When people think of Corning, Inc., they're likely to think of durable, reliable plates that sit in their kitchen cabinets for a lifetime.
So it may come as no surprise that those Corningware dishes are made from material developed for use on rocket nosecones.
In other words, Corning is more than dishware. It is one of the most successful and innovative high technology companies in the world, and
James Ramich '67 has played a large part in Coming's success.
Ramich, a native of Elmira, N.Y., had a brief association with Corning during the summer between his graduation from Union and the start of an M.B.A. program at Columbia University. He was general manager of Meenan Oil in New York City, a family-run business, when Corning called again in 1973. Recognizing the potential for growth at a huge corporation with a rich history, he answered the call.
Twenty years later, after working in a variety of jobs in the U.S. and abroad,
Ramich has become an executive vice president. He is in charge of the company's information display group and sits on the seven-member operating committee that reports directly to Coming's president.
Ramich recently returned from a two and-half-year stint in Japan, where he was president of Corning Japan and manager of the Advanced Display Products division. That group, one of Coming's fastest growing businesses, produces flat glass for the full-color, liquid-crystal display screens used in laptop computers and other electronic devices. With Ramich in charge, Advanced Display Products began to grow at a rate of forty percent annually and turned its first profit last year.
Despite his success, Ramich doesn't believe that he knows all there is to know about managing in a high-tech industry, especially after what he describes as an “unbelievable learning experience” in Japan.
“There's really no way to know how to conduct business in a foreign culture until you actually do it,” he says. “In the United States, the consumer is king. The Japanese, on the other hand, are obsessed with a company's market share.
“And they have a business-oriented culture where a company's corporate customers are the keys, government policy favors business, and Japanese consumers end up in a much less favorable position having to deal with high prices and reduced product choice.”
Ramich believes Corning has placed itself perfectly in terms of coming industrial and political trends.
First, it is a worldwide operation, able
to take advantage of the fact that developing countries grow at a faster rate than established industrial superpowers.
Second, as Ramich explains, “If you look at the three major thrusts of the Clinton Administration, you see health care, the environment, and high-technology business. Corning has a laboratory science group that includes the largest blood testing lab in the country. We make the ceramic substrates used in catalytic converters, which protect the atmosphere. My division produces glass used in projection TV lenses, TV tubes, and LCD displays. And Corning fiber optics will run the interfacing on the coming information super-highway.”
Ramich, an economics major who abandoned electrical engineering for a liberal arts education at Union, tries to keep up with the high-tech times by doing as much reading and listening to the experts as he can.
“I'm thankful I have a broad-based background,” he says. “A liberal arts major can be successful in a
high-tech field if you immerse yourself in the technology.” And Ramich certainly has done his share of that.