Have American Businesses and Government Been Stranded by the MBAs?

Posted by timothy on Sunday July 10, @09:25AM
from the I've-got-people-skills dept

Slashdot this morning has this gem that a lot of people outside of the management of the company will agree is true.  Too many times the MBA's especially from the Ivy League know it all with no practical experience to back it up.  Since the Ivy League education has shown it doesn't work well with the Presidents we have had recently, why would want them running our day to day business operations.  Too many times over the years management will listen to the MBAs when the engineers have the answers.  A prime example would be the aerospace companies where the bean counters rule and programs suffer.  Lutz has pegged the problem but will business do anything about the problem?  

theodp writes 

"In his new book, Car Guys vs. Bean Counters: The Battle for the Soul of American Business, legendary car-guy Bob Lutz says to get the U.S. economy growing again, we need to fire the MBAs and let engineers run the show. The auto industry, writes TIME's Rana Foroohar, is actually a terrific proxy for a trend toward short-term, myopically balance-sheet-driven management that has infected American business. In the first half of the 20th century, industrial giants like Ford, GE, AT&T and others used new technologies to create the best possible products and services with the idea that if you build it better, the customers will come. But by the late '70s, if-you-can-measure-it-you-can-manage-it MBAs were flourishing, and engineers were relegated to the geek back rooms. 

'Shoemakers should be run by shoe guys,' argues Lutz, 'and software firms by software guys.' Learning that China plans to open 40 new graduate schools of business in the next few years, Lutz quipped, 'That's the best news I've heard in years.'"

Why are the MBA's put in charge of engineers and other high tech people?  Makes no sense and most likely has led to salary increases for the company with less production.  We sure know that has happened with the Federal Government which has grown with adding programs and people under the Ivy League Presidents to where we have a huge deficit. 

We are not saying an MBA is a bad thing but it is how those with an MBA are used in the company and government that is the problem.