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Michael T, USA
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Is Business Education Useful?
25,000 new business books are published annually along with millions of business articles. Thousands of business schools graduate over a million MBA students each year.
Still I wonder: is all this knowledge gained from business education actually remembered and applied, considering the immensity and complexity of the topics, and the limited human capacity to store and use all of this information?
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Bill, USA
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Business Education Gives Some Recollection I asked a similar question when I was going for my MBA and posed it to a group of young CEOs. Although they were successful in their businesses, they agreed that by going for the degree would provide a background in the area of finance.
You may not remember everything given the immensity of what needs to be learned, but at least you have some recollection of the topic later on that allows you to go back and explore it further as needed.
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AntoinetteSW, UK
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Business Education Takes you Back to Basics Business education is essential; most people in middle and senior roles within business will at some time have undertaken formal training and education whether an initial business degree or course, which in time may be followed on with an MBA or other education opportunities.
From my point of view what I have learned through formal courses, attending selected seminars, reading well informed material refreshes the thinking, takes you back to "Basics" every now again (which in my opinion you need to do every now and again) - and no I don't remember everything I have been taught, but I remember sufficient elements that enable me to pick out relevant reference information or research as and when I need it.
It has provided me with sufficient knowledge to identify clearly what I don't know (and if we are truthful we all have plenty of those categories when you look and the breadth and depth of complexities of the modern business world) and obtain the relevant input and support for those topics when appropriate.
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Brendan Dunphy
Business Consultant, France
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Disappointed MBA's... I think one downside of the mountain of books and education is that practitioners lose sight of the fundamentals of business and their immediate challenges, attention diverted by the latest fad, particularly in larger organisations.
I have lost count of the number of disappointed MBA's returning to previous or new employers only to find their new-found and hard-earned knowledge not required, or desired. There is a gulf between business academia and business practice not seen in other disciplines but bridged by commercial and professional bodies; is this the way it will always be?
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Hemant Vora, USA
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Better Understanding of Surroundings Usefulness of business education in daily professional life may be limited, however, its impact on one's perception of his or her surrounding and events changes and adds better understanding. That in turn brings more confidence and refined approach to day to day work.
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Natalia, Russia
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Continuous Business Education is Most Important I am convinced: employees with MSc, MBA or any other relevant business education can make a business decision faster, but additional experience is also essential. Today the business is changing very often and the ability to make fast and correct decision can be trained by business education plus, of course, experience.
One example: I am currently in a controlling + IT environment, but my first degree was in pedagogics (I thought it was a mistake as I never used this knowledge till now). But now I apply pedagogics for users trainings :).
Note that continuous business education is most important of all.
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Bena Dookie-Shah, Trinidad and Tobago
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Business Education Helps us in our Personal Lives @Natalia : I agree that continuous business education is important. The amount that is remembered and applied is dependent on the individual just like any knowledge gained or skill learned.
Education and knowledge may not be all 'remembered' but it really never goes away even if an individual's career path may be different than his/her formal training. Experience can strengthen or increase knowledge as well as help any individual make better informed decisions.
Generally however, how it is used is dependent on individual behaviors, characteristics and interpretations.
Business education, like health, safety or environmental education helps us in our personal lives. Our capacity to store can take much more than we can really put in...or get out....
I find the works of some of the current 'gurus' quite interesting. When I purchase a new book, I try to get one that covers what a number of other books deal with.
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KK Verma
Director, India
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Education Helps Unlearning. Which is Useful 'Use of all this information' is a very huge question. Actually from my point of view, any learning helps you to unlearn many things. If somebody uses this hidden agenda of learning to unlearn, he or she may be able to make use of learning.
Unlearning is essential in today's world to make use of whatever you learn.
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Phil Harrison, Canada
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Acquiring Learning Skills I think it is a mistake to focus on remembering the readings and lecture notes. The real value of higher education is in the learning skills you acquire. Critical thinking may come naturally to a few people but most have to work at it and the college/university environment promotes it. Over time all the books become obsolete and so do specific subject areas, but the ability to continue to tackle new challenges with a disciplined mind is best acquired in higher learning environments.
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Jagdish B Acharya
Consultant, India
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Business Challenges Require More than MBA Business challenges require more than what any course like MBA may cover as harmonised body of knowledge. It requires one to have much better knowledge of human relations and interactions. However an MBA gives good inputs which help individuals in recognising their limitations and find solutions which are robust.
Without an MBA the decisions could be based on intuition and judgement about other's abilities.
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lo, China
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Is Business Education Useful? Actually in China, business education is useful. But choose the necessary one first....
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Rafiudeen
Management Consultant, Qatar
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The Education Business Whether the business education is useful or not, educational institutions are doing good business. So, instead of attending business educational courses, you may spend time with those who are doing ed...
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Jagdish B Acharya
Consultant, India
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Degrees and Labels Make Business Schools Attractive Education has three broad uses:
- Acquire knowledge
- Discrimination power or wisdom to use knowledge
- Employability and ability to obtain a job by using the previous two ones.
The first 2 object...
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Miguel Chavez Olivares
Consultant, Mexico
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Business Education, Degrees and Knowledge In these topics a life cycle exists. There is a devalaution process depending of the changes in technology and in markets, after which we need to revaluate and even start a recycling or a reinvention ...
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Jaap de Jonge
Editor, Netherlands
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Formal Business Education is Useful But Has Limitations Of course, getting a traditional business / management education at a university or a business school is useful for your personal development and for the company you work for. However,
Not everyo...
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Cecilia Medina
Student (MBA), Mexico
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Only an MBA is not Enough @Miguel Chavez: I am agreeing with you. When I was young I studied Industrial Engineering and I worked for the local Government during 15 years. Later I got an MBA. Now I am 51 years old and I can't g...
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Srikumar Varma
India
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On #3: No Need for Retaining Everything in your Mind @Jaap de Jonge: Different businesses need different approaches but this doesn't mean one has to learn and remember everything in business management. It is while solving a particular business problem ...
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Anonymous
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Co-Create Realities @Bill: The immensity of knowledge accumulation becomes relevant at the moment you need it. One of the ways is to co-create, apply and disseminate that knowledge (as on 12manage). My MBA helped me to r...
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Helen Strong
Business Consultant, South Africa
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Business Education is More than Information Agree with @Phil Harrison. As long as you invest in continuous personal development to keep up with developments, then business education provides a tremendous advantage in a number of ways.
Firstly,...
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Hans Joergen Pedersen
Analyst, Denmark
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A Business Education is Like a Coat Rack or Furniture Learning without applying what you learn is a genuine waste of time. So no, then it's not useful. And we've all experienced bosses who had no clue what they were doing. So yes, then it would be useful...
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Ronald Ainsbury
Coach, New Zealand
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Get a Job First The obvious answer is surely "Yes, business education is useful."
A more interesting question might be - is studying full-time for a degree at a business school the best way to acquire business knowl...
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augustus eli
Manager
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Priority Problems There are only a limited number of entrepreneurs in society, and most of them are not the ones barging the MBA degrees. On the other hand, those acquiring an MBA do not have a clue where to apply the ...
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Maurice Hogarth
Consultant, United Kingdom
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The Usefulness of Business Education Results from its Use (Use it or Lose It) Is business education useful?
Presumably this will depend on whether that "education" is used; so, it will be useful to the people who use it.
The extent to which it is repeatedly used will, presuma...
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Claudia Lavelle Sigamoney
Management Consultant, South Africa
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The Power of Application! I completely agree that the usefulness of business education is dependent on its application. Learning the theory and concepts of business is only valuable if it is put into practice. As mentioned, ed...
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Anonymous
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Importance of Master’s Research Topic I believe that the importance of the Master's thesis in Business Administration and any other specialty depends on the topic of the research thesis....
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Hans Joergen Pedersen
Analyst, Denmark
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Without a Coat Rack, the Clothes Puddle on the Floor Without a doubt, yes. But terms and conditions apply.
First of all, nobody reads 25,000 new books a year, so either they repeat one another, or more likely: The content is vetted to generate trends o...
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Maurice Hogarth
Consultant, United Kingdom
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Coat Racks and Same New @Hans Joergen Pedersen: Picking up on aspects of your posting. I like your "coat rack" analogy. If you have knowledge then, like a hook-loop fastening method, other knowledge catches on to it, even if...
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Mrs.Sayran Ghafuri,Kittani
Coach, Iraq
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Reading Gives the Reader the Idea and Expands His Awareness Although what is taught to a Master of Business Administration student is not at the required level. So reading books outside the troubling education system is beneficial. The reader may have forgotte...
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