In his corner office at Corning Inc.’s towering steel-and-glass headquarters in Corning, N.Y., CEO Wendell Weeks keeps a small, yellowed piece of paper in a dark wood frame behind his desk. Dated Nov. 17, 1880, it’s Thomas Edison’s $311.97 order for Corning Glass Works to produce the glass for a risky new invention of his: the lightbulb.
“I keep that to always remind me: If someone comes to you with an idea that seems small, but there’s a way to make the world just a little bit better, say yes,” Weeks says. “A lot of ideas won’t work, but the ones that do, those are really good.”
