Corning Incorporated, a company reputed for its long-standing commitment to innovation and technological prowess, was established by Amory Houghton Sr. in 1851 and was renamed Corning Glass Works in 1875. Corning was one of the fi rst companies in the United States to establish its own corporate research centre, in 1908, to fuel further innovation within the company. Manufacturing commercially feasible light bulbs for Thomas Edison in 1879, inventing heatresistant glass and the much famed 'ribbon machine', making affordable TV picture tubes, are just some of the major inventions that came out of the famous Corning Labs.

In the 1990s telecommunications became Corning's golden egg. As a manufacturer of optical fi bre, it rode the wave of the mobile phone and Internet. But when the telecoms bubble burst, Corning nearly did too. Its sales plummeted from $5 billion to $1.6 billion in 2002!

As part of its rebuilding effort, Corning revamped its research effort, with a view to diversifying its product portfolio. An outsider from Dupont, Dr Miller, was brought in to head S&T (Science and Technology, the name of Corning's research and development wing). Miller created a new department, called Strategic Growth with the following mission: "In partnership with research, fuel the strategic renewal of Corning Incorporated by identifying and developing new, profi table, large ($0.5 billion) business opportunities." In other words, Strategic Growth was made responsible for internal corporate venturing (ICV).