…in which I offer an alternative to throwing away $50K…

Nothing illustrates the fact that the MBA business is big business better than a Google search. 65M search results (on “mba”) and a seemingly unlimited supply of ads for MBA programs. At $2.75 average CPC, we’re not talking about peanuts exchanging hands.

It’s interesting then, with all the attention on business schools, that an article (registration required) about business schools in the Spring 2008 issue of strategy+business, a magazine published by the global management consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, goes largely unnoticed.

The MBA has a bright future, and always will

Criticism of b-school is not new. At some point our fine institutions of learning realized that they could make lots of money by selling education about making lots of money (an idea taken to its ultimate and most pure form by our buddy Donald Trump and the entire late-night informercial industry), so they sold their souls and ramped up the production line.

Along the way a few visionaries had the courage to speak out for change.

…whereas other professional training academies, such as medical schools, serve the needs of the “community at large,” business schools focus on “a facile command of the ways and means of private gain.” (Thorstein Veble, 1918)

…(1) Business techniques could be taught to almost anyone, but the qualities needed for true leadership were difficult to convey to the typical MBA student, who at that time was a recent college graduate with little or no work experience; (2) courses on administration and policy empha­sized routines—that is, bureau­­cracy—rather than the risk taking necessary for innovation; and (3) business schools fostered a “crown prince” mentality among their graduates, including an aversion to working one’s way up through the ranks of an organization. (Peter Drucker, 1950)

…MBA programs have degenerated into a combination of credentialing institutions and exclusive social clubs… (Rakesh Khurana, 2007)

The problem is, when you’re making money, why change?

Per The Butcher, business education should be free.

Business education for $0K

I said I wasn’t going to bitch about things without offering alternatives. So I’m going to offer an alternative to the b-school education. Best of all, this alternative will cost you nothing (AKA zero, nada, zip).

Taking the idea from our friends in Philly, combine a few meetings of the local Junto with the b-school courseware that MIT recently made available for free—in other words, get together and learn with your friends. The material is out there. All you need to do is make the time. Co-learning, anyone?

- Bandit

N.B. If you’re interested in business as a subject of study and want to learn more about the history of business education, this article is a great place to start.  It’s worth the trouble to register.