What does it take to create an outstanding leader? Apparently, not a Harvard MBA. Based on a study by Henry Mintzberg of 19 Harvard trained CEOs identified as superstars in 1990, ten were outright failures and another four are mediocre at best. Only five of the 19 seemed to be doing all right. This year alone, another 150,000 MBA's step into leadership positions in corporate America. How do MBA's become leaders we can trust?I couldn’t believe my ears.
“Fundamental weaknesses in graduate management education are a significant cause of the current economic crisis.”
“You don’t become a manager in a classroom, and you certainly don’t become a leader in the classroom.”
“The (business) schools will claim, as many of them do, that you’re being trained not only for business, but government and for the social sector, and that’s just dead wrong.”
I like listening to the Harvard Business Ideacast (podcast). Some of the interviews are a little boring, but more often than not, I get a lot out of them. Henry Mintzberg, the professor of Management Studies at McGill University was recently featured (episode 138). He was being interviewed about his article in the Globe and Mail this past March entitled ‘America's monumental failure of management’.
He had a lot to say about Business Schools, and it wasn’t good.
Firstly, Mintzberg believes the entire format of schools like Harvard is wrong. They teach management as though it is a profession, and it’s not. “There’s no such thing as managing in general, there is only managing in a specific situation.” Beyond a handful of disciplines such as economics and accounting, management is only ever learned as a practice.
Not only is the 'professional' perspective of management wrong, the method business schools use to teach the material is destructive. Mintzberg believes that the case study methodology used in most business schools gives a false sense of confidence when dealing with crisis. The Case Method teaches decisiveness, not insight and good judgment. These case studies are not just inadequate, but they set up ‘dreadful simulations’. Students are learning how to make big decisions based on twenty pages of information. George W Bush is a great example of being decisive without possessing in-depth understanding. It does more harm than good.
Finally, business schools directly contributed to the ‘short-term’ attitude that drove CEO’s to ‘gut the golden goose’ of the American economy. How? By promoting an analytical view of the world. Such a perspective is easily translated into a numerical view of the world where rather complex issues are reduced to simple things. “So the bottom line is very convenient for people who are steeped in analysis because gives them something tangible to work with. But the world is nuanced and highly complicated.” Mintzberg believes that this “emphasis on analysis and measurement is promoting short-term(ism).”
In the Globe and Mail article, Mintzberg summarized that “ Management is a practice, learned in context. No manager, let alone leader, has ever been created in a classroom. Programs that claim to do so promote hubris instead. And that has been carried from the business schools into corporate America on a massive scale.”
I’ve written before about MBA’s and the call for reform in my post; Corporate Social Responsibility is Just Self-Interest. But Mintzberg’s comments go beyond reform to something more akin to revolution. He might be on to something.In the series I am currently writing for the blog - “Trust: Why Business Lost It and How To Win It Back”, I make the point that Corporate Social Responsibility alone will not engender trust. Instead, business leaders need to build partnerships with communities and nonprofits in order to leverage the social capital that exists there.
Mintzberg is calling for a contextualized real world training regiment with a view to long-term outcomes. I believe this is exactly what partnerships with communities and nonprofits should look like. I also believe, that such partnerships have the ability to create outstanding leaders.
I can't quite place it, but it seems to me I know another ‘community organizer’ who’s turned out to be a good leader. And I don't think he has an MBA.
Wait.... it'll come to me.
Email; chrisjarvis@realizedworth.com
LinkedIn Profile ; http://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisjarviscan
Twitter; @RealizedWorth
11 comments:
Great post Chris. Fully agree that reform is needed in the current system and I think it's already underway in many cases...with topics such as "green" and social entrepreneurship gaining popularity in many business schools, I think the shift from a short to long-term perspective in the classroom is already underway (though far from complete).
With these "new" topics gaining momentum, a transition into more "real world" training and an educational system based more on experience would help complete the shift.
Thanks again.
Chris: Very interesting post and news indeed. Without getting too political, which is hard for me to do, there has been quite a bit written about the value of the MBA education, and the Harvard B-School experience particularly, in the body of analysis about George W. Bush's presidency as the first MBA chief executive. Not terribly flattering and rather enlightening about the values piece that has been missing in B-school curriculum. One article, “Hail to the Robber Baron?”, by Professor Yoshi Tsurumi (The Harvard Crimson; April 4, 2005) assails the B-school mentality at the time of Bush. He was one of the President's professors! I urge your readers to Goggle it and read it. An eye opener.
I would add that business schools conspicuously teach risk management, but not trust enablement. The former increases transaction costs, while the latter reduces them by increasing the volume, velocity and value of business transactions. It seems like a curious systemic oversight.
Henry Minzberg has been very vocal about this problem for a number of years so this opinion is no news. But I guess, it takes a financial crisis to really pay attention to his wise words.
I remember reading one of his articles on MBA education in one of my MBA classes :-) and it discussed word by word the ideas you mention in your post. The irony is that the article was published in the late nineties... One cannot help but be pessimistic about the future of business management.
Have any studies attempted to look at not only MBA education, but trends or tendencies between genders in management/leadership roles? I wonder how much of the failures that we've seen in business are attributable not just to education, but to the gunslinging "old boy networks" that permeate the executive levels.
It seems that business and even government leaders need to be good leaders (able empower others and to exercise some common sense) or good managers (have in-depth knowledge and be able to install excellent processes and systems). Unfortunately, the MBA programs rather than developing leadership or management skills, seem to develop hubris. Therein lies the problem. I have met more arrogant MBAs than arrogant doctors. This is a bad, bad sign for the state of MBA programs.
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Great post! I hope there will be changes in the current system! This is going to be a big help.
I found this blog very informative.
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Just spent some time re-reading the comment left here and I am blown away remembering the discussion that took place around the MBA topic. Lately, I've noticed additional high-profile opinions stating, rather bluntly, that students should no longer "waster their time" on a traidiontal MBA. I don't know - that seems a little extreme to me, but I'm curious to look into this topic again and see where the developments are taking us. I really appreciate the comments and would love to know if anyone has seen additional resources out there that are worth looking into.
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