A good MBA can give your career a real
boost
Solution by Ben Booth, chairman of
BCS IT directors group
Elite
You pose two questions, firstly about developing your career in
IT, and secondly regarding the desirability of doing an MBA at this
stage. I question whether there is nothing you can do to further
develop your career in IT. By leading a team of business analysts
you have shown that you can understand business as well as
technology, and are in a "client facing" role.
All this is good for further progress in IT management, though
if there are not opportunities with your present employer you might
have to look elsewhere.
The value of an MBA depends very much on when you do it, and the
school you go to. Too early and you do not have enough business
experience to put what you learn into context too late and you will
gain personally, but it will do little to help your career. Late
twenties and early thirties are optimum, so this would be a good
time to do it.
You should check the standing of the school you are proposing to
go to, and the course - a good MBA can give your career a real
boost, but for second or third division MBAs the time is probably
better spent on developing your career at work.
One final point - I recently appointed someone to a senior IT
position who has both technical training and experience and an MBA.
You could find an MBA will help your IT career, and a move to
senior management does not preclude a very senior IT role in the
future.
Grasp the opportunity to learn new
perspectives
Solution by Ollie Ross, director of research at the
Corporate IT Forum
Large corporates - such as those that use the Corporate IT
Forum's services - need people with strategic/practical IT
understanding and strategic/practical business understanding to
maximise the benefits from their existing investment in IT.
They also need people who are able to spot the technical and
process innovations that will spearhead their future investment and
future business development.
Grasp the opportunity. Who knows, you may progress to a senior
business management role, or you may have helped yourself to a more
senior IT role by virtue of your new-found business understanding.
Either way, you cannot lose and you will encounter new perspectives
along the way.
Forge yourself a new role in the wider
business
Solution by Chris Potts, director at consultancy
Dominic Barrow
It is a shame that we IT professionals keep talking about "IT"
and "business" as mutually exclusive, when in fact there are some
massive overlaps. If your company's IT department has positioned
itself as a quasi-supplier to everyone else, then you will indeed
have to leave the department to take a full part in the management
of the company, but that does not mean having to leave IT.
Business executives are often crying out for senior and
influential IT experts who do not have the conflicts of interest
that come with working for a supplier, or quasi-supplier, of
IT-related services. They know the company lacks expert IT customer
skills, such as investment strategy and IT exploitation. Many IT
departments aspire to offer these skills, but are constrained by
their "internal supplier" positioning and mindset.
An MBA will give you a good grounding in wider business theory,
although you may find that your hands-on experience already exceeds
the IT elements of the course.
In any case, look to forge a new role in the wider business that
makes the best use of your IT experience, business analysis
background and mathematical brain.
Where are the biggest, and currently untapped, opportunities to
use IT to create business value? What does the company need to do
differently to exploit them?
An MBA alone is not a guarantee of success
Solution by Sheila Upton, director, technology security and
risk services at
Ernst &
Young
MBAs are highly valued in the business world today, and funding,
as well as the undoubted time commitment, is often perceived by
many to be a barrier. The opportunity to obtain funding support is
therefore a timely one.
Additionally, as IT has grown to become an integral component of
business today, so the experience you have gained in IT will
undoubtedly be of value. However, advancement in business is
unlikely to be achieved by an MBA alone, and success is dependent
on the right opportunities to apply the learning from your
course.
What is not clear from your question is why you feel you have
done everything to advance your career in IT, and whether you see
an MBA as your "escape route" into the real world of business.
Business analyst teams are often a key conduit between business and
IT, and it may be that you have led your team to achieve a high
level of credibility for IT in your organisation. If so, your MBA
opportunity may be a timely one.
Do not abandon your IT roots too soon however. The significant
role played by IT in the current business world presents fantastic
opportunities for IT to play a significant influencing role at
senior levels in business.
In summary, challenge your own motives, and recognise that an
MBA is a significant time commitment and will be most successful if
carried out with the full support of your current employer.
MBA can give a broader view of business
functions
Solution by Sharm Manwani, head of information management at
Henley Management
College
As a professional who has primarily worked in one function, you
share the characteristics of many of those who embark on an MBA.
There are many reasons why people do an MBA, but one of the most
important is to obtain a broader view of all the business functions
such as marketing, sales, operations and finance.
With a business analysis background you should already have had
some exposure to different functions. The MBA would enhance that
knowledge and give you an understanding of processes in a range of
organisations.
You might find that the MBA gives you the opportunity to move
into a senior business function role and then back into a top CIO
role, which is as much about business change as it is about IT.
From a personal perspective, having decided to do an MBA when I
was the head of IS, I found that this gave me a range of career
options. In practice, I took on a new CIO role as European IT &
business processes director for a major organisation.
Having completed my MBA and then the DBA at Henley, I am now
lecturing on the programme. We have added cross-functional and
personal development elements and it is targeted at experienced
professionals.
There are many good MBA programmes with their own focus areas
and it is important that you select one that suits your needs and
that of the organisation you work for.
If you do decide to do this, clearly you must be prepared to
invest the personal time that is required for such a major
qualification and ideally look for as many synergies as
possible.
Make sure MBA matches your career
progression
Solution by Roger Rawlinson, director of IT consultancy at
NCC Group
Employer funded schemes of this nature are a great opportunity
for employees to develop skills that assist in career
development.
Your maths degree will be seen by many as a demonstration of
your logical and analytical activities, but it will leave you weak
in the areas required for business management.
Undertaking an MBA will enhance your knowledge, and hence
prospects, in the business community.
In terms of your ambition to move to senior management, you need
to also ascertain if there is a route for you to achieve this in
your company, and that your efforts attaining the MBA are going to
be utilised in your working environment. You need to be careful
that you do not spend several years studying for a career that you
employer has no intention of enabling.
Discuss your aspirations, and see what your options are in terms
of career progression. The MBA on the face of it looks like a good
opportunity, but be careful that you do not spend several years
studying for one career while following a different path in your
work.
MBA is not a passport to move out of IT
function
Solution by Robin Laidlaw, president
CW500 Club
In a word "yes". Sometimes you read comments about people being
overqualified for a job, but adding an MBA to a maths degree is
very good preparation for developing your career on from your
current position.
You say "senior management role", but I am not sure if you mean
continuing in IT or moving into another function and/or general
management. An MBA is excellent for someone wanting to continue to
grow in an IT environment, maybe aiming for CIO status, a seat on
the executive committee and maybe even the board.
However it is no passport for a move out of IT into general
management. That is much more difficult and the number of people
who have made that transition is few.
Understanding the horizontal nature of business processes - a
knowledge many IT people claim - confers no right to jump into one
of the silos. Every function has its own skills and qualifications
many posts require a recognised qualification, specific to that
function, to be able to hold the post.
So it is good in itself, it will help you be a more skilled IT
practitioner and it will help you in your quest for a senior role
in IT, but it is no magic passport out of IT.