Has anybody read this new book, "Rethinking the MBA?" Seems pretty interesting - I just read a book review in the New York Times about it.

Apparently the authors think that business schools are failing because of, mainly, an excessive emphasis on quantitative analysis. Also, business school graduates don't know the importance of social responsibility or the problems with risk-taking.

The Times' reviewer seemed to agree with the book, and took a pretty harsh stance on business schools:

"Business schools played a contributing role in creating the geniuses who brought us the economic meltdown of 2008."

Ouch.

I've listened to many people criticize business schools and the MBA - with the same claims that the business schools and MBAs brought about 2008.

I think it's unfair to put the blame on a small segment of people. How about the consumers who speculated on houses that they couldn't afford? I think more blame needs to be put on the consumers who took risks that they couldn't afford.

For me, business isn't about social responsibility. Business is about generating as much profits as you can - preferably legally. And with regards to the MBA, do you know any MBA applicants that want to do an MBA for reasons other than the money?

Let's face the truth, if I wanted to be involved with social responsibility - I would be doing that instead of studying how to make more money. Business schools are the last surviving bastion of capitalism and should be kept that way - people need to learn how to make money, the more money they have the more they can help others. It's a cycle that feeds itself.

In fact, if anything, MORE people need to get an MBA to be properly educated about business and finance - at least a financial management course that would help them with their financial decisions.

The blame is not to be borne solely by the likes of Goldman Sachs, but instead with the government whose policies made it easy for people to purchase a home, and to the greedy consumers that wanted homes that they could never afford under a stringent credit policy.

I wonder who was to blame when the Japanese bubble bursted two decades ago. Japan never made use of MBAs. I also wonder who was to blame in the 20s when the great depression happened. There weren't many MBAs back then either.

I really don't buy this whole, "its the MBA's fault" BS. An MBA gives you some basic education in business, how your skills grow from there, and what you make use of it is all dependent on the wielder. You can't blame the swordsmith for sharpening a sword that inadvertantly cut the wrong person. You can only blame the wielder swinging the sword. With a shitty swordsman, even a blunt blade can be dangerous, and that's the situation here. A couple of over ambitious fools made mistakes and screwed the rest of us over, it had nothing to do with the MBA and more dependent on who these people were.

I wonder who was to blame when the Japanese bubble bursted two decades ago. Japan never made use of MBAs. I also wonder who was to blame in the 20s when the great depression happened. There weren't many MBAs back then either.

The MBA is just a scapegoat. You can't expect business schools to be responsible for teaching their students morality. That's something that was supposed to have been taught by your parents, and subsequently maybe by your Church/Temple/Synagogue or Elementary/Jr. High/Sr. High etc... If you didn't catch any of it during those formative years, 1-2 years at a business school when you're around 30 years old and set in your ways won't change much of who you are.

The thing about the crisis is the mischievous nature of those in high powered positions in finance. This nature was not created by the MBA. It's part of who they are. They probably got the MBA so they could do things like that and probably would have acted in the same way even if they didn't have an MBA. And if they didn't do it purposely, you can call it ignorance or ineptitude. Sometimes you can't cure that either. If not that, heck, shit happens that simply can't be controlled. But whatever the reason, I never thought it was the MBA's fault.

So I definitely agree with you when you say people only look for things to blame, most of the time unjustifiably. Look at the 1997 Asian financial crisis. George Soros is often blamed for currency speculation that led to that one. He didn't have an MBA. I just think it all comes down to the person in power, has nothing to do with their education. Education can help, sure, but we've been trying to educate society for millenias, and you know, stupid people doing stupid things that result in stupid results still exist. It's human nature/society. We're bound to fuck up somewhere along the line. Shit happens.