Helping Technical Professionals Build Successful Careers

By Jon Younger, Kurt Sandholtz

More than ever, chemical company competitiveness hinges on the ability to create, safeguard, and leverage intellectual capital. Since this precious commodity resides almost exclusively in the minds of the organization’s workforce—especially its engineers and scientists—helping these people build satisfying, long-term careers is key to retaining this all-important knowledge base.

The “Four Stages” model, based on ongoing research, offers a powerful framework for helping technical professionals understand how to grow and add value over the long haul in today’s flattened, delayered, technical organizations. Applied in such companies as Monsanto, Dow, DuPont and 3M, the Four Stages model shows how technical people can advance their careers and contribution without having to move into management roles.