What Do Expert Alumni Members Do When They’re Not Looking For Full Time Assignments……

Lon & Cheryl House  – Water & Energy Consulting

In 2007, we were contacted by a retired friend of ours who had gone to Thailand to help with the Tsunami recovery.  A refugee camp on the Thailand/Burma border originally set up for the Karen people (a predominantly Christian ethnic group that the Burmese military is trying to exterminate) for 400 people now had over 4,000 living in it, and one out of every four babies was dying before making it to two years old due to dirty water from the stream they use for drinking.  We found a hand well drilling system and hand pumps manufactured here in the U.S., took it over, and trained some Karen on how to drill a well, install the pumps, and provide clean water for their camp, and left them  with the equipment, supplies, and knowledge on how to do it themselves.

While we were there we ran into a group called the Free Burma Rangers (www.freeburmarangers.org) as they were coming out. They operate in the conflict area in Burma, helping out the local people in a multitude of ways, but primarily they are known as the “backpack medics’ – patching up the people after they have been attacked or stepped on land mines planted by the Burma army, and treating people when they become ill. They shared with us that one of their greatest needs was for electricity at their jungle hospital camps, so they could recharge their communications radios and so they could have lights to do surgeries. The problem was these locations are very remote (4-5 days trek through the jungle) and there wasn’t a generation option that worked (solar was too bulky and cumbersome to backpack in and only operated part of the time, regular generators were too heavy, required fuel, and were too noisy).

We found a manufacturer in Vietnam that makes small hydroelectric generators that are light enough to be backpacked in, ordered several of these units for delivery to Thailand, and in early August of this year we, along with our youngest daughter, went over to Thailand, went in with the Rangers to one of their jungle camps, and trained them on how to wire a hut and install and maintain the hydroelectric generators (see photos).

As alumni in America we are in a rather unique position. We have money (orders of magnitude more a lot of people in the world), time, and knowledge and access to resources that the rest of the world can really use. The events of this last year illustrate this. There was a problem on the Thailand/Burma border that they couldn’t solve. It took an American to find a technology that was manufactured right next door to them (Vietnam), who purchased several of the generators ($500 delivered to Thailand), and who came over and trained them to on how to install and maintain the generators. There are now 6 FBR hospital camps in the region that have power and lights.  And I have to say, it was the greatest adventure we have ever been on and one of the most rewarding things we have ever done. And we are looking forward to what 2010 brings.  For more information follow this link waterandenergyconsulting.

The world has never seen population ageing before, can it cope?

UNTIL the early 1990s nobody much thought about whole populations getting older. The UN had the foresight to convene a “world assembly on ageing” back in 1982, but that came and went. By 1994 the World Bank had noticed that something big was happening. In a report entitled “Averting the Old Age Crisis”, it argued that pension arrangements in most countries were unsustainable.

For the next ten years a succession of books, mainly by Americans, sounded the alarm. They had titles like “Young v Old”, “Gray Dawn” and “The Coming Generational Storm”, and their message was stark: health-care systems were heading for the rocks, pensioners were taking young people to the cleaners, and soon there would be intergenerational warfare.
Since then the debate has become less emotional, not least because a lot more is known about the subject. Books, conferences and research papers have proliferated. International organisations such as the OECD and the EU issue regular reports. Population ageing is on every agenda, from G8 economic conferences to NATO summits. The World Economic Forum plans to consider the future of pensions and health care at its prestigious Davos conference early next year. The media, including this newspaper, are giving the subject extensive coverage.

Whether all that attention has translated into sufficient action is another question. Governments in rich countries now accept that their pension and health-care promises will soon become unaffordable, and many of them have embarked on reforms, but so far only timidly. That is not surprising: politicians with an eye on the next election will hardly rush to introduce unpopular measures that may not bear fruit for years, perhaps decades.

The outline of the changes needed is clear. To avoid fiscal meltdown, public pensions and health-care provision will have to be reined back severely and taxes may have to go up. By far the most effective method to restrain pension spending is to give people the opportunity to work longer, because it increases tax revenues and reduces spending on pensions at the same time. It may even keep them alive longer. John Rother, the AARP’s head of policy and strategy, points to studies showing that other things being equal, people who remain at work have lower death rates than their retired peers.

Younger people today mostly accept that they will have to work for longer and that their pensions will be less generous. Employers still need to be persuaded that older workers are worth holding on to. That may be because they have had plenty of younger ones to choose from, partly thanks to the post-war baby-boom and partly because over the past few decades many more women have entered the labour force, increasing employers’ choice. But the reservoir of women able and willing to take up paid work is running low and the baby-boomers are going grey.

In many countries immigrants have been filling such gaps in the labour force as have already emerged (and remember that the real crunch is still around ten years off). Immigration in the developed world is the highest it has ever been, and it is making a useful difference. In still-fertile America it currently accounts for about 40% of total population growth, and in fast-ageing western Europe for about 90%.

On the face of it, it seems the perfect solution. Many developing countries have lots of young people in need of jobs; many rich countries need helping hands that will boost tax revenues and keep up economic growth. But over the next few decades labour forces in rich countries are set to shrink so much that inflows of immigrants would have to increase enormously to compensate: to at least twice their current size in western Europe’s most youthful countries, and three times in the older ones. Japan would need a large multiple of the few immigrants it has at present. Public opinion polls show that people in most rich countries already think that immigration is too high. Further big increases would be politically unfeasible.

To tackle the problem of ageing populations at its root, “old” countries would have to rejuvenate themselves by having more of their own children. A number of them have tried, some more successfully than others. But it is not a simple matter of offering financial incentives or providing more child care. Modern urban life in rich countries is not well adapted to large families. Women find it hard to combine family and career. They often compromise by having just one child.

And if fertility in ageing countries does not pick up? It will not be the end of the world, at least not for quite a while yet, but the world will slowly become a different place. Older societies may be less innovative and more risk-averse than younger ones. By 2025 at the latest, about half the voters in America and most of those in western European countries will be over 50-and older people turn out to vote in much greater number than younger ones. Academic studies have found no evidence so far that older voters have used their clout at the ballot box to push for policies that specifically benefit them, though if in future there are many more of them they might start doing so.

Nor is there any sign of the intergenerational warfare predicted in the 1990s. After all, older people themselves mostly have families. In a recent study of parents and grown-up children in 11 European countries, Karsten Hank of Mannheim University found that 85% of them lived within 25km of each other and the majority of them were in touch at least once a week.

Even so, the shift in the centre of gravity to older age groups is bound to have a profound effect on societies, not just economically and politically but in all sorts of other ways too. Richard Jackson and Neil Howe of America’s CSIS, in a thoughtful book called “The Graying of the Great Powers”, argue that, among other things, the ageing of the developed countries will have a number of serious security implications.

For example, the shortage of young adults is likely to make countries more reluctant to commit the few they have to military service. In the decades to 2050, America will find itself playing an ever-increasing role in the developed world’s defence effort. Because America’s population will still be growing when that of most other developed countries is shrinking, America will be the only developed country that still matters geopolitically.

There is little that can be done to stop population ageing, so the world will have to live with it. But some of the consequences can be ameliorated. Many experts now believe that given the right policies, the effects, though momentous, need not be catastrophic. Most countries have recognised the need to do something and are beginning to act.

But even then there is no guarantee that their efforts will work. What is happening now is historically unprecedented. Ronald Lee, director of the Centre on the Economics and Demography of Ageing at the University of California, Berkeley, puts it succinctly: “We don’t really know what population ageing will be like, because nobody has done it yet.”

Article taken from The Economist- Print Edition- June 2009

Hating what you do

Disenchantment with work is growing. What can be done about it?

SUICIDE, proclaimed Albert Camus in “The Myth of Sisyphus”, is the only serious philosophical problem. In France at the moment it is also a serious management problem. A spate of attempted and successful suicides at France Telecom—many of them explicitly prompted by troubles at work—has sparked a national debate about life in the modern corporation. One man stabbed himself in the middle of a meeting (he survived). A woman leapt from a fourth-floor office window after sending a suicidal e-mail to her father: “I have decided to kill myself tonight…I can’t take the new reorganisation.” In all, 24 of the firm’s employees have taken their own lives since early 2008—and this grisly tally follows similar episodes at other pillars of French industry including Renault, Peugeot and EDF (see article).

There are some parochial reasons for this melancholy trend. France Telecom is making the difficult transition from state monopoly to multinational company. It has shed 22,000 jobs since 2006, but two-thirds of the remaining workers enjoy civil-service-like job-security. This is forcing it to pursue a toxic strategy: teaching old civil servants new tricks while at the same time putting new hires on short-term contracts. Yet the problem is not confined to France. America’s Bureau of Labour Statistics calculates that work-related suicides increased by 28% between 2007 and 2008, although the rate is lower than in Europe. And suicide is only the tip of an iceberg of work-related unhappiness.

A survey by the Centre for Work-Life Policy, an American consultancy, found that between June 2007 and December 2008 the proportion of employees who professed loyalty to their employers slumped from 95% to 39%; the number voicing trust in them fell from 79% to 22%. A more recent survey by DDI, another American consultancy, found that more than half of respondents described their job as “stagnant”, meaning that they had nothing interesting to do and little hope of promotion. Half of these “stagnators” planned to look for another job as soon as the economy improved. People are both clinging on to their current jobs, however much they dislike them, and dreaming of moving when the economy improves. This is taking a toll on both short-term productivity and long-term competitiveness: the people most likely to move when things look up are high-flyers who feel that their talents are being ignored.

The most obvious reason for the rise in unhappiness is the recession, which is destroying jobs at a startling rate and spreading anxiety throughout the workforce. But the recession is also highlighting longer-term problems. Unhappiness seems to be particularly common in car companies, which suffer from global overcapacity, and telecoms companies, which are being buffeted by a technological revolution. In a survey of its workers in 2008, France Telecom found that two-thirds of them reported being “stressed out” and a sixth reported being in “distress”.

A second source of misery is the drive to improve productivity, which is typically accompanied by an obsession with measuring performance. Giant retailers use “workforce management” software to monitor how many seconds it takes to scan the goods in a grocery cart, and then reward the most diligent workers with prime working hours. The public sector, particularly in Britain, is awash with inspectorates and performance targets. Taylorism, which Charlie Chaplin lampooned so memorably in “Modern Times”, has spread from the industrial to the post-industrial economy. In Japan some firms even monitor whether their employees smile frequently enough at customers.

A more subtle problem lies in the mixed messages that companies send about loyalty and commitment. Many firms—particularly successful ones—demand extraordinary dedication from their employees. (Microsoft, according to an old joke, offers flexitime: “You can work any 18-hour shift that you want.”) Some provide perks that are intended to make the office feel like a second home. But companies also reserve the right to trim their workforce at the first sign of trouble. Most employees understand that their firms do not feel much responsibility to protect jobs. But they nevertheless find it wrenching to leave a post that has consumed so much of their lives.

Engineering joy

Can anything be done about this epidemic of unhappiness? There are some people, particularly in Europe, who think that it strengthens the case for expanding workers’ rights. But doing so will not end the upheaval wrought by technological innovation in the telecoms sector or overcapacity in the car industry. And the situation in France Telecom was exacerbated by the fact that so many workers were unsackable. The solution to the problem, in so far as there is one, lies in the hands of managers and workers rather than governments.

Companies need to do more than pay lip service to the human side of management. They also need to learn from the well-documented mistakes of others (France Telecom has belatedly hired Technologia, a consultancy which helped Renault with its suicide problem). Bob Sutton of Stanford University argues that companies need to do as much as possible to come clean with workers, even if that means confirming bad news. He also warns that bosses need to be careful about the signals they send: in times of great stress ill thought-out turns of phrase can lead to a frenzy of anxiety and speculation.

As for the workers, the habit of battening down the hatches, which so irritates many companies, may be a sensible response to economic turmoil. In the longer term workers can take comfort from the fact that history may be on their side: in the rich world, low birth rates, an impending surge in retirements and caps on immigration could reduce the number of people of working age by 20-40%. Today’s unhappy workers may one day be able to exercise the ultimate revenge, by taking their services elsewhere.

This  article was taken from The Economist print edition, 8th October

All Change?-by Jon Glesinger

Well, it looks a lot like things are changing on the economic front and we are all ready for some good cheer as the nights draw in, summer memories begin to fade and – as the kids remind us – Christmas is just around the corner…
the economy may be changing and recession may well be near or at an end, but make no mistake, the effects will be felt for a long time yet and in some areas, never the same.

When prosperity returns I hope we have learned some lessons and I certainly hope that the negative affects will be short lived but my suspicion is that that is not the case. Our friends in Detroit, for instance are not expecting a return to normal. McKinsey talk about a new normal and of course, normal is different for all of us…

Times may well be changing, but one thing that didn’t change during the recession was time itself. Hardly a profound thought in and of itself, but we are all a year older now than when it all kicked off. ‘So what?’ you may ask… and indeed so what? well, one thing I heard a lot of at the outset of this horrible recession was – we have less of an issue with retirement and ageing workforce that we might have expected. Really? at that time the mass retirement was quoted as being 5-10 years away.

Actually, that was optimistic as we had been saying that for a while! well, we are now one year closer to 2012 when Baby Boomers start turning 65 so in my estimation 5-10 suddenly looks a lot more like 2-3 which means, if the recession and all that came with it distracted the concerned parties from understanding the risks of losing such a vast wave of experience and knowledge they are about to be blind-sided by what is not uncommonly referred to as ‘the retirement tsunami’ sounds very messy to me. Looking for some good news now? we can help!

Baby Boomers Change The Rules Once again

The baby boomers are not quite ready to pass on the human torch to the next generation. After long hiatuses, 60-something action heroes Bruce Willis, Harrison Ford and Sylvester Stallone reprised the roles, in Die Hard, Indiana Jones and Rocky, that made them international stars. Sixty is now the new 50 and 50 is the new 40.

Boomers are taking control of their lives by getting fit, making healthier choices and even living longer. This has had a knock-on effect on the fitness industry too.
As an increasing percentage of the worlds population is unhealthy or overweight, some say that consumers will turn away from material goods and instead seek to achieve internal self-improvement — healthier foods, vitamins, nutritional supplements and fitness programmes — creating a virtually limitless and sustained demand for wellness-based products.

As they are getting on in years, the boomers may feel that time is precious and they seek immediate solutions to problems they have developed through poor nutrition and lifestyle habits. But be warned. The quick fixes advertised will only result in temporary lifestyle changes.

People who try to implement multiple changes at the same time end up with a very low success rate. When a person then fails to implement all these changes, it leads to a feeling of disappointment, followed by frustration and an increasing unwillingness to exercise.

On the other hand, when someone accomplishes results from hard work and perseverance, it is treasured and it creates independence. Independence is important as it means you’re not dependent on a coach for motivation.

One of the recent fitness developments is the proliferation of machine-based exercises, but if you are going to go down this road, there are a number of factors that you must consider.

Machine-based circuits may be a starting point for beginners but they are not as beneficial as body-weight or free-weights exercises, as the muscles that stabilise joints do not work on a machine-based exercise.

The secret to success with training is to make it specific and tailored to the person receiving it, focusing on strengthening the limiting factors that may be holding them back. One arm or leg can be stronger than the other and this must be addressed to prevent compensation by the body on its muscles and joints.
For the body to receive stimulus to keep changing, long term, it is important for the exercise to change. This is where ‘cookie-cutter’ gyms fall down, as the circuits and exercises remain the same.

Machine-based exercises direct the body through a set line of motion. Over time, the repetitions through this line of motion build up and it leads to a repetitive strain of the joint and adhesions in the muscle.

The journey to wellness for the baby boomers will be a long lesson in how to take control of your own nutritional and lifestyle habits.

There are no shotgun solutions that will provide a remedy for the bad habits you developed over previous years.

In fitness, methods are many, principles are few, while methods may change, principles never do.

What do Expert Alumni Members do when they are not looking for temporary assignments-by Mark MCHugh

Have you ever had the urge to write a book? Many people think about it, I know. Maybe they even start, but it’s something that gets so easily put back. I took early retirement as an opportunity to realise one of my unfulfilled life’s ambitions.

I left Shell in March 2007 after 26 years of doing the corporate thing. I am now living in Fortaleza, Brazil and loving it. My wife Ivone is Brazilian and we bought a beach place here in 2005. Although I have been in “semi-retirement” for the last year or so, I tried to start up an import export fashion business in the US from Brazil, during 2007. Sadly, it all went belly-up and I lost a small fortune. Nonetheless, I learnt an important lesson that it i s great to have a portfolio of interests, but professionally I believe you should not become over-extended … in other words I didn’t understand enough about women’s fashion!  Since then I have set up a firm based in Panama, with my business partner, looking at entrepreneurial deals mainly in the oil business and some freelance consultancy opportunities. This may not be that diverse, but it feels much more in line with my capabilities.

Meanwhile, as if to contradict the principle of-stick to what you know best-I found another way to harness my creative streak. I was able to keep myself occupied writing a spy novel-Most Wanted. It has already won the coveted Editors Choice award from the publisher-iUniverse-the on demand publishing arm of Barnes and Noble. What I lacked in professional writing skill, I was able to make up for by getting the right advice. I found the supported self-publishing process to be excellent for a first time author and in particular, it overcame the problem of multiple rejections from traditional publishing. It was a relatively inexpensive and practical solution that guided me every step of the way and avoided the usual traps set for amateur writers. I got to work with professional editors in the genre and leaned an incredible amount. If you would like to buy a copy it is available on amazon

Is Your Professionalism Showing? Making professional membership work hard for you-Part II-by Sarah Beacock

Professionalism pays handsomely
A further piece of research, carried out in 2008 by eight of the UK’s leading professional bodies serving business and industry, showed that professionalism pays: over the course of an individual’s lifetime a professional qualification is worth up to £81,000 in salary whilst professional membership on top of that is worth a further £71,000. £152,000 in additional salary is substantial when set against the likely comparable membership fees (at the EI’s rates) of around £4,000 over the length of an individual’s career. Your membership fees cover not only the maintenance of the qualification but a range of other benefits that contribute to your career success so the value for money is every bit as good as the rate of return on your investment.

In addition, the report showed, individuals with professional qualifications and membership enjoy a 9% increase in the probability of being employed because of the transferable skills on offer, according to the study. This figure, coupled with the 37% wage premium received by professionally qualified staff demonstrates the high value employers place on the skills developed by individuals through their professional bodies.

Another survey has shown that chartered engineers in mid-career will typically earn around £7,000 pa more than their non-chartered counterparts. The EI’s own salary survey of 2007 showed that EI members in the energy industry earned more than non-members.

The value of chartered status
In its report entitled ‘Engineering: Turning ideas into reality’, the House of Commons Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills Committee has given a strong endorsement of The Engineering Council UK’s (ECUK) professional registration process for engineers. The chartering system is identified in the report as one of the engineering profession’s key strengths in being able to identify competence, promote high ethical standards for engineers and ensure ongoing professional development.

However it’s not just engineers who are able to ‘Get Chartered’. The EI is one of a handful of bodies that holds three separate licences that enable us to charter engineers, scientists and environmentalists. Chartered Environmentalist in particular is a title that could apply to many working in energy who are required to consider the environmental and sustainability impact of their work.

So who is eligible?
Professional status is available to everyone working in the energy sector in whatever capacity. Most Expert Alumni members will certainly have the background experience in energy necessary for consideration as Members, perhaps as Fellows, and our career assessment process means that professional membership is available even to those without formal academic qualifications.

Chartered titles are available to those who have studied specific disciplines as well as having the necessary working experience in those areas. As well as Chartered Engineer, Chartered Scientist and Chartered Environmentalist the EI also awards its own additional unique titles – Chartered Petroleum Engineer and Chartered Energy Engineer.

What next?
If you’re not already a member of the EI you should definitely consider it as a valuable investment of your time and effort. Being a relatively small and dedicated subject-specific membership body, we are able to offer high quality professional recognition and support services for low cost fees. Your first step should be to visit our website and fill out a short form from which we can analyse your suitability to a grade of professional membership and, if appropriate, registration for chartered status. This link will take you direct to the form and we will do everything to advise you from there. Try it today – you could be Chartered by August!

Help! I would like to appeal to you for your opinions please…by Jon Glesinger

One of my main frustrations at the moment, as we develop our business is – what exactly do we call retirement these days.  I read article after article in the national and international press – not to mention a myriad of specialised publications – on the subject of retirement, the end of retirement, retirement revised and so on. But we have no definitive description or term.

My question is – do we simply redefine the use of the word retirement so that when we say retirement, we are not saying ‘have you stopped work altogether’ when what we mean is that people have moved into a portfolio life where work forms a part of it, and not necessarily full time, or always doing the same thing at the same place, chasing the way up the career ladder.  Or, do we come up with a new term?

We are doing some independent research on the effects of retirement and we are going to be sending out a survey shortly to garner your opinions.  In the meantime, if you have any thoughts, please let us know at research@expertalumni.com thank you in advance!

And Now For Something Completely Different -by Dr. John Mumford

All the papers are signed; the official retirement date is a few weeks away; no one really cares whether you come into the office any more; in essence you have retried.

The first challenge is the leaving parties.  Do you have the big cocktail party and invite everyone in the phone book?  Some people like being in crowds and making speeches so this works for them.  However I always feel that these events always attract the same hangers-on and the people you really want to see often cannot make it.  I hated the idea of my farewell being all recent acquaintances and people I hardly knew.  I found small reunions with colleagues from way back in may past worked much better.  Retirement is a time to celebrate the past.  You can feel very good about the past but it is hard to feel good about the present.

The challenge of the present was summed up by a conversation with a friend at the LSC who wanted business leaders to her promote apprenticeships.  She said now your retiring you are becoming yesterday’s man and your shelf life is a year at most.  I had previously been feted as a guest speaker at her conferences and the message was I was no longer useful.  Getting used to the idea that your identity has changed is very hard.  It is like a process of grieving when someone dies.  The only difference is that it is part of you that has died.  However you cannot get on with the rest of your life till you have done the grieving bit.

For me this grieving process took several months.  It was not one change but a series of changes – like getting from one end of a building to the other by going through a series of rooms.  The process started with the outplacement consultants.  Just having a building I could go to and be away from BP but still in the office world was good.  Setting up my own company was the next step.  I was letting go of the BP identity and gradually replacing it with something new.  The trouble was that the something new was still theoretical.  I was going through self analysis using my BP model of the world and extrapolating into areas I had never experienced.  However, the first important milestone is to have a plan of what you will do, and I did have a plan of sorts by the time I actually left BP.

The second big hurdle is changing culture.  In the world of BP everyone communicates by short curt emails and if you don’t reply within 24 hours people assume that either you agree with the email or you not interested in the issue.  The rest of the world does not behave like this.  Emails are much more polite and discursive, and people wait for responses – sometimes waiting more than a week!  Also people may prefer mobile phones to emails but they don’t have them switched on 24×7.  You move from being a cog in a very well oiled machine that behaves instantly and predictably, to being in sea of individuals who behave with personal idiosyncrasies.  Since leaving BP I have worked predominantly with SMEs and government agencies and the culture could not be more different.

Another big shock is discovering how rude big companies are.  When you are inside a big company you are part of the club and even though there are hostilities between different departments you know people will at least answer an email or phone call.  Not so if you are an outsider.  Suddenly when you retire you are treated with contempt by organisations that you used to be connected with.  It is a brutal part of the retirement culture shock.

The culture change also extends to dress.  Inside a big company there are codes of dress.  Some companies are all in jeans and open neck shirts; then there are the city firms with the power dressers – white shirts, rolled up sleeves and red bracers; but in energy and utility companies it tends to be slightly shabby suits, blue shirts, and ties if you are in head office but no ties in the field offices.  You are blind to this until you enter the world outside your own company and suddenly you have to decide how you want to look.  After a dress session with the outplacement consultants I was persuaded to significantly upgrade my wardrobe, though I did baulk at the suggestion I should were fake tan.

Looking back on this period, it feels like a rebirth.  As I left BP, I had my tail between my legs and faced the future with trepidation.  Now I am established with my own business and a clear sense of who I am.  The transition was much harder than I would have believed and there was an awful lot to learn.  My two big regrets are firstly that I did not leave earlier and secondly that I was not more focussed on building the new life while I was still in BP.  Retirement support tends to kick in a month or two before you leave and that is way too late.

Institution of Chemical Engineers

We are delighted to report that the Institution of Chemical Engineers have been added to the every growing roster of A List Institutes that are working with Expert Alumni to help their Expert Members in their Retirement.
Read More – and Sign Up Here

IChemE director of regional networks and member support, Justin Blades says he expects the new collaboration between IChemE and Expert Alumni to prove popular: “7% of our members are aged 65+ but their knowledge and expertise is still invaluable to industry. Expert Alumni can help our members who want to remain professionally active do just that.”