Why Are Investors Not Listening to Engineers?

Mineral processing refinery - summary of Ravensthorpe Nickel Refinery: Conceived 2004 for AUD 1.4 billion, Cost till 2008 Au $2.6 billion, Sold to First Quantum for AUD $250 million, AUD 2.4 billion in value destroyed

Photo: Mineral processing plant  (This is not a photograph of the Ravensthorpe Plant – image by Shutterstock)

In the first post in this series I explained just how significant engineering is in today’s sluggish world economy, both in the developed world and developing world.  In this post I will explain why investors are so reluctant to back engineering ventures.

Engineering performances are slipping, engineers are frustrated, business owners are even more frustrated and billions of people languish in misery because of engineering performance failures.  These are not spectacular failures like Fukushima or Deepwater Horizon.  Instead they are silent failures that have remained mostly out of sight, in many cases deliberately hidden by their owners.

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It’s The Engineering…..

Its-The-Engineering“It’s the economy, stupid!” was the line that secured Bill Clinton’s election campaign in 1992 against sitting president George W Bush.  Now, with economies struggling to grow it’s time to recognise that it’s engineering that drives the world economy, and we engineers have to recognise how we can play our part and get paid better at the same some.  Our performance can, indeed has to improve. Continue reading