When technical promotion does not produce strategic leaders

Naval officers must master demanding machinery, weapons, and operating environments, so technical excellence naturally dominates much training and assessment. Clarke invokes Andrew Cunningham's distinction between technicians and leaders to ask what promotion systems actually reward. An institution that advances people mainly for technical performance should not be surprised when its senior ranks lack public persuasion or strategic imagination. The speakers compare engineering skill with the ability to translate an idea into a capability that governments and funders can understand. They value people who combine convergent problem-solving with divergent or imaginative thought. Hugh Trenchard's effort to recruit engineers, unconventional thinkers, and even 'cranks' into the early RAF provides a contrasting example of deliberately cultivating a wider leadership pool.