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Yes that is exactly what happened Welch came in started pushing the MBA way of doing things, pushed it throughout the entire industry, talked a big game. Tons o
by buscoquadnary 4y ago
Yes that is exactly what happened Welch came in started pushing the MBA way of doing things, pushed it throughout the entire industry, talked a big game. Tons of MBA programs were focused around the "GE Way" etc. It was when the Peter Principle, people are promoted to their level of incompetence, to the Dilbert Principle, idiots are promoted directly to keep them out of the productive flow.
The MBA ruined many things, it was scientific management brought back with a catchy name. Not creative enough to be in the artists? Lacking the intellectual discipline to become a real process engineer? It's okay you can become an MBA, learn no real skills, no real information and feel superior because then you can lord yourself over the serfs that decided to go into the silly practice of actually providing goods and services, when you can "manage" the people that actually contribute.
Note this shouldn't be taken as a tirade against management, there are good leaders out there that do make things better for those they lead, but my point is that an MBA is totally independent variable to whether or not someone will be a good manager. The problem is that an MBA basically trains people to see their work/world as a video game where they play with spreadsheets, choose the right dialogue options in the tree, and assign your workers to specific tasks, and then when the reality doesn't conform everything hits the fan.
- JumpCrisscross 4y ago> pushing the MBA way of doing things This is a bad, if commonly-made, attribution [1]. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33111247 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33111247
- randomdata 4y agoI'll leave you to decide on the veracity of the claim, but he is suggesting that Welch invented the "MBA way of doing things", something that eventually made its way into MBA programs thanks to Welch pioneering it. So him being a chemical engineer by training isn't at odds with what is being suggested. After all, you can't go to school to learn about what you created yourself.
- benzin 4y agoIt’s a nice counter argument but the comment you’re replying to is essentially a slam-dunk on this entire MBA discussion. Confirmation bias truly is a juggernaut.
- randomdata 4y agoUnfortunately not. If the premise of the original comment is true, the comment I replied to doesn't work because Immelt would have become an MBA before Welch's "MBA way" made it into the MBA system, thus he wouldn't come from that school of thought. As the links in the other comment show, Immelt obtained his MBA around the same time Welch was just starting his leadership at GE, whereas the original comment suggested that Welch invented the "MBA way" while leading GE, and that eventually made its way into MBA programs. It was a fun thought to ponder in a vacuum, but the real world has timelines.
- bumby 4y agoOut of curiosity, how would you define the role of a “real process engineer” and how is it fundamentally different?
- ETHisso2017 4y ago> MBA basically trains people to see their work/world as a video game where they play with spreadsheets, choose the right dialogue options in the tree, and assign your workers to specific tasks, and then when the reality doesn't conform everything hits the fan Accurate except the last part - when reality doesn't conform you come up with a 'transition plan' that involves you finding another group to run over a 3 month grace period while all the workers scramble with much less time than that