How the 173-year-old glass-maker behind Edison’s light bulb and iPhone screens became a Silicon Valley darling

Quick Summary:

After a short detour to Harvard for business school, Weeks came back to Corning in 1987 to develop a strategy for specialty glass and ceramics, studying science textbooks in his off hours to gain the technical knowledge the job required.

Looking for a way out of the chaos, Weeks enrolled at Lehigh University, studying finance and accounting, he says, because his “dad went bankrupt, and I wanted to make sure I always understood financial stuff, even though I wasn’t particularly adept at it.” After graduating in 1981, Weeks started as an auditor at the firm Price Waterhouse, where Corning was a client.

After the massive hit the company took when the dotcom bubble burst, Weeks and Flaws made three big bets in 2002 that are still paying off today: They doubled the amount of money Corning was pouring into research and development.

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Article Details

Author / Journalist: Kristin Stoller

Category: EconomyBusiness

Markets: United States

Topics: Infrastructure Apple iPhone Samsung Innovation Amazon Apple Glass

Source Website Secure: Yes (HTTPS)

News Sentiment: Neutral

Fact Checked: Legitimate

Article Type: News Report

Published On: 2024-12-05 @ 10:00:00 (2 weeks ago)

News Timezone: GMT +8:00

News Source URL: fortune.com

Language: English

Article Length: 27 words

Reading Time: 1 minutes read

Sentences: 4 lines

Sentence Length: 7 words per sentence (average)

Platforms: Desktop Web, Mobile Web, iOS App, Android App

Copyright Owner: © Fortune

News ID: 24136966

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