The Case Method has Killed the MBA

“Have you read the case yet?”

As the business world continues along its unpredictable path, CEOs, Boards of Directors, and upper management will continue looking for new ways to solve new problems. Tough decisions that have not only theirs, but also their employee’s jobs, and the company itself on the line. Many of these firms, via intensive recruitment processes, look to the superheroes of business, MBAs, to help them solve these problems. Yet, unbeknownst to them, those 6 opening words are what those recruits hear almost every single day¹, at many of the world’s top business institutions.

These 20-30 page documents, outline a particular issue faced by a business, (ex: Apple’s first launch of the iPod), and then go on to provide the history, context, useless maps/diagrams, financial statements, and whatever else the author feels like tossing in. The idea is to read the case and discuss how you would handle the situation as the person in charge. A useful tool, but the flaws are numerous. For starters, most of these cases are at least ten years old, so accordingly, the resources and information available to management were completely different. How many CEO’s still use Encarta for their research? Actually—How many CEO’s use a single, biased, document to make a major strategic decision?

A typical MBA class— be it finance, marketing, strategy, whatever— usually entails getting lost in all the drudgery the author filled the case with, and once the chalkboard is crammed with illegible notes— And the obligatory realization that we only have a few minutes of class left— comes the question that should’ve been posed right from the outset. What would you do in this situation?

So much for a stimulating debate and class discussion.

What bothers me more is that many schools proudly advertise this as their primary method of teaching, as if you get a MBA and a BA in History upon graduation. Why?

Because Harvard is doing it?

Hmm.

If you hire the best and admit the brightest, then don’t shackle them to the opinions of others. A top business school should pride itself on thought LEADERSHIP. This means incorporating and critiquing the best practices of others, continuously pushing their upper most limits, and developing new concepts— subject to the same relentless process.

There is an abundance of articles, especially in the past few years as the market becomes saturated with us, that bemoan the lack of quality of the MBAs coming out of even the best schools— a common gripe: they’re just not prepared for today’s business problems.

I’m not surprised.

Open the business section of any newspaper and you’ll find a swath of businesses that could use a superhero or two: Bombardier, McDonald’s, Blackberry, Yahoo, Sears, GSK, the arts, media, and hospitality industries as a whole, Microsoft, Sony, J.C. Penney— Not to mention the hot topics of our day like incorporating corporate social responsibility, ethics, and privacy controls into standard business practice.

I argue that this should be the main pedagogical basis of a modern MBA. Here is a current, real life issue. Use today’s tools, resources, people, and information to come up with a feasible solution.

The differences in solutions among classmates, many of whom may be coming directly from the related field or the company itself, and the professor’s facilitation, drive the learning process. This would have the double benefit of instilling the habit of “staying current” in future MBAs. Read the Wall Street Journal, the Economist, or the Globe and Mail. Industry specific and academic journals. Have conversations with people inside and outside the industry, and make connections when those ideas line up with the issues you’re facing— anything to stay just that one step ahead.

The case method has its place, but like any teaching tool, it is but one method by which to educate future leaders. Still, though I’m enjoying my MBA experience and would do it over again in a heartbeat— I hope that for me, and the rest of my fellow graduates, the “real world” doesn’t kick us in the ass too hard.

…No I’m not done. Stay tuned for part 2.

Oh, and welcome back to CDLS. We missed you too.

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¹ Along with 2×2, Michael Porter, and networking

² For fun you could debrief at the end of the semester to update on what the company is currently trying to do, see which groups are closest