Engineers make the best managers

According to a new survey, the decline in Europe's manufacturing industries will be reversed by leaders who understand the role of technology in today's societies.

The decline in Europe's manufacturing industries causing major concern across the EU will be reversed by leaders who understand the role of technology in today's societies, and who can deploy the softer people, strategic and business skills to lead their organisations, according to new research published to mark the launch of Europe's first Business School for engineers and industrialists.

Currently, this expertise is considered to be lacking in the traditional view of engineers.

However, these skills are evident in increasing numbers of them reaching top industry positions.

The research highlighted that many engineers already acquire good all-round management experience early on in their careers and are, therefore, well placed to become industry's leaders of the future.

Typically, they manage significant numbers of people and often very substantial budgets; they also demonstrate good leadership skills and business acumen.

Future leaders of industry will require these skills to be finely developed and will additionally need to combine them with a strong ethical position, a thorough appreciation of cultural differences, and possess a sound knowledge of technology and its social and economic imperatives.

The survey was conducted by the Club International des Ingenieurs et des Industriels (CIII) among Europe's leading CEOs and chairmen from multinational organisations and SMEs in several market sectors, including utilities, transport, automotive, chemical, oil and gas and construction.

Steve Price, Project Director, CIII, says: "Nurturing, mentoring and developing these multiple skills are essential in creating Europe's industrial leaders of the future.

Among the top 1000 companies in the United States, the predominant first degree held by CEOs is an engineering degree.

In Japan, China and Korea, this number is even higher.

In Europe this is not the case and, as a result of the study, the CIII believes that the engineering profession possesses an untapped talent pool from which could emerge European industry's future successful leaders.

The CIII believes it is essential to involve more engineers in key company decision-making processes in the technology-led industrial sector, which are currently primarily financially driven".

The CIII is supporting the launch of The European Institute for Industrial Leadership (EIIL) for engineers and technologists aspiring to become Europe's leading industrialists.

The institute, to be opened at the CIII's headquarters in central Brussels, aims to develop Europe's top engineering graduates into leaders of the pan-European, and more broadly, international, multicultural, industrial marketplace.

Its Master of Industrial Leadership one-year programme is designed to equip its graduates with the skills and understanding required to anticipate, identify and analyse both present and future business opportunities and to lead their organisations to exploit them to provide a competitive edge for Europe over its traditional and emerging competitors.

The CIII advocates that engineers can attain and succeed in leadership positions, as they have a disciplined, analytical approach to assimilate data information and knowledge, enabling them to make well-informed decisions and take appropriate and conclusive actions.

However, they must be given access to focused, postgraduate and post-experience education that complements this capability with the requisite holistic skills.

The EIIL is designed to motivate its students by immersing them in the multicultural microcosm of Europe encapsulated by Brussels to develop their local/national perspective into a European/international vision.

This will be achieved through a programme of short courses designed by its international faculty of successful practitioners of European growth to develop an engineering perspective into an holistic business view.

The EIIL concept has attracted interest from many leading European and international organisations and business leaders involved in the survey, including Huntsman, Shell, Akzo Nobel, Fluor, Thales and ABB Lumus Global.

Of the business leaders surveyed more than half had been afforded opportunities by their companies to stretch their development, including overseas postings and formal training support for their new roles.

Formal mentoring, coaching and informal support from senior colleagues had also played a significant role during the early stages of their career in helping these industrialists rise to their present senior positions.

They also cited the importance of strong people skills, with the ability to build and motivate teams of people, to listen and communicate effectively across functional and organisational boundaries, including working with and leading teams from different cultural backgrounds.

They were adamant that a major understanding of cultural diversity and sound ethics was essential to their development.

The survey concluded that leaders are often people who are willing to take on a challenge, actively seek or even create difficult situations that provide major opportunities, or alternatively take risks to become exposed to new challenges.

Senior people must also have a thorough appreciation of the technology at the core of their business.

In addition, project management skills featured highly with many leaders having turned around ailing divisions or subsidiaries on their way to their current positions, considering their application of project management techniques essential.

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