Importance of Teamwork

"Businesses and other organizations have overemphasized the importance of working as a team. Clearly, in any human group, it is the strong individual, the person with the most commitment and energy, who gets things done."

Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the opinion stated above. Support your views with reasons and/or examples from your own experience, observations, or reading.

Have businesses and other organizations really overemphasized the importance of working as a team? Who really gets things done? A strong-willed individual or a team? I feel that such an emphasis is not unwarranted and totally justified: working in a team is of paramount importance. 

The basic reason that the team is important is that you cannot run a business or an organization alone- no matter how brilliant, strong or talented you are. True, it is often an individual who thinks of an idea or who pushes through revolutionary changes. There is no substitute for brilliance. Nevertheless, lasting success comes to a business only if all the stakeholders contribute and feel valuable. Moreover, any robust business or organization cannot afford to be dependent on any one individual if it has to deliver value consistently. One also needs to remember that an organization needs several talented people to work in unison to achieve any kind of success. For example, an organization may need engineers, accountants, lawyers, product managers, sales professional and marketing professionals. It is not possible for one strong individual to be able to either do or drive all of these functions alone.

A good example I can think of is of Mr. Thain, the erstwhile CEO or Merrill Lynch, about whom I read recently in Financial Times. The investment bank hired him as they thought him to be a capable leader as he had turned around NYSE. He tried to raise funds based on his personality and projected himself as the "face of the company". Although the strategy worked initially, it upset many key team members who thought they were working as hard and deserved recognition. This finally culminated into his key executives resigning from the company. Further, Mr. Thain's autocratic decisions caused significant losses to the organization. Finally, Bank of America acquired  the company and Mr. Thain was soon dropped unceremoniously (after he refurbished his office of $1.2 million). The incident clearly shows the pitfalls of not being able to work in a team and being dependent on a brilliant but headstrong individual. More often than not, the personal hubris of such strong individuals leads to the downfall of the business. Then, why should the businesses not overemphasize the importance of team work?

Another example that is relevant is of Microsoft and Apple. One can argue that one talented designer of Apple has produced more beautiful products than a hundred industrial designers of Microsoft. True. What is also true, however, is that Microsoft has been a more successful organization than Apple. Even without Bill Gates, Microsoft has ploughed on. Apple, on the other hand, may find it tough to survive (like it did) without Steve Jobs. Relying on one single individual is not a good thing for a company.

Jim Collins in his book good to great emphasizes on having "leaders" and not just one strong "leader" if company has to succeed. After spending more than five years in the corporate world, I could not agree more. Works of art, consulting or may be even being a lawyer may absolve certain professions from giving any importance to team work. However, if one is working in a business that needs more than one kind of people to operate, success is not possible without teamwork.