Quitting to start your own company: Tensions run high when creative employees leave to set up a business based on knowledge gained and skills honed at their previous employer

One Tuesday evening in 1979, Robert N. Donadio, a principal scientist and a 20-year veteran at Raytheon Co. in Lexington, Mass., told his immediate supervisor that he was thinking about starting up a new company with another Raytheon employee. The two intended to enter the same market as Raytheon´s, making zinc sulfide and zinc selenide windows for infrared detection systems in military aircraft.