Business Management for Scientists and Engineers - Second Edition: How I Overcame My Moment of Inertia and Embraced the Dark Side

Business Management for Scientists and Engineers will help anyone with a technical background understand the business side of the technical profession. The book is intended to make you more successful as a scientist or engineer by giving you a better understanding of how organizations conduct business.

The book is organized as follows. The Introduction will define some of the basic principles and set the stage for what follows.

In the second chapter, The Business of Business, we will explain the importance of the stock market, (the ultimate judge of most publicly traded, for profit companies), as well as some accounting basics. We’ll explore the difference between financial accounting, which is externally focused and helps create the balance sheet that measures how profitable the company is, and cost accounting, which is internally focused and helps company management understand what each product or service truly costs. We’ll then explore pricing – how a company determines what it should charge for each product or service.

The third chapter, Navigating the Corporation, will clarify what the various types of non-technical people do in a large company. We will explain both what they do, and why it’s important, so that you will know when you need to seek them out for their input. We will also discuss the organizational hierarchy and what changes as you move up the food chain.

Next, we will look at The Rules of the Road – the laws, regulations, and guidelines that governments insist that businesses follow. Because most of our work experience is in the US, and the US economy is the largest in the world, we will be intentionally biased towards US ways of doing business. We will explore the US Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) that guides how the US Government conducts business and will see how that influences companies that do a lot of business with the US Government.

We will then explore how things change when you choose to work internationally, and help you understand how you must navigate the export laws in your country of origin, as well as the import laws in the country of destination. We’ll also make it clear how currency exchange rates, and cultural differences, complicate the business model when you choose to cross international borders.

In the next chapter, Planning for Success, we will understand how to take an idea from concept to a finished product that is ready to generate sales. In short, we’ll develop an appreciation for what those people in business development and program management really do (and why they should get paid if they do it well). We’ll make sure to examine this from two perspectives – first for those people who work for large engineering firms, then for those entrepreneurs who are ready to strike out on their own and try to bring a new product to the market.

In the chapter, Evaluating Success, we will review some of the metrics that are used to measure the business success of products or services, and we’ll finish up with a detailed section on how to develop and present a business case for a new idea that will gather support from investors.

The final chapter, Learning to Lead, is where we will define leadership and show how the true test of leadership is the ability to influence people. We then re-examine the advice given to us by Aristotle over two thousand years ago: pay attention to your credibility as a speaker (ethos); the logic of your argument (logos); and the timing with which you deliver it (kairos); so that it generates the desired emotional response from your audience (pathos). Finally, we’ll provide some guidance on how to develop your own leadership qualities and unique leadership style.

Alan Breitbart is a business development manager in the aerospace and defense industry. He holds a B.S. in Finance from the University of Illinois, and an MBA in International Marketing from Loyola University.