Corning Incorporated
How has innovation been used for driving growth at Corning? What is the role of Houghton family? What are the financial results?
Right from the days when Corning developed the bulbs for the electric lights designed by Thomas Edison, the firms had maintained a strong dedication to technology and innovation. About 4-6 percent of the annual revenue was set aside for research, development and engineering. In the 1990s, this figure became 10 percent. There was constant emphasis on R&D efforts. Even during the telecommunication crash of 2000 which brought the company to a near close-down, the organization maintained its importance for innovation. They aimed at opening 2-4 new businesses every decade. Corning has been instrumental in the industrial production of the light bulbs finding Pyrex etc. which brought about great strides in the world. The Houghton family who established the organization stressed on innovation from the very beginning. 5 generations of the family have been CEOs of the organization and they still hold more than 5% of the shares of the organization. They have always been looked upon by the employees and it is seen as a relief if a Houghton takes charge of the organization yet again. They were looked upon during the times of the telecommunication crash and they were instrumental in the recovery of the organization. The financial results almost dropped to half the levels of 2000 in 2003 and the stock reached to 1/100th of the price towards the end of the year. However, the organization has slowly been able to grow back to nearly its past peak levels by constant innovation and investing in new businesses
What are the learnings of telecom meltdown in 2000? How has that influenced change in strategy in Corning?
Corning usually had invested in diverse businesses but around 2000-03 it focused on telecom due to the boost in the requirement of cables .The telecom meltdown showed that one should not rely so much on a single business as to ignore those that
Right from the days when Corning developed the bulbs for the electric lights designed by Thomas Edison, the firms had maintained a strong dedication to technology and innovation. About 4-6 percent of the annual revenue was set aside for research, development and engineering. In the 1990s, this figure became 10 percent. There was constant emphasis on R&D efforts. Even during the telecommunication crash of 2000 which brought the company to a near close-down, the organization maintained its importance for innovation. They aimed at opening 2-4 new businesses every decade. Corning has been instrumental in the industrial production of the light bulbs finding Pyrex etc. which brought about great strides in the world. The Houghton family who established the organization stressed on innovation from the very beginning. 5 generations of the family have been CEOs of the organization and they still hold more than 5% of the shares of the organization. They have always been looked upon by the employees and it is seen as a relief if a Houghton takes charge of the organization yet again. They were looked upon during the times of the telecommunication crash and they were instrumental in the recovery of the organization. The financial results almost dropped to half the levels of 2000 in 2003 and the stock reached to 1/100th of the price towards the end of the year. However, the organization has slowly been able to grow back to nearly its past peak levels by constant innovation and investing in new businesses
What are the learnings of telecom meltdown in 2000? How has that influenced change in strategy in Corning?
Corning usually had invested in diverse businesses but around 2000-03 it focused on telecom due to the boost in the requirement of cables .The telecom meltdown showed that one should not rely so much on a single business as to ignore those that