Keven J. Clancy & Robert S. Schulman, in
MARKETING MYTHS THAT ARE KILLING BUSINESS: THE
CURE FOR DEATH WISH MARKETING, speak of the "3rd
Generation Idiot Syndrome". They quote A.H.
Walle of Ithaca College describing the
"25-year-old graduate student who is studying
under a 28-year old assistant professor who wrote
his dissertation with a 32-year-old associate
professor. And none of them ever 'worked' a day
in their lives. Today's business leaders are fed
up with cloistered specialists whose main-springs
are driven by some kind of misplaced enthusiasm
for scientific rigor for its own sake--practical
significance of the research be damned." We're
supposed to be preparing students to succeed
outside the university.
One good thing about German "Universities of
Applied Sciences", Fachhochschulen, is that a new
hire have five years experience in the
professional area in which he or she is teaching,
along with the advanced degree.
Romie Littrell
--- John Orr <
johno@cameron.edu> wrote:
> <color>0100,0100,0100Dear Ronnie
> and others,
>
>
> The latest exchange comparing technical vs.
> managerial
> orientations triggered memories of my first
> semester as an MBA
> student back in 1986.
>
>
> One of our professors - I can't remember which
> - told us about the
> evolution of the MBA programs in the USA.
>
>
> The MBA really became strong in the 1960s, he
> said, initially as a
> way of training techies and liberal arts grads
> in the tools and
> concepts of business, grooming them for
> executive positions.
>
>
> But, my prof recalled, the MBA program turned
> into a religion of
> sorts. At this time, purveyors of MBA programs
> touted them as
> the panacea to all the shortcomings of US
> business.
>
>
> A paraphrase of their late 1960s mantra:
>
> A person with an MBA is equipped to run any
> business in any
> industry.
>
>
> This was disproven by various economic troughs
> in the 1970s.
> Also, MBAs began getting bad press as "hired
> guns" who were
> more interested in bagging bonuses and moving
> on, than in helping
> their firm.
>
>
> Conventional wisdom by 1986:
>
> An MBA, plus some savvy and experience in a
> particular
> industry, make the best managers.
>
>
> My assessment of what it takes to :
>
> * Industry experience, either pre- or post-MBA
> (a person may
> switch industries)
>
> * Life experience (the silliest thing the USA
> produces is 22-year-
> old MBAs)
>
> * Some training in business tools and methods
>
> * Contingency factors: Within industry X, the
> prospective
> manager needs to find a firm with which he or
> she has good
> cultural "fit".
>
>
> Basically, an MBA - or, a UG business degree
> with an master's in
> international relations - is only part of the
> puzzle for developing
> quality managers and decision-makers.
>
>
> Keeping people in school until they are 29 and
> then expecting
> them to set the business world on fire their
> first year out simply
> isn't realistic.
>
>
> Also, we can recall Mintzberg on crafting
> strategy:
>
> The process is both an art and a science.
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Feedback on this is welcome. I felt
> <bold>inspired</bold> when I wrote this, so
> I'm not sure my logic is airtight.
>
> ------------------------------
>
> -JPO
>
>
>
>
> <nofill>
> John P. Orr, Ph.D.
> Assistant Professor of Management
> School of Business, Rm. 314
> Cameron University
> 2800 West Gore Blvd.
> Lawton, OK 73505
> Phone: 580-581-2367
=====
Prof. Romie F. Littrell, Ph.D.
Department of Managaement
Fh-Aalen University of Applied Sciences
Beethovenstrasse Nr. 1
D-73430 Aalen
Germany
Fax: (49)7361-576-330
__________________________________________________
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