Boardroom diversity

Corporate boardrooms and government organizations lack diversity. When I say this, the reader's first thoughts may jump to sexual, racial or ethnic diversity, but what I am seeking is diversity of thought. We need more leaders skilled in scientific thinking and methods.

Today on National Public Radio, I heard what I took as a disparaging comment about Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel. The commentator said that to understand Ms. Merkel, you needed to start with the fact that she is a physicist and that she therefore acts by trial and error. Wow!

With so few physicists in policy makiing positions, that led me to do a bit more research. Ms. Merkel studied physics from 1973 to 1978 and then physical chemistry from 1978 to 1990, receiving her doctorate for a thesis on quantum chemistry.

I am sure that along the way, she came to respect conservation laws of matter and energy which no doubt help here to understand that time and money behave according to similar laws. I am sure that she also learned rules of causality. I sense that this background has served her well on her way to becoming what some describe as the most powerfull woman in today's world. Many business and government leaders fail to understand these underlying scientific principles and demonstrate little respect for those who do.

Every business should have scientifically trained thinkers in leadership roles. They need more than business, marketing and finance experts at the table. Evert business should also have a technology plan, just as they may have a financial plan, a human resource plan or a marketing plan. Perhaps Angela Merkel can help us to regain respect for those educated in the scientific method.

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Comments Try a family-owned manufacturing company with only sales people in charge and no direct manufacturing (experience) or engineering (lineal thought process required) input to ongoing or special projects. Posted by: N J on June 28, 2012 Understanding that you can't get away with breaking the laws of physics is likely why Ms. Merkel has bailed out the EU to keep it afloat initially and also hesitates to go beyond the practical limits of the German economy's strength on a lost cause. Posted by: John Kowal on June 28, 2012 it has to be the way forward people from technical and science related backgrounds are not recognised for the contribition they make in both society and in industry and are not involved in decision making that can have a great impact on the future Posted by: maurice McGrath on June 29, 2012 Post a comment (If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.) Name: Email Address: URL: Remember personal info? Comments: (you may use HTML tags for style) Type the word 'automation' (required):