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There’s a great article on The Economist about MBAs. They mention a study by the late Sumantra Ghoshal, which argues that many of the “worst excesses of recent management practices have their roots in a set of ideas that have emerged from business-school academics over the last 30 years.”

So what’s in an MBA? According to Ghoshal, it’s the hard-wiring of economic theory into the decision-making process! Unfortunately, things like morals and responsibility to society and government are inherently incompatible with said process..

Okay, here’s the disclaimer: the article hasn’t come out yet, which also means that I’m speaking from personal opinion. Here we go.

To get a primer of where I sit on the thermometer of capitalism, you should read my posts on BP and The Corporation. From these episodes, along with my nouveau-gauche (think nouveau-riche, not Beaujolais nouveau) education at Graded, I’ve come to a very mixed opinion of the MBA, which many argue is the root of all evil for modern capitalism.

This is not necessarily so. Take the recent Exame report on CEOs in Brazil. 66% of them only have a bachelor’s degree. In fact, 49% are engineers by trade. The stereotypical exception cited on the cover is the father of our very own Eduardo “Tinga” Amorim, Manoel, which has a degree from Harvard. (As a special treat for those who are in Brazil, call his house and ask for Luís.) Having an MBA is not the letter-of-marque for corporate evil, as corporate atrocities can be committed without them.

The overall sense I get from the executives I talk to is that MBAs aren’t about how to run a business. They’re not tactical in nature, but strategic. This means that long-term goals and strategy are emphasized over day-to-day operations. Nothing wrong with that, since we want to train CEOs, not line-of-business personnel. But in that strategy, argues Ghoshal, when you teach that “maximizing shareholder value” is the prime directive for businesses, is when things start going awry.

Paradoxically, for a guy who thinks the stock market can sometimes be nothing more than a pyramid scheme with a nice tie, I can’t agree with him. We know that businesses’ prime directive is looking after the shareholders’ best interest. We can’t expect them to change that anytime soon. What we can do is teach to draw the line between corporations and governments (vide Color of Oil).

Those who know me know that my first goal in extending my studies is a degree in International Relations and/or Government, and not business. For me, an MBA is an afterthought (“ticket to ride” as they say), one of those “it’d be nice to do” items on my list (at #5, between learning how to kite-surf and getting an IFR flight rating, if you’re curious).

I agree an MBA is very important for an LOB executive (a chemist who is a CEO, for example), but even that is not an ironclad rule. The point where saying you have one on your resumé becomes more important than your achievements in your job, then I think we have strayed from the point.

To go back to Edu’s father, the article points out something I had heard before–that after graduating from HBS he took the lowest paying job as a brand-manager in Procter & Gamble (selling diapers, if I remember correctly from my Caracas trip with his son). My stepfather had also mentioned to me he had interviewed for a brand manager position at Frito-Lay’s Brazilian subsidiary after graduating from HBS (Ruffles, if you’re curious). Some things are more important than your education, he shows, by saying he wanted to be good at what he did (brand management). A stint at P&G, often called the “school of brand management”, can certainly be more useful than an MBA (as both my stepfather and Manoel can tell you).

While the above is really just anecdotal evidence, coupled with my epiphanies on “the system”, they have really affected (for the worse) my opinion of the utility and purpose of the MBA. Ghoshal scores a point with her argument, but doesn’t win the match. The problem is structural, and MBAs are ancillary to the faulty structures.

To go back to the P&G example, my experience at SAP can certainly be called my “school of marketing”. I don’t pretend to say I look towards an MBA for my “school of righteous business”, but I certainly will not give up searching for the place where I can find the answer to that oxymoron.

ric

Da Folha Online:

“A eleição para a presidência da Câmara, que começou com um racha dentro do PT, terminou na maior derrota do governo Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva no Congresso. Com 300 votos dos 498 deputados presentes, foi eleito nesta manhã novo presidente da Casa o candidato independente Severino Cavalcanti (PP-PE). (…) Severino Cavalcanti vai presidir a Câmara dos Deputados no biênio 2005-2006. O deputado (…) construiu sua candidatura com a promessa de elevar salários e de melhorar as condições de atuação dos colegas congressistas…”

Kennedy Alencar chamou isto de um “tiro no pé“, que “será debitada na conta da classe política”.

Kennedy, eles já estouraram o cheque especial faz tempo. Mas como toda dívida no Brasil, já sabemos, esta será impossível de coletar.

Hoje eu tenho vergonha de ser brasileiro.

ric

From GlobalSecurity.org talking about the B-2 stealth bomber:

Following the naval precedent in which battleships, and subsequently whatever ship the Navy regarded as its capital ship [currently ballistic missile submarines, but it was nuclear powered cruisers for a while] were named after states, operational B-2 aircraft are named after states, with the annoying exception of Spirit of KITTY HAWK. States so honored are generally those with a close association [operational, political, or otherwise] with the program. This would seem to place an upper limit of 50 on the number of aircraft that can eventually be expected to be produced, though one imagines that additional states can be admitted to the Union if the need arises.

Oh, beautiful… You gotta love think tanks with a sense of humor! Kudos to you, GS!

ric

*SNAP*

“Merda, there goes the dash.”

And so began the odyssey of marrying the Mini and the iPod. Like many “do-it-yourself” projects, my IceLINK installation started out mostly out of impatience rather than stingyness. With 000037 miles on the odometer, (15 of those resulting from getting lost in Brookline in search of the Applestore), this was the last thing missing from me calling it “my” car.

No one really knew how to do this. All the instructions on the Internet didn’t do me any good as they changed the interior from the 2004 to the 2005 model. Where there were supposed to be screws, there were none.

The only instructions I was able to find included a “leap of faith”. Pulling out part of the dash, which I was told would not cause permanent damage.

The sound was harrowing. Plastic was snapping, metal was grinding. “No permanent damage” I kept telling myself.

After various screws the IceLINK was in. Putting back the dash proved to be just as harrowing an experience. First the dash wouldn’t snap right back, requiring very hard bangs to snap back into place. After the dash was recomposed, the downtubes in place and the wires hidden and adjusted, it was time to put the screws back in.

Something as mundane as changing songs through the radio never felt so good. I could see my iPod lighting up as I changed from Paul Simon to Gabriel & Dresden.

So now she’s complete. I look forward to hearing her tell me to “make a right turn at the next motorway”.

Vroom…

ric

I watched the State of the Union speech yesterday with Austin, for whom it is the political equivalent of the Superbowl. He jotted down some of my ramblings and also some of his own. If you’re interested in knowing what can make me go speechless and teary-eyed during a Bush speech, go for it.

ric