MBAs Are "A Menace to Society." George Bush and Katherine Weymouth Are MBAs - Charlie Warner - MediaBizBlogger

In his 2004 book Managers Not MBAs A Hard Look at the Soft Practice of Managing and Management Development Henry Mintzberg wrote quotMBA graduates who believe they can manage anything are quite simply a menace to societyquot Is it a coincidence that George Bush and Katherine Weymouth both have MBAs from the Harvard School of BusinessBush was the first US president with an MBA He lied to the American public about WMD in Iraq in order to promote a personal vendetta against Saddam Hussein As the entitled son of a privileged powerful family he had a pattern of believing he never did anything wrong see Justin Frank39s Bush on the CouchWeymouth is the first publisher of the Washington Post who has an MBA According to the New York TimesquotFor a fee of 25000 for one or 250000 for an entire series for an exclusive 39Washington Post salon39 at Ms Weymouth39s home in which officials from Congress and the administration lobbyists and yes the paper39s own reporters could have a quiet offtherecord dinner discussions to be led by Marcus Brauchli the newspaper39s editor Theoretically you can39t buy Washington Post reporters but you can rent themquotAs an entitled daughter of a privileged powerful family Weymouth like Bush did not earn her job on merit but got it because she is a member of the Lucky Sperm Club amp8211 she is the granddaughter of Katherine Graham whose family controls the Washington PostIs it a random occurrence that both Bush and Weymouth come from privileged backgrounds didn39t really earn their jobs on their own merits and have MBAs from the Harvard Business School I don39t think soMintzberg writes that quotMBA programs by their very nature attract many of the wrong people amp8211 too impatient too analytical and too much need to controlquot He also writes that most MBA programs teach about analyzing numbers not managing people and that by concentrating on the numbers and on the concept of maximizing shareholder value graduates arrogantly believe they can manage any business Jim Collins in his new book How the Mighty Fall refers to shortterm investors as quotshareflippersquot a term I like for the current breed of greedy Wall Street typesWeymouth worked at the Post for 12 years before she became publisher But during that time she either didn39t fully understand the importance of the separation between church and state for a newspaper or didn39t know that the marketing department was sending out a flier promoting a deal that had only been considered but not approved In ether case she should have known better before she damaged her paper39s reputation and had to publish an apology to readersIt almost seems that Weymouth like Bush arrogantly believed she could do no wrong which likely comes from a sense of entitlement after getting a job she didn39t earn and of more concern from what she learned in her MBA program amp8211 think of your own needs first to demonstrate how successful and smart you are not about the core values of your organization journalism ethics and not about customers readersIt39s probably not fair to blame the Harvard MBA program for the moral and ethical lapses of Bush Weymouth and greedy Wall Street bankers who are graduates but it seems to me to be fair to ask the question quotwhat values are MBA programs like Harvard39s teachingquotAnd to its credit the Harvard Business School is asking itself that question Several months ago it hosted an open conversation on the subject on its website We can only hope that Harvard and other MBA programs take a look at themselves and see what they can do to stop turning out graduates who like Henry Mintzberg said quotare quite simply a menace to societyquotUntil he retired in 2002 Charlie Warner was Vice President of AOL39s Interactive Marketing division Before joining AOL he was the Goldenson Endowed Professor at the Missouri Journalism School where he taught media management and sales and he created and ran the annual Management Seminar for News Executives Charlie can be contacted at charleshwarnergmailcomRead all Charlieamp8217s MediaBizBlogger commentaries at Charlie Warner MediaBizBlogger

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MBAs Are "A Menace to Society." George Bush and Katherine Weymouth Are MBAs - Charlie Warner - MediaBizBlogger

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