Why engineers make great CEOs

Perhaps this is not indicative of a rise of engineers who become interested in management, but individuals already interested in management (or are of that mindset) choosing to get a degree in engineering instead of Business. Given the tremendous value of an engineering degree, especially as a guaranteed high level of income, it makes sense practically minded managers would prefer such a safety net.

Re: Why engineers make great CEOs

#5

Post by ttflee » Wed, May 07, 2014, 8:50 AM UTC

jokoon wrote: post #2

china comes to mind: aren't many chinese leaders former engineers ?

IMHO, it was because the engineering departments of the universities were less ruined (than humanity/history/law departments, roughly, though they were not categorized like they are today), during the Great Cultural Revolution between 196x-1976, which were not fully restored until early 1980s.

Although the engineers are broadly parts of the intelligentsia community, they are kinda 'useful', and it was theorized that the worker-peasant-soldier students[1] were politically trustworthy, many of those students were sent to universities to fill in the blanks, and many of them became engineers(, and career as a worker in an industrial factory, together with residential records, or Hukou in a city was quite desirable then).

Now that China has been led by people who were born in 1950s or earlier for years, they were quite likely to be in universities during or after the Cultural Revolution years. It wouldn't at all be surprised that some of them were trained as engineer(, but diverted to administrative paths during career).

[1] http://books.google.com.hk/books?id=J5QbQpQTegwC&pg=PA124&lp...

Re: Why engineers make great CEOs

#6

Post by nbevans » Wed, May 07, 2014, 9:15 AM UTC

This bodes well for NewMicrosoft and Nadella.

Re: Why engineers make great CEOs

#7

Post by jasode » Wed, May 07, 2014, 9:38 AM UTC

A high-profile counterpoint is RIM engineer and (former) CEO Mike Lazaridis. Even after seeing the Steve Jobs iPhone demo in 2007, his engineering and logical mindset was convinced that businesses would not adopt a device without a physical keyboard and that push email was more important than an apps ecosystem. He didn't see that the consumer engagement with iPhone was so compelling that the user would do an end run around the corporate IT departments (by buying the device on their own) and kick off the BYOD movement.

But setting aside some business missteps, it seems like engineers/CEOs are better for companies (especially tech growth companies) than MBAs. It was after all, Lazaridis' background that helped RIM achieve so much success that they could afford to pay $600 million to NTP in 2006 and also be in the competition with iPhone.

Re: Why engineers make great CEOs

#8

Post by rtpg » Wed, May 07, 2014, 9:56 AM UTC

jokoon wrote: post #2

china comes to mind: aren't many chinese leaders former engineers ?

This is probably the disconnect between the definition of engineer in anglo-saxon terminology and in other countries.

France notably has most of its management come from the Grande Ecoles that give out "engineering degrees". But they end up only spending about 2 of their 5 years on their specific domain, and a good chunk of their time on business management classes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandes_%C3%A9coles

Re: Why engineers make great CEOs

#9

Post by UK-AL » Wed, May 07, 2014, 9:56 AM UTC

jasode wrote: post #7

A high-profile counterpoint is RIM engineer and (former) CEO Mike Lazaridis. Even after seeing the Steve Jobs iPhone demo in 2007, his engineering and logical mindset was convinced that businesses would not adopt a device without a physical keyboard and that push email was more important than an apps ecosystem. He didn't see that the consumer engagement with iPhone was so compelling that the user would do an end run…

A lot of MBA's are also engineers. I think the biggest chunk of MBA students are engineers.

Re: Why engineers make great CEOs

#10

Post by collyw » Wed, May 07, 2014, 10:04 AM UTC

"the life of an engineer, it seems, is not as rosy as originally anticipated".

Ok this affects me at the moment. Why? Because I have two incompetent bosses. Basically I have junior / intermediate level programmers telling me what to do (and getting paid more than me for it). They took the promotion for the money. I do the "smart" work and make the technical decisions (when they make technical decisions they are often poor choices, basically from lack of experience).

Its at the point that I am going to take the next management position that comes up.