For many reasons, those in the interactive space have a love to hate relationship with those who have their MBA’s, especially those from certain prestigious universities. Unlike other professions, graduate degrees are anything but required in the ad-tech space. Most companies will gladly trade self-taught technical know how for formal business education more typically required for those entering certain echelons of industry. The love to hate relationship is something that we’ve long had a fascination with, as companies in the ad-tech space seem to go through a typical lifecycle. First comes the scrappy entrepreneur and/or coder who figures out a product/service. They grow, either organically or through money. Then, at some point when they have hit scale, either they decide, but often external directors decide, that more seasoned management should join the company.
When that happens, as often or not, or so it seems, the company either works or ends disastrously. It happens not just at the C-level but at all major levels of management, with companies thinking that hiring the MBA will either solve their problems or must be done to succeed. That there is a stigma associated with those with MBA degrees in our space suggests that at least in enough cases, bringing on the “professional” has not solved the solution. It’s equally possible that companies simply haven’t brought on the right professionals. I would wager in most cases, it has more to do with not bringing on the right person than some trait inherent in those with MBAs. Fun as it is for those of us who are undereducated to pick on those with enhanced educations, we wanted to understand why it goes wrong when it does. The supposition. It’s knowing versus doing. Let’s start with an example, the sales coach versus the sales manager.
Sales Coach Versus Sales Manager
When I was doing media buying for an ad network years ago, I remember their investing in a sales coach to spend a half-day with the team. In this example, the sales coach represents the MBA student. They have a framework, but they don’t know the specific industry, and that’s ok. The sales coach has a framework and a set of experiences that apply to almost any who sell for a living. The products change, but the emotions involved generally don’t. People are people, and the sales coach teaches those who sell how to deal with people. Each product will have some nuances unique to it, but even those nuances can generally be reduced to fit an existing paradigm.
Unlike the coach, the sales manager can add value to a sales team without necessarily making his sales team better at the sales process. A salesperson can know how to sell anything, but if they don’t understand what they are selling and they don’t know who they should sell to, then they are screwed. That’s where the sales manager comes in. They help the salesperson know the product, arm them with materials, and equally important, with prospects, or at least with information on how to better prospect. If they know how to help the person develop as a sales professional, that’s even better. But, it’s far from critical. They add much more value by making sure the team knows what to do, avoids conflicts, and finds ways to let the people succeed. It doesn’t negate the value of a sales coach, but a sales coach as the sales manager wouldn’t add nearly as much value.
Those Who Do, Do. Those Who Can’t, Teach.
When tour professionals no longer play competitively, what do they do? There is one thing that they almost never do, and that is teach. The reverse also holds true. When professional coaches stop teaching or look to pivot, there is one thing they almost never do (Fred Funk being the exception) – play professional golf. But, there is one thing that tour pros and pro teachers have in common. They need each other. The best players in the world all have swing coaches; yet, the best swing coaches cannot play nearly as well as those they teach. Yet, no one seems to critique golf coaches the way some like to critique teachers in general. Yes, many of the students will be better and are already smarter than those who teach them. That doesn’t necessarily make the teacher a bad teacher or the role of a teacher invalid. It is why, while there is some truth to the saying, those who do, do and those who can’t, teach, it tends to get too narrowly interpreted. The world needs doers, but it also needs people who can help create future doers.
You need someone to help bring out the best in you, but also need someone to help you with the map
Specific Skill versus Framework
The issues we see tend to arise when people are looking for a specific skill but end up with a framework and vice versa. If you need someone who knows how to work a ping-post system but get someone who knows how to create sales teams, it’s probably not a fit. What you really wanted was someone to either plug into a specific role or come with specific expertise to help bring up the learning curve. You want someone who knows the right questions to ask and to help you avoid mistakes specific to a task. In these cases, you don’t need an MBA. Put one on there, and it will probably not go well. But, if you need someone who has training and expertise in pattern recognition, modeling, management, and/or creating general infrastructure, then you probably would benefit from someone who has either that degree or experience in consulting. Not that it will change our desire to poke fun at the MBA, but we hopefully now have a better sense when to ask one for help.
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