GoKawiil
Tech News
An adviser to family-owned businesses and MBA instructor outlines six distinct forms of fear that employees and leaders commonly hide at work. The author argues that recognizing these hidden emotions is essential to understanding what actually motivates people's behavior in professional settings.
Christopher Marquis, who has taught business at Harvard, Cornell and Cambridge, argues in the New York Times and on LinkedIn that MBA programs train students to prioritize dealmaking and financial metrics over workers and communities. He cites research from the U.S. and Denmark showing that when business-school-trained CEOs take over firms, wages fall and labor's income share drops without any corresponding gain in productivity.
Recounting career-defining moments to graduate students, business leaders repeatedly described relying on intuitive signals rather than data-driven logic when making pivotal decisions, such as choosing collaborators or walking away from deals. The observation, drawn from years of dinners hosted by a former strategic design MBA program director, highlights a form of 'sensemaking' that isn't rooted in rational analysis.
An Entrepreneur contributor recounts a client who was told during an MBA admissions interview that her family conglomerate background made an MBA unnecessary and that the program 'isn't interested in family businesses.' Despite the discouraging exchange, the applicant was later admitted to that program and several top MBA programs. The author uses the episode to argue family businesses are wrongly stereotyped as lesser entrepreneurial pursuits.