Reflecting on my MBA

One of my classmates gave me some interesting news. Mark Rosenbaum, our marketing professor, quit his position at the University of Hawaii. He's the second professor to resign soon after teaching the JEMBA/CHEMBA group -- Chris Helm announced his resignation soon after our Entrepreneurship class finished.

Entrepreneurship was an interesting class, though many qualities we learned about truly successful entrepreneurs countered what we learned as MBA students. For example Jack Ma, the guy who introduced the Internet to China, had no knowledge of the technology he was dealing with, no money to invest in his venture, and no real business plan. Yet he's been hugely successful.

In the end, I think what I've really learned from our program and the material presented over the past eight months is that there are no hard truths to success in business. Marketing said "Do market research!" but entrepreneurship showed you sometimes can't do that for truly innovative products. Strategy gets touted as critical in some cases, and in others, a flexible strategy (meaning "figure it out when we get there") is best.

Moreover, since passing my oral test a lot of my motivation has faded. In April last year, I had a choice: accept the scholarship and do CHEMBA, or skip it and keep trying for the FS directly. Since the MBA seemed useful in either case (better job prospects if I fail, start as an FP-5 if I pass), I opted for that. But I think, "what good is my Chinese marketing class now that my future appears to be government?"

Doing CHEMBA was still the better good choice, but the intrinsic benefits of Chinese Marketing class is diminishing as I see myself on track to do other things.