Good Article: CEOs With MBAs Outperform Non-MBAs
Management education has taken a lot of heat over the past few years. And MBA programs all across the country have been put on the hot seat. They’ve been forced to defend their value to the modern business world, they’ve been blamed for the recent economic crisis, and they’ve been crucified for all the corporate scandals that have taken place in corporate America for the past decade. But a new study finally tips the scales back in the other direction.
Read more… Good Article: CEOs With MBAs
Three professors from INSEAD recently undertook a study to identify the world’s highest performing CEOs. The study analyzed long-term performance of more than 1,200 global companies over the “long-term” and it came up with a mega-list of Superhuman-CEOs who led their companies to new heights and who hit home-runs when it came to driving long-term shareholder value. All my MBA readers should be thrilled to hear that, MBA CEOs significantly outperformed their non-MBA counterparts in the study, ranking on average 40 places higher on the list. The study notes that this is well beyond the range of statistical error.
Immediately after hearing how the study came out, I started thinking about of the age-old question. The question that professionals and management experts alike have debated for decades as well as wrote dozens of bestselling books and HBR articles on but failed to substantively answer. The question you’re also probably thinking about right now. Are CEOs with MBAs better managers than CEOs without MBAs? Do they have superior technical savvy, financial ability, or people skills? And even further, are CEOs with MBA better leaders? Are they better-equipped to lead organizations to greatness? Are they more capable of rallying thousands of people behind them to achieve Olympic-level results both for the organization and for society? My first response is that it’s probably not black-and-white. I also suspect that there are a lot of complex, competing issues that have to be considered. But all things considered, my guess is that there’s probably is a right answer, once you figure out a way around some of those issues. Based on my limited experieces, I tend to believe that CEOs with MBA training, on average, probably have a distinct edge and more refined style than the other. After all, this is what they were trained to do, and in the process they were given a resume edge to get started with a high powered network to call on in times of need.
But ….. in my opinion the MBA is not the key differentiator. If you want to truly understand how to attain success, look at firm leaders, like Steve Jobs who is #1 on the study’s CEO list. These leaders have come from all walks of life and earned the single commander-and-chief role at world-class firms and shepherded those firms to perform at the highest imaginable level. To me, they have something that’s far better than an MBA. They have the unusually brilliant, intangible ability to influence and direct an organization. They have the ability to lead.
* Please see BusinessWeek and Harvard Business Review for more detailed posts on the study and for the actual results.
