Is MBA a CEO Degree?

MBA was originally created to train engineers on business skills in order to prepare them for managerial positions. Originally, it wasn't as glamorous; a business degree was ranked behind medicine, law, and engineering as well. The CEO of Blackstone, Stephen A. Schwarzman, an iconic business figure and a Harvard Business School alum, said that the reason he went to HBS was that he failed to get into HLS. Today, that situation is long gone, and business degrees are some of the most competitive in terms of admissions.

Six out of ten CEOs of the top ten Fortune 500 companies hold an MBA. Warren Buffett, though not holding an MBA, studied economics at Columbia Business School, so I'd count it as half an MBA too. Three out of those six got their MBAs from the so-called M7 Schools: Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon, went to Harvard Business School; Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet, went to Wharton; and Darren Woods, CEO of Exxon Mobil, went to Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, studied at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business, a top-notch business school regularly considered T15. 

The other two business schools appeared on this list is University of Tulsa's Collin School of Business, and Boston University's Questrom School of Business. The former was attended by Douglas McMillon, CEO of Walmart, while the latter by Karen Lynch, CEO of CVS Health.

It's often hard to quantify the role MBA played in these CEOs career paths. How do we know if, without these fancy degrees, they would still be able to climb all the way to the top? However there should be no denying that MBAs played some role in their career, as evident in the fact that Sundar Pichai's first job after MBA was with Mckinsey, a top destination for MBA graduates.

If you are contemplating whether you should go study MBA, read my other post on Why I gave up the chance to study MBA after getting admitted.