To fi nd Corning ’s major businesses of the future, SGO developed a process to identify opportunities and evaluate their potential and attractiveness to Corning. The process had to:
• Be systematic and easily replicable
• Cast a broad net to avoid missing areas of opportunity
• Maintain a focus on markets and customer problems rather than existing technologies
• Quickly eliminate ideas with little promise
• Rigorously assess the commercial potential of ideas that might merit research funding.
Working with Newry and other advisors, SGO devised the Magellan Process to meet these requirements (Figure 10.1 ). An award-winning approach to generating new business ideas based on market needs, Magellan includes fi ve elements:
1. Innovation Workshops 2. Conversations with Leaders 3. White Papers
4. Opportunity Assessments
5. CTC presentations and decision making
The Magellan Process—with its search for important problems to which Corning can provide solutions—is as fundamental to S&T as its large research staff, depth of capability in glass and other inorganic mate- rials, and constant fl ow of inventions and patents.
In establishing the Magellan Process, we sought to systematically accelerate the pace of idea generation and expand its scope. In the past, customers came to Corning with problems to solve. With the globaliza- tion of innovation and the acceleration of information transfer, Corning needed to take the serendipity out of idea generation and proactively search for problems it could solve. Thus was born the Innovation Work- shop, which became one of the principal tools in the Magellan Process.
10.3.1 Innovation Workshops
A Magellan Innovation Workshop brings Corning scientists and SGO staff together with global thought leaders from academia, government labs, and
FIGURE 10.1 THE MAGELLAN PROCESS
Innovation Workshops
Conversations with Leaders
White Papers
In-Depth Opportunity
Analyses
Presentations to CTC
G L O B A L
R&D Staff
Academia
Government Thought Leaders External Companies
ẵ- to 2-day sessions
ongoing relationships
4- to 6-week high-level assessments by
individual experts
6- to 8-month team assessments of
market &
technology
ẵ day presentations
to senior management
Sources of ideas and problems
to be solved
industry—in effect, bringing a thought-provoking conference to Corning to reach a wider audience within the research and new business community.
Each of these mini-conferences (lasting from one-half to two days) presents a group of speakers who address the future of their area of expertise and the issues their industry or technology will face in the next 5 to 15 years. The workshops are typically well attended, often with 100 or more participants.
Most workshop topics are broad enough to generate diverse ideas but narrow enough that a few experts can highlight the state of the art and principal technical and market adoption issues in a day or less. Some work- shops are more focused, designed to get participants up to speed very quickly on a specifi c emerging technology that could prove interesting to Corning. Occasionally, we offer a two-day Innovation Workshop on a broader industry sector, such as renewable energy or advanced transporta- tion, covering a wide range of technologies and the technical, market, and regulatory issues that are creating opportunities.
Setting up an Innovation Workshop is generally a two- to three-month project, beginning with a week or two of background research to help identify specifi c areas of interest to Corning (e.g., technical and economic issues, current and potential opportunity areas, and regulatory and social policies), as well as experts who can address them authoritatively. Speak- ers are vetted, recruited, and briefed on the issues and objectives for the day, and are assisted with presentation development and logistics. Once at Corning, they meet informally with key workshop sponsors, then spend one to two days presenting their perspectives and listening to those of the other speakers. Afterward, the speakers join together in a roundtable dis- cussion and a free-fl owing question-and-answer session with the Corning participants. After the workshop, SGO holds a structured brainstorming session to identify areas that should be considered further. These facili- tated sessions are not focused on product ideas but rather on problems that are important enough to warrant further investigation. Typically, because of intellectual property (IP) concerns, outside speakers are not involved in these brainstorming sessions.
In 2004, SGO initiated Magellan I, a two-day workshop with a very broad array of topics: energy, the environment, transportation, materials, manu- facturing, health care, communications, computing, and buildings. This workshop provided a high-level perspective on many different sectors and generated a large number of ideas for further exploration. Based on this broad exploration, we concluded that one of the most critical problem areas to which Corning could contribute was energy and the environment, and it has remained a major focus of Corning ’s innovation efforts.
Innovation Workshops have proven invaluable in engaging the Corn- ing community in generating new business ideas. They help us quickly
understand the major market problems, the technical issues, and the potential value of the solution. Workshops afford ample opportunity for interaction and questions, enabling scientists to relate the technical issues to their own research interests and backgrounds—and thus plant the seeds of new ideas.
10.3.2 Conversations with Leaders
In parallel with the workshops, Corning frequently conducts targeted sharing sessions with companies that are leaders in their fi elds. These sessions enable us to identify emerging problems that our technologies might address.
Like the Innovation Workshops, Conversations with Leaders help system- atize the identifi cation of diffi cult systems problems. These conversations spring from several sources, including top-to-top meetings— orchestrated, opportunity-related discussions between key Corning executives and their counterparts in global systems companies. These meetings, with customers and noncustomer companies alike, are designed to uncover major tech- nology-related business opportunities. The discussions are often conducted in conjunction with visits to and demonstrations at Corning. They often involve a dozen or more key scientists, scientifi c Fellows, Strategic Growth participants, and division commercial people. It is not uncommon for Corn- ing ’s CEO, CTO, and Director of Research to be actively involved in these discussions, which often reveal important long-term opportunities.
10.3.3 White Papers
Innovation Workshops, the structured brainstorming that follows, and Conversations with Leaders typically produce hundreds of ideas, many of which merit further exploration. At the end of the workshop cycle, SGO leadership and key research personnel spend half a day ranking the ideas against standard criteria to select the 20 to 30 ideas that will be evaluated further. To make this very large task manageable, we devised the White Paper, a framework for a brief, low-cost assessment of an idea ’s potential.
The objective of a White Paper is to determine whether there is a real problem to be solved in the marketplace and whether it is compelling enough to warrant in-depth analysis. A White Paper is:
• An opportunity scan rather than a deep “ drill-down ”—a top-level view of busi- ness and technology issues
• Decision-oriented —designed to answer a well-defi ned set of questions that will support a decision on whether to evaluate the opportunity further
• Rapid —completed in three to six weeks
• Management-ready —includes a one-page summary, standardized across White Papers and used in communications with S&T and SGO management
• Consistent in format — to enable side-by-side comparison with competing opportunities against standardized criteria
White Papers are developed by SGO staff, Corning researchers, or external consultants. Each one begins with an extensive secondary research effort focused on:
• Macro trends —demographics, infrastructure, society, culture, energy, politics, economics, globalization, and so on
• Market characteristics —large, growing, addressable markets, favorable timing, identifi able customers, and a competitive landscape suffi ciently open for market entry
• Problem identifi cation —new challenges or problems, suggesting unmet needs and user willingness to adopt new products/technologies
• Technology assessment —competing approaches to meeting the needs identifi ed
White Paper authors supplement their research by interviewing a handful of Corning specialists and external experts to get answers to key questions, test hypotheses, or fi ll in gaps in understanding. As they gather and synthesize information, authors continually evaluate the opportunity ’s fit with Corning ’s business and technical capabilities; the Innovation Recipe provides a rough rule of thumb in this regard.
When the research is complete, fi ndings are summarized in a 15- to 25-slide PowerPoint presentation. Typically, multiple White Papers are prepared at the same time and delivered to SGO staff in a one- or two-day meeting, the bakeoff , in which they compare the opportunities and select those to be investigated further. Each presentation includes a standard- ized one-page summary that covers key business drivers, an overview of the problem and opportunity, market size and growth potential, Corn- ing ’s unique play, key participants in the industry, potential keystone components of the solution, potential customers, and hurdles/barriers to success. In addition, it scores the opportunity on a scale of 1 to 7 against each of eight clearly calibrated criteria designed to uncover the most important opportunities that could leverage Corning ’s capabilities. The resulting scores are used to select the ideas that merit detailed Opportu- nity Assessments—though those decisions can nonetheless be controversial
and contentious. By the end of the day, no more than a handful of the 20 or 30 White Papers will be selected for in-depth assessment.
10.3.4 Opportunity Assessments
An Opportunity Assessment is a detailed evaluation of the commercial and technical viability of a new business opportunity, conducted over a period of four to six months. They address many of the same issues as White Papers but in much greater detail and depth; the objective is to support a data-driven decision on whether the opportunity merits invest- ment, based on:
• A more detailed look at the problem to be solved and Corning ’s poten- tial solution, that is, the component product (or material/product) and the value it provides to the larger system
• A technical profi le of the underlying technology versus incumbent and substitute technologies, including capabilities, performance specifi ca- tions, and cost/pricing implications
• A market overview, including: (1) a current estimate and medium-term projection of the market size (for both the system and key component) in units, with revenue projections based on the technology replaced and the incremental value the new product would create and (2) market segmentation by application, industry, geography, and/or customer group
• An overview of the potential customer base, with attention to current and potential applications, current technology and the potential value of an improved solution, buying processes, unmet needs, current sup- pliers, and end customers
• A map of the value chain from raw materials to customers, indicating the drivers of the business at each stage, the principal players, and bar- riers to entry, such as exceptionally high switching costs or long-term supplier contracts
• A description of the competitive landscape, including the market posi- tions, technical approaches, and IP of major players that may block Corning from capturing a substantial share.
To obtain the deepest insight, these assessments involve extensive fi eld interviews with a range of industry participants, such as technical experts, researchers (academic and government), customers, and suppliers.
To drill down on specifi c issues, we employ specialized tools, such as IP mapping, alpha teams to tap researchers ’ ideas for alternative products and technical approaches, technology roadmaps, and adoption curves.
10.3.5 CTC Presentations and Decision Making
For opportunities that appear attractive, SGO presents to the CTC a case for moving forward. The CTC is the governing body for early-stage inno- vation opportunities; they meet monthly to review, discuss, and direct the pursuit of opportunities. The CTC is chaired by Corning ’s CTO and includes his staff as well as representatives of Research and the Offi ce of the CEO. The CTC decides whether the opportunity justifi es the long-term investment required to pursue it. This forum and its members demand tough, objective analysis and set a high bar for review.
CTC presentations are geared to making a convincing, fact-based busi- ness case to a top management audience, addressing questions such as:
• What is the potential opportunity and what is driving it?
• Is there a real problem to solve?
• What can Corning do?
• Can we be unique?
• Is it sustainable?
Following the presentation, the CTC decides among three options:
• Initiate research on the opportunity, sometimes focusing on one seg- ment rather than the technology and market as a whole.
• Do not pursue the opportunity.
• Redirect research efforts to meet a particular need.