The MBA gets it wrong

This Life Beyond Code :: Powerful story telling challenge: Harvard MBA and the fisherman is the scenario, the answer is then given by Rajesh in Life Beyond Code :: MBA and the Fisherman solution BUT

the answer is almost certainly wrong in a number of ways. It is amusing that in another post Life Beyond Code :: A brain teaser and why you need to be careful about stories he almost gets why his own answer is wrong.

OK so why do I think it is wrong.

• The MBA solution is impossible. You cannot devote 12 years to growing a business and then come back to spend time with your children. The chance will have been lost. (The same applies to the relationships with his wife and friends).

Actually thinking about it, do any of the other objections matter? If there is a huge logic flaw that makes the whole solution unworkable do all the other problems matter? Anyway

• The current solution is presented as risky (no savings...) the MBA route is presented as risk free which of course is rubbish. Throughout the time the risks are there and the potential losses high (imagine the hurricane when he has many fishing boats and a processing factory).
• The MBA solution does not scale. All fishermen cannot do this initially prices will drop and later fish stocks will be affected.
• The MBA solution ignores others and the environment. It implies there is no social or enviromental cost to fishing as much as you wish. This is not true.
• The MBA solution ignores others that could solve the key problem of risk due to misfortune eg illness. These could include:
  • Join a co-operative to provide mututal support
  • Develop other skills with the family or community
  • Work a little more and use the income for savings and/or insurance

Underlying this is the key assumption that money solves all problems and will make you happy. This is the big lie within our society, it is the elephant in the room that nobody wants to talk about.

I can write this from personal family experience. My parents ran their own business, they could have follwed the MBA route and made more money. They chose a middle route which meant that they could also have a family life and take time to do the things important to them by not making the  persuit of financial reward rule everything.

Thus when both died of cancer in their late 60's it was tragic (and still is for all who knew and loved them). However, imagine how it would have been in the MBA scenario, then they would have put off everything to grow the business bigger and faster so that they could have so much more when they got older BUT they would have died before enjoying any of it - what a waste that would have been. What an unmitigated disaster for the family if we had not been able to enjoy their lives with them, if they had not been able to delight in their grand-children because growing the business had been more important. Yes it was not for long enough, yes they are still missed everyday but that is for what they were, not for what they never had time to be because they listened to someone with an MBA.

Comments

[Richard Hall]

Thanks for posting that -- the MBA does indeed get it wrong.

[Keith]

Nice. Thanks.

[Rajesh Setty]

Good points Dave. I think we are getting carried away by the story again. If the MBA got it wrong, then did the fisherman get it right? No, there is no digital solution to the problem. I think we agree that the fisherman should change his lifestyle to mitigate the risks involved in the current lifestyle. May be he does not have to follow the MBA route (even if he did, he may not have the capacity to do it) but he has to take care of himself and cover some of the risks. That was the key point. I posted a response on my blog
http://blog.lifebeyondcode.com/blog/_archives/2005/9/11/1218360.html

Thanks again.

[Pacific231]

Dave, good points, all well taken, and undeniably correct. And very sorry to hear about the untimely loss of your parents.

I like Setty's focus of his new book and there is a good interview -- http://www.tompeters.com/cool_friends/content.php?note=008143.php -- with Setty on Tom Peters' blog.

Setty's misjudgement of the popular MBA and the fisherman tale does not diminish his sound advice for IT pros, which are probably just as applicable for other roles not 'require' much interaction with others, ie, accounting or other admin roles.

I also hope readers here don't fall into the trap of brushing off MBAs as worthless (part of the dot-bomb backlash IMHO).