Should I enroll in a low ranking MBA program?

[kote]

I wasn't referring specifically to GE.
Just like Apple hired a soft drinks maker to be CEO, the new boss of GM is from a telco.
When asked if he knew anything about cars his attitude was pretty much that all business is the same - so what's his response to GM's problem likely to be?
Build a better car, concentrate on engineering ?
Or do the same thing that 'works' in all industries - layoffs, mergers, sell any divisions that can be sold and hope for a positive Wall st report for the next quarter.

GE is just what I know best . There is too much of a short term outlook in business in my opinion, but I don't think that's much of a surprise to any executives. When you're a new CEO taking over, it's rather hard to tell your shareholders and board of directors that results will be lagging and your stock price will tank for the next few years while you wait for R&D bets to pay off - at least if you want to keep your job and earn a bonus.

Concentrating on engineering can certainly be in the best interest of the company though, and I think that's pretty well acknowledged. Toyota's dominance is due in large part to their continuous investment in manufacturing process improvements, which has systematically lowered their costs and improved their quality to the point where other automakers couldn't really compete. Toyota is also probably the most studied and well respected manufacturing company.

 

[edpell]

Are you willing to work in Bagalore, China, Egypt, Belarus? If not, avoid large corporations. Good paying upper management jobs in large corporations typically go to the sons and daughter of the rich not you and me. So get back to work and stop dreaming.

 

[kote]

Are you willing to work in Bagalore, China, Egypt, Belarus? If not, avoid large corporations. Good paying upper management jobs in large corporations typically go to the sons and daughter of the rich not you and me. So get back to work and stop dreaming.

I don't think this is accurate at all in the US. If you do well in school you can be hired by a large corporation, investment bank, consulting firm, etc. Once you're in no one knows or cares who your parents are. You can work your way up, go to business school, whatever. My boss knows whether or not I'm making him successful and earning him a bonus, and that's it.

It's also rare from what I've seen for anyone to be asked to move overseas - although it certainly occurs. You would only do that after staying local for years first though.

 

[twofish-quant]

Are you willing to work in Bagalore, China, Egypt, Belarus? If not, avoid large corporations. Good paying upper management jobs in large corporations typically go to the sons and daughter of the rich not you and me. So get back to work and stop dreaming.

That's far from true. The big thing that's keeping me from a good paying upper management job is that I have a good paying technical job, and I want to stay technical. The people that I've seen that are really, really loaded don't come from family backgrounds that are much different than mine.

It does help a lot to get an upper management job if your parents are loaded, but you aren't pushed out if your parents are middle class. The reason for this is that the rich know that if they don't allow kids of the middle class to make it into the upper class, the middle class will revolt. Now if your parents are poor then it's a very different story, but part of the social history of the United States has been how the upper class has gotten the middle class to side with them rather than with the poor.