US Business Says Elizabeth I was "P

US Business Says Elizabeth I was "Perfect Chief Executive"
America's business leaders have a new role model. She has been dead nearly 400 years. According to a leading business writer, Eliza- beth I was the perfect chief executive officer, who engineered "one of the most dramatic corporate turn rounds ever seen" after inherit- ing the throne of England in 1558.
The Virgin Queen, says Dr. Alan Axelrod, was "an example of a leader who assumed power under the worst possible conditions.
Mary had left the Kingdom in a pretty sorry state, on the verge of civil war and close to bankruptcy. By the time of her death 45 years later, the English had one of the strongest economies in Europe and had laid the foundations for the greatest empire the world had ever seen."
Dr. Axelrod, the author of the book Elizabeth I, GEO, believes Elizabeth's reign provides valuable lessons for aspiring modern busi- ness leaders. "She both led and managed England as a brilliant ex- ecutive runs a great corporation," he says. "The life of Elizabeth has much to say to those beginning their climb up the corporate ladder as well as those who, having attained the top rung, do not want to slip from it."
He lists 10 leadership qualities in which Elizabeth excelled, in- cluding creating an image, building a loyal staff and "growing the enterprise and crushing the opposition." She compares favourably with monarchs such as George III, who lost the American colonies and who, Dr. Axelrod says, fatally believed his rights as king mat- tered more than his leadership qualities.
Elizabeth, by contrast, he says, used her feminine wiles to consolidate her power. She knew that being a leader was something you earned. Elizabeth could be ruthless, but she also understood if she lost the support of the people she would not survive.