Wealth from Technology

Abstract

The President concentrates on the creation of real wealth from technology by the activities of professional engineers. Real wealth creation, in which useful facilities are created for mankind, is shown to be a process which is both very challenging for the individuals involved, and very socially desirable for the group or country of which they are a part. It needs to be distinguished from the making of money by the typical City deal, which is an essentially selfish process. The Address looks at the mechanisms by which new products and processes are created to generate real wealth and it also comments on the ways in which professional engineers can remain involved in this exciting process, without the need to move into purely management roles in order to advance their position in society. The wealth creation mechanism is shown to be based on combinations of knowledge and experience which the Address examines in more detail. This includes the potential for particular techniques for organizing the transfer of knowledge from research to industry and describes some new methods for correlating and understanding operating experience. The need for a high level professional engineering involvement is seen to be critically important. Where companies do not involve their own engineers on this work as a technological activity at board level, there is considerable scope for professional engineers to provide the services required as independent consultants. The whole area of real wealth creation is an activity that is ripe for a much increased involvement of professional engineers and the Institution.