Should he even go to business school?

Hey guys

I was discussing business school with a relative of mine who's interested in transferring into PE and here are his stats;

-Industrial engineering degree from Northeastern University + 700/800 GMAT

-5 years at one of the largest oil companies in the world (hint: look at my avatar)
(3 years as a planning analyst, 2 years as an investment management associate)

-3 years as president of a non-profit foundation focused on eliminating financial illiteracy in Saudi Arabia. He started it in conjunction with his high school's alumni group (it's the middle eastern equivalent of Hotchkiss I guess).

-3 years working for the family business (diversified conglomerate). When he took over as chief operating officer and vice-chairman, revenues for his family's business were almost $100 million a year with operations mainly in 1 country. Growth has been very consistent over the past 3 years and now revenues are $650 million, with operations in 9 countries (5 continents). He fixed a lot of the management issues in those 3 years as well so that the company should be able to perform well without him.

schools of interest: HBS (he took 2 summer courses at Harvard extension school, if that helps at all), Wharton, SGB, Said, Columbia, UCLA Anderson, Stern

*do you think that his most recent work would negatively affect his chances, irrelevant of his results? I ask that because his family's businesses are very low key, so it's not like he's from a very famous business family in the country.

*other possible bonus points: a direct relative was a prime minister of a middle eastern country, his paternal grandfather co-founded and built what was once the largest privately owned bank in the world (which was forcefully acquired at a steep discount by a certain government).

 

f me...lol ya he needs the tag or else everywhere he goes ppl will just think he got the positions due to his "connections" (which may very well be, err, probably is true). personally if i was in his position id still go. clearly he has no financial constraints so no worries in washing 100k down the toilet. it would be a fun 2 yrs and a degree from an elite school - what's the downside? and with that pedigree he'll be able to land a PE job at a megafund.

"...the art of good business, is being a good middle man, putting people togeather. It's all about honor and respect."
 

He's super well connected and from a wealthy family. Guys like him get into HBS all the time. He might as well go and hang out with the "billionaire's club"-a bunch of wealthy heirs and heiresses at HBS.

 
Best Response

Both myself and a friend I know were in fairly similar overall situations. I would say that it depends on what his goals are. I know you mentioned that he was interested in transferring into PE, but is this PE for his family's firm? Is it a part of the family's wealth management? Or is he looking to go into PE in a totally different company?

I think he could make a reasonable case for b-school in any of these situations. However, it all really depends on his goals. Lots of reasons to go to b-school: network, skills, change jobs, prestige, etc. So in the end, it is really hard to tell if b-school would be worth it in his case.

To answer your other question, school's don't really seem to care about the prestige of the family business - although it can't hurt. When I had my interview with HBS and Wharton, they really didn't care about the size or reputation of my family's firm. Rather, both schools were more interested in my depth of knowledge of the industry and wanted to ensure my long term goals made sense. The HBS interview was almost like a case study in my family's business where they asked me questions about the business to see if I knew what I was talking about. But I had senior admissions officers at both Wharton and CBS tell me that they really liked people from family businesses.

 

@JamesHetfield: I wish @Macroecon: He's not THAT well connected. He has connections pretty much all over, but not like that (to easily get him into HBS) @HG14: He's interested, in the long run, in running his own PE shop parallel to the family business. So I guess its part of wealth preservation+wealth creation for him.

I'm really surprised. I hope you got in to whichever ones you wanted to go to. I know this sounds really ignorant, but I always thought HBS and the like preferred the IB boys over other industries, or is that just because they're more represented in the applicant pool?

Greed is Good.
 

Aramco is a great company, my father been working there for 26 years, and my grandpa did for 40 years. I do PE in Saudi. There's big potential for it in the next few years, especially with the increase of miltibillion dollars family offices. I say he should go for it, and it’s not like he would face problems finding a job after. If anything, he widened his network/contacts, got excellent education, and will be better suitable to run the family business.

 

I would say the only traditional drawbacks of an MBA are virtually eliminated given your relative's family money and likely potential to go back into the family business should all else fail.

I know that top b-schools are typically viewed as a place to learn, but I think you would be hard pressed not to be more knowledgeable after spending the two years there. Whether that knowledge is really worth the $200k price tag is highly debatable, but as I mentioned above, the cost doesn't seem like it's really a consideration for him.

The way I see it, he can give himself two years to have fun, expand his network, stamp a quality brand name on his resume and potentially learn something. As others have mentioned, it's unlikely he will come out worse than going in, so it seems like nothing much but 'upside' potential.

With that said, I think he should probably be fairly picky about where he goes. HBS is the obvious choice, but maybe just a few other top notch schools as well. Outside of that, the benefits seem to fewer and might not be worth his time.

Regards

"The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant, it's just that they know so much that isn't so." - Ronald Reagan
 

@cph: yeah he's set on HBS + other top 5. But he isn't being handed that tuition money either; if the family conglomerate pays for his schooling + stipend, he has to spend the immediate 3 years after business school at the family company.

Greed is Good.
 
konig:
@cph: yeah he's set on HBS + other top 5. But he isn't being handed that tuition money either; if the family conglomerate pays for his schooling + stipend, he has to spend the immediate 3 years after business school at the family company.

He doesn't need to use family money or his own. It's so easy these days to get a full ride from the Saudi Government. I did it for Bachelor's and i might do it for Grad school too.

 

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