Too many cooks and not enough leadership?

Some of the greatest inventions in U.S. history were the result of very small groups. Chester Carlson and the Wright Brothers come to mind. On the other side of the coin, one can have armies of workers, as was the case with BP.

Some of the post-mortem is of interest. From CNN:

BP said its team aboard the doomed oil rig Deepwater Horizon "incorrectly accepted" results of a negative pressure test aboard the rig before the blast, but the company's internal report assigns much of the blame to rig owner Transocean and cementing contractor Halliburton. The three companies have repeatedly pointed fingers at each other since the explosion, which killed 11 workers and resulted in an estimated 4.9 million barrels (205 million gallons) of oil spilling into the Gulf. (...) Multiple companies, work teams and circumstances were involved over time."

Of BP's people:

BP acknowledged that its team leaders aboard the rig should not have accepted the results of a key test of the cement seal on the well shortly before the explosion. Those well site leaders -- the "company men" aboard the rig -- have refused to appear before a Coast Guard-Interior Department board investigating the disaster, with one invoking his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination and the other citing illness.