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All I need is an MBA

3 points by Maven911 ↗ HN
This is a quote to counteract the misleading view that hackers are commodities, rather, it is the MBA's.

Guy Kawasaki was one of the original players that got Apple on its feet with the Macintosh. He now works as a venture capitalist in Silicon Valley as CEO of Garage Technology Ventures

Kawasaki remarked, "I don't think an M.B.A. matters very much for starting a company. A much better educational background is an engineering degree. You can always hire MBAs, but if you don't have the ability to conceptualize and deliver a product, you've got nothing."

Link: http://www.insidecrm.com/features/mbas-are-overrated-081307/

18 comments

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edw519
The only thing I remember from Business School:

"A degree in business is a degree in nothing."

noodle
in my experience, if you can get an engineering degree, you can get an MBA if you want one. but not necessarily the other way around.
Prrometheus
However, an MBA will cost you a lot more. The demand is higher because the returns to a degree holder are higher at the margin.
noodle
they cost more because they need a reasonable barrier of entry. if pretty much anyone can get an MBA, they need to be expensive, or pretty much everyone will get an MBA. don't need that for an engineering degree -- if you price people out of the degree, even fewer people will sign up than already do.
mocheeks
Wow noodle, thats an interesting point. I never thought about that. That makes a ton of sense.

(caveat: another barrier is work experience and GMAT score to determine what "level of prestige" school you can get your MBA from)

noodle
indeed. there are other issues at play in which a lot of stuff is based on. you pay more for a more prestigious school so you can get paid more upon graduation. and not all MBAs are created exactly equal. it is definitely true that some are a little harder (and some coloring books are harder to color within the lines on), and that some are easier. but the underlying principle is still the same, and unless you're graduating from a prestigious school or a school with a terrible reputation, all other MBAs are approximately equivalent.
Prrometheus
The acceptance rate to the good MBA schools is very low, which is already a barrier to entry. In MBA land, it makes a big difference if you go to a top 10 school or Local U. A degree from Stanford, Harvard, Wharton, Sloan, or Kellogg pretty much guarantees you a hedge fund, private equity, or investment banking position, if you want one. Also, a LARGE portion of Fortune 500 CEOs come from the top schools. However, you must be rather smart and have great work experience (or have very good work experience while being female/minority) to get into those schools.
noodle
indeed, the school also makes a difference, but, IMO, the biggest difference among schools is not in the quality of the MBA, its the networking and prestige that comes along with it.

you don't go to harvard to get an MBA from harvard, you go to harvard so you can say you got an MBA from harvard; to form the connections, networks, and for the prestige that comes with the harvard name. thats what you pay for -- you pay for that up front so you can get paid more later by waving your diploma around.

snowbird122
Learning is fun. Get an engineering/cs undergrad, then get an MBA. This way you can understand the entire spectrum of a technology company from code to financials.
Maven911
I totally agree with you snowbird, I want to get that broad spectrum too. But its just too bad that a cs/engineering degree does not carry the same prestige and job security (or at least ease of job change by not super-specializing)as an MBA.
snowbird122
It is interesting that you mention that MBAs have job security. I'm not so sure it is true. MBAs are often "middle management" and can be the first to be dismissed in hard times. Companies that think programmers are commodities aren't worth working for anyway.
projectileboy
Depends on your environment. MBAs with no engineering background value other MBAs. Engineers value other engineers. Real leaders and innovators value real qualities and abilities of others, whether those abilities are business-centric or tech-centric or design-centric.

Sadly, these sorts of attitudes are prevalent in many large IT shops. Personally, I run away from anyone who views any meaningful role (coder, CFO, COO, admin ass't) as just requiring a random body.

ardit33
I feel than an MBA might be a waste of time for a good programmer. I did a part time program (it was the equivalent of one year of an MBA streched two years part time), and while I thought it was cool learning new things, it was not that useful actually.

Two classes that were good: Accounting, and Business Evaluation, both taught by Harvard professors, which made it very interesting. The rest were kinda flufy.

If you are an entrepenour at heart, and already have business skills, and MBA wont be that much useful. It is a two years commitment, plus costs a lot.

I'd suggest anybody just study accounting, business evaluation, and the ocasional entrepernurial class, and that will be more than enough.

It seems that MBA will be more valuable for people that like to look good in a suit, and want to join big corps, and where your 'title' matters.

morbidkk
its irony but "why MBA?" is the typical question before/after MBA is done. I think it is just like any other masters degree but with lot more generalistic focus on business rather than dedicated domain(physics/electronics/DSP). It helps you understand the theory of the business from mostly "only theory people".

Startups are exciting and excruciating both.

Maven911
its funny how you mentioned Digital Signal Processing as a specific masters...you must be an EE
pchristensen
Sure, it's fun to trash MBAs, but why does anyone think business is different from hacking? There are tons of crappy MBAs, just like there are tons of crappy programmers. There are elite, valuable MBAs just like elite, valuable hackers.

If there was a Hacker News equivalent for MBAs, wouldn't you want one of those guys on your team? The best hackers might be able to do business better than an average MBA, but not nearly as well as the best. I'd take a Phil Knight or someone like that on my team anyday. I'd also take a killer salesman because it would lower the bar for producing highly profitable B2B software.