Part of the lesson that was drilled into our heads in my MBA program as it relates to strategy consulting was to always start by understanding the goals and mot

Part of the lesson that was drilled into our heads in my MBA program as it relates to strategy consulting was to always start by understanding the goals and motivations of owners/management. The fact that you should understand people's motivations before you can claim to understand a situation seems self-evident to me, but it's obviously not that evident to many. I'm not sure how much I would blame MBA programs for this - there are a lot of idiots with MBAs, just like there are a lot of idiots with other degrees. An MBA gives students a set of tools and hopefully some understanding of how to apply them - but it's still up to the individuals to use their own judgement.