EE EXPLAINED~ Entrepreneur Engineering: The Historical Timeline ~ | Kano Technology management laboratory

Since 1999, Mr. Kano has been advocating the concept of “entrepreneurial engineering.” For the 10th anniversary, he decided to describe the origins, concept, and practice of “entrepreneurial engineering” to explain its pivotal role in reforming and rethinking the combination of science and technology.
10 years has past since we first introduced the concept of “entrepreneurial engineering,” and began the first research and education projects in Japan (1,2).   Despite such a short period of the time, it is our great pleasure that this new concept has been recognized as a new academic discipline, and received the opportunity to write one chapter in this handbook.
First and foremost, I’d like to express my appreciation towards the following people: Dr. Yasuharu Suematsu — Tokyo Institute of Technology Honorary Professor, Dr. Hiroyuki Mizuno — Former Senior Vice President of Panasonic Corporation, and countless friends who supported me throughout the numerous challenges that I encountered in opening up a new realm of engineering. Without The “entrepreneurial engineering” concept originated from a need to reconsider the future role of engineering in the new knowledge-based economy of the 21st century. Historically, it has been known that technological evolutions based on innovation, is always synchronized with the resulting economic evolution of technology. Thus, research conducted about the fundamental correlating factors between technology evolutions and economic developments, has been an important theme for quite a long time. The correlating factor is known as “innovation,” which has been extensively researched in the management field. In other words, “innovation” was defined as the technology that causes economic development. However, as the age of Information Technology (IT) has arrived, we need to redefine “innovation” to suit our current needs.
Namely, Schumpeter first proposed the idea of “Value Creation by New Combinations,” which provided the most appropriate concept to understand the recent technological and economic developments.
The purpose of proposing the concept of “entrepreneurial engineering,” is to gain a deeper understanding of its origin, and discus the essential and universal factors of “innovation.” By pursuing this process, we will be able to discover how individualcreativity and individual action involving potential risks, is highly relevant to the mental wellbeing of the individual. “Entrepreneurial engineering” is an interdisciplinary study between the natural and social sciences that includes Engineering, Management, and Economics. By merging these three disciplines, the concept intends to create value in society based on the latest innovations. The knowledge economy of the 21st century, as first acknowledged by Drucker, requires the implementation and practice of “entrepreneurial engineering.” Knowledge does not necessarily mean tangible assets such as patents and published papers, but it also means intangible ones such as new methods of making money. In addition, this recognizes that risk is absolutely necessary to overcome the challenge of creating value from innovation. In order for knowledge-based innovation to create profits and contribute in a positive way to society, it is also necessary to take a risk and overcome any business or individual uncertainties. In pursuance to this process, the individual’s mental well-being is of utmost importance, such as the need to remain patient throughout all of the challenges. I hope that readers can gain a wealth of information regarding entrepreneurial engineering by reading this paper.