Social Innovation: Research Laboratory

Management is increasingly becoming an agent of socially beneficial innovations. The research laboratory was conceived and created in New York in 1905 for General Electric by one of the first "science managers," American physicist of German descent, Charles Proteus Steinmetz. The scientist set two clear goals: to organize scientific activities for targeted technological inventions and to create a new social phenomenon—a large corporation—through continuous self-renewal. In the research conducted by Steinmetz's laboratory, the relationship between science and technology was radically transformed. Steinmetz defined the accumulation of a theoretical scientific base necessary for obtaining desired technological results as the goal of his project. Initially, Steinmetz was a theoretical physicist. However, he planned all his research as part of a project to invent and develop new technologies, such as fractional engines. Traditionally it was (and still is) believed that technology is the "result of applying science." In Steinmetz’s laboratory, science—including pure research—complies with the necessity of developing new technologies, i.e., it is viewed as a means of obtaining necessary technological results. TIP OF THE DAY: Follow Steinmetz's example and be guided by market needs in new research and development.