INdustry

Hi friends! Here I am again taking my first strides in the biomedical industry. It's been a heady mix of things till now ... from a warm orientation to basic and then advanced training right upto some exciting work ... in an R&D company which employed me after 8 rounds of assessment ... to pay me about 70% of the salary an average finance guy gets... a price I was ready to pay to do what I love - which is ENGINEER! Overall, I would say a decent beginning!
In the midst of all this, I could not help notice the sudden changes in my environment from university days........ there is a silent formality in the air, conversations are casual but crisper, things are often put forward in an "implied" manner, "subjects" have become "domains", "concepts" are called "background", "application" has become "value creation", and the words "customer" and "business" ring in the air throughout the work-floor. While my "midterms", "CPI" and "guide" have been promptly replaced by "quaterly review", "project rating" and "team lead", "projects", "presentations" and "performance" have persisted ...... but with a whole new meaning!
In spite of the above, being in a product development set-up probably means the nearest semblance to the easy-going and intellectual atmosphere of school. Ever since I got the offer, I had been excited to know how ENGG actually GETS DONE in the seemingly sophisticated medical implant industry ...... and so far the learning has been largely enlightening, at times mundane, but throughout full of surprises - in the last few months I have come to understand how SIMPLE INNOVATION ACTUALLY WORKS!!! The major difference between industrial innovation and academic R&D is now clearer to me than ever before - Value of a technology is measured here in the simplicity, range and applicability of the innovation (besides business sense), whereas in our university labs it is largely driven by the core scientific concept and/or intellectual understanding! So, like many others coming out of school, I needed to incorporate within my INTELLECTUAL definition of science the broader understanding of its application, market value and, most importantly, NEED!!!
All innovation pipelines are mostly driven by NEED (in both academia and industry) .... but the challenge is to keep the technology in its finished form as USEFUL, RELEVANT and AFFORDABLE to the EVOLVED NEEDS of the customer ..... as it once started out in the form of a CONCEPT! I guess that is where "simultaneous engg" comes in - whereby the guy in the lab talks to the customer, the manufacturer, the supplier and the surgeons to understand the need of the hour to innovate upon!
However, one thing I found rather discouraging (which persisted right from my university days) was how little the academic and industrial stalwarts think of each other ..... in spite of the fact that there is a WIN-WIN situation for both in any kind of collaboration - this is simply because their strengths are so complementary to each other that you can't help think why there couldn't be a HAPPY MARRIAGE between the two! If only we could get over the petty ego-clashes and mutual misinformation, inject a little mutual respect and think for greater good, research and engg could really accelerate in this country! While the academia has the brightest ideas, sharpest HR and depth of detail, the industry brings to the table business resource, a systematic implementation and the BIG PICTURE.
It took me 2 hours from 4 office days to write this blog........so all in all, it's been an exciting start to MEDICAL ENGG for me......lots of things to learn and explore.....with some intellectual and practical reconciliations along the way!