Gary Starkweather built his laser printer, and it made billions of dollars for Xerox and helped change the way business is done all over the world. Research is a place where failure should be, if not encouraged, at least viewed as a sign that something's happening. Uncertainty is bad for manufacturing, but essential for research. Believe in your own ideas and don't trim your sails just to be popular with your colleagues. Often someone who hasn't stared at a problem until they went crosseyed has the fresh view that can solve it.
Research is the soul of the corporation.
It gives the company its future. He thinks Microsoft recognizes this. They're very good at seeing where the business is going. One of the things we can do here is to get the company interested in things it's not interested in now. This is the most intelligent research lab I've been in.