One of the questions repeatedly asked before going back to school to earn my MBA was, "What will an MBA teach you?  You already have all this experience."  I found myself dwelling on this question over and over.  Having completed half of the MBA program I can tell you that my experience has allowed me to wrap around the big picture much more easily.  In class discussions, that for many students focus on the mechanics of doing the problems, comments from experienced students challenge or confirm the "lesson".

Without the experience I have had I am not sure how much I would appreciate the MBA program.

But the above does not answer the original question.  What I am learning from the MBA proram is how to apply the mechanics to the problems faced in business.  Looking back on my career and thinking about the number of capital-budgeting decisions I have made without fully understanding the mechanics of the decision I had just made.  Sure I did analysis, but nothing to the extent learned in our Finance class ... I have made improvemnets to various operations but never understood the details of these changes and how applying specific formulas would have allowed me to uncover some of these changes earlier.

Probably the most interesting aspect of the program, and maybe a sign of the times, is the amount of fraud detection that is being taught.  Many of the classes spend a good deal of time examing how frauds are constructed so that as future managers we can detect such situations. 

My career has been in small business ... an MBA is giving me the knowledge of big business.  And that is what I am learning from the MBA program.