Re: MBA advice 2
Hi Scratch,
The concentrations that you’ve mentioned are the long-established conventional ones offered by most business schools, but depending on your short-list, there may be others that may be more suitable. A lot of schools offer “Management of Innovation”, “Technology Entrepreneurship” etc. and these may prove to be a good synergy with your academic and professional background.
From the more contemporary ones, I would suggest project management and/or Operations Management, but then again, you’d still be working in the same organizational context… just at a more elevated level, and from what it sounds like – you’re not too keen to do so - ??
I for one, completed my MBA in somewhat of a related field as my Bachelors, but I wanted to move away from the tactical and operational details of software engineering (my undergrad degree and pre-MBA experience) towards business analysis and consulting. Hence, I opted to pursue MIS as the main stream in MBA and specialized in e-Business and Knowledge Management.
One way to look at this is to first evaluate your predilection towards your current work and decide whether you’re interested in pursuing an MBA for:
- Adjacencies? – One objective to pursue an MBA could be to reinforce your current professional bearings by adopting a high-level business comprehension of the same decisions that you’re involved in your daily routine. This would mean opting for a major such as “Management of Innovation/Technology” etc.
- Complementarities? – An alternate objective for you to pursue an MBA could be to find a specialization that would strengthen your outlook through a perspective other than the purely technical. I see Finance as one option because you can help devise business plans and supplement technical decisions by considering their cost-effectiveness etc.
- Scope Expansion? – Finally, you may decide to go for an MBA to move onto a totally different industry or vocation, and specializations such as Accounting, HR, Supply Chain Management etc. would be examples of some potential areas.
Looking at it this way, you’d feel most at home by pursuing an adjacency type specialization, and would have to expend the most effort if you opt for a scope expansion type undertaking.
I don’t know if this makes any sense, but in light of the above, if you can tell us a little more about your objectives, that would help us discuss a little more.
Finally Re: your question about Analytical Consulting... it is one branch of Management Consulting where you'd be involved in business process analysis and financial consulting for projects involving business process reengineering, mergers and acquisitions etc. Typically, analytical consulting involves a lot of quantitative research, data mining, simulation modelling etc.
Hope this helps,
Ciao.