To me, it seemed that I would be speaking before some of the greatest men of our time. Prior to the speech, I was shown around the Bell Laboratories, where a number of wonderful research projects were underway. As you must know, the transistor and the semiconductor, which are at the root of the current revolution in industry were invented at the Bell Laboratories. It really brought home to me how wonderful America was. The basic message I brought that day was that this type of research was extremely significant academically in terms of both science and culture, but to be significant from the standpoint of business and industry, two other types of creativity, in addition to the creativity required to make the original invention, were absolutely necessary.
Industry requires three types of creativity.
The first, of course, is the basic creativity necessary to make technological inventions and discoveries. This alone, however, does not make for good business or good industry. The second type of creativity that is necessary is that involving how to use this new technology, and how to use it in large quantities and in a manner that is appropriate. The third type of creativity is in marketing. That is, selling the things you have produced.