Supply Chain

Engineering Greatness

Sept. 11, 2011

In his classic “From the Earth to the Moon”, Jules Verne observed that Americans, “the first mechanicians in the world, are engineers – just as Italians are musicians and the Germans metaphysicians- by right of birth.”

The last 100 years are testament to the engineering greatness of America. As a people, led by our engineers, we have walked on the Moon; harnessed raging rivers and the atom; built the world’s most expansive air, land, and rail networks; cut through the Continental Divide in Panama; launched the greatest navy in history; and so much more.

When it comes to overcoming the forces of nature, Americans have been far better than anyone else.

Things don’t go so well, however, when we try to engineer our way through social ills. The costly and unresolved wars on poverty, drugs, and terrorism are evidence to the limits of our engineering ambition.

As we seek to get out of this current economic and political malaise, we would do well to focus on leveraging our engineering greatness in areas where we have already succeeded so brilliantly.

About the Author

Andrew R. Thomas Blog | Associate Professor of Marketing and International Business

Andrew R. Thomas, Ph.D., is associate professor of marketing and international business at the University of Akron; and, a member of the core faculty at the International School of Management in Paris, France.

He is a bestselling business author/editor, whose 23 books include, most recently, American Shale Energy and the Global Economy: Business and Geopolitical Implications of the Fracking Revolution, The Customer Trap: How to Avoid the Biggest Mistake in Business, Global Supply Chain Security, The Final Journey of the Saturn V, and Soft Landing: Airline Industry Strategy, Service and Safety.

His book The Distribution Trap was awarded the Berry-American Marketing Association Prize for the Best Marketing Book of 2010. Another work, Direct Marketing in Action, was a finalist for the same award in 2008.

Andrew is founding editor-in-chief of the Journal of Transportation Security and a regularly featured analyst for media outlets around the world.

He has traveled to and conducted business in 120 countries on all seven continents.