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Understanding why you work for other people

February 16, 2011 By Babette Ten Haken Leave a Comment

Not all of us dream of owning our own businesses . Not all of us have a personal goal of working for ourselves.

Then, again, some of us have been displaced or have watched our businesses become less and less profitable over time. Out of necessity, practicality and a need for cash flow in our lives, we are working for someone else. Either for the first time or once again.

Let’s face it. Employment is good and some employment is better than other employment. You may be recent engineering and IT/technical graduates looking for your first opportunities, newbies experiencing your first engineering jobs, or “seasoned” individuals currently employed under contract or as a permanent employee. Regardless of your place in the continuum, understanding why you work for other people can be an important part of your career development and the value you bring to your company’s table.

The nature and concept of the workforce is changing. Contractual employees as well as virtual employees may become the norm for certain industries, per my recent January 27, 2011 post. And you just may have the persona that lends itself to creating a successful career as a productive serial employee. ( A caveat here: I’m not condoning those employees who have a history of not being able to hold a job. There are other factors at work in this latter scenario that are outside the scope of this blog.)

US engineering schools are looking at a globally diverse undergraduate and graduate student composition. And they are trying to retain these graduates as a means of human resource / asset management. Otherwise there’s a big brain drain. (“Global and Virtual Teamwork”, Aditya Johri, J Eng Educ (Washington, D.C.) 99 no1 Jan 2010). And that works for engineering and technical needs going both ways across both oceans. This aspect needs to be a strong consideration of business planning for companies hiring permanent and contracted employees.

With this changing employment paradigm within the technical communities, ask yourself why you want to work for someone else. Surely working for others reduces your personal and professional overhead. The employer assumes most of the risk (including liability), even if you don’t receive benefits (unless you’ve negotiated those benefits). The employer has an established business base from which to draw revenue, which saves you the trouble of rustling bushes and beating the pavement, email and phone to establish your professional reputation and win business. You have defined responsibilities, against which you should excel. While you may be on a set contract, you should use this opportunity as a means of fine-tuning the aspects of business and technical expertise which are of interest to you, while not short-changing your employer in those areas which aren’t your cup of tea.

We have all have been in a situation where we grow frustrated working for others. We want “something more” and look outside the box for answers. We feel we could do a better job of running the business. For those of you in this situation, I encourage you to understand ALL that is required to finance and implement a business before you make that judgment. There’s a lot on business owners’ plates from the git go. You don’t just set yourself up as a figurehead leader and expect things to fall in place. If you are frustrated, learn about the infrastructure, dynamics and discipline of running a business instead of getting sidetracked by personalities and water-cooler politics.

The contracted technical workforce should always looking for their next job opportunity because there is no guarantee of the contract turning into permanent employment. Even if you work for an agency which places engineers and technical professionals. No matter what your current employer told you. In fact there is no guarantee that permanent employees are guaranteed their jobs, either.

It’s up to you to identify available resources who will help you develop the knowledge and skillsets which provide value to your current employer as well as future employers. Engineers and IT professionals with business acumen, who have cross-trained as undergraduates and graduates, and who are comfortable working virtually and globally may have a distinct advantage as the paradigm of the workforce changes. And this goes for community college graduates and individuals attending technical training schools, as well.

And besides, having a broader context in which to place your technical expertise can only be a plus if you decide, after all, that you have entrepreneurial tendencies.

Think about it.

Filed Under: Entrepreneurs and StartUps, Professional Development & Social Selling, Sales, Pitching & Business Development Tagged With: engineering, entrepreneurs, professional development, sales engineers, start-ups, technical/non-technical collaboration

What types of professional meetings do you attend?

September 20, 2010 By Babette Ten Haken Leave a Comment

Hmmmm. Perhaps the more relevant question is WHY do you attend the professional meetings that you attend.

We all realize that continuing engineering education is an important aspect of how we grow professionally. How many of us take full advantage of continuing our education? Let’s face it, none of us has all the answers to all the questions, even if we are at the top of our game and a noted thought leader in our particular field.

So what type of meetings do you attend during the course of the year? And how often do you color outside the lines and go to meetings simply because they have interesting-sounding material that may, or may not, be related to your engineering field?

Do you only attend meetings that your company will pay for? So how’s that going? Many companies are cutting back on funding for employees to attend meetings, including training meetings. Some folks have a budgetary cap on spending: once you reach it, you can elect to self-finance your attendance at subsequent meetings.

Then there are webinars and e-meetings. Some companies are looking into replacing the annual meetings (you know, the “y’all come” jamboree meeting where everyone converges in some city) with e-meetings as well. This type of approach sure beats the one where only the top producers’ air fare and hotel are paid by the company and the rest of the troops have to pay to play. At least everyone can get the same education in an e-meeting, which becomes affordable and accessible. OK, so an e-meeting doesn’t hold a candle to the social aspects of attending “the” meeting – if that’s really what you are into.

There are local and national trade shows as well. If you don’t feel that these shows are a source of continuing education, think again. They are pure Voice of the Customer experiences. Yes, these shows, like IMTS, are expensive to attend if you have a booth and are transporting machinery to exhibit. However, these meetings can be the basis of some great collaborative discussions if you ask good questions of attendees instead of feeling like you need to hawk your wares. Let’s face it, selling is listening instead of talking. You’ve probably read enough of my blog posts to get that message loud and clear.

There are monthly dinner or breakfast professional meetings which typically are on your own dime. The value of these meetings can vary depending on the type of organization and energy the local chapter applies to these meetings. Also, these meetings can end up being attended by a homogeneous group (e.g., everyone is an engineering or hi-tech consultant) which results in preaching to a choir – and a competitive one at that.

Then there are those “one of” opportunities where you attend a meeting that you hear about purely because it is on a subject you’ve always wanted to know more about. These little gems are high-value meetings because they make the best use of your time. You are interested and engaged. Colleges, training centers, SCORE chapters and even the local business clubs have these types of meetings. You just have to look in the newspaper or online to discover them.

Perhaps friends and colleagues from the same or rival companies have created informal monthly breakfast / lunch meetings to talk “stuff” and collaborate for a change, instead of compete. These types of meetings can really be thought-provoking. Many folks in this setting will pool resources to bring in a guest speaker from time to time.

Of course then there are the certification and re-certification courses. And I hope your company funds your attendance at this type of training. However, if this context is your only means of broadening your educational horizons, I strongly suggest that you look at some additional formats which are discussed in this post.

The bottom line is that your time is valuable… to you. And while your company many not necessarily be in a position to underwrite all the meetings, webinars, seminars and training sessions that you would like to attend, it IS important to evaluate how you spend your time and which meetings provide the greatest value to you, professionally and personally.

You know, you can say “no” to attending one meeting in deference to attending another meeting that, perhaps, is off the traditional meeting grid of your higher ups. You just need to understand why certain meetings are more valuable, practical and just plain useful to you as you advance your career.

Because when you learn something at these meetings, you take it back to the workplace and strengthen the contributions you make to your team and your organization. And you just plain become better at what you do.

Some interesting food for thought. So which meeting are you attending next, and why?

Filed Under: Professional Development & Social Selling Tagged With: engineers, meetings, networking, professional development, sales, sales engineers

Are any of your thirsty horses drinking?

June 29, 2010 By Babette Ten Haken Leave a Comment

You don’t need to tell me that the sales cycle is getting longer and people are taking forever to make a decision.If they decide to decide at all.And most of the time they decide to NOT decide.

You know the expression “you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make them drink.”Have you ever considered that the horses may not be thirsty for what you are offering them?

Have you considered your business development efforts are forcing the issue? Are you selling to customers who don’t want to buy what you are selling, let alone buy from you based on the way you are selling it?

What are your customers and prospects thirsty for?

No matter where you sit around the table, you can provide value to your employer and your clients by staying current with their (not your) area of expertise.

Understanding current industry-specific issues, including financial, sourcing, materials and materials management and legal factors, can provide you with a well-rounded perspective from which to make design and engineering recommendations.Staying current with your clients’ world view is your entire organization’s responsibility, not just the guys/gals at the top.

Because the buck stops everywhere these days.So it just may stop with you.

Triggering events can provide the fulcrum for differentiating your company to current and prospective customers. Triggering events are events that tip the scales and force change within an industry. Waiting around for “someone else” in your organization to identify triggering events and disperse this information to you is not an option. You are the “someone” who must prioritize information gathering to round out your project perspective.And where you get this information is just as important as the information itself.

Because customers who perceive vendors as commodities will always base their decisions on price. Let’s face it, in the absence of any other defining factor, what else is there?

So your ability to use triggering events to enhance the insights you provide for your customers becomes an all-or-nothing exercise in impacting their perception of the value you bring to their table.

And I’m not talking about bombarding your clients with constant tidbits from news feeds or industry magazines. I’m talking about your taking the time to review information from a variety of resources and PERCOLATE that information so it impacts how you synthesize your role to your customers.

You may just change your perspective in terms of how you express yourself to your customers, your co-workers and your employer. Which in turn impacts how you view your role as a client resource and solutions provider.

Not all customers call you because they have a problem that needs to be solved. Not all customers are anywhere near wanting to sign on the dotted line. They simply may want to run an idea by you that may have nothing to do with your area of design expertise. They may want you to act as a sounding board on a business decision they need to make.

Do you have the type of information in your professional toolkit to serve your customers in this manner? And I am addressing everyone up and down the corporate food chain. It’s that important.

At this point you may be asking: “OK, so I am now going to enhance my business acumen and perspective with all this great information. Just where do you suggest I find it?”Good question. And I think you probably know some really good answers.

Here are some non-traditional clue cards. And I welcome your suggestions for additional sources of information.

1.LinkedIn discussion groups are a tremendous way to keep your ear to the rail. Engineering discussion groups are the pulse of industry. There are so many technical, regulatory, financial and philosophical discussions going on within these groups that – at the very least – reading the discussion threads is an education in itself. So if you are not already a member of various LinkedIn groups, join them. If you are already a member, check out the sub groups and new engineering groups that are constantly forming.

2.And while you are participating in LinkedIn discussion threads, remember that your name and your company name are included in your signature with each thread post.Participating in LinkedIn discussions is a tremendous way of demonstrating expertise without “advertising” your company.Folks want to build their networks, especially with savvy people like you who provide great input to discussion threads. Don’t you think they will notice which company you work for, as well? And it works both ways.No matter where you sit around the table, you can provide your business development folks with the names of companies you feel may be prospective clients. I think they may find your input valuable.

3.Signing up for RSS news feeds on various topics allows you to receive industry-specific or topic-specific articles on your desktop.Discuss your findings at work or post your own discussion on LinkedIn. You may be surprised at who responds and what you learn from the interchange.

4.The Bureau of Labor Statistics is an additional resource that allows you to provide context to the financial environment of each state. This information is particularly relevant if you work for a company with out of state projects.This information also allows you to understand the issues that may be impacting subcontractors you may use for these out of state projects.

And don’t tell me you have no time to engage in these activities. The nature of what we call “work” and the context of where we gather and exchange information are in flux. The entire business development paradigm is changing.

Do you want to be on the outside looking in or an active participant in growing your value to your customers and your company?

Think about it.

Filed Under: Sales, Pitching & Business Development Tagged With: business development, engineering, LinkedIn, sales, sales engineers

Business development is like golf.

June 21, 2010 By Babette Ten Haken Leave a Comment

It’s that time again. The U.S. Open.

And I’ve heard more about loft and wedges and getting a swing coach than I thought possible. And the more I started thinking about it (as I do every year), I figure business development is like a game of golf. As opposed to my thinking “golf is life.” That’s for another person to blog about. One probably associated with the USGA.

When you think about it, business development is like a golf course during a tournament. I mean, there are constants: 18 holes, the rules, everyone uses clubs. And then there are the variables: the choice of clubs you use to play the course, the weather conditions, how the course is changed for each day’s play and just about everything else that affects your game.

It’s like business development. And I’m addressing the engineers here as well as the business development, non-techie folks.

We all understand the need to retain our existing customer base and build business from that base. We also understand the need to acquire new customers, who may not play the game the way our existing customers do. We have our tools or golf clubs: our skill sets that we can pick and choose from.

Now which clubs do you use - depending on the situation, depending on the lie of the course and the location of the hole and the undulation of the greens? Depending on the conditions established by the customer? Which include all of the offline factors impacting their decision to do business with you.

Although we want to close the deal, the length of the sales cycle is anyone’s guess these days. And even if we have a tremendous shot off the tee – a meeting with a prospective client where you really feel rapport and positive momentum to move forward – how many of these initial opening drives end up falling short of the green, if not getting lost in the rough somewhere?

Even if you thought you were doing everything correctly Playing by the rules, following good form, using the right skills. Using that new sand wedge you bought yourself for Father’s Day.

For you engineering folks, doing things “correctly” doesn’t translate into dazzling presentations of technical capability. That’s not business development. You may be rushing the field. And besides, the conclusion, that is so obvious to you, may be way beyond the decision maker’s head or not even related to their real issues. Or both.

For the non-technical, sales-types, you spend loads of time in discovery whose sole purpose, ultimately, is to lead the prospect to the (really, your) inevitable conclusion: your solution is “the” solution. This tack doesn’t hold water either. No prospect wants to feel that your questions are, ultimately, self-serving.

Because the last thing the prospective customer wants to do is make a decision. In fact, most of the decisions they make are to make no decision at all. So if you tee off thinking about sinking the ball in the hole, you are missing everything that can happen to your shot between the opening drive and sinking the putt… if you end up doing that at all.

Business development is never rote. You may have your bag of clubs and highly refined skills. But you know as well as I do that if you regard business development as “same old same old” – and you figure you can do it in your sleep – you will fall flat on your face. No matter how good you are at winning business. And that goes for engineers who feel that their history with a client guarantees repeat business.

It’s the clubs you choose to play the course and the skill sets that you employ at various stages of the business development process that can make or break the game or the sale.

While employers continue to apply pressure to win accounts and create sales goals that may or may not be realistic, you need to asses what you are overlooking during the business development process that impacts the length of the sales cycle. And churning and burning and calling more people (“it’s a numbers game”) to overcome your sales quota simply doesn’t work. I’m not telling you something you don’t already know.

Having bigger and better presentations with slick graphics and even holographic designs are impressive displays of engineering solutions. But are you really solving the client’s problem? It may not even involve the solution that you are proposing. There may be so much gridlock in their infrastructure, that they are paralyzed in their decision making. Your solution is really the last thing they may need. Even if they want it.

Every day, when you go out on the business development course, take the time to be confident and listen to your customers and prospects. You may need to change your game, constantly, for each customer call you go on. You may not use any of your technical skill sets to “wow” the prospect. You may find that the tool set you’ve been relying on is not effective. You may need to walk the course, not only before you engage a prospect, but AS you engage the prospect.

Taking the time to understand the factors that impact the sales cycle, and learning a business development process that doesn’t focus on your solution, may be the best club in your bag.

Think about it.

Filed Under: Entrepreneurs and StartUps, Sales, Pitching & Business Development Tagged With: business development, engineers, sales, sales engineers

Is Everyone On The Same Page?

May 13, 2010 By Babette Ten Haken Leave a Comment

How successful would you say your communication is with a) your peers and b) your non-peers (e.g., older or younger folks, different management strata, etc.) within your discipline?

How about your communication with non-technical types?

So how comfortable are you after you push away from the table, post meeting? Did everyone “get it”? Or are you wondering when you will be dealing with the fallout from everyone who: a) didn’t get it or b) had their own agenda anyway and was going rogue?

Let’s eliminate the folks with their own agendas. This post isn’t about how to cope with folks involved in Machiavellian psycho-drama. I’m talking about whether you are encouraged and perhaps even inspired after meetings because everyone really worked hard to get on the same page.

Which begs a further question about how productive your meetings are in the first place….with folks in your own discipline and then again with folks outside your discipline. Don’t assume that just because you have a table full of technical types that everyone is on the same page. And I do feel that is an assumption that many technical folks make, while the other technical types around the table don’t want to admit they don’t get it.

I was out of the country for the past two weeks, speaking (or trying to) smidgens of another language (Italian, a melodious and wonderful language), and thinking about what life would be like if I treated every business discussion as though no one seated around the table spoke the same language as I did. If we all took care to explain ourselves, ask questions frequently during our discussions (like, does this make sense?) and user shorter sentences and simplify concepts, what would our business lives be like? Hey, what would our personal lives be like? (although I do think that “Honey, take out the garbage…NOW!” is a pretty basic request …but that’s another blog post).

Think about how productive you can make meetings with non-technical folks if you treat them as though their native tongue is different from yours. Because in this global economy, it very well may be different than your native tongue and on top of this is the fact that these folks are non-technical. The double-whammy of communication obstacles. And besides, these folks probably aren’t looking forward to having a meeting with engineering and operations types anyway. Why I don’t understand. You both have so much knowledge to share with each other.

OK, so this blog isn’t about everyone making nice to each other, having a kumbaya moment and communicating. However, it IS about getting everyone on the same page. So how are you going to do it? Because if you don’t, you are simply wasting a lot of your time.

Now, getting everyone on the same page isn’t the same thing as giving a technical lecture. It’ll put you to sleep as fast as it will put everyone around the table to sleep. And besides, folks will feel you are unapproachable, egotistical and, yep you got it, not on the same page.

Non-technical types have some great questions: “How will your engineering decision impact brand loyalty?”, “What are the ROI implications of shelf placement for the new package design?”, “If we sell X amount of units in the next 6 months we can displace the #1 brand. What is your monthly production schedule to allow us to make this number?”

OK, if you don’t know the answers to these questions, I suggest you ask a non-technical (aka marketing type ) to explain these dynamics to you. Because life doesn’t happen in a vacuum.

And then there are some great engineering and ops questions to ask these non-marketing types: “I know that Concept A was most favored in the LA and Phoenix focus groups, but the design will not be easy for geriatrics to open and they are the target market for this product. How can we reconcile this situation?”, “Prototype production runs of this product produced great results. However, full production runs will generate additional heat which will impact product integrity during the fill process. In order to correct this situation we may have to add 3 weeks to product launch. How can you weather this situation?”

OK, if they don’t have the answers to these questions, I suggest you work with them so they understand the intricacies of heat exchange on filling machines as it equates with product formulation.

Bottom line: getting on the same page involves simultaneous translation of technologies, concepts, rules and “wiggle room.” Getting on the same page can be highly creative and productive if everyone is prepared to sit down at the table and work through processes and differing perspectives and disciplines. During the entire course of a project. I see this as an opportunity for a great learning experience all around.

Time to give it a try?

Filed Under: Angels, Venture Capital, Private Equity, Entrepreneurs and StartUps, Professional Development & Social Selling, Sales, Pitching & Business Development Tagged With: engineering, sales, sales engineers, sales-engineering interface, technical/non-technical collaboration

Can old dogs retrofit, retool and recalibrate for global economics?

February 21, 2010 By Babette Ten Haken Leave a Comment

Current engineering students are very, very fortunate. They are beneficiaries of the growing momentum of change in engineering education.This growing momentum focuses not only on engineering curricula but also on preparing engineers for the context in which they will practice engineering. This preparation includes emphasis on the complementary skill sets they will need to develop in order to communicate and implement engineering solutions.

National programs and professional organizations are focusing on acclimating and introducing grade school students to engineering as a career. Demystifying what engineering education is all about, and breaking down perceptual barriers surrounding engineers, may lead to increased interest and enrollment in math and engineering programs at the university level. What a great horizon to set sail for!

What about the engineers currently in the workforce? Or, quite frankly, engineers displaced from the workforce in 2009? How can the changing perspective in engineering education be incorporated to assist the current engineering workforce in becoming globally competitive or find another position? These engineers are the folks that have to hold the course as momentum builds and advances for the next generation of engineers. And, like the two lead sled dogs from the team I had the pleasure of driving several weeks ago, younger dogs with lead potential are harnessed with older, more experienced lead dogs to – literally – learn the ropes.

We all approach the care and feeding of our undergraduate and graduate education differently, regardless of the academic discipline we pursued. Some of us take the core courses and focus on becoming masters of tactical solutions.Some of us cross-train because we want to incorporate other disciplines into our perspective. Some of us are researchers, others are teachers and yet others are practitioners of our discipline. This diversity in each student’s approach, regardless of the year in which they received their technical degree, is what leads to innovation and collaboration. In other words, diverse course offerings have always been available to all generations of engineers. However, as the current global economic paradigm takes form, the choices of courses you take, especially those for technical fields such as engineering, become more important. Even if you are an old dog.

It’s interesting how many business development and sales books have been written and are purchased and embraced by individuals in these disciplines. Regardless of whether they have a technical degree or not. Business development professionals (and yes, those pesky sales folks) may be more open to finding new tools of the trade than individuals in technical positions.Or perhaps the manner in which business development and sales professionals learn, assimilate and retrofit their habits lends itself to continuous change. Or at least searching for the next “latest and greatest sales technique.”

On the other side of the spectrum are folks who are predominantly technically oriented. And for the engineer who has been in the trenches practicing for years and years, the discipline and rigor of how problems are approached may present a hurdle to retooling, recalibrating and retrofitting their engineering toolkit. They truly are the masters of their discipline and have trained their brain over the years to solve problems in a specific manner.

With the emphasis in engineering education on not only what engineering students learn but also how they learn, today’s engineers may benefit from continuing education courses.There is probably less of a generational span involved at the student – professor interface in retooling today’s engineers, while educational efforts focus on recalibrating curricula for students graduating between 2010 and 2020. And today’s engineers have one thing that today’s engineering students don’t have: experience in the field. And lots of it.

Instead of thinking of yourself as a displaced engineer or a business owner behind the 8-ball of business development, what about regarding yourself as a resource to future engineering students?Ask yourself:

1.)How can I contribute my years of experience to the academic experience of grade-schoolers, high schoolers and college undergrads?

2.)What types of non-credit continuing education courses are available at my local university’s engineering school, where I can be on the receiving end of current advancements in engineering education and my contributions to class discussion provide a real-world context for my classmates?

3.)What stewardship programs are offered by the local chapter of my professional organization, such as technology competitions, field trips to manufacturers, etc.? How can I become involved with these initiatives?

4.)Is there an opportunity for me to mentor grade school science programs, or even teach at the grade school or high school level?

5.)How can I best work with vocational training programs to impact the quality of technical graduates?

Just some food for thought. The engineering discipline seeks discrete answers for tactical solutions. Instead of differentiating engineers based on age, academic, or professional discipline, I encourage you to think about the similarities across the entire engineering continuum.Retrofitting, retooling and recalibration usually involves taking parts from lots of different machines and incorporating a cross-functional perspective into implementing the desired solution.

Who else can determine the best pathway for retrofitting, retooling and recalibrating career development – for themselves and for others – than an engineer?

Think about it.

Filed Under: Angels, Venture Capital, Private Equity, Entrepreneurs and StartUps, Professional Development & Social Selling Tagged With: collaboration, engineering, engineering education, engineering solutions, sales engineers, stewardship

Survival of the Fittest within The Workplace Revisited

February 16, 2010 By Babette Ten Haken Leave a Comment

We are in the midst of economic recalibration. No surprises there. For engineers who remain employed by the same companies they worked for in 2009, congratulations. For those engineers displaced in 2009, many of you have started your own consulting practices or are seeking in a new position. And while I wish you all best of luck, there is more than luck involved, regardless of whether your workplace is your employer’s office or your home office.

What does it take to survive in the 2010 engineering workplace? There are many how-to business books and engineering blogs, including this one, that consider this important question. Engineering schools are pondering just what engineering education looks like in 2010 and onward. Professional development is a function of what you learned in school combined with implementing self-realization after you graduate.

In other words, what do you need to know to be effective within the CONTEXT in which you practice engineering?

CONTEXT is important. It affects personal output and productivity. CONTEXT defines the types of decisions we make on behalf of our clients and ourselves. Let’s face it, we don’t make decisions in a vacuum.

Survival of the fittest within the context of the workplace involves consistency. And I’m not talking about the rate of adoption of herd mentality. While it’s been said that corporations foster individuals falling in the middle of the performance curve, 2009 taught us that mediocrity doesn’t afford anyone a hiding place. Engineers who felt their post-graduate degrees and certifications would insure job security were displaced. Engineers hiding in the middle of the curve were thrust into business development roles to pick up the slack of displaced individuals at their companies.

Survival of the fittest within the workplace involves incorporating new skill sets, to the best of everyone’s ability, into the existing framework of the engineering mindset. Now that’s a lot to think about.

Survival of the fittest within the workplace incorporates cross-training your brain and engaging in risk taking, even when all the factors impacting decision making haven’t been defined. And this mindset goes against the grain of the tactical discipline required of engineering mindset.

Survival of the fittest within the workplace implies the engineer assumes responsibility for his/her continuing education and professional development. Yes, you read that correctly. It’s your responsibility. Your organization may recognize and support continuing education courses or certifications. However, you may need to self-finance your continuing education, presenting a short-term economic downside on your part, for longer term gain in terms of career development.

Survival of the fittest within the workplace demands a different relationship between students and educators, depending on the nature of – and the timing of – a student’s post graduate education. Not every engineering student is going to be able to afford a straight shot from undergrad through graduate and post-graduate studies. And not every engineering student has a clear-cut sense of self, their true area of specialization or “what they really want to be when they grow up.”

Survival of the fittest within the context of the workplace involves becoming a perpetual student – or at least making the commitment to becoming a life-long learner. Whether you are white collar or blue collar, work in a machine shop or own the machine shop – or have a dream about buying the machine shop in which you work - success involves placing a premium in self-improvement and continuous learning .

And continuous learning includes picking up the newspaper (hard copy or via Internet) and reading about industry trends and, well, news.

We need to broaden our CONTEXTS. We all need to become better at learning and connecting the dots, and not just those in front of our professional noses. We need to understand the interrelationship between what we read, professionally, and what we hear in terms of news. Have you ever considered the impact of discussing the daily news with folks over lunch – presenting your opinion and defending or challenging or building upon an idea? That lunchtime discussion group can become the fulcrum for continuing education, not to mention improved skill sets in terms of communication and presentation.

Survival of the fittest within the workplace doesn’t have to feel like a continuous uphill battle. It’s where and how you seek knowledge, constantly, and how you incorporate it, that can make a tremendous difference in who you are. Being a lifelong learner has to do with being curious and inquisitive, and engaging with others . Ultimately one’s ability to interact leads to confidence and personal development.

Life long learning is not performance art. Some folks treat their workplace demeanor like an ongoing act to sustain their employment. Life long learning is not taking one course after another – in a vacuum – and rarely sharing insights with others in an open, non-academic setting.

Think about it. Read the news. Pick up a book. Engage in discussions and dialectics. Make life long learning part of your personal culture. I guarantee you will be more interesting to yourself, as well as your co-workers.

Does this sound like survival of the fittest within the workplace? I don’t think so.

Sounds more like the habits of an individual who is interested in learning about and from others. That’s a person I want to get to know. That’s a person I want to collaborate with.

What are you waiting for?

Filed Under: Angels, Venture Capital, Private Equity, Entrepreneurs and StartUps, Professional Development & Social Selling, Sales, Pitching & Business Development Tagged With: engineering education, engineers, professional development, sales, sales engineers, technical/non-technical collaboration

What kind of engineer are you?

February 8, 2010 By Babette Ten Haken Leave a Comment

How would you describe yourself, and what you bring to the table, to:

1.)a prospective employer, 2.)a prospective customer, 3.)a colleague at a professional association, 4.)someone outside the engineering field, and/or 5.)an academician?

We know all engineers are not the same. Everyone brings a little something different to the table. So even in companies full of engineers, those engineers aren’t all cut from the same mold. The corporate toolkit is full of engineers who won’t see the light of day unless there are special circumstances. Some engineers are the day-in-and-day-out individual who brings consistency, but perhaps not creativity or increase in revenue, to the table. How do you utilize this toolkit? How do you evaluate your own toolkit? How do you let others (professors, employers) understand your skill sets and how to strategically, as well as tactically, best utilize what you bring to the table?

How would you describe the type of work that you prefer to do? Do you:

a)prefer to sit in a cubicle and solve abstract problems? Without any consequences to your deliverables? (Hint: do you pay for yourself?)

b)prefer to sit in a cubicle and implement design solutions? Without any consequences to your deliverables? Do you pay for yourself?

c)prefer to leave the cubicle to interact with peers in engineering meetings? Taking the risk of engaging in discussion of your proposed solutions? Perhaps leading toward innovation that might pay for itself based on cost of development?

d)prefer to participate in multidisciplinary business development discussions with peers outside the engineering discipline? Incorporating differing perspectives into your personal toolkit? Perhaps leading to entrepreneurship that might pay for itself over time?

e)prefer to teach engineering to undergraduates and graduate students? Within a traditional academic setting. Which may impact the quality and output of engineering education?

f)prefer to teach engineering to post-grad or returning/retraining engineers? Within an evening college or community college setting? Which may impact the quality and output of manufacturing engineering?

The rules for evaluating what we bring to the table change once we leave academia. So be honest with yourself about the type of work you prefer to do. Once we enter the workforce, the practical meets the conceptual – and needs to be articulated to business owners. The business owner isn’t going to pass or fail us, or give us First Honors or Second Honors. They are simply going to choose whether or not to continue doing business with the company we either own or work for.And believe me, profit and loss considerations are far more profound than the difference between academic grades or Pass vs. Fail.One can’t sit for an exam again, later on, hoping to get a better mark. Especially after clients fire you because of cost overruns or failure to understand, from project inception, the scope of work involved.

Doing one’s specific job isn’t going to be enough for you to keep your job or retain your client base, not in this expanding global economy. While academia can prepare us all to do a competent job in the workforce, the CONTEXT for our work is provided by the setting in which we elect to contribute our talents. And while we may / may not have complete control over where we lend our skill sets (let’s face it, we are all grateful to be employed/educated), we do have control over how we can augment what we bring to the table.

So let’s be honest with our collective selves. How do we utilize the contexts of our work environments to develop our skill sets, our personal tool kits? If we are business owners, would we hire ourselves? If we are cubicle-sitters, how realistic is it for us to expect folks to feed and maintain us if we are uncomfortable explaining to business owners– in simple terms – the return on investment of our design solutions? What are our minimums and maximums? What are our tolerances?

How do we utilize the context of our current professional environment to improve our own processes, output and throughput? Are we continuing our education? Are we expanding our perspective? Or are we stagnating and expecting our own status quo to maintain us through a career… of how long?

Does graduating with an engineering degree define a set piece that is immutable over time? Keeping up with technology and translating it into how we think, making decisions and implementing our toolkit throughout our careers doesn’t end with graduation and job placement. It’s only the start.

What kind of engineer are you? Would you have hired yourself in the first place? And would you continue to employ yourself?

Think about it….

Filed Under: Entrepreneurs and StartUps, Professional Development & Social Selling, Sales, Pitching & Business Development Tagged With: engineering education, professional development, sales engineers, sales-engineering interface, simultaneous translation

Are Your Customers Making You Jump Through Hoops?

December 14, 2009 By Babette Ten Haken Leave a Comment

Ah, the end of the fiscal sales year!Anyone in business development – sales folks and engineers alike – knows that it’s open season for that favorite non-Olympic business sport: customer-induced hoop jumping!

Hoop jumping is defined as customers and prospects putting business development folks through their paces over and over again, holding an impending renewal or new business contract in front of their nose like a proverbial carrot. No matter how well you have done your homework. No matter how adamantly you have advocated on their behalf. No matter how hard you have tried to understand the offline factors that impact that customer’s decision making process. No matter how good your engineering solutions have been. No matter how many extras you have incorporated into service quality delivery – at no charge.

What’s this all about?

Seasoned business development professionals anticipate this activity and leave wiggle room for hoop jumping… so that they have the time to honor the real stuff. After all, these same customers do this to you, year after year. And I hope you or your company doesn’t have a book of business that’s full of this type of customer persona. Especially if you have done your homework and made your numbers and completed your projects for the customers and prospects who are authentic.

Are you ready to jump through hoops for your customers? (Note: this activity is not the same as going the distance for your customers or prospects.)

End of year hoop jumping has several different formats. And some of us find ourselves participating in several different events:

1.“Because I said so Hoop Jumping” – Your current customer waits until the 11^th hour to decide whether to renew your services, just because he or she can, because you know they will renew your contract. But still they do this year after year, in spite of your superlative service quality delivery. Which makes you wonder whether it’s the value of your solution, or your ability to jump through last-minute hoops, that is the basis for your relationship with this customer. And yeah, you let them do this to you, once again, because of the size of their account and their longevity with your company. And remember, they treat everyone this way – including their own employees.

2.“Something is better than nothing Hoop Jumping” – Your prospective customer just can’t make up their mind. And you really don’t want to tell them about pending deadlines, which makes you sound like a typical, commission-hungry sales person. Yet if they don’t start their service contract with you by the deadline, their business development strategy for 2010 will be compromised. Really. But they can’t seem to get to “yes.” This situation compromises your own ethics of managing the process and taking the high road. So you go for some small fraction of the total solution, hoping to get a year end sale.

3.“You never had me from ‘hello’ Hoop Jumping” – Your prospect seems like they are going to sign the contract.Yet multiple visits later, they are still asking you to rationalize why they should “go” with your solution vs. the competition’s, who is giving away free trials (and probably will include a Christmas ham if the prospect plays their cards right.) Depending on how new at this sales game you are (since this type of prospect equates value with getting something for nothing), you keep gathering more competitive data to show the prospect how you offer the superior solution. They figure they are the customer and they have the right to make you jump through hoops to win their business.They won’t ever sign with you. It takes less energy to walk away from this type of prospect than to jump through their hoops.

4.“What have you done for me lately Hoop Jumping” – Your corporate hierarchy is all over you to make your numbers. This situation has been especially interesting in 2009. You’ve been churning and burning, calling any and every prospect, cramming your schedule with visits to anyone who will speak to you. Which goes back to what does your book of business look like and how well do you manage the sales process during the course of your sales year? Selling something to anyone results in a lot of business that goes down to the wire all of the time. And probably won’t renew next year. This sales strategy is the most energy-intensive and has the hoops that are the most difficult to jump through. It is ready-fire-aim selling.

Keep in mind that hoop jumping stresses your offline relationships with your support folks. If you can anticipate which customers and prospects are going to take things down to the wire – and let your support and engineering staff know about this possibility ahead of time – at least you can control that part of the “process. “ Manage the stuff that you can manage, control the variables that can be controlled. And minimize this type of performance art in the future.

I don’t like hoop jumping. I don’t recommend it as either a sales or a customer service strategy.I can’t deny that no matter how well I feel I’ve managed my client relationships during the course of the year, there are still those few customers who feel the need to put me – and my support folks – through my paces at the end of sales year, year after year. And while I duly anticipate this activity, I still don’t care to stress out my support staff because of this type of behavior.

I prefer to provide superlative business development solutions that drive revenue to my customers via their internet initiatives, branding and innovation. There’s no room for hoop jumping when you are doing your best work for these best-in-class type of customers, year in and year out.

OK. Now back to end of year hoop jumping. Which is at its absolute minimum. Sigh…..

Filed Under: Entrepreneurs and StartUps, Sales, Pitching & Business Development Tagged With: business development, engineers, jumping through hoops, sales, sales engineers

Root causes have rather large contexts

November 16, 2009 By Babette Ten Haken Leave a Comment

If root causes have rather large contexts, why do Engineers drill down trying to get to the Bottom Of All Things so they can create The Ultimate Tactical Solution?

All the flotsam and jetsam you by-pass trying to dig down to determine the root cause is pretty important. Why toss it away? It provides the context of the matter at hand. In fact, it’s a science or two unto itself. It’s a combination of Business Archeology and Business Anthropology. And besides, determining – and “fixing” – a root cause without determination of the FULL context in which it resides is, well, useless.

Think about it. How many of you have proposed new processes, introduced quality initiatives, eliminated workarounds only to have your Pronouncement of Identification and Resolution of the Root Cause fall on deaf ears, at best?

How many of you have gotten in trouble with your boss because your solution butted up against his/her environment for evaluation, internal KPIs and award of bonus?

So you give up, get frustrated, gripe about things…. and basically wait until the next root cause situation where you do precisely the same routine all over again. Thinking: “this time will be better.” And it isn’t.

Didn’t Einstein say that doing the same things over and over again – and expecting different results – is his definition of insanity? Not Engineering, but Insanity. So why are you perpetually punching your own ticket?

When will you know it is time to do the same things differently?

Root causes have really large contexts. If you are rooting around solving problems in a vacuum, get your head out of the sand. The contexts of these root causes are the subject of corporate politics, internal dynamics, working relationships and the harmonic balance of Everything that goes on in your workplace. You rock that boat, and you will not create a ripple. You’ll start a tsunami. Even with the smallest of root cause analyses.

Perhaps you are your own Root Cause. Ever think of that one?

And you do have control over your own analytical thought processes. Why not work on them? Because doing the same things slightly differently will yield different results. You may not end up always feeling like a salmon swimming upstream, trying to negotiate buy-in at various levels you identify along the way. You may not get boxed out. Work on the flotsam and jetsam. It’s valuable.

If you know what you are getting into as you are digging it up, what precedes determination of the Root Cause may be the most interesting stuff of all.

Understanding the interrelationships of factors creating the problem are more revelatory than fixing the problem itself. Why? Because these interrelationships affect everyone in your organization. The Root Cause may not.

Root cause analysis isn’t there so that you can showcase your technical expertise and Quality / Lean acumen. Folks already know you are very, very smart. They know you went to very good schools where you did very difficult work and got a degree or two that not many other folks could have achieved.So what?

Your non-technical co-workers need to grow a set of left-brain antennae if they want to connect your context to their context. Because your optimum solution isn’t necessarily the best solution, once you start stepping back from the root cause to place it into a larger context.

This disconnect is THE root cause in the sales-engineering interface®.

It takes a lot of folks – and their contexts – to create a situation meriting root cause analysis.And they may have gone through a lot of work – for seemingly justifiable (albeit mind-boggling) reasons – to create that situation, normally called the Status Quo. And they just may not want it fixed. Why? Perhaps your solution is too disruptive to the context in which they choose to operate or have to operate.

So the next time you start to feel the need for Root Cause Analysis on your event horizon, think twice about going for the jugular and the optimal tactical solution.

Take a step back or two. Take a deep breath. Observe. Then collaborate.