What My MBA Did for Me

Eye on the prize

By David Furlonger

There is no doubt the MBA is the most sought-after qualification in business. But has it lost its worth? Are standards dropping? Is it a good investment or just a nice-to-have piece of paper?

Mining entrepreneur and Pallinghurst Resources CEO Brian Gilbertson says his Masters in Business Administration (MBA) allowed him to deal with other professionals "on equal and often superior terms". Without his MBA, Public Investment Corp CEO Brian Molefe probably wouldn't have become the scourge of SA boardrooms.

Standard Bank affordable housing MD Linda Sing became more marketable, while McDonald's supply chain director Karin Freeman's degree broadened her international options.

Kensani Capital CEO Wandile Motlana learnt to identify assets with hidden value. Sports broadcaster and former England goalkeeper Gary Bailey says the most important lesson was how to "cut through the bullshit".

They all agree that their degrees have accelerated their careers. Not only did their studies teach them the practical skills they needed to succeed but, in many cases, also introduced them to executive networks that have stood them in good stead.

It's 100 years since Harvard Business School in the US started what is generally considered the first MBA. Despite its history, not everyone is convinced of its worth. Critics include SA's education department, which steadfastly refuses to grant business schools the subsidies available to other degrees.

Though SA is desperately short of the executive management skills taught in MBAs, the department argues that most benefits accrue to the student, rather than the nation. There is also a view that the degree is meant to be at master's level, but the quality of some programmes falls short of expectations, and they offer little more than outsourced management training. The qualification is also routinely accused of being out of touch with business needs - a charge fiercely resisted by school directors who say they continuously update content to reflect management and leadership trends.

Despite the criticism, demand continues to grow for what is sometimes described as the pinnacle of management education. Naturally, holders of doctorates in business administration (DBA) would disagree. Thousands of MBA schools have sprung up globally. In SA, employers and individuals are competing for places.

Most of those who have been through the MBA "mill" - it's sometimes called the "marriage-breaker" because of the time and study commitment - have no doubt their studies have fast-forwarded their careers. It may also have helped them mature.

Jeanette Schwegmann, HR director at pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly, says: "Our experience shows someone with an MBA develops faster than someone without. It doesn't suddenly turn them into major strategists but their thoughts are structured better. It's quite subtle but it's almost as if they grow up."

Gilbertson graduated from Unisa's school of business leadership in 1973 with its MBA-equivalent Master of Business Leadership (MBL). He spent the first part of his career working off a bursary from the Council for Scientific & Industrial Research. "When I decided to do the MBL, I had just got my first job in industry, which required me to set up a company. I was aware I knew very little about business and this seemed to be the most efficient way to learn. I was also attracted by the fact that MBAs enjoy a certain cachet."

Gilbertson has an unsentimental memory of the programme. "I didn't agree with some of the things people thought I needed to know. And I've never been hooked on people making speeches and lecturing. Point me in the right direction and I can read the information I need."

Nevertheless, it contributed positively to his corporate ascendancy, which has included the chairmanship of mining giants Gencor and Billiton, and the CEO's chair at BHP Billiton.

He gleaned important lessons in marketing, corporate strategy and management accounting. The real bonus was becoming comfortable with statistics. "That's something that has stayed with me throughout my career. Not many people understand how critical statistics are in everyday business."

The programme also gave him the confidence to engage on equal terms with professionals in other disciplines. "That part of the qualification should not be underestimated," says Gilbertson who, despite his dislike of academic talk, later taught MBA finance at Wits Business School.

Molefe took charge at the PIC soon after completing his MBL in 2003. He says the course gave him the insight into leadership and people management he needed to overhaul the organisation.

"When I started, the PIC required a complete overhaul. It was in trouble. I had to start with its corporatisation, change and reorganise it and develop strategy around what was relevant. The qualification helped me do that."

While some undertake an MBA for general management grounding, others have more specific goals. Rand Merchant Bank chief strategic officer Lindsay-Pierre Collet says an MBA is "an outstanding way" to change careers. "I personally used the MBA to move from the purely actuarial world to investment banking. I ensured my MBA thesis was on a hot investment banking topic. The MBA gave me a better grasp of management and leadership issues."

Standard Bank's Sing also wanted to give herself career options - though she didn't think one would appear so quickly. IBM, her former employer, sponsored her MBA at the Gordon Institute of Business Science (Gibs). She was "poached" by Standard Bank at the graduation ceremony and changed jobs six months later. "I still think it's a shame IBM didn't get the full benefit of what it invested in," she says.

The MBA helped broaden Sing's previously "narrow" business understanding. "It gives you a terrific general managerial toolkit," she says.

Not terrific enough, says Bryan Hattingh, CEO of executive talent company Cycan. Though schools try to keep up with management trends by incorporating subjects like ethics, corporate governance and sustainability in their MBAs, he notes one glaring omission: simulation scenarios that allow students to "experience" situations rather than just talk about them.

"Take conflict management. If you track the recent history of mergers and acquisitions around the world, 70% have failed or under delivered. The cause is almost always cultural leadership and human-capital mismatches."

Gibs director Nick Binedell says simulation is starting to make its way into the MBA classroom and is likely to become more widespread. "It's an area we are planning to concentrate on."

However, Hattingh does not support another popular criticism of MBAs: that they are guilty of ignoring "soft" management skills like personal relationships.

"MBAs aren't the place to deal with emotional quotient and people skills. You don't get traction in these from lectures. You get it through one-on-one coaching."

Relationships coaching of another kind would also be useful. Schools may try to impress on students and their families the time pressures involved in studying for an MBA, but that doesn't lessen the tensions. Not only do students spend evenings and weekends away from their partners and families, but they do so in the company of others whose relationships are also under strain.

Motlana, who graduated from Gibs in 2001, says: "It's like a pressure cooker. There were a number of divorces in our class. I wasn't married but I was in a relationship that ended quite unceremoniously during the MBA."

McDonald's Freeman describes her MBA as "very stressful, a two-year life sentence". It needn't have been. She did a long-distance MBA through Edinburgh Business School, which allows students up to 10 years to finish the programme. "I decided to complete it as soon as possible."

Though Edinburgh is not accredited in SA, Freeman chose it because of its international reputation and because its distance learning allows flexibility. "If you travel a lot, as I do, you can write exams anywhere in the world."

Freeman, who graduated last year, believes the qualification is an important ingredient in a successful corporate career. "I want to be an MD one day. An MBA is the green fee for corporate management. When you sit at the boardroom table, it counts for a lot."

Roddy Sparks, the former MD of Old Mutual in SA, had no personal pressures when he studied for his MBA at the University of Cape Town's graduate school of business (GSB) in 1985-1986.

He was do ing his national service and was transferred to an office job at Cape Town Castle so he could study part-time.

Sparks, who now describes himself as a director of companies, says the programme's "biggest upside" was the opportunity to mix with, and learn from, fellow students from different backgrounds and disciplines. The group work and class presentations gave him confidence to speak in public.

There was also disappointment, though it was probably down to unrealistic expectations on his part. "I had expected to go into a guru environment and come out knowing everything. That was not the case."

Like others, he says it's impossible to identify what part of the MBA programme makes the biggest contribution to career success. "An MBA creates layers of subliminal knowledge and understanding. It doesn't give you lots of particular skills that make you say: I will go out and use that now'."

He adds: "I've cautioned people against thinking an MBA can change their careers. It equips you to understand the greater business environment."

Often, though, it does help change direction. Before he graduated with an MBA from Stellenbosch University in 1992, Johann Evertse was at Mercedes-Benz SA. He had a BCom in physics and maths, and a master's in metallurgical engineering, apparently destined for a career in production.

Now group HR director, he paid for the MBA himself "as an investment in my future".

While acknowledging the impact of his MBA, Evertse says it was only part of what shaped his career. "I've always seen my education as a stepping stone. More important are how you apply yourself, your attitude, hard work and lady luck."

That view is shared by Alan Knott-Craig, who graduated with an MBL from Unisa in 1988, five years before he founded Vodacom. In a recent interview in Unisa's Forum magazine, he said he could not have succeeded without the lessons learnt from his studies.

In particular, they taught him "the language of business". He also learnt to analyse problems constructively. "By studying and analysing all the (course) case studies you perhaps develop an intuition about what can work."

Iqbal Survé, whose BEE investment holding company Sekunjalo Investments was rated SA's most empowered in 2006, would agree. He studied a two-year executive MBA at UCT's GSB where, coincidentally, he is chairman of the advisory board. He graduated in 2003.

Survé has five degrees, three of which are medical. "I was becoming an entrepreneur so I needed the tools to become more efficient. I needed management content and strategic direction."

An executive MBA, as the name suggests, is for boardroom-level businesspeople with previous executive experience. Survé says he wasn't disappointed. "It taught me the rigour of business in a tough way. It made me a lot sharper. Doctors are very analytical. This was about getting things done, and learning to work fast and hard."

He is critical, however. His programme failed to adequately address the linking of business to poverty reduction.

Though he says GSB has since started to redress the imbalance, he notes: "MBAs are, by nature, driven by entrepreneurship but they tend not to look at broader society. Programmes should look more closely at how business can use its skills to narrow the poverty gap and add value to society."// Financial Mail

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