Filling gaps between research and reality

By VICKI JAYNE

New Zealand isn't short of potentially wealth-creating ideas - but it falls down getting them out of the laboratory and into the market.

What's needed is a bit of bridge building, says John Cunningham, current president of IPENZ, the Institute of Professional Engineers, and director of Caltech Capital Partners.

And who better to build a bridge than an engineer?

"A lot of money is being spent on science or research and development in New Zealand," he says, "but there seems to be a gap in taking that through to a commercialised product.

"We fall down on the implementation side, and that's where engineers can bridge the gap - they can grab the ideas and take them forward into the market."

He is concerned that the perception of what engineers do and what they have to offer this country's business management has become trapped in a sort of structural straitjacket.

"In the past they have had a heavy focus on providing the country's infrastructure in terms of buildings, roads, sewerage systems and the like - so if you ask most people what engineers do, that's the image they have."

But the profession is much wider than this, ranging from process engineers to specialists in software and electronics.

Cunningham's background is that of a chemical engineer now in the venture capital business - a role that also involves bridging a gap between concept and market.

That is where he sees an engineering mentality as particularly useful, providing the mechanism that helps to shepherd a shiny new concept through the practical processes needed to turn it into a wealth-creating product.

Engineers, he says, have the skills for analysing the situation, defining and resolving problems, and implementing design solutions. In other words, they can get things done.

That is why he has taken the theme of "the business engineer" as signature tune for his year at the IPENZ helm.

"Today's successful New Zealand companies will be driven by some form of technology and there needs to be people who understand how best to use it, and to understand where it fits in the company's development strategies".

He cites local companies such as Talon Technology or Tru-Test that have benefited from being engineer-led.

And he says that overseas success stories such as Singapore, Taiwan or Ireland are also countries which have given more weighting to science and technology education.

"Singapore has been producing a lot more engineers than they have lawyers and accountants, and have been pretty successful in the past decade."

Engineers are also far more to the fore at a strategic level in Singapore, notes Cunningham, with around half its Government members having a technically oriented background - not a claim that can be made of the current New Zealand cabinet whose membership doesn't feature any engineers.

Skewing the skills emphasis away from science/technology disciplines into financial ones in New Zealand is a worry IPENZ has raised before.

The institute has long been concerned that the practical business of wealth creation has been, in the words of its chief executive Andrew Cleland, "overwhelmed by a national fascination with wealth management".

Not that we don't need wealth managers, but the emphasis needs tweaking because new wealth creation will centre largely on technology and engineering skills.

And these are areas where gaps have already started appearing in New Zealand's skill base. "We have shortages now, particularly in electronics, and in past years the [tertiary training] skill outputs have been a little low."

As well, a lot of good engineers were going overseas.

Those coming into the country often languish jobless because employers are reluctant to take on people who don't have New Zealand experience.

That is an issue IPENZ is working on to ensure a valuable skill resource is integrated into the local scene.

"We're doing our bit to help them see where they might fit - checking their skill levels meet local standards, doing competency assessments so they can be contributors to New Zealand's economy. We have got to use the skills that are available".

It is also a matter of building on existing skills. Redressing what Cunningham calls the "implementation gap" involves push and pull - business needs to appreciate the contribution an engineering perspective can bring to management, and engineers need to broaden their own skills.

"I think a number of engineers, not all, are keen to get things done rather than communicate what they are doing or why."

The ability to go out and implement a vision needs to be complemented with people skills, innovation, the business risk-taking that is part and parcel of entrepreneurship, says Cunningham.

"I don't think engineers are getting enough training in the entrepreneurial side of business innovation, and we have been talking to the main schools about putting in more of that".

The well-rounded business engineer also needs to have a good grip on such things as intellectual property and its protection, legal contracts for the licensing and sale of such property, business from governance to profit, and technology trends and predictions.

"Looking forward, we have to build new businesses and new exports out of what we have - to take what exists and add value.

"And if you look at the areas where that can happen - such as wood products, food products, biotechnology and the like - they are all areas where scientists and engineers can work together to implement what will be this country's new sources of wealth creation."