Corning Proves a Successful Past Can Drive a Bright Future
EACH OF CORNING’S SINGULAR ACHIEVEMENTS IS COMMENDABLE, BUT MOST INSPIRING IS ITS ABILITY TO INNOVATE OVER AND OVER AGAIN.
Today, the average life span of a Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 500 company is less than 20 years. Advances in everything from technology to business processes happen fast, and companies that fail to innovate simply won’t survive. Corning is one venerable brand that has survived and turned its longevity into a business advantage. EVP and Chief Strategy Officer Jeff Evenson explains Corning has built a “repeatable innovation and growth engine” that draws on more than 100 years of lab reports. Clearly-defined core strengths, executed by people who care deeply about their craft and clients, have helped the company remain a leading innovator in materials science for more than one and a half centuries.
STRENGTH IN SYNERGY
Corning’s innovations—damage-resistant cover glass for mobile phones, specialty optical fiber for communications networks, and clean-air technologies for vehicles, to name a few—are tied together with a common thread. They all solve tough challenges, build on innovation in materials and process, and create a lasting impact for customers. From a technical standpoint, Corning’s work focuses on three areas—optical physics, glass sciences, and ceramics science—and four proprietary manufacturing and engineering platforms. In these areas, the company produces materials that make a difference in everyday life. For example, Corning’s proprietary extrusion process creates gas particulate filters that trap harmful particles, reducing vehicle emissions and improving air quality. The company’s vapor deposition process creates some of the purest glass in the world—ideal for optical fibers used in telecommunication and computer networking, which require exceedingly pure materials. The company’s fusion process enables production of glass sheets with remarkably pristine surface quality. Sizes can range up to the equivalent of two king-size mattresses, and as thin as a business card. Corning’s fourth platform, precision forming, ensures the team can execute extreme precision across several product sets and markets, regardless of how much glass is being manufactured.
BEST IN GLASS
The materials science leader’s achievements in glass earned it the No. 7 spot on Fast Company’s 2019 Most Innovative Companies list in the Consumer Electronics category. More than 6 billion devices use Corning Gorilla Glass, a cover glass for touchscreen smartphones. The company continually improves the product, most recently with the introduction of Gorilla Glass 6, which Evenson describes as up to two times tougher than previous models. Corning glass is also used in smartwatches and foldable devices. Automobile designers use Gorilla Glass to build vehicle interiors that incorporate touchscreens for convenience. Corning’s newest technology for the pharmaceutical sector, Valor, is a glass packaging solution that enhances drug storage and delivery. In this way, the company’s work touches not only companies, but consumers, too.
FUTURE FOCUSED
This year, Corning will open its new Optical Communications headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina, while also undergoing significant manufacturing capacity investments to support growing demand for its optical fiber products. Evenson explains that Corning solutions are critical to 5G, the latest generation of mobile communication, and help communications networks deploy cheaper, faster networks. Progress like this doesn’t just happen. It is the result of amassing research by brilliant thinkers. Today, leading companies call on Corning to help solve some of their toughest challenges. With its versatile and synergistic suite of technologies and processes, Corning will keep “innovating for the innovative,” as it has done for the last 168 years.