The Personal MBA^TM

Not often that I get quoted, but I do agree that it would be a conversation starter. In some cases, the PMBA may be better than the traditional MBA, due directly to the consideration of it being self-study. As an entreprenuer, I wouldn’t necessarily turn down someone down for a job who had put in the time and effort to complete the reading rather than traditional schooling.

Brian - thanks for the comment. Perhaps I should be more clear: I’m not advocating putting the PMBA under the “Education” section of the resume, alongside traditional degrees. The PMBA is a systematic program of self-study, not a “traditional” education in any sense, and as such it’s best mentioned alongside personal activities or community involvements. (That’s where it is on mine.)

If someone mentioned on their resume that they’ve spent a great deal of time and energy educating themselves to become a better businessperson (regardless of whether or not they mention the PMBA), would you really laugh them out the door?

I can’t speak for others, but if you would, I wouldn’t consider the lack of an offer from your company a big loss.

Laughing out the door people who are self-educated means laughing Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Michael Dell, Ted Turner, Walt Disney, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, The Wright Brothers, and Benjamin Franklin out the door. I don’t know about you, but I would rather work with those guys than compete with them.

Rodolpho - I have to disagree on one point you made. When you talked about developing “relationship management skills”, you mentioned that a traditional MBA program cannot teach those because the students are stuck in dorm rooms studying. While I will agree that many undergrad programs work that way, MBA programs are MUCH different.

First, many programs are filled with students who have 7-10 years of experience and go part-time at night (like the program I’m in). Every single one of my classes so far has had a semester-long project that is done by a team of students. Trust me, you learn pretty quickly about emotional intelligence and collective work. If you’re stuck at home reading books on your own (like a PMBA), you don’t get that interaction (interaction on a web message board just isn’t the same). So, I’d argue that the traditional MBA is much better suited to learning these skills.

Second, as far as the “knowledge” - I agree with you 100%. Anyone could buy and read all of the books I’ve been assigned. However, having the experience of PhDs and other professors who run companies during the day is ESSENTIAL. Their experiences (and those of your classmates) are usually better than the theory in the books.

To answer the others about “laughing people out the door” - I agree a small MINORITY of successful people have done well without an education. But for every example you bring up, I could bring up hundreds of others that have failed (see: my high school class). Also, when I look at a resume, I look for talent - not necessarily skills and competencies. If I find someone who’s talented and wants to work for me, I can teach them the skills. That being said, putting something as silly as a PMBA on a resume does not set a good precedent. Bringing it up during the interview would be fine, but I don’t want to see it on the resume. Personal opinion though.

I am in the process of looking for schools where I can get my MBA. What I am finding is that some schools offer a traditional MBA and a part time MBA. They call the part time MBA a Professional MBA or PMBA and it is geared towards working professionals who still want to pursue their MBA’s. The two degrees are different, but I am not sure of the specific differences. So if someone were to put PMBA on their resume the company may well believe it is a “Professional MBA” and not a “Personal MBA”. George Washington Univ. and U. Mass - Amherst are the two PMBA programs that I have noticed.

This is indeed for me a very interesting discussion. I like Joel am what I consider a very successful business person. I also come from the school of hard knocks, and believe in personal education and experiential development. No-one has yet proved to me that “giving” any of my hard-earned cash to an educational establishment for a piece of paper that will allow me to act the same as many other executives is a good idea.
Let’s take a look at some of the companies that have MBA’s at the Helm.
Dell, under Michael Dell MBA and, under investigation for fraud, and laying off 10% of it’s work force (7,800) to get back into profit.
Edward Zander MBA at the Helm of Motorola, he can obviuosly add because 4,000*$150,000 = $600m which is what he’s hoping to gain by laying off staff.
Mark Loughridge MBA, CFO of IBM is up to the same game, 1,500 this time around in services, last years strategic decision to make the company richer. Oops! didn’t see that one coming!
Nancy Cooper MBA (from Harvard nonetheless!) whittling CA’s workforce down in size to increase profits.
Masters of Business administration? I don’t think so. Sheep who all have the same “Indoctrination, profit at anyone else’s cost, profit at anyone else’s cost, profit at anyone else’s cost….” you get the message.

How about a tried and tested idea for management, invest your time in the company, get to know what makes your workforce tick, and be open and honest with them. Actually do something strategic, think of where you want the company to be, involve your workforce, work with them to achieve it.
Whoever coined the phrase “The employee is the businesses most important asset” must be turning in their grave.
Frederick W. Taylor, Pierre DuPont, Alfred Sloan seem to have started a trait in MBA graduates that treat their staff like a commodity, to be hired and fired at the whim of a change in sales fortunes of companies run in this manner. Careful strategic planning accounts for these dips and works to overcome them.
Dell couldn’t see the day of the cheap PC from China outselling his? Wouldn’t have thought that very strategic of him, being as he pioneered the cheap computer. Motorola didn’t see that fact that cell-phones were going to go the same way as many other consumer items before them like the transistor radio, walkie-talkie, etc. What sort of mastery of business adminstration does it take to understand the common sense of mass production and mass markets? And IBM, a company that has so long prided itself on selling (anything) getting rid of the very assets it has been trying to sell for so long. I would say to them, THINK!
Nope, still not convinced an MBA is going to do anything for my career except cost my family and I a lot of money, which I might be able to replace, and time, which I definately will not. And if I am not selected for work because 32 years of experience in an industry (IT)) that has seen more ups and downs that the elevators in the Emprire State Building, isn’t good enough qualifications, then I’m not sure I want to work for the Master of Business Administration (fool of common-sense) at the top of that companies hiring chain.

You guys might want to read up on the guy that received the Nobel Prize for this very discussion since this is a book reading group

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signaling_%28economics%29
and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Spence

I’d say the best signals go in this order: strong references/network > specific experience > specific degrees > generic degrees > certifications > nothing .

I can’t at this time say that *saying* you read and listened to 60 business related books last year is a strong signal. But *showing what you learned* from those 60 business books would be a strong signal indeed.

Great discussion.

Problem is that few of the people who hire MBA’s have MBA’s themselves. Its a check box on a hiring form. Its like having a Six Sigma Black Belt. Just means you learned something, not that you can apply it. But it looks good on paper to those who hire.

I’ve hired over a hundred people in my time in the business world, and I hire for attitude. I normally don’t look at people without their bachelors, not because I believe that a college degree is the be all and end all, but because it means you have invested some time in yourself and that you have some learning discipline.

After the BA/BS, its all fluff. I have hired MBA’s who couldn’t think or find their way through a crisis or problem. I once hired a PhD who was considered one of the top two experts in his field and he couldn’t understand how to apply research, nor could he translate his research into the solution I hired him to assist with. I actually came up with a working solution after reading his “competitors” research papers. A very expensive hiring lesson.

Ask an MBA how to increase your profit and you get a lengthy analysis and the normal book learned theory. In the real world downsizing a company or cutting staff makes stock prices rise because the idiot MBAs in the stock trading areas think that it indicates something positive from the management of a company. In reality, if you are cutting staff and downsizing it means that your business is in trouble, period. The worlds greatest companies don’t downsize, they continually expand operations. Outsourcing does not downsize a business, just shifts the expansion to a different location at a lower cost.

United Airlines has outsourced all of its customer service. Now for the price of one US based CSR you get ten or more. UAL “downsized”, that is got rid of higher cost US employees, but actually expanded their business. I know it may seem counter to my argument, but in reality the best companies are able to operate with stable staffing levels here in the US for sustained periods. Outsourcing has become the MBA “theory” that for some magic reason Wall Street thinks means higher income for US companies. What it means is less cost. Anyone who has dealt with offshore outsourcing knows that it normally leads to less income in the longer term.

I don’t have an MBA but am looked at as one of the few people in my industry who can independently solve significant problems, be it financial, production, marketing or sales. Most of that came from extensive reading and application of some of the things I have learned. I’ve even taught a few MBAs a few tricks.

A good way to highlight your “PMBA” is to include with any resume or cover letter a reading list you have actually read and maybe an example or two of something you did in applying your self-education that added to the bottom line. Tangible bottom line results always gets the attention of those who would hire you.

I like the idea of a portfolio, something first mentioned in “Think and Grow Rich”. If you are saavy you can send this in place of your resume and you will definitely get at least a better look then many of the other resume submitting characters.