I'm not a big fan of MBAs as CEOs, but I think the evidence in the article is weak. There's never been a randomized study of installing different kinds of CEOs,

I'm not a big fan of MBAs as CEOs, but I think the evidence in the article is weak. There's never been a randomized study of installing different kinds of CEOs, so all they can measure is what happens to the kind of companies that hire MBAs fresh out of school as their new CEOs. What kind of company offers the biggest pay package to an MBA fresh out of school? Large ones where the board believes the company needs a major turnaround. If they didn't have serious management failures, they'd promote from within. It's the same phenomenon as discovering that the most famous cardiologists have the most patients dying.