MBA Syndrome: Some who sits in a corner office and thinks he knows what the customer wants but has never met one.
I remember meeting the former Chairman of the Board of Walmart.
Someone in the room asked how Walmart managed to keep 1 million employees going in the same direction. He interrupted and stated..."actually 1.5 million employees". Then he went on to tell us of the fight against the MBA syndrome that all organizations struggle with.
This syndrome is what befell Sears and many other well known retailers. It is about business managers with freshly minted MBA's come to run businesses. They sit in office towers and are distant from the manufacturing floor. They do not get there hands dirty in the day to day operations and have much more important decisions to make. They do not talk to customers and cannot remember the last time they did...nor do they want to to. They have real work to do.
He went on to say that every Walmart Manager must spend a door on the floor of their store each week.
(No Sears Tower for Wal-mart!)
Key: Love your customers... (or someone else will!)
Someone in the room asked how Walmart managed to keep 1 million employees going in the same direction. He interrupted and stated..."actually 1.5 million employees". Then he went on to tell us of the fight against the MBA syndrome that all organizations struggle with.
This syndrome is what befell Sears and many other well known retailers. It is about business managers with freshly minted MBA's come to run businesses. They sit in office towers and are distant from the manufacturing floor. They do not get there hands dirty in the day to day operations and have much more important decisions to make. They do not talk to customers and cannot remember the last time they did...nor do they want to to. They have real work to do.
He went on to say that every Walmart Manager must spend a door on the floor of their store each week.
(No Sears Tower for Wal-mart!)
Key: Love your customers... (or someone else will!)
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