- As Gen Z questions the value of a degree, Epic’s billionaire CEO, Judy Faulkner, says she has never been a fan of MBAs—and built a $5.7-billion-a-year software giant without one. Unlike Apple CEO Tim Cook or General Motors CEO Mary Barra, who both attended business school, the 82-year-old charted her own path, including establishing 10 business “commandments,” like a directive to never file for an IPO or sell.
With recent graduates struggling to land jobs and the best business schools charging in excess of $150,000 for a degree, it’s left Gen Z’s aspiring business leaders questioning more than ever the value of going back to school.
For Epic Systems CEO Judy Faulkner, whose software powers many of the U.S.’s top hospitals, the answer is simple: A graduate business degree may have done more harm than good.
“I never got an MBA, which I think is a really good thing,” Faulkner recently told CNBC.
“They would have taught me, ‘Here’s how you do venture capital.’ We didn’t do it. ‘Here’s how you go public.’ We didn’t do it. ‘Here’s how you do budgets.’ We don’t have budgets. We say, ‘If you need it, buy it. If you don’t need it, don’t buy it.’”
While the 82-year-old’s leadership style may sound unconventional, it has worked wonders for her business, which she started in her Wisconsin basement in 1979. Epic now rakes in an estimated $5.7 billion in annual revenue and has propelled Faulkner’s net worth to over $7.8 billion.
Her secret to learning the ropes of business management still included reading books and taking multiday courses, but she’s just never been a blind follower. In fact, Faulkner even established her own set of principles, known as Epic’s 10 commandments, that are plastered all over the company’s sprawling 1,670-acre campus. They include “do not go public,” “do not acquire or be acquired,” and “software must work.”
CEOs are divided on the value of business school
While demand for business school is on the rise—a trend often seen in conjunction with economic uncertainty—business leaders have long expressed doubt about whether the skills taught in the classroom are worth it.
In fact, the richest person in the world, billionaire Elon Musk, has said that there are too many business school graduates running corporate America.
“I think there may be too many MBAs running companies,” Musk previously told the Wall Street Journal. “There’s the MBA-ization of America, which I think is maybe not that great. There should be more focus on the product or service itself, less time on board meetings, less time on financials.”
And he’s not alone. Billionaire and former Shark Tank star Mark Cuban has called getting an MBA “overrated.” PayPal cofounder Peter Thiel has said he doesn’t like hiring MBA graduates owing to their mostly being “high extrovert/low conviction people.”
However, if you’re eager to follow in the footsteps of top business leaders such as Apple CEO Tim Cook, General Motors CEO Mary Barra, and JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, business school might be in your future. After all, over 40% of all Fortune 1000 chief executives have obtained an MBA. Ultimately, the choice to attend a program comes down to one’s own personal goals.
Barra said her experience at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business helped her cultivate an everlasting “learning mindset.”
“My experiences on campus changed my life and accelerated my career. They prepared me to manage and, ultimately, to lead,” she said in 2024.
