“Project Financing—Your Engineer Can Help!”

Abstract

I'm not sure what brought on this revelation, but one day it suddenly dawned on me that our company had evolved into an engineering firm forced to deal with the bothersome details of running a business, as opposed to being a business created for the purpose of providing engineering services. As subtle as the difference may seem at first glance, these two philosophies generate completely different approaches to the way we do our daily jobs. As we move into the second decade of the twenty-first century, we are leaving behind us (hopefully) one of the most severe recessions ever faced in the United States. Though no segment of our economy went through this time unscathed, most of us have emerged stronger and more resilient than we were before; some of us have even learned a good lesson about what it takes to survive when the good times aren't rolling. Engineers are no exception. For decades, we skated through business plying our trade with little regard for where the money came from. In fact, we avoided meetings known to be primarily economic in nature, calling ourselves the “technical side” of the program, with little or no input into the “business side” of the tasks to be performed. Brother, was that a mistake! We have now awakened in a world where projects die on the drafting table because the owner isn't convinced that our project is more valuable than the other needs he faces. Value rules. So we find ourselves asking if there might be a way to bring more value to the table when we place our projects in front of the owner. Is there something that the engineering profession can do to help the owner see the value in our recommended projects?