A 165 Year Old 'Superstar' Developed Gorilla Glass in 3 Months

By anon -
Founded in 1851, Corning Inc. is one of the world's biggest glassmakers today. It boasts of annual sales of nearly $10 billion and billions in annual profits. Developer and manufacturer of the now ubiquitous Gorilla Glass, Corning is another sterling example of a "superstar" firm.



Corning has had a rich history of working with innovators from Thomas Edison to Steve Jobs. In fact, innovation is one of the key values driving Corning's business strategy. Corning regularly invests a healthy 10 percent of its revenue in R&D; to maintain and further it's technological leadership. And that's in good times and in bad. When the telecom bubble burst in 2000 and cratering fiber-optic prices sent Corning's stock from $100 to $1.50 per share by 2002, its CEO at the time reassured scientists that not only was Corning still about research but that R&D would be the path back to prosperity.

Corning has continuously reinvented itself – moving from the company that started life producing the raw material for bottles and windows, to making glass for Edison’s first light bulb, to a fiberglass pioneer and a key player in photonics, fiber optics, internet services. Its stage-gate innovation process is structured to enable a nimble response. Famously, Corning came up with its popular Gorilla Glass, a cover glass more durable than soda-lime glass or plastic, in about three months.

Corning now has its eyes set on the next glass-led revolution, a remarkably thin, rollable material called Willow. Corning imagines it will facilitate flexible smartphone designs and uber-thin, roll-up OLED displays. 



Supplement with:
You Need an Innovation Strategy by Gary P. Pisano, HBR
The Rise of Superstars, The Economist Special Report, Sept 2016

Also Read:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Development Myth

By test -
In his book "I, The Citizen", Dr.R.Balasubramaniam talks about his experience when he worked with Tribal communities in South India's rural hinterland. During one interaction with women in a Tribal colony, he learnt that they trekked 8 - 10 kms everyday to fetch water. He was aghast on hearing this and disturbed at the plight of these women. He spoke to the local Administration and within a week had a Tube well with a hand pump installed at the colony. About 6 months later he visited the colony again expecting to receive adulation from a grateful community for reducing their workload and making their lives better. However, he was shocked to receive the choicest expletives from the women who were angry to see him. On probing further he found out that he had taken away from the women what was most valuable for them. Fetching water was the only time they had for themselves when they could get away from their homes, their family and their husbands. This was a time when...
Read more

Eliminating Elevator waiting time complaints with Mirrors

By test -
At a large Multistoreyed office building, people complained about long waiting times for the Elevator during peak hours. Increasing the number of elevators was not feasible so an alternative solution was needed. The management called a meeting of the staff to brainstorm. A young employee who was a graduate in psychology observed that people complained about waiting only a few minutes for the elevator. The main issue was boredom rather than elevator performance.  He suggested installing Mirrors in the elevator boarding areas so that people could be busy looking at themselves or looking at others. This was promptly done at a very low cost. The complaints stopped immediately. Related reading Defining the problem of Elevator wait times
Read more

100 Years Ago Sears Sold Cheap Mail-Order DIY Homes!

By anon -
Image
In 1908, Sears issued its first specialty catalog for houses,  Book of Modern Homes and Building Plans , featuring 44 kit-house styles ranging in price from the US $360–$2,890. That's the equivalent of US $9,147-$73,431 today .  Cover of 1922 Sears Modern Homes catalog As Sears mail-order catalogs were in millions of homes, large numbers of potential homeowners were able to open a catalog, see different house designs, visualize their new home and then purchase it directly from Sears.  Sears reported that more than 70,000 of these homes were sold in North America between 1908 and 1940. In late 1918, Sears conducted a “race,” building two houses, a Sears Honor Built the pre-cut kit home and an identical house with no pre-cut lumber.  The pre-cut Honor Bilt Rodessa was the easy winner in this race, with 231 hours to spare (compared to the stick-built house).  Today, those two houses are still standing side by side as Sears struggles ...
Read more