Each year from the ivy covered halls of Harvard and Wharton. And the sun drenched campuses of Stanford and USC. To the intellectual vineyards of France's ENSEA, the fabled London School of Business, and the teaming campus of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. More 100,000 students graduate from full or part time regular and executive MBA programs. That's three times the number of law degrees, more than four times the number of engineering degrees, and more than seven times the number of medical degrees. Now, I know that a business degree may not be in your future at all. You may aspire to be a scientist, an artist, or even a lawyer, despite the surplus of lawyer jokes. But whatever is in your future, there are some important lessons that you can learn from the things that are taught in business schools. One of the first things is this. At any given business school you will of course learn the key concepts, tools, and skills that are the foundation of the MBA degree. Really, the more important thing to gain from business school for many students, is the invaluable set of networks that you can develop as part of your MBA experience. But only if you are open during that experience and aware of just how important those networks are. So before we tackle the idea of what's in an MBA toolbox, I would like you to think about your own undergraduate experience. Are you the kind of student that spends all your time studying and little time interacting with your classmates and other students? That may well be a good strategy if your goal is to get great grades and get into graduate school. However, do keep in mind that all those other students that you are sharing your experience with are fellow travelers in the world. And they might be helpful to you some time in the future. So that's the first key tip, don't forget to cultivate your networks when you're a student because they can be as valuable as anything you might learn in the classroom. Okay, with that bit of pontificating, let's start our journey into what the best MBA's know with an overview of the MBA curriculum. Let's start with one of the most important MBA tools, the conceptual framework. Here, conceptually, we can think about the MBA degree as being divided into five main interrelated and interlocking parts. The first part is the MBA toolbox. This is the world of quantitative analysis and it includes tools like statistics, decision analysis, and modeling. This is an area that drills right down to that quotation that I shared with you earlier. Namely that you can't manage what you can't measure. Some of the big questions of managerial analysis include things like how to evaluate risk and how to model decision making. Of course, the biggest question of all may be, how you should interpret data in decision making. The big personal takeaway here is, don't rely just on your gut and intuition to make your decisions. Know how to use the available data to help yourself. As for the second part of the MBA curriculum, this is the functional MBA. Basically, when you look at corporations and businesses, they are typically divided into functional areas like operations management, marketing, financial and cost accounting and corporate finance. In fact, this is the bread and butter of the traditional MBA curriculum. By studying these topics, you'll learn how to find and manage the funds for your company's capital facilities and activities. You will also learn how to produce, distribute, market and sell your products and services. As I talk about each of these areas in parts two and three of this lesson, this should be a good time to see if any of these areas have any appeal to you. It's never to soon to start thinking about your career path. Do you like the order, logic, and discipline of accounting? Are you an extrovert who loves selling ideas and products? Or are you a puzzle master who loves designing intricate systems to make things work? As for the third part of the MBA core curriculum, it is what I call the Strategic & Tactical MBA. Basically you have two main courses here, strategy and macroeconomics. Strategy is a cool course that teaches you both how and why to make the big decisions every corporation faces. From market entry and market positioning to product diversification, and mergers and acquisitions. While it might seem strange to put macroeconomics in the group with strategy, the two actually work very well together. This is because macroeconomics is all about the when or the timing of many strategic decisions. From product production and inventory levels, to the tone of the marketing messages. Again, from a career point of view, does it float your boat to think strategically? Even if it doesn't, just remember there's lots of folks out there you will compete with in the job market, and it may be a good idea to cultivate a strategic perspective. Now, the fourth part of the MBA curriculum is The Organizational & Leadership MBA. This is the realm of so called soft skills, as opposed to the hard skills of data crunching and supply chain management. In studying a topic like organizational behavior leadership, you will learn just why and how managing a successful business is very much a team sport. You will also see why the best strategies that a company may pursue, will ultimately crash and burn if the company has severe people issues. This may be a good time to reflect about your own soft skills. Are you comfortable talking to small or large groups? Do you consider yourself a leader or a follower? Are you willing to try to overcome any shyness in reaching out to people? If you are the leader, do you lead by example? These are all important questions to consider, and you don't have to wait to go to business school to start thinking about them. As for the fifth and final part of the MBA curriculum, it's the political and regulatory MBA. And the courses in this box have names like, government and business, ethics and responsibility, or business law. And, each in their own way, have to do with effectively managing an enterprise within the broader regulatory environment in which all commerce takes place. The big take away here, is that knowing how to jump through regulatory hoops or navigate a government bureaucracy, can be every bit as important as properly pricing a product or having the right amount of inventory on hand. So even if you hate big government, at least learn to know thy enemy. It's never too soon to start thinking about the ethical dimensions of what you do in both your personal and professional life. As the saying goes, a persons' character determines his or her fate. Okay, that's our conceptual framework to think about what the best MBAs know. In part two of this lesson, which should be a lot of fun I might add, I'm going to show you how each of these five conceptual areas might come into play if you follow the tips and wisdom of Professor from the last lesson and decide to start your own business. So when you're ready, let's move on to Part 2. [MUSIC]
