To fix Corning, Wendell Weeks first considered what the company represents at its core: its values, its people, and a culture built around innovation. He thought about how Corning added value: by making what Corning calls “keystone components” for the world’s major industries. As Weeks put it, “We are never about the products we make, because those will continue to change.” Meeting with his top 200 managers, Weeks described the situation facing Corning, as well as his plans for turning the company around. Vowing that Corning would stay true to its core ideals, he took the message to Corning’s plants around the world. Weeks examined the company’s research and development pipeline for the best opportunities. Before his promotion to Corning’s fiber-optics unit in 1992, Weeks had worked in its liquid crystal display (LCD) glass business. Although the LCD business had been losing money for years, Corning scientists knew the glass had many applications: televisions and computer monitors, laptop and notebook computers, and many other portable devices. As the technology for big-screen TVs evolved, demand for LCD glass grew. Corning increased its production of LCD glass, and soon the glass drove the bulk of the company’s profits. For 2006, the company posted record earnings, based largely on the production of LCD glass. Aside from its domestic business, Corning opened its first LCD glass manufacturing plant in China. With China’s growing manufacturing capabilities and rising middle class, Corning promised more investment in that emerging market. The company projected growing global demand for the glass in 2008.

• Wendell Weeks began the turnaround of Corning by considering what he called “the core of the company”: an innovative culture that responded to the changing demands of the marketplace. How did this attribute lead to Corning’s turnaround? 

• Corning operates in five business units: Display Technologies, Telecommunications, Environmental Technologies, Specialty Materials, and Life Sciences. How did these core competencies influence Weeks’s turnaround strategy?