Comments on: MBA case studies teach the wrong things

By: Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog » Management Improvement Carnival #107

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 12:07:40 +0000

[...] MBA Case Studies Teach the Wrong Things – “The truth is that the corporate ecosystem is enormously complex. Presenting a simplified view of that ecosystem may seem to make pedagogical sense, but it leads to the false belief that problems are easily understood, that there is one “right” answer, and that there’s no need for experimentation. And that’s a tremendous disservice to future business leaders.” [...]

By: John Hunter

John Hunter — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 11:22:52 +0000

Very well put. I have felt this way and you explained the reasons better than I have been able to.

By: Joe Ely

Joe Ely — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 20:49:55 +0000

Dan, good post…Spear is almost always on target.

Interesgintly, at your suggestion a couple of posts ago, I downloaded “Switch” to my Kindle and have been fascinated by it. In a number of respects, the Heath’s cite there people who truly “went to gemba” and found a way to make things better. It contains more on experimentation and “trying stuff” than the average business tome.

Will books like that get used in MBA curricula?? I had one course in my MBA where such books would land but only one. And that was the best course of the lot.

Thanks!

By: Tweets that mention MBA case studies teach the wrong things « TimeBack Management -- Topsy.com

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 16:36:45 +0000

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Kevin Meyer, Dan Markovitz. Dan Markovitz said: New blog post: MBA Case Studies Teach the Wrong Things. http://bit.ly/atG9ax [...]

By: Dan

Dan — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 16:21:36 +0000

Jane,

Thanks for the feedback. Seems like there’s some hope for improvement in the MBA curriculum, although we still have a long way to go. Some sort of PDCA/A3 exercises in class would be a welcome addition, too.

By: Jane Bulnes-Fowles

Jane Bulnes-Fowles — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 16:11:32 +0000

Dan,
As a current MBA student, I have to agree this is largely the case. And I struggle in classes, wanting to make many comments about these issues.
The good news, if there is any, is that not every single case-study now is so focused. In the first class any MBA student takes at my school, there are a few alternate viewpoints shared. Speve Spear’s “Decoding the DNA” is required reading. And early on, there is a great case study about Johnsonville Sausage, where the CEO himself talks about realising that he could not command and control (or rather that he could, but that 10 years of doing so had not led the company to where he thought it could be). The rest of the case is about how he tried to create a problem-solving culture, where every person is engaged.
If only we could get to the place where the majority of cases and articles are like that, instead of the current minority.