The Executive and the Technologist

A distinguished writer has recently referred to science as "at once the noblest flower of the human mind and the most promising source of material benefactions", and if I understand my task it is to consider how unity of outlook may best be achieved between the scientist and those most interested in the material benefactions. I will assume that the word "technologist" does not include the army of technical experts who keep an established industry running—there is no question as to their function nor any failure on the part of executives to appreciate and promote their work—but those, fewer in number, whose job it is to steer industry into new channels either by the improvement of existing manufactures or by the creation of new products and industries. It is those—research workers, chemists, physicists, and engineers—who have become both creative and disruptive forces of industry, who are regarded by executives, according to their individual tastes, ...