MBAs as CEOs
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MBAs as CEOs
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Re: MBAs as CEOs
#2Below is the article in a nutshell. Conclusion is not vry satisfying.
"So why do they persist in promoting this education for management, which, according to mounting evidence, produces so much mismanagement?
The answer is unfortunately obvious: with so many of their graduates getting to the “top”, why change? But there is another answer that is also becoming obvious: because at this top, too many of their graduates are corrupting the economy.7"
Re: MBAs as CEOs
#3I know its popular to hate on Peter Thiel here but I think he's been right about this cohort for a long time, and that its not really surprising. Emphasis mine:
> I think one challenge a lot of the business schools have is they end up attracting students who are very extroverted and have very low conviction, and they put them in this hot house environment for a few years — at the end of which, a large number of people go into whatever was the last trendy thing to do. They’ve done studies at Harvard Business School where they’ve found that the largest cohort always went into the wrong field. So in 1989, they all went to work for Michael Milken, a year or two before he went to jail. They were never interested in Silicon Valley except for 1999, 2000. The last decade their interest was housing and private equity.
> So there is something about the way in which business school is decoupled from anything really substantive that I’d want to rethink.
From this article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/on-leadership/wp/2014/10... (but I heard him express this in a talk on Youtube that I can't find, and not in that article.)
There seems to be something that's almost by definition generic about MBA types that's built in to the network of people (paraphrasing Thiel and others, who decides to go to business school, unless they simply have no other ideas and its the "thing to do"?) or the education itself. They are probably still excellent for lots of businesses, but they may be the businesses that Warren buffet calls "a business that's doing so well an idiot could run it." They may not be businesses that need to pivot in any meaningful way.
Re: MBAs as CEOs
#4Google CEO Sundar Pichai has an MBA. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has an MBA. AWS CEO Andrew Jassy has an MBA, etc.
It is easy to undervalue marketing, sales, financial and other non-technical skills. There are definitely terrible MBAs, but also amazing ones.
Re: MBAs as CEOs
#5Company I worked for had an explicit policy to never hire MBAs. We had people from all walks of life but no MBAs. The reason is owners have worked in a large company under clueless MBAs who were neither good managers nor good engineers, and just repeated the latest corporate-speak buzzwords over and over, while drawing sizable salaries.
Re: MBAs as CEOs
#6I know its popular to hate on Peter Thiel here but I think he's been right about this cohort for a long time, and that its not really surprising. Emphasis mine: > I think one challenge a lot of the business schools have is they end up attracting students who are very extroverted and have very low conviction, and they put them in this hot house environment for a few years — at the end of which, a large number of peopl…
It IS popular to hate on Thiel but it is also very hard to dispute most of the stuff that he says. Granted, everyone is wrong about something, but in this case, I think he nails it pretty darn well!
Re: MBAs as CEOs
#7I know its popular to hate on Peter Thiel here but I think he's been right about this cohort for a long time, and that its not really surprising. Emphasis mine: > I think one challenge a lot of the business schools have is they end up attracting students who are very extroverted and have very low conviction, and they put them in this hot house environment for a few years — at the end of which, a large number of peopl…
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Re: MBAs as CEOs
#8I strongly agree with Thiel on lots of things about business and innovation. I just don't think I agree with him on politics or social issues to the extent that I can figure out what he actually thinks on these issues. The latter can be challenging since he seems to keep those cards face down.
Re: MBAs as CEOs
#9Is there a causation factor here? Meaning: are MBA CEOs hired by companies who are in "trouble", or Boards who want to "achieve growth via acquisitions" instead of more organic ways? In other words, does this reflect companies who are more likely to hire MBA-types as their CEOs rather than the individuals themselves?
Re: MBAs as CEOs
#10I think it's more useful to think of MBAs as ordination into something like the Jesuits of American Corporatism.
Late Capitalism in the US has evolved in such an obviously unequal and environmentally dangerous way that the only recourse we have is to a kind of "mystical" rhetoric. In this kind of system, being some kind of guru is just as important, if not more, than one's actual business acumen. Hence all the TED talks, CEO aphorisms, and hollow simulations of benevolence.
In this context, an MBA takes the form of acceptance into this quasi-religious order. It's either a readymade set of sacraments and oaths one can apply to any business to achieve magical effects. Or it's a kind of born-again incorporation, where people who have achieved something outside this system can be integrated back inside (why you see already successful business people going back to pursue these credentials).