Leadership in engineering

John Gyorki
December 12th, 2007.

In this issue, we announce the Leadership Awards we have been promoting throughout this year. The Design World community elected several companies to represent those with the highest operating standards and reputation for ethical conduct, quality products, superb services, fair practices, and exceptional employees. The readers cast their votes and told us who the winners are. Read about it in the foldout section. We are proud to celebrate these companies; their leaders and employees. They represent but only a few of many similar, well-managed firms that we enjoy doing business with every day.

Unfortunately, we have been overwhelmed recently with products from sources that do not live up to the same high standards that our chosen companies practice. Our children have been exposed to harmful, dangerous, and fatal toys that are covered with lead-based paint; many elderly and seriously ill people have been cheated, harmed and even killed by counterfeit drugs; we are sold tainted food; and we are constantly being charged outrageous prices for goods and services where we have no alternative sources or choices.

These unscrupulous practices have become evident in recent years within extremely large companies that I do not have to mention. You know them. Their executives’ greed and deception have gotten them into jail, which hurt not only their own reputation, but also the reputation of the industry in which they worked: Many people became suspicious of that industry in general when they were done a severe injustice.

Furthermore, it’s especially unfortunate when we discover greed and deceptive practices in not only private companies, but also in the public utilities and healthcare industries, where we have few or no options to find more ethical suppliers and services. For instance, we have no choice but to pay outrageous prices for medical care and drugs (especially when you suffer “pre-existing conditions”), telephone service, electricity, gas, and water in many localities, so some presidents and CEOs can rob us of millions of dollars per year in what they think are justified salaries. Who could possibly think that one (or more) million dollars per year is deserved no matter what the person has contributed? Who could have such high self-esteem? A discussion of healthcare malpractice and excessive charges would take a separate book to cover adequately.

But, in spite of the bad apples, we will continue to celebrate our award winners and other outstanding companies in the coming year. So please visit our Web site regularly to vote, and continue to be educated and informed about current events taking place in your design engineering community.

John Gyorki
Editorial Director
jgyorki@designworldonline.com