Jack Welch: 'It is brutal. It has got to change.'

Jack Welch, former chief of General Electric (GE) with his own Jack Welch Management Institute featuring an online MBA programme, wonders about the average MBA’s return on investment, according to the Wall Street Journal. The former GE boss says there are many other ways for aspiring executives to acquire the skills needed to run a company. In his latest book of career advice ‘The Real Life MBA’ he claims that navigating everyday life at work provides valuable management training, too.

Here is Welch's take on traditional MBA programmes and their future:

'Traditional MBA programmes miss a lot of the human equation about building teams, about being generous managers who love to see their people succeed, who love to give their people raises and promotions. The marginal school with the overpaid and underworked faculty – below the top 25 MBA programmes – they’ve got to get their act together. They’d better start providing more value to the student. Students are taking on this enormous debt. It’s brutal. It’s got to change. And the Internet – online education, in my view, is what’s going to change it. If you want to spend 300,000 dollars – and here’s how I get to that: 100,000 dollar salary, two years gone, plus tuition. If you can afford to do that, it’s a good investment, if you get into a top school.'

Read more at The Wall Street Journal

Barbara Bierach