It is always an individual who is the impetus for innovation; the details may be worked out by a team, but true innovation results from the enterprise and unique perception of an individual.

In the world where nothing is static and new innovations roll out every day, the innovative mind is severely taxed. It produced ideas and theories and philosophy, which then reviewed and corroborated by his team and subsequent batch of intellects. Therefore, I agree with the author’s proposition that it is the individual who is the impetus for innovation. No one has ever underestimated the importance of solitude and the ability of the human brain when it searches solutions to a problem. As we observe in millions of poems which are written by solitary creative minds, millions of structures designed by architects who visualize the structure and leave the rote work to their teams, we must wonder what these greatly differing branches have in common.

Humans have always sought challenges which require intense use of their ability and their brainpower. This has evidence in history too, where hundreds of disciples of Socrates and Plato wrote treatises on what originally was taught to them by their teacher. Similarly, all major works of art are produced without collaboration. Leonardo da Vinci, the great philosopher and inventor was infact known for his extreme unsociability. Most creative minds believe that it is their ability that will produce results and they do not want their original views to be biased by those of others. It is said that there is great similarity between the works of Shakespeare and his contemporaries, which has started speculations of they being inspired from each other; however, not one speculative study indicates collaborative activity between the contemporaries. Wherever help was required, inspiration was drawn from the enlightening predecessors.

In modern times where we see enterprises flourishing every day, most have very few partners and the executor is usually only one person who had the unique idea. It is sometimes the egocentricity and megalomania that distances the mind from others. In the team of Apple, Steve Jobs was the most known, partly because of his much revered showmanship, but mostly because Apple was presented as his enterprise. Similar is the story of Microsoft with Bill Gates at the helm, and so works Google with Larry Page leading and Sergei Brin not in the public picture. In the political sphere, it is widely known that the Indian Independence movement was led by Mahatma Gandhi, while his supporters carried out his vision on the smaller scale by performing the non-cooperation he espoused.

Any project requires the input of a lot of individuals. The magnitude of the project these days is astounding. However, there is a lot of routine work involved in every project. Even if this work is absolutely essential, it is usually put on the team while the individual churns out the ideas. Scientific studies indicate that if a potentially genius mind is exposed to challenges not at his level; the neural pathways responsible for his acuity weaken. Thus it is a biological necessity that a creative mind not be exposed to rote work.

Therefore, we can conclude that the enterprises of this world and the ideas were produced by a select few. These ideas were then developed and reviewed by many. It is unfortunate to judge the relative importance of the two, but I firmly believe that the individual is responsible for the innovation we now see.