[mikejholly]

It seems obvious to me that he's referring to the dichotomy of management (top-down) versus engineering (bottom-up). I think most people understand that businesses are indeed businesses. The point is that some development methodologies commoditize engineering to such a level that engineering is disempowered. This limits potential for innovation. Innovation comes from both ends. For example, as an executive I can "ideate" a search engine faster than Google. How useful is that vision without being source by or informed by engineering innovation? Conversely, some nerd (endearing usage here) builds a new search algorithm and uses solely it to find episodes of Star Trek where Spock chastises Kirk. Not exactly serving shareholders. In a healthy organization, there's a balance between these units where both see the value the other brings.

I agree with your points about the need for managers to also be experienced (and sometimes elite) engineers. Although I'm not sure I would argue that case for Project Managers, specifically.