car, I couldn't compete in F1. Just because you understand that you have to do things like advertise, or negotiate a licensing contract for third party components doesn't mean you understand all of the ins and outs of how to do so.
  - anamax 17y ago
    > Yes, all true. But just like I can drive a car, I couldn't compete in F1. You're missing the point. Let me quote something that you wrote previously. >> In theory yes, but we hadn't managed to do that in a couple years since we were so focused on tech and not spending our time learning some of the more arcane businessy things A successful F1 team isn't just a bunch of techs. Someone has to drive. Someone has to make sure that the suppliers are paid, and so on. As I wrote previously, a tech biz is still a biz. You can't all do tech. I'm glad that you found someone to take care of this stuff for you, but if you'd done so earlier, or done some biz things earlier, you'd have more runway. By overconcentrating on tech, you put the tech at risk.... And no, it's not that complicated. 90% is just thinking that it's worth doing. It's not at all comparable to the difference between an ordinary driver and an F1 driver.
    - elblanco 17y ago
      > By overconcentrating on tech, you put the tech at risk.... I would say this is certainly a fair characterization of where we were after year 1. We missed quite a number of very important foundational opportunities because we made the mistake of being hyper focused on the tech and not pragmatic business decisions. By year 2 we had many of the same problems until we had a management shakeup halfway through the year and were finally able to approach the business side of things. We're in year 3 right now, and in the process of turning the corner. But wow, we discuss almost daily where we could have been if we had adopted the right attitude from the start. Certainly profitable, likely 2-3x the size.

pw0ncakes 17y ago

I don't think anyone would argue that you don't need business people, e.g. the type of people who tend to get MBAs. But are the degrees themselves necessary? I'm not sure. (Although the OP is obviously a one-sided advert for his own content.) I don't think MBA programs encourage immorality, and I'm surprised at the 56% figure he quotes, but they nurture extreme arrogance of a sort that leads to all kinds of unethical behaviors.

elblanco 17y ago
> But are the degrees themselves necessary? I'm not sure. Good point, probably no more than a CS degree is necessary for somebody to be a good developer. If somebody likes businessy kinds of things as their hobby, in the way a developer codes for fun, than they could probably do a good job just the same. I think the MBA has the same effect as a CS degree, it formalizes and focuses the person on what they should know as a foundation to what they practically need to learn.

daniel-cussen 17y ago

That's great. Maybe the question of hiring a tech guy versus hiring a business guy does not fall in favor of one side all the time, but is rather about limiting factors. A tech company that is only business guys may find its first technical hire goes an incredibly long way, just as your counterexample found the hire with an MBA produced great results.

anamax 17y ago

The results that your company got from hiring someone to take care of biz issues does not imply that said employee's MBA is relevant. > In theory yes, but we hadn't managed to do that in a couple years since we were so focused on tech and not spending our time learning some of the more arcane businessy things Those aren't arcane things. They're SOP, Let's look at it another way. Would you excuse a software house that didn't use source control because they wanted to spend all their time on programming? A tech biz is still a biz, at least if it wants to be successful.

elblanco 17y ago
Yes, all true. But just like I can drive a car, I couldn't compete in F1. Just because you understand that you have to do things like advertise, or negotiate a licensing contract for third party components doesn't mean you understand all of the ins and outs of how to do so.
- anamax 17y ago
  > Yes, all true. But just like I can drive a car, I couldn't compete in F1. You're missing the point. Let me quote something that you wrote previously. >> In theory yes, but we hadn't managed to do that in a couple years since we were so focused on tech and not spending our time learning some of the more arcane businessy things A successful F1 team isn't just a bunch of techs. Someone has to drive. Someone has to make sure that the suppliers are paid, and so on. As I wrote previously, a tech biz is still a biz. You can't all do tech. I'm glad that you found someone to take care of this stuff for you, but if you'd done so earlier, or done some biz things earlier, you'd have more runway. By overconcentrating on tech, you put the tech at risk.... And no, it's not that complicated. 90% is just thinking that it's worth doing. It's not at all comparable to the difference between an ordinary driver and an F1 driver.
  - elblanco 17y ago
    > By overconcentrating on tech, you put the tech at risk.... I would say this is certainly a fair characterization of where we were after year 1. We missed quite a number of very important foundational opportunities because we made the mistake of being hyper focused on the tech and not pragmatic business decisions. By year 2 we had many of the same problems until we had a management shakeup halfway through the year and were finally able to approach the business side of things. We're in year 3 right now, and in the process of turning the corner. But wow, we discuss almost daily where we could have been if we had adopted the right attitude from the start. Certainly profitable, likely 2-3x the size.