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06.07

Queen Elizabeth in America

by Terrance Malkinson

For six days in early May, Queen Elizabeth visited the United States for her fifth visit during her reign. The primary purpose of the visit was to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the 1607 founding of Jamestown, Va., the first permanent English settlement in the New World. During her visit, among many other activities, she also paid tribute to the Virginia Tech shooting victims, attended the Kentucky Derby and visited President Bush in Washington, D.C. Many ask the question “what is the role of this individual, and is the monarchy of any relevance in today’s world?”

For background, the Queen, born in 1926, is the elder daughter of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. This is a hereditary position and she became Queen at the age of 25 upon the death of her father, and she has reigned through more than five decades of enormous social change and development. In a constitutional monarchy, a king or queen is Head of State. This means that, while The Queen is Head of State, the ability to make and pass legislation resides with an elected Parliament. Although the British Sovereign no longer has a political or executive role, he or she continues to play an important part in the life of a nation. The Queen not only plays an important role in Britain, but is also head of the Commonwealth, a voluntary association of 53 independent countries that spans every geographical region, many religions and cultures. The Commonwealth fosters international co-operation and trade links between people all over the world.

One of the most important writers on the subject of constitutional monarchy was Victorian economist and writer Walter Bagehot. His book, The English Constitution, first published in 1867, provides an analysis of the role of monarchy. According to Bagehot, the main influence of the Sovereign was based on three rights: the right to be consulted, the right to encourage, the right to warn. According to Bagehot, a Sovereign would, over the course of a long reign, accumulate far more knowledge and experience than any minister. Indeed, although her political power is largely symbolic, in private it is substantial. Some say the monarchy “derives power in part because no one knows they possess it.”

With more than five decades of reading State papers, meeting most world Heads of State and ambassadors, The Queen has an unequalled store of experience. She acts as a focus for national identity, unity and pride; gives a sense of stability and continuity; officially recognizes success and excellence; and supports the ideal of public and voluntary service. The institution provides stability, continuity and a national focus, since the Head of State remains the same as governments come and go. The Queen tells no one her private thoughts. Some of these may be recorded in her diary. Future historians will learn much about the history of world, its leaders and many other insights from the thoughts of this gracious lady as recorded in her diaries.

For further information on the monarchy check out the Web site: www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page1.asp

Other Bytes

Here are some of the things going on in and around the engineering community:

• In “The Best Jobs in the Hottest Markets” [Business 2.0, 8(4), pp. 70-78, May 2007, www.business2.com], Paul Kaihla provides you with information on ten regions of the country that will continue to be looking for skilled employees regardless of the overall employment situation. Leading regions include; Orlando, Las Vegas, and Raleigh that have a predicted job growth rate of about 6 percent over the next two years. The author also provides information on the most in-demand professions nationwide and cities where they are most needed, job categories where wages are growing the fastest, and the cities with the highest job-growth rates for college educated technical and business professionals.

• In “Most Innovative Companies” [BusinessWeek, #4034, 14 May 2007, www.businessweek.com], Jena McGregor provides valuable information on 25 of the most innovative companies as evaluated by 2,500 executives worldwide as compiled by the Boston Consulting Group. Leaders include Apple, Google, Toyota and General Electric. Detailed information including among other things an extended listing of innovative companies and analysis methodology used is available at the Web site: www.businessweek.com/go/innovativecompanies. Many interesting insights and information of value to the job seeker are provided in this special BusinessWeek report on innovation.

• Continuing on the theme of articles of interest to the job seeker in “The 100 Best Small Companies to Watch” [BusinessWeek, #4037, 4 June 2007, www.businessweek.com], Christopher Palmeri provides you with insights on ”Hot Growth Companies” that have annual sales of more than $50M and less than $1.5 billion. Interesting insights on potential employers in high growth areas of employment. Leading companies include Heelys, Bare Escentuals, and TCG Industries.

• We can always learn from great leaders and then emulate them to the benefit of our own careers. In “How Successful Leaders Think” [Harvard Business Review, 85(6), pp. 60-67, 2007, www.hbr.com], Roger Martin presents the results of his research from extensively interviewing more than fifty leaders. What he discovered is that most are integrative thinkers — they can analyze two ideas which may be opposing and then come up with a new idea that contains elements of the originating two ideas but which is superior to both. He then goes on to examine how integrative thinkers approach decision making to craft superior solutions. The author believes that everyone can acquire these kills and provides examples of business leaders who have done so.

• Two articles on the characteristics of cohort groups. In “The Tethered Generation” [HR Magazine, 52(5), pp. 41-46, May 2007, http://www.shrm.org/hrmagazine], Katheryn Tyler discusses how the millennial generation brings new challenges to the workplace. Millennials are those individuals born since 1985 and who are now taking on positions in the workplace. Valuable insights for supervisors and co-workers on the characteristics of this cohort group. An inset in the article provides you with links to online resources for integrating millennials into the workplace. In “You Raised Them, Now Manage Them” [Fortune, 155(10), pp. 38-46, 28 May 2007, www.fortune.com], Nadira Hira discusses characteristics, recruiting, retaining, and motivating the Generation Y (born 1977-1994) cohort group. An interesting link [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Y] provides an inset of cohort groups dating back to 1588.

• In some companies there is a group of employees who have held continuous employment for a long time. In “Leveraging Long Tenure” [HR Magazine, 52(5), pp. 55-60, May 2007, www.shrm.org/hrmagazine], Katheryn Tyler discusses issues important to these long-tenured employees such as preventing them from getting bored, keeping their skills up-to-date, overcoming resistance to change and how to retain them as valued employees. Benefits of retaining experience employees are discussed and an interesting inset provides the five stages of the life cycle of an employee.

• Today very few of us carry large amounts of paper currency; rather we use credit and debit cards for most of our financial transactions. In “Our Cashless Future” [The Futurist, 41(3), pp. 36-42, May-June, 2007, www.wfs.org], Allen Kupetz discusses many of the important issues related to cashless options and the associated technology for our financial transactions. In particular he discusses how the rapid growth of new wireless telecommunications technologies is hastening the arrival of a cashless society. Another driver for change is the increasing use of sophisticated technology to produce counterfeit paper currency.

• In “Ripping up the Rules of Management” [Business 2.0, 8(4), pp. 60-68, 2007, www.business2.com], Susanna Hamner and Tom McNichol describe eleven business leaders who achieved success by “zigging while the rest of the world zagged.” Eleven interesting insights into entrepreneurial success by people who had the courage to stick to their ideas when everyone told them that they were wrong.

Have a great summer everyone and take some time to experience the natural world. You will return refreshed and re-energized to meet the complexities of today’s world. You will be a better employee and person with your liaison with the nature.

Terrance Malkinson is a communications specialist, business analyst and futurist. He is an elected Senator of the University of Calgary, a Governor of the Engineering Management Society, international correspondent for IEEE-USA Today's Engineer Online, editor-in-chief of IEEE-USA Today's Engineer Digest, editor of IEEE Engineering Management, and associate editor for IEEE Canadian Review. He the author of over 300 publications and is also an accomplished triathlete. The author is grateful to the Haskayne School of Business Library at the University of Calgary. He can be reached at todaysengineer@ieee.org.