Productivity up, some salaries down

When you work in rising inflation, the median hourly wage for American workers dropped 2% since 2003. The drop in wages is interesting because productivity continues to rise. In short, automation is working.
As a result, wages and salaries now make up the lowest share of the nation’s gross domestic product since the government began recording the data in 1947, while corporate profits have climbed to their highest share since the 1960’s, according to government data. Does that mean companies are not spreading the wealth?
Until the last year, slow growing wages were offset by benefits, such as health insurance. Since last summer, however, the value of workers’ benefits has also failed to keep pace with inflation, according to the government.
At the top income levels, workers continue to receive raises that outpace inflation, and the gains have been large enough to keep average income and consumer spending rising.
Engineers, on the other hand, continue to remain steady on the salary front.
For more information on engineering salaries, take a look at the salary survey in the October issue of InTech.
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Leaders innovate

This is the week I keep dwelling on innovation, so why not go one more day.
This is from Wikipedia, which itself is a great innovation:
The classic definitions of innovation include:
• The process of making improvements by introducing something new
• The successful exploitation of new ideas, Department of Trade and Industry, UK.
• Change that creates a new dimension of performance, Peter Drucker,
• The creative force of humankind that allows the progress of the world to advance, World Innovation Foundation.
Innovation doesn’t have to be the creation of something along the lines of the light bulb. It may be as simple as fixing a process that saves the company a few hundred dollars a week. Or an idea that someone else takes and brings to fruition. It may even be creating an atmosphere to allow others to think freely.
The point is, any kind of thought that helps advance a product, process or goal will help the company keep growing. And smart growth is where a company has to be these days. The concept of shrinking the company down and holding on to your turf are gone. This is a new era where new business models are taking off and old time thinkers who are fighting back the concept of innovation are fast becoming dinosaurs.
As inventor Dean Kamen said at NI Week, “The way to win is not keeping everybody down.”
Innovation comes from leaders.
How does your company promote innovation? Talk to me.

Thoughts behind innovation

Innovation is hard to define. Just where does it come from? Who does it? Who is responsible for it? How do you manage it?
The questions can keep flowing. In short, innovation is a difficult, creative process that no one can really corral.
Sometimes great ideas come at the strangest times and in a moment’s notice. Other times it comes after some serious, thought provoking deliberations.
A study sponsored by Dow Corning and conducted by Harris Interactive Inc. hit the street this week talking about innovation. The study asked who is responsible for innovation. The researchers found perceptions regarding who is primarily responsible for innovation have expanded.
It was once the task of the “egg heads” in the laboratory, but now it includes everyone.
The study, which surveyed executives in industries including electronics, construction, beauty and personal care, automotive, textiles, rubber, plastics, paper, and health care, reported 37% of respondents said they are counting on all employees, not just the head of science and technology, to innovate. Meanwhile 23% of respondents felt innovation is the responsibility of the chief technology officer.
Respondents ranked factors that make a supplier a successful innovator. The top-ranked factor was having an “intimate understanding of what customers want and need.” The second highest response was “employees are creative” which scored 8.6, and third was “apply the latest developments in science and technology” at 8.5.
Innovation will lift you and your company to great heights. Go ahead, try it.
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Partnering for success

No matter what industry you are in these days, to move ahead, one of the key concepts is finding the correct partner.
Just take a look at Ford. They are now in the process of looking at potential partners.
Ford’s Chief Executive, William Clay Ford Jr. met with Carlos Ghosn, the chief executive of Nissan in Japan and Renault of France. Don’t forget Ghosn met with GM a few weeks back. The automakers already know working with any form of a partner is a sure way to move forward.
Let’s face it, when it comes to business today partnering is the new model. Working alone is almost impossible. Even the mighty General Electric has partnered with a few companies to keep moving forward.
I will say though, it takes a strong leader to forge a partnership. That head of the company in many cases will most likely have to deal with a board mired in the past that thinks the old way of doing things is the way to go.
How do you go about changing minds and old style thinking?
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Adding to the cool factor

Last week, at NI Week in Austin, one panel discussion focused on ways to increase children’s involvement in math and science.
Panelists all agreed once they figured out a way to show kids the math and science track was “cool,” they would get more involvement.
Now, there is one more weapon to add in the arsenal to gain the attention of kids thinking about a career in math or science. Regardless of what job they end up with, earning a bachelor’s degree in science or engineering appears to serve the recipient well in the workforce, according to a National Science Foundation (NSF) survey.
Not only that, people who have earned a science or engineering bachelor’s degree generally report that science and engineering knowledge is important to their job, according to the survey.
That holds even if the graduate ends up doing non-technical work. Among those workers whose only degree was a science or engineering bachelor’s, 27% had science or engineering occupations. Sixty-three percent working in non-technical fields still said their jobs related to their degree.
Even if you decide to go into sales, 400,000 sales workers reported their job related to their science or engineering bachelor’s degree. And a majority of science or engineering bachelor’s degree holders employed as artists, editors, or writers reported their degree related somewhat to their job.
Still think math and science is uncool? I don’t think so.
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Ready, set innovate

The creative process is truly an amazing thing to watch.
Actually, watching the process is a difficult thing, because you never know when “the idea” will hit you. It is always fun to listen to managers say, “we need to innovate, now go back to your office and come up with new ideas.” Forced creativity, what a concept.
Then there is Jeff Kodosky, National Instruments’ co-founder. He is the father of NI’s flagship product, LabVIEW. He and his team worked on and created every iteration of the software for the last 20 years and it is still going strong. He talked about creating a roadmap for the product way back when he started with LabVIEW 1.0. Over the past 20 years he said during his keynote at NI Week 06 in Austin, Texas, they have met and exceeded all items on the roadmap.
“We are not done with LabVIEW,” he said. “We continue to invest heavily.” Expect newer versions to be heavier into graphics.
Kodosky had a vision and he didn’t waiver, even when times were difficult. That is true innovation.
Dean Kamen understands all about the innovation process. During his keynote today at NI Week, Kamen talked about the whole innovation process.
“It is hard to figure out what innovation really is,” he said. To accomplish a project, a true innovator has to overcome obstacles, “people lose their vision, their courage and they don’t keep going.”
“It’s not what you don’t know that inhibits innovation, it’s what we do know that just ain’t so,” he said.
He then went on to add the difference between management and leadership, something he considers two entirely different things.
“Projects require management. Innovation requires leadership. Management is all about doing things right. Leadership is doing the right thing.”

Engineering a plan for math and science

Nationally, more and more children are moving away from careers that feature math and science and National Instruments continues to evangelize engineering initiatives for grades K-12 and beyond.
The engineering-centric company conducted a special panel at NIWeek 06 in Austin, Texas on Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education led by Ray Almgren, vice president of Product Marketing and Academic Relations. Almgren heads up the company's worldwide academic relations program.
Panelists discussed ways they can encourage children to embark on a math and science track without suffering from the “uncool” factor. While there were no answers, there was plenty of discussion on ways to go about solving the dilemma.
Along those lines, NI introduced a LabVIEW Toolkit for LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT. With the new toolkit, LabVIEW users can create and download virtual instruments to operate and control the MINDSTORMS NXT robotics platform. Third-party software and hardware developers also can use the toolkit to create native blocks for MINDSTORMS NXT software. MINDSTORMS NXT, the next generation of the LEGO robotics invention system, became available earlier this month and includes a new programming environment.
The LEGO Group and NI teamed to develop the new MINDSTORMS NXT software that includes a drag-and-drop, graphical interface optimized for the target MINDSTORMS NXT consumer, children 10-14 years old. With the new LabVIEW toolkit, more advanced MINDSTORMS NXT users, including adults, students and secondary school and university educators, now can program the NXT using advanced graphical programming tools available in LabVIEW.
If you think LEGOs is a toy just for kids, try playing around with this system. It will be great for kids young and old.

National Instruments on a mission

National Instruments makes no bones about it, they continuously say “the software is the instrument.”
As Tim Dehne, senior vice president of research and development said during his keynote address Wednesday at NIWeek 06, they really follow the company’s mission statement which says, “We create innovative computer-based products that improve every day life.”
“You can see in a connected world, and the way collaboration is across the globe, the community of scientists and engineers are coming together to make a better world for all of us,” Dehne said.
NI’s goal, Dehne said, is to “give our customers a better solution for measuring and automating the world around them. That’s all about productivity and lowering costs.”
NI is conducting a double celebration this year. It is the company’s 30th anniversary and its 20th anniversary of its key product line, LabVIEW. As a part of that celebration NI launched LabVIEW version 8.20.

GM’s solution clear as mud

The price for gas is sure not coming down anytime soon and all you see sitting in used car lots when you drive by are trucks and SUVs because people are trading them in quicker than a fox running from a hound.
So, where should the major auto companies focus in the coming model year? Why trucks of course. That’s right, trucks. General Motors is rushing a new line of full-size pickups to showrooms in the hopes of strengthening its turnaround effort.
What are they thinking?
G.M. introduced its 2007 Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra and said the trucks would begin arriving at dealerships in October, 13 weeks ahead of the original schedule. The company’s Chief Executive, Rick Wagoner, called the new trucks “the most important part of our North American turnaround plan.”
Yikes. Gas guzzling trucks the most important part of the turnaround plan? Yes, trucks are hugely profitable, but come on, are they going to be as popular now that gas is hitting $3 a gallon?
Meanwhile, this news comes on the heels of other news about Toyota and Honda moving ahead of Ford and DaimlerChrysler in the U.S. auto market. No big surprise. Let’s face it Toyota and Honda seem to be listening to the marketplace and continue to put out quality product that people want to buy.
Auto sales in the U.S. fell 14% year-over-year. Sales for General Motors fell 19.4%, Ford was down 31.7%, and DaimlerChrysler dropped 31.5%, from year-ago sales levels.
In comparison, Toyota grew 16.2% and Honda increased 10.2%.
Hopefully, Ford, GM and DaimlerChrysler will soon get in touch with the marketplace and learn the nimble, agile ways of this era.
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Disaster forces hike in safety measures

Why does it always seem like it takes a disaster for a company to beef up safety in a plant?
BP unveiled the other day it was going to add an addition $1 billion to the $6 billion it allotted over the next four years to “upgrade all aspects of safety at its U.S. refineries and to repair and replace infield pipelines in Alaska.” Let’s face it, $6 billion is not a bad number to begin with and $1 billion is a nice addition. My question is how much would it have been if Texas City and the other BP developments never really hit the public’s radar screen?
Be that as it may, the company said this latest move is a part of a wide-ranging package of measures aimed at improving confidence in the integrity of BP's U.S. operations following a series of incidents over the past 18 months, including last year's explosion at the Texas City refinery, and the oil spill in Alaska.
Taking short cuts, cutting costs, closing your eyes to preventative measures that may cost the company money in the short term, and not having effective training is always a recipe for disaster. Surely BP is not guilty of all of those infractions, but they are guilty of some and they are now paying the price monetarily and through the public’s perception of the company.
Don’t feel sorry for BP coughing up an extra billion. They had a second quarter net profit of $7.27 billion, which included a $500 million charge related to the Texas City blast that killed 15 in March 2005.
Part of the expenditure will go toward systems to manage process safety at the refineries. They will undergo a major upgrade, with $200 million earmarked to pay for 300 external experts who will conduct comprehensive audits, and re-designs where necessary, of all safety process systems. The new systems should be up and running by the end of 2007. Let’s hope it is money well spent.
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