Last week, President Obama went to Cleveland to meet with small business owners to hear about their successes and setbacks. One of the prominent themes of that meeting was innovation. In his closing remarks from the forum, Obama cited multiple examples of innovation in companies he sees moving the economy forward, such as Ashlawn Energy, a company that Obama says is “poised to manufacture a next-generation energy storage system in Painesville [Ohio] that will improve efficiency.”

While we wait to see which companies will shape our future, an example of one company that transformed the U.S. economy over 100 years ago is Alcoa, the world’s leading producing of aluminum. The current head of that company, Klaus Kleinfeld, will be at Thomson Reuters tomorrow to discuss how to thrive in a new global economy as part of the Reuters Future Face of Finance Summit. But before we get ahead of ourselves, there’s a lot to learn from Alcoa’s past — and present day — success.

ALCOA’S BEGINNINGS When Charles Martin Hall was a student at Oberlin College, his chemistry professor told the class that “fame and fortune awaited the man who would find an inexpensive way to separate the metal (aluminum)” from bauxite ore, the rock from which most aluminium is extracted. Hall turned out to be that student. In February of 1886, at the age of 22, he discovered that molten cryolite, a sodium aluminum fluoride, would dissolve aluminum oxide. That discovery completely changed the manner — and cost — of aluminum production. And it paved the way for the founding of Alcoa, which had a profound impact on the metals industry and the U.S. economy in ways that even Hall’s prophetic professor couldn’t have imagined.

So, how does an aluminum experiment performed in a summer kitchen attached to the back of Hall’s home lead to the creation of one of the nation’s largest companies? From the beginning, the importance of Hall’s discovery was recognized by businessmen of the day. In 1888, a group of Pittsburgh businessmen agreed to put up $50,000 to build a plant for what was then called the Pittsburgh Aluminum Company. They recognized that a cheap process to produce aluminum would have a major impact on the construction industry.

Before Hall’s innovation, aluminum was quite expensive. Hall and his backers knew that they needed aluminum to be seen as a common metal and not a specialty material. So they set out to achieve this goal and by 1897 the fledgling Alcoa managed to reduce the price for a pound of aluminum to $0.36 from $8. This positioned the company to  compete directly with the prevailing construction materials of the day, such as wood and steel, which paved the way for Alcoa’s success.

THE NEXT ALCOA? Looking at Alcoa in relation to Obama’s small business summit in Cleveland, one has to ask, of all the new companies that have been started recently, which ones will be talked about in 125 years as not only changing, but also creating an entirely new industry? One might say the tech boom was just that. We have yet to see if Facebook and Twitter will create the same amount of jobs that Alcoa does. Currently there are around 59,000 employees, at Alcoa (123 years old) compared to about 2,000 at Facebook (seven years old) and some 350 at Twitter (five years old).

So, we’d like you to tell us. What company do you think is or will be the next one born from an industry-changing innovation?

On March 1, Alcoa CEO Klaus Kleinfeld sits down with Global Editor-at-large Chrystia Freeland as part of our Thomson Reuters Newsmaker event “Thriving in the New Global Economy.”

WHO IS KLAUS KLEINFELD? Kleinfeld, 53, was born in Bremen, Germany. He studied at the University of Goettingen, where he earned a master’s degree in business administration, and the University of Wuerzburg, where he gained a PhD in strategic management.

Before joining Alcoa in 2007, Kleinfeld had a 20-year career with the global electronics and industrial conglomerate Siemens. From January to December of 2000 he served as COO of Siemens’ U.S. subsidiary, Siemens Corporation. From 2002-2004 he held the position of President and CEO of Siemens Corporation. From 2004 to January 2005, Kleinfeld sat on the Managing Board of Siemens AG, and from January 2005 to June 2007, he served as CEO of Siemens AG.

In October 2007, Kleinfeld joined Alcoa as President and COO, a position which he held until May 2008. Since that time, he has served as the company’s President and CEO. In April 2010, he was elected company Chairman. He is also currently the only management representative on Alcoa’s board.

In addition to his position at Alcoa, Kleinfeld is a former Citigroup board member and a current member of the Supervisory Board of Bayer AG. He also sits on the Board of Directors of The Comittee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy, serves as Vice Chair of the Partnership For New York City, and sits on the Brookings Institution Board of Trustees. In addition, Kleinfeld is the current Chairman of the U.S.-Russia Business Council. He wrote “Corporate Identity und strategische Unternehmensführung” (Corporate Identity and Strategic Management).

ALCOA Alcoa was formed in 1888 and is the world’s leading aluminum producer. In 2009, Alcoa reported revenues of $18.4 billion. It currently sits at #630 on the Forbes list of the top 2000 global companies. Alcoa employs about 59,000 people and operates in 31 countries.

When Klaus Kleinfeld sits down with Reuters on March 1, what are you hoping to hear him talk about, and what would you like us to ask him?

Apple COO Tim Cook stepped firmly from behind the tech company’s curtain and onto the center stage that has been the virtual sole  domain of his famously inventive boss, Steve Jobs.

Jobs, Apple’s legendary CEO, is taking an indefinite medical leave and that has many pundits wondering, what’s next?

Jobs is more than just another executive. He is the creative power behind market- and even culture-changing products like the iPod and iPad. Much of Apple’s success can be directly attributed to its charismatic chief.

So what happens if he’s no longer in the picture?

Cook isn’t exactly new to Apple, or to the tech industry — he spent considerable time at IBM and Compaq before joining Apple in 1998. He’s been with the company long enough that there’s no doubt he can handle the top job, a role he is already doing in Jobs’s absence.

This Reuters newsmaker on Cook sheds some light on his background and history with the company but it’s fair to say that Jobs has faith in Cook, after all he did give Cook the number two job.

On March 1, Reuters Global Editor-at-large Chrystia Freeland sits down with McKinsey & Company Global Managing Director Dominic Barton. In anticipation of the event, here’s some helpful background on Barton and McKinsey:

Barton grew up in a small town in Canada. Out of his high school class of 200 students, Barton was one of just six to go on to attend college. Barton graduated from the University of British Columbia and went on to study at Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes scholar and received an MPhil in Economics. He came back to Canada and joined McKinsey in their Toronto office in 1986. In 2000, he was given the chance to lead McKinsey’s office in Korea and decided to take the offer despite being told by many mentors not to take it. He was so successful in his role, that in he then became the chairman of Asia, based in Shanghai, from 2004 to 2009.

In his 24 years with McKinsey, Barton has advised clients in a wide range of industries, ranging from financial sector reform to technology to public and private governance. Barton was named the as one of the National Associations of Corporate Directors list of 100 most influential people in corporate governance. He wrote “China Vignettes: An Inside Look at China” and is also co-author of “Dangerous Markets.”

McKinsey, founded in 1926, is the world’s leading management consulting firm. According to Forbes, McKinsey was the world’s 43rd largest privately held company in 2010. They deal with companies in industries ranging from automotive and telecommunications to travel and entertainment. In addition to their consulting business, they also publish the business journal “McKinsey Quarterly” and run the McKinsey Global Institute, the company’s economics research arm.

So, when one of the leaders of one of the world’s biggest consulting firms sits down with Reuters on March 1, what would you like us to ask him?

It’s as if the credit crisis never happened. Despite being one of the most vilified professions on the planet, investment bankers are taking charge of some the world’s largest financial institutions. The promotions are not as barmy as they may seem. But if regulators and investors get their way, the new bosses will quickly need to learn some old-fashioned retail banking skills.

The latest name in the frame is Andrea Orcel, one of the leading contenders to take the top spot at UniCredit . If he lands the job, the Merrill Lynch dealmaker be the third investment banker to be appointed CEO of a large European lender in a month,following the promotions of Stuart Gulliver at HSBC and Bob Diamond at Barclays .

Other investment bankers who have risen to the top since the crisis include Oswald Gruebel, the former Credit Suisse boss now in charge of UBS; Royal Bank of Scotland chief Stephen Hester; and Vikram Pandit, the ex-Morgan Stanley executive who runs Citigroup . None of these six giant institutions was previously run by an investment banker.

Though the promotions may horrify some politicians, they are not without logic. Investment banking remains a large and profitable business for most banks. Barclays Capital generated four-fifths of its parent’s pre-tax profit in the first half. At HSBC, the investment bank accounted for half the total.

Senior investment bankers who have survived so far also tend to have a good understanding of markets and risk management. Diamond and Gulliver were instrumental in steering their employers through the crisis. Those skills are equally important today.

Many assume that the new chiefs will look to expand their old empires. This looks unlikely. Investment banks are already being squeezed by higher capital charges and new rules that will make trading businesses less profitable. Volumes are also slowing: analysts at Morgan Stanley reckon that most investment banking divisions earned a post-tax return on capital of just 5-10 percent in the third quarter.

Investors would prefer most banks to shift the balance towards retail and commercial banking, where returns are less volatile. Barring another boom, the rise of the investment bankers may signal the high water mark for their trade.

The mascots for the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics, Wenlock and Mandeville, have been revealed and if you’re like me, you’re wondering what exactly are they?

What we know for sure: they’re metallic, have one eye each and no visible feet.

They also have an official website, and are on twitter — although with hands shaped like mittens, it could be difficult to tweet.

Organiser’s for the London Games say the mascots will be hit a with kids — and why not? Doesn’t every child crave a toy moulded from steel left over from the last girder on the Olympic stadium?

The question is, what do you think of Wenlock and Mandeville? How do they represent London, the UK or the Olympics in general?

The 2012 Olympic mascot Wenlock (L) and Paralympic mascot Mandeville pose for photographers in the playground at St. Paul’s primary school in London May 19, 2010. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett