Save Your Money on that MBA

On March 21, Ad Age published the results of a study showing that MBA degrees don't make marketers more likely to work for successful companies. In fact, it's a negative factor. Having an MBA means you're more likely to work for an underperforming company.

Marketing executives from 18 underperforming companies -- which had sales grow 7% less than their categories on average in the two years ended August 2005 -- were twice as likely to have been recruited out of M.B.A. programs than marketing executives from out-performing companies, which averaged growth 6.2% faster than their categories over the two years. Of executives from underperforming companies, 90% had M.B.A.s vs. 55% at outperforming companies.

Not all master’s degrees appear worthless in the study. Just M.B.A.s. About 10% of the marketing executives at the out-performers had master’s degrees other than M.B.A.s vs. none at underperformers.

My brother has said for years that his MBA offered little new knowledge incremental to his undergraduate business degree. There were just more group projects and somewhat more mature class discussions.  

I still believe that MBA's are best for people with non-business degrees who need to learn how to manage a business. Likewise, those of us with business degrees are probably better off pursuing a masters in a field other than business.