"There are a lot of very talented MBA graduates who are very good at specific things."

If the best person for a job is an MBA, the job hasn't been defined very well. A typical MBA is smart enough to get an MBA, but boring enough to think that "Business" counts as an area of study -- it's about as specific as getting a masters in "Stuff".

An MBA is not a degree in "stuff." It's a degree in business administration, which is a well-defined field of study.

What graduate degree is more relevant for a Director of Finance or M&A financial analyst than an MBA? Like any large company, Google has lots of business needs which are most appropriately handled by businesspeople. Just like engineers -- we can learn on the job, but we can also get professional credentials from a university.

And I can't believe I'm having to defend MBAs. I'm a grad student in engineering and I'm somewhat unimpressed with the direction of the MBA program here. But it's a legitimate learning experience if you're trying to be a business administrator at a medium to large company -- like Google.

To every company, there are seasons. This stat just reminds me that autumn, or should I say September, comes to every sufficiently large company in time. I would be sad to see it come to Google, but some day it will. This is one of those things that points out how strong the forces of nature are.

There's an interesting comment from an MBA in the initial link, explaining how 3 years ago he was offered a position from Google and he turned it down.

The first 3 reasons he lists:

1. Chaotic operating environment -- too many experiments without expectations to justify or measurements to validate them...

2. ...which was technically impossible because everyone rolled up into one massive P&L

3. Too many battlefield-promoted 'directors' who hadn't actually managed before... none of whom i'd think of as viable mentors

...Actually seem to be Google's strong points. http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2006/09/good-agile-bad-agile_27.html