INTRODUCTION

Entrepreneurs, inventors, and innovations have driven the electronics revolution since its chaotic beginnings in the early years of the twentieth century. Unfortunately, the astonishing advances of the last thirty years have obscured the contributions of the pioneers of that era. These men laid the foundation for today’s wired and wireless society, but they rarely get the credit they deserve.

Case in point: David Sarnoff of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA), the company he built and directed for a half-century. Sarnoff was the Bill Gates or Steve Jobs of his day, a visionary who pushed his company to develop or adopt new communications technology, create a market for it, and become the dominant player in that market.

Under his leadership RCA successfully commercialized both radio and television, either inventing the technology or licensing others’ intellectual property (IP) as needed. At Sarnoff’s urging RCA later invented most of the technology for color television, from the cameras to the displays. It was also the i rst company in the world to successfully commercialize these innovations. He also understood that he couldn’t commercialize major innovations alone, so he licensed RCA’s IP to competitors. They helped him create market momentum, and the license fees generated a handsome revenue stream.