A well-argued but overlong demonstration of how earning an MBA can be a liability instead of an asset.
Ten years after receiving her master’s degree in business administration from a European business school, debut author Zanetti explains why the degree is often ineffective and unnecessary.
Zanetti takes readers through her argument point by point, beginning by noting that correlation and causation are distinct attributes: She cites research suggesting that, because the rigorous admission processes at top business schools are designed to admit individuals most likely to succeed, those individuals’ eventual successes are not the result of their educations at those schools. The book also addresses details of the financial tradeoffs students make in giving up several years of income in order to pursue a degree; most will not make up the difference in substantially higher post-MBA wages, Zanetti says. While data and figures support several of Zanetti’s arguments, others are more philosophical—the ethical limitations of business school, for instance, and the ineffectiveness of case studies as a tool for teaching students to manage new challenges. The book does admit that there are useful aspects to a business education, though Zanetti suggests that, in most cases, potential MBA students can more effectively educate themselves in the necessary areas without getting a degree. On the whole, Zanetti presents a strong argument, but it is not necessarily a book-length one; with several of the anecdotes and pieces of evidence appearing in multiple chapters, the text gets repetitive. The book is also hampered by uneven writing, and it is often evident that English is not Zanetti’s first language: “tittle” for “title”; “To create wealth in the west side of the world, it is not necessary to have neither working capital nor land”; “An MBA degree is not conceived to make you rich but to make rich the shareholders of business schools.”
A well-argued but overlong demonstration of how earning an MBA can be a liability instead of an asset.Pub Date: Oct. 29, 2013
ISBN: 978-1490942933
Page Count: 232
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Jan. 6, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
IN THE NEWS
A readable, persuasive argument that our ways of doing business will have to change if we are to prosper—or even survive.
A well-constructed critique of an economic system that, by the author’s account, is a driver of the world’s destruction.
Harvard Business School professor Henderson vigorously questions the bromide that “management’s only duty is to maximize shareholder value,” a notion advanced by Milton Friedman and accepted uncritically in business schools ever since. By that logic, writes the author, there is no reason why corporations should not fish out the oceans, raise drug prices, militate against public education (since it costs tax money), and otherwise behave ruinously and anti-socially. Many do, even though an alternative theory of business organization argues that corporations and society should enjoy a symbiotic relationship of mutual benefit, which includes corporate investment in what economists call public goods. Given that the history of humankind is “the story of our increasing ability to cooperate at larger and larger scales,” one would hope that in the face of environmental degradation and other threats, we might adopt the symbiotic model rather than the winner-take-all one. Problems abound, of course, including that of the “free rider,” the corporation that takes the benefits from collaborative agreements but does none of the work. Henderson examines case studies such as a large food company that emphasized environmentally responsible production and in turn built “purpose-led, sustainable living brands” and otherwise led the way in increasing shareholder value by reducing risk while building demand. The author argues that the “short-termism” that dominates corporate thinking needs to be adjusted to a longer view even though the larger problem might be better characterized as “failure of information.” Henderson closes with a set of prescriptions for bringing a more equitable economics to the personal level, one that, among other things, asks us to step outside routine—eat less meat, drive less—and become active in forcing corporations (and politicians) to be better citizens.
A readable, persuasive argument that our ways of doing business will have to change if we are to prosper—or even survive.Pub Date: May 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5417-3015-1
Page Count: 336
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
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