[api]

I've said for years that the MBA is the Western capitalist equivalent of the Soviet "apparatchik."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apparatchik

I wonder if the bullshit taught at top tier business schools starting in the 1980s isn't as responsible or perhaps even more responsible for the destruction of American industry than outsourcing, bad trade policy, and other more familiar villains. A generation or two of business leaders were systematically educated on how to trade away deep proficiency and substance for financial smoke and mirrors. GE is a microcosm of what the entire country has done.

[throwaway156503]

It would be helpful if people commented on why you were downvoted.

Americans have no appreciation for businessmen and businesswomen with experience. Sales people at Levi's who don't know how to measure your waist, roofers who don't know how to repair roofs, only replace them, dealerships who don't know how to repair, only upsell to the newest car.

Too much bullshit and not enough hardwork. Too many charlatans and not enough seasoned tradesmen, salesmen, and otherwise.

[ineedasername]

It goes back further than the 1980's. It had its advent with the rise of business/managerial "science" that thought trained middle & senior managers could become standardized units of productivity to be swapped in & out of any position as equivalent units. It left out the fact that good managers have strong knowledge of the operations under them and the business as a whole, not just a managerial rule book.

[bumby]

It's been a while since I read it but I think the book "The Firm" about McKinsey talked a bit about this movement and how business studies became a graduate degree.

[i_am_proteus]

The contemporary "top" MBA is a class reinforcement mechanism, nothing more, nothing less.

[arethuza]

My own theory about MBAs is that it seems to be a signalling mechanism where people are saying "I want to stop doing <stuff> and want to manage people doing <anything>" - spending the time and money being a way of signalling that you are serious about being committed to management rather than being a practitioner.