Hiring in-house MBA vs. outsourcing to an MBA

There are many reasons why an employer would want to engage the services of an MBA grad. For one it is believed that people with such diplomas had the proverbial “Midas touch” and could help turn these companies around if this was needed or just generally improve things there. Now there are at least two ways that a company or business can engage the services of MBA grad. This includes by hiring such a person to work in-house or by out-sourcing to such a person.

There are several advantages or benefits that accrue to a company either way. In other words, an employer will enjoy certain benefits if it decides to go the in-house route as well as some other type of benefits if it chooses to go take the path of outsourcing. The flip-side of course is that both do have their drawbacks. So, which is better hiring in-house or outsourcing? Now before looking at some of the benefits both situations, here is a general overview of the benefits of engaging the services of an MBA either way.

Hiring an MBA benefits

Although MBA grads are not magicians there are a number of qualities that they share. This includes:

• They like to think of novel or new ways of doing things that can save time, reduce cost as well as effort
• Usually have the brain-power to deal with financials including other specialty areas that fall within the M.B.A. program, like marketing, international business, production, etc.
• They can also carry out budgeting as well as forecasting with reasonable precision
• Their training makes them strategic thinkers, which means they see the big picture even while addressing day-to-day activities of work
• Often want to prove their worth in order to be promoted as well as rewarded with respect to their efforts

Hiring in-house benefit

The fact of the matter is that hiring in-house will allow the concerned company to have more access to the MBA staff since this person will be working full hours of the day. Also,

Okay the downside with engaging anyone on a full-time basis for any job usually involves cost, which is also the case with hiring an MBA and even more so.

Outsourcing benefit

Now one of the first things that readily comes to mind when outsourcing is mentioned is “managing cost.” That indeed is true and can be said to be the whole essence of outsourcing. Consequently, the major benefit that is enjoyed when work is contracted out to an MBA instead of having this person work in-house is the reduction in cost (i.e. a relatively lower service fee is paid as against a full-fledged fat salary that an MBA employee will often get).

However, the flip-side of this is that outsourcing of any kind is usually temporary in nature especially when the employer in question is a small business. Nevertheless, this does not mean that a long-term agreement between the concerned parties cannot be arranged.

Some questions to ask before engaging the services of an MBA grad

MBA grads don’t come cheap. So below are some questions that you need to consider before hiring an MBA or outsourcing to this person.

• Can you afford to engage this person?
• Does this person have relevant experience and not just MBA book learning?
• Will this be able to communicate with other employees?
• Is the job in question big enough for an MBA grad?
• Is the size of your company in sync with this person’s expectation?

Finally, deciding which way to go regarding this can be a difficult decision, but one thing that can help is to do a cost-benefit analysis or a cost vs. benefit analysis. In other words, for example is the benefit of spending so much on an MBA grad in-house worth it when compared with the service that will be rendered by an MBA contractor at a lower cost.

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