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by Andrew Lam-Po-Tang
One of the great privileges of writing this random column is that I occasionally get to correspond with people in design who really give a shit. You know, people who want to go beyond being a spectator and become a player. Brent Spencer (Brent_Spencer@meniscustech.com.au) is one of these people, and recently he asked me about business education options. Here is my reply:
Hey Brent,
Re your enthusiasm for developing business skills - I think this is a very good move. As you know, I argue a case that designers, due to the evolution of the internet, will need to become much more business & technology literate in order to prosper, so you are spot on. However, be prepared for some 'sticker shock' as you investigate specific courses because universities nowadays are well aware of the value of these degrees.
There are two basic types of university education available to you: undergraduate (eg. Bachelor degrees) or post-graduate (eg. MBA, etc). The post-graduate courses tend to be more expensive but also higher quality. The higher quality comes from three main sources:
1. Competition between MBA schools -- MBA courses tend to be benchmarked against world-class alternatives (eg. Harvard, Stanford, etc.)
2. Students -- They tend to be older, more experienced and much more focussed than undergrads who, in addition to learning stuff, are also learning how to deal with the freedom of post-highschool life. Additionally, I would argue that the full-time programs generate higher quality because the intensity of student interactions is higher, which makes 'team work' a real and in-your-face experience
3. Teaching staff -- the lecturers and professors know that good performance at a good MBA program can be a ticket for lucrative personal consulting, so they (in general) tend to be a bit more focussed on their subjects and research
For more info on MBA courses, a site worth checking out is "BusinessWeek". Every year it publishes a special issue comparing top schools (mainly US). The articles give you good insight into what students look for out of this type of education, which you can then use to evaluate your local options.
Undergraduate courses can still be a very good option if you're prepared to manage most of your education and development yourself, and mainly use the curriculum and lecturers as 'guideposts.'
And even before that, there is a wealth of education "lying around on the ground" in the form of practical observations and existing books and magazines -- you just have to be interested enough to pick up on all of it. A couple of good questions that are worth asking every time you meet a business person you respect are:
1. Exactly what is it you do that makes people open their wallets for you?
2. How do you manage the competition -- what makes clients/customers choose you over the next guy?
Hope that helps!
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The views expressed this article are not necessarily those of AGDA. Please note that the information in this article is the opinion of the author only. I can therefore accept no responsibility for actions taken on the basis of this information. Copyright Andrew Lam-Po-Tang (andrew@lam-po-tang com), 1998-2008. Permission is granted to freely copy this document in electronic form, or to print, for personal use. Reprinting for non-personal use will require the express permission of the author (which I will generally be very happy to give).
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