# From the Stage: Forget the MBA. Get a Master’s in Business Imagination
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From the stage Speaking to a dental audience for Cain Watters & Associates, I pushed back on the idea that you can be "motivated" into creativity: "I find motivational speakers kind of a weird breed." Instead, I shared a line I first used on CNBC: innovation is simply asking three questions. How do I run the business better? How do I grow it? And how do I transform it? Then I took it one step further: "We don't need more MBAs in the world." What we need, I said, are people with the imagination to turn trends into opportunity: "What we really need are folks who have a master in business imagination." Why it matters We're very good at administration: managing, measuring, controlling. Those skills keep the lights on. But in a world of accelerating change, the scarce skill is imagination: seeing what a trend makes possible and having the nerve to act on it. Imagination can be practised, rewarded and hired for, just like any other capability. The takeaway Ask the three questions every week: run, grow, transform. Reward the person who imagines the new thing, not just the one who manages the old one. Earn your own Master's in Business Imagination, one experiment at a time. Related: Case Study: Cain Watters & Associates: The Future Of Dentistry Was A Business Model Story. · Event Highlight: Keynote : Cain Watters - The Future of Dentistry and the Masters of Business Imagination · Earlier: Accelerating Creativity - The Masters in Business Imagination! (2022) · Earlier: Accelerating Creativity? It's Through the Masters in Business Imagination! (Recent keyote clip) (2022) · Healthcare & Pharma From the Stage is a weekday series of short clips from more than 30 years of keynotes, and the leadership lessons that still matter.

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Source: https://jimcarroll.com/2026/10/from-the-stage-forget-the-mba-get-a-masters-in-business-imagination/