The MBA, once seen as a golden ticket to success, may no longer carry the weight it once did.
At least that’s what CHRO Seema Raghunath says. She wrote on LinkedIn, “MBA is history.”
In her post, Raghunath questions whether MBAs still add value in today’s workplaces, saying many graduates are average and lack the critical thinking needed to stand out.
She reminds readers that the MBA dates back to 1908 as a “Master of Administration”, created to prepare people for general management roles when industries needed desk managers, not leaders.
“Harvard came up with an idea to qualify those with no real qualities — who can do general management of anything,” she writes. Over time, she says, what began as a basic course turned into an expensive product — “boring khichdi” rebranded as Chicken Biryani, Mughlai, Dalcha, and Dindigul — often costing “a kidney or a lung.”
But despite the rising costs, Raghunath argues that without an IQ of 125+ or creative genius, the MBA is “toilet paper.”
She is especially critical of MBAs in HR. “If an MBA could not inject common sense and natural intellect during the world’s worst time — pandemic — it has failed,” she wrote.
Looking ahead, Raghunath believes companies are changing their approach. Instead of valuing degrees alone, they are now looking for “true blue intellectuals” — those with backgrounds in humanities, philosophy, psychology, history, sociology, and politics.
“Intelligence is independent of stamps. Welcome to the new world,” she concludes—a world where degrees alone no longer hold the same weight.
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