4 ms·

Can you give examples of things you learned that were useful? My own impression of the MBA is that it's more of a trade degree where you learn anecdotal "best p

by tensor 8y ago

Can you give examples of things you learned that were useful? My own impression of the MBA is that it's more of a trade degree where you learn anecdotal "best practices" but little to no actual science. I don't put it in the same league as a science master's degree for that reason. Maybe my impression is wrong though.

bluedevil2k 8y ago
If you want to run a software company or lead a product, the things you learn in an MBA program are very worthwhile: how to measure clients' worth to a company, how to put together a cash flow statement, how to think like "marketing people", business applications of your product (e.g. I learned several new industries that would benefit from my product). Outside of your specific job, one item I fall back on constantly is financial analysis. For example, you can say Tesla is a great company, if you learn how to read a cash flow statement and net income report you would see otherwise.
- ryandrake 8y ago
  I agree with everything you said and I’ll add that knowing how to read a company’s financial statements won’t make you a good stock picker (ask me how I know), but not knowing these things will make you a bad stock picker. One of the major intangible benefits of a business education I’ve found was simply the immersion in the language (written and verbal) of business. I can sit down with a CEO or other non-technical stakeholder and discuss his/her business without sounding like an idiot. Helps in an enormpus number of situations.
- ilaksh 8y ago
  Why do I need a degree to read financial reports? Can't I get a book or just Google it? If I'm running a business, why do I need to be able to read financial reports at all? Especially for some other random company. If I need to make a financial report, couldn't I use an online generator, template, accounting software, or hire someone to do it? Looking online there seem to be many services for less than a few thousand dollars for financial reporting. If I have a product wouldn't I be able to take time to research applications for it thoroughly rather than relying industries that I remembered from some course. As far as measuring clients worth, do I need a course on that really or do I just need to be aware that there are clients that will waste our time and try to get practical evidence that won't be the case. Can I not get quite a bit of useful knowledge by reading and carefully digesting some key books like The Mom Test? When you say think like a marketer, so far every article that comes up when I google that is listing things that any used car salesman would apply. Just based on what you said it sort of makes MBA degrees seem like a waste of time to me.
  - nostrademons 8y ago
    The value of financial modeling is mostly in being able to run various scenarios quickly, not in the final report. You can plug in different assumptions for development velocity, labor costs, market segmentation, sales conversion rate, cost of inputs, financing sources, etc. and then see what their effect on the bottom line (= net income) is, along with other metrics like burn rate, IRR, etc. Then you use your domain knowledge to judge how likely all these scenarios are, giving you a much more complete picture than if you aren't conversant with these financial tools. But yes, you can learn all of this from books & the Internet, you don't need an MBA for it.
    - ilaksh 8y ago
      Sure but I taught myself how to use Excel when I was in 6 or 7th grade. It's actually not very hard.
      - spookthesunset 8y ago
        By your definition, neither is learning to code. Just pick up a book that describes the programming language you are gonna use and boom. You are a coder! Excel is easy. Knowing what to put into excel is not at all easy. And yeah you can get a template but if you don't know how that template is created or why the creator did what they did you are gonna set your business up for failure. Accounting is not just math but an art.
  - canadapups 8y ago
    Come on... most MBA programs are 2 years of full time study. You really going to compare "just Google it" or "digesting some key books like The Mom Test" to a MBA program? To push the logic further, what if it was a Harvard or Stanford MBA?
  - spyhi 8y ago
    Oh man, all the questions you just asked only highlight exactly why an MBA is so beneficial for mid-career people haha! I'm an adult student doing concurrent CS and business degrees after a long time dabbling in both, and in both cases the value of college was in the things I wouldn't have thought to learn or wouldn't have thought were valuable, especially in places where the signal-to-noise ratio is really low and snake oil is everywhere, like the marketing example you just gave. Just as a small example, why do you need to read financial report at all? Because that is the language of investors and managers. Why read financial reports for some random company? Benchmarking, so you can tell investors and stakeholders "this is how well we are doing vs comparable companies." A template generator won't help you with this kind of analysis, and those services you mention won't help you if you can't really understand them. I'm not saying you need an MBA to be a good business person, and I felt like my BBA (which I'm told is mostly the same material as an MBA, at least at my school) only confirmed that my instincts and self-learning after 8 years in the workforce was pretty good...but man, those little bits I didn't know and hadn't thought to learn (especially around finance and proper marketing) were the ones that have ended up mattering the most.
- akvadrako 8y ago
  Your second point kind of negates your first point. You don't need an MBA to see that Tesla's financials are hopeless. It just requires some simple projections - this much money in, this much out, this much growth, etc... Sure you want a certificate to do official accounting, but for making business decisions I don't see why the MBA is helpful.

by tensor 8y ago

bluedevil2k 8y ago

If you want to run a software company or lead a product, the things you learn in an MBA program are very worthwhile: how to measure clients' worth to a company, how to put together a cash flow statement, how to think like "marketing people", business applications of your product (e.g. I learned several new industries that would benefit from my product). Outside of your specific job, one item I fall back on constantly is financial analysis. For example, you can say Tesla is a great company, if you learn how to read a cash flow statement and net income report you would see otherwise.

ryandrake 8y ago
I agree with everything you said and I’ll add that knowing how to read a company’s financial statements won’t make you a good stock picker (ask me how I know), but not knowing these things will make you a bad stock picker. One of the major intangible benefits of a business education I’ve found was simply the immersion in the language (written and verbal) of business. I can sit down with a CEO or other non-technical stakeholder and discuss his/her business without sounding like an idiot. Helps in an enormpus number of situations.
ilaksh 8y ago
Why do I need a degree to read financial reports? Can't I get a book or just Google it? If I'm running a business, why do I need to be able to read financial reports at all? Especially for some other random company. If I need to make a financial report, couldn't I use an online generator, template, accounting software, or hire someone to do it? Looking online there seem to be many services for less than a few thousand dollars for financial reporting. If I have a product wouldn't I be able to take time to research applications for it thoroughly rather than relying industries that I remembered from some course. As far as measuring clients worth, do I need a course on that really or do I just need to be aware that there are clients that will waste our time and try to get practical evidence that won't be the case. Can I not get quite a bit of useful knowledge by reading and carefully digesting some key books like The Mom Test? When you say think like a marketer, so far every article that comes up when I google that is listing things that any used car salesman would apply. Just based on what you said it sort of makes MBA degrees seem like a waste of time to me.
- nostrademons 8y ago
  The value of financial modeling is mostly in being able to run various scenarios quickly, not in the final report. You can plug in different assumptions for development velocity, labor costs, market segmentation, sales conversion rate, cost of inputs, financing sources, etc. and then see what their effect on the bottom line (= net income) is, along with other metrics like burn rate, IRR, etc. Then you use your domain knowledge to judge how likely all these scenarios are, giving you a much more complete picture than if you aren't conversant with these financial tools. But yes, you can learn all of this from books & the Internet, you don't need an MBA for it.
  - ilaksh 8y ago
    Sure but I taught myself how to use Excel when I was in 6 or 7th grade. It's actually not very hard.
    - spookthesunset 8y ago
      By your definition, neither is learning to code. Just pick up a book that describes the programming language you are gonna use and boom. You are a coder! Excel is easy. Knowing what to put into excel is not at all easy. And yeah you can get a template but if you don't know how that template is created or why the creator did what they did you are gonna set your business up for failure. Accounting is not just math but an art.
- canadapups 8y ago
  Come on... most MBA programs are 2 years of full time study. You really going to compare "just Google it" or "digesting some key books like The Mom Test" to a MBA program? To push the logic further, what if it was a Harvard or Stanford MBA?
- spyhi 8y ago
  Oh man, all the questions you just asked only highlight exactly why an MBA is so beneficial for mid-career people haha! I'm an adult student doing concurrent CS and business degrees after a long time dabbling in both, and in both cases the value of college was in the things I wouldn't have thought to learn or wouldn't have thought were valuable, especially in places where the signal-to-noise ratio is really low and snake oil is everywhere, like the marketing example you just gave. Just as a small example, why do you need to read financial report at all? Because that is the language of investors and managers. Why read financial reports for some random company? Benchmarking, so you can tell investors and stakeholders "this is how well we are doing vs comparable companies." A template generator won't help you with this kind of analysis, and those services you mention won't help you if you can't really understand them. I'm not saying you need an MBA to be a good business person, and I felt like my BBA (which I'm told is mostly the same material as an MBA, at least at my school) only confirmed that my instincts and self-learning after 8 years in the workforce was pretty good...but man, those little bits I didn't know and hadn't thought to learn (especially around finance and proper marketing) were the ones that have ended up mattering the most.
akvadrako 8y ago
Your second point kind of negates your first point. You don't need an MBA to see that Tesla's financials are hopeless. It just requires some simple projections - this much money in, this much out, this much growth, etc... Sure you want a certificate to do official accounting, but for making business decisions I don't see why the MBA is helpful.