Synopses & Reviews
For 150 years, Corning Incorporated has repeatedly succeeded in their quest to create new products for an ever-changing marketplace.
Corning and the Craft of Innovation is the story of the extraordinary research and development strategy that propelled this company to its leadership position in leading-edge technologies for the new world economy.
Since its founding in the mid-nineteenth century, Corning has placed a premium on research and development in tandem with an unending spirit of innovation. Corning's innovations made possible such essential items as light bulbs, television, Pyrex, catalytic converters for cars, and high-speed telecommunications through fiber optics. Most impressive is Corning's evolution into a highly innovative producer of specialty materials. In its early days, Corning developed specialty glass for use in railroad signal lenses that had to withstand the rigors of high and low temperatures; and developed its high speed Ribbon Machine--still used today--to produce glass envelopes for light bulbs more quickly and efficiently than anyone else. Today Corning leads the world in fiber optics and is a premier provider of cable and photonic products. In 1999 Wired magazine nominated Corning for its coveted Wired Index, confirming Corning's astonishing staying power as a leading-edge company.
Corning and the Craft of Innovation examines how Corning fostered a culture of innovation while showing extraordinary patience in backing long-term projects. The book illustrates how a pattern of deliberate, regular, and profitable innovation begun 150 years ago, has put Corning at the vanguard of leading-edge technologies for the fastest-growing markets of the global marketplace. It will be essential reading for anyone interested in strategic management, innovation, science and technology or knowledge management.
Review
"I was delighted at the rigor and relative completeness of [this] corporate history. ... This effort is encyclopedic in its coverage of the history of Corning and its innovation management approach. Arranged in 10 chapters and an epilogue, the book presents a chronology of Corning's major challenges through the years, with each chapter focused on an issue of import for the firm during a particular era. ... this story left me amazed at the zeal with which the leadership at Corning ... supported innovation with investments even in the most trying of times ... a well written and fascinating history of one of the world's most innovative organizations."--Personnel Psychology
About the Author
Margaret B.W. Graham is the founder of The Winthrop Group, a company that assists corporations, foundations, and other organizations to document and make use of their experience. Currently, she is a visiting professor of management at McGill University in Quebec.
Alec Shuldiner is a member of The Winthrop Group.