I would say that MBA means nothing by itself. It's 100% about their social network. MBAs were a great way to network as a lot of elite kids got MBAs. An MBA is just a proxy for something else which isn't necessarily there...
When we hire MBAs it means nothing except a minimum standard of work ethic and communication skills and usually (but not always) ability to grasp and breakdown problems. What they usually lack is expertise/applicable experience, we know this when we hire them, but any non-MBA candidate with relevant experience is preferred to an MBA. Like I said we don't expect fresh MBAs to know deeply about software but you do get pompous types who don't have the humility to realise they are out of their depth
An MBA is exactly what it sounds like. It teaches you how to administer a business. Not how to found one (it’s often counterproductive for that), not how to have good ideas, not how to spot product cycles, but to take an existing business and make economically rational, not entirely stupid decisions for it.
Curriculum usually includes things like pricing; applied microeconomics; power & politics (ie how to get the org to do what you want), business ethics, some intro to corporate law, oftentimes electives that are deeper dives on how specific industries are structured.
My wife got an MBA at the same time I was working on founding a startup and they are basically completely disjoint skillsets. If you treat the MBA as training for how to be the hired Director/VP in an established organization and not the person who wills it into existence in the first place, it can be a pretty interesting curriculum.
I have no idea what they teach in MBA programs these days - I'm many years removed from the age that most people get theirs.
My dad got his MBA in 1959. When I was younger and considering one (I moved out of day to day tech work a long time ago because I wanted to "fix" the business problems I kept encountering because of their negative impact on the tech work), we reviewed curricula for several programs.
My dad was pretty astounded that in the wake of globalism and technology, they were still teaching the same tired-ass theories that he was taught in the 50's. Note that this conversation wasn't all that long ago in the grand scheme of things.
I get that this is a vulture capital site but all one has to do is look at what is happening in the world (Bain capital et al) and you see that all they are really teaching/practicing is wealth extraction, not wealth building.
Edit: sorry, my dad got his BS in 1959, his MBA in 1962.
