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ANSWERS TO CHAPTER 14 QUESTIONS
ANSWER 14.1
Sustainable development is a goal worth striving for by all
technocrats, who perform our engineering, technology and/or
scientific work. The United Nations has a division devoted to
this issue. The World Business Council was formed by 160
international businesses to strengthen their commitment to
sustainable development.
In industry, workers’ responsibility is commensurate with
their authority. If engineers do not have the authority to
approve or reject certain types of work deemed potentially
questionable in achieving the ideals of sustainable development,
then they should not be made sole responsible for the work’s
consequences.
ANSWER 14.2
To effectively bring about technological innovation,
engineering managers must pay attention to several success
factors enumerated below:
A. Technological innovation must contribute to a well-defined
business strategy so that its mission and objective are fully
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B. The company must commit resources of the right type and of a
sufficient amount to pursue technological innovation. Taking
prudent risks and learning from failures needs to be a part of
the company commitment. Creating an open environment to nurture
E. Managers need to assemble creative workers who recognize
innovation as their missions, are typically excited and
passionate about innovation, have ample new ideas, behave as
intensive loners from time to time, show little sense of urgency,
ANSWER 14.3
To meet the challenges of the new millennium, engineering
managers need to lead with a vision and manage change
accordingly. Leadership is characterized by a number of
qualities which can be grouped under the ten letters which spell
out the word “leadership,” see Table 14.4.
References: John H. Zenger, Joseph Folkman, and Joe Folkman,
The Extraordinary Leader, McGraw Hill Education Europe (June
2002).
Table 14.4 Leadership Qualities
L Listening
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A Action-driven
Detail-orientation in management approach
E Energy
Empathy
Effectiveness
Efficiency
Showing missions/vision
H Honesty
Honorable objectives
I Innovative
Integrity
Interpersonal skills
ANSWER 14.4
The ultimate group of people responsible for this mess is the
American consumer. American consumers want and get low-cost and
high-quality products which they need to constantly maintain or
upgrade their standard of living. Consumers drive the market and
companies struggle to compete for their discretional income by
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This competitive situation is made more dynamic by additional
factors such as new product advancement or changing consumer
preferences which tend to make certain products quickly obsolete
and others more attractive. Global competition also accelerates
the pace of changes in the marketplace.
Aggressively pursuing the application of new technologies is
a way for American companies to augment productivity. A case in
point is Dell which installed smart robots for assembling
computers, achieving a productivity measure far in excess of that
which can be achieved by outsourcing to low-wage countries.
ANSWER 14.5
There are many advantages to being the first mover in a
competitive marketplace. Companies who enter the market with new
products are perceived to be innovative. These first-movers may
set product standards which could become entry barriers for
latecomers. They typically apply the price skimming strategy to
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A. Be the first to leverage what is available. Time to market is
more valuable than the improvement of product quality above a
certain minimum acceptable level.
B. Master the basis and be the first to sell simplicity. Offer
products that work easily and immediately for every consumer.
E. Enter multi-year contracts with large customers and stagger
the expiration dates in order to control an installed base of
customers.
F. Offer products that adapt or build upon the incumbent’s
offerings so that theirs eventually become replaceable components
of a larger system (e.g., Sony 8 mm video camera and play
station).
G. Position your company to move first in the next generation of
technology/products.