Upper Mismanagement

December 23, 2009 8:01 AM

"Since 1965, the percentage of graduates of highly-ranked business schools who go into consulting and financial services has doubled, from about one-third to about two-thirds. And while some of these consultants and financiers end up in the manufacturing sector, in some respects that’s the problem ... After World War II, large corporations went on acquisition binges and turned themselves into massive conglomerates. In their landmark Harvard Business Review article from 1980, “Managing Our Way to Economic Decline,” Robert Hayes and William Abernathy pointed out that the conglomerate structure forced managers to think of their firms as a collection of financial assets, where the goal was to allocate capital efficiently, rather than as makers of specific products, where the goal was to maximize quality and long-term market share."
posted by geoff. (3 comments total)

I can't seem to make the Google books link go to page 1, but if you go to page 1 that is where the reprint of the article starts.
posted by geoff. at 8:02 AM on December 23, 2009

Ahhh, beat me to it my milliseconds. I had a lovely snark and everything. [sniff]
posted by CynicalKnight at 8:05 AM on December 23, 2009

My milliseconds! O my ducats! O my milliseconds!
posted by CynicalKnight at 8:07 AM on December 23, 2009