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I would have to respectfully disagree. I think this can come across as stereotypical, and it may play well to an audience of engineers, scientists and programme

I would have to respectfully disagree. I think this can come across as stereotypical, and it may play well to an audience of engineers, scientists and programmers. Individuals themselves possess brilliance, there are good MBAs as much as there are bad MBAs and the same for STEM professionals. Rather we should say Hewlett had exceptional insight at the time, vs. attributing it to his upbringing and then making a sweeping statement on MBAs coming through a finance department.

TheOtherHobbes 6y ago
Good MBAs tend to be good at being MBAs, which is an orthogonal skillset to being disruptive inventors. Tim Cook has an MBA. No one could complain about Apple's financial performance, but the company has definitely lost the "Let's launch a market-defining product every five years or so" momentum and gloss of the Jobs years. It's an open question whether this would actually have harmed Apple's performance over time, or whether the market cap would be even bigger if Jobs were still alive. (IMO it would probably have led to a much broader and more inventive product range which would have triggered earlier antitrust action - but of course that's just speculation and there's no possible way to back it up.)
- abhinav22 6y ago
  The iPhone was an exceptional invention for Apple. It’s not guaranteed that Steve Jobs would have another hit. And many would say the M1 and Silicon Macs are a considerable step up, and so is the slow but steady March of wearables via Apple Watch and Air Pods. I do agree with you that there is a higher chance of innovation with Steve at the helm, but again he is a generational talent so is it fair to paint the MBA Tim Cook in a bad light when he has been reasonably successful in not just business but also innovation. My overall point is smart people are smart people and generational talents are generational talents. They can be MBAs or engineers or any other profession. Creative MBAs will be creative and dull engineer will be dull.

TheOtherHobbes 6y ago

Good MBAs tend to be good at being MBAs, which is an orthogonal skillset to being disruptive inventors. Tim Cook has an MBA. No one could complain about Apple's financial performance, but the company has definitely lost the "Let's launch a market-defining product every five years or so" momentum and gloss of the Jobs years. It's an open question whether this would actually have harmed Apple's performance over time, or whether the market cap would be even bigger if Jobs were still alive. (IMO it would probably have led to a much broader and more inventive product range which would have triggered earlier antitrust action - but of course that's just speculation and there's no possible way to back it up.)

abhinav22 6y ago
The iPhone was an exceptional invention for Apple. It’s not guaranteed that Steve Jobs would have another hit. And many would say the M1 and Silicon Macs are a considerable step up, and so is the slow but steady March of wearables via Apple Watch and Air Pods. I do agree with you that there is a higher chance of innovation with Steve at the helm, but again he is a generational talent so is it fair to paint the MBA Tim Cook in a bad light when he has been reasonably successful in not just business but also innovation. My overall point is smart people are smart people and generational talents are generational talents. They can be MBAs or engineers or any other profession. Creative MBAs will be creative and dull engineer will be dull.