I was in Phnom Penh for the
first time a couple of
Christmases ago in a hotel in
the centre and we were just
sitting next to an amazingly
imposing building that I
thought must be the Senate or
the Supreme Court and my
wife and I wandered across to
take a look and chiseled in
stone said National
University of Management.
This stuff is absolutely
huge.
My argument is
actually look at when MBAs were
created, they were invented
about the same time as the
motor car,
the internal combustion engine.
Both have changed
our society absolutely hugely.
Both have done tremendously
good things. But here's the
difference with the motor car
we've come to realise that it
produces some social bad things
along with the good things,
where as I think most people
wouldn't be able to name a
single bad thing that this
growth of management education
produces. And not just at the
Masters level.
One of the things that
personally shocks me was to
discover that in Britain,
as an undergraduate subject,
business and management is
the top undergraduate subject
they're teaching people.
Now, the MBA as you and I will
know was intended for people
with some practical experience
of management to help take them
further. And I applaud that,
it does that. This stuff has
spread.
Kids are now doing management
as their top undergraduate
choice.
