Strategically focused engineering: Design and management

Abstract

During the last ten years strategic analysis has become a major focus of management theory and practice. From this has emerged a general consensus on basic strategic principles and processes, which will play an ever larger role in engineering thought and practice. This article explores the interface between engineering and strategy. We outline the fundamental philosophy and basic method of strategic analysis and compare them to traditional engineering approaches. The addition of strategic criteria will often change the choice of a particular engineering solution. An engineering design may be technically correct but strategically wrong — as illustrated by the instant movie camera and the SST airliner. Also, failing to take advantage of engineering and technological possibilities may represent a major strategic error — e.g., NCR and the shift from mechanical to electronic registers. We conclude that tightening the linkage between engineering and strategy formulation will require changes in the thinking patterns of both engineers and the managements that employ them. Engineers and engineering managers will have to learn bow to shift back and forth between structured and unstructured problem solving, and managements will have to consciously increase the role of technologists in strategy formulation.