I have no solutions, but I agree.

But getting stuck in a comfortable rut, is not just a risk for the engineer, it may be a dangerous for the whole company.

An employer interested in maximum profit on this project now,  without setting aside time for staff to learn new skills, even if it is just time to self teach and accept investing some profit into the occasional experimental disaster ,  will end up with risk averse staff, and no innovation. This is profitable but risky in the way that making the horn gramophone incrementally better without looking at new developments in electronics would have been profitable in the early 1930s. However, it is also a narrowness of thought that allows your business to follow the J Fowler & Co. Traction Engine company, or more recently, and slightly more successfully, the examples of Kodak or Olivetti.

The ' dare not do anything new' attitude and process heavy management, that stifle the more 'have a go' individuals are then sometimes formally recognised and that leads to novel bypass solutions such as the idea of a skunkworks for special projects within a larger business.

I have no solutions, but I agree.

But getting stuck in a comfortable rut, is not just a risk for the engineer, it may be a dangerous for the whole company.

An employer interested in maximum profit on this project now,  without setting aside time for staff to learn new skills, even if it is just time to self teach and accept investing some profit into the occasional experimental disaster ,  will end up with risk averse staff, and no innovation. This is profitable but risky in the way that making the horn gramophone incrementally better without looking at new developments in electronics would have been profitable in the early 1930s. However, it is also a narrowness of thought that allows your business to follow the J Fowler & Co. Traction Engine company, or more recently, and slightly more successfully, the examples of Kodak or Olivetti.

The ' dare not do anything new' attitude and process heavy management, that stifle the more 'have a go' individuals are then sometimes formally recognised and that leads to novel bypass solutions such as the idea of a skunkworks for special projects within a larger business.