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What is the essence of an MBA education? I know it involves accounting and finance, but how hard is it to simply pick that up in a night course? What I'm reall

What is the essence of an MBA education? I know it involves accounting and finance, but how hard is it to simply pick that up in a night course? What I'm really curious about is the actual people management that is taught in MBA schools, and surviving middle management Machiavellianism. Is this explicitly taught in MBA schools? Suppressing labor costs? Anti-union? Bypassing regulatory costs? Acquiring regulatory capture? Anyway, a lot of that doesn't seem like stuff that schools would teach well.

itsoktocry 3y ago
Not being able to look up what's involved in obtaining an MBA, but assuming you could learn it in a "night course" is classic HackerNews.
hammock 3y ago
You would learn that in office hours or your internships In the classroom, the emphasis typically is on business ethics and responsible leadership.
- ehutch79 3y ago
  Evidence would suggest those arn't things MBAs take away from their degree...
  - youngtaff 3y ago
    Oh that was a big part of my MBA (not in US though)
    - ehutch79 3y ago
      That might be key. In the US, a lot of our problems come down to greed. You can be legally liable for choosing to do what’s right for employees instead of increasing shareholder value.
achrono 3y ago
> What is the essence of an MBA education? As the title itself suggests, it is to understand how to run a business. That might not be the outcome for most MBA students, that might not even be their intent behind pursuing an MBA etc. but it is the 'essence'. > [...] middle management Machiavellianism. Is this explicitly taught in MBA schools? Short answer: rarely. But is it explicitly mentioned in MBA literature? Yes, if you know what to look for -- as is exactly the case in its real life manifestation. Source: why, I have an MBA.
pseudosavant 3y ago
It really depends. Suggesting that topics like accounting and finance can be picked "up in a night course" is a bit like saying programming... I know that involves some Javascript and CSS, and couldn't you just pick that up? I have no formal programming education but started coding 35 years ago. I also have an MBA in finance. For my brain, learning something like functional monadic composition is something I was able to do on my own, but there is no way I'd ever have learned finance at that same level on my own. It is worth noting that there is a pretty big difference between an MBA in finance, marketing, or operations/supply-chain. As different as developer, tester, and devops at least.
itronitron 3y ago
It will vary by school, but accounting and finance are typically just a small piece. Basically an MBA covers all major topics that impact the functioning of a business, marketing strategy, HR, leading people, economics, information systems, operations management, quality control, etc.
rcbay471 3y ago
I think there is a major component to the MBA program that is missed in these comments, at least based on my experience getting one almost 30 years ago. That is, going through an MBA program is (potentially) an efficient way to do a career change, post-college. The majority of my classmates, including myself, were trying to move from one career to a completely different one. In my program, the majority of fellow students had graduated college as engineers, did it for a few years and didn't like the work or the pay, and decided, rationally, that they could use their math skills to make more money in finance. And the MBA program, in addition to providing both a broad set of overview business classes and a few more in their area of focus, ends with a recruiting program where the graduates are basically getting a do-over. If you were an engineer four years out of college, working at HP, and wanted to become an investment banker, how else would you break into the field? You can't just email Goldman Sachs and ask for an interview and say you've read some finance books. The MBA program gives you the do-over pass, and most of my classmates did it for this reason. Separately, back then it was really cheap (mine cost a total of $10k, and my salary in my new field was $50k higher) so it was usually worth the money. At current tuition prices, the deal may not be as clear. Anyway, I think people asking "couldn't you just learn accounting in night classes?" are missing the point of the program: Learn something new PLUS get a career do-over without penalty.
octobus2021 3y ago
As the name implies, MBA teaches business administration, or managing business. It gives you 30,000 ft overview of the entire business value chain, and then you zoom in on each individual component separately, knowing where it fits in the whole picture. To have a business means to have revenue, so you you have to sell stuff (sales). You also have to figure out how to sell stuff better to more people for more money (marketing). To sell something you have to have something, product or service, so you have to build it/design it (product/service development/R&D), and then make it in large quantities (manufacturing/operations). To manufacture it you have to get things from which you will make your products (inbound logistics). When you're ready to sell you need to physically deliver things you're selling (outbound logistics). These are your primary business functions. There's also support functions. Many businesses employ people, and they need to be managed, you need to find and hire good people, you have to make sure they don't slack off, do what they're supposed to do and don't do what they're NOT supposed to do, and don't cause any issues for the business etc (that's human resources). You have to make sure the business follows all appropriate regulations (that's Legal). You have to know how much money you're spending and making, not an easy task as large businesses have hundreds/thousands projects and activities going on at the same time (that's your accounting). You can also find out how you can optimize your financial resources and get the most bang for you buck (finance). There's obviously a small group of people running the whole thing and deciding on the strategy and then coming up with plans to implement it (Executive function). So in MBA you review all of these functions in detail so that you know the best practices, what to do and what not to do, bunch of examples (case studies) from various companies etc etc. That's all there is to it. The idea is that once you understand the whole picture you can then move up the chain to management or even to Executive function so that you can run the whole thing. There's also books like "Portable MBA" where all this knowledge is put in one book in a condensed manner, and you will probably learn just as much from it as you would from a class, in the same way you can get through all the coursework on CS major and (kinda) learn most of it. EDIT: Ironically I forgot to mention another somewhat important support function called Information Technology. :)

itsoktocry 3y ago

Not being able to look up what's involved in obtaining an MBA, but assuming you could learn it in a "night course" is classic HackerNews.

hammock 3y ago

You would learn that in office hours or your internships In the classroom, the emphasis typically is on business ethics and responsible leadership.

ehutch79 3y ago
Evidence would suggest those arn't things MBAs take away from their degree...
- youngtaff 3y ago
  Oh that was a big part of my MBA (not in US though)
  - ehutch79 3y ago
    That might be key. In the US, a lot of our problems come down to greed. You can be legally liable for choosing to do what’s right for employees instead of increasing shareholder value.

achrono 3y ago

> What is the essence of an MBA education? As the title itself suggests, it is to understand how to run a business. That might not be the outcome for most MBA students, that might not even be their intent behind pursuing an MBA etc. but it is the 'essence'. > [...] middle management Machiavellianism. Is this explicitly taught in MBA schools? Short answer: rarely. But is it explicitly mentioned in MBA literature? Yes, if you know what to look for -- as is exactly the case in its real life manifestation. Source: why, I have an MBA.

pseudosavant 3y ago

It really depends. Suggesting that topics like accounting and finance can be picked "up in a night course" is a bit like saying programming... I know that involves some Javascript and CSS, and couldn't you just pick that up? I have no formal programming education but started coding 35 years ago. I also have an MBA in finance. For my brain, learning something like functional monadic composition is something I was able to do on my own, but there is no way I'd ever have learned finance at that same level on my own. It is worth noting that there is a pretty big difference between an MBA in finance, marketing, or operations/supply-chain. As different as developer, tester, and devops at least.

itronitron 3y ago

It will vary by school, but accounting and finance are typically just a small piece. Basically an MBA covers all major topics that impact the functioning of a business, marketing strategy, HR, leading people, economics, information systems, operations management, quality control, etc.

rcbay471 3y ago

I think there is a major component to the MBA program that is missed in these comments, at least based on my experience getting one almost 30 years ago. That is, going through an MBA program is (potentially) an efficient way to do a career change, post-college. The majority of my classmates, including myself, were trying to move from one career to a completely different one. In my program, the majority of fellow students had graduated college as engineers, did it for a few years and didn't like the work or the pay, and decided, rationally, that they could use their math skills to make more money in finance. And the MBA program, in addition to providing both a broad set of overview business classes and a few more in their area of focus, ends with a recruiting program where the graduates are basically getting a do-over. If you were an engineer four years out of college, working at HP, and wanted to become an investment banker, how else would you break into the field? You can't just email Goldman Sachs and ask for an interview and say you've read some finance books. The MBA program gives you the do-over pass, and most of my classmates did it for this reason. Separately, back then it was really cheap (mine cost a total of $10k, and my salary in my new field was $50k higher) so it was usually worth the money. At current tuition prices, the deal may not be as clear. Anyway, I think people asking "couldn't you just learn accounting in night classes?" are missing the point of the program: Learn something new PLUS get a career do-over without penalty.

octobus2021 3y ago

As the name implies, MBA teaches business administration, or managing business. It gives you 30,000 ft overview of the entire business value chain, and then you zoom in on each individual component separately, knowing where it fits in the whole picture. To have a business means to have revenue, so you you have to sell stuff (sales). You also have to figure out how to sell stuff better to more people for more money (marketing). To sell something you have to have something, product or service, so you have to build it/design it (product/service development/R&D), and then make it in large quantities (manufacturing/operations). To manufacture it you have to get things from which you will make your products (inbound logistics). When you're ready to sell you need to physically deliver things you're selling (outbound logistics). These are your primary business functions. There's also support functions. Many businesses employ people, and they need to be managed, you need to find and hire good people, you have to make sure they don't slack off, do what they're supposed to do and don't do what they're NOT supposed to do, and don't cause any issues for the business etc (that's human resources). You have to make sure the business follows all appropriate regulations (that's Legal). You have to know how much money you're spending and making, not an easy task as large businesses have hundreds/thousands projects and activities going on at the same time (that's your accounting). You can also find out how you can optimize your financial resources and get the most bang for you buck (finance). There's obviously a small group of people running the whole thing and deciding on the strategy and then coming up with plans to implement it (Executive function). So in MBA you review all of these functions in detail so that you know the best practices, what to do and what not to do, bunch of examples (case studies) from various companies etc etc. That's all there is to it. The idea is that once you understand the whole picture you can then move up the chain to management or even to Executive function so that you can run the whole thing. There's also books like "Portable MBA" where all this knowledge is put in one book in a condensed manner, and you will probably learn just as much from it as you would from a class, in the same way you can get through all the coursework on CS major and (kinda) learn most of it. EDIT: Ironically I forgot to mention another somewhat important support function called Information Technology. :)