Source: Tonishi Business Review
Author: Jin Mei

Why were Germany's sniper rifles so good in World War II? Why can the world's most advanced main battle tank “Panther” 2A6 play accurately? Why is the performance of the German 214 submarine so outstanding?

Because they all use ZEISS optical equipment, not only can you see clearly and far, but the anti-reflective lenses also make it impossible for opponents to detect them.

As a small workshop that began as a magnifying glass, ZEISS's motto was “We make it visible” (we make it visible). Don't underestimate this statement. From the vast starry sky to the nano-world, Germany's century-old company Zeiss has opened up a new way for humans to perceive the world.

In 1883, the German doctor and bacteriologist Robert Koch discovered the causative agent of cholera with the help of a Zeiss microscope and saved countless lives. In 1969, a Zeiss camera recorded the first human footprints on the Moon. Einstein, biologist Darwin, writer Hemingway, and over 40 Nobel Prize-winning scientists are all fans of ZEISS products.

The precision of ZEISS lenses has reached an incredible level. Magnifying a ZEISS 7 cm diameter lens 370,000 times to 26 km, the height difference between the uneven surface of the ZEISS lens is no more than 10 cm.

ZEISS has quietly launched a revolution in precision optical machinery.

In addition to telescopes and microscopes, every year 15 million surgeries around the world are performed using ZEISS surgical systems. The price of an optical instrument for eye corneal surgery is about 15 million yuan. Only ZEISS can manufacture it in the world; some large hospitals buy 100 units at once, but this is just a very common type in all of ZEISS's product lines.

In the field of cameras, ZEISS is also a presence that cannot be ignored. “Wilderness Hunter” and “Lord of the Rings”, shot on ZEISS's camera, gave the film detailed color expressiveness, winning the Oscar for Best Picture.

What's even more incredible is that the ASML lithography machine that once held the throat of the world's chips is in Zeiss's hands.

In addition to technological and product breakthroughs, social welfare systems such as the 8-hour work system and pensions currently in use around the world are also led by ZEISS.

As a company that has been around for over 170 years, how has ZEISS done all of this?

01 Crafts+technology+materials = domination of the world

Carl Zeiss was born into a family of technicians. His father, Augustus Zeiss, was a master court turner. The idea that “craftsmanship is a golden rice bowl” has been engraved in Zeiss's perception since childhood. Zeiss, which keeps pace with the times, realizes that in addition to technology, knowledge is also an important part of becoming an excellent mechanic.

When he was a teenager, Zeiss, who was sent by his father to the University of Jena as an apprentice with the mechanic Dr. Kerner, took the opportunity to attend courses in mathematics, physics, and mineralogy at university like hungry and thirsty. By chance, Zeiss saw a large number of scientific instruments at the laboratory of biologist Schleiden, which opened up a new world for him.

In 1846, while repairing physical and chemical instruments for the University of Jena, ZEISS manufactured glasses, magnifying glasses, etc. in a “small workshop”. Although there are only simple tools and a dim kerosene lamp, ZEISS is extremely strict, and he will relentlessly smash lenses with poor polishing results.

ZEISS, whose quality is stable and can deliver goods in a timely manner, has established a good reputation at the University of Jena.

In 1847, ZEISS expanded the plant and took in its first apprentice, who began helping researchers make microscopes. Although there is only one lens, this microscope for autopsy has sold 23 units a year.

As experience accumulated, ZEISS discovered that cumulative lenses could increase magnification, so they began searching for the manufacture of duplex microscopes. In 1857, “Stand I” was introduced.

In 1861, ZEISS won a gold medal at the Thuringian Industrial Exhibition and is considered the best scientific instrument of the time. In 1863, ZEISS became a designated supplier to the court, and the number of employees expanded to 20.

This year, another person who changed the fate of ZEISS, university lecturer Ernst Abbe, walked into the ZEISS workshop and needed several instruments to conduct physical experiments.

At this point, Zeiss was robbed of the limelight by Hartnack's immersion objective magnifying instrument, and Zeiss must find its own “killer weapon.” In 1866, Abbey joined the Zeiss Company to help find ways to catch up with their rivals.

Abbey discovered that each Zeiss craftsman assembled a microscope, using a trial and error method, which is to find the right lens combination little by little by changing the spacing by constantly changing lenses.

This not only has a high failure rate; once there is a slight deviation in one position, the whole machine needs to be re-debugged, which takes a very long time.

Abbey's first major project was to completely change the process of making microscope lenses.

Based on the overall structure of the microscope, he calculated the specific size and maximum deviation of each lens, then divided the accessories into different groups. Each group was then divided into assembly lines for rough polishing, rough processing, and fine polishing, and finally submitted components within the error limit, greatly improving production efficiency.

Shortly after Abbey arrived, the price of Zeiss microscopes dropped 25%, making them once again competitive in the market. But as a physicist, Abbey's ambitions don't stop there.

In 1869, Abbe invented the Abbey concentrator, which greatly improved the brightness of the object being measured. In the 1870s, in order to completely eliminate the color difference, sphere difference, and comet difference of the objective lens, Abbey also proposed sinusoidal conditions for imaging to guide the production of objective lenses.

Unsurprisingly, the ZEISS microscope has once again become a leader in technology. In 1875, Abbey and Zeiss jointly became the owners of the company.

In 1876, with the help of a Zeiss microscope, German bacteriologist Koch isolated the bacteria that cause anthrax. After 1883, he also discovered amoebic dysentery and two types of conjunctivitis. Later, they also discovered germs of various diseases such as plague, malaria, regressive fever, and trypanosomiasis. Koch won the Nobel Prize for this.

In a letter to ZEISS, he wrote, “I owe much of my success to your amazing microscope.”

Being a powerful tool for many scientists to explore new worlds, Abbey and Zeiss continue to reach their peak. The two realized that to make lenses that transcend the limits, in addition to craftsmanship and technology, they also needed unprecedented glass.

In 1884, Zeiss and Abbey invited Otto Schott, the “glass doctor,” to begin planning a “glass miracle” that would influence the world's scientific and technological history.

Since then, the Big Three, which have created the “optical wonders” of the world, have finally gathered together. “Crafts+technology+materials = invincibility”, ZEISS is destined to become an optical giant with global acclaim.

However, in 1888, Carl Zeiss passed away for a long time, and the Zeiss lens on his coffin stopped evolving. However, in reality, ZEISS products are rapidly iterating.

In 1889, Abbey also invented the “oil immersion objective lens,” which uses oil with a high refractive index to fill the distance between the high magnification objective and the object being observed, greatly improving the resolution and bringing microscope technology to a new level.

In 1897, ZEISS produced the first astronomical telescope, and ZEISS grew into a supplier of advanced optical products. In the 1920s, ZEISS joined the trend of reflecting telescopes and began producing large-scale astronomical telescopes, laying the foundation for the subsequent design and production of the James Webb space telescope lenses.

Since the establishment of its first overseas branch in London in 1901, ZEISS's business has gradually spread all over the world, and its product line has continued to expand.

With the technical support of physicists and materials from glass experts, top craftsmen (known as “golden fingers”), and the technical support of physicists and materials from glass experts, ZEISS provides more and more scientists with the weapons to “see” the world.

In 1925, in a letter to a friend, Einstein said, “Zeiss lenses represent the highest quality and trustworthiness. When it comes to 1/10,000 accuracy, grinding techniques are so difficult; only Zeiss can do it.”

02 The Saints of Rationalism

If I had to sayCarl Zeiss founded the Zeiss Company, and Abbe is the person who really brought ZEISS to its peak.Not only did he provide ZEISS with the best technology in his lifetime, he even guaranteed the continued prosperity of ZEISS for over 100 years.

First, Abe, a physicist, has established a decisive position for technological innovation in the company.

In addition to investing heavily in research and development, the technology-first atmosphere Abbey has created for ZEISS is the backing for ZEIS' domination of the world. In the eyes of ZEISS employees, ZEISS is “an optical university with its own workshop,” an optical designer known as a “mathematician,” and is actually revered as a god in the company's strict hierarchical system.

As a high-tech company, ZEISS invests more than 10% of revenue in R&D every year. At its peak, ZEISS obtained about 500 patents every year.

The company told employees, “Either we subvert ourselves or we get killed by our competitors.”

Second, what's even greater about Abe is that he began planning for Zeiss 100 years from now.

“It's not difficult to be a Carl Zeiss for a day; the difficult thing is to be a Carl Zeiss for the rest of your life”. Seeing that many companies were treated as an inheritance division due to the death of their founders, after Mr. Zeiss passed away, Abbey began raging his brain to think about countermeasures for sustainable development in order to prevent the gradual increase in heirs from influencing the company's development in the future.

As one of the original shareholders of ZEISS, Abbey gave up his immediate opportunity to become a billionaire and founded the Carl Zeiss Foundation. He donated all of his shares and convinced other shareholders to do the same, so that the company belongs to a group that can be bound by systems and regulations rather than an unpredictable individual.

The Foundation became the sole owner of ZEISS. A few years later, Abbey institutionalized the foundation again: Zeiss should permanently focus on scientific research and innovation, and the company's core business will always be the production of precision optical instruments.

The foundation establishes regulations on how the company's profits should be invested in research and development to ensure that the company focuses on scientific and technological progress for a long time, and guarantees employees' minimum wage, bonus income, and paid annual leave.

Again, Abbe, who was called the “saint of rationalism” by Theodore Huis, the first president of the Federal Republic of Germany, uses realistic employee management innovation to make Zeiss an ideal country for talents.

Apart from the foundation's mandatory guarantee rules for the treatment of employees, as early as 1870, the company established health insurance plans and pensions for employees, and implemented an 8-hour work system. These are all invaluable firsts in modern company history.

These humane management strategies not only improve the work efficiency of employees, but also allow the company to absorb a large number of high-quality talents.Institutionalized, user-friendly, and cutting-edge management allows ZEISS to move forward even after leaving these key figures.

It starts running at 03 o'clock

During World War II, ZEISS was a major supplier of telescopes, rangefinders, scopes, and aerial cameras to the German army. The war brought ZEISS a large number of orders, as well as unexpected damage.

After the end of World War II, it was realized that Jena, where Zeiss was headquartered, might fall into the hands of the Soviet Union. As a “fan” of ZEISS, General Patton took the risk of breaking the “Yalta Agreement” and broke into Jena, preparing to use 600 trucks to move the entire Zeiss company to the Federal Republic of Germany.

Due to the rapid advance of the Soviet military, the US military took 77 of Zeiss's management and scientists and transported them to Oberkochen in the US-controlled federal Germany, established the new Zeiss - Carl Zeiss AG (CarlZeissaG), and started the camera business with camera lenses made for the US.

ZEISS employees in Jena formed the VebCarlZeissJena People's Enterprise (VebCarlZeissJena), which was split in two and was not re-merged until 1990.

During the one-half time period, both old and new Zeiss still insisted on quality, yet the times quietly changed, and ZEISS began to be surpassed by its successors.

In the 1970s, during the strong rise of Nikon and Canon, ZEISS lost most of its low-end camera lenses and movie camera lenses to the Japanese, yet ZEISS didn't pay attention to low-quality Japanese goods.

Even though Japan successfully developed the first eyepiece with an electronic shutter, and the price was only one-tenth that of a ZEISS mechanical shutter, ZEISS maintained its obsession with manual polishing and manual machinery.

In 1990, with Zeiss's 6 “gold fingers,” it made the first I-line lens for ASML, which will stifle the world's chip throats in the future. However, in the face of the blowout in the chip industry, ZEISS was unable to deliver the nearly 7-fold increase in ASML orders because ZEISS did not have 40 “gold fingers” at all.

In 1990, the new ZEISS was overwhelmed by the impact of Japan's low-cost lenses, electronic photometry, and electronic shutter technology. The financial situation was very tight, but due to the unification of the two Germans, they had to merge the old Zeiss, which had bigger problems. The new ZEISS has 15,000 employees. Not only is the old ZEISS technologically backward and has a serious financial deficit, but the number of employees is as high as 70,000.

After the merger, the old ZEISS was laid off 50,000 employees, and there were more and more problems with the overrun ZEISS.

ZEISS has received a large number of return orders due to reduced light transmittance and uneven light glass panels. In the 1990s, Zeiss lost most of its orders for the Hasselblad telescope before it became keenly aware of the seriousness of the problem.

Realizing that the manual industry was unsustainable, ZEISS began an extensive project to design or introduce a range of informatization and automation equipment from outside to replace manual work. In 2000, ZEISS began focusing on semiconductor technology and established a new plant for modern European lithography systems in Oberkochen.

Entering the 21st century, Carl Zeiss Medical Technology GmbH was established to mainly produce and develop diagnostic instruments for ophthalmology patients. The ZEISS business landscape in industrial metrology, microscopes, medical technology, vision care, consumer optics, and semiconductor manufacturing technology is gradually becoming clear.

In 2018, ZEISS launched a 3D centralized data determination platform to take digitalization to a new level. In 2020, ZEISS completed the acquisition of SaxoniasyStemsag, a company that perfects customized software solutions. In 2021, the Visioner1 digital microscope using MALS technology achieved real-time full-focus visualization.

In 2022, ZEISS's next-generation electrosurgical bipolar pliers, MtLawto, were approved by the FDA. ZEIS' determination to embrace digitalization is becoming increasingly evident.

From photographs of the first human footprints on the Moon to microchips in 50% of the world's computers and smart terminal devices, from precision component measurements in F1 cars to superb brain surgery, from large-scale observatories to glasses worn by individuals, from automobiles to the machinery manufacturing industry, from satellite aerial photography and aerial surveys to the filming of famous Hollywood movies...

The commercial wisdom behind ZEISS, an optical giant of over 170 years, from a glass lens to today's perforated layout, is worth learning from.

Editor/Somer