The MBA Philosopher King
The Wharton Journal Essay contest winner
Ari Chester, WG'06
Issue date: 11/22/04 Section: Perspectives
That business school develops the "leaders of tomorrow" is one of the more painful clichés that adulterates the MBA experience. A successful manager is not synonymous with a visionary leader. Leaders don't sit around assessing their twelve leadership traits. But what do I know? After all, in the recent LTA (Learning Team Assessment), I received a 3.57 out of 5 for my VI (Vision and Inspiration), compared to the school-wide average of 3.86 and cohort average of 3.98.
But I no longer aspire to be a visionary. I had enough visions during my late teenage years. In Wharton's leadership class, my vision statement prophesized, "By the age of fifty, I will retire to the Caribbean, drink exorbitantly expensive wine with my excessively beautiful wife, and take early morning walks through lush gardens." Of course, this prophecy is potentially compromised by my score of 3.33 for IT (Integrity and Trust), which is low relative to the 4.18 class average. One of my teammates observed, "While I view Ari as trustworthy, I know that he plays the game following a different moral compass." True enough, though too bad I have been lax in following my own scruples: "When you are above praise and blame, when your heart flows broad and full like a river, a blessing and danger to those living near- There is the origin of your virtue" (Nietzsche). Here at Wharton, my heart has not been flowing like the raging rapids of a torrential river. It's more like I've been living in a fish bowl.
Nevertheless, my Wharton experience has measured on a logarithmic scale. Would law school have been the same?
We are all familiar with the perennial debate about the merits of a law degree versus an MBA. In rationalizing my personal choice, my application essays to Wharton argued, "I see an MBA as something more than the acquisition of quantitative skills. In conceiving of the ideal Republic, Socrates insists that until the philosophers are kings, or the kings are philosophers, the perfect nation-state will not be feasible. In today's context, the successful business manager best represents the philosopher, who ideally possesses a broad background that enables him or her to apply theoretical frameworks to diverse, real-world situations."
But I no longer aspire to be a visionary. I had enough visions during my late teenage years. In Wharton's leadership class, my vision statement prophesized, "By the age of fifty, I will retire to the Caribbean, drink exorbitantly expensive wine with my excessively beautiful wife, and take early morning walks through lush gardens." Of course, this prophecy is potentially compromised by my score of 3.33 for IT (Integrity and Trust), which is low relative to the 4.18 class average. One of my teammates observed, "While I view Ari as trustworthy, I know that he plays the game following a different moral compass." True enough, though too bad I have been lax in following my own scruples: "When you are above praise and blame, when your heart flows broad and full like a river, a blessing and danger to those living near- There is the origin of your virtue" (Nietzsche). Here at Wharton, my heart has not been flowing like the raging rapids of a torrential river. It's more like I've been living in a fish bowl.
Nevertheless, my Wharton experience has measured on a logarithmic scale. Would law school have been the same?
We are all familiar with the perennial debate about the merits of a law degree versus an MBA. In rationalizing my personal choice, my application essays to Wharton argued, "I see an MBA as something more than the acquisition of quantitative skills. In conceiving of the ideal Republic, Socrates insists that until the philosophers are kings, or the kings are philosophers, the perfect nation-state will not be feasible. In today's context, the successful business manager best represents the philosopher, who ideally possesses a broad background that enables him or her to apply theoretical frameworks to diverse, real-world situations."