Imagine this: two boys, William and Scott, open up separate lemonade stands in their local area. Each hires one boy to juice the lemons and one to package and distribute the lemonade. Their costs, prices, and net profits are equal. Now let's say that William's lemonade stand also contains a research and development sector, over which he presides, and he has created a mechanical juicer that can juice a lemon twice as fast as any human, with the push of a button. William then decides that he can lay off his human juicer, instate the mechanical one in his stead, and lower the price of lemonade by fifteen percent, thus attracting twenty percent more customers and producing a net yield of twenty percent more revenue. Meanwhile, Scott, a victim of innovative exclusion, loses customers to William and suffers from sour lemons - grapes, rather.
Such is a simplified account of the ruthlessly competitive business world in action. Businesses are constantly striving to outperform each other through efficient methods of production and skilled management strategy. As a young, aspiring entrepreneur, I once thought that education solely in the field of business management would be sufficient to aptly run a successful establishment. But with the advent of new technologies occurring at such a rapid pace lately, a working and detailed knowledge of engineering principles, added to sound economic principles, can add immense production capabilities to any enterprise. Those who capitalize on this concept, such as our friend William, will emerge at the forefront of an industry, while those who neglect it, like Scott, will become another casualty of the business world. Management skills alone will not suffice when the competition utilizes technological skills to enhance production and increase profit.
That is why I want to enroll in the rigorous yet rewarding academic regimen of Penn's Jerome Fisher Program.
