Comments on: Why non-profits are good employers and MBAs give bad advice

By: Jim

Jim — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 20:35:09 +0000

Hi Tim – I work in IT for a non-profit Canadian hospital and I've also been working on my MBA for the past 2 1/2 years. (Athabasca U) I can tell you that we've learned pretty much what Dan Pink is saying – most MBA programs work hard to keep current. The problems you see may be with those who earned their MBA years ago and haven't kept current – you can find those in any proffesion! Your comment on non-profit's being "more efficient and productive than they are given credit for" just look at Canadian healthcare against American – longer life expectancy, lower mortality in infants – half the cost. Throwing money at the problem isn't always the answer. Yes, Canada has problems with healthcare – but as for the people who have gone to the states motivated only by money – you're welcome to them!

By: Timoluege

Timoluege — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 07:53:38 +0000

Thank you very much for those links – it's great to see that there are more and more initiatives like this. I still think, from my own personal experience, that unfortunately most MBAs don't have a background like that and that their advice can be very detrimental to the very things that make a non-profit organization work. But maybe that is changing – let's hope it does!

By: @FSSimon

@FSSimon — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 02:02:46 +0000

Well, Tim…even though I don't have a MBA, I don't think all MBAs or consultants are the wrong people to provide advice. There's a considerable focus on social enterprise or social entrepreneurship in business schools now: T ake a look at the Harvard Social Enterprise Initiative (http://www.hbs.edu/socialenterprise/) and the Stanford Center for Social Innovation (http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/csi/). How about the Social Enterprise Alliance? (http://www.se-alliance.org/) There's a growing world of MBA laden consultants out there. It's up to NPOs to start listening!