What Can Project Managers Learn from Innovators with Longstanding Records of Breakthrough Innovations?

This article presents the preliminary findings from the study of the phenomenon of individual innovation in the case of outstanding innovators with longstanding records of breakthrough innovations. In sharp contrast to the conventional wisdom of innovation science emphasizing that (1) innovation is a team sport, and (2) people are good either in generating ideas (i.e., creativity) or in their implementing into practice (i.e., innovation), just to mention a few dogmas, it looks like there is a rare group of individual innovators. They possess by a unique ability to both generate great ideas and to implement them into practice in the form of new products, services, and processes by putting into place all the necessary organizational (e.g., creating a research lab as T. Edison did or many new companies as R. Branson did), human (i.e., hiring the best talent), and ‘environmental’ (e.g., changing the dominant working culture as A. Morita did when he almost rejected the traditional Japanese way of doing business at Sony) structures. This is what the phenomenon of individual innovation is all about. The findings will be presented from the point of view of project management. That is, what today’s project managers can learn from famous innovators with longstanding records of breakthrough innovations.