The Medici Effect: What Elephants and Epidemics Can Teach Us About Innovation

224 Pages·2006·0.69 MB·English

by  Frans Johansson

The Medici Effect
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The
Medici Effect
WHAT ELEPHANTS AND EPIDEMICS
CAN TEACH US ABOUT INNOVATION
Frans Johansson
HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL PRESS
Boston, Massachusetts
Copyright 2006by Frans Johansson
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
10–09–08–07–06——5–4–3–2–1
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in, or introduced into a re-
trieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior permission of the publisher.
Requests for permission should be directed to [email protected] or
mailed to Permissions, Harvard Business School Publishing, 60Harvard Way, Boston,
Massachusetts 02163.
ISBN: 1-4221-0282-3
ISBN13: 978-1-4221-0282-4
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data forthcoming.
To my parents
For supporting every idea I’ve decided to pursue

Contents
Acknowledgments—xi
Introduction—1
PART ONE
The Intersection
one
The Intersection—Your Best Chance to Innovate—11
Monkeys and Mind Readers
two
The Rise of Intersections—21
The Sounds of Shakira and the Emotions of Shrek
PART TWO
Creating the Medici Effect
three
Break Down the Barriers Between Fields—35
Sea Urchin Lollipops and Darwin’s Finches
vii
viii Contents
four
How to Make the Barriers Fall—45
Heathrow Tunnel and Restaurants Without Food
five
Randomly Combine Concepts—61
Card Games and Sky Rises
six
How to Find the Combinations—73
Meteorite Crashes and Code Breakers
seven
Ignite an Explosion of Ideas—89
Submarines and Tubular Bells
eight
How to Capture the Explosion—103
MacGyver and Boiling Potatoes
PART THREE
Making Intersectional Ideas Happen
nine
Execute Past Your Failures—119
Violence and School Curricula
ten
How to Succeed in the Face of Failure—127
Palm Pilots and Counterproductive Carrots
eleven
Break Out ofYour Network—143
Ants and Truck Drivers
Contents ix
twelve
How to Leave the Network Behind—153
Penguins and Meditation
thirteen
Take Risks and Overcome Fear—161
Airplanes and Serial Entrepreneurs
fourteen
How to Adopt a Balanced View of Risk—171
Elephants and Epidemics
fifteen
Step into the Intersection … —183
and Create the Medici Effect
Notes—191
Index—201
About the Author—207