Yesterday, LeadingCompany published the findings of our investigation into how many MBAs appear on the resumes of ASX100 chiefs.
The answer is 20, in case you missed it. Just one in five of the heads of our largest ASX-listed companies holds a Masters of Business Administration Degree, the world’s premier business qualification. In America, this figure is a good deal higher: 35% of Fortune500 companies are headed by the holder of an MBA.
The low figure is alarming, especially when considered in light of the findings of government reports such as Management Matters, which found Australian managers lack soft leadership skills.
But the dearth of MBAs in our top corporate ranks may just be about timing, says Pete Manasantivongs, the director of the full-time MBA program at Melbourne Business School.
“It’s understandable given the MBA is a relatively new degree in Australia,” he tells LeadingCompany.
The first Australian MBA was offered by the Melbourne Business School in 1964. It was first offered at Harvard University in the first decade of the 20th century, meaning Australia is 50 years behind America in embracing the MBA.
For the better part of the 20th century, the MBA had free reign in much of the world as the only widely-recognised post-graduate business degree. That wasn’t the case here.
Australian universities had post-graduate business qualifications that tended to be more targeted, and less focused on general management. Here, degrees such as the Masters of Commerce and the Masters of Finance have been around for much of the 20th century. In places like the United States, they are only now becoming more mainstream.
We can see a smattering of this among the ASX100. Sydney Airport’s CEO, Kerrie Mather, for example, holds a Masters of Commerce in Marketing.
This is what you’d expect for a cohort of CEOs who finished their university studies before the MBA became very popular in Australia. Mather is 52, which is the average age of the ASX50 CEO, according to a recent Suncorp survey.
The MBA is largely a young professional’s degree. “At Melbourne Business School, in our full-time program, the average age is 28 years old with five years of work experience,” Manasantivongs says.
“In our part-time program it goes up to 30 years average with seven years’ experience, while the executive MBA tends to have those in their mid-30s to mid-40s.
In America, most leading MBA schools have an average age of 26.
This makes sense when you consider why people take up MBAs: it is an aspirational degree. “Many people who aspire to be business leaders, they’ll work for a while in an area that matches their undergraduate study,” Mansantivongs says.
Myriam Robin is a media reporter at Crikey. She’s an economics graduate who previously reported on business for LeadingCompany and SmartCompany.
