chemical business engineering? a program concerning engineering chemical businesses!

Chemical Business Engineering?A Program

ConcerningEngineering Chemical Businesses!

Copyright 2007 Wolfgang RungeCopyright 2007 Wolfgang Runge 22

Relationships with Chemical Business Administration (“Wirtschaftschemie”)?

Note the “interpunction” in the sense of language psychology and communication:Chemical [Business Administration] versus[Chemical Business] Administration.[Chemical Business] Administration is not seen as chemistry or “chemical engineering” and business administration (BA) (“business administration for chemists, chemical engineers”), but as a part of Chemical Business Engineering.Chemical Business Engineering is not a part of “Industrial Chemistry”, but there is overlap.The subject comprises the whole context of engineering “chemical businesses”.

Cf. the management approach of the “Delft School of Business Engineeringand Management” (University of Technology in Delft (NL)).


Foundations and Scope: “Objects”

Engineering including chemical engineering is the (academic) discipline dealing with the art or science of applying mathematical and scientific knowledge to practical problems, here initiating, supporting and promoting chemical businesses ofIndividuals– Entrepreneurs (academic and technical entrepreneurs)– Chemical and chemistry-related startup companies

Chemical Enterprises– Individuals in firms and (non-profit) organizations and their

interconnections and interactions with each others– Businesses and technologies and research and innovations of chemical

firms (small to large)– The industry (and key directing and exemplary historical events)– Firms in the context of national societies and on the global level.

“Scientific knowledge” - from “hard” and “soft” sciences.Tangible and intangible resources


Foundations and Scope: Processes

Discipline: (applied, industrial) chemistry and related fieldsPeople-centricEntrepreneurshipResearch and innovationCore competencies and learningManagement (planning, organizing, leading, coordinating and controlling) and peopleIntelligenceInformation & communication technology (I&CT) (“man-machine” systems) supporting research and innovationTechnical (chemical) skills are vital,“soft” skills initiate and implement change (and advance careers).


A Systemic Business Engineering Model

PURPOSE

INTELLIGENCEORGANIZATIONALUNIT

BUSINESSPROCESS

RESOURCES

RESULT

Human, Information, Financial, I&CT;Corporate-Internal and External

Decide Measure

FeedbackLearnVision, Mission,Objectives,Strategy, Tactics

THE “ENVIRONMENT”


Mission and Program Structure

Corporate & Functional Cultures

People Management & Leadership

Intelligence Management & Technology Intelligence

“Man-Machine” Interactions(Information&Communication Technology – I&CT)

Human andEntrepreneurial Behavior

Technology andSystemic Innovation

Industry andValue Chain

Industry Analysis & History

Company Structure & Business Administration

Corporate Businesses and Functional Interfaces

Systemic Innovation

Intelligence-Based Companies

Corporate & Technology Strategy, Resource Allocation

Innovation Architecture and Configuration

Research & Technology Management

Chemical Business Engineering Mission:To understand and learn shaping and relating interactions between people, technologies, organizations and societies to found or develop and establish sustainable growth of chemical enterprises on a global level through innovative and demanding teaching and applied research.

(Business engineering combines differentiated approaches for the systematic transformation of companies.)


The Systemic Innovation Configuration

Value Drivers(External Parameters)

Organizational Drivers(Internal Variables)

Corporate Culture (including Learning)

Human Resources

Core Technical and Organizational Competencies

Business and Functional Interfaces

Operational Discipline

Megatrends

Industry Foresight

Market/Customer Insight (Actual and “Latent”)

Technology Forecasting

New Strategies

New Competencies

New Relationships

New Operational Practices

New Business Models

New Products (and Other Offerings) - NPD

New Markets

New Businesses - NBD

ManagedInnovation Processes

Strategic and Business Alignment

Insights & Understandings

Idea Generation & Opportunity Identification

Project Assessment (“Peers”) and Selection

Planning Implementation

Work Processes

Learning from Project Success and Failure

Intelligence

SustainableInnovation

INNOVATION ARCHITECTURE

Organizational Drivers

Managed Intelligence Processes

Managed Innovation Processes


Who May Take Advantage From It?

You, for your (first) job and career in a (chemical) firm.You, looking for a new job in another firm.You, if you are thinking about creating your own business and do it (“entrepreneurship”).You, even in your private life, if you look into your “resource, financial and change management”

ButDoes the chemical industry needs it (and wants it)? Is there a consistent opinion of small and large firms about it? Does “Higher Education” wants it. Is it an idea of an individual, probably to create a “position” or a “discipline” (and related earnings)?Is the program a “handbook” for consultants’ offerings?


Post-Educational Environment and Conditions

Very few students of chemistry (chemical engineering) will start and succeed in a scientific career (in a university or research institute)

After graduation the majority of students will work in the chemical or another industry. Few will join state-owned (research or other) organizations.– Even, if you start in the Research function of a large (chemical)

corporations the majority of people will switch career into other functions or roles and responsibilities (technical service, marketing, planning etc.)

– More graduates will be employed in small and medium-sized chemical enterprises rather than large chemical companies

More graduates may think of founding their own firm (“entrepreneurship”)


EntrepreneurshipWe live in an economy of new, rapidly growing (and sometimes rapidly declining) entrepreneurial companies.Much job growth and new technology comes from entrepreneurial companies.We all worked and would continue to work in gigantic organizations insulated from risk and structured for efficiency.Does this mean big companies are dying? Not at all. They are adapting. Behind the familiar names are hundreds of alliances with independent and relatively new firms. In a world in which knowledge and imagination have joined labor, capital and materials as factors of production, entrepreneurial companies often provide the creativity and take on the early risk while big companies chip in financial and marketing muscle when it is finally time to go national or even global.Entrepreneurship – also within big companies - is an "indispensable component" of growth and prosperity. We must respect and learn it - and teach it.


Current Status and ThinkingContent available, corresponding teaching modules based essentially on this content under development:– What– How– When (and where).

Principle and structures to organize useful knowledge about the chemical industry and its paths to innovation – more educational abstraction and aggregation for teaching purposes needed.Approaches to problem-solving for technical and organizational innovation (“unit operations”) –more “tools and techniques” details and teaching-specific examples to be elaborated (“lessons learned”).Questions (inspiration) for research to fill in the gaps in knowledge for the subject – to be structured.Open question: also (applied) research by incumbent(s)?


IssuesWhat?The exposure of “students” to a large variety of subjects, including economics and business administration, accounting, finance, human resources management, organizational behavior, strategy, competitive/technology intelligence, market research, marketing, operations management, international business, information technology management, and government policy.How?Independent and “complete” vs. modular and integrated (into other programs, such as Industrial Chemistry or “Wirtschaftschemie”; Business School programs).Mix of methods: e.g. problem based learning, self-organized leaning, lectures, reflection exercises, online discussions, case studies, projects, business games. Co-operative education to integrate on-site (campus) studies with practical work experience (intership).When?A parallel (during education, job) or “build up” approach, for instance, aimed at individuals who already have training in a technical field (a postgraduate program) or three (?) years’ relevant work experience and are looking to further their careers;an “extended” separate program (1 semester undergraduate, 2 semesters graduate/postgraduate)


Fundamentals for TeachingProvide the minimum, but for the specific context sufficient core knowledge, skills, tools and techniques for a given subject, uncommon to people with a chemical (chemical engineering) education or background. Balance breadth with depth.“Business Essentials for Chemical Research and Innovation”Derive concepts and approaches out of the context of (current and historical) cases.

A General Remark Concerning “Strategy” and “Strategic Planning”, Applicable to Other Areas of Chemical Business Engineering.“A great deal of business success depends on generating new knowledge and on having the capabilities to react quickly and intelligently to this new knowledge. … I believe that strategic thinking is a necessary but overrated element of business success. If you know how to design great motorcycle engines, I can teach you all you need to know about strategy in a few days. If you have a Ph.D. in strategy, years of labor are unlikely to give you the ability to design great new motorcycle engines.”(Richard Rumelt (1996): California Management Review 38, 110)


Tentative Teaching - Structure

INTRODUCTORY

Basic Course(Grundkurs)

CORE COURSES

Advanced Courses(Aufbaukurs)

SPECIAL COURSE(Optionaler Zusatzkurs)

The Chemical Industry – Basic Structures and Business Processes

Research and Development in the Chemical Industry

Management Essentials for Chemical Innovations

Entrepreneurship and Intrapreneurship

Technology Intelligence Essentials for the Chemical Industry

2 Days – 16 hours per C

ourse


… More

Wolfgang RungeINNOVATION, RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY INTELLIGENCE IN THE CHEMICAL INDUSTRYIntegrated Business, Technical and Systems ApproachesFraunhofer IRB Verlag, 2006(http://www.baufachinformation.de/artikel.jsp?v=222645)

http://www.RISCnet.de Net

In Germany Johann F. A. Göttling was the first professor who could represent chemistry outside a medical faculty. He was appointed 1788 at the philosophical faculty of Jena University as “Professor for Philosophy, Chemistry, Pharmacy and Technology” (“Gewerbekunde”). It was, in particular, Goethe (in his function as Minister for Mining in the corresponding German state), who himself being very interested in chemistry and also practicing chemical experiments had organized this appointment.“Gewerbekunde” around 1800: essentially Mathematics, “Science of Machines and Inventions”, History of Technology

chemical business engineering? a program concerning engineering chemical businesses!

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