The market for post-undergraduate business education is being underserved, but not in the way you think.

Executive MBA programs are gaining stature every year. Many of the country’s best B-schools now offer programs structured for students well into the workforce and with life situations that preclude leaving work and family obligations for two years of full-time study. It’s a wonderful time to be in the position to further one’s education and obtain an MBA. However, with an average cost of around $47,000 and a commitment to two years of nights and/or weekends, an executive MBA program is still out of the reach of most aspirants.

“You dropped 150 grand on a f****** education you could have got for a dollar fifty in late charges at the public library!” - Good Will Hunting

For considerably less cost is an attempt to obtain the equivalent knowledge through books. There’s even a surprisingly well-organized attempt to define a personal MBA. It would seem that with the volume of business books available one could easily access the best current thinking on economics, marketing, sales, creativity, leadership, and management while sipping a latte at Barnes & Noble. But there’s something missing in that equation – the classroom experience. And that leads me to the missing link between business books and an MBA.

At its core, higher education is less about learning than about how to learn. And an effective MBA will be less about core business fundamentals than about the collaborative learning environment during the program. So here’s the opening, the opportunity. How can one get the shared sense of accomplishment, of dedication to task, of focus on a goal without the motivator of a large tuition payment? And most importantly how can one collaborate with a group of similarly motivated individuals so that their shared experience is the real accomplishment?

Somewhere between that $1.50 at the library and the $47,000 to a B-school is a huge opportunity.