Are your school's MBA students worthy of being called Master/Gurus?

In one of the entrep talks, I was asked that question.  I remember it was duirng an MBAH entrep class entrep guest presentation and the guest who is from UP, an MBA (he was a milk company comptroller, and he did a lot of asset swaps, back to back leasing when the financial crisis stuck). shocked me with the question "Are your students now, worthy of being called Masters/Gurus?  During our time, our training made so good in business and strategic thinking"

I was shocked and frankly I did not know the answer.  I did not know what kind of stuff my fellow professors were teaching the MBA students, and whether there were assessments made to that effect.

Do we have gurus and Masters in our midst? Really?

Judging from some of the Strama defenses I attended, and from some of the BP submitted to me, and during case analyses which I did after that question was raised, and from the forum on the net on which is the best MBA school?,  I hate that I was asked that question.

     l.  Many lack critical thinking;

     2.  In the area of Personal Mastery (just coming to school on time and regularly;  submitting all the assignments)

     3.  Many fare badly in case analysis

     4. Many lack the rigor of use of research data and facts.  Some think that my subject does not have rigor.

In our search for being the biggest, we neglected quality.  However I admire the male strama professors who make sure that the school MBA imprint is deserved by those who wear it. I joined the ranks of faculty who were more rigorous and even flunked those who did not deserve to be called MBA.  (Now many of them are now forgotten and me included are at the backdoor)

I would have to do a lot more work (with our colleagues, to answer yes to that question.

I will check the Business Plans today and tomorrow Christmastime

I got all the 13 business plans of the Sentrep class.  They were due December 20;  however the last day of the class was December 19.  Those who submitted last December l9 at AGSB will be graded after Jan 8, the first day of class in 2013 (RJ, who did, re - submitted via LBC -  I got her LBC send today.

5 papers were in partnership:  9 were solo. Those who are in partnership will get a maximum grade of 3 only.  Congrats to those who dared and went solo.  They learned invaluable lessons about business, business planning, research, creativity and above all entrepreneurship.

I noticed that some did not meet the basic requirement of at least 40 pages.  One paper will free me from checking because it did not meet the requirement of being written in a prescribed format. (They did not listen or read the syllabus.)

The business plan writing is a dry run for strama course. Those who listened well who understood what strategy is all about, and went through the rigor of business plan writing did well in their strama.  Well those who did not....

Personal mastery and systems thinking is the strategy

I used to be enamored with strategy early on.  However as I mature as a businessman, strategy is very remote in the mind of the troops/employees.

Thus after I studied Peter Senge "The Fifth Discipline" and there are numerous writings on his works as "The Strategy"  I began to wonder.

Then it sank to me: a computer network or a dozen ipads, or a fleet of vehicles will not make you execute your strategy -  sometimes your organization will make them them all inutile.  In my experience in facilitation for strategy, I can see how people are so stuck in old mindset and systems -  they could not simply let go even if they know that they are standing or lying on a hot pan.  They will always mention how they have done that before.  You can observe their behavior in the workshop or production of outputs or even how they eat or interact what ails their organization

The two disciplines  mentioned above are:   personal mastery (habits) and systems thinking.  These are more important than the objectives and key activities and resources

It is more important for the mentor/strategist to:

1,  Work on the habits/personal mastery and systems thinking (what structures make the people behave in the organization?  The reporting system, the table arrangement, the salaries, rewards?)

2.  Or better work on the pro - motion (as Dr. Ned Roberto said)  work on the action rather than the value system

What do you think?

Can you make your soldiers fight if they are devout religious fanatics (not to kill?)