Once upon a time, people got to be in charge of operations because they had worked in the operation their whole lives.
Airplane mechanic —> pilot —> sales manager — VP for operations —> CEO
Computer operator —. Software engineer —> Test Manager —> Head of Quality Control —> Regional Sales Manager —> CFO
Farm hand —> Farmer —> Agricultural economist —> Undersecretary for animal welfare —> Farming Minister
You got to be in charge of things because you understood your business from the ground up. You knew the ins and outs and you had made some mistakes and learned from those mistakes. You had proven yourself over time, and so you got the run the operation because you were the best man for the job.
Nowadays, you go to university, get an MBA and you get to run a brewery —> then you get to run an airline —> then you get to run a semiconductor plant —> then you get to be Farming Minister. And you probably sucked at each and every one of those jobs because you never really understood what you were doing at any of them.
All things much better suited to be accomplished by AI Algorithms, in real time, not six months behind.
Roberto Goizueta, Coca Cola CEO in the 80s, started as a chemist at yhe company.
Nowadays, you go to university, get an MBA and you get to run a brewery —> then you get to run an airline —> then you get to run a semiconductor plant —> then you get to be Farming Minister. And you probably sucked at each and every one of those jobs because you never really understood what you were doing at any of them.
************************************************************************
The Harvard MBA started the industry-killing process - McNamara’s Whiz Kids.
MBAs are a dime a dozen nowadays, most of them are “educated” Well Beyond Their Intelligence - IE, stupid. They’re lucky I didn’t work for them; would have given them a stroke or heart failure.
I found a couple good ones who knew what they were doing, but they are rare.
That is an excellent summary of so much of what we see. I don’t understand any company that looks to outsiders before growing and training their own people.
Slightly related, I remember reading an article years ago about the QuickTrip gas station company and their commitment to their standards. This included the drivers of their tractor-trailers that delivered materials from their distribution warehouses to the store, and the quote as I recall from the article said “It’s easier for us to train a QuickTrip employee to drive a truck than to teach a truck driver how to be a QuickTrip employee.” Nobody knows your business like someone who’s been working in your business!
Because korporations prime objectives are no longer about the product or service of the industry they're in. They're financial vehicles for money managers.
The money managers don't want you there to oversee production or satisfy customers, they want you to keep an eye on their money.
And for that you need to know about money, not operations. Let the peasants worry about operations.
That is so true. A bunch of frat boys ran a consortium of retail stores with no apparent real-life similarity, and three of them from that portfolio that I know of recently went out of business: RiteAid pharmacies, PartyCity party supplies, and JoAnn Fabrics. Of the three, there is no substitute for JoAnn's full line of goods, and it may be the same for PartyCity. At least not in our large metro region.