Occasional commenter ChETHB raised another interesting point in the discussion about the trouble with GM:
I have been thinking more about the decline of the American automobile industry and have come up with one more tidbit to throw out - the rise of MBA's in American industry. This started in the mid-60's and it has been my personal observation that decision-making in technically oriented businesses has suffered as managers/executives with technical degrees have been replaced by executives holding MBA degrees. Could something this simple have started the downfall of GM?
I found this statement provocative. My own corporate experience suggested that the really valuable people are those who know how to do things. Meanwhile, there were a lot of MBA's (and in my case, an MPA) running around not adding a lot of value. If I had been in charge, I would have fired me, a bunch of MBA types, and all of the Andersen "change" consultants.
What thinkest thou, fair readers and fellow contributors? Is the rise of the MBA a good thing?
I wouldn't be surprised if the average age of a GM employee was between 55-60. The rise of managers having worked at GM for 25+ years with bloated salaries not adding value is the culprit here. GM is a huge beaurcracy. You do say mid-60's... it could be true.
ReplyDeleteCars being good on the drawing board, and at autoshows, but being overweight, underfeatured, and overpriced in reality, sounds like an MBA.
www.autoextremist.com always has good stuff on wednesdays about the car industry.
as a recent MBA I would say that too many of us are a bad thing for a company. MBAs are taught to manage, not necessarily to build or grow companies.
ReplyDeleteOnly one of the courses I took in my program was directly targeted at forcing people to decide and clearly define what actions they would take to confront problems and issues. The rest of the courses were satisfied with generalities: planning, defining, and organizing.
Stratgic thought was taught; not strategic implementation.
That is not to say I didnt enjoy or value my MBA... I just recognise that we MBA types are often full of horse dung.