Corning Incorporated

 

MM5011  – KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT & INNOVATION Corning Incorporated : The Growth and Strategy Council WIDYA WARDANI | 29112003

Corning Incorporated: The Growth and Strategy Council describes how Corning as one of innovative company has managed their innovation. Since it was founded in 1851, Corning has been known that innovation is the core of Corning’s identity. Even one of Corning’s former senior executive claimed that Corning is a science based company that sells innovations. Corning started its business in glass-making which was producing first-quality lead glass and also glassware. In next term, Corning produces product in various field of business such as glass fiber, television industry, telecommunication industry, medical services industry, automobile industry etc. Nowadays, Corning focuses in four f our business segments are Display Technologies, Telecommunications, Environmental Technologies, and Life Sciences. This different kind of business actually rooted in the same business model : invent a component that enables a complex system, protect it with IP, and develop world class manufacturing processes to make it.

Les s on Lea Learned rned There’s several things can be taken as lesson learned from the story of Corning:  Corning: 

1.

C orni orning ng i s ment mentioned ioned as never end ending ing innovate innovated d compa company. ny. The innovat innovation ion is not  jus t come along along but the mana managg ement bui builds lds the s ys tem as well as s eri ous ly mana ma nagg ing it.

Corning builds a complete system for its innovation strategy. There’re functions in any level any level to ensure the innovation comes from an idea and can be accepted in the market. Corning organizes council who take responsibility as management committee and operating committee through Corning’s Technology Council (CTC) and the Growth and Strategy Council (GSC). The concept can be seen in the t he picture of Governance of Innovation Pipeline of Corning shown below:

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Innovation Process is defined in 5 stages st ages of product/service developme development: nt:

The CTC which is led by CTO make decisions in stage 1 & 2 while The GSC which has a lot of control over a business’s innovations and growth programs and programs and is led by CEO, COO and CTO. Corning also created a centralized New Business Development (NBD) Function to explore new market, new technologies, and potential new business outside of current business. These facts show how serious Corning in handling its innovation innovation program.

 2.

In Innov novat atii on is s ucces uc ces s with wi th a s eri ous well-ma well-maii ntained pro progg r am that iinc ncludes ludes top manag ma nageme ement nt of compa company. ny.

 As mentioned in point 1, top managemen managementt of Corning put their role in managing the innovation of company. The two councils are designed to point out the role of Top Management in innovation program and process. They arranged periodic meeting related to several issue of innovations include the presentation of new idea and the decision making process of innovation itself. It allows any program with a product concept that proves they fulfilled a market need and significant potential revenue and a technology would get passed on to the GSC.

 3.

R es earc earch h is ma maii n inv inves es tment for i nnov nnovat ativ iv e company

Innovation is not just the matter of idea. Furthermore innovation process is heavy on research process. Corning realizes that and put large investment in the research. Since its founded in 1851, there’re many products in various field has been invented   by research which sometimes took long time process. Research & Development expenditure was also relatively high. Even Corning still put big investment in R&D during its collapse time in 2000s. Below is Corning Income & Expenditure during 2000-2007

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Corning Incorporated | Widya Wardani - 29112003

 

4.

C ontinuous Innova Innovation tion bring s s us ta tainabl inable e to the compa company ny

Corning business has been expanded to various different fields through invention of new product and technology and ability to forecast market demand. This Innovation is not simply a program yet it’s  it’s  a philosophy of company. Innovation is started with idea creation. Furthermore it’s also about being willing and able to take failed ideas and apply them elsewhere. Finally, it meant being willing to make significant, sustained investment knowing that the payback would likely be well into the future.

 5.

On One e important thing thi ng to k eep tthe he company s ur urvi vive ve is lea learr ned from failur failure e

Since 1851, Corning has invented many products in various business fields. It starts with glass-material and furthermore furthermore develops new products either using glass as main material or not specific made of glass. It faced significant improvement in Corning’s revenue through these businesses. However, in 1996, Corning’s CEO made a big decision while selling off its consumer business and decided to focus on fiber-optic. But in 1998, Asian financial crisis sent fiber prices plunging and in the end of 2000 into 2001, fiber and photonic sales collapses. Learned from its history, Corning changed much. The management now focuses not only in research and produces some things, but also in managing its risk management management and strategic balance, also manage the growth of the product itself. This T his strategy helps corning to be back to the right track.

What corning has done in development its business can be adopted based on the theory of product life cycle. Corning realizes that some product has mature phase. So that it needs to do innovation both to existing product and new business. Marketing mix consist of 4P are Product, Price, Promotion and Place. As one of them is Product, it takes important role in marketing process as core value that company bring to its customer. Product lifecycle shown below:

The picture shows that the product will face 4 phases after development that are Introduction, Growth, Maturity and Decline. While a product faces its maturity level, company

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Corning Incorporated | Widya Wardani - 29112003

 

need to do innovation or develop new business line to maintain its revenue and prepare while the product come to decline phase.

E xperience s imil imila ar tto o C orning C as e  Innovation and Research is also two things that are implemented in Telkom. Similar to Corning, Telkom build Research and Development Center that take role in developing product and service include the research in any aspects behind it. The unit is under supervision of Telkom CTO which focus in developing future Telkom business portfolio specific in IT based product  –   –  as Telkom core business. This R & D unit is supported by Solution Convergence Convergence unit that will test the product include its market acceptance. Besides Research and Development program, Telkom has appointed unit called Business Effectiveness to handle Innovation Program. The unit take responsibility in collect innovation in business unit  –can  –can be person, group of people or unit itself- through annual innovation award. In this event, every innovation will be assessed and the best will be given reward.  Although Telkom has developed developed system and program for its innovation innovation and research, there’’re many points of improvement especially in maintaining the innovation. Every idea there should be well-implemented, not just an idea that is saved in the box. The system for this maintenance program needs to be designed and implemented. Like Corning, top managementt should take position and gives their managemen t heir maximum support to the program.

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Corning Incorporated | Widya Wardani - 29112003