Are you just another struggling MBA Clone?

Here is a guest post from Dan Herman, author of Outsmart the MBA Clones: The Alternative Guide to Competitive Strategy, Marketing, and Branding. You can download an excerpt of the book by clicking on the link. Thanks for the great post, Dan!

Are you just another struggling MBA Clone?

Believe me; you do not want to be an MBA clone. In our hyper-competitive markets, MBA clones pose an imminent and tangible threat to the competitiveness of the companies they work for. Many executives today attend the same MBA programs, study the same books, read the same newspapers and magazines, and go to the same conferences and workshops. Standardization in MBA programs results in a similarity in the professional approach and managerial thinking of their graduates. It also shapes the vocabulary and agenda of all the business media and training activities. Bottom line: many executives today turn into “MBA clones”.

What's wrong with MBA-graduate managers who apply the professional knowledge and skills they have learned? All those managers who are supposed to compete with one another and create that very differentiation which gives consumers a good reason to prefer one brand over another, eventually end up using the same data; they conduct the same types of consumer research and draw conclusions using same methods; they analyze the same information with the same tools, and use the same concepts and approaches in order to create products and brands.

The result? Inevitably, most products, and even most brands, appear as "same" to the consumer. These managers are not even playing me-too. Without consciously imitating each other, they achieve the same results, simply because they think and act the same way.

Not every MBA graduate necessarily becomes an MBA clone. But MBA graduates definitely constitute an at-high-risk population. So what about you? Are you an MBA graduate? Do you have the symptoms? Don't be frightened . Let me reassure you that being an MBA clone is not a condition beyond cure.

De-cloning is possible and rather painless. But first please take this short test to assess your situation.  All you have to do is answer with candor, courage and integrity the following 10 questions, with a "Yes" or a "No". I promise not to tell anyone if you won't…

Question 1:
Do you often use concepts such as "striving for a sustainable competitive advantage", "segmenting the market", "assuming a niche strategy", "fostering customer loyalty", "developing a corporate vision", "adopting brand values"?

Question 2:
Do you prefer courses of action that already worked for others?

Question 3:
Do you focus on blocking competitors from gaining an advantage more than on attempting to achieve one yourself?

Question 4:
Would you agree that both you and your competitors segment the market in a similar manner and then focus on the same attractive groups?

Question 5:
To gain a competitive advantage, do you strive to be better than your competitors in providing clients with benefits that are known to be important in your market?

Question 6:
Do you consider strategy to be an analytic process of research, analysis, setting objectives and planning?

Question 7:
Do you address mostly direct competitive threats, while disregarding other product categories in which future competition could emerge such as substitutes?

Question 8:
Do you try to think outside the box and consider out of the box thinking as an important capability for managers?

Question 9:
Do you think that customers generally know what they want and where their preferences lie, and consequently if you keep them satisfied (even delighted) they will remain loyal to you?

Question 10:
Do you believe that all brands are created for the long term and become stronger as they stand the test of time?

If you gave an affirmative answer to more than 5 of these questions, I am sorry to inform you that you are, at least to some extent, an MBA clone. My advice: start thinking about d-cloning yourself right now. I hope that it is of no consolation to you that many of your colleagues and competitors alike suffer the same condition. De-cloning yourself will not only set you free but also do wonders for your ability to thrive in competitive markets.

How do you go about de-cloning yourself, then?

Going through a de-cloning process means: becoming fully aware of your typical MBA thinking and subsequently realizing that it is not the ultimate truth but just one way of interpreting business reality and operating in the marketplace. The popular "think outside the box" imperative (the 'box' being in fact typical MBA thinking) is not very helpful to most executives. They need to actively coach themselves in using alternative concepts and methods. The following link http://www.outsmart-mba-clones.com/decloning.html will land you on a web-page where you'll find 10 guidelines for embarking on a de-cloning process.

You may also want to read Dr. Dan Herman's recently published book, Outsmart the MBA Clones: The Alternative Guide to Competitive Strategy, Marketing, and Branding. The primary cunning intent of this book is to help the reader take advantage of MBA clones' biases. But the book also has a beneficial de-cloning effect.  It can help MBA Clones start practicing a new managerial approach and a toolkit unlike anything taught in MBA schools. Might be worth a try.

Comments

[Dan McCarthy]

Lisa –

I just discover your blog – it’s great! I just subscribed and added you to my blogroll. (I’ve got a blog on leadership and leadership development.)

And we have a few things in common, including the love of dogs and chocolate.

[Lisa Haneberg]

Welcome to the blogosphere, Dan! And thanks for reading MC.

[Debashish Bramha]

Dear Madam,
Your Blog is very very interesting; I am from India, an emerging economy.
Executional Excellence scores more and required than Academic Excellence.
Rather you require a mix of both.
This gentleman http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakshmi_Mittal
Dropped out from IISWBM, Calcutta, and today he is a big name in the global steel business.
Do you really require an MBA to be successful in Business a very big debatable
Question?
With Warm Regards

[Stephen]

You have really interesting thoughts. I liked your post. Would love read more posts like this. I personally believe that you don't have to be an MBA to run a business otherwise every successful businessman in this world would have been MBAs.

Stephen
http://collegematchingservice.com/