Mature ticket-punchers are more "adult" or specialized in their interests; Tend to do OK academically but socially they subsist outside the mainstream (they ask less and add less).
This is part of a larger "Archetype map" diagram that divides MBA students into 4 groups based on two axes:
- "Identify with the dominant culture" vs. "Identify with a microculture"
- "Academic Pragmatist" vs. "Academic Purist"
Mainstream MBAs are focused on why they're here and what they want; The most likely to be satisfied with the status quo.
Happy Wanderers tend to find their niche in the Darden community but may struggle to get placed in internships/jobs.
Map-Makers are challenged to find community (must make their own maps); Have broader expectations and more diverse needs; Least likely to be satisfied at Darden
Here is the Google Books link to the book where I found this idiom: Designing for Growth: A Design Thinking Tool Kit for Managers, by Jeanne Liedtka and Tim Ogilvie
Best Answer
What they mean, in that book, by "ticket-puncher" is clearer in another sentence from that book.
That means they are only in school because a degree is required for the job. They are here to get their ticket punched.
That's what they mean by the label. However, the grid is constructed from asking two questions:
So people who are academically pragmatic and counter culture are being judged to just be ticket-punchers. They aren't here for cultural experience or pure academic pursuits. They just want a job.
The book's logic is a bit exclusionary. It could be that there are more than 3 possible reasons someone goes to school. They've eliminated two and just assume your reason must be the third. This only holds up if you insist all other reasons fall under these three somehow. But that's what you have to do if you want to draw these clever little two question diagrams.
In a broader context, that is, outside of this book, this literally means someone who gets their ticket punched. A practice used in everything from train travel to verify you are a paying customer, not someone reusing an old ticket, to earning you a free sandwich after having bought ten of them, as proven with ten punches in your ticket (a promotional gimmick that always made me wonder how expensive hole punches could possibly be).
While that is the root literal meaning it has grown into several others: