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In 2018 The Washington Post revealed that 34 of the top 100 CEOs have an engineering degree. While 32 had an MBA and only 8 with both degrees. Fast forward to today, and the number of engineers made CEO still outnumber CEOs with MBA degrees.
There is definitely a trend here that shows Engineering is dominating the CEO spot and even outperforming it with names such as Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet, Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft and Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA.
This is why we can not deny the following 6 reasons that make engineers better CEOs and overall better than MBA graduates.
1- Engineers Find Solutions To Difficult Problems
Undoubtedly, engineers’ sole purpose is to find solutions to existing problems. That is what they are trained to do and are good at.
Top-performing CEOs aim to solve complicated problems that put their company on the map. Their understanding of the core problem is very detailed, which is why they can find better solutions than MBA graduates.
In addition, their technical skills are an added benefit which means they can be involved in the business and the engineering side at the same time, which gives them a great understanding of not only making a great product but also how to market it and tweak it to suit different demographics.
Microsoft, for example, when Satya Nadella became CEO in 2014 after Steve Ballmer, the former CEO and co-founder of Microsoft. The company was not in good shape. It was falling behind in every segment with low-quality products. Fast forward to today, Microsoft is not only stronger than ever but with products that show the ingenuity and strength of Microsoft.
2- Engineers Know How To Get Attention
Engineers know how to get attention and market the company’s services. CEO Engineers have attractive personalities due to their reliable input, making it easy for them to get attention.
There is no better example than Jeff Bezos, the founder and former CEO of Amazon. He took Amazon from the edge of bankruptcy during the dot-com bubble to one of top performing US companies. His genius and personality are almost impossible to overlook.
Engineers have confidence and understanding in their company products and services, which makes it very easy to get attention which serves the company a great deal from a marketing perspective.
3- Engineers Are More Involved In Product Design
There are multiple dimensions to being a good businessman. You must understand your consumer, distribution, supply chain, marketing and product features and design, which sometimes MBA CEOs lack.
Engineers work to develop excellent products and services. If you combine that with a good marketing and supply chain strategy, the product will probably outperform its competition, and that is what engineers are good at.
MBA CEOs might be able to maximise product output but can not do much in quality, which engineers do extremely well at.
Elon Musk, a self-taught engineer and the CEO and chief architect of Tesla, is quite involved in the design and manufacturing of Tesla vehicles. The results are excellent electric cars ahead of their competitors in software and design. It is hard for an MBA CEO to beat Elon Musk’s effort by focusing only on the business side but focusing little on the product.
Nowadays, every industry and market is quite sophisticated, and consumers always aim to have the best of what these companies offer. Good products get attention which is what engineers are good at and know exactly how to make.
4- Engineers Are More Likely To Make Better Decisions
Who said that engineers could not make good business decisions? Engineers take their time to analyse situations, making them excellent decision-makers, sometimes even better than someone with an MBA degree.
That does not make an MBA degree redundant. Still, many examples show that engineers are just as capable of making those top business decisions just like anyone else, if not better.
Even in financial decisions, engineers know exactly how to allocate capital to invest in developing their products and services.
Engineers excel at analysing risks versus opportunities which is why making business decisions is one of the engineers’ best qualities, which makes them better leaders.
5- Engineers Are Practical Thinkers
Engineers are very practical thinkers, meaning they base their opinions on tests and experiments, not theory. On the other hand, MBAs are financial and theoretical thinkers, making it challenging to understand their customers.
Engineers make decisions based on factual information and leave little to nothing to chance. Everything is calculated and studied. Compare that to MAB graduates, who base their decisions on old marketing and business strategy that is quite outdated.
6- Engineers Are Essential To Human Survival
If a catastrophic disaster is about to happen, such as a giant asteroid about to hit the earth. Who do you think people will call?
It will definitely be engineers because their solution will be reliable and realistic based on science and facts.
Engineers are so essential to modern-day society that if suddenly all engineers disappear, the world will plunge into chaos (No internet) and darkness (No power). All of your favourite apps will stop working, and nothing seems to work anymore.
That is because teams of dedicated engineers work day and night to make human lives easy and effortless.
Without them, nothing functions.
So it seems that engineers are essential to human survival in our current time and age. Business degree graduates are not.
Certainly, anyone can run a business properly with the right education without help from an MBA graduate.
Why Engineers Make Great CEOs
Engineers put a lot of attention and care into their products and services. They look for difficult problems that no one else is solving, which gives them a strong competitive advantage and attention from consumers.
It seems that engineers have more technical advantages, which makes them superior at making great products and services compared to MBA graduates.
Engineering Vs MBA Degree: Which One Is For You
Doing a business degree will not necessarily teach you how to run a business. Because it will most likely be taught by people who never founded or run companies, they will only teach you the academic aspects of running a business which is old knowledge that is probably decades old.
If you ask the most successful CEOs in the world, despite their educational background, they will tell you MBA is worthless. This is Elon’s opinion:
Therefore, if you decide to become an engineer, it is a very positive step toward greatness and a journey full of surprises. I encourage you to check our guide to choose the best engineering course for you: What Engineering Degree Should I Do? Make A Choice Now.
