| Topic Name: |
Who is hiring? |
| Message Name: |
Not quite |
| Date Posted: |
05/09/2003 |
| In Reply To: |
he is not saying that its not about the money,
he is saying that if you knew anything about hte nature of an mba program, you would realize how futile it is to measure ROI on it.
So much of the MBA program is about exposure.
1. exposure to new ideas
2. exposure to new people (networking which even the roi morons get)
3. exposure to a business/social culture of the elite
4. exposure to different industries and how they work.
all of these things, in ways that are subtle and hard to measure, add tremendous value and consistently missed by those who try to take a hard numbers approach.
quantitative analysis systematically overestimates measurable returns and underestimate hard to measure returns.
not everyone who has an top tier mba phrases it this way, but most everyone understands the softness of the benefit. |
| Message: |
So the value of an MBA is the exposure to new ideas, to new people, an elite social culture, and to different industries?
You know, there is another place you can get all of these things [except maybe the "elite social culture"]... by looking for an interesting new job! The best part is, your new employer might even pay you...
Seriously though, we're talking about a $150-200K investment when we factor in lost net income for two years. Pretty expensive for a "soft benefit", don't you think?
I don't mean to say that getting an MBA is a bad thing, or that ROI should be the ONLY measure used to decide whether [and where] to go. I personally believe that ROI depends on the individual situation and that there are people for which it has great economic benefit and there are people for which the economic return is neutral, negative, or worse, "soft."
It is not futile to measure ROI; the net wealth creation [salaries, equity, etc. less investment and opportunity cost] is quantifiable. The tricky part is in finding equal demographic groups to survey competently making an equitable comparison. This is not to say that "exposure to new people" doesn't have value... but it doesn't have ECONOMIC value unless there is a quantifiable increase in wealth creation as a result.
There are many valid reasons to go to b-school; one of them is economic. Others [increased job security, etc.] are also important. However, if the economic reason isn't clear cut in all cases, don't you think that is an important finding?
Sincerely,
ROI Moron
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