Startups Hiring MBAs - A Perfect Match

Startups need business-savvy individuals to lead and counsel them from the inception of an idea to its production and distribution. As noted above, knowledge of business practices is a major incentive. But why else are startups hiring MBAs?

Associate Professor Nitin Pangarkar, academic director of the NUS MBA program at the National University of Singapore Business School, says that it’s all about the MBA skills that candidates develop and hone during the program. “The ‘soft’ skills (such as communication and presentation skills) possessed by a typical MBA graduate may be useful to any startup - say, when preparing business plans or making presentations to potential investors,” says Pangarkar.

Apiou echoes this sentiment. “The MBA program gives an overall management insight into a company, whether it be a large or a small institution, and also develops a multi-faceted individual who can multitask, pinpoint opportunities, interact with all levels of management, and be culturally sensitive,” says Apiou, who believes these MBA skills make candidates “a great fit for a startup.”

One particular set of MBA skills critical to startups are entrepreneurial skills. Startups hiring MBAs are looking for individuals who understand entrepreneurship.

While not all business schools provide an MBA entrepreneurship track or specialization, they undoubtedly recognize the importance of entrepreneurial skills and offer courses and even centers for individuals interested in learning more and pursuing entrepreneurship-related careers.

The University of Hong Kong, for example, has an MBA entrepreneurship lab that, according to Apiou, “provides projects which include startups within companies and individual startups in various industries.

“The objective of this lab is to give the interested set of individuals insight into startups and make them aware of the various aspects associated with [them].” Core focuses include “idealization, valuation, fundraising, marketing, recourse planning, and exit strategies.”

Pangarkar notes that while the National University of Singapore does not offer an MBA entrepreneurship track, its MBA program does offer several courses in entrepreneurship. Furthermore, it is also home to the NUS Entrepreneurship Center, which “incubates startups”. NUS also hosts the annual Start-up@Singapore competition. Initially a business plan competition, this has become something of an entrepreneurship hub, from which no fewer than 90 startups have emerged.

Most notably, the entrepreneurial skills developed in an MBA program are beneficial to individuals looking to start their own startup. Alumni of HKU have founded startups in “finance, aviation, logistics, digital media, and big data” among other fields. With backgrounds in various sectors and multinational companies, many even teamed up with their classmates to start their startups - an additional benefit of the MBA.

With MBAs providing the perfect talent pool for startups, and these often small operations giving alumni the perfect arena in which to demonstrate their skills, it seems that MBAs and startups are a perfect match.