As Hal Marden watched his morning muffin spin slowly in the lunchroom microwave, he marveled at how this small appliance had forever changed the way people cook and eat. “The perfect invention,” he mused to himself. “Small, fast, convenient, and energy-efficient. We thought microwaves would do away with conventional ovens. But instead, they became a whole new category of kitchen appliance.”
A version of this article appeared in the August 2002 issue of Harvard Business Review.