Why I Don't Advise Startups to Hire M.B.A.s
Vivek Wadhwa:
I have no doubt that my M.B.A. from New York University's Stern School of Business was one of the best investments I ever made. It helped me climb the corporate ladder and become an entrepreneur. As a tech executive, I would readily pay a premium to hire B-school graduates. I also used to advise tech startups to strengthen their management teams by recruiting professional managers from M.B.A. programs.
I no longer advise startups to hire M.B.A.s and I discourage students who want to become entrepreneurs from doing an M.B.A.
That's because I have seen a growing mismatch between the skills that business schools teach and what fast-paced startups require. And corporate management isn't the best path to entrepreneurship anymore--the best way is to work for a startup.
Most business schools are geared toward churning out investment bankers and management consultants. That is who they put on the pedestal. In his new book, "Turnaround: Third World Lessons for First World Growth," the dean of my alma mater, Peter Blair Henry, goes as far as to prescribe that countries measure their success "through the lens of their stock exchanges." This is the same lens that business schools use to measure the success of their students.
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Posted by Jim Zellmer at April 6, 2013 2:55 AM
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