Bob Lutz had a career in Detroit as an executive with Ford, BMW, Chrysler and GM, where he rose to Vice Chairman of the organization. He has written a book, Car Guys vs. Bean Counters; The Battle for the Soul of American Business which was reviewed by Rana Foroohar in the July 18, 2011 Time magazine.
The central target of the book is the "bean counters," the M.B.A.s who have come to play a large role in American corporations. Foroohar notes that FedEx routing of packages through logistical hubs and the consulting industry came out of this revolution, but the growth of the financial industry has contributed to the tendency for management driven by balance sheets.
In his book, Lutz says M.B.A.s should be fired and engineers should manufacture the product. For the first half of the twentieth century, giants like Ford, General Electric and AT&T, as well as many others, used technology to develop the best possible products in the belief that if you build it better, the customers will come. This attitude has been replaced by a mindset aimed a short-term profitability.
For the foreseeable future, there will be a lot more M.B.A.s churned out of graduate schools than engineers.
The same may be true in China, where 40 new graduate schools of business are planned within a few years. Lutz responded to this trend this way: "That’s the best news I’ve heard in years."
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2081930,00.html
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The blog author agrees with this reasoning, in spite of possessing an MBA and working for years as a CPA.
The central target of the book is the "bean counters," the M.B.A.s who have come to play a large role in American corporations. Foroohar notes that FedEx routing of packages through logistical hubs and the consulting industry came out of this revolution, but the growth of the financial industry has contributed to the tendency for management driven by balance sheets.
In his book, Lutz says M.B.A.s should be fired and engineers should manufacture the product. For the first half of the twentieth century, giants like Ford, General Electric and AT&T, as well as many others, used technology to develop the best possible products in the belief that if you build it better, the customers will come. This attitude has been replaced by a mindset aimed a short-term profitability.
For the foreseeable future, there will be a lot more M.B.A.s churned out of graduate schools than engineers.
The same may be true in China, where 40 new graduate schools of business are planned within a few years. Lutz responded to this trend this way: "That’s the best news I’ve heard in years."
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2081930,00.html
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
The blog author agrees with this reasoning, in spite of possessing an MBA and working for years as a CPA.
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