Do Techies really Need an M.B.A?

We generally think that an MBA degree is a must to climb the corporate ladder in order to reach the zenith of success. Although it’s quite a debate oriented topic, that whether techies actually need an MBA or not to be successful in their career, few critics according to Investopedia, says that the Masters of Business Administration Course can be held responsible of many of the sins that it has committed which includes teaching the incorrect financial models, not addressing business risk, sidestepping business principles, hiding from the real world and caging students in the university. This can be very well proved with the example of Jeff Skilling who was an MBA and was responsible for the firm named Enron's financial collapse. On the other hand top former CEO’s like Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Apple’s Steve Jobs who were college dropouts were quite successful in their respective careers. 

Few techies enroll for MBA courses in order to earn great salary packages but this should not be the driving factor for a techie to enroll for management courses, as he or she should have the talent for business and should have the passion to break out of the technical, R&D, Development world. Techies should be aware of the changing global trends, based on that should take a decision on whether to opt for a MBA course or not.

While many IT professionals pursue an MBA in order to get promoted in a better position in the future that includes the post of Vice President, CFO , or a CEO . However, one must definitely understand that it’s not a compulsion to acquire an MBA degree in order to excel in career as many top CEOs say that MBA degree is not necessarily a ticket to success. One should also keep in mind that only one percent of the total IT jobs for engineers require MBA and interestingly the majority of the CEO’s of top IT companies do not have an MBA degree. According to Mansi Tiwari of “The Economic Times” the CEO is not only responsible to ensure profits for all shareholders, but should have the ability to fix problems, tap new markets, bring cutting edge ideas to the table, and lead cross-cultural teams. At the same time a CEO should be passionate, empathetic, sharp and inspirational. "MBA's are losing some relevance as they become more and more 'easy' to obtain. With the proliferation of opportunities to get this credential we are seeing it as more of a nice to have but not a stand out requirement” says Mickey Matthews, VP, North America, Stanton Chase International, the global headhunter. Adding on the argument, Avneesh Raghuvanshi, one of the Partner of DKR Daulet-Singh, the CEO search firm says ,   "An MBA degree is useful but not necessarily adecisive factor, the most stressed upon areas are prior experience and leadership abilities". 

For selecting a person for the post of a CEO the selection committee in the organization might give more preference to a person with an additional MBA degree from a top B school. As the MBA degree may demonstrate that the person is highly skilled and experienced. However a study conducted by INSEAD, the Harvard Business Review (HBR) and Business Today magazine reveals that if a person has an MBA degree, only 40 percent chances are there that he or she will become a CEO. As in India only 40 percent of top CEOs have an MBA degree. The rest 60 percent CEO’s in the country do not have an MBA degree. Amongst the top 10 performing CEO’s in the country only two had an MBA degree namely Naveen Jindal, CEO of Jindal Steel & Power Limited (JSPL), who holds an MBA degree from the university of Texas at Dallas was ranked first and Bhaskar Bhat the CEO of Titan Industries, who got the fourth position in the list acquired his MBA degree from Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad. The most renowned CEO in the country Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries who was ranked 7^th was dropped out from the prestigious Stanford University after completion of the first year.  The other successful CEO’s of the country who made to the top 10 list was AM Naik of Larsen and Toubro, YC Deveshwar of  ITC, Sunil Bharti Mittal of Bharti Airtel, R Sridhar Shriram of Transport Finance, and Vijay Jindal of Zee Entertainment Enterprises.

Although many evidences prove that an MBA degree is not necessary to become a CEO, according to Bala Vissa who was the main lead of the INSEAD study one of the most interesting findings of the study was that CEOs who started their job at a younger age and had a MBA degree were more probable to attain a better ranking success, reports the Pagalguy .com website.

Posted in: MBA,techies