Elon Musk Decries ‘MBA-Ization’ of America

MBA graduates are fine for simpler industries which typically hire high school grads or similar. You really don't want to be them in charge of a highly educated workforce of say engineering, medical or scientific post grads. That's a recipe for disaster almost every time.

It's been a drag on the U.S. economy for decades. Design by PowerPoint. Even Drucker in "The Practice of Management" didn't preach technical ignorance - but federation (2 pizza rule) and nurturing the craftsmen.

What I want to know is why hasn't A16Z industrialized the SAAS startup? A whitelabel RapidAPI. Support MVP templates in a few stock frameworks (Django,Rails,Rocket, Serverless) with a shared proprietary catalog of widgets, testing suites, and feature toggling management. Offer HR as a service for pay/benefits management and general ledgers as a service to simplify accounting. Internal git bounties on features - send us a PR to do X and we pay Y - for low friction contracting and to lower global burn rate.

>"What is wrong with American corporations?

Elon Musk says too many M.B.A.s. are polluting companies’ ability to think creatively and give customers what they really want.

His comments criticizing M.B.A.s came amid a broader conversation about leadership before an online audience during The Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council annual summit, where he also encouraged executives to step away from their spreadsheets and get out of the boardroom and onto the factory floor.

“I think there might be too many M.B.A.s running companies,” the Tesla Inc. chief executive said.

“There’s the M.B.A.-ization of America, which I think is maybe not that great.

There should be more focus on the product or service itself, less time on board meetings, less time on financials.”

Many business-school leaders shot back, saying that Mr. Musk’s comments don’t match the reality of what is taught in M.B.A. programs and that more students than ever who are pursuing the graduate degree are interested in entrepreneurship and tech rather than Wall Street.

“I have nothing but the utmost respect for Elon, but he’s wrong to focus the blame on M.B.A.s,” said Robert Siegel, a lecturer in management at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. “I think he’s got a strong element of truth of what leaders should be focused on, but he is completely off base talking about M.B.A.s.”"

PDS: Reminds yours truly - of this classic Rodney Dangerfield scene:

Back to School (1986) - Thornton Talks Business Scene (4/12) | Movieclips

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSLscJ2cY04

Also... random observation:

If what Elon says is true, then The "U. S. of A." -- might quickly be becoming the "M. B. of A."...<g>

(Also, what happens, in the future, when the "product" that every company makes -- is a financial product (such as a stock or other finanical product) which is based on what some other company makes? Then who manufactures anything of value anymore?)

Reminds me of a Kayne West song:

"Awesome, the Christian in Christian Dior

Damn, they don't make 'em like this anymore

I ask, 'cause I'm not sure

Do anybody make real sh&t anymore?"

-Kayne West, "Stronger"

In fact, there should be a Federal Crime: "Not manufacturing anything of any real value to anyone" -- but if there was, half of America would be in jail... <g>

I'm just kidding about all of the above, of course... <g>