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Are MBAs Too Dumb to Use RSS?
I was over at between the lines and saw an ad for BNET. I don’t usually click on online ads, but I was intrigued. BNET is a business Web site. I found an article on The 7 Interview Questions You Must Ask, which I thought was pretty good. Make no mistake: this is not Harvard Business Review. The articles are short and entertaining, perfectly matched to our ADD culture. Still, I enjoyed reading some of them and I’ll probably be back. One thing that’s a little shocking: no RSS feed. What are these guys thinking? Aren’t MBAs smart enough to run a feedreader or something?
Posted by windley on March 14, 2007 10:03 PM
Comment from Hugh at March 14, 2007 10:39 PM
I did a little poking around and found
http://jobfunctions.bnet.com/rsslist.aspx
What a huge list. Anyway, I know only one MBA smart enough to use RSS. He works at Zions Bank.
Comment from Hugh at March 14, 2007 10:41 PM
Nevermind. Not worth your time.
Comment from Sam Curren at March 15, 2007 1:49 AM
I have been surprised in much the same way by business school students. I hear several of my friends talk about business news daily, and not one of them uses a feedreader. I even sat one down and demonstrated one, highlighting several business and finance sites with RSS feeds. He forgot all about it within a few days. If they don't learn it in school, will they learn it at work?
Comment from Leslie Leite at BNET at March 15, 2007 12:35 PM
Glad you liked the article on hiring. And sorry you weren't able to easily find our RSS feeds. We've been adding new features and options weekly since launching the new site in February '07. Feedback helps us know what we need to work on!
Comment from CW at March 15, 2007 12:54 PM
Don't necessarily blame the student, look at the environment.
My observations as a current MBA student in a technology based program at a respected university: there are way too many piss-poor profs out there who like to be controlling, micromanaging, squash creativity, tell you where to get your research from, make sure you never color outside the lines, discourage risk, and evaluate ideas in the brainstorming phase.
They have the mindset that if school was miserable for the prof when s/he was a student then, it's going to suck for this current group of whipper-snappers. Quite frankly, for many, contemporary education is nothing more than academic hazing.
If a prof isn't going to get excited about RSS, you're not going to get exposed to it in class and don't dare try to suggest anything other than what is in the prof's vision for their classes. I have a prof (who for all intents and purposes is also the CTO of the university), who uses case studies, in an IT management class, that are only as current as 1992. He also had us subscribe to Listservs on the first day of class. RSS is 20 years down the road for a lot of these clowns. Unfortunately, I have a lot of anecdotal evidence that such buffoonery occurs at a lot of our revered institutions of higher education. I never previously believed in the saying, "those that can do, those that cannot teach" –- but I'm starting to now!
Furthermore, where does all this tension come from, well there's a ton of money riding on B-schools. From the tuition they pull in, to the opportunities for grads, to the reputations (right or wrong doesn't matter) industry makes about their school. It's got everyone wound up tighter than a virgin's daughter.
Comment from Ian Holsman at March 21, 2007 6:00 PM
I think the question should be rephrased to.
why isnt RSS important enough for MBAs to bother about.
are MBAs smart enough to use rss? sure.
do they know about it ? probably not.
will it help them do their job ? I'm not sure.
The MBA/B-school is there to teach them about business (finance, marketing, and strategy). They days are crammed full of this because there is always more you can learn about these topics. They don't teach you the best time management techniques, how to use powerpoint or read email. They assume you know how, and will learn it if you need too.
technology barely even gets a mention at all, and when it does it is only at the highest level. using tech to get the job done.
Most of the information you need to complete the course is in books, or in reading packs. Accessing the internet and getting the 'latest' info about something usually isn't required, and sometimes can ruin the experience (as the cases are historical, and finding out what happened can color your thoughts on it).
most of the stuff we learn isn't "new". the theory has been around for a long time.
as to perform your job (unless your job involves tech or media) you probably don't even need to keep that up2date with 100's of sites.
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