Edison on Innovation: 102 Lessons in Creativity for Business and Beyond

9.8. Lesson 86: Subdivide, Delegate, Empower

In one of many contemporary news stories that peered into the workshop of the Wizard of Menlo Park, the New York Herald in January 1879 depicted what it called a reversal of the "ordinary rules of industry" at the Menlo Park complex. "At six o'clock in the evening the machinists and electricians assemble in the laboratory. Edison is already present, attired in a suit of blue flannel, with hair uncombed and straggling over his eyes, a silk handkerchief around his neck, his hands and face somewhat begrimed and the whole air that of a man with a purpose and indifferent to everything save that purpose." Carelessly attired, somewhat grimy, Edison appeared to be just another workman in the shop. As the ...