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Do Innovative Ideas come from an MBA or Entrepreneurs.
At a recent Job interview I told my interviewers that furthering my education to an MBA or any other graduate level qualification would have been a waste of my time. Of course, the immediate responses gave me no chance to support my argument. I am very confident that this argument won’t stand with you either, but the few points I will bring forward will hopefully cause you to think (these are my opinions).
Graduate (MBA) level qualifications are majority of the times acquired for career movement (vertically in the organizational structure). You become a valuable asset to the company and you move towards a higher paying job. Most persons in this shift fail to realize that higher paying jobs mean more taxes, more responsibilities and no room for error. Do you disagree? In Dominica, most persons who manage companies and work in positions in government are at the professional peak of the work force, and for good reason as we want the best, and they are excellent at their jobs. You are guaranteed they won’t take risks and that the balance sheet is always satisfactory. Why? They are taught the management formula, and as such inject that formula into any business or department that’s under their control. But the crucial ingredient of entrepreneurship is lost or faded into trying to find the pinnacle of their career.
So here is my question, How many successful Dominican Business entrepreneurs have MBAs, or even under graduate level qualifications. On the international level, the wealthiest people are entrepreneurs, most having dropped out of university (Michael Dell = DELL computers, Karl Albrecht = the undisputed supermarket king with his 6,500-store Aldi chain, Bill Gates = Microsoft). Always these entrepreneurs employ the best qualified people to take care of their business, and continue to make them more money.
Entrepreneurs are risk takers (yep! I meant risk technicians), always with the spark for the next investment, the next idea, the next innovation. With an MBA, you’re taught to manage risks and avoid them altogether. A risk taker will use unorthodox business techniques that’s only understood by them as to why it will work, and they will take that risk. With an MBA, even doing a protocol task has to be sanctioned by 2 or 3 people. Entrepreneurs are not rolled of the qualification product line, often they don’t even get to the selection process of it. I am not against anyone with or pursuing graduate qualifications, in fact I endorse it whole heartedly. For me though, this specialization tightens on the few breaths of innovative ideas I have left to exhale, and I have seen what the bright light at the end of the professional tunnel can do to someone with the entrepreneurial flare.
Entrepreneurs are now quickly becoming an extinct breed, and the few left with the entrepreneur gene are being consumed by their profession. And what a country like Dominica needs are a few potential entrepreneurs willing to challenge the idea into successful solid companies. But like all the admired past and present risks takers on the island it’s a mission impossible that requires focus on the asset for a good few long years before any subjective profits are realized. Did I forget something? Yes I did. Capital, and today I need to include lots of it. Surely you can’t compare the entrepreneurs of the past with those today, the investment scales are far apart. NONSENSE, it has never been easier; the support agencies, technology niches, globalization and the list goes on.
However, this is the real world and in the real world bills need to paid, expectations will be fulfilled and we are so caught up in competing among ourselves that the choices we have are two; continue to aim towards professional nobility and always have the king rule over us, or “Try a Ting”.
