maintaining your business skills

[drcrusher]

For the students who have finished their MBA programs, what are you guys doing to maintain your MBA skills, now that you are in the hospital completing rotations?

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[mward04]

For the students who have finished their MBA programs, what are you guys doing to maintain your MBA skills, now that you are in the hospital completing rotations?

That's a good question and I'm interested to hear what others think. I'm not at that point yet, but I've asked numerous MD/MBAs about it. They've all suggested getting involved in leadership positions in the residency program. There are also numerous residencies that have administration electives.

Anyway, the above applies to people in residency. As far as people still in med school, I've had numerous friends continue to work on projects esp considering how light their 4th year schedules are. Several people have taken additional time off from med school to continue working. Ultimately, that's how you're going to keep your skills up.

 

[Primate]

First two years of med school I did some consulting and helped start a biotech company (still in biz) during my free time. This was very valuable. Next I went into the lab and stayed active by doing some work with the tech transfer center and the people I met there. Now, in my clinical years, I can't do much, but I do still have lunch and keep up with my business friends. Not as much as I'd like, but that'll change later.

Just do what can, when you can. Also, get the WSJ and keep up with what's going on.

Just a thought.

P

 

[drcrusher]

Hey P, that's a good idea about the WSJ. I just remebered, MWard, one of my b-school profs. would give bonus points for reading FFB(ie. Forbes, Fortune, BusinessWeek).
"Sometimes, the game is easy."

 

[prominence]

I think your goals will be much clearer at the end of residency (how you will use the MBA, if ever) and your technical skills (finance, accounting, etc) will not decline. Obviously, this does not apply to those who have decided to forgo residency.

how useful is an MD if u don't get residency training? an MBA or a business background is good, but an MD degree without work experience seems like a waste. why not just go for the MBA right from the start? any thoughts?

 

[drcrusher]

Prominence and Flindophile, although your points are valid, I currently use my MBA to some degree outside the hospital. Although, I haven't been able to use my degree in a medical setting, I currently own porperty and mutual funds. I also do some curbside consulting. My longterm goals don't extend outside heading a department( ie, CEO, CFO); however, I do feel I have the knowledge and resources if needed, to run a department. The poblem with completing an MBA after med school is 1) family 2) MD. I saw many of my classmates and professors, who were practicing MD's, drop their jobs to complete their MBA or take 5 years to complete their degree. How long do you guys have left with your MBA?

 

[IndyZX]

A related question. Do you think the loss of "business skills" while completing a residency after an MD/MBA program will really be that significant? I'd assume that for a physician, the MBA serves to open doors as much as it does to provide a totally new skill set.

 

[Primate]

I'm not so sure about the skill set. While one certainly learns many new skills, not all will be applicable to your chosen profession (the MBA is quite general). Perhaps if one defines learning jargon and how to employ it as a skill, then this is surely useful. My take is that the way of thinking one learns in B-school is more important than the ability to run numbers in a certain manner. This is analogous to the way of thinking one learns in a PhD being more important than the field of study (which quite often is not the same as one's ultimate career field - in biological science, at least).

As for these skills declining, it's been 12 years since completing my MBA, but I feel I'm still pretty on the ball. Ceratianly, there are many senior managers who're even farther out from their curriculum than I who still "have it."

The real question is if one needs 2 yrs to learn how to approach a case. Look at the success of non-MBAs in consulting companies and one gets the sense that there must be at least something in B-school more valuable than even to what I've alluded above (else why would people shell out the $$).

So, I suppose the MBA is as much about skill sets as methodological training as learning to operate in a team as generating a contact list as pedigree as having time for an extended job search and easy access to employers/recruiting. How's that for a grammatical nightmare?

What else would y'all put on the list?

P