Are MBA programs producing the right type of talent?

[aveekguha]

We are currently going through a seismic economic shift, one that I think will shape the MBA job prospectus for years to come. Specifically:

1. The financial services industry is going to shrink by 30+%
There is overabundant talent supply and too many companies doing the same things. The investor class is also going to become much more risk averse going forward - the index funds win out 95% of the time, I see much more auto-pilot investing in the future, reducing the demand for hedge funds & investment professionals.

2. Energy & Healthcare are the only non-cyclical industries
These areas will be priorities independent of economic cycle or elected majority. The aging of the population and national security concerns are endemic to this era.

3. The rise of the small business
The one thing Washington can agree on is that we don't want to have 'too big too fail' becoming a business classification. I think there will be more and more stimulus to enlarge the small business population such that risk is diversified in the economy.

MBA programs have been slow to address the new job classes to emerge out of this financial crises. Very little focus has been on helping small businesses grow (short of starting one yourself), not much more academic curriculum is targeted towards energy & healthcare. It is a serious worry that MBA programs are highly overweighted to producing managerial talent to indusrties that are shrinking (finance, consulting) than growing.

Aveek Guha, President, www.mbadaycamp.com
https://mbadaycamp.typepad.com/mbablog/

[jasmineeoc]

Interesting post, although I do have one quibble...

Health care is cyclical, it is just an atypical cycle. The current round of recruiting, building, and growth in health care will lead to a contraction when the Boomer generation dies out. There just aren't enough Gen X to use all the services that will be developed. It is likely that hospitals and post-acute facilities will fail, and that nurses and other health care specialists will be out of jobs. Once the Millenials start aging, there will be another boom as the sector ramps up to meet that need. That's assuming that the basic models of disease treatment stay the same, and there are no guarantees of that.

So health care is a good sector for today's professionals, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend it for someone entering the workforce in 15 years.

In any case, health care does need highly qualified leaders and B schools should be looking at better preparation for that sector.