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12.10

By Terrance Malkinson

The recent engagement announcement (16 November) of Prince William of England (second in line to the throne) and Kate Middleton has generated considerable interest globally.  The value of an unelected and hereditary monarchy that serves for life such as the English monarchy (www.royal.gov.uk) is always a point of discussion.  Some feel that it is an outdated institution that has no relevance in today’s world; while others believe that it is important.  Indeed, strong well-informed arguments can be made for either case.  Most of the world’s monarchies today are constitutional having no direct power; they are mostly ceremonial. Forty-four nations in the world have monarchs as heads of state, sixteen of which are Commonwealth realms that recognize Queen Elizabeth II as their head of state.  Benefits of the monarchy include: serving an influence of moderating continuity for the state as elected governments and leaders change; and the monarchs’ knowledge and experience, gathered over many years can be extremely useful wisdom and unbiased counsel to government and societal leaders.

All reports suggest that Prince William, who will succeed his grandmother Elizabeth II, and father Charles, upon their deaths, has the education, experience and wisdom to contribute to the betterment of the world when he becomes King.  Similarly, Kate Middleton, who has known William for more than ten years, has the education, experience and wisdom to deal with the stresses of being a “royal.”

Educated at a variety of schools, including Eton College, Prince William took a gap year experiencing the world travelling and hands-on working.  He then attended St Andrews University in Fife, Scotland, graduating in Geography. After another period of work experience, he joined the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst as an Officer Cadet and was commissioned as an army officer. Prince William next trained to be a search and rescue Pilot with the Royal Air Force. He is now a fully operational pilot with the Royal Air Force’s Search and Rescue Force.  Only 48 hours following the announcement of his engagement, he piloted a RAF Sea King helicopter as a four-man crew scrambled to rescue a man suffering a suspected heart attack, on Mount Snowdon the highest peak in Wales, in stormy conditions.

Other Bytes

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

• Time Magazine has published its list of “The 50 Best Inventions of 2010”   [11 November 2010]. Time’s listing describes the “biggest (and coolest) breakthroughs in science, technology and the arts” in nine categories:  Technology, Transportation, Health & Medicine, Bioengineering, Green Energy, Clothing, Robots/Software, Military, and Miscellaneous. A short description of each breakthrough as well as a picture is provided. Time Magazine publishes a number of interesting lists frequently on its website’s “specials” tab [www.time.com/time/specials ].  Another recently published list of interest includes: “The 25 Most Powerful Women of the Past Century” (18 November 2010).

• Based on research from twelve large companies the case is made by Rob Cross, et al., that formal organizational charts and standardized processes are not in themselves flexible enough to support the internal and external collaborations that are needed to maximize success [“The Collaborative Organization: How to Make Employee Networks Really Work,”  MIT Sloan Management Review,  52(1):83-90, Fall, 2010, sloanreview.mit.edu].  Effective organizations make use of employee networks to reduce costs, improve efficiency and spur innovation.  Innovation emerges through informal and unplanned interactions among employees that encourages different perspectives.  The authors found that organizational network analysis provides a useful methodology that will provide a competitive advantage.

• Information is provided in a series of articles edited by Brett Nelson and Kurt Badenhausen on publicly traded small companies that have achieved remarkable growth over the past five years [“The Best Small Companies,” Forbes. 186(6):71-92, 8 November 2010,  www.forbes.com]. An interesting accompanying article by Paul Graham (pg. 80) discusses four characteristics of winning entrepreneurs, proving that even in a down economy, success is possible with enthusiasm, the right idea and good business strategy.

• Tony Hey discusses how we are now “experiencing the dawn of a new generation of computer tools that can “mash-up” vast quantities of data from many sources, analyze them, and help produce revolutionary scientific discoveries” in “The Next Scientific Revolution” [Harvard Business Review,  88(11):56-63, November 2010, www.hbr.com ].  This new method of scientific exploration is called “machine learning,” and significant economic benefits in medical diagnostics and other areas such as oceanography, conservation and business data exploration are discussed.

• Social media is generating considerable interest for business success.  In an article in Harvard Business Review [“What’s Your Personal Social Media Strategy?”  88(11):127-130, November 2010], Soumitra Dutta discusses his belief that today’s leaders must embrace social media. He also discusses strategies for successful implementation. Should you decide to implement social media in your business strategy, an article by Donna Hoffman and Marek Fodor discusses a new way of measuring the benefits of an organization’s social media marketing investment, and provides strategies on how to implement this new kind of measurement [“Can You Measure the ROI of your Social Media Marketing?”  MIT Sloan Management Review, 52(1):41-49, Fall 2010.]

• Many blogs that you may find of interest are available on the Harvard Business Review Blog Network. Three of these include: “Why Innovation Thrives at the Mayo Clinic” [16 August 2010] by Uri Neren; “Job Seeking When You’re Over 50” [18 November 2010] by Priscilla Claman; and “Why You Should Focus on “Worst Practices” [17 November 2010] by Umar Haque.

Terrance Malkinson is a communications specialist, business analyst and futurist. He is Vice-Chair of the IEEE-USA Communications Committee, an international correspondent for IEEE-USA Today's Engineer , editor-in-chief of IEEE-USA Today's Engineer Digest, associate editor for IEEE Canadian Review, and a member of the editorial advisory board of IEEE The Institute.  He was an elected Senator of the University of Calgary and an elected Governor of the IEEE Engineering Management Society as well as an elected Administrative Committee member of the IEEE Professional Communication Society. He has been the editor of several IEEE conference proceedings, and past editor of IEEE Engineering Management. He is the author of more than 400 publications, and is an accomplished triathlete. His career path includes being an accomplished technical supervisor and medical researcher at the University of Calgary a business proposal manager for the General Electric Company, an associate for Sears Canada Inc. and research administrator with the School of Health and Public Safety/Applied Research and Innovation Services at SAIT Polytechnic in Calgary Canada.

The author is grateful to the professional support of the Haskayne School of Business Library at the University of Calgary. He can be reached at todaysengineer@ieee.org.