Elizabeth's detachment preserved ‘the firm’ – but her pragmatism saved it

Her father coined term the firm' and as Queen she ran the royal institution with the acumen of a canny CEO who knows when to bend to public pressure

George VI is usually credited with first referring to the monarchy as the firm" after abruptly inheriting a position he had neither anticipated nor sought, and having perhaps come to realise that, for all its pomp, the institution had much in common with an unwieldy family corporation. Certainly by the mid-20th century, when his daughter Elizabeth assumed the throne, one could argue that the business of being a monarch was less about ruling than about, well, business.

The modern monarchy Elizabeth inherited required the skills of a canny manager rather than a roistering ruler: financial acumen, deft negotiating skills and an acute nose for PR. And then there were the opinionated, and sometimes downright troublesome, members of the board. Throughout her reign, the greatest challenge Elizabeth faced was managing not the relationship of the monarchy with the state, but the relationships of her children and extended family with their spouses, the press and the public.