Planning Your Life Around an MBA Program
By Lisa Daly
Traditionally, once MBA students had gained a few years of entry-level work experience, they returned to school to obtain their graduate degrees. Now, more and more business students are at mid-career.
They may have been downsized, or they may be looking for a change in their careers. Whatever the situation, questions arise regarding the optimal time to obtain an MBA, the best way to go to school, and the desirability of certain specialties.
Broaden Your Education
'If you haven't got it, anytime is the right time to get an MBA,' advised Dave Kreischer, a principal in Higgins, Kreischer and Associates, a Chicago-based firm whose primary specialty is coaching high-potential candidates and executives through senior level.
'When you do take the time to get your MBA, be sure you derive optimal value from the experience.'
Kreischer identifies key reasons to obtain an MBA: the pace of required learning, changes needed to keep organizations competitive, increased customer sophistication, the spread of globalization, and rapid advances in the field of technology.
'It's no longer enough to have functional expertise,' he noted. 'A functional specialist at a high level needs to shore up his or her general management knowledge. To be successful in today's marketplace, one has to continue to deepen expertise but also see how things are changing.'
'If your view is too narrow, your specialty can lose its value - we see that in mid-career individuals who get laid off. Learning needs to be ongoing, and good leaders look for different options for learning. One of the best options for leaders looking to broaden their learning is the MBA.'
Kreischer also teaches at the Lake Forest College of Management, where as many as 33 percent of his MBA students are at mid-career. 'They get more benefit from their studies, and they know they are reshaping their career,' he said.
Never Stop Learning
'Today, you need to think of education as something lifelong, not something that ends at 18, 22, or 25,' said national workplace authority John Challenger, of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc.
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'Learning needs to be ongoing, and good leaders look for different options for learning. One of the best options for leaders looking to broaden their learning is the MBA.'
Principal in Higgins, Kreischer and Associates, Dave Kreischer
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'It's especially important at critical points during a career where the skill base needs upgrading. At those points, it's important to take significant steps to acquire knowledge and know-how to address changes that have occurred. No matter what, make sure you know the state-of-the-art technology most relevant to your field and industry.'
Challenger recommends finding a rigorous MBA program and studying while continuing to work. 'Pursuing your MBA full-time is more of an option for those in their 20s. Often mid-career, it makes more sense to go back to school while working. Otherwise, you've got the double hit in income of paying for classes and losing your salary. It's more helpful to try and get your company to sponsor you,' he advised.
'An ideal time to pursue an MBA is once you've had some work experience, enough to know what interests and excites you,' said Demetria Giannisis, president and chief executive officer of the Chicago Manufacturing Center (CMC) since 1997. 'That way, you'll make an informed choice about the institution you choose to attend and the concentration you choose to study.'
These days, MBA graduates often have had four to five years of business experience prior to obtaining their master's. They have a working knowledge about financing, reporting, and control, and a general understanding of and appreciation for the complete range of business activities that must be well executed to be successful - particularly sales, marketing, product development, and manufacturing management. 'This makes them valuable in almost any young company,' said Jim Moore, who obtained his MBA from Harvard University and is now managing partner of Seattle-based Avogadro Partners, LLC.
Know Where to Go
Moore frequently works with start-up and early-stage companies. According to Moore, larger organizations place a greater emphasis on the prestige of the MBA programs potential employees have attended.
'The Masters of Business Administration (MBA) professional management degree has become virtually a requirement for promotion from middle management positions to top executive levels in many of our large corporations.'
'For many of us teaching in a graduate business school, there is a strong belief that good management techniques transcend business and can be used in politics, government, and elsewhere,' said Johny K. Johansson, the McCrane/Shaker professor of international business and marketing at the McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University.
'The MBA degree is not a panacea for career wishes,' Challenger noted. 'It won't immediately open doors, and if you switch companies, you won't always go up a level right away. But it allows you to do more for your current organization and implement "know-how" that can lead to new opportunities.'
'The most important thing is come away from your program with a fabulous network of current students, professors, and alumni. Through obtaining your MBA, you meet tons of people who are engaged in the study of business and who you can follow up with throughout the rest of your career,' Challenger added.
'MBA schools need to provide an environment that delivers what's most needed in our globalizing world,' Kreischer advised. 'They need to help their students look at the whole world - the world external to a company. If you're going to school, you need to understand the game from a general manager's perspective.'
'It's about what leaders can teach, not just manage. Acquire soft skills along with the technical ones so that as new executives, you can create organizations that can learn, as an organization, to change.'
About the writer
Lisa Daly has been a successful communications consultant for more than five years. Daly has written extensively about graduate education, research, training, and business for American Century Investors, Citibank, the University of Chicago, Erikson Institute, and several Midwest real estate development firms, among others.
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