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Source: New Knowledge 117

He conceived the strategy (described in Chapter 19) that made G.E.
the world’s leading supplier of large steam turbines and, therewith,
the world’s leading supplier to electric power producers. Similarly,
two laymen, Thomas Watson, Sr., and his son Thomas Watson, Jr.,
made IBM the leader in computers. At DuPont, the analysis of what
was needed to make the knowledge-based innovation of Nylon effec-
tive and successful was not done by the chemist who developed the
technology, but by business people on the executive committee. And
Boeing became the world’s leading producer of jet planes under the
leadership of marketing people who understood what the airlines and
the public needed.
This is not a law of nature, however. Mostly it is a matter of will
and self-discipline. There have been plenty of scientists and technol-
ogists—Edison is a good example—who forced themselves to think
through what their knowledge-based innovation required.
2. The second requirement of knowledge-based innovation is a
clear focus on the strategic position. It cannot be introduced tenta-
tively. The fact that the introduction of the innovation creates excite-
ment, and attracts a host of others, means that the innovator has to be
right the first time. He is unlikely to get a second chance. In all the
other innovations discussed so far, the innovator, once he has been
successful with his innovation, can expect to be left alone for quite
some time. This is not true of knowledge-based innovation. Here the
innovators almost immediately have far more company than they
want. They need only stumble once to be overrun.
There are basically only three major focuses for knowledge-based
innovation. First, there is the focus Edwin Land took with Polaroid: To
develop a complete system that would then dominate the field. This is
exactly what IBM did in its early years when it chose not to sell com-
puters but to lease them to its customers. It supplied them with such
software as was available, with programming, with instruction in com-
puter language for programmers, with instruction in computer use for
a customer’s executives, and with service. This was also what G.E. did
when it established itself as the leader in the knowledge-based inno-
vation of large steam turbines in the early years of this century.
The second clear focus is a market focus. Knowledge-based innova-
tion can aim at creating the market for its products. This is what DuPont
did with Nylon. It did not “sell” Nylon; it created a consumer market for
women’s hosiery and women’s underwear using Nylon, a market for
automobile tires using Nylon, and so on. It then delivered Nylon to the