Wisconsin has an incredible history of innovation. In the early 1900s the state’s largest city, Milwaukee, was known as the “Machine Shop of the World,” where craftsmen, inventors and tinkerers created new products and launched companies, including some that remain household names today.
Of course, one of Wisconsin’s most iconic companies is Harley-Davidson, founded by William Harley and Arthur, Walter and William Davidson making motorcycles in a small shed behind the Davidson family’s Milwaukee home in the early 1900s.
There’s a good chance the hot water in your home is heated by an A.O. Smith water heater. The Milwaukee-based Fortune 1000 company has a long history of innovation. In 1899, A.O. Smith developed a lightweight steel car frame, supplied them to major automakers and in 1921 the company created the first automated frame production line. The company developed a wide range of products including the pressure vessel for oil refining and glass-lined beer kegs, brewery tanks and residential water tanks. Glass-lined water heaters remain the industry standard to this day. Water heaters are the main business today for A.O. Smith.
That wasn’t the only Wisconsin innovation that has made our homes more comfortable. Johnson Controls founder Warren Johnson invented the first thermostat and patented it in 1883. That led to the launch of a company that today has worldwide annual sales of more than $22 billion and maintains its operational headquarters in Glendale.
During the harsh Wisconsin winters, many of us endure chapped lips. Seeking a solution to that problem, Alfred Woelbing started making lip balm by hand in 1937, pouring the medicated lip balm into jars in his kitchen, in an attempt to remedy cold sores. He started selling it to pharmacies, visiting them one by one. Now known as Carmex, the Franklin-based company continues to thrive and expand.
Summer weather in Wisconsin has also inspired innovation. After rowing a boat across Okauchee Lake on a hot summer day, Ole Evinrude was motivated to invent the first outboard motor in 1907. He formed Evinrude Outboard Motors, which was eventually acquired by Bombardier Recreational Products. BRP retired the Evinrude brand in 2020.
I could go on, I’m sure you get the point. Innovation was critical to Milwaukee and Wisconsin’s economic heyday as an industrial powerhouse.
In recent decades, Wisconsin’s economy has evolved and become more diversified. Manufacturing remains important here but is a smaller slice of the state’s economic pie.
The state’s economic image has suffered, with Wisconsin perceived by some as a Rust Belt state with a modest amount of startup activity, innovation and venture capital, especially compared to the East and West coasts.
But amazing innovations are happening in the Badger State and innovation must continue to be fostered here for the state’s economy to remain healthy and to grow. Wisconsin’s most exciting and important companies right now are its most innovative. Two in particular: Epic Systems and Milwaukee Tool.
In 1979, after getting her master’s degree in computer science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Judy Faulkner co-founded Human Services Computing, with a $70,000 investment from friends and family. Now known as Epic Systems, the medical records company is a giant in its field, and Faulkner is a billionaire. Based in Verona on a sprawling 1,100-acre campus, the company has 10,700 employees and had more than $3.3 billion in revenue in 2020, according to Forbes.
Power tools might seem a lot different than electronic medical records, but high-tech innovation has also led to tremendous growth in recent years for Brookfield-based Milwaukee Tool. The cover story of this publication delves into the innovative culture and methods of Milwaukee Tool.
That commitment to innovation, especially in the use of lithium-ion batteries, has led to an explosion in the company’s Wisconsin footprint. The company, which is owned by Hong Kong-based Techtronic Industries Co. Ltd., will likely top $6 billion in revenue this year and has consistently grown sales more than 20% annually. It has expanded its Brookfield campus twice and now plans to add a second corporate campus in Menomonee Falls, a plant in West Bend and an office in downtown Milwaukee with up to 2,000 employees. The company also continues to grow its Imperial Blades subsidiary in Sun Prairie and its Empire Level subsidiary in Mukwonago.
This special Innovate Wisconsin issue of BizTimes Milwaukee is full of many other stories of exciting, innovative Wisconsin companies. Our state’s economy needs them and many other innovative minds, businesses, educators and investors to grow and prosper to create a brighter future for our communities and families.
