Managers Not MBAs

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4WRONG CONSEQUENCES II Corruption of Managerial Practice

“Unhappy is the land that has no heroes.” “No, unhappy is the land that needs heroes.”

—BERTOLT BRECHT, LIFE OF GALILEO

With so many people receiving the MBA these days and so many of them making it to senior positions, the influence of the degree on the practice of managing has become enormous. Yet it has hardly been investigated.

In this chapter, we look first at how the graduates enter the workplace, their leap to the real world, most notably into consulting and investment banking, or else to what is “hot” (often just as it cools down). Then we consider how increasing numbers of MBAs get into managing— by going around most of it, straight into executive positions. The next section ...