People are often highly critical of formal management education. They claim it constrains innovation and entrepreneurial behaviour. But let's put this is some perspective.....

1. Can you learnthe "Living Organisation" s
Part of anything from
management education?
Management
education teaches
you how to learn
and build your own
knoweldge
Useful or Limiting?
Dr Norman Chorn | norman.chorn@centstrat.com | www.normanchorn.com | www.centstrat.com
It’s become quite fashionable these days to criticize the value of our education system.
And I don’t mean the criticism focused on lifting Australian educational standards to match
international best practice. This is necessary if we want to retain our place as a truly
competitive nation.
No, I’m talking about the criticism that is leveled against the value of formal management
education in driving innovation and creativity. The argument suggests that the structure
and theory learned at college and university make people risk averse and unwilling to
create new opportunities. They point to people like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Dick Smith and
Kerry Packer to suggest that formal education serves little purpose in creating successful
business enterprises.
Let’s get some perspective on the issue. Yes, there are some dud management colleges
and university courses where the qualifications aren’t worth much.
Yes, there are many graduates from management courses and degrees who actually can’t
do anything useful.
In general, however, bright and exceptional people (like Jobs, Gates, Smith and Packer)
will usually succeed, with or without formal education. They have a natural ability to learn
and adapt - and they generally identified opportunities early and didn’t bother finishing
their education.
But most of us have to learn how to learn. We have to learn how to assimilate, integrate
and analyse information to make intelligent decisions. We have to learn that correlation
does not imply causation. We have to learn how to interpret outlier data. We need to know
the history so we can build on what has gone before and not reinvent the wheel.

2. Colleges and universities teach us how to learn. They allow us to advance our own
knowledge by building on the work of others. Once we have learned, it is our natural
progressiveness or conservatism that comes to the fore. Our personality will then
determine whether we seek to play it safe or go out and create new things. Now, maybe
colleges and universities attract a high proportion of those who want to play it safe in the
belief that an education will give them security. But that is quite different to alleging that a
management education through college or university will suppress innovation and
creativity.
Management education is an important ingredient in improving the overall effectiveness of
Australian enterprise and our overall levels of productivity.
Norman is a Future Strategist and Organisational Architect. He believes in the value
of management education and informed decision making.
Norman conducts workshops in
strategy and organisation design.
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norman.chorn@centstrat.com