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

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

by Alan Axelrod
February 2008
Intermediate to advanced content levelIntermediate to advanced
192 pages
4h 1m
English
Jossey-Bass
Content preview from Edison on Innovation: 102 Lessons in Creativity for Business and Beyond

4.1. Lesson 25: The Ideal Executive

By the second decade of the twentieth century, Edison had formulated a questionnaire for all who sought employment in his laboratories, workshops, or the executive level of his manufacturing companies. Educators and others of the era regarded the questionnaire as quirky, even perverse. And no wonder. It consisted of an almost random series of questions, such as What is the capital of Nevada? Where is the world's primary source of mahogany? In what country is Timbuctoo? Who was Desmoulins? Who was Kit Carson? Who was Blaise Pascal?

Perhaps the oddest of all the features of this questionnaire was that Edison really had no interest in whether or not a particular applicant knew any of the things he asked them. ...

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Publisher Resources

ISBN: 9780787994594Purchase book