Companies dedicated to R&D

Here’s a list of companies where R&D is a primary focus. This is pretty much a random list; definitely incomplete. Because xThink is an R&D-focused company, it’s nice to contemplate the experience of our cohorts, especially since most of these cohorts are so successful!

3M Company:  The company’s initial tight focus on mining (in 1902 Minnesota) had to change to R&D for the mining industry by 1914. By the 1930s, 3M delivered Scotch tape and by 1980 3M delivered Post-it Notes.

Battelle Memorial Institute: Founder Gordon Battelle believed that the best way to use his wealth was to benefit mankind through science. Initially he and his institute focused on the area of science that he knew best, metallurgy.

Bose Laboratories: Founder Amar Bose created a company to solve his own problem; finding speaker technology that reproduced the realism of a live performance. In comparison, xThink’s initial problem was to create “intelligent paper.”

Dolby Laboratories: Brilliant R&D. However, more interesting to xThink is their market strategy: don’t sell consumer products outright; license technology to consumer electronics manufacturers.

Intel: Gordon Moore, co-founder, recalls, “… quite by accident, [Intel co-founders] ran into Sherman Fairchild, who happened to be a technology buff; he really loved new  technology.  He introduced them to the chairman of Fairchild Camera and Instrument, who was willing to take a shot at supporting this new company.” Source: http://calteches.library.caltech.edu/570/2/Moore.pdf

National Instruments:  Flagship software product started in 1986 on the then more “toy-like” Macintosh platform. But that way, in 1992 when the product was ported to Windows (a much larger market) customers got a seasoned, stable tool.

RAND Corporation:  Founded by the US military to study strategy, national security, and analyze systems.Rand’s necessary secrecy leads to parodies (the film “Dr. Strangelove”) and fears in popular culture. In contrast, xThink has the luxury of transparency in its mission and activities, because the focus is supporting the human passion to learn.

Wolfram Research: The company’s industry-leading mathematics engine is a firm foundation for the new Wolfram Alpha “answer engine.”

Wright Cycle Company: The Wright Brothers, aviation pioneers, used “day jobs” in their bicycle shop to fund their R&D passions.