The End of the MBA?

The century-old mainstay of business education may be showing its age, says the Institute’s director, Dr. Michael Rappa. In the following presentation based on a talk delivered at George Washington University School of Business, Dr. Rappa makes the case for why the generic MBA degree is out of sync with the skill sets needed to compete in a rapidly changing business world:

“MBA education has deep roots in our industrial past. It’s too long, too expensive, and yields surprisingly low returns for too many degree candidates who end up under- or unemployed and burdened in debt.”

Contrasting the recent demise of Kodak, an exemplar of the past, with emerging companies like Facebook, Dr. Rappa argues that value creation in the future will be a function of how well companies leverage their data. He sees the emergence of graduate degrees in analytics, such as the Institute’s pioneering Master of Science in Analytics (MSA), as a disruptive innovation in education that offers greater relevancy in addressing the challenges of a future where successful businesses will thrive on a data-driven culture.

Download the presentation:

Business Analytics Degrees: Disruptive Innovation or Passing Fad