Cookies help us display personalized product recommendations and ensure you have great shopping experience.

By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
SmartData CollectiveSmartData Collective
  • Analytics
    AnalyticsShow More
    data analytics and truck accident claims
    How Data Analytics Reduces Truck Accidents and Speeds Up Claims
    7 Min Read
    predictive analytics for interior designers
    Interior Designers Boost Profits with Predictive Analytics
    8 Min Read
    image fx (67)
    Improving LinkedIn Ad Strategies with Data Analytics
    9 Min Read
    big data and remote work
    Data Helps Speech-Language Pathologists Deliver Better Results
    6 Min Read
    data driven insights
    How Data-Driven Insights Are Addressing Gaps in Patient Communication and Equity
    8 Min Read
  • Big Data
  • BI
  • Exclusive
  • IT
  • Marketing
  • Software
Search
© 2008-25 SmartData Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Reading: The Real World versus MBA Textbooks
Share
Notification
Font ResizerAa
SmartData CollectiveSmartData Collective
Font ResizerAa
Search
  • About
  • Help
  • Privacy
Follow US
© 2008-23 SmartData Collective. All Rights Reserved.
SmartData Collective > Uncategorized > The Real World versus MBA Textbooks
Uncategorized

The Real World versus MBA Textbooks

GaryCokins
GaryCokins
5 Min Read
SHARE

The professional disciplines of law and medicine are codified with decades, arguably centuries, of a body of accumulated and layered knowledge. The discipline of management is not codified and structured to facilitate learning. Most managers learn from their prior managers. Ever work for a lousy manager?

One can get an MBA to learn about the discipline of management. I received one from one of the USA’s most prestigious university graduate programs. Its curriculum taught me about management, but I can candidly say it did not teach me how to manage. There is a difference. Management involves strategy, analysis, and decisions from choices. How to manage involves people. The types of people can be work colleagues, partners, customers and suppliers.

Admittedly there are courses in an MBA curriculum on organizational development and change management. Although I am an industrial engineer from my undergraduate education with its impersonal quantitative emphasis, the behavioral courses fascinated me. I felt a little like Star Trek’s Dr. Spock, the Vulcan who thought logically but was aware that emotion somehow plays a role in making change happen.

What can one do to overcome …

More Read

Watch the Smarter Analytics channel via the New Intelligence…
The 5 Sexiest Big Data Jobs Available Today
What does the email address say about the customer?
Top 10 Cloud Computing Vendors
IoT Field Notes: How Do People Start?


The professional disciplines of law and medicine are codified with decades, arguably centuries, of a body of accumulated and layered knowledge. The discipline of management is not codified and structured to facilitate learning. Most managers learn from their prior managers. Ever work for a lousy manager?

One can get an MBA to learn about the discipline of management. I received one from one of the USA’s most prestigious university graduate programs. Its curriculum taught me about management, but I can candidly say it did not teach me how to manage. There is a difference. Management involves strategy, analysis, and decisions from choices. How to manage involves people. The types of people can be work colleagues, partners, customers and suppliers.

Admittedly there are courses in an MBA curriculum on organizational development and change management. Although I am an industrial engineer from my undergraduate education with its impersonal quantitative emphasis, the behavioral courses fascinated me. I felt a little like Star Trek’s Dr. Spock, the Vulcan who thought logically but was aware that emotion somehow plays a role in making change happen.

What can one do to overcome what an MBA degree does not provide?

Maybe I should have paid more attention to the MBA behavioral course of thirty five years ago. Why? Because I find that understanding how to influence, persuade, and educate people is arguably more critical to transform an organization than understanding the principles and concepts of Performance Management methodologies, such as strategy maps, measurement scorecards, dashboards, customer value management, and activity based costing. Business analytics software, such as offered by my employer SAS, can model Performance Management solutions. But it involves people and assumptions.

During the last five years of my business career I am realizing how much I underestimate the importance of behavior modification of people and especially overcoming their natural resistance to change. I do not believe this involves begging, badgering, and bullying people but rather educating them. My style is to enable senior executives to educate (training comes later) their subordinate and colleagues by reading one or more solidly written articles; and then bring them all together like a book club meeting. At this point ninety percent of the work for the executives is done! That meeting can cover what the each of the group learned, what issues and concerns exist to overcome, and actionable next steps.

Transformation is about people changing practices and systems – not the other way around.

TAGGED:changetransformation
Share This Article
Facebook Pinterest LinkedIn
Share

Follow us on Facebook

Latest News

data analytics and truck accident claims
How Data Analytics Reduces Truck Accidents and Speeds Up Claims
Analytics Big Data Exclusive
predictive analytics for interior designers
Interior Designers Boost Profits with Predictive Analytics
Analytics Exclusive Predictive Analytics
big data and cybercrime
Stopping Lateral Movement in a Data-Heavy, Edge-First World
Big Data Exclusive
AI and data mining
What the Rise of AI Web Scrapers Means for Data Teams
Artificial Intelligence Big Data Exclusive

Stay Connected

1.2kFollowersLike
33.7kFollowersFollow
222FollowersPin

You Might also Like

Change Capacity: What Makes Change Easy or Difficult

7 Min Read

Social Media: The Great Equalizer

4 Min Read

Capacity for change

3 Min Read

Entry Point: Change is a Constant

5 Min Read

SmartData Collective is one of the largest & trusted community covering technical content about Big Data, BI, Cloud, Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, IoT & more.

ai chatbot
The Art of Conversation: Enhancing Chatbots with Advanced AI Prompts
Chatbots
ai in ecommerce
Artificial Intelligence for eCommerce: A Closer Look
Artificial Intelligence

Quick Link

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
Follow US
© 2008-25 SmartData Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Go to mobile version
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Username or Email Address
Password

Lost your password?