The Success System of America’s Greatest Inventor
INNOVATE LIKE EDISON
(Michael Gelb 외/Dutton Adult/October 2007/320pages/$25.95)
INNOVATE LIKE EDISON
The Success System of America’s Greatest Inventor
MAIN IDEA
By any measure imaginable, Thomas Edison is the greatest innovator in American
history:
• He generated a record-breaking 1,093 US patents and 1,293 international patents over
62 successive years.
• Many of Edison‟s inventions have gone on to become the basis for what are today vast
multi-billion-dollar worldwide industries.
• He established the world‟s first industrial research laboratory and a systematic process
for innovation.
• Edison founded General Electric and pioneered the lighting, phonograph, movies,
batteries and cement industries.
Obviously, Edison knew how to innovate. He based his entire innovation success
around five competencies. Within each of these competencies, five essential elements
can also be identified as building blocks or best practices Edison used. Taken together,
these five competencies and twenty-five elements provide a blueprint for innovating like
Edison.
“Thomas Edison invented systematic innovation and there is much to be gained by
revisiting his methods and making them relevant to the challenges we face now. Edison
was, of course, an exceptional genius, but the greatest product of his genius was the
establishment of a systematic approach to success that he believed anyone could
emulate.”
– Michael Geb and Sarah Caldicott
About of Author
MICHAEL GELB is a business consultant, author and public speaker. He specializes in
the application of genius thinking to personal and organizational thinking. He is
recognized as a pioneer in the fields of creative thinking, accelerated learning and
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innovative leadership. His consulting clients have included DuPont, General Electric,
Microsoft and Nike and he is the author of ten books including How to Think Like
Leonardo da Vinci, Body Learning and Mind Mapping. Mr. Gelb‟s Web site is at
www.michaelgelb.com.
SARAHCALDICOTT is a great-grandniece of Thomas Edison. She heads her own
innovation and marketing consultancy firm, PowerPatterns. Ms. Caldicott is a graduate
of Wellesley College and Dartmouth‟s school of business. She has twelve years
experience as a marketing executive with Pepsico and Unilever, has led numerous
executive seminars on innovation and is an accomplished public speaker on innovation
practices. Ms. Caldicott‟s Web site is at www.sarahcaldicott.com.
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To develop a solution-centered mindset like Edison had, there are five different
elements you need to work on. These elements, going from the easiest to the hardest,
are:
Edison is famous for once commenting: “I never did a day‟s work in mylife, it was all fun”.
In many ways, that statement epitomized Edison’s career. He aligned his work with his
passions so precisely that he only did what he loved.
What were Edison’s passions?
■ He had a deeply rooted desire to pursue knowledge.
■ He was intensely passionate about providing products and services that would
improve the quality of people’s lives.
■ He constantly focused on the joy of discovery – on “surprising Nature into revealing
her secrets” as he put it.
■ Edison was precise about he wanted to achieve and he was willing to persevere until
he got there.
“One might think that the money value of an invention constitutes its rewards to the man
who loves his work. But I continue to find my greatest pleasure, and so my reward, in
the work that precedes what the world calls success.”
– Thomas Edison
Edison‟s personal optimism was so powerful he attracted the people and resources he
needed to succeed. When a fire went through and gutted his research laboratory
destroying approx. $7 million worth of his equipment in 1914, sixty-seven year old
Thomas Edison stayed calm. Instead of looking at this as the disaster it was, he viewed
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it as an opportunity to start afresh and build something even better. That irresistible
optimism drew all kinds of people to him who were inspired.
To cultivate a similar kind of optimism:
■ Never take failure personally. See the influence of external factors in what has
happened and then move forward.
■ View negative events as temporary glitches along the path to ultimate success, not
permanent roadblocks.
■ Coach yourself to keep focused on the better future which will surely materialize if
you keep working.
■ Make a conscious decision to think and act more positively.
■ Stay focused on finding the solutions which often are embedded within every
temporary setback.
“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to
try one more time.”
– Thomas Edison
Edison had an insatiable thirst to understand how things worked. He asked questions
about everything to everyone he came into contact with. He was a voracious reader,
equipping his research laboratory with a library stocked with over 10,000 volumes.
Edison‟s first step in inventing anything was to read up on what others had tried in the
past.
Edison also did one other thing which was noteworthy.As well as books, he also had
shelves filled with specimens of ores and minerals as well as all kinds of other materials.
In this way, he could not only read about these things but also “experience” them
thereby engaging his other senses of smell and touch. This multisensory approach
enabled Edison to understand materials better than others and this led to many
hands-on experiences. Edison became so skilled he even started forecasting the
outcome of his experiments in advance based on his understanding of the different
substances involved.
To emulate Edison in this area:
■ Learn how to speed read – take in and comprehend large groups of words at once
rather than one at a time.
■ Become skilled at learning how to “tear the heart out of books” – read for ideas, not
entertainment.
“To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.”
– Thomas Edison
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Edison used hands-on experimentation as the driving force behind all innovations.He
would start with a series of hypotheses based on his reading and then find out for
himself what worked and what did not. The fact he did a large number of experiments
generally allowed Edison to outpace his competitors.
Edison‟s experiments were never random events however. For one thing, every
experiment was always meticulously documented. Edison was never discouraged
whenever one of his experiments failed because that was one more dead end he could
eliminate from the range of possibilities. It was not at all unusual for Edison to persist for
a year or more testing different hypotheses before appearing to make any progress.
Edison‟s approach to experimentation was very patient, systematic and thorough.
Edison once commented his approach to experimentation was designed to “surprise
Nature into a betrayal of her secrets by asking her the same question a hundred
different ways”. Edison didn‟t just confine his experiments to the laboratory but he
conducted experiments in all kinds of different places – in cities and communities, in the
desert, in parks and gardens, anywhere that tied in with the hypotheses being tested.
“Genius is one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.”
– Thomas Edison
“The only way to keep ahead of the procession is to experiment. If you don‟t, the other
fellow wi l l . When there‟s no experimentation, there‟s no progress. Stop experimenting
and you go backward. If anything goes wrong, experiment until you get to the very
bottom of the trouble.”
– Thomas Edison
Edison trained himself to view the results of his experiments as “neutral” rather than as
negative or positive. He looked at the results objectively independent from any agenda.
This in turn allowed him to adopt the broadest possible perspective on what he had
discovered rather than trying to pigeonhole everything.
By allowing data to stand on its own merits, Edison was able to see unexpected patterns
and linkages in multiple experiments. He was even able to link the results from
experiments conducted for entirely different purposes to head off in promising new
directions which had not been thought of beforehand. As a result of this mental
neutrality, Edison discovered many different phenomena which first came to notice as
anomalies found while other experiments were under way. Edison was extremely
careful not to prejudge what he wasin the process of analyzing.
“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to
try just one more time.”
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– Thomas Edison
“Nearly every man who develops an idea works it up to the point where it looks
impossible, and then he gets discouraged. That‟s not the place to become discouraged.
Many of life‟s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success
when they gave up.”
– Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison was meticulous about keeping personal notebooks to document his
thinking and capture insights. He and his staff generated more than 2,500 notebooks
during his lifetime, most 200 to 250 pages in length. Edison himself always kept a
pocket notebook handy to jot down ideas as they arose.
Some practical hints on keeping an ideas notebook:
■
■
■
■
Have a set time each day where you pause and document what you’re working on.
Generate lots of ideas as they arise, organize them later.
Record all information that comes to you.
Supplement your written word with drawings and doodles and sketches which
illustrate your ideas.
■ Perhaps choose a theme for a notebook and have multiple notebooks if you’re
working on different projects.
■ Try experimenting with stream of consciousness ideas – like start writing in your
notebook whatever comes to mind for ten minutes or more and see if interesting new
connections can be made.
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Edison used three primary methods to generate a steady stream of new ideas:
1. Word association – he tried to create mental links between the ideas he already had
with what he experimented with in the lab and saw in the natural world around him.
Edison regularly and consistently reviewed his notebooks and then deliberately tried
to come up with creative new ideas.
2. Use of analogies – Edison worked hard at taking an idea from one field and applying
it to an entirely different field altogether. He used lots of analogies to visualize
practical inventions which he then brought to life.
3. Storytelling – Edison loved to speculate. He enjoyed writing fantastical stories about
what the future might look like. Somewhere in these stories would sometimes lie a
very worthwhile idea which just needed to be picked up on and harnessed fully.
“To have a great idea, have a lot of them.”
– Thomas Edison
“I speak without exaggeration when I say that I have constructed three thousand
different theories in connection with the electric light, each of them reasonable and
apparently likely to be true.”
– Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison was very aware of patterns and tried to use these intelligently. He
worked for a number of years as a telegrapher and he became quite adept at filling in
the gaps in messages which sometimes arose because of transmission glitches. That
skill would serve him well later in life as an inventor because he would be able to glance
at drawings and tables of data and immediately tell whensomething was out of place or
not part of the expected pattern. His experimental throughput was thus enhanced
because he didn‟t spend time looking in the wrong places.
The fact Edison was aware of patterns also allowed him to see how the component
parts of a solution in one field could have applications in completely different areas as
well. Whenever he was working on something new, Edison would pause and ask:
“Have I seen this phenomena anywhere else? Is there a pattern here?” Due to his
voracious reading habits and his practical, hands-on approach to experimentation,
Edison had a very broad conceptual context. He was able to discern patterns which
others could not. He openly expected patterns to be present and positioned himself to
take full advantage of these intellectual shortcuts.
“It is astonishing what an effort it seems to be for many people to put their brains
definitively and systematically to work.”
– Thomas Edison
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“My philosophy of life is work – bringing out the secrets of nature and applying them to
the happiness of man. I know of no better service to render during the short time we are
in this world.”
– Thomas Edison
“If we did all the things we are capable of doing we would literally astound ourselves.”
– Thomas Edison
Edison loved to take machines apart, figure out how they worked and then reassemble
them. He also was passionate about translating his ideas into drawings. He made
three-dimensional models and prototypes of his inventions and then looked at them
from all kinds of different angles. Edison used drawings to expand his thinking about
what as possible.
Thomas Edison also used lots of highly visual metaphors when talking about new ideas.
This allowed him to fine-tune and improve his ideas. By putting things down on paper,
he also had a concrete way to communicate with his research team. His assistants
could see what the entire concept looked like right from the start rather than build
individual parts which would be incompatible with what others were working on.
To follow Edison‟s example in this respect, learn how to draw things passably well. The
better your skills as an illustrator, the richer your ideas willbecome and the easier it will
be to get others on board with what you‟re trying to achieve.
Edison loved to think independently and act courageously. He especially thrived on
standing up to those who had a vested interest in retaining the status quo. This was
neatly illustrated during his search for a way to make incandescent lighting which would
be cheap and reliable. The lighting of the time used lamps which burned gas, oil, grease
or other substances and the firms selling those materials publicly belittled Edison‟s
efforts to come up with lighting which would be safer and cheaper. Edison responded to
these public pressures by openly stating: “I shall make the electric light so cheap that
only the rich will be able to burn candles”.
Thomas Edison also loved to challenge the scientific community. He found great
pleasure in being a contrarian and in exploring the roads not taken by others. Many of
his inventions did exactly what others had stated was against the laws of physics, much
to Edison‟s delight. Edison often took the road less traveled to come up with fresh and
original ideas which never occurred to others because they accepted as definitive the
conventional way of doing things.
“Any doctrine that will not bear investigation is not a fit tenant for the mind of an honest
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man. In nature there are neither rewards nor punishments. There are consequences.”
– Thomas Edison
“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a
trail.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
“In the republic of mediocrity, genius is dangerous.”
– Robert Ingersoll
“There is no expedient to which a man will not go to avoid the labor of thinking.”
– Thomas Edison
“Few people think more than two or three times a year; I have made an international
reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a week.”
– George Bernard Shaw
Edison‟s laboratory team typically worked twelve- to eighteen-hours a day. To
accommodate that intensity of effort, Edison eliminated distractions so he and his team
could be fully engaged when working. He also established downtime when people could
relax without guilt. In a somewhat unusual workplace practice, Edison established a
midnight “lunch break” which consisted of a fully catered meal served while everyone
sat at a long table with music playing in the background. These midnight festivities were
further enhanced by practical jokes, singing, beer on occasions and some other fun
activities.
Edison also had constructed an experimental electric railway and he used this to take
his workers to a nearby fishing hole for breaks. His workers were free to work whatever
hours they chose at the laboratory and to come and go whenever they liked as long as
the work was done.
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At a personal level, Edison took frequent naps at work. He generally slept only four to
six hours a night so he would supplement that by taking one or two naps during the day
to stay mentally fresh. He would also change subjects if he felt he was starting to
mentally tire while workingon one project or another.
Edison always balanced hard work with equally hard play. He wasserious about his
work but at the same time happy to engage in some frivolity with people who came to
visit. Since he was something of a celebrity, it was not at all unusual for captains of
industry, politicians and other international dignitaries to clamor to meet him in person
and Edison became quite adept at coping with these intrusions while still keeping up his
own personal workload.
Edison had no formal dress code for his research laboratory so invariably his own
clothing was coated in chemical compounds from some experiment or another. More
often than not, his hands were discolored from some chemical and he wasn‟t much for
formalities.
Edison also loved a good practical joke. At one time, he noticed his employees were
swiping his best cigars from his private stash. He made some fake cigars from barber
clippings and shaved cardboard and placed them where he normally kept his fine cigars.
Edison then promptly forgot what he had done and one night, while thinking about some
technical problem, ended up smoking one of his own fake cigars. When he realized
what he‟d done, he laughed heartily enjoying the fact the joke was on him.
“I have friends in overalls whose friendship I would not swap for the favor of the kings of
the world.”
– Thomas Edison
As contradictory as it may sound for someone who had been granted 1,093 patents,
Edison was always skeptical about the value of patents. He realized the fact it took such
a long time for the courts to decide on a patent infringement case that infringers could
make their money and then move on before any damages could be collected. Therefore,
Edison developed other strategies for protecting his intellectual property:
■ He wrote and had published papers which revealed and documented his findings.
■ Edison wrote articles for scientific journals and industry magazines which detailed his
insights.
■ He maintained close ties with the U.S. and international scientific communities.
Edison systematically shared his ideas with the scientific community so he would be
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acknowledged as the inventor of different breakthroughs rather than relying on patents
alone. This was a smart approach because in doing this, not only was he establishing
his own credibility but he also broadened the viability of new industries which in turn
made them more appealing to investors. He took advantage of the patent system but
also worked to have others acknowledge him as the innovator in his fields of applied
research.
Another balancing act which Edison excelled at was taking complex ideas and
expressing them in very simple terms which the layman (or potential investor) could
understand. Part of his modus operandi in this regard was to provide vivid illustrations
and clear, simple explanations.
Equally, when Edison gave instructions to his various business managers and
researchers, they were always clear-cut and direct. The precise nature of these
instructions were helpful because it enabled things to be got right the first time around
without any wasted time, effort or resources. Edison excelled at taking the most
complex high-level task and reducing it to its simplest and most economical terms for
his coworkers. He could do this because he had a grasp of the big picture as well as a
steady grip on the details involved.
How did Edison pull this balancing act off?
■ Although he usually had more than forty projects on the boil at any one time, Edison
was adept at applying the right amount of energy to each at just the right moment.
■ Edison had a very strong sense of his priorities and did everything imaginable to
minimize distractions.
■ Edison had a remarkable ability to live in the present moment. When he
concentrated on something, he gave it everything he had. He didn’t let the pressing
time demands of multiple projects dilute his focus.
■ Edison learned how to juggle. He even made a movie illustrating the principles
involved in keeping balls in the air simultaneously. That physical skill he obtained
served well as the mental model he used to juggle so many important projects at any
one time.
“Nothing is less productive than to make more efficient that which should not be done in
the first place.”
– Peter Drucker
Edison kept a public office on the ground floor of his research facility and a private office
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on the second floor where he could carry out his research. This was symbolic of the fact
that while the research laboratory was designed to help him translate his ideas into
inventions, he still needed quality time where he could be alone and think clearly.
Edison loved to immerse himself in specific technical challenges. He would then invite a
handful of employees to join him for impromptu meetings where they would discuss
what experiments would be required to validate his ides. Edison would then step back
and let his team go to work and would monitor their findings by floating from one work
station to another. In addition to his inner circle of collaborators, Edison also interacted
regularly with all of the researchers working for him.
“The best thinking has been done in solitude. The worst has been done in turmoil.”
– Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison made it a point to deliberately try and hire the smartest people he could
find. He personally interviewed each prospective employee. An interview with Edison
was always interesting. More than anything else, Edison was looking for people with a
solution-centered mindset. His interviewing technique was usually to give the person a
pile of parts and ask them to assemble something on the spot without instructions. If the
prospective new hire could think on his feet and find a way through, he was usually
hired.
Edison wanted people who could think for themselves. He also sought employees who
could follow instructions to the letter but who also had both a broad base of knowledge
as well as a demonstrable thirst and passion for new learning. Edison also valued
impeccable character and a commitment to excellence highly because those were
character traits he personally embodied.
While Edison was a demanding leader, he welcomed and actively encouraged his
employees to question him aggressively. He only insisted they do their homework first
so no time would be wasted on obvious dead ends. Edison was always happy to
engage in free debate with employees he respected.
“Men who have gone to college I find amazingly ignorant. They don‟t seem to know
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anything.”
– Thomas Edison
“It is a funny thing about life if you refuse to accept anything but the best you very often
get it.”
– W. Somerset Maugham
Edison worked most closely with an inner circle of around ten people who effectively
brought illumination to his blind spots and complemented his own talents. Each of these
people were skilled in diverse disciplines and worked freely without Edison‟s immediate
supervision. Edison would start the ball rolling as the chief idea generator but then each
person would add their own insights to come up with something which was robust,
practical and sound.
Outside this trusted inner circle, Edison then had a deep bench of skilled employees
and other stakeholders who would get involved in doing whatever was required to take
the new idea from the lab to the marketplace. There were no outsourcers at that time so
invariably Edison had to create and package turnkey systems which covered everything
from manufacturing to market launch. Edison‟s second circle of employees were a
multidisciplinary network which could handle those kinds of challenges and more. In this
way, Edison was able to cover every aspect of the business model needed to
commercialize his innovations.
Long before it had become fashionable, Edison created a world-class learning
organization. He built his laboratory with central open-space workplaces adjacent to
meeting areas where people could get together and discuss their findings. He created a
work environment with loads of natural lighting so it would be a positive and pleasant
working atmosphere. The availability of cutting-edge equipment combined with unique
elements like the midnight feasts to create a workspace where group learning was
enshrined as the ultimate aim.
Edison himself provided the spark for all this learning. He had an intellectual
effervescence which was contagious. He regularly circulated throughout the lab. New
ideas were welcomed, even from entry-level employees. Everyone was encouraged to
generate original ideas, share them with their peers and then test those ideas to see if
they worked as expected. Thomas Edison encouraged open debate as long as it
wasrespectful and helpful. Conflicting ideas were welcome as long as the appropriate
homework had been done first.
“I generally instructed them on the general idea of what I wanted carried out, and when I
came across any assistant who was in any way ingenious, I sometimes refused to help
him out in his experiments, telling him to see if he could not work it out himself, so as to
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encourage him.”
– Thomas Edison
“Edison was a master at figuring out ways to address resistance while creating
high-efficiency circuits. In any organization, you‟ve also got to address resistance – by
removing it – and the biggest resistance in a company is „fear‟. And you‟ve just got to
take the „fear‟ out of it and allow people to be themselves – to come up with ideas and
try different things, and not worry about negative repercussions – and only face positive
repercussions, which then creates speed.”
– Steve Odland. Chairman and CEO, Office Depot
“Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits. I have got so much to do and life
is so short, I am going to hustle.”
– Thomas Edison
Edison was careful to reward those who had made foundational insights for his
newtechnologies with a share of the royalties they ended up generating. In the case of
John Ott whose name appeared on various patents for Edison‟s incandescent lighting
system, his 50 percent share of royalties amounted to a considerable sum of money.
For Thomas Edison himself, however, money was generally a secondary motivation.
Instead, Edison thrived on the idea of “creating a new connection to the future”. He
tended to recruit people who would jump at the chance of having a hands-on role in
helping create and build that future. The fact this took place in a workplace environment
of active learning, the open exchange of ideas and a commitment to excellence were
vital.
The learning experience employment with Edison offered was second to none. Once a
week, Edison would deliver a technical seminar anyone could choose to attend. These
seminars featured Edison‟s best thinking on a wide variety of technical and scientific
subjects and supplemented everyone‟s efforts at self education.
Another thing Edison did do was to encourage his employees to get in the ground floor
of any new companies set up to commercialize his inventions. He spawned over 150
new companies and it was not at all uncommon for Edison‟s employees to become
wealthy by buying stock in these new business ventures.
As good as his internal organization was, Edison also recognized the importance of
harnessing the best ideas of people outside his laboratory as well. He actively built
relationships with technical experts, customers, journalists, academics, financiers and
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politicians. Edison did this by:
• Participating in trade shows.
• Researching market trends and meeting with leading experts.
• Cultivating friendships with influential people.
• Actively seeking out personal interactions.
• Assisting others to achieve their goals.
• Keeping meticulous notes on all personal contacts.
• Trying to inspire people so they remembered him.
Overall, Edison was a very good networker before the term even existed. His voracious
reading habits meant he was abreast of market trends and Edison used that knowledge
to target the key influencers of the future. He would then set out to cultivate connections
with those people and to draw them into his network of contacts. Edison also became
highly adept at lobbying those with influence for what he needed.
One other smart networking tactic Edison used was to establish friendships with junior
reporters who later became the editors of numerous influential newspapers. These
reporters were always keen to help Edison create buzz for his new inventions. Edison
worked hard to provide these reporters with interesting stories and then enjoyed lots of
good press as a result. These people offered valuable advice to Edison as his fame
grew.
“Every organization – not just business – needs one core competence: innovation.”
– Peter Drucker
“I start where the last man left off.”
– Thomas Edison
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Edison always started any new development project by asking a few direct questions;
■ What actual needs do people have here that I can fulfill?
■ What trend or trends are starting to make their presence felt in this market, and what
opportunities do they represent?
■ What are the current gaps in the marketplace?
■ What is the insight which will enable me to create greater value in this segment?
■ How can I leverage what I know or what my laboratory can develop?
■ How can I test the efficacy of my idea in the marketplace?
More than anything else, Edison liked to look for market inefficiencies and then figure
out howto do the same things more efficiently. Most of his early inventions and
businesses operated on this general philosophy and it wasn’t until later on when the
Edison brand name had taken on some luster that he tried to spawn entirely new
industries from scratch.
To illustrate
■ Trend – In 1868 after the end of the Civil War, the rebuilding of the American South
has sent demand for building materials soaring. Businesses need to have up-to-date
information.
■ Gap – Most people wait for newspapersto report commodities prices, precious
metal prices and stock prices.
■ Insight – I think I can apply the principles of telegraphy to make a machine that
reports prices in real time.
■ Linkage – My research laboratory has expertise in telegraph assembly and
operation. I think I can develop a cost-effective and effective machine which will do
the job.
■ Hypothesis – If I can build and then sell telegraph-like machines that report
up-to-date commodity and metals prices anywhere in the country, then I think I can
make a sizable profit.
■ Result – Edison’s stock-reporting machine was highly successful in the marketplace
and in effect ended up launching Edison‟s career as an inventor and innovator.
Edison used this same approach over and over throughout his career. As he garnered a
track record of success, the Edison name then became a valuable asset in releasing
new products, strengthening the cycle of success.
“Anything that won‟t sell I don‟t want to invent. Its sale is proof of utility and utility is
success.”
– Thomas Edison
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Early in his career, Edison developed a vote-recording machine. The machine worked
perfectly but nobody brought it because legislators actually preferred the existing
system of hands-on vote counting. The failure of this innovation in the marketplace
generated an epiphany for Edison. He realized that not only did his inventions need to
be good ideas but they also had to meet customer needs. He then spent the rest of his
career developing innovations customers actually wanted.
Edison‟s next invention was an electric pen which generated a paper stencil as
someone wrote something with it. That stencil could then be used to produce multiple
copies of the handwritten letter. In the business era before photocopiers, Edison thought
the electric pen had substantial market potential. The electric pen retailed for $30 –– the
equivalent of about $505 today.
There turned out to be demand for the pen but some of the early purchasers noted a few
technical difficulties were cropping up. Edison sent a team of his employees out to
observe what was happening and they came back with about fifteen suggested
refinements. Edison went to work making these upgrades and soon the electric pen was
a commercial success. Edison sold the business for a handsome profit in order to invest
in developing a new system for electric lighting.
In developing his newlighting system, Edison again had his team study the actual needs
of customers. He then developed a system which would meet those customer needs
precisely. By the time cities started calling for tenders, Edison was ready to go and he
won twelve contracts. His first experimental lighting project ended up being such a
success Edison‟s company became enshrined as the experts in town and city lighting.
Edison‟s future successes were the direct result of his tuning in to what a target
audience needed rather than developing stuff he personally thought was pretty cool and
therefore should sell. It was a lesson Edison never forgot.
Throughout his career, Edison was involved in more than 150 new businesses which
were established to commercialize his inventions. He used just six basic business
models:
1. The “six legs” business model – Edison combined his organization‟s underlying
research and development expertise with whatever ‟legs‟ or other business units were
required:
• Commercialization – launching and patenting activities.
• Manufacturing – providing a supply of finished products.
• Marketing – creating consumer demand.
• Sales – getting people to buy.
• Distribution – getting the products to customers.
• Customer service – ongoing repairs and help.
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2. Selling or licensing intellectual property to others – Edison sometimes sold his
patents or licensed them to others allowing him to generate revenue from the
products he didn‟t want to make himself.
3. Licensing intellectual property from outside inventors – Edison was perfectly willing to
purchase rights to patents from his competitors and market them under his own brand
name at times. Typically, he did this to have something to sell while his own
improvements were still under development.
4. Develop franchise systems – At times, Edison franchised others to build things to his
own specifications. This was especially needed when every city was clamoring to
install electric lighting. Edison realized he couldn‟t build enough factories to meet
demand quickly enough so he set up a franchising operation which assisted with the
commissioning of new municipal lighting systems all around the world.
5.
Commercialize patents internationally – Edison entered into numerous
cross-licensing arrangements with foreign companies which generated revenue as
they applied his patents to their own markets. In anticipation of this, Thomas Edison
often tailored his inventions so they would be able to be sold in international markets.
6. Provide training services for building new industries – Edison realized the success of
his lighting system would depend on the availability of trained installation,
maintenance and technical personnel. He therefore set up a training organization as a
separate revenue stream, even going so far as to personally write many of the
instruction manuals they used. He effectively in this way seeded what is today the
field of electrical engineering.
The fact Edison used all of these business models with skill is noteworthy and unusual.
His efforts were not always perfect but he did learn as he went along. The combined
result of all these models was the Edison brand name came to have some considerable
market clout which enabled him to move from one industry to another.
Developing a prototype invention which works in the lab is one challenge but emulating
that in the mass consumer marketplace is a different challenge altogether. To be a
commercial success, new innovations have to have the right kind of infrastructure in
place before they reach the marketplace. Edison proved himself to be very good at this
because of his intense focus on actual customer needs.
Edison did some very smart and astute things in this area:
■ He used three-dimensional scale models intensively. Instead of trying to build things
life-sized, he found out all the bugs using a cheaper scale model. This enabled him to
use his resources efficiently.
■ Edison pioneered the use of pilot projects. Rather than trying to light the entire city of
New York, Edison first lit the one-square-mile region of Pearl Street in Lower
Manhattan near Wall Street. Edison got all the kinks out of his lighting system in the
pilot project first and then looked further abroad. He learned some very important
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things as well: that he needed to train more engineers and that a second different
system would be required for low density areas.
■ Edison also deliberately designed his inventions so they would be easy to use and
operate. Prior to this time, this was not always a priority. Edison saw firsthand the
difficulties consumers had adopting new technologies and decided to engineer out of
his future innovations as much of the earning curve as possible.
All of these scale-up ideas combined with Edison‟s innate tenacity and vision to lay a
solid foundation for his company‟s ongoing successes in the marketplace.
Branding was not really a topic which was discussed much in the late 1800s and early
1900s. There were no marketing gurus, consultants or even text books which were
available. Yet despite this, Thomas Edison managed to create an unforgettable brand
using many of the tools we would recognize and admire today:
• Slick public relations initiatives.
• Live product demonstrations.
• Tightly targeted collateral materials.
Without the benefit of the Internet or even television or radio advertising, Edison
managed to create a brand name with international recognition. He captured what is
today termed “share of mind” in both the business-to-business and
business-to-consumer marketplaces.
So how exactly did Edison achieve this?
■ He always brought to the market leading-edge technology.
■ He insisted anything which bore the Edison name was of the highest possible quality
and durability.
■ He went out of his way to ensure his investors did well.
■ Edison was intensely sensitive and responsive to consumer needs and perceptions.
■ Edison understood what reporters and publishers were seeking and gave them
headlines.
■ He carefully cultivated an image as a common man who happened to have some
extraordinary insights. Edison always maintained the common touch.
■ Edison took full advantage of his new technologies like movies and radio broadcasts
to strengthen his own brand.
■ Thomas Edison always insisted consumers be educated about what they were
buying.
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■ Edison used pricing, customer service, quality control and design strategies to
maximum effect in building his brand.
■ Edison always released new products across a broad price range so everyone could
afford to buy what he had developed.
■ Edison integrated good design principles into his inventions without even realizing he
was consciously doing that.
■ Edison stood behind his products and guaranteed they would do what they were
supposed to.
In all, it‟s accurate to say Thomas Edison was ahead of his time when it came to
marketing. He did many things right on the strength of his gut instincts rather than
accepted business practices. He combined sound business instincts and practices with
the ability to come up with highly original innovations. That‟s still a very rare blend of
different competencies even in the business world of the twenty-first-century.
“The value of an idea lies in the using of it.”
– Thomas Edison
“Thomas Edison invented systematic innovation. His „invention factory‟ showed the
word how to apply the process and culture of innovation to create unprecedented value.
More than his lighting system, phonograph and kinetoscope, his method represents his
greatest legacy.”
– Michael Gelb and Sarah Caldicott
* * *
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