Does your Degree Matter in Business
Remember Yahoo!? You know that website you used to get all your news from, search for information on and use their mail service?
Maybe you still do – but you’re in an ever-diminishing group.
Once upon a time Yahoo! was my home page until I became a GMail user back in 2006.
Yahoo! has been in the news quite a bit over the last year or so. Most of the news hasn’t been good.
They really are trying to turn things around. As a student of business I’m paying attention with one eye from afar.
The most recent drama was word thatYahoo!’s new CEO, Scott Thompson, did not exactly have an accurate resume. Thompson apparently does not have the computer science degree Yahoo! stated in filings.
Rightfully so a few investors are really pissed. But let’s look at this two ways…
Yes, let’s be upset that a publicly traded company would “miss this little detail.” (And you thought publicly traded companies were perfect!) This is fraud and needs to be handled.
But let’s side step a bit and imagine the “miss-leading info” was not so bad.
Does a computer science degree qualify him more to be the CEO of this “one-time tech giant?”
Not really. In fact, Thompson has an accounting degree which would better serve him in this position if you wanted to compare apples to oranges.
Whether you’re CEO of a large company or the owner of a small business the more distance you put between yourself and the “technical” work usually translates into growth. So even if he did have a computer science degree, he would not be “using it” daily. Would he be updating the news stories on the home page? I think not!
I read an article about Mark Pincus, CEO of Zynga, and it mentioned how he has an iPhone and a Blackberry, but no desktop or laptop computer in his office. He’s never at his desk. The two smartphones enable him to check up on things and answer emails as he goes about his daily activates. I doubt he spends much time writing code for the games Zynga produces. Yes, you might be addicted to one of these games!
Steve Jobs had Steve Wozniak build Apple’s first computer. Henry Ford told his engineers to figure out a way to build a V8 engine. I’ll even throw my hat in to the ring. I did not “build” or write code for our “Mobile Marketing CMS” program. Our first crack at “software” has enabled many (and growing) small business owners to take their websites mobile.
As Brian Tracy says, “All business skills are learn-able.” Don’t pigeon hole anyone because their degree is not an exact match. Don’t hold yourself back because you think you don’t have certain qualifications. Go get them if you have to. Learn as you go and do whatever it takes to keep moving forward.
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About the author
Mike Dolpies (aka Mike D.) owns “Ocean View Publishing, LLC” - a diverse media/Internet Marketing and Consulting Company.
He started his first business when he was just 18 years old. By the time he was 23 that business had generated well over a Million Dollars in sales and was consistently in the top 20% of its industry.
He's the Author of 6 different books. His first book, “Motion Before Motivation, The Success Secret That Never Fails,” became a bestseller on Amazon.com
He's been a guest on the Fox Morning News several times and has been written about in many newspapers.
His work has also appeared on Entrepreneur.com and Fox Businsss.com
