NACE Keynote: Frans Johansson, "The Medici Effect"

Geoff wanted me to tweet, but my phone won't work.
Quick points: 1400 attendees, Tweeting at #NACE09

Frans Johanssohn's purpose was to get us thinking about connections. We have the best chance of coming up with new ideas if we step into unfamiliar territory. Companies used to last 25 - 35 years on the S&P, now it's just 10 - 15 years. Diversity of everything drives innovation. Look at these cross-disciplinary inspirations (the Medici Effect).

• Apple was inspired by candy to use colors and be "young."
• Termite mounds inspired the largest office complex in Zimbabwe without air conditioning.
• Combine bikinis and burkas and get a full length garment made of swim suit material for more comfortable swimming for conservative Muslim women.
  

How does this work?

1. All new ideas are combinations of existing ideas. (Some are better than others.)
2. Innovative teams generate and execute more ideas. Hey, we humans are pretty bad at predicting what will work in the future.

Our ability to make divergent connections decreases as we get older, except for Marie. So how do we do it?

1. Find inspiration from fields or cultures other than your own - and dare to explore the connections. (Make mistakes - most schools don't encourage it.)
2. Staff for innovation.
3. Leverage existing diversity.
4. Change the definition of FIT.
   

His examples included Marcus Samuelsson, Diverse focus groups for Lays, Volvo and women not liking opening the hood.

His recommendations . . .

• Step into the intersection and develop new ways to recruit students (My seat mate says says her president at Pepperdine wants to make Career Services the norm!)
• Diverse teams outperform quickly. Most important leadership skill is to be able create and move diverse teams.
• Plan to make mistakes.
• Think differently about risk.
• The key is passion.

USE DIVERSITY OF ALL KINDS TO TRANSFORM!