Having a successful business does not have a sure shot recipe. What it does have is a consistent set of ingredients. All you need is to eyeball the quantity based on your requirements. Some must-haves to start a business are:
- Powerful idea
- Market demand or the demand for the idea or product you plan to sell
- Passion to persist
- Finance or capital or investment (potential investors)
However, to successfully run a business, you need the following:
- Domain knowledge
- Market understanding
- Sales
- Persuasion and negotiation skills
- Risk taking ability
- Strategic thinking
- Strong and well-read team
- Strong communication
But with all the above, does one really need an MBA to be successful in business? The answer may not be entirely yes or no. However, you can definitely enhance your chances of succeeding with a decent degree like an MBA.
MBA (Masters of Business Administration) is a post-graduation degree in business administration. Throughout an MBA, you’ll learn about the various branches of management education. The list includes Operations, Logistics, Marketing, Human Resource Management, and Finance.
In addition, you also get to learn Strategy Building, Branding, Entrepreneurship, Decision Making, Corporate Finance, Data Analytics, etc.
Many would argue that an MBA may not be the ultimate thing you need to succeed in your business. However, it can positively act as a facilitator in understanding and enhancing your capabilities.
Let us see in detail how an MBA can help you acquire the expertise to run your business successfully:
Domain Knowledge
It is indeed mandatory to have in-depth knowledge about the product (or idea) you want to sell. If you are opening a business that provides consultancy to media firms or IT firms, you must be well-versed with concepts in these areas.
Venturing into a field with practically no knowledge about it will help in no way. An MBA can help you learn the domain you are interested in. Practical knowledge and experience are no doubt a necessity, but an MBA can definitely play a booster.
Market Understanding
One of the most crucial aspects of successfully running a business is to have a thorough understanding of your target audience and potential customers. An MBA can definitely provide a platform to learn and know about the different tools you can use to conduct surveys and market researches. The exposure at a B-School while pursuing an MBA helps you learn about the latest trends in the market.
Sales
Sales is another critical facet of growing and running a business successfully. It is imperative to have an innate knack to know how to sell your idea or product. An MBA degree definitely enables this quality.
A B-school provides a platform where you can pitch and present mock business models and proposals. There are multiple clubs and societies that function in colleges that give such opportunities to students.
Persuasion and Negotiation Skills
Skills like persuasion and negotiation cannot be taught in general. However, they can definitely be polished over time with practice.
When you pursue a degree like an MBA, these two skills will form the base of your learning. You are always put through scenarios where you get a chance to practice these skills. An MBA definitely helps you make a robust business plan and develop a persuasive pitch.
Risk Taking Ability
Having an MBA degree helps you become more comfortable in taking risks as a businessman. It teaches you with the help of tools like Five Forces Model and SWOT analysis.
Strategic Thinking
An MBA enhances your ability to think strategically. It exposes you to a variety of exciting concepts and motivating case-studies. Getting yourself acquainted to fresh learning approaches drives you to think out of the box as well. Strategic thinking is the essence of running a business successfully.
Strong and Well-Read Team
An MBA degree definitely provides the perfect opportunity to build a secure network of your own. Peers play a pivotal role in an MBA student’s journey. Strongest of associations are formed during the two years of your degree.
When you endeavor into your business, you need a well-read and robust team. You need people whom you can trust. The time you spend in college getting a degree teaches you about how and what it takes to build trust.
Secondly, when you want to expand your team and look for potential candidates, an educational qualification like MBA is definitely a yardstick to measure and understand their capability.
Strong Communication
Communication is the key to success in today’s time. It is a quintessential quality that not only helps create the first impression but guarantees you to steer through tough and challenging situations.
A successful businessman should definitely be able to talk his way through demanding customers. An MBA can help you polish this skill. As a student, you get countless opportunities to enhance this quality.
Doing an MBA from top ten or top twenty B-school helps you get positioned at a front spot. The brand of a good B-School and a coveted degree does help establish yourself better.
Potential investors and stakeholders are more likely to take you seriously. They’ll consider you smart and intelligent. You get a wider audience to display your personal strength and capabilities. An MBA definitely gives you a stint to incubate your brand.
Final Thoughts
MBA is a potential investment for anyone who wants to start a business.
A powerful idea, passion, persistence, and presence of mind aren’t things that can be taught. However, a degree can definitely boost your chances of acquiring them and using them to your advantage.
As Benjamin Franklin rightly said, ‘An investment in knowledge pays the best interest”. An MBA is definitely an investment you need to consider for your business.
See Also: The Pros and Cons of Getting an MBA
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