Online MBA Forum

I recently had an interesting conversation with a student who was jsut finishing his MBA. He had enrolled on a program called an Entrepreneurial MBA.

We had a discussion as to whether you could teach entrepreneurial skills, and came to the conclusion that you couldn't - it was a character trait, to do with the willingness and ability to take risks, and to be able to put ideas into shape so that they could become reality.

However, what the MBA had done, which was invaluable, was to provide the knowledge of the skills necessary to make the vision happen in terms of how an organization can be created and structured. We agreed that this was exactly the kind of support that an entrepreneur needed.

Another different kind of MBA that I have noticed, which is offered by several providers and also as an online MBA is that for managers of non-profitmaking organizations. this kind of MBA is really interesting, because it needs to look at several areas of management with a slightly different focus than that used for normal commercial organizations.

Non-profitmaking organizations need to consider aspects of marketing that affect their special images, to look at finance differently, and even sometimes to recruit and retain employees on a different basis than profit making organizations. Therefore the MBA will be taught in a different atmosphere than other organizations, with different aims and objectives.

I came across a really unusual MBA the other day - this was one in agricuture and forestry. Agribusiness is big business the world over, and the focus of this MBA programme was not only about the particular aspects of managing an agribusiness, but also some of the global business aspects.

I was pleased to see that for at least one of the courses students were expected to don their gumboots and get down and dirty - field informatics, that is control systems and data gathering on farms and other production units demanded a field trip - literally. Good to know that you still can't do farming without touching the soil.