This book rests on three cultures: applied science, engineering,
and management. While these plainly overlap to a degree, a person
cannot move from success in one to success in another without
considerable effort, dedication and talent. Clearly, an
understanding of these cultural differences is essential to
engineers whose career goal is to evolve into top-level managers.
The first step in gaining such understanding is to admit that these
three cultures are quite distinct. The applied science culture is
typified by the engineering school; the engineering culture is
typified by the company engineering design office; and the
management culture is typified by the senior management team and
the boardroom. The older one gets, the more one realizes the
enormous importance of "culture" to almost every important human
issue, and the topic of engineers becoming managers is certainly no
exception. The culture of a group is the set of all common traits,
responses, values, beliefs, priorities, attitudes and behaviors
which characterize that group. A group's culture is usually not
codified but is passed on, from older group members to younger ones
by a thousand subtle messages, most being nonverbal. Part I of This
BookHaving briefly established in Chapter 1 the inseparability of
engineering and management, we then look at the students who enter
an engineering school intending to graduate and become employed as
young engineers. Although they go to their first classes reasonably
expecting that they are now on course to become engineers, as
described in Chapter 2 what they usually find on offer, is the
culture of applied science. Part I is intended for engineering
students and should be read as early as possible in engineering
school. Chapter 3 argues that it is the duty of an engineering
school to acquaint all of its students not just with careers in
civil, chemical and electrical engineering, etc., but about careers
in engineering management as well-and to devote an appropriate
fraction of its financial and human resources to discharge this
duty. Chapter 4 shows, in abridged form, the entire journey from
the most abstract of mathematics to the realities of commerce. Also
featured in Part I of this book are two subjects (discussed in
Chapters 5 and 6) that are crucial for a future in management, yet
are rarely considered in a typical undergraduate applied science
education: marketing and office politics. Part II of This BookHere,
the target readers are functioning engineers in various nonacademic
organizations. Part II of this book is intended for young
practicing engineers and should be read as early as possible after
graduation. One must decide what the future options and
opportunities are, what one's strengths and weaknesses are, and
what one most enjoys doing-not just over the next year or two, but
over the remainder of one's career. Chapter 7 considers risk
management. No business can be successful without planning, and
planning requires making assumptions about the future. To achieve
the desired (well-considered, well-calculated) rewards requires a
commitment to the associated (well-considered, well-calculated)
risks. The second area examined (Chapter 8) is accountancy. Anyone
who does not understand the relation between his activities and the
financial needs of the business (or considers this relationship to
be someone else's problem) is in a self-limiting career. The third
area (Chapter 9) should be a source of excitement for engineers.
Their backgrounds and aptitudes prepare them especially well for
innovation. The relationship of R&D to innovation and the roles
of incubators, technology clusters and university laboratories are
also discussed. Finally, in Chapter 10, we examine the important
concept of intellectual capital. Knowledge-based companies-the ones
that are heavily dependent on what their employees know, how these
employees share this knowledge with other employees in the company,
and how all this knowledge g
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