Online MBA Forum

Thursday, August 10, 2006

Consulting MBAs

I had lunch today with a lecturer from the business school of a university. Part of his teaching load is to tutor an online MBA degree.

He commented that one of the major outcomes of his teaching is the amount of consultancy he is offered through the students that he teaches on the MBA. We discussed the pros and cons of this - the people who are commissioning the consultancy have some knowledge of the person doing the consultancy, and may even have been the student on the MBA program. He gets consultancy without having to go out and sell himself.

However, his comment is that if he had done his job properly, the student could have done the consultancy project himself. I have to say I have some reservations myself, if you get on well with someone at this level, it's entirely possible that you want more of their time and input.

# posted by Mary @ 8:12 PM

Comments:

What a wonderful conundrum for a teacher, whether on an MBA program or not.
Do you in fact teach your students everything you know, plus give them the tools to go further than you have? If, of course, such is possible. Or do you give them the basics and then set things up so that they will return with more money at some later date?
Of course this is slightly different in an MBA program that it might be in, say, an English Lit. class: the business consulting world is highly lucrative while all the arts student might offer is a badly paid reviewing slot in some tedious small press magazine.
There’s also the point about management consultancy in the whole as well. Much of it is to provide a cover for unpopular decisions that management want to make anyway. By employing a consultant they can deflect criticism "Look, see, here’s the report from the expert!"
Or is that too cynical?

# posted by failingeconomist : 6:23 AM

Online MBA Forum

Thursday, August 10, 2006

Consulting MBAs

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