Knowing your limits is no casual thing.

Because they interpret, manipulate and are acclimated to numbers, many engineers fancy themselves superior to the rest. The “rest” are lumped into the catchall contemptuous categories of “salesmen” or worse, “accountants.” No room for improvisation; a certain analytical mindset likes it that way. Stay out of sales as a career option.

Pity those same engineers don’t look up more from their algorithms, develop a firm handshake, maintain eye contact, read the room, and discern clients’ actual intent. Supply doesn’t ensure demand; sometimes you must stir it up in English rather than second derivatives. A skill largely born, not bred. That’s also why there will always be a need for good sales folks; the best, most adventurous of whom are at ease technically, thus better equipped to know whereof they speak, and why, and make commitments on the spot, without appealing to the Mothership.

For context, consider this striking lesson from 2012.

What's Your Solution to the Juniority Problem?

Anyone who has boarded a plane in the past several months knows this all too well: the near-term operations of airlines are up in the air.

From smallest to largest, all the carriers have been dramatically affected by the post-Covid rebound in passenger air travel. How could it not? After all, Delta and United Airlines each cut 30% of their respective staff in 2020, for instance.

And while many observers point to the attractive buyouts the carriers dangled before critical employees (read: pilots) as a means to cut costs amid the mass groundings during the pandemic, employment has shot up over the past 18 months.

A sense of urgency most go toward protecting your tribal knowledge.

Every business keeps a mindful eye on critical assets. On any corporate balance sheet those assets are identified, valued and periodically updated. Indeed, business valuations are often tied directly to those assets, enabling companies to borrow money to acquire additional assets. Regrettably, no balance sheet includes or values the most important and valuable (and perhaps invaluable) asset a company has: tribal knowledge.

The term “tribal knowledge” is used to encompass all the knowledge, experience and wisdom a business’s combined workforce brings to the game each day. It describes what for centuries has been a key asset of all businesses, especially manufacturers. Despite its importance however, historically it has not been universally acknowledged of value nor viewed as a competitive advantage that contributes to organizational profitability.

The recognition and funds are good. But do they attack an underlying issue?

Reading Dr. Hayao Nakahara’s annual accounting of the printed circuit board market (published by PCEA last month), it’s hard to believe Taiwan was once dependent on Japan for PCB knowledge.

Years ago, however, it wasn’t Taiwan and China battling it out for market dominance; it was Japan and the US. Yet long before China emerged as a player, Taiwan had already identified PCBs as a key area for development.