Product Leaders: How did they get there?
by Phil Phillips, PhD
Contributing Editor
phillips@chemarkconsulting.net
Edison developed
the process
whereby great
products are still
Thomas Alva Edison epitomized the so- called “lonely inventor”. Edison had 1,300 inventions and 1, 100 patents to
his credit. However, few people today realize
that his many invention gifts to mankind pale in
comparison to just one of his inventions: The invention of the “process” that underpins today’s
product leadership.
In 1879, Edison pioneered what has become
the industrial world’s first effective product development process, a means of generating invention after invention and applying those
inventions in useful, commercial products. His
Menlo Park, N.J. lab became the model for the
labs of today’s product leaders such as Apple.
Edison was a cheerleader! He would cheer his
bright assistants for their obsession to create
products that incite a passionate customer re-
sponse. He would celebrate employees’ obsession
on breaking new ground, on cracking the code of
perplexing concepts. As I’m certain you remem-
ber, it was Edison who said, “Genius is one per-
cent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration.”
At the same time, Edison would be disgusted
at the sad state of product development at many
companies today. Too often, companies forsake
invention for its poorer cousins: refinement,
repackaging, and reformulation. Many products
exiting research and development today come
tagged as “new” and “improved”, but they don’t
deserve either label. Instead of exciting cus-
tomers, they turn them off.
44 | Coatings World
www.coatingsworld.com
September 2012
