from bench to board

There's a lot of debate about the value and nature of an MBA program. Skepticism about initial investments and ROI is certainly warranted on a broad scale, but I'm still in the camp that firmly agrees with the assertion that the benefits of an MBA often outweigh the risks or negatives.

Unfortunately, for potential students who are asking themselves questions about this topic, making the decision of whether an MBA is worth the investment is only the first hurdle.

There was a post in Forbes that asserted the MBA is a waste of time (OK, I can't find it anymore since this post was written a few weeks ago). Sure, I can agree with some of its points. However, there was one that I strongly disagreed with. It said that MBAs were trained to think big picture and this hampered their executional skills. This is bogus.

A company will never pay big bucks to hire MBA talent because they can execute at the entry or middle management level. A company pays for MBA talent to fill future leadership roles – and for that, big picture, strategic thinking is a must. In fact, it’s important to always have this big picture in mind even early on, as without it, you wouldn’t understand how your work is impactful.