Too_Many_Tools wrote:

(Actually, the following is what I wrote earlier but the attribution
seems to have been snipped...)

Having BTDT (for 30+ yrs) w/ several engineering/manufacturing firms
from very large to start-ups which grew until were bought by very
large, I have to agree w/ Rick here...while there are MBAs and
accountants, and they have very important functions, in none of these
places did they dictate to Engineering ...
....

While I respect your opinion, ...

Maybe so, but the rest of your post certainly doesn't make it sound
that way...

But, then again, it wasn't opinion but experience...

After decades in manufacturing, I can tell you that I have never seen
it work that way....

All I can say is you obviously were with the wrong organizations or
missed the signs of how things _really_ were...if the former is
actually the case, sorry.

In the 30-yrs mentioned previously, the only really bad blunder
enforced by a large corporation ethic I experienced was in one of the
aforementioned purchases of a successful startup by a behemoth. Their
plan was to integrate the new product line into an existing one with
its third-part sales reps and distributors rather than retain the
smaller company's dedicated sales force. This, unfortunately for both,
turned out to be a blunder for both.

But, it had nothing to to w/ MBA's deciding to cut or pare the bottom
line, it was just the business model that had been quite successful for
the new owner that they assumed would be successful for this product
line as well. Similar sorts of "not so black-and-white" scenarios are
almost surely in play as Rod points out in the situations you've
encountered as well.