Elon Musk says ‘too many MBAs’ are running American companies

He's not wrong. It's not the degree that is the problem, it's the mindset. Companies need to know and understand their consumers. Give the consumer stuff they didn't even know they wanted. My company was similar run by an MBA type. Very cautious. Conservative. We were way less than a billion dollar company. New guy came in and blew things apart. Now we're worth over 4B in less than 10 years since he's been in charge.
 
Based on my experience, the truth is a little right of center of his point.

I fully agree with him in the gross point and I deal with number crunchers who sacrifice everything for the number ( not knowing the hidden costs or being able to capture them)

That being said, many a quality product ( and company producing it) has fallen to lesser quality but better run companies too.

There needs to be a proper ratio of both
 
Love or hate Elon he is very interesting. I can say the same thing about the engineers designing the vehicles. They need a 3 year apprenticeship working at a flat rate repair shop before being trusted to design anything.
 
He's right about that one. Many people that have more degrees than a thermometer sometimes don't posses much common sense. When you wonder why your cars wiring harness is not 2 inches longer, thank those people who decided to save the companies a few pennies per part.
 
wpod said:
the engineers designing the vehicles. They need a 3 year apprenticeship working at a flat rate repair shop before being trusted to design anything.
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That's not entirely correct ( although as an engineer, I totally agree)

I don't design cars but do design other stuff and the restrictions are the same.

More often than not the DFMEA requirements will include cost/space and material requirements which severely limit design considerations. Everybody wants the most compact design that a robot can do.

I have personally put maintenance friendly things in machines and been instructed to remove them because of additional manufacturing time or costs or because it throws something else out of limit.

That's not the case every time obviously but its almost SOP in the mechanical design world.
 
I know ,,, but for Example I worked on Forklifts, the Clark 500 series nice forklift pain to work on,, very labor intensive. The Toyota 5 series for example a well designed forklift and very simple to work on almost anything could be done in at least half the labor time. There are good designs and screw the customer designs . The Clark genesis series were pretty much a copy of the Toyota design which was easy to work on and very reliable and was a great cost savings design to the owner of the forklift. Forklifts are very simple actually but I like easy and low cost design. The same with Komatsu/Nissan forklifts. The shop guys would beam on how they never broke down and when they did were so easy and fast to repair. There was plenty of repairs from operators running into stuff and worn out wear items to keep every one busy whether on the road or shop servicing to not need poorly designed machines
 
Hello Elon. Your competitors are gearing up and you barely turn a profit. Yeah, you just mentioned to your employees they better cut costs and you are doing a stock issue to bring more pigeons to the roost. Powerful stuff. No need for a MBA. Good luck. :)
 
Leo99 said:
He's not wrong. It's not the degree that is the problem, it's the mindset. Companies need to know and understand their consumers. Give the consumer stuff they didn't even know they wanted. My company was similar run by an MBA type. Very cautious. Conservative. We were way less than a billion dollar company. New guy came in and blew things apart. Now we're worth over 4B in less than 10 years since he's been in charge.
Click to expand...
Is that YOUR company or the company you're working for? Big difference in perspective between the two.
Today's businesses in general no longer care about tomorrow, only today and their motto is ...Carpe Pecuniam ipso die !
 
I worked 30 years for a company that for the first 20 was run by Engineers. It was great, they listened to the service dept and to their customers. They sent everyone to training classes when new technology was introduced, Service , sales and customer service. We had a great reputation in the industry and customers that would stay with us for decades. Then we went public in the US and the management changed to sales executive and accountants. Training classes were reserved for service, customer service was moved overseas, rating cards were sent to customers instead of casual calls, customers who did not have a service contract were constantly being pushed to the back of the line. In 5 years we started loosing customers that had been with us since before I started, service engineers started taking jobs with other companies and new service guys were being sent out alone which never happened before. I retired along with many others in frustration, and now the company is just one of the pack. The employee pride is gone and it shows.
 
Pelican said:
Is that YOUR company or the company you're working for? Big difference in perspective between the two.
Today's businesses in general no longer care about tomorrow, only today and their motto is ...Carpe Pecuniam ipso die !
Click to expand...
The company I work for. And not every company is that way. In my personal experience, companies that turn a profit are a lot less fun to work at than companies that are still struggling to get into the black. We spend more on R&D than we get coming in from sales but we have big hopes for the future. As they said at Merck: If we serve our patients well the profits will come.
 
It's the job of financial people to keep track of where the company is relative to debt, cash flow and the like. When they start calling the shots instead of tracking outcomes, the wheels come off. The Boeing 737MAX is a prime example. So is GM.

GM thought the Pontiac Aztek was a success because it was completed on time and under budget. The fact that it was butt ugly and nobody wanted one never occurred to them.
 
Leo99 said:
My company was similar run by an MBA type. Very cautious. Conservative. We were way less than a billion dollar company. New guy came in and blew things apart. Now we're worth over 4B in less than 10 years since he's been in charge.
Click to expand...

This sounds like one of my friends from high school that ended up getting an MBA but has never amounted to jack because frankly I don't think he has it in him to do anything to be successful. He has had a low level management job at a factory in my hometown ever since he got his MBA, there is no shame in that but one might think that he is overeducated to be in the position he is and has been in for so long.

I have no college degree and had an incredibly successful career in business that was mainly the result of my mentor who is a psychologist who has a remarkable track record in helping people be successful in business. My aforementioned friend with the MBA dropped well over six figures for his education, I spent a few hundred dollars to attend seminars. I accomplished a heck of a lot more in a far shorter timeframe.
 
Leo99 said:
The company I work for. And not every company is that way. In my personal experience, companies that turn a profit are a lot less fun to work at than companies that are still struggling to get into the black. We spend more on R&D than we get coming in from sales but we have big hopes for the future. As they said at Merck: If we serve our patients well the profits will come.
Click to expand...

My experience couldn’t be more opposite of yours. IME thriving companies have been the best to work at. Struggling companies, having budgets cut, the worry of layoffs, financial set backs, have all made the work place much more stressful.
 
Does this mean all you naysayers like his cars now? Asking for a friend...
Anyways, Elon's whack. Gotta go buy some more stock now.
All good.
 
Ignatius said:
This sounds like one of my friends from high school that ended up getting an MBA but has never amounted to jack because frankly I don't think he has it in him to do anything to be successful. He has had a low level management job at a factory in my hometown ever since he got his MBA, there is no shame in that but one might think that he is overeducated to be in the position he is and has been in for so long.

I have no college degree and had an incredibly successful career in business that was mainly the result of my mentor who is a psychologist who has a remarkable track record in helping people be successful in business. My aforementioned friend with the MBA dropped well over six figures for his education, I spent a few hundred dollars to attend seminars. I accomplished a heck of a lot more in a far shorter timeframe.
Click to expand...

I’ve met some MBAs that couldn’t run a lemonade stand in Miami Beach during the summer vacation season.

Some folks get great jobs knowing the right people.

Others have to work hard and grind to get ahead and climb the ladder.
 
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