I think we sometimes understimate the value of individuals.
We talk about synergies and team dynamics and don´t realize the flame of creativity and motivation is inside everyone of us.
I´m going to tell a story i lived with one of my clients. They were an startup of the industrial cleaning business. They had identified a new market niche and had developed a prototype of a cleaner and disinfectant. The prototype was designed working along with a design company.
The first model appeared to fulfill the needs of the customers but had a low reliability. This was a big problem for the company because one of the keys of the project was the reliability of the engines. The company took the decision of investing even more in the project. They hired an engineer exclusively to design a more reliable engine. This engineer was a young but yet experienced boy who had always enjoyed playing with engines. He was not a very famous engineer, just someone who enjoyed his work.
This engineer in just three months designed a complete reliable engine, he also designed a working system that allowed the integration of innovations in the working process, introduced more than 100 innovations and patented 5 new pieces. He also was so creative that gave birth to a complete family of products related to the first one. We can say he created an innovation and research department where there was nothing of the sort. The company even won a trial with an american company that felt their market was being invaded by the new product.
I was really amazed. That´s the difference of (just) one person. He was nobody famous or with an outstanding curriculum. He was someone who found satisfaction making up new engines for industrial cleaning.
Comments