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Title: Managers Not MBAs: A Hard Look at the Soft Practice of Managing and Management Development by Henry Mintzberg ISBN: 1-57675-275-5 Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers Pub. Date: 01 May, 2004 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.75 (4 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: MBA, Master of Business Analysis?
Comment: Mintzberg writes eloquently and authoritatively on the limits of, and some misleading beliefs about, the MBA degree as it is currently offered in the United States and abroad. He states that as presently taught "MBA" should really stand for Master of Business Analysis-- not Master of Business Administration (emphasis on ADMINISTRATION). According to him (and other notables such as Jeff Pfeffer) the degree (has an almost exclusive focus on analysis but DOES NOT HELP the MBA student who lacks real world managerial experience to become an effective manager, I respectfully disagree! I believe that Mintzberg's way of characterizing the role of analysis in MBA programs is somewhat misleading and too narrow!
Analysis is used for many valuable reasons by all knowledge workers including successful 21st century managers! Analysis can be conceptual or empirical-- Mintzberg omits substantial discussion of the empirical. More than ever CRITICAL THINKING is or at least should be 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 business problems.
According to Mintzberg, prestigious graduate schools such as Wharton, Harvard, and Stanford are guilty of teaching MBA students merely how to "throw" standard models and techniques at managerial problems. To the contrary, many good professors at these schools will include in their MBA courses the elements of analysis and synthesis that can be successfully applied to virtually any stage of managerial work-- not just the use of standard templates "thrown" in an unthinking way at a business problem or situation.
Instead of teaching analysis to mostly inexperienced MBA students (who have not yet managed) Mintzberg strongly believes that management is an art and craft that cannot be directly taught; however, experienced managers can improve their skills and insights by taking an International Masters in Practicing Management (IMPM)-- the IMPM is decidedly not an MBA. He does opine that MBA degrees do teach BASIC BUSINESS VOCABULARY and ANALYSIS but not management per se whereas the (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 a traditional MBA program. 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 degree) are superior in their managerial performance to new MBAS (Is this surprising to any one with some business experience?). 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 also lead to 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. In todays virtual, global, and extremely complex political, business, technical environment-- analysis should play a differing but MORE IMPORTANT ROLE than before. (Of course managers need practicng skills, leadership, and tacit-to-tacit exchanges, etc.) but it is regrettable that for a number of reasons (e.g., overemphasis on immediate gain and the bottom line) what should be the increasing but more selective the important role of the ART and SCIENCE of ANALYSIS is unfortunately less understood and appreciated. For the 21st century, let's adapt a none extreme position that respects the following "equation":
MBA = Master of Business ADMINISTRATION and ANALYSIS.
Do you really want a manager who thinks only about profits, bottom lines,and cannot apply analytical judgments to organizational matters? Do you want a manager who is purely an analyst without administrative experience and "wisdom"? I hope that Amazon.com readers of this book review will agree that graduate students should not have graduate educational exposure to the importance to the manager of one (i.e., analysis or administration) at the expense of the other!
I agree with Mintzherg's idea that MBA degrees (as almost all) graduate degrees must be restructured for the demands of the current world, but that restructuring should not eliminate, insult, narrowly categorize, or "dumb down" the role and importance that ANALYSIS (or ADMINISTRATION) plays particularly at high and middle levels of management. I agree with Mintzberg's suggestion of the validity of new program (which is not an MBA) for practicising managers premised on their experience. Therefore I DO NOT AGREE that traditional MBA schools should heed Mintzberg's somewhat facetious call to "CLOSE DOWN THEIR DOORS." Judging by the latest graduate educational enrollment trends, it does not make any academic or business sense to think that they will!
Rating: 5
Summary: The MBA Myth finally debunked
Comment: 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.
Rating: 5
Summary: Why so many MBAs are incompetent and dangerous
Comment: 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.
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Title: MINTZBERG ON MANAGEMENT by Henry Mintzberg ISBN: 0029213711 Publisher: Free Press Pub. Date: 01 July, 1989 List Price(USD): $40.00 |
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Title: A Bias for Action: How Effective Managers Harness Their Willpower, Achieve Results, and Stop Wasting Time by Heike Bruch, Sumantra Ghoshal ISBN: 1591394082 Publisher: Harvard Business School Press Pub. Date: 01 May, 2004 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: Changing Minds: The Art and Science of Changing Our Own and Other People's Minds by Howard Gardner ISBN: 1578517095 Publisher: Harvard Business School Press Pub. Date: 01 March, 2004 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
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Title: Strategy Maps: Converting Intangible Assets into Tangible Outcomes by Robert S. Kaplan, David P. Norton ISBN: 1591391342 Publisher: Harvard Business School Press Pub. Date: 02 February, 2004 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: The Innovator's Solution: Creating and Sustaining Successful Growth by Clayton M. Christensen, Michael E. Raynor ISBN: 1578518520 Publisher: Harvard Business School Press Pub. Date: September, 2003 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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