Most MBA programs give you a toolbox without teaching you when to use the tools. Here’s what’s missing.
Here’s something that bugs me about business schools: they’re really good at teaching you what things are and how they work, but terrible at teaching you who, when, where, and why. And that’s not a small problem.
Someone got in contact with us with the following situation. They’re about to start business school, coming from a high-level management role at startups, and they wanted to know: if Jobs to be Done was more widely understood and accepted, how would it change business school curriculum?
My co-founder Greg and I wrestled with this one. Not because we didn’t have opinions (we always do), but because there are so many layers to unpack. (This article is also available as a podcast episode).
It’s not about changing everything
Greg’s first reaction was that it shouldn’t change curriculum at all. But then we started peeling back the onion. If Jobs to be Done thinking was widely understood, students would come into business school already knowing that different contexts require different approaches. They’d understand that the same theory works brilliantly in one situation and fails miserably in another.
Think about accounting. You’ve got cash versus accrual methods, different approaches for different contexts. But business schools often teach the theory without really digging into when it works and when it doesn’t.
If jobs thinking was foundational, every course would include: here’s where this is best used, here’s the anomalies, and here’s where you shouldn’t touch this with a ten-foot pole.
The real question is whether you make this a foundational course in the first year or an integration course at the end. I go back and forth on this.
On one hand, starting with Jobs thinking gives students a compass. It helps them define progress and develop empathetic perspective from different viewpoints.
On the other hand, maybe it’s better at the end as an integration tool – showing how all these building blocks fit together in actual context.
The tool problem
Most business schools treat education like they’re giving you a toolbox.
Here’s how to set up a sales group.
Here’s strategy.
Here’s your balance sheet and P&L.
Here’s your cap table.
But when you’re armed with all these tools and no context, it’s like walking through a hardware store saying “I need this and I need that” and thinking you can go build a home. No, you can’t.
There’s a huge separation between learning the skill of doing a balance sheet and being in the context of a startup or M&A deal, trying to figure out how to actually use that balance sheet to make decisions.
These contexts are really, really important.
I don’t think Jobs to be Done should be the center of any curriculum, but it should be a supplement to help people understand what progress they’re trying to make and empathize with the progress other people are trying to make.
It’s about becoming a craftsperson who knows when to pull out which tool, who to use it with, and where it’s going to work versus where it won’t.
Why part-time students have an advantage
I have a bias here, and I’ll admit it. I think people who go to school on weekends while working have a huge advantage. They have an application for whatever you’re talking about. They can go back and see it in action.
Full-time students have almost disconnected from context. They’re playing things back through the imagination of what they used to experience or what they could experience. It’s not as grounded to reality.
Is it the school’s responsibility to put them in context? Or is it the student’s?
I think it’s the student’s responsibility. The luxury of going full-time has benefits, but there are dangers too. I’ve met plenty of MBAs who learned a lot of things but can’t really apply any of it. And vice versa – plenty of people who never studied formally but figured it out.
The real change: knowing why you’re there
The biggest thing Jobs thinking could change in business school isn’t curriculum at all. It’s getting students to understand why they’re there. What progress are they trying to make?
If you’re running away from your current job and want business school as a reset, you’re going to hear certain things differently than if you need an MBA to make partner.
Context frames how you listen to lectures, what information you absorb, which courses you engage with.
Your homework
If you’re going back to school or even just reading a business book, understand your context. What are your outcomes? What are you worried about? Why are you doing this?
Your context dictates what information you get out of it.
There are books I listen to every year, and I get something different every single time because my context has changed. The book hasn’t changed at all.
And here’s the thing about business: you’re going to be in different situations throughout your career. You’ll be at a startup where tradeoffs are completely different than in a corporate environment. HR in a small company is wildly different than HR in a large company. When you’re running a startup that grows into a big corporation, you have to modify systems to fit the context.
That’s why I hate the phrase “best practices.” It makes everyone think: okay, this is the best practice, leave it alone. But it’s actually a really bad strategy.
The real skill isn’t collecting tools. It’s knowing when to use them, and more importantly, when not to.