Why some employers value a solid liberal arts education

A comment on a CollegeConfidential thread made a point about the value of a liberal arts education from an employer's perspective.

We'd rather teach a Phi Beta Kappa in History from Amherst what Organizational Leadership is, than have to teach the Beta Alpha Psi from XYZ business program who Mao was and why you need to understand Communism in order to write a business plan for a product launch for our Beijing office. 

I have no doubt that many employers value college graduates armed with a strong understanding of business fundamentals.  However, leaders in all areas would benefit from the knowledge gained by a solid liberal arts education.

The entire comment:

The issue has nothing to do with distribution requirements, number of courses outside the major, etc. Put simply, when we hire an English major from Swarthmore or Williams we know he or she can write. When we hire an Engineering student (for a non-engineering job, by the way) from Cornell or Princeton or JHU we know they won't need remedial math. When we hire an anthropology major from Chicago or Wellesley we know he or she won't need help finding Malaysia on a map. We've hired kids with undergrad business degrees from a variety of schools (public and private) and found the talent pool decidedly mixed. Entrance requirements to the honors societies are weak; GPA's are inflated by classes like "Organizational Leadership" or "Healthcare in Society". And take a 90 page report and create an executive summary of three pages plus two appendices? Forget it.

We'd rather teach a Phi Beta Kappa in History from Amherst what Organizational Leadership is, than have to teach the Beta Alpha Psi from XYZ business program who Mao was and why you need to understand Communism in order to write a business plan for a product launch for our Beijing office.

UPDATE:  A liberal arts education need not be a "a waste of time and money"