There is definitely a problem with MBAs who come in to companies and obsess about one or two statistics or numbers and reorder the business to maximize/minimize some metric but it destroys the business in the process. Another example is the Sears CEO Eddie Lampert.
It's a shame because Morton Salt sounds like it was irreparably harmed which is a huge cost for a lot of people (jobs and profits lost) but the CEO at worst just loses their job after a couple years if they hadn't moved on already.
You can't take a top performer with decades of success in a company and replace him with a 22 year old, even an exceptional one, and not have problems.
There's a reason that company's layoffs usually affect those with the least time there, because its the least harmful strategy. Surprised that fact isn't part of the MBA curriculum.
Maybe they do and people make the moral choice not to care as they plan on being long gone before the failures?
Maybe they teach that bit too?
Sorry for more questions and answers as I have NOT done an MBA myself.