My source: a thirty-something immigrant who came to the US in his late teens. I had the pleasure to meet and talk with him on my recent trip. He's smart and resourceful, and by no means cynical. His accomplishments include a degree in computer science, four years of experience supporting risk analysis and equity trading at a major Wall Street firm, and a job as a product manager at a Silicon Valley firm known to one and all.
He also completed an "executive MBA" with a major university. I had to ask: What was it like? What did you learn?
The feedback: the executive MBA was largely a waste of time. The major benefit was learning the highly imperfect models and associated default terminology that everyone uses in business practice, "the lowest common denominator". Oh, and there's networking, in this case getting to know people in one's own company. Finance was a major disappointment, which was galling to this finance professor, especially since my source had ample Wall Street experience.
The one bright spot he reported was the course on entrepreneurship, which was taught by a well-known star in the field, someone I have seen in action and called "the smartest sociologist I know."
So, there's a challenge for the B-school business. Get the respect of the best and brightest.
