Cesar Conde is not the typical leader of a major news institution.
A Wharton-trained executive who revived the fortunes of Telemundo and sits on the boards of Pepsi and Walmart, Mr. Conde had limited experience in journalism when, in 2020, he became the chairman of NBC’s sprawling news division, including MSNBC, CNBC and franchises like “Meet the Press,” “Nightly News” and the “Today” show.
Now he is trying to navigate the biggest crisis of his tenure: a journalistic firestorm that prompted an open revolt among his stars and has fueled internal questions about just how neatly Mr. Conde’s corporate experience and ambitions gel with the unique challenges of the news business.
Conde is yet another American manager, a species of critter that believes they don't have to know jack-point-shit about the business they are running in order to be an effective manager. They don't have to know anything about making airplanes or washing mashines or producing phearmaceuticals or reporting in order to run businesses that do those things. All they need to do is be able to interpret a spreadsheet and then hire or fine people as needed to make the numbers improve.
Do you want to know why your refrigerator only lasts six years instead of three decades? MBAs are running things. Do you want to know why airplanes have started shedding parts in flight? MBAs are running things. Do you want to know why the local news no longer pays attention to your town unless there is a triple homicide? MBAs are running things. They only give a fuck about the quarterly/yearly numbers and how the stock market reacts. They don't care about the prodcuts they make, the workers making them or the people using them. Not one good goddamn. As long as the stock price goes up and they get to cash out, it's all good for them.
Oh, there may be some MBA managers who actually care about the businesses they run and know the fine details of how the sausage gets made, but in this great and glorious country, you could not find enough of them to fill the seats on a city bus. (Not that any of them would ride a bus, mind you.)
I think we're screwed as, at this point, it's endemic.In my 15 years as a Verizon tech,we went from first level managers who already knew the answer if they asked you a question to a complete dismissal of expertise. Some of my later managers were great people, but had no idea what we did out there.
ReplyDeleteI have to echo your point about refrigerators. We bought a new one, it lasted 5 years and caught fire while I was at work. The fire department came out but it was just mostly smoke by the time they got there.
ReplyDeleteI went home, saw things were ok, and so went back to work, where my lunch was stored in a Norge refrigerator that had to be at least 35 years old. It was sitting in the open environment, near the melt shop where it was continuously bombarded with petrocarbon smoke and heavy metals in the air such as chromium, nickel, and copper, among others.
That one finally died when someone decided to defrost the freezer compartment on top, and poked a hole in it with a screwdriver.
I must point out the obvious, the companies can sell more refrigerators if they only last 5 years instead of over 30 years.
Once upon a time, IBM promoted from within. It must be said that it was founded by a salesman (Ole Man Watson) and run by them...though the technical people did have a somewhat parallel track. The big change from promoting within came in '93 when the ex CEO of Nabisco, Gerstner, was brought in. Management consulting, crackers and cookies, what could go wrong with expertise in that running IBM?
ReplyDeleteAs long as news networks have to make their own money, their job will be to draw eyeballs to dick pill and reverse mortgage ads. Content? Who cares, certainly not the shareholders.
ReplyDelete-Doug in Sugar Pine
Years ago we called them bean counters, community college grad accountants. Elevated themselves to BMW's and mega homes despite the company headed for the toilet.
ReplyDeleteMark S: "Some of my later managers were great people, but had no idea what we did out there. "
ReplyDeleteAnd yet the worker bees toil on, motivated by pride in their craftsmanship and the dignity of getting things right....until the last of them are gone. Like GM and IBM: if it took them a long time to fail, it was because their abilities had been at such a high level...even after the flameout, it could be years before the augering in. All the while, the bean counters saying, 'That saved money and increased profits, let's do it some more!'....and retired to gated communities before their enterprises failed..
Unknown: When all that matters is profit, the bean counters and spread-sheet jockeys are king.
ReplyDeleteEarly in my career as an engineer I was told that as a general rule "all engineering decisions will be made by a non-engineer" and that I needed to understand that. I witnessed it for 40 years, all final decisions were made by accountants or MBAs. Yes, many of the companies I worked for failed. Imagine that.
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