Extend your horizons and do what others can’t

Sounds good

It started with a disappointing audio system.

A diligent MIT engineering student was nearing the end of his doctoral studies, and as a classical music fan he decided to purchase the best stereo he could find as a reward for his hard work. He had been taking apart and repairing radios since he was a child, so he knew far more than the average consumer about what made them work.

Despite researching the best options available, the quality of the resulting purchase was underwhelming.1 This triggered in Amar Bose an obsessive interest in figuring out how to reproduce sound in ways that were more pleasing, even if they defied conventional wisdom. So began decades of scientific research into acoustics, which came naturally given his later status as one of MIT’s most popular professors.

His work soon reached a point where commercialization was the right next step, leading to the founding of the Bose Corporation. It would go on to make significant advances in audio technology, including noise-cancelling headphones and custom systems for luxury cars and large public spaces.2

When embarking on this path Bose did one thing very differently: he chose to maintain it as a closely-held, private entity. It grew slowly and deliberately instead of taking in external investment that would instantly ratchet up the pressure to grow. Even after his speakers started capturing significant market share he resisted the lure of IPO riches.

This choice was simple when considering how the company was designed to support deep exploration in a variety of fields, making heavy investments in basic science that would never have been approved under typical corporate oversight. He once told a reporter, “I would have been fired a hundred times at a company run by MBAs”, recognizing that he viewed the world through a lens that was incompatible with most organizations.3

Employees were given free rein to pursue intensive research in areas ranging from defense hardware to cold fusion, and much of their work advanced the frontier of knowledge without any marketable results.4 This was acceptable, because it was part of the culture to make large bets on the future when no one else would. The philosophy attracted passionate people whose efforts could lead to unexpected outcomes, as the company soon discovered.

Bumpy roads

This relentless focus on solving problems, no matter the short-term consequence, led down an unusual path when the company began adapting research in acoustics to the seemingly unrelated problem of driving on irregular surfaces.

Even now the best suspensions can only dampen road unevenness to a certain degree.5 Bose envisioned a system that replaced traditional shocks with powered actuators working on the same principles as the electromagnetic drivers in its speakers. These would instantly anticipate variations and move each wheel independently, resulting in an in-cabin experience as smooth as a plane in level flight, regardless of the ruts and potholes underneath.6

The company invested heavily in the project, eventually developing working models with astonishing features, including the ability to gracefully jump over obstacles entirely. Even with this success, prices of the complete package never fell to a point of commercial viability. After significant investment the suspension portfolio was sold to another startup that is now working on bringing it to the masses.7

Some organizations might give leadership a year or two to work on initiatives that show little promise of return. Particularly enlightened places might allow them to continue for five or even ten years. Bose is known primarily for audio systems, yet it worked on an automotive technology for an impressive 35 years, over 20 of them in secret, before finally selling it to a specialized firm that could take it to the next level.

Even if the company didn’t hit on a winning business model in the short-term, it has further cemented a reputation as a place for visionary technologists, of the kind who might just find the next product that dominates the market. And if in the next few years your car rides become remarkably smoother, the doggedness of some audiophile engineers might have something to do with it.

As with corporate investments, so also with personal development. Plenty of goals aren’t attainable in the first model. Try learning a new language, and you’re in for months or years of study before you surpass the level of even a child native speaker. Keep going however, and that foundation will open up a range of possibilities that are closed off if you quit early.

Many meaningful things follow the longer-term model, where the horizon is so far out that the outcome isn’t obvious: becoming proficient at a sport or a musical instrument, honing your writing or speaking skills, even raising well-adjusted children. Consider what a 35-year investment path might look like for you.

The long now

Amar Bose’s view of the corporation was unusual. It wasn’t a mechanism to generate massive profits, but an organization that allowed for the collective achievement of goals that could not be reached individually. This allowed it to persist despite initial setbacks.

Its first speaker system was a flop, and commercial success didn’t ultimately come until 12 years after its owner’s first encounter with the subpar hi-fi purchased as a grad student. The noise-cancelling headphones that are now a symbol of the company were released to the market over a decade after Bose first conceived of the concept during a transatlantic flight.8

Instead of focusing on indirect and immediate measures—profits, clicks, bonuses, etc.—reframe your work to emphasize the outcomes that truly matter. In an interview Bose stated, “I never went into business to make money. I went into business so that I could do interesting things that hadn’t been done before.” He further recognized that intriguing research would be valuable in some way, even if the exact route or endpoint wasn’t predictable.

Amar Bose died in 2013, but not before making one last, unprecedented move that ensured his long-term vision will outlast even his own lifetime. Two years before his death he transferred most of his stock to his alma mater, and MIT now serves as the majority owner—with the caveat that it cannot vote and can never sell its shares. This ensures that a research institution with a time horizon of centuries will be the main beneficiary of the company’s ongoing investments, and the only pressure it can apply is an expectation of long-term dividend growth.

Bose engineers are quietly plugging away, patiently working on the next breakthrough that might take decades to reach the market. It’s not clear what that will be, or when it will be viable, but history suggests their work will eventually yield something interesting.

Investor Benjamin Graham noted that while the market may act like a voting machine in the short term, in the long term it’s a weighing machine. So focus on substance, not what’s popular or easy to achieve in the moment. Instead of crashing towards an IPO or expending all your organizational (or personal) capital on making an immediate but brief splash, consider a deliberate approach with a different payoff. The short-term returns may be lower, but the long-term impact on society can be much higher.9

How are you steering your organization, and investing your personal time and energy, to ensure impact on a timescale that matters?

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References

A 2004 article in Popular Science provides some interesting biographical data on Amar Bose, including his fearless driving habits which probably made the suspension idea top of mind.

The Bose website has the requisite corporate history.

CBS News analyzes Bose’s transfer of ownership to MIT.

CNET covered the sale of Bose’s suspension technology and includes a video of it in action, which is worth a watch.