THE DANGERS OF GROUPTHINK: Southwest Airlines pilots to disastrous bosses: It’s your education, stupid.

How many times, over the last few years, have you heard companies being described as “run by accountants”? How many times have you worked for such companies? And how many times have you considered those to be extremely well-run companies?

Oh, accountants might know how to satisfy Wall Street every three months, but do they really know how to run a business with a longer-term perspective?

I only ask because the pilots don’t think so. Nekouei describes this accountant-centric mindset as “a recipe for operational ignorance and collective groupthink. A monetization of the once vaunted Southwest culture and instead turning it into a headquarters-centric cult. A good old boys and girls network indeed.”

What happens to a company that, in Nekouei’s words, institutes “an obsessive focus on cost-control to increase shareholder return”?

Does it become a happier place to work? Does it become a place that serves customers better? Or does it become a place where the few earn untold millions while the remainder have to deal with the consequences?

I think we know the answers.