How to motivate someone will vary greatly based on the person they are and what drives them. If you are a manager in this situation it is on you to figure out what motivates that person and then use t...

I think that the two are unrelated. The reasons that you work and the reasons to leave a particular employer can be vastly different. People work because they want a challenge, which I believe is an i...

I think the biggest learning for me in this class came from the simulations. Working together with a group of people towards a “real world” goal is something that I do not have much experience with as...

I think the biggest reason that people work themselves so hard is that they fear what will happen if they do not. Management has become so accustomed to attempting to cut costs wherever they can that ...

Different from what many people here have said, I currently want to remain in an R&D/engineering role for as long as possible. To me the process of taking a problem and creating a solution is one ...

As you mentioned, retaining key employees is critical to project and company success. The amount of effort put into retaining an employee must match the value that they bring to the company. If you ha...

It is important to attempt to prevent a situation like this by ensuring that people on the team are not going to just leave without notice, and that management is not constantly shuffling people aroun...

I did a co-op at J&J, and the group that I was working with was looking at sourcing completed products that J&J could sell under one of their brand names. In this case it was facial cosmetics,...

Using different components from the same company does not completely solve the issue of dual sourcing, because those two components are not completely independent. Most likely the two chemicals are ma...

Like any relationship in the world, communication is key. It is important that you understand the obligations of each team member, but it is just as important for them to be open with you about their ...

Metrics are an important way to measure how healthy a project is. High level metrics like cost and progress allow the company to track the work that has been done and make decisions about the future o...

Monitoring the difference between planned value and actual value/costs is critical in ensuring that the project will maintain its viability. In a more perfect world, these projects would happen becaus...

For my master’s thesis there are three key people with input in the design, myself, my advisor, and our clinical collaborator. The clinical collaborator is the least involved in the day to day of the ...

Design validation is critical to the life-cycle of a project as it is when you test to make sure that the product or deliverables meet the requirements specified by the client. In any company regardle...

I have run into these problems on a smaller and more personal scale. I am currently completing my master's thesis, which revolves around the early design and development of a medical device. I am far ...