Excellent advice to those graduating business schools and looking to join workforce. I personally, did not realize that lack of touch with reality is an international plague that haunts business schools across the world.
In his talk at Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Lecture Series at Stanford’s Entrepreneurship Corner David Heineimeier Hansson, the creator of Ruby on Rails and partner at 37signals in Chicago, says that Business education with its management theories and 20-page reports is irrelevant to what people actually do in real life.
“Real life is about making a good product, pleasing customers and making profit as business,” said Hansoon who for three years attended Copenhagen Business School.
“Your 20-page report on Five Forces is just irrelevant. All of the tools that you learn in the business school are juts for you. They are not going to impress anybody else,” he added.
Unlearning your MBA according to Hansoon starts with a key spot – WRITING. “When you come out of the business school your writing sucks! Because your writing is targeted at pleasing professors who want you to see you demonstrate theories and write a certain amount of work.”
There’s no bonus points for writing one page report. But learning to write exactly what you need is a key to success in business today.
5-minute highlights of Hansoon’s talk
David Heineimeier Hansson: Unlearn Your MBS highlights
The complete podcast of the talk can be found on iTunes or on Stanford’s Entrepreneurship Corner’s website.
Full video of the talk