Talking shop: engineering entrepreneurs explain their success

18 July 2011 | By Ellie Zolfagharifard

Engineers are not good communicators, according to popular opinion in the business community. They often lack the ability to express their ideas, express passion about their projects and market their research to the right people. If this is the case, then it’s no wonder that the country is having a tough time in providing a long-term strategy in areas such as transport, healthcare and energy.

’It is a big generalisation and, of course, there are exceptions, but in my experience engineers really aren’t great at communicating,’ said Doug King, visiting professor of building engineering at Bath University. ’We don’t teach communication nearly as well as we should… engineers need to learn to sell themselves and sell their benefits. It’s taken me 25 years to get to the point where I can do that, so it’s not an easy task.’

“Often engineers make the mistake of trying to sell the science behind their research”

King is one of four recipients of the Royal Academy of Engineering’s 2011 Silver Medal. The award is presented to engineers who have made an outstanding contribution to British engineering by successfully bringing their innovation into the marketplace. In 2002, King started his own company, King Shaw Associates, to combine high-level academic research with a commercial design consultancy. Today, the company is a million-pound organisation employing 15 staff in the UK and overseas.

But for King and the other silver medal winners, success has been hard-won. Breaking into the market was an uphill struggle, with the commercial world appearing to be a minefield of jargon and conflicting interests. Each of the winners believes they come from a generation where communication and business skills were lacking in the overall education of engineers. As such, they claim, even the best ideas have struggled to gain acceptance from investors.

“We don’t teach communication well… engineers need to learn to sell themselves”

For instance, Dr Karin Hing, who was awarded her medal for founding orthobiologics company ApaTech, claims that, often, engineers make the mistake of trying to sell the science behind their research, rather than telling investors about the financial benefits of their work. Hing and her colleagues at Queen Mary, University of London formed ApaTech, which commercialised her research into the bioactivity of bone-graft substitutes in 2000. The company was recently sold for more than £200m.

’We had a lot of false starts,’ said Hing. ’At first we were telling everyone how fantastic the science was. To a certain extent, when investors walk through the door to listen to you, they have already accepted that you know what you’re talking about from the science side. What they want to know is whether or not what you’ve done is going to be saleable. Do you have IP protection? Are there any regulatory hurdles to using your material? Do you know what your competitors are doing?’

As well as keeping a focus on financial benefits, Hing believes that engineers need to change their attitude towards business. ’As an engineer you’re looking at things from a different point of view, analysing it from the safety perspective, wanting to know that what you’re doing is going to work,’ she said. ’Engineers and scientists in general are always testing their hypotheses and always looking at things from a slightly pessimistic point of view. Whereas, going into business, you have to be optimistic.’

“It isn’t a big leap to go from undertaking research to developing a commercial venture”

Fellow silver medal winner Prof Eric Yeatman believes that it isn’t that big a leap for engineers to go from undertaking successful research to a developing a successful commercial venture. Bringing someone onto the team with that business experience, or spending time in industry, are two options that he suggests to improve communication skills in the business.

Dr Shaun Fitzgerald, who received his medal for helping to pioneer a method of natural ventilation in buildings, agrees. ’I received business experience by jumping out of academic research’, he said. ’This was in 1997. I jumped ship completely and worked for a mortgage-strategy consulting firm nothing to do with engineering. It was pure commercial training for me for about four-and-a-half years. It was an amazing experience and I wouldn’t be where I am now if I hadn’t had the scars of having worked there.’

Spending years outside of engineering might seem to be a roundabout way of gaining the skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur. But universities across the UK are beginning to recognise that something needs to change, and many current engineering courses place focus increasingly on communications skills. Whereas 20 years ago engineering courses were about the nuts and bolts of engineering, today they are increasingly multi-disciplinary.

“I wouldn’t be where I am today without the scars from working in the commercial sector”

’In a generation, the education breadth has changed significantly for the good of British engineering,’ said Fitzgerald. ’I think it’s going to have an impact in that there will be more engineers who want to try and do their own thing and be entrepreneurs. You can always teach communication skills, but to be a true entrepreneur you also need to have passion and energy and that’s something engineers have in huge amounts.’

This year’s silver medalists have shown that engineers can translate their research into successful commercial ventures. They all agree that, apart from communicating their ideas, there is no reason why engineers can’t be cut out for business. You have to take risks and you’ve got to believe in yourself and your ideas,’ said Hing. ’It is a challenge but, having said that, successful engineers are people who have ideas that are slightly different from everyone else’s. They are doing that anyway. They are always thinking of things that are innovative and pushing the boundaries.’