读MBA到底有什么用？

    尽管如此，对MBA学位最基本的看法并没有发生改变，而且，随着人们在正规学校之外学习技能的机会越来越多，人们对MBA的看法会变得越来越糟糕。《在家就能读MBA》（The Personal MBA）一书的作者乔希•考夫曼认为：“如果想在商界中获得良好的发展，确实需要掌握许多宝贵的技能。但并不一定非要坐到教室里去学习这些技能。”考夫曼在书中解释了商学院教授的主要概念。考夫曼在为自己的书做调查时曾采访过许多正在学习和曾经学习过MBA课程的人士，他们许多人都表示：“（去学校读MBA）会获得一张写着自己名字的文凭，有些人对此的确很看重。”

    名校MBA毕业生的背景或许对人际交往有着非常好的作用。但人际交往还可以有其他的方式。

    MBA课程是否涵盖了当今社会所需要的商业技能？对此人们至今依然争论不休。德鲁克认为：“美国经济需要接受过良好培训的企业家。我们的经济越来越变成大企业经济，便越需要企业家思维。美国经济需要新的公司不断出现，才能防止僵化。美国经济需要那些对运营小公司更感兴趣的人才，而不是想去大公司担任高管的人；因为，未来的大公司都是从今天的小公司逐步发展起来的。”

    即使大公司也需要有人敢于承担风险，以避免公司陷入“僵化”。许多商学院学生对运营自己的公司很感兴趣。埃利斯-桑斯特表示，她接触过的许多学生都对创业很感兴趣。“经营或控制自己的命运，创造属于自己的公司，对他们非常有吸引力。”

    然而，即便MBA课程会教授创业学，它们的结构也可能与它们的做法相冲突。顶尖商学院的学费与生活费高达六位数。如果学生申请了贷款，“它就会成为一个巨大的障碍，使他们很难放弃现在的工作，去做一些不同的事情，”考夫曼说。

    当然，攻读MBA仍然有充足的理由。例如，全球大型咨询公司会从顶级商学院大量招聘人才。而且，拥有MBA学位在许多公司仍将是一种优势。正如考夫曼所说：“如果你已经在为一家公司工作，他们愿意出钱，而且没有MBA学位在公司就很难获得提拔的话，那就让公司掏钱送你去读MBA学位吧。”

    但随着成本提高，让优秀人才公费学习两年的做法也会受到公司的质疑。公司有可能会重新评估，为员工发展进行投资会给公司带来什么好处。埃利斯-桑斯特表示，许多投资银行不会再对员工说“如果两三年后你还没拿到MBA学位，那你在公司就不会有前途”。

    她表示：“雇主在如何调动员工积极性方面变得更加聪明。在员工培训与领导力培养方面，他们也变得更加圆滑，比如聘请学院的讲师到公司来授课。”

    结果如何呢？虽然员工“无法获得身处商学院的体验”——即社交方面的收获——“但他们确实能获得学术方面的培训。”（财富中文网）

    译者：刘进龙/汪皓

    But the fundamental perception is still there and may worsen as opportunities open up for people to learn skills outside of formal university settings. "If you want to do well in business, there are things that are super-valuable to know," says Josh Kaufman, author of The Personal MBA, a book that explains the major concepts taught in business schools. "But you don't have to sit in a classroom learning them." When Kaufman was doing research for his book, he talked to numerous people who were attending and had attended MBA programs, and many of them said, "'You're going to get a particular name on your diploma that means something to some people.'"

    An elite MBA can be great for networking. But there are other ways to network, too.

    People also still debate whether MBA programs cover the business skills society needs. Drucker noted that "the American economy needs above all the well-trained entrepreneur. The more our economy becomes a big-business economy, the more does it need the entrepreneurial mind. It needs a steady supply of new businesses to prevent freezing. It needs people who prefer running a small business to an executive job in a big company; for tomorrow's big business can only come out of today's small businesses."

    Even big businesses needed people inclined toward taking risks in order to prevent large corporations from turning "arteriosclerotic." And many business students are interested in running their own companies. Ellis-Sangster says that many of the students she speaks with are interested in starting a business of their own. "It's very attractive to them to build and be in control of their own destiny and create something that's their own."

    But even if MBA programs do teach entrepreneurship, their structure may work against its practice. Tuition and living expenses run well into the six figures at top programs. If students take out loans, "that's a big barrier to stopping doing what you're doing and starting doing something different," says Kaufman.

    To be sure, there are still good reasons to get an MBA. The major consulting firms of the world, for instance, hire disproportionately from the top business schools. And a degree remains a way to get a leg up at many companies. As Kaufman says, "If you're already working for a company, and they're willing to pay for it, and there are going to be barriers to promotion in the company if you don't have it, then let the company pay for the signal."

    But as the cost rises, companies themselves may question the idea of paying to send talent away for two years or reconsider what is gained by pushing talent to leave the fold at all. Ellis-Sangster says that some investment banks are no longer telling people that "after two, three years, there's no future here unless you get an MBA."

    "Employers have just gotten a lot smarter in how they engage their employees," she says. "They've become very sophisticated in their training and leadership development, and are bringing in faculty to teach courses at their institution."

    The result? Employees are "not getting the experience they would get in business school" -- that is, the social and networking benefits -- "but are getting the academic training they might get."