A company like Hewlett Packard or Microsoft has lakhs of employees in high paying jobs. So many of their customers are using their technology. If the management is incompetent and not able to perform, then all these people suffer and the impact will be felt across many countries. Then, why both Microsoft and Hewlett Packard did not insist on management degrees for Steve Ballmer and Mark Hurd, who are the CEOs of these companies respectively.
Steve Ballmer discontinued from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business and should be having only half-baked ideas of management. Whereas, Mark Hurd is even worse and has only a bachelors degree of business management. He did not even have a postgraduate MBA course.
Peter Drucker, the management guru said, “Management is a practice”. The expertise in management comes only by practicing and getting your hands dirty on the field. Learning, adopting and growing in the process.
The Practice of management is independent of a management degree. Having the degree gives you the theoretical basis for management. However, there is no guarantee that you will be able to perform in real life.
Let me explain this simply – It is like fast bowling, if someone is given theoretical inputs on how to bowl at 150 kmph in cricket for 14 years. With textbooks, classroom instructions and rigorous tests to check the knowledge on fast bowling. It does not mean this person will actually be able to bowl at 120 kmph. While an uneducated teenager having the right genetics (physique) and used to hard work can quickly be taught to bowl over 120 kmph. Because, it depends on the ability to exert yourself and some technique that is learned on the playground.
