>>so he bought the machine in parts in a series ... then constructed it himself. When Drew’s boss later found out what Drew he’d been up to, he rewarded him
This is more or less impossible in any organization I know of today. There might be a few exceptions, but by and large 'Im going to prove them wrong' strategy will only attract enemies from the political cartels in middle management these days. You will be marked as some who frequently indulges in insubordination, kind of guy who generally unionizes and can become immediate threat to their own job.
Most managers these days will likely let the company go in loss than have some one below them look smarter to people above. I even seriously doubt if the 20% innovation initiatives in Internet companies work anymore.
>>“He didn’t even know exactly what was needed, but he had the optimism of youth.”
This too is impossible in most places today, even start ups. Which won't hire you until you know some 100 math theorems by heart or have a degree from Ivy leagues.
I bet things haven't changed as much as you think. It was probably pretty rare back then to find the right person working for the right boss. And it's equally rare today.
And I would disagree with the second point. I've hired a few guys right out of school with no experience, but I recognized they had the right attitude. It's about 50% effective, but when it works out, it's great.
Oddly, one place where innovation unquestionably happens is in sales, especially in the early days of a company. A young company trots out its cute new puppy, and the field people (CEO or otherwise as the case may be) and the customers collaborate in making it into a wolf or plowhorse or cheetah or something else very different from what it started out to be.
When I was employed by a university; capital purchases had a lower overhead rate than regular expenses. We didn't buy 5 workstations, we bought a five system "cluster".
When I was employed at IBM, we were under expense controls, so anything over $250 needed to be approved by the Research division comptroller. Instead of purchasing a PC, PC parts were purchased and assembled.
It's true that Sellotape has become the generic name for adhesive tape, but Scotch tape is a well established product in it's own right in the UK market.
Actually we usually use the word "sellotape" for the clear "Scotch® Brand Cellulose Tape" they describe in the article, or certainly everyone I know does. The UK English term for "Scotch Tape" would usually be "masking tape" I think.
I was also surprised to see they didn't cover why it was called "Scotch" tape in the article as I find it pretty comical even though I'm also Scottish.
Masking tape is the easy-to-remove paper tape you use for decorating, rather than the clear cellophane stuff.
I've always known Scotch Tape to refer to Scotch Magic Tape, the slightly opaque, better-quality sellotape, rather than just generic sellotape. More expensive as well, so I always got told to use it carefully & in moderation when I was a kid. It has a little tartan-pattern strip of paper at the end of the roll so you can find it, I never really thought about why it was named beyond that.
The magic tape isn't great for general use. The benefit is that it peels cleanly, even off paper. It was beloved in drawing offices back when they worked on paper.
Interesting. I always believed the name came from the 3M CEO at that time, William McKnight, who was of Scottish origin. There were other Scottish inspired product names as well. Today the 3M country club is still called Tartan Park.
> The bodyshop painter became frustrated with the sample masking tape and exclaimed, "Take this tape back to those Scotch bosses of yours and tell them to put more adhesive on it!" The name was soon applied to the entire line of 3M tapes.
I was just discussing this odd stereotype with a friend after discovering a German price comparison website called schottenland.de ("Scots land"). It's definitely not one that exists in modern American consciousness.
Well, Scrooge McDuck was popular even in the 90s in "DuckTales". Though I, and I suspect most children at the time, were wholly unaware of such a stereotype. "Strange meats, kilts, bagpipes, and thick accents" is about the extent of the Scottish stereotype here these days.
The author may have, mistakenly, attributed a quote as fact from one of the interviewees.
Interestingly enough, from the same link, Dupont appears to have invented/optimized a moisture-proof cellulose, which may have been what the author was referring to?
This is more or less impossible in any organization I know of today. There might be a few exceptions, but by and large 'Im going to prove them wrong' strategy will only attract enemies from the political cartels in middle management these days. You will be marked as some who frequently indulges in insubordination, kind of guy who generally unionizes and can become immediate threat to their own job.
Most managers these days will likely let the company go in loss than have some one below them look smarter to people above. I even seriously doubt if the 20% innovation initiatives in Internet companies work anymore.
>>“He didn’t even know exactly what was needed, but he had the optimism of youth.”
This too is impossible in most places today, even start ups. Which won't hire you until you know some 100 math theorems by heart or have a degree from Ivy leagues.