Managers Not MBAs : A Hard Look at the Soft Practice of Managing and Management Development

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Summary: Pact With Knowledge!
Review: Arrogant, greedy, impatient, inexperienced, out of touch with the real world, overpaid, overeducated and overseeing you - does that sound like an apt description of MBAs? Author Henry Mintzberg would answer with a stentorian "yes!" He marshals a powerful array of facts to support his thesis that graduate schools of business have perpetrated one of the most successful con jobs in history. They have pretended that the bright young things they send into a hungry market as MBAs are, in fact, trained professional managers with a rare grasp of management science. Management, says Mintzberg, is not a science, nor is it a profession. It is not something someone can learn to do in a business school. It is something one only learns by doing, and no one in a business school does any doing. After delivering what ought to be a fatal blow to the pretensions of MBAs and those who educate them, the author proposes a proven alternative. He is not so naïve as to believe that the facts he provides will change the world. Powerful economic interests now have a real stake in the status quo. But he hopes for change and provides plenty of ammunition. We suggest this book to those with a passionate interest in business education, pro or con.

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Summary: INTERESTING!
Review: Excellent content, humorous, true, compelling, convincing but also alerting and worrying. Mintzberg shows us how far our actions reach, in this case actions of business schools and thus that we are more responsible then we at first hand might think. The book confirmed and deepened my understanding of the role of education, understanding what people have to learn and how they should be supported in their process. It's a truthful and insightful book!

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Summary: Reality Management Education
Review: Finally, a book that demystifies the MBA. From my experience in the workforce, the best bosses I've worked for have valuble experience rather than an expensive framed parchment. The dumbest people I've worked for hide behind their degrees.

Way to go, Dr. Mintzberg. I appreciate the fact that someone from academia has the balls to tell it like it really is. Hopefully, this will spark a common sense revolution as to the way future managers are trained.

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Summary: The MBA Myth finally debunked
Review: For years (longer perhaps) corporate culture has bestowed the wreath of leadership and guidance to MBAs, and in the overwhelming majority of cases, with disastrous results. This is a very blatant example of the emperor's new clothes whereby it was readily evident to all that academic and theoretical knowledge does not translate well into the managerial environment, and yet, no one spoke up. Well, Mintzberg did, and with ample evidence, studies and support from professionals in the field.

What is amazing is that no one had previously undertaken this task; that said, I can think of no one better than Henry to have written this book which is an excellent work on the subject.

I am reminded of this book almost daily with the goings-on of the business world. Particularly, the mass recruitment of MBAs into Iraq to handle the financial management of the billions of dollars that are being funnelled there. These individuals have no experience in wartime spending, rebuilding and structuring. I shudder to think where our tax money is really going.

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Summary: To MBA or Not To MBA, that is the question.
Review: In short, Henry Mintzberg is critisizing the MBA education, which has a lot of truth inside. I am an entrepreneur strating up several small businesses and have been doing it for 17 years, and recently got my MBA education. This book is interesting and amusing. But here is my 2c: I honestly think MBA teaches a lot of great materials and is very useful in a lot of situation. We learn about the fundamentals of business in general way and not being "specialized" (that is what Phd for). After learning the basic fundamentals you start to see the business world in a more elevated way, most of my classmates think that they see the whole business with a much fesher perspective. Now, there is also a dangerous side of being an MBA, that we started to think we can solve all problems and get the best solution without deep understanding of the deeper side of the business. And a lot of people becoming more arogant ;-), demanding more salary, etc etc. MBA is also a great place for "switching points", moving from a specialized area to go to management. Tacit knowledge can not be taught in any type of education without real life experience, but i think MBA is the best next option to groom a "general manager" type of leader.
That said, i still enjoy deeply the book, henry has taught MBA for 15 years, so he know what he talked about. He wrote the great book "Rise and fall of Strategic Planning". He is always thought provoking and relentless in persuit of what he think is best for management. If you want to get an MBA education, read this book to balance your opinions. If you are an MBA, this one is a good book to reflect the right way you should approach doing business. I like this book very much and recommend anyone connected with MBA (hiring an MBA, wanting to get an MBA, etc) read this book and will immensly benefit from this.

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Summary: The MBA Myth finally debunked
Review: It is valuable for all HR manager to have different thought when they plan training development for their management team.

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Summary: MBA, Master of Business Analysis?
Review: Mintzburg writes eloquently and authoritatively on the limits of, and some misleading beliefs about, the MBA degree. He states that as presently taught "MBA" should really stand for Master of Business Analysis-- not Master of Business Administration. According to him (and others such as Jeff Pfeffer) the degree (with it s almost exclusive focus on analysis) does not help the MBA student who lacks real world managerial experience to become an effective manager, I believe this way of characterizing analysis is misleading and too one-sided!

Analysis is used for many valuable reasons by all knowledge workers including successful 21st century managers! Analysis can be conceptual or empirical-- Mintzburg omits substantial discussion of the empirical. More than ever CRITICAL THINKING is or at least should by a vital part of managing and a necessary prerequisite to successful action. Managers must ANALYZE ideas, procedures, technology, and sometimes plans!-- yes high level plans Although massive strategic planning is limited (see, for example, Mintzberg's "The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning"), some high level analysis may be vital to dissolve ill-conceived problems.

According to Mintzburg Warton, Harvard, and perhaps Stanford are guilty of teaching MBA students merely how to "throw" standard models and techniques at managerial problems. To the contrary, good professors at these schools will include in their teaching the elements of analysis and synthesis that can be successfully applied at all almost all stages of managerial work-- not just the use of standard templates "thrown" at every situation.

Instead of teaching analysis to mostly inexperienced MBA students (who have not yet managed) Mintzburg advocates management is an art and craft that can not be directly taught, but that practicing managers can improve their skills and insights by taking an educational program (it is decidedly not an MBA) based on their situated experience. He does opine that MBA degrees teach basic business vocabulary but not management per se whereas the new degree he advocates (and in fact is being offered by a consortium of five schools including his own, Mcgill in Montreal, Canada) is more valid and enriching for experienced managers than traditional MBA programs. He also claims that MBAs have skrewed up the world and that people such as Bill Gates (who doesn't even have a bachelor's) are superior in their managerial performance to MBAS.

However, MBA programs can and are being improved and that there are many alternatives including Mintzburg's. Mintzburg states many partial truths and builds a "federal case" to support his point of view.

In my judgment the best managers tackle their work by a combination of deep analysis, synthesis and tacit factors based on their experience. What I don't want to see in higher education is a divorce between analytic and practical skills. I don't think that Mintzburg wants to see this either since one of the five recommended modules in his International Masters of Practicing Management is analysis.

Too much analysis at the wrong time is of course undesirable, but too little or avoidance of analysis may lead to the failing to identify and tackle tough managerial problems. And the role of analysis is often intended as the preliminary step (i.e. UNDERSTANDING ILL-POSED PROBLEMS) to synthesis (allowing the possible to become the actual with much IMPROVEMENT and BENEFIT to the organization, its stakeholders and the customers). After all, one of the blessings of a manager's tacit knowledge is that (some of) it may be converted to explicit knowledge in which form it may be analysed, systemized, improved upon, and communicated to other stakeholders and customers of their organizations.

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Summary: Why so many MBAs are incompetent and dangerous
Review: The wet-behind-the-ears MBA who comes in and ruins the company is a stock figure in popular culture, but Mintzberg is the first thinker to put his finger on exactly why so many MBAs are so clueless and destructive. He makes a very convincing case that you simply can't teach management in a classroom. You can teach general business skills, but management is something that has too many intangibles--it's an art more than a science--and is very industry-specific: managing a software company is very different than managing a restaurant chain. But MBAs are taught that they can just apply their little case studies to any situation, and consequently they come in and make boneheaded decision after boneheaded decision, not knowing how the business they're "managing" actually works.

Does that mean management education is simply impossible? No. Mintzberg argues that once someone has displayed an aptitude for management you can definitely develop that ability through management education programs that draw on and build on managers' real-life experiences. He describes how he and some colleagues developed just such a program.

The book is surprisingly entertaining, considering the potentially dry subject matter. The is something Mintzberg undoubtedly feels strongly about. He writes with considerable passion, surprising wit, and his usual exceptional clarity. Highly recommended to anyone who cares about contemporary management.