WorldCom, only the most recent company to fess up to its scandalous accounting practices, has got me thinking. First, I can’t imagine that this is the last accounting scandal we’ll see, and not just in the corporate sector. There are lots of economic numbers that the government has been churning out for the past several years that will be similarly re-adjusted, further undermining our struggling economy. Much messiness lies ahead.Second, I think this terrible economic hangover is the result of an MBA culture run amuck. We’re emerging from an age now wherein corporate officers have no idea how to run the businesses for which they are ostensibly responsible; they’re self-styled deal makers who are interested only in moving money around, cutting deals and talking in the abstract about vision.’ (I know this from working at my last job at a major Web services agency, where neither the CEO nor the COO had a clue about how to run a services company, much less how to put up a Web page.)The next generation of successful CEOs will be much more hands on, will know how to use and sell their own services, will roll up their sleeves and become engaged in the development and the marketing of their own products. Less the Jack Welch-style of leadership, more the Bill Gates or Steve Jobs-style of leadership.Finally, isn’t WorldCom a completely ridiculous name, when you stop and think about it? It’s the kind of name they’d give a fictional, evil multinational in a Jean-Claude Van Damme movie.
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