LEADERSHIP STYLE

THOMAS EDISON
 Want To Save The World.... ??
Yes??

Start Thinking Like Thomas Edison……

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One eighth of the wealth of the
world can be traced back to the
ideas of this prolific inventor.
Once named by Life magazine as
the single most important
individual of the past thousand
years..

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○ We’ve all heard of Thomas Edison, the iconic inventor, businessman and
game changer, regularly mentioned alongside other great minds such as
Henry Ford, Steve Jobs and Albert Einstein.
○ During his lifetime, he created some of the world’s most famous inventions.

We all know Thomas Edison as an Inventor…….

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The History Of Thomas Alva Edison

○ Thomas Edison was born in Milan, Ohio in February 11, 1847.

○ Grew up in Port Huron, Michigan.
○ He was the seventh and last child of Samuel Ogden Edison and Nancy
Matthews Elliott .
○ His father had to escape from Canada because he took part in the
unsuccessful Mackenzie Rebellion of 1837 .
○ The family moved to Ontario (then called Upper Canada) from Nova Scotia.

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Education Career
.
Invention
.
.

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EDUCATION

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○ Thomas Edison was a very hyperactive kid in his youth.
○ His persistent questioning and seemingly self-centered behavior did not
work well with the other children at school.
○ Thomas stayed in school for about 12 weeks until his overworked and short
tempered teacher lost his patience with him.
○ The teacher noted that Thomas Edison’s forehead was considerably larger
than average, and considered him an addle-brained individual.
○ He was expelled from the school by teachers saying, he is MENTALLY
DEFICIENT
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○ Later he was taught by his mother.
○ Then he starts to show interests in his
studies.
○ Much of his education came from reading
R.G. Parker's School of Natural
Philosophy and The Cooper Union for the
Advancement of Science and Art.
○ Edison was a voracious reader, and his
ability to read and process large quantities
of printed information contributed greatly
to his success.
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CAREERS

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○ At the age of 12, after convincing his parents that he was ready to work,
Thomas Edison began making money by selling sweets and newspapers on
trains that frequently ran between Port Huron, Michigan, and Detroit.
○ At 14, he obtained the exclusive right to sell newspapers on the road, with
the aid of four assistants, he set in type and printed the Grand Trunk Herald,
which he sold with his other papers.

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Young Edison, printing his
Grand Trunk Herald in a
baggage car of the Grand
Trunk Railway.

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○ This began Edison's long streak of entrepreneurial ventures, as he
discovered his talents as a businessman.
○ Thomas’ mini-publishing venture made him more than enough money to
provide for his support.
○ He had spent most of his extra income supplying the chemical laboratory
that he set up in the basement of his parents’ house.
○ His usually patient and easy-going mother finally complained about the
stench and danger of all the chemical equipment, and he was forced to
transfer most of it to a locked room in the basement. The rest was put in a
storeroom room on the train.

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○ Edison used to conduct chemical
experiments in the station.

○ But one time he was held

responsible for a near collision in the
station and that made him to quit
the job.

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○ On a summer day of 1862, while Edison was on a train he saw a child
wandering around the train tracks in front of an oncoming boxcar. Without a
second thought, Thomas flung himself towards the helpless kid, pushing him
and himself out of the way of the oncoming train.
○ The kid just happened to be the son of stationmaster James MacKenzie, who
rewarded Edison’s heroism by helping him master the Morse code and the
telegraph.

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○ MacKenzie apprenticed Edison,
providing him with his first
telegraphing job as an operator for
the local Western Union in Port
Huron.

○ Edison was often fired for

misbehaving, or not being an
excellent telegrapher.

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○ In 1864, Edison created what he vowed to be his first authentic invention. It
was called an “automatic repeater,” and was merely a device that made it
easier for operators to translate Morse code messages at their speed and
convenience.
○ After four years on the road, Thomas A. Edison returned home scruffy and
penniless.
○ Within days, Edison landed a job at a relatively high-status Western Union
Company in Boston.
○ On October 11, 1868, it was at the factory that Edison designed his first
patented invention: an electric vote recorder for speeding up the voting
process in the legislature by pressing one of the two available buttons.
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At age 21, he had already
patented the first of 1,093
inventions in the United
States.
Edison did not simply set out
to build a better candle; he
wanted to find a whole new
way to illuminate the
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○ He was issued U.S. Patent 90,646 on June 01, 1869.
○ Eventually, Edison’s time in Boston left him deeply in debt and close to be
dismissed by Western Union for not being focused on the job and “doing too
much moonlighting.”
○ In 1870, Edison moved to Newark, California to run numerous telegraph
manufacturing workshops where he supervised personnel and gained a
reputation of a demanding employer

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○ From the 1870’s through the 1920’s Edison’s laboratories at Menlo Park,
New Jersey combined knowledge, resources and talented collaborations to
turn ideas into commercial products.
○ His laboratories introduced new products on a regular basis and his
invention formula shifted from talented individuals working alone to
organized groups working in laboratories, established specifically for
industrial research and development.
○ He created a development center to improve his old inventions and create
new.
○ His inventions made the modern age possible.

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○ As a measure of how Edison
changed the world, consider this,
○ “When he was born in 1847,
there were no industrial research
laboratories, no phonographs, no
motion picture cameras, and no
electric power systems, let alone a
practical electric light.”
○ -Says John Keegan, President
and CEO of the Edison Innovation
Foundation.
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INVENTIONS

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Electrographic Vote-recorder (1869)

○ Record votes in a more timely

fashion electronically

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Phonograph (1877)

○ Records sound
○ Music can be recorded
○ Paves the way for
telephone

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Carbon telephone microphone (1877)
○ Edison invented and developed the carbon
microphone used In all telephones.

○ This is the microphone

○ The carbon microphone was also used in

radio broadcasting and public address
systems.

○ This is where the microphone would be

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Electric Light Bulb (1878)

○ Enabled industry to grow as never before.

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Magnetic Ore-separator (1880)
○ Used to separate iron from the iron ore.

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The Electric Power Meter (1881)
○ Used to measure the consumption
of electricity

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Kinetoscope (Motion Pictures)
○ The Black Maria (1893)
○ Paved the way for movies

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Alkaline Battery for Electric Cars (1899)

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Concrete House (1908)

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Pneumatic Stencil Pen (1911)

○ Tattoo gun -- the pneumatic stencil pen.

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Leadership Qualities of
Thomas Alva Edison

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Kaleidoscopic Thinking
○ Edison was able to generate a vast range of ideas and to consider many
problems at once, each from multiple angles.
○ Diversifying the products in the laboratories allowed Edison to apply ideas
and concepts from one invention to another.

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Solution-centered Mindset
○ He believed his success was inevitable
○ It allowed him to embrace seemingly fantastic goals.

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Full-spectrum Engagement
○ No matter what he was doing, he was fully engaged.
○ Edison discovered an optimal rhythm to facilitate amazing stamina and high
performance

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Positive thinker

“ I have not failed.. I have just invented

10000 substances that cannot be used
as a bulb’s filament..”

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Super-value Creator
○ Innovator
○ He always finds values in everything and tries to generate more value from it.

○ Used wax-paper for the invention of kinetoscope.

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Ethics

○ All his inventions was indented for the upliftment of life of people

“ I never invented something to kill people”

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Inspirational

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Leadership Type of
Thomas Alva Edison

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 Inspirational
Motivation

Idealized Transformational Intellectual

Influence Leadership Stimulation

Individual
Consideration Contoso Ltd.
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Leadership Style of
Thomas Alva Edison

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Entrepreneur Leader
○ He was certainly an ingenious scientist. Rather than that, he had a grander
entrepreneurial vision.
○ Unlike other solo inventors, he was the one who successfully
commercialized inventions.
○ He manufactured and marketed his inventions in Europe, North and South
America, and Asia.
○ He have 1093 patents in his name
○ Heavily reliant on globally resourced raw materials and skilled workers, he
was also influenced by the ideas and concepts of an international
community of scientists and researchers.

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Cont..
○ There was a global public eagerly awaited his latest invention.
○ These talents eventually led him to found 200 companies, including General
Electric, still one of the largest publicly traded companies in the world.
○ When he died in 1931, the New York Times estimated the worth of his
inventions.. It was around..

$15 billion

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Conclusion

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Thank You
Sudarsan Subramanian
Pramudha N.M