I feel your pain, but I wouldn't call a manager who doesn't ask his technical staff for guidance on technical purchasing decisions a "non-technical manager" -- I would call that person a "bad manager." A good manager knows that the maanger's job is not to know everything and decide everything but rather to focus and guide the team's skills to solve problems. A basic technology grounding is certainly helpful, but I've seen plenty of techies screw it up. I think that a set of skills more like those of a good sports coach (to borrow an XP analogy) are ultimately more important.