Education Requirements for Business Management

Business managers wear different hats at different times. They may come from different backgrounds, but they have one thing in common: They all are accountable for the performance of their business units, which could be small sales teams or large corporations with thousands of employees. The education requirements depend on the type of business function: sales, operations, support services, trades or senior management executives.

Sales

• Sales and marketing managers supervise sales staffs, coordinate advertising campaigns and promotions, and oversee public relations efforts. If you want a career in sales, an undergraduate commerce degree or a diploma in marketing is a good start. What is more important than a degree, however, is your track record in building relationships and driving sales volume.

Operations

• Often called line managers, operations managers oversee the core functions of the business, including product research, development, manufacturing and quality control. The career path in operations usually starts with an undergraduate degree or a diploma in the field. For example, if you want to be a department manager at Intel, you would start as an engineer, a position that requires, at a minimum, an undergraduate engineering or applied science degree.

Support

• Business managers of support services supervise the clerical, accounting, finance, human resources and investor relations functions. The education requirements vary. An administrative manager may start out as a secretary with a six-month certificate, while an accounting manager would need a professional accounting designation.

Self-Employed

• Self-employed professionals, such as writers, accountants, construction and trades industry workers, farmers and ranchers manage their entire operations. They usually take on all three roles of sales, operations and support. A self-employed tax professional or an accountant may have formal education, but the education for most is a lifetime spent in the profession.

Executives

• The chief executives and presidents of small, medium and large corporations are also business managers. An undergraduate degree followed by some post-graduate work is almost always a prerequisite for senior management roles. Some notable exceptions exist, however. Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, dropped out of college, as did Steve Jobs of Apple; yet, they seem to have done OK.

Considerations

• Successful business management is more about learning from experience than learning from textbooks. The breadth and depth of your management experience are more important than the specific diploma or degree you hold. However, corporations usually expect their business managers to take advanced courses, which can range from two-day leadership skills training to a two-year Master of Business Administration program.