More Southeast Asian founders are getting MBAs. Is it actually useful?

Photo credit: Patibutkan Singsoot

People worldwide are going to graduate school to earn advanced degrees like MBAs, but their focus has shifted over the years – from banking, finance, and consulting to courses that will prepare them for entrepreneurship.

A study conducted by the Financial Times found that 36% of students from the Stanford Graduate School of Business put up a company during or after graduation. Another business school from the US had an even higher proportion, with 52% of its graduates establishing a startup.

While the report reveals that the appetite for starting businesses has somewhat ebbed down in the US, that’s not the case in Asia.

Over the past years, the region’s business schools have climbed higher in world rankings.

MBA graduates are also setting up the prominent startups in the region, such as Anthony Tan and Hooi Ling Tan of Grab and Nadiem Makarim of Gojek. The three were classmates at Harvard Business School (HBS), graduating in 2011.

Fave founder Joel Neoh, Traveloka CEO Ferry Unardi, and Chope CEO Arrif Ziaudeen are also other examples.

Of course, we’ve seen MBA graduates launch traditional businesses before. So it’s no surprise that they’d branch out into startups as well.

But high-profile businessmen like Elon Musk, Guy Kawasaki, and Peter Thiel have criticized the rationale behind pursuing an MBA. Naysayers argue that getting the degree is useless, particularly in running a business, and that the time and money that such programs require are better spent growing your company.

Tech in Asia spoke with several venture capitalists and founders to find out if having an MBA is useful, and here’s what they said.

Connections and network

Of the people we talked to, most agreed that the main advantage of getting an MBA is the network it opens up.

These connections – mainly from a tight-knit alumni association – give founders a boost in many ways.

Arrif Ziaudeen, CEO of restaurant-booking app Chope, is a 2010 MBA graduate from Stanford. He says that fellow classmates and alumni became his partners and colleagues in the startup. He adds that some of his early investors were Stanford alumni as well. These include Poyan Rajamand, chief executive of a Singaporean energy efficiency company, and Hui Ting Koh, vice president of investments for Credence Partners.

For Kelvin Teo, CEO of Funding Societies and a 2014 HBS graduate, going through the program helped him find a suitable co-founder. “Reynold [Wijaya] and I started Funding Societies in our first year at HBS. He was my first friend, and our values aligned,” he shares.

Entitlement vs humility

Execution ability

Getting investment

What matters more