The title and the article do not match. The study looks at 'Founder/CEO' and the title says 'Build & Run'.
Being a founder is very different than coming into a company several years later and being a CEO. They are different phases in the businesses life.
I'm an engineer. I plan on getting an MBA someday. My dad is not an engineer, but does have an MBA. He has been the CEO of 3 companies in his career. The first company was 100+ years old. The 2nd company was 200 years old. The 3rd (and current) company is 2 years old and he just joined it as CEO this week. In the first two cases he grew the business substantially. But he will never put 'founder' on his resume because that would make no sense. So by this study he wouldn't count on the MBA tally.
In the beginning, a startup is mostly about making a product and finding product/market fit. But later on once you have an established product it comes down a whole lot more to sales, marketing, operations, partnerships, etc. My dad has a psych/business undergrad & a marketing MBA. All of his work is on improving the sales force, making new ad campaigns, opening new distribution channels, etc etc etc. Things that as engineers we probably don't really want to deal with, but are the difference between being #3 in an established market and #1 in an established market. And that's ultimately what an MBA is aimed at helping you do - growing larger businesses.
So this data doesn't really suprise me.
As an interesting data point - my dad largely runs company in the 100-150 person range and has been in the chemical industry for a while. He noted that almost all of those kind of companies would prefer someone with an engineering undergrad and an MBA because ultimately you oversee sales, marketing, engineering, manufacturing, finance, etc. So if you are blind to the factory you will not be an effective CEO.
Being a founder is very different than coming into a company several years later and being a CEO. They are different phases in the businesses life.
I'm an engineer. I plan on getting an MBA someday. My dad is not an engineer, but does have an MBA. He has been the CEO of 3 companies in his career. The first company was 100+ years old. The 2nd company was 200 years old. The 3rd (and current) company is 2 years old and he just joined it as CEO this week. In the first two cases he grew the business substantially. But he will never put 'founder' on his resume because that would make no sense. So by this study he wouldn't count on the MBA tally.
In the beginning, a startup is mostly about making a product and finding product/market fit. But later on once you have an established product it comes down a whole lot more to sales, marketing, operations, partnerships, etc. My dad has a psych/business undergrad & a marketing MBA. All of his work is on improving the sales force, making new ad campaigns, opening new distribution channels, etc etc etc. Things that as engineers we probably don't really want to deal with, but are the difference between being #3 in an established market and #1 in an established market. And that's ultimately what an MBA is aimed at helping you do - growing larger businesses.
So this data doesn't really suprise me.
As an interesting data point - my dad largely runs company in the 100-150 person range and has been in the chemical industry for a while. He noted that almost all of those kind of companies would prefer someone with an engineering undergrad and an MBA because ultimately you oversee sales, marketing, engineering, manufacturing, finance, etc. So if you are blind to the factory you will not be an effective CEO.