Short Story - The Eiffel Tower & Innovation

Let’s first get the setting right

<aside> ❓ Did you know the average lifespan of a company is about 20 years?

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The life expectancy of companies is rarely discussed. What an absolute oversight! Shouldn’t we be concerned about this? The fact that any company could fade into irrelevance within a few years, no matter its size or market should always be in the back of our minds. No one wants to go out of business. And yet, a lot do.

<aside> <img src="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/88843679-9dc7-4f5c-aacd-83b84544f97e/Eiffel.png" alt="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/88843679-9dc7-4f5c-aacd-83b84544f97e/Eiffel.png" width="40px" /> Did you know that the Eiffel Tower was originally built as a temporary monument destined to be torn down after 20 years?

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The Eiffel Tower was originally built as the centerpiece attraction for the Paris International Exposition in 1889. It highlighted one of the great industrial advancements of the time as it was built using puddled iron, a refining technique developed in the late 18th century.

In 1889, the Eiffel Tower became the tallest building in the world by a wide margin, as the previous record holder of that distinction, the Washington Monument was roughly half the height. A vivid testimony of engineering and craftsmanship.

But it was also scheduled to be decommissioned after 20 years of use. Eiffel’s company won a contest when his project, building the Eiffel Tower, was selected as the winner for the 1889 International fair. The rules of the contest stipulated that Eiffel would be granted a 20-year concession after which the tower would be dismantled piece by piece.

So what happened? Why is this iconic Parisian landmark monument still standing today?

Technology and innovation once again played a determining role in the history of the Eiffel Tower. During the period spanning from 1889 to 1909, Eiffel used the tower to conduct many scientific experiments. These ranged from the carrying out of meteorological observations to the bettering of hydraulic compensated elevators. But the one scientific innovation that saved the Eiffel Tower was the radio.

On November 5, 1898, the first radio contact was established between the Eiffel Tower and the Pantheon, a monument located 4 kilometers away in downtown Paris. The Eiffel Tower could now be used as a giant antenna. This had terrific military potential and represented a field of study that certainly wasn’t at the forefront of considerations when building the Tower originally. The rest is now history. In 1909, the year the Eiffel Tower should have been dismantled, an extension of the concession for 70 years was granted to Gustave Eiffel. The antenna at the top of the tower had been used to carry out a 6000km message the previous year and it is said that its communication base actually served a decisive role in intercepting German communications in WW1.

If you want to catch a short glimpse of the Eiffel Tower’s history you can check the video below.

8min. video on the Eiffel Tower’s history, which might surprise you

What I find fascinating about this story is just how well it captures many of the lessons that innovation teaches us. Let me highlight a few:

Innovation can be a path to learn about things that weren’t even considered when research started, things that we would have never imagined to begin with.
Innovations in one field, say metals and architecture, may serve totally different purposes used in another context. The proof? How being the tallest building in Paris, a result of technology and craftsmanship, was instrumental in the success of the first radio transmissions and ultimately in deciding the fate of WW1 and shaping the world into what we know today.
xInnovation shapes culture. According to Wikipedia, the Eiffel Tower is the 7th most visited monument in the world.
Innovation takes time. This can lead to a lag in perceived or realized gains in transformation or productivity.

I also want to finish this off with two quotes that come from the book The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel. I have taken them totally out of context, something one should regularly do when innovating, as they apply to innovation just as well.