Managers Not MBAs

20

2WRONG WAYS

The secondhandedness of the learned world is the secret to its mediocrity. —ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

There are no right ways to develop the wrong people. We could, therefore, stop here and have a really short chapter. But the problem goes much deeper; and so does this chapter and those that follow. The MBA programs not only fail to develop managers but give their students a false impression of managing that, when put into practice, is undermining our organizations and our societies. Indeed, the ways of the MBA—the contents of the programs and the methods by which they are taught—are so entrenched that they are regularly used, with similar consequences, for the right people—namely, practicing managers in so-called Executive MBA ...