职场思考:读MBA究竟有没有用?

Have you noticed how many universities are rushing to create entrepreneurship programs as part of their M.B.A. offerings? As The Wall Street Journal recently noted, the answer is quite a few. One might say better late than never — or even think that the traditional M.B.A. program is finally gaining some relevance and teaching people how to build a business. Think again.

你是否有注意到，有多少大学正急着将创业项目作为M.B.A.项目中的选择之一？就像《华尔街日报》(The Wall Street Journal)最近报道的，这其中原因有很多。有人可能会说，迟到总比缺席好——甚至会觉得，传统的M.B.A. 项目终于与时代有了一点相关性，终于开始教人们如何创立一份事业了。请再思量一下吧。

In reality, many of the changes are window dressing with schools just trying to keep their cash cow M.B.A. programs alive by attempting to ride the entrepreneurial fever breaking out across the country. The truth is you have a better chance of getting the Tea Party to embrace the Affordable Care Act than getting traditional business schools to teach real-world, hard-knocks entrepreneurship.

在现实生活中，有许多此类变革其实只是装点门面而已，学校们想要让M.B.A.项目这棵摇钱树保持活力，于是就趁着全国刮起的这一股创业风潮来赶时髦。事实是，让传统的商学院教在真实世界中艰难前行的创业方法，还不如让茶党(Tea Party)接受平价医疗法案(Affordable Care Act)的可能性大。

Here is why: traditional M.B.A. programs are classroom-centric. They give students little real access to business leaders or to the places where business is done. And as best I can tell, many academics want to keep it that way. Their big idea has been to bring in retired entrepreneurs to teach in the classroom. This is like putting a catfish in a bathtub and calling it a river.

理由如下：传统的M.B.A.项目是以课堂教学为主的。他们很少为学生提供真切接触商业领袖或者商业场合的机会。据我所知，许多学院想要保持这种方式。他们的伟大创意是请退休的企业家来教室中上课。这就像是把一条鲶鱼放到浴缸里，然后声称这是一条河。

Entrepreneurs generally don't do well outside their preferred environment (the real world), and the students don't get any real sense of how fast the business world moves. I think we may even have reached the point where some M.B.A.'s actually damage up-and-coming entrepreneurs. Go sit in a classroom, then go work in a fast-growth company. Talk about the difference between night and day! You will see why the classroom is a dangerous place from which to view the business world.

在企业家们所偏爱的环境（也就是现实世界）之外，他们往往表现得不好，学生们也没办法真切感受到商业世界运转得有多快速。我觉得我们可能甚至已经抵达了一个问题的核心：为什么事实上有些M.B.A.反而毁掉了一些前途大好的创业家。你可以去坐在一间教室里，然后再试试去在一个飞速发展的公司里工作。这样的差异就跟白天和黑夜一样巨大！你会把教室视为一个危险的、无法看清商业世界的地方。

For example, Gianine Abdallah, an entrepreneur based in Atlanta, recently started an online apparel company that was profitable in its first week. Like most fast-growth entrepreneurs, she wants to move fast. So when she asked me if I thought getting a classroom M.B.A. would be helpful, I responded that I did not think it made much sense for her, logistically or academically. Does she really have the time to drive across town to sit in a class or to spend hours with an online program that doesn't give her real-world business experience?

举例来说，吉阿妮·阿卜杜拉(Gianine Abdallah)是一位主要在亚特兰大发展的创业者，她最近创立了一家在线服装公司，在第一周就实现了盈利。像其他快速发展的企业家一样，她想要飞快地前进。所以当她问我去上M.B.A.的课会不会有帮助时，我的回答是我不觉得它对她来说有太多意义，不管是在逻辑上还是学术上。她是不是真的有时间开车穿过城市去上课，或者把时间花在一个无法给予她真实世界商业经验的在线课程上？

What she needs, I think, is not years of studying business theory out of a textbook, but exposure and access to business leaders and partners that can help her now. She needs to connect and have her real-time questions answered by someone like Susan Nethero, who built and sold a lingerie company, Intimacy.

她所需要的，我觉得，不是花时间在教科书中学习商业理论，在商业领袖与合伙人前亮相或者与其接触的机会才是现在能帮助到她的。她需要建立人脉，让她在现实世界中遇到的问题能由像苏珊·内瑟罗(Susan Nethero)这样建立以及售出一家女性内衣公司Intimacy的人来解答。

Yes, of course, Ms. Abdallah and all other entrepreneurial students could use some accounting and finance, but why not take them online? In past years this may have been a poor option, but technology and online teaching methods have improved so much that one study for the Department of Education found that "on average, students in online learning conditions performed better than those receiving face-to-face instruction."

是的，当然了，阿卜杜拉和其他创业的学生可以用得上一些会计与金融的知识，但为什么不在网上学习呢？在过去，这可能算不上一个好选择，但科技与在线教学技术现在已经进步了许多，美国教育部(Department of Education)的一个研究发现，“平均来说，在线学习的学生比那些接受面对面教学的学生要表现得更好。”

When I got my M.B.A. from Emory in 1994, I was already an information technology leader at .U.P.S, and I was consumed with climbing the corporate ladder – just like most of my fellow students from other big companies. But today, many M.B.A. students want to do their own thing and start their own companies.

当我在1994年在埃默里大学(Emory University)拿到M.B.A.学位时，我已经是UPS快递的信息技术负责人了，满心想的都是要继续在公司内部往上攀登——就像绝大多数来自其他大公司的同学们一样。但现在，许多M.B.A.学生想要做自己的事，开创他们自己的公司。

My general management M.B.A. was worthwhile for me while I was at U.P.S. because it gave me exposure to other disciplines beyond information technology, like marketing and strategy. The accounting and strategy courses were useful even when I was building my business.

对于当时还在UPS的我来说，综合管理M.B.A.的学习已经够用了，因为它给我机会接触信息技术以外的其他领域，比如市场以及战略。会计课和战略课非常有用，即使在我创业的时候也还能用到这些知识。

But here is the biggest difference 20 years makes and why I think many M.B.A.'s haven't been relevant since the '90s: When I started my company, STI Knowledge, we had about three years to stay ahead of the competition. With today's technology, entrepreneurs tell me they have about three months. Data that used to take days or even months to acquire can now be obtained in real time. With the new speed of business, the traditional M.B.A. and the classroom have been left in the dust.

但20年光阴带来的不同之处以及我认为在上世纪90年代之后许多M.B.A.项目有些跟不上时代的原因是：当我创立我的公司STI Knowledge的时候，我们在投入竞争拼杀之前有三年时间。而创业者们告诉我，以如今的技术发展水平，他们拥有的时间只有三个月。以前需要几天甚至几个月来获取的数据现在可以即时获得。商业世界的新速度如此之快，传统的M.B.A.与教室教学已经被远远地抛在了尘土之中。

After I sold STI Knowledge, I decided I wanted to address these changes by helping to create a new kind of M.B.A. I gave my alma mater money to transform its executive M.B.A. program into an entrepreneurial M.B.A. program. People at the school called me an educational visionary and gladly took my money. I was bright-eyed and big-headed — but totally na?ve to think I could persuade a university to offer an entrepreneurship program that gets students out of the classroom. Talk about stirring up a hornet's nest!

在我出售了STI Knowledge之后，我决定，我要把这些改变公之于众，创建一种新型的M.B.A.。我为我的母校捐钱，以将他们的执行管理M.B.A.项目改进为一个创业型的M.B.A.项目。学校里的那些人说我教育方面具有远见卓识，高兴地收下了我的钱。我的确很有眼光，也很聪明——但我太天真地以为，我可以说服一所大学提供一个让学生走出教室的创业项目。还不如去捅马蜂窝呢！

I kept saying, "O.K. guys, let's get going." But their feet were in academic cement, and they would not move. And here is why: Most business schools have labor unions, known as tenured faculty, that keep the curriculum the way they want to teach it, when they want to teach it and how they want to teach it. They really did not want to hear me tell them that my M.B.A. had been largely irrelevant in helping me push my company into the 21st century — or that what I had learned from my M.B.A. no longer applied.

我一直在说，“好了，大伙儿，让我们前进吧。”但他们的脚一直被粘在学术的地板上，不愿意移动。原因是这样的：大多数商学院都有工会，也就是终身教职员工组织，这使得课程一直保持着他们想要教授的形式、时间以及方法。他们真的不想听到我告诉他们，我上的M.B.A.课程对于将我的公司带入21世纪没有什么帮助——或者我在M.B.A.课程中学到的东西再也不实用了。

You might ask where the academic leadership is. In every case where business schools have changed their M.B.A. programs to reflect the real world, you will find a strong dean whose vision and conviction have triumphed over academic entitlements. These deans could be successful entrepreneur themselves. But we are talking about the exceptions — most act more like union stewards than entrepreneurs. This why you have to get the entrepreneur out of the classroom.

你也许会问，学术界的领袖们都到哪儿去了。每一次有商学院把他们的M.B.A.项目修改得更符合现实，你都会发现一个强势的院长，他或她的视野与信念能够超越学校的既得利益。这些院长们可能本身就是成功的企业家。但是我们现在所谈的是期望——现实是他们往往更像工会代表，而非企业家。这就是你必须让企业家走出教室的原因。

Eventually, I began to offer my ideas to other institutions. What I got was a lot of interest and a lot of partners (22 universities), but little action. My vision of an entrepreneurial M.B.A. kept getting clobbered. Then, this past September, I partnered with Brenau University in Gainesville, Ga., to offer an accredited entrepreneurial M.B.A. Here's what it took: a nontenured faculty, forward-thinking deans and an entrepreneurial president of the college.

最后，我开始向其他机构传达我的想法。我所得到的是很多感兴趣的回应以及很多合伙人（22所大学），但真正的行动却很少。我对于创业型M.B.A.的设想仍然举步维艰。然后，就在刚过去的9月，我与位于佐治亚州盖恩斯维尔的布里诺大学(Brenau University)达成了合作，提供一个受承认的创业型M.B.A.项目。这个目标能达成，主要得益于这些因素：非终身制的教职工集体、高瞻远瞩的院系领导以及一个有创业精神的校长。

We put all of the academics online and worked tirelessly to integrate students into the local business community. Students attend board meetings, commerce dinners and C.E.O. round tables to get to know business leaders and their businesses. M.B.A. apprentices spend three months working side by side with a chief executive, reporting only to them. So it is possible.

我们把所有的课程都放到网上，不厌其烦地组织学生融入当地的商业圈子。学生们参加董事会议、商业晚餐以及C.E.O. 圆桌会议，以便认识了解商业领袖们以及他们的事业。M.B.A.学生们用3个月的时间跟随在一位执行副总身边工作，直接向他报告工作。所以这一切都是可能达到的。

And now, when entrepreneurs ask me whether they should go get an M.B.A., here's what I tell them: If you get in to Stanford, go. Stanford offers exceptional access to Silicon Valley, the best fast-growth ecosystem in the universe. The school's work-study program hits the all-important three Rs: rigorous, relevant, and real-world. In many cases, Stanford students end up helping a Silicon Valley company grow while getting their M.B.A. at the same time.

现在，当企业家问我是否应该去读一个M.B.A.的时候，我会这样告诉他们：如果你能去斯坦福大学，那就去吧。斯坦福能提供独一无二的接触硅谷的机会，而硅谷是全球发展最快的经济生态圈。它的商学院的半工半读项目符合三个最重要的R：严格(rigorous)，紧跟时代(relevant)以及现实(real-world)。在很多例子里，斯坦福的学生都能一边帮助一家硅谷公司发展，一边为他们的M.B.A.学位学习。

And if you get into Harvard's business school, go. It has been proved over and over that it can help you build a business, although I'm not convinced it has anything to do with the school's well-known "case study" business curriculum. For my taste, the case study remains a classroom-centric model that has little to do with entrepreneurs trying to build a business today. But go to Harvard anyway — if only for the Harvard alumni network. The contacts you make during and after the program are worth the price of admission.

如果你能去哈佛大学的商学院，那也去吧。它一直都在证明，它可以帮助你创建一份事业，尽管我并不认为这与该学院著名的“案例教学”商业课程有关。在我看来，案例教学仍然是一个以教室为中心的教学模型，与如今创业家们试图建立的事业并没有什么关系。但是不管如何，还是去哈佛吧——哪怕只是为了哈佛的校友人脉网。仅凭在项目之中以及之后你所认识的人，你入学时交的学费就已经值了。

Beyond Stanford and Harvard, I would say this: Go only if you find a program that offers real-world experience, working alongside someone who is building a business. Otherwise, while I wouldn't say the current traditional M.B.A. is useless, it is pretty much like having athletes studying game film but never practicing on the field.

在斯坦福与哈佛之外，我会这么建议：只有在你找到一个能够提供现实经验、与正在创业的人士接触的机会的项目的M.B.A.项目的时候，再去读。否则，虽然我不会说现在的传统M.B.A.完全没有用，不过它着实就像是让运动员去观看比赛录像，却从来不让他们上赛场实战一样。

Cliff Oxford is the founder of the Oxford Center for Entrepreneurs. You can follow him on Twitter.

克里夫·奥克斯福德(Cliff Oxford)是牛津创业中心(Oxford Center for Entrepreneurs)的创立者。你可以在Twitter上关注他。