What qualifies an individual to be considered a key contributor in the fields of engineering and technology? Can a great innovation be defined by the efforts of one individual? Certainly that genius has been shown in many cases. However, it is also true that significant innovations in engineering and technology are often achieved through teams of talented, driven individuals each with unique responsibilities to achieve a common goal. It is through considerable knowledge, technical abilities, brilliance, passion, and clear strong vision that an individual with effective leadership skills can drive a team to accomplish great things.

Thomas Edison is such an example. Truthfully, Edison was a key innovator and genius inventor in his own right. His innovations started as a young lad. But Edison also had the unique vision and abilities to also establish a newfound organization, a business, for technological research and product development that produced a wide variety of technological solutions. Edison learned that successful technological innovation requires considerable resources of not just genius, but more individual brains to be successful in the competitive rush for solutions and the valued patent.