With Its Future Now Uncertain, Bell Labs Turns to Commerce
Storied Font of Basic Research
Gets More Practical Focus
Amid Worry Over a Merger
Mr. Kim's 'Totally Crazy' Idea
By SARA SILVER
August 21, 2006; Page A1
Lucent Technologies Inc.'s Bell Labs, the birthplace of the transistor and the laser, has been through a decade of turmoil during which it was reduced to a third of its size. Now, some of its scientists are warily embracing a former submarine officer and entrepreneur as perhaps the laboratory's best hope of maintaining its relevance.
Jeong Kim took over last year with a direct plan for saving the storied laboratory: Make it profitable. Among his first moves, he set more of its scientific stars to work on breakthrough technologies that could turn quickly into businesses -- the opposite of the pure research many live for.
Each of these projects is expected to make back six times what it spends on research. Those with the biggest financial potential get the most funding. Researchers often condense their work into eight-minute PowerPoint presentations. Mr. Kim also seeks more government research grants and is aiming to speed the transformation of technology into products by seeking corporate partners and venture capital.
In earlier days, Bell Labs' scientists might have rejected Mr. Kim's commercial approach to science. Not now.
Industrial labs have been losing clout for years as corporate parents looked askance at spending money on research that offered little immediate return. And in addition, Lucent is planning to merge with Alcatel SA of France, a company that doesn't do the kind of fundamental research that made Bell Labs famous. "Bell Labs does research with a big "R"; Alcatel does research with a little "r," says Niel Ransom, Alcatel's chief technology officer until 2005.
The deal has stirred anxiety among scientists about what will happen if Alcatel, whose shareholders will own 60% of the combined company, asserts control. Some Bell Labs scientists, worrying that their jobs could be among the 9,000 expected to be cut after the deal is completed, are scouting for new work.
Lucent Chief Executive Patricia Russo, slated to lead the combined company, says that it has "absolutely no intention of separating Bell Labs from the company" and won't undermine the labs' research. "Bell Labs will be an integral part of the combined company and is critical to its future success," she says. "Our goal is to leverage its critical capabilities so that research can seamlessly flow from our labs into commercial applications in support of our customers."
Executives of Alcatel decline to say where Bell Labs will fit into the combined company, though Alcatel's chief technology officer, Olivier Baujard, says Alcatel believes "research is a balanced mix of advanced and applied research."
As Sept. 7 shareholder votes on the deal near, some investors have been selling Lucent stock, suggesting they aren't sure the deal will go through. Since word of it became public in late March, the stocks of both companies are off nearly 20%, though both regained some ground last week. Some analysts in Europe suggest Bell Labs' classified research could be a sticking point for U.S. regulators, but Lucent says it plans to create a U.S. subsidiary to handle such work, as other firms have done.
Over eight decades, Bell Labs produced a series of seminal inventions, including the solar cell, the electronic microphone and the digital computer. Scientists were free to pursue projects that sparked their interests, even ones their supervisors discouraged. As a result, 11 Bell Labs scientists have shared in six Nobel prizes, including one for proving the Big Bang theory.
But while the labs won glory, other companies marketed and profited from its inventions. In part, this was because its research was funded with public money -- a special tax on phone bills -- and inventions were available to anyone for a small fee. In any case, Bell Labs managers had little financial incentive to pursue commercialization of new technologies. AT&T had a lock on the phone business and was swimming in cash.
The 1984 breakup of AT&T, followed by the 1996 spinoff of Lucent, ushered in an era of uncertainty for the labs. Lucent slashed funding after the technology and telecommunications bubble burst and demand for Lucent's products shrank. To stave off bankruptcy, it cut tens of thousands of jobs through buyouts and layoffs and by spinning off or selling units such as Agere, Avaya and Optical Fiber Solutions. It eliminated entire departments at Bell Labs, such as those working on statistics, psychology and economics.
By 2003, Bell Labs' research budget had fallen to about $115 million, less than a third of its mid-1990s level of $350 million, current and former managers estimate. It has since stabilized. The number of researchers fell to just over 1,000 in 2003 from 3,000 in 1999, with 500 moving with divisions that were spun off or sold. Entire hallways on the Labs campus are dark.
Today, the worries about the Alcatel deal loom large for scientists, as most analysts consider the deal an acquisition by the French company. Despite the planned CEO role of Lucent's Ms. Russo, former Alcatel executives will fill a majority of posts on the executive committee and run operations in most parts of the world. The board will be tilted in Alcatel's favor by the presence of two independent European directors in addition to six named by each company.
Lucent says a balanced number of executives from each side are filling top slots, and the European directors must be mutually agreed upon. The new parent company is to be called Alcatel Lucent and based in Paris. Bell Labs' headquarters will remain alongside Lucent's current headquarters in Murray Hill, N.J.
The task of keeping Bell Labs going beyond the merger has fallen to Mr. Kim, its first leader who didn't rise through the ranks. He isn't promising a return to the glory days. To reshape the labs into a commercial machine -- and preserve its relevance to a multinational corporation -- he wants to unleash its scientists' entrepreneurial spirit.
"Within a highly competitive market, we are faced with a reality that we have to align our vision of Bell Labs to that of Lucent," he says. His mission is to create new revenue streams to make up for those eroded by competitors, especially Lucent's core business of selling telecom equipment. Without income from its overfunded pension plan, instead of a profit Lucent would have posted a loss so far this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.
Mr. Kim says he is confident he can make Bell Labs relevant under its new ownership, enabling "the combined company -- and its customers -- to help shape the future of communications."
Bell Labs has tried building start-up technology businesses before, and in 2002 it aborted one attempt. Lucent says it sold the bulk of its interest in 27 companies for less than $100 million and the remaining interest for an undisclosed sum later that year. Since then, several of those start-ups have sold for hundreds of millions of dollars.
Mr. Kim first joined Lucent in 1998 after it bought his broadband start-up Yurie Systems Inc. for $1 billion. He pocketed $500 million and joined Lucent's executive team. He left in 2001 to join the engineering faculty at the University of Maryland, where he endowed an engineering building that bears his name. Ms. Russo hired him back in April 2005 to try to spread his entrepreneurial success throughout Bell Labs.
In addition to his rules on presentations and investment returns for breakthrough technologies, Mr. Kim eliminated a division of labor in which 40% of scientists focused on basic research and the rest tried to turn discoveries into technologies to sell or license. He cut costs by opening and expanding branches in Dublin, Beijing and Bangalore, India.
He also served up a fair dose of corporate-speak rarely heard before at the labs. Applying "matrix management" principles, he pulled together scientists from disparate departments to work together on special projects. At a "town hall" meeting two days after taking over as president, he announced: "We must innovate innovation." At another meeting, he told an audience of scientists that "the future is ours to take."
Mr. Kim, a 45-year-old who lived in South Korea until age 14, issued a "call for volunteers" to attend marathon evening sessions devoted to reshaping the labs. He asked scientists to put their ideas in one of two groups, like drug makers classifying pills. One group was "vitamins" -- which have no instant benefit and are low-priced because they're widely available. The other type was "painkillers," which can command a premium price because they address an immediate need. The result of the brainstorming session: 150 ideas for technologies, including videogames, cellphone payment methods and tiny batteries the size of an atom.
Mr. Kim passed the hottest ideas to a secretive group he formed to lead the quest for breakthroughs, called the Technology Commercialization, or "TC," unit. Anticipating resistance, he nicknamed it "Totally Crazy."
Physicist Sharad Ramanathan is currently trying to figure out how nearly blind spiders can weave roughly symmetrical webs. "It's important to have some people who are released from the constraints of immediate or even remote applicability of their research," he says. "It doesn't have to be everyone -- it just has to be some people, and that's what makes Bell Labs special."
Ronen Rapaport, attracted by Bell Labs' pioneering work in ultra-pure semiconductors, came on board five years ago to study the behavior of particles called "excitons" trapped in the material. He has since been pulled on to different projects, including examining how deep-sea creatures filter light. Now he devotes at least a fifth of his time to developing future products. It's all right with him. "We want to help the company as long as there's room for our research," he says.
Scientists accustomed to writing academic papers sometimes gripe that boiling their research into PowerPoint presentations leaves no time for crucial details. But Mr. Kim is using this format to spread the gospel about the labs' usefulness within Lucent.
Dave Bishop, a 28-year Bell Labs veteran who heads its government-funded-research arm, is banking on Mr. Kim's long-term plan to prove the labs' worth. "I've worried about this place since Day One," he says. "Jeong has provided a structure and a focus and has made our fight his fight to save this institution, and I say, 'God bless and God speed.' "
Some alumni are supportive, as well. Steven Chu, who won a Nobel in physics for his 1978-87 work at Bell Labs, says that "working on applied things doesn't destroy a kernel of genius -- it focuses the mind." Mr. Chu is now director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, Calif.
An example of the new approach involves metal detectors made of silicon the width of three human hairs -- technology for which Lucent long couldn't find a use. Under the new regime, Bell Labs is working with a small company to develop it into a device that could help the military detect snipers. Called a magnetometer, the device also could be used by doctors to measure blood flow through subtle changes in the heart's magnetic field.
Arthur Penn Ramirez, a physicist spearheading its development, recruited Bell Labs experts in delicately sculpting silicon to provide interlocking combs that can sense minute electrical charges. He summoned mechanical- and electronic-measurement experts to turn the information from the combs into electronic signals. And he brought in noise-theory experts to ensure that the sensor, which works best in the stillness of absolute zero, would be accurate enough to work at room temperature. This means the device could be cheap and thus could be installed in large quantities.
Six months later, a prototype came out and Mr. Kim began showing it off to potential partners. Bell Labs' Mr. Bishop sold the idea to a small company called mPhase Inc., which has also invested in initial development.
Mr. Ramirez says he doesn't miss the days when there was no pressure to turn science into dollars. Though the magnetometer has yet to find a customer, he is excited about it. "The project has given me an additional outlet to pursue science," he said.
But Mr. Ramirez has also experienced the flip side of Mr. Kim's regime. A different sensor-related project was a leading candidate for commercial development -- only to be rejected by Mr. Kim's selection committee this summer.
贝尔实验室开始向“钱”看
作为晶体管和激光的诞生地，朗讯科技(Lucent Technologies Inc.)旗下的贝尔实验室(Bell Labs)走过了十年的风风雨雨，在此期间其规模也收缩到原先的三分之一。如今，实验室的科学家们迎来了一位曾担任潜艇指挥官的企业家，虽然将信将疑，科学家们还是把这位企业家视为大救星，希望他能保持贝尔实验室的显赫地位。
杰恩?吉姆(Jeong Kim)去年接管了这个全球闻名的实验室，并果断地推出了一个振兴计划：让实验室赚钱。为此，他首先让很多出色的科学家致力于攻克那些能迅速转变为商业机会的技术，而非进行纯粹的科学研究。
预计每个商业技术研究项目都能为贝尔实验室带来六倍于研发支出的收入，其中那些最具商机的项目获得了最多的资金支持。研究人员们通常把他们的研究成果浓缩成8分钟的幻灯演示稿。吉姆还寻求从政府那里获得更多的研究资助，并希望通过寻找企业合作伙伴和风险投资的方式，使科研技术尽快转变为商业产品。
若在以前，贝尔实验室的科学家们可能会拒绝吉姆这种将科学研究商业化的行为。可现在却不同了。
如今，产业实验室早已失去了影响力，因为它们的母公司已不屑于把资金投在那些不能马上带来回报的研究上。此外，朗讯科技目前正计划与法国的阿尔卡特(Alcate SA)合并，而阿尔卡特本身并没有从事基础研究项目，而贝尔实验室却是以基础研究蜚声全球的。“贝尔实验室以科研为根本；而阿尔卡特在科研上的投入很少，”曾在阿尔卡特担任首席技术长至2005年的尼尔?兰塞姆(Niel Ransom)说。
按照目前的合并计划，阿尔卡特在合并后将拥有新公司60%的股权，是大股东。这让科学家们倍感不安，他们不知道阿尔卡特掌权后情况会怎样。鉴于合并交易达成后预计将裁员9,000名，贝尔实验室的一些科学家们担心自己的饭碗可能不保，于是开始寻找新工作。
预计朗讯科技的现任首席执行长帕特里夏?鲁索(Patricia Russo)将执掌合并后的新公司。她表示，公司“根本不打算将贝尔实验室分离出去，也不会影响实验室的科研工作”。“贝尔实验室将是新公司的组成部分，而且对于新公司未来的成功至关重要，”她表示。“我们的目标是发挥贝尔实验室的重要作用，让科研活动顺利地走出实验室，运用到商业活动中，为我们的客户服务。”
阿尔卡特首席技术长奥利维尔?贝贾德(Olivier Baujard)表示，阿尔卡特认为“科研活动将是高级研究与应用研究的均衡结合”。阿尔卡特的其他高级主管们则对如何安置贝尔实验室不予置评。
公司股东将于9月7日对此项合并交易进行投票表决。随着投票日期的日益临近，一些投资者开始抛售朗讯科技的股票，表明他们担心此次合并难以顺利完成。自从今年3月下旬合并传闻公开以来，两家公司的股票价格均下跌了近20%，不过上周又有所回升。欧洲的一些分析师认为，贝尔实验室从事的一些机密研究可能会成为美国监管当局表示反对的主要原因。不过朗讯科技表示，公司打算借鉴其他公司的做法，成立一个美国子公司接手上述机密研究。
在过去80年里，贝尔实验室推出了一系列重大发明，如太阳能电池、电子麦克风和数字式计算机等。实验室的科学家们可随意选择他们感兴趣的项目深入研究，即使他们的上级主管对此并不看好。由于科研气氛宽松，贝尔实验室有11位科学家在6次诺贝尔奖中榜上有名，其中有位科学家验证了“宇宙大爆炸”理论。
虽然贝尔实验室获得了无数殊荣，将相关科研发明应用到市场上并获利的却是其他公司。产生这种现象的部分原因是贝尔实验室的科研活动是由政府资金资助的─来源于电话帐单的一项特殊附加税，因此任何人只要花一点钱就能获得相关发明成果。而且那时候一点都不缺钱的贝尔实验室经理们也没有将新技术商业化的动力。美国电话电报公司(AT&T)几乎垄断了电话通讯业务，因此钱多得数不过来。
但是，美国电话电报公司1984年进行了拆分，后来朗讯科技于1996年从美国电话电报中剥离出去，从此贝尔实验室进入了动荡时期。在科技电讯业泡沫破灭及公司产品需求下降后，朗讯科技削减了对贝尔实验室的资助。为了避免陷入破产境地，朗讯科技通过买断工龄、裁员、剥离以及出售子公司的方式削减了上万个工作岗位，剥离的子公司包括Agere、Avaya和Optical Fiber Solutions等。朗讯科技还把贝尔实验室的一些部门整个砍掉，如从事统计分析、心理学和经济学研究的部门。
贝尔实验室的经理们估计，到2003年，该实验室的研究经费已经降至1.15亿美元左右，还不到上世纪90年代获得的3.5亿美元的三分之一。此后，贝尔实验室终于趋于稳定。研究人员的数量从1999年的3,000减少到2003年的1,000余人，其中500人是随着部门一起被剥离或出售给其他公司了。如今，贝尔实验室的走廊到处都黑乎乎。
目前，贝尔实验室的科学家们对担心阿尔卡特与朗讯科技的合并交易愈发担忧，因为大多数分析师认为这项交易实际上是阿尔卡特并购了朗讯科技。尽管新公司未来的首席执行长由朗讯科技的鲁索担任，但阿尔卡特的高级主管将占据新公司执行委员会的大部分职位，同时管理全球各地的大部分分支机构。新公司的董事会构成也对阿尔卡特有利，除了双方各提名6位董事外，另有两名来自欧洲的独立董事。
朗讯科技表示，新公司的高级职位将由两家公司的主管们担任，数量分配是均衡的。此外，来自欧洲的独立董事必须获得双方的认可。新公司将被称为Alcatel Lucent，总部设在巴黎。贝尔实验室的总部仍将设在美国新泽西州的墨里黑尔，与朗讯科技现在的总部在一起。
使贝尔实验室不受合并交易的影响，继续向前进的重任就落到了吉姆的肩膀上，吉姆是第一位打破贝尔实验室论资排辈的晋升传统的人。他并没有承诺要恢复贝尔实验室昔日的辉煌。为了把实验室变成一台商业机器，同时保留它在一个跨国公司中的重要地位，吉姆想发挥科学家们的创业精神。
“在一个竞争非常激烈的环境里，我们面对的现实就是我们必须将贝尔实验室的命运与朗讯科技的命运紧密地结合在一起，”他表示。吉姆的使命是创造新的收入来源，以弥补竞争对手的侵蚀，尤其是朗讯科技的核心业务─电信设备销售─受到的冲击。若不是有了超额养老金计划的收入，朗讯科技在截至今年9月30日的本财政年度里可能会出现亏损。
吉姆说，他有信心使贝尔实验室在新公司里占有一席之地，使“合并后的新公司，以及相关客户，能重塑通讯业的未来”。
贝尔实验室以前曾试图建立初创科技公司，在2002年还放弃了一次尝试。朗讯科技表示，公司在2002年晚些时候以不到1亿美元的价格出售了它在27家公司的大部分权益，它所持的其余权益的售价则未予透露。之后，贝尔实验室旗下的几家初创公司则以几亿美元的价格被出售了。
吉姆首次加入朗讯科技是在1998年，当时朗讯科技以10亿美元买下了他的初创宽频公司Yurie System Inc。吉姆获得了5亿美元的收入，并成为朗讯科技的高级主管。后来他于2001年离职，在马里兰大学(University of Maryland)工程系执教。他还向系里捐赠了一幢楼，于是该楼以他的名字命名。鲁索于2005年4月聘请他回来，希望他成功的创业经历能够感染贝尔实验室的其他人。
除了对具有突破性科研究成果的演示以及投资收益作出规定外，吉姆还砍掉了一个部门。该部门有40%的科学家从事基础研究，其余则试图将研究成果转化为技术，用于出售或申请技术许可。他还通过新设或扩大了在都柏林、北京和印度班加罗尔分支机构的规模来削减开支。
吉姆还在贝尔实验室里发表了一些科学家们以前很少听到的言论。通过运用矩阵管理原则，他将不同部门的科学家组织起来，参与某些特殊项目的研究。在成为实验室负责人两天后的“群众”大会上，吉姆宣布：“我们必须对革新进行革新。”在另一次会议上，他告诉在座的科学家们“未来掌握在我们手中”。
现年45岁的吉姆小时候一直生活在韩国，直到14岁。他还召集大家自愿参与漫长的晚间讨论活动，以重振贝尔实验室。他让科学家们把自己的想法归入两种类别中的一类，就像制药商对药品进行分类一样。一类是“维生素”，它们不会产生立杆见影的效果，而且价格低廉，因为它们随处可见。另一类是“止痛药”，它们价格昂贵，能药到病除。集思广益的结果是：科学家们提出了150个科技创新想法，其中涉及电子游戏、手机付费方式以及原子大小的微型电池。
吉姆将那些最热门的论题交给一个他组建的秘密小组，名为“技术商业化”(TC)小组，看看这些想法能否有商业上的突破。吉姆预计TC小组会遇到阻力，因此给这个小组起了个绰号叫“十足疯狂小组”(Totally Crazy)。
物理学家萨德?拉曼森(Sharad Ramanathan)目前正在研究视力几乎为零的蜘蛛如何能编织出近乎严格对称的蜘蛛网。“让一些人从科研活动的当期、甚至长期实用价值中脱离出来是很重要的，”他指出，“当然不必每个人都这样，但是有些人必须这样，正是这一点使贝尔实验室与众不同。”
贝尔实验室在超纯半导体领域的领先研究吸引了罗伦?拉帕特(Ronen Rapaport)。于是他在5年前加入了贝尔实验室，研究半导体中一种被称为“激子”的物质的特征。5年来，他被拉入了不同的项目研究小组，甚至包括研究深海动物如何过滤光的项目。目前，他把至少五分之一的时间用于开发新产品。拉帕特对此并没有什么意见。“我们想帮助公司，前提是我们还能进行科研，”他说。
那些习惯于撰写学术报告的科学家们有时候抱怨说，把自己的研究成果浓缩成幻灯文稿使他们没法称述重要的细节。但吉姆正是通过这种方式，展示了贝尔实验室对朗讯的重要性。
堪称元老的戴夫?比什普(Dave Bishop)在贝尔实验室呆了28年，目前领导着由政府资助的分支机构。他希望吉姆的长期计划能证明该实验室的价值。“从一开始我就担心这个实验室，”他表示。“杰恩提供了实验室的构架和目标，我们力求保住实验室，他也一样。我祈祷上帝保佑一切顺利。”
昔日的一些同事也表示支持。朱棣文(Steven Chu)就是因其1978-87年在贝尔实验室的研究成果获得了诺贝尔物理学奖。他指出，“致力于科技的运用并不会摧毁天才的大脑，相反，它使他们的思想变得集中了。”目前他是位于加利福尼亚州伯克利的劳伦斯?伯克利国家实验室主任。
只有三根头发丝那么宽的硅制金属探测仪就是个例子。长期以来，朗讯科技一直找不到这项技术的用途。根据吉姆的新政，贝尔实验室目前正在与一家小公司合作，试图利用这项技术开发出一种设备，能帮助军队探测出狙击手。这种设备被称为磁力计，医生还可利用它来测量心脏的磁场的细微变化，从而测量血液流量。
物理学家亚瑟?拉米兹(Arthur Penn Ramirez)是这项产品开发工作的领头人。他让贝尔实验室的科学家们小心地雕刻出能感受细微电流变化的联锁硅探针。他还让机械和电子测量专家们把从联锁硅探针上获取的信息转变为电子信号。然后，拉米兹请来了噪音理论方面的专家，以确保在绝对零度的静止状态下处于最佳工作状态的硅探针在室温下也能准确探测。这意味着该设备能以低造价生产，从而能进行大量安装。
6个月后，设备原型制造出来了，吉姆开始向潜在的合作伙伴进行推销。贝尔实验室的比什普将这一创意卖给了一家名为mPhase Inc的小公司，该公司对产品的初期开发进行了投资。
拉米兹表示，他并不怀念过去的日子，尽管那时没有将科研成果变为美元的压力。虽然磁力计还没有找到买家，他对此依然很兴奋。“这个项目使我对科学的追求有了另一个用武之地，”他说。
不过，拉米兹也曾经历过吉姆新政的另一面。另一个与感应器相关的研究项目本是商用开发的首选项目，可后来在今年夏天被吉姆的特别小组否决了。
Sara Silver
