Every profitable company eventually specializes in some field, but they use research and development to try different things to hopefully make the core products better. An example of this is the tire company Michelin. The Michelin Group is a leader in composite engineering and manufacturing with its headquarters in Clermont-Ferrand, France, which is 4 hour drive south of Paris. The Michelin has 69 factories around the world making tires and its tires are rated as some of the top in the world.

In an advertisement, Michelin introduced a new technology called WISAMO, it is an automated, fully retractable and inflatable wingsail system. If you ever seen pictures of Clipper Ships with large sails to move ships around the world, the wingsail system is a sail system for cargo ships.

Sails on cargo ships have been proposed over the years, but it was difficult to implement. The WISAMO system is designed to be inflatable which means it can easily come down when not it use and allow ships to go under bridges located in many ports around the world.

Fortunately, for Michelin, the system can be slowly implemented and tested because they specialize in tires. However, the engineers are using sustainable materials and can transfer the knowledge to the making better tires.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, all companies need to do research and development in areas where they do not make money but can learn. One example is the automotive industry is involved in the racing industry. The continuing study of aerodynamics for race cars to go faster can be translated into designs of cars to commute in with a smoother ride. Another example, after aluminum was invented, it needed markets to be sold to, as cars needed to be lighter, some of the steel was replace by aluminum. Companies seemingly need to be involved in pursuits to study and test materials to make their core business better, what is your company involved with?

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.