Why Michael Shanly Thinks Business School Is Overrated
Why Michael Shanly Thinks Business School Is Overrated
For many in the world of property development and investment, the path is paved with credentials—degrees, MBAs, glossy case studies of success. But Michael Shanly never seemed all that interested in following the scripted version of business leadership. He took a different route—one built not in a classroom, but on construction sites, spreadsheets, and lived experience.
Shanly, now one of the UK’s most respected developers and long-term investors, doesn’t dismiss formal education outright. But he’s clear-eyed about its limitations. For him, the most valuable lessons in business don’t come from textbooks or lecture halls. They come from doing—from making decisions with consequences, from managing risk in real time, from building something that actually lasts.
It’s not a contrarian pose. It’s a philosophy rooted in his own trajectory. Shanly built his career from the ground up—first as a tradesman, then a developer, and eventually as the founder of a property group known for its thoughtful regeneration projects and premium builds. Along the way, he learned how to read a market, navigate uncertainty, and, most importantly, build trust—skills no degree can guarantee.
What separates Michael Shanly from the archetypal executive isn’t just that he skipped business school. It’s that he built his empire with an instinct honed by proximity. Proximity to place. To people. To the product. His is a leadership style forged in practice, not theory—an ethos clearly reflected in Michael Shanly’s grounded approach to leadership and investment.
And yet, Shanly’s success is often studied like a case study. The precision of his developments, the long-term horizon of his investments, the strategic patience in choosing locations others overlooked—it’s all there. But what’s harder to teach, and what Shanly embodies, is the gut-level understanding that real business success comes from knowing your values, trusting your read of the world, and not outsourcing your decisions to formulas. This piece expands on how that discipline shows up in his work on the high street.
That applies not only to his commercial ventures, but to his philanthropy. Through the Shanly Foundation, he directs funding into local initiatives with the same hands-on sensibility. He doesn’t throw money at problems from a distance. He supports efforts he believes in, usually after seeing them up close.
It’s not anti-intellectual. It’s anti-abstraction. Shanly’s skepticism toward business school isn’t about dismissing knowledge—it’s about demanding relevance. In his world, value isn’t theoretical. It’s measurable in impact: a thriving town center, a regenerated neighborhood, a young person given a better start. That hands-on, value-driven model is detailed in this London Loves Business feature on Michael Shanly’s philanthropic model, which highlights how his foundation strengthens community infrastructure.
There’s a certain elegance in how Shanly operates—quiet, strategic, grounded. And while others build careers around credentials, he’s built a legacy around action. In an age where business education is increasingly commodified, Michael Shanly offers a different model: trust your eye, learn by building, and remember that no syllabus can replace the wisdom of being in the room when it matters.
Learn more: https://shanlyfoundation.com/