What If Don Draper Had An MBA?

Personnel Management: “You want some respect? Go out and get it for yourself.” Those words epitomize Don Draper’s worldview, where he measures people strictly on talent and results. He expects the very best – and he doesn’t sugarcoat his opinions. In fact, he can be harsh and alienate people. In Don’s words, “The day you sign a client is the day you start losing them.” It’s his version of Andy Grove’s “Only the paranoid survive.” As a result, employees have to constantly raise their games to keep the business. And that can be exhausting.

Still, Draper employs strategies used by the best managers. He is hands-off, giving his people time and space to think and test. In fact, he’ll dump his own ideas if someone proposes better ones. Draper focuses on a client’s best interests, keeping his people working on the tactics while he manages the larger strategy. Despite these positives, Draper is often oblivious to his employees’ concerns. For example, he snaps, “That’s what the money is for!” when Peggy Olson observes that he never says ‘Thank you.’ Sometimes, he gives recognition, but it is usually short and private. An MBA management course might soften some of Don’s rough edges, particularly if he learns ways to make his people more productive.

Business Management: This is Draper’s Achilles heel. He may be courageous enough to launch a new agency. But he lacks the patience to handle the daily nuts-and-bolts. And he certainly couldn’t drop off the grid in California at a moment’s notice. His agency is already hobbled by Joan Holloway’s maternity leave, with the books being held together by “spit” in her absence. With aging partners and layoffs imminent, Don needs to take a more active role in his agency’s finances and operations. Unfortunately, his lack of education here makes him a liability. More than anywhere, this is where a MBA could help Don fill his experience gaps.

Personal Branding: Don Draper has this part down pat. Between his matinee looks and swagger, Draper understands that he is the package. People gravitate toward him and want to please him. He has the “it’ factor you can’t teach in school. But there is substance behind the style.  An iconoclast, Draper relishes in challenging his customers’ thinking. He doesn’t subscribe to the notion that “he customer knows best.” Instead, he believes it is his job, as an outside expert, to provide ideas instead of validation. That’s what clients should expect from him, take it or leave it. Don lives in the moment. This mindset alone would make it difficult for Draper to stick around in an MBA program. The readings and discussions would just seem too abstract and irrelevant to him. They wouldn’t produce anything beyond the school walls.

The Bottom Line: Some people just aren’t out cut out for school. That certainly applies to Don Draper. Husband and father – and already wildly successful  – it has been difficult picturing Don giving up two years in a MBA program, let along spending his evenings or weekends in an executive program. Even if he were accepted, Draper would probably duck out early, skip classes, or allow his mind would wander…likely to the redhead in the next row of desks.

Fact is, Draper doesn’t need a MBA to give him either confidence or freedom. The man can flat out sell. And there is always a place for someone like that. As history shows, his job – and place in society – will gradually change.  Question is, will Draper have the tools to adapt – tools he could develop in an MBA program? I’m betting he can re-invent himself. Guess we’ll find out over the next three seasons.

Writer’s Note: Ever notice how Editor-in-Chief John A. Byrne bears a striking resemblance to Roger Sterling? It must be the hair.