Warwick Business School is the world’s best distance learning MBA. That’s pretty cool as I got my MBA from WBS. This is according to the latest Financial Times MBA Ranking. For me the online MBA worked far better as I had a young family in Malaysia. Doing a full time MBA in the US or UK was not an option that I was interested in – especially as I was on an entrepreneurial track rather than a Fortune 500 Management track
An MBA is Valuable For Entrepreneurs
A lot of people say that an MBA is not of great use for entrepreneurs. There’s an attitude that hustle is more important. There is certainly an argument that the traditional MBA approach of gather data and make a decision is too slow for the mad chaotic world that most startups often are. That’s more of a case of the wrong type of people being hired rather than the MBA lacking value.
Yesterday I spent a lot of time with 5 startups looking at their operational problems. These guys were really early stage and didn’t have much traction – they were still struggling with the same class of operational problems that much larger companies face. They didn’t have much data. In some cases they didn’t even collect any! However the same tools that we use on a much larger scale are incredibly helpful in solving real world operational problems.
An MBA gives You Critical Knowledge You can’t Acquire Online
The question is whether it is worth spending a couple of years on an MBA before you start your startup? Is it better to get knowledge as you need it rather than a large storehouse of knowledge that may be useful one day IF your startup grows large enough? In my case when I started my first company – Oakley Steel – there wasn’t a lot of entrepreneurial education out there. Now there is a lot more. However much of it is focus on the marketing aspects of managing the startup. Huge chunks of what you require to manage a startup effectively aren’t covered. The MBA fits that gap.
An online MBA – like the distance learning one at WBS fit my need perfectly. It allowed me to spend 60+ hours a week building a business. With 10 hours of learning at one of the world’s best business schools each week we were able to do far more than we ever expected. Entering the steel business in 2007 was bad timing. We’ve seen 3 recessions in 11 years – market conditions have been as bad as they have been since the 70’s. The MBA knowledge allowed us to flourish when the majority of our competitors didn’t survive. That’s an edge and it was definitely worth paying for.
Do check out Warwick Business School and feel free to send me a mail if you want to know more about the experience, or know how my startup & MBA knowledge can help you grow your business.
