The 2016 Mind of the Engineer survey covers many aspects of the electronics engineering industry, and here at Napier, we took an in-depth interest into the results, presenting our clients with the most significant and interesting outcomes of the survey.
One feature which really stood out were the results involving the responsibility of profitability. It seems directors do not believe engineers or engineering managers should be responsible for profitability of their company, as 66% of respondents believed profitability was the primary responsibility of corporate management.
This is particularly interesting as there seems to be so much focus from electronic component vendors on profit-related messages such as time-to-market. With such a high percentage believing profitability is a primary responsibility of corporate management, it’s interesting to analyse why suppliers hold such a different view to this matter.
Obviously engineers make many decisions that have a potential impact on profitability, and anyone who has talked to this important group knows that these decisions are made with careful thought. So clearly these metrics do matter to engineers. In fact 54% of respondents in the survey agreed that management is in alignment with engineers, suggesting that managers take engineers recommendations seriously and engineers are concerned about the issues that managers prioritise.
The profitability-related messaging does work, but we’re left wondering whether too many companies are focused on second-tier concerns for the engineers that select products. We believe that there are better ways to describe benefits that will resonate more strongly with engineers. Contact us for more information about how we think component vendors should engage and excite this important audience.