The people I've known who were successful who had MBAs seemed to use it as a way of signalling that they were serious about doing the whole "management" thing - which in a large organisations tends to mean that you stop doing whatever it is the the organisation actually does and focus on "management" stuff.
NB Note that I am most definitely not criticizing the need for high level managers - someone does have to do it, just that I personally have no interested in doing it as I'm too interested in actually doing stuff rather than managing other people doing stuff.
Edit: For the MBA track in a large organisation you probably are aiming at being at least the manager of the manager of the manager of the people who actually do stuff... ;-)
Most of this is operations-oriented and wide open to attack from automation. MBA won't give you the creative solution orientation you need for strategy and in some ways you'd be better equipped for this with a training in the arts. (Can't remember if it was joel, yegge, or 37s that said that the ability to write is an excellent indicator of a hire but definitely true.)
I feel obligated to note that the stuff good managers do is frequently as important as the stuff good makers do in well-managed organizations. You are not better or worse, just different from each other, providing different value to the company.
Lots of MBAs take that route out of consulting because they hate consulting but don't know what to do next. The internships & connections they make during the program help them decide, and frequently these decisions are to jump into a completely different industry. I consider it an expensive, but helpful, way for overachievers to figure out what they want to do with their life, and signal to future employers that they're serious about it.
I think when I was younger, I was more naïve. MBAs were for useless management drones, and you can easily get promoted to a management role without one.
Having gone through college, joined the industry, and then had friends who went on to business school, I'm seeing the MBA clan as more of an entirely different social strata. It's mostly signaling, but you move directly into higher-powered "important" roles that aren't really promotions over individual contributor work, but almost an entirely different industry.
I agree. I have a fresh MBA friend started working for a big tech company 2 years back where he is regularly in communication with VPs, SVPs and Presidents. On the other hand with 10 years exp in tech, I only communicates with project managers or their managers at best in similarly sized company.
NB Note that I am most definitely not criticizing the need for high level managers - someone does have to do it, just that I personally have no interested in doing it as I'm too interested in actually doing stuff rather than managing other people doing stuff.
Edit: For the MBA track in a large organisation you probably are aiming at being at least the manager of the manager of the manager of the people who actually do stuff... ;-)