Originally Posted by area51

Sorry to derail the thread further, my 2 cents:

What you & others above say make sense. I am a deg grad & worked for a few SMEs founded by people who graduate from school of hard knocks. My observation is most of them can’t expand their business beyond a few countries and profit seem to max out at $3-$5 million followed by years of stagnation.

My take is many of these bosses are quite street smart at identifying profitable niches and striking a few key client relations, but unfortunately they lack the experience and theoretical background when it comes to running a big organization. As the business grows, it becomes less about individual abilities and more about process, governance, strategy, planning and marketing. This is when having a good academic foundation become critical.

Most of these lower educated bosses look down on their higher educated employees and dismiss all their suggestions as text book rubbish with no value. Due to their initial success, they assume that since they have many years experience on the ground, young degree punks know nothing and just need to follow orders.

So in the end the good workers leave and the boss is ended with a bunch of mediocre yes man who just hang around waiting for instructions. Bosses with good academic background understand the need to strike a balance between practice and theory if you really want to expand the business.