It’s nice to hear the world’s richest man agrees with us. In fact, he echoes what we at Booher have been saying for the past two decades: “For the student, learning how to speak and write more effectively would yield benefits far in excess of those gained from the study of esoteric financial tools…. You show me the person who can communicate well… they can have an enormous impact and they will jump out of the pack in terms of hiring later on.”
Continuing his frequent criticism of business schools while at the International Institute for Management Development, the Swiss business school, Buffett went on to argue that just as these schools teach how to value companies and understand markets, they should include classes in basic written and spoken communication.
Why are these topics not included in the curricula? According to Buffett, to some extent they are “beneath the self-image of faculty.”
Many hiring executives think that a graduate degree guarantees basic writing and speaking skills. Unfortunately, it does not.
I still recall one of the first sales calls I made—two decades ago—to an executive at a potential client organization. I introduced myself and the company with this brief overview, “We offer communication training, specifically business and technical writing and oral presentations. We’ve been able to help people organize their ideas for greater impact and reduce their writing time—”
He cut me off in mid-sentence: “We hire MBAs and they have all the skills they need when they come to work for us. Otherwise, we wouldn’t hire them.” Click.
I’m sure that by now he’s had to eat those words.
In fact, most of the MBAs we talk to agree with Buffett about their graduate programs. They regret that as students they’re forced to focus in their areas of specialty all too soon to the exclusion of these core skills. The career-limiting truth: People often don’t know what they don’t know—until a benevolent boss, colleague, or client takes them aside and points out the problem.
Buffett may have angered a few faculty members but heightened awareness for a few students who should send him a royalty check on their first million—as if he needs it.
Read more on Buffett’s comments at Financial Times, May 23, 2008.
Posted at 3:08pm in
Communication—Interpersonal, Communication—Oral, Communication—Written, General Communication |
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