Successful business launches, that change the world - 20th Century 1909 Bakelite Belgian chemist Dr. Leo Baekeland invented Bakelite, the world’s first synthetic plastic. Because of its non-conductive and heat resistant properties, Bakelite opened the door to an entire range of electronic products like phones, radios and stereos. 1913 The Ford Assembly Line Handcrafted products are superior. They’re slow to make and very expensive. This was true with automobiles back in the early part of the century. Henry Ford’s innovation wasn’t the car, but how to build it. His assembly line is a manufacturing marvel of speed and efficiency. 1915 Carrier Engineering It’s mind-boggling to think that people once lived without air conditioning. We take it for granted. But before 1915, only the wealthiest of the wealthy had it. Until Carrier saw the huge market. 1930 King Kullen Aug. 4, 1930, America’s first grocery store opened, allowing people to shop for all their food needs in one place. Everything was for the first time under one roof. 1939 Hewlett Packard Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard launched HP. A precision audio oscillator was their first product, Walt Disney being one of their first customers. 1955 McDonald’s San Bernardino burger joint turned it into a global empire within a decade. First innovation was to create a universal system that provided fast service. Next one is franchise the restaurants. These franchisees pay rent, royalty and fees to the corporation as they expand into new markets. 1962 Wal-Mart Sam Walton dropped his prices slightly and served neglected markets and within 25 years operated 1,198 stores with annual sales of $15.9 billion. 1971 Southwest Airlines Herb Kelleher and Co. strategy of quirky culture, low fares, stripped down features and servicing neglected markets eventually paid off. Southwest is now the largest airline in the United States with a fleet of 552 airplanes flying over 3,500 flights a day. 1975 Microsoft The partnership with IBM allowed them to bundle their OS with IBM computers. For every sale, Microsoft got a royalty. Their future was also secured when the personal computer market took off. 1976 Apple The Apple mystique is made up of superior products correctly positioned in the right markets. 1998 Google Research project between two Stanford grads who theorized of a better way to evaluate relationships between websites turned into a small company that eventually dominated the search space. PageRank, a simple but potent innovation, sparked its domination. 2004 Facebook casual connections all the way to full-blown reunions involving long-lost family members, lost lovers reuniting, much to the chagrin of their spouses. Zuckerburg’s brain child takes the need to belong to a whole new level. Next?
Posted on: Sun, 23 Jun 2013 07:59:31 +0000
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