Duel Concepts Of Engineering And Management example essay topic

An interesting development in the management field is the exodus of engineers from their traditional areas of expertise to management. In the industry "Techno managers" has become the new buzzword. They are not just techno-savy but have the expertise to make complex technical decisions involving products, processes and R&D. In this age of "Super industrialization" where industry has moved one step further from being 'manufacture oriented' to 'knowledge or technology oriented', managers ought to be technically sound apart from having managerial skills. The major recruiters of these neo techno-savy managers are IT services such as Infosys, Compaq, Wipro Corp, Oracle, followed by Process and Manufacturing sector as HLL and banks as HSBC and ICICI.

This shows the latest trend in industry, which demands an integration of multi disciplines, technology and commerce. Even consultancies like 'the firm' McKinesy, KPMG, PwC, Cap Gemini E&Y are recruiting heavily from institutes like NITE, an institute, which concentrates solely on integrating the duel concepts of engineering and management. KPMG has made maximum offers in the areas of MCS (Management Consultancy Services) & IRM (Information Risk Management) the strongest areas of Techno-managers. Technology has revolutionized spheres like biotech, software, telecom, security, banking, transportation, entertainment etc. These fields have become technology driven and are innovating at a lightening speed. The theoretical and often practical knowledge, which the engineers have in these fields' help them make sound decisions in the economic and commercial aspects as they understand the finer nuances of the viability of technology better.

For example, Vinod Khosla, partner at venture firm Kleiner Perkins Cau field & Byers was the driving force behind Cerent Corp., a telecommunications-equipment start-up. Mr. Khosla, an IIT Delhi cum Stanford product, conceived Cerent in late 1996, recruited the first engineers, served as chief executive for 1-1/2 years and, as chairman, shepherded Cerent to what is believed to be a record purchase by Cisco Systems Inc. for a $6.9 billion deal. The other venture he backed, the Internet portal Excite Inc, after they had been turned down by 8 other venture capitalists became a whopping success and recently Home Corp acquired it for $6.7 billion. This ability to foresee the viability of a technical project and its feasibility in the market is what set the Techno-managers apart from the others and makes them a favorite of consultancies. The engineers are looking for enhancement of organizational, time management, and multitasking capabilities, which would enable them to take up more managerial responsibilities and move up in the corporate ladder faster. Certain engineering colleges like IIT Bombay have set up Entrepenurship Cells (EC) to help the students with their business plans and find venture capitalists.

Efforts like these naturally kindle an interest among the students to turn towards management. In fact the exposure to management field for engineers starts quite early, during their graduate studies. Many technical institutes have included a few of the basic management courses in their curriculum such as industrial management, which includes engineering economy, project management and operations research. Today's Entrepenurship is based on the technological concepts. On examining the winners of i 2 i (ideas to implementation), the business plan competition held by IIM-C we could observe an emerging trend, the advent of technology-oriented concepts.

The prize-winning proposal was the infotech business plan for The Drug Company to provide quality bio-info matic algorithms to small pharmaceutical companies to aid in their quest of New Drug Development. The possibility of finding venture capitalists easily to fund their projects is one of the reasons why engineers are lured to MBA. B-schools provide venues for the venture capitailsts to identify technologies with commercial potential and fund them. To lead these businesses the industry needs Super Specialists who can integrate multiple disciplines such as biotechnology, software, communication, automobile engineering etc and management Despite a well paying job many engineers do an MBA for Value-addition. Apart from the course curriculum and the infra structure, the knowledge assimilated by the student while interacting with his peers is considered unparalleled education. Each business proposal and strategy put forward by the student is subjected to close scrutiny and appraisal by the peers.

Consequently the techno-savy engineers get a chance to evaluate the commercial potentiality and practicability of their technologies. The leverage which techno-savy managers have is even in a depressed job market and downslided economy can do little to extinguish their spirit. In fact these adverse times usually prove to be a catalyst for them to come up with business proposals. Instead of waiting for a job to be provided to them, they can initiate projects. It is this dexterity that makes them vital.