Yeah … I’m not that good at this blogging lark.  It’s not that I lack anything to say – far from it – it’s just combining that urge to write with the inclination and patience required to get it into an electronic format.  Pen and paper don’t crash as often as this laptop’s internet connection does.

This Times Online article regarding the management of most of Britain’s automotive manufacturing is very interesting.  Put simply, most of the men in charge are German.

Now, as a Brit, and a car geek, I could think back to the heady days of 1994 – 2000 when BMW sold Rover and its debts for a nominal £10, sold Land Rover to Ford and kept the lucrative little Mini for itself (I’m not going to comment on what BMW seem to be doing with the Mini brand now.  Countryman, indeed!).

However, I’m not concerned about the future of Jaguar Land Rover, Rolls-Royce, and so on.  Why?

There is one crucial factor that I don’t think British management – or even British government – has understood.  I think my added emphasis in the next paragraph should give it away.

A strong engineering sector gives managers from Germany an edge, Paefgen said. “Appreciation of an engineer in England is a lot lower than in Germany. You value them less and pay them less.

“The best car bosses are engineers. They know the product. Nobody can pull the wool over their eyes. Engineers also get taught to analyse situations, set targets and define how to get there. You get a disciplined approach to management but engineers also have great passion about the cars.”

I think it’s an attitude thing.  Few British companies will listen to their engineers above, say, the bean counters.

Engineers in this country are the people who come and sort your boiler out, who repair cars, who fix your washing machine*.  Not the people who design the boilers or cars or washing machines in the first place.

In Britain, we view engineer as being something menial and grubby and underpaid.

My husband was telling me that according to his Indian co-worker, engineer is viewed as a high-status profession, similar to being a doctor or lawyer.  Interesting.

And that’s one reason I’m not so worried about the future of these companies.  Yes, they’ll need some sensitivity to customer trends, and brand positioning (and all those other buzzwords), but without robustly engineered products, all those words mean nothing – and could easily come to nothing.  As the recent hoo-hah over Toyota has shown, the buying public don’t have much patience with technical breakdowns…

*Not that these aren’t important and valuable jobs.  It’s just the description.  Which, I suppose, comes under the category of creative marketing.