[SBE] Industry retirement situation

[Barry Thomas, CPBE CBNT]

Broadcast engineering as a microcosm of the transformation of american civilization from product-based society to service-based economy. Wow! That's a very interesting way to look at this.  

You are right that the physics of our industries have not changed and the basic concept of playing a spot and getting paid may be the same as in 1930. The same can be said of basic business concepts of supply/demand and the life cycle of any product from limited adoption, wide acceptance, and commiditization.  What has changed is that, the products being delivered by the technology have changed drastically as well as the sales and consumption principles. The business has undergone transformations several times and we're doing so again to help mitigate that media products are now commodities. 

You've suggested an incredibly valuable education program that would go beyond communication skills and help educate engineers in business concepts to help facilitate their work. Would you consider helping develop this for our members?  You should consider writing a book on the concepts.  We also have a close relationship with Focal Press that may help you do this. Very interesting!

We've gotten new traction on our Education Committee under Chairperson Cris Alexander's leadership which will start to address some of the other training issues you raised. We are developing new programs that we expect to encompass a broad scope of the technical skills we all need to manage our technology. Hopefully you'll see the first of these, soon. 

Great points. I appreciate your support. 

Thanks, Phil. 

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry