The medici effect: breakthrough insights at the intersection of ideas, concepts, & cultures

The Medici Effect: Breakthrough Insights at the Intersection of Ideas, Concepts, & Cultures
Frans Johansson, in this book, presents himself as one of the leading innovators and entrepreneurs of all times. To prove this, his book was listed among the top ten best-selling books by Amazon. com. In this book, he comprehensively indicates how innovation and best ideas result from collaboration between people with diverse skills, experiences, perspectives, expertise, background and cultures. In simple terms, Johansson believes in teamwork and business diversification. Johansson presents a number of relevant examples and give his audience what they need to understand to bring out the best from them to any opportunity or challenge.
Johansson clearly indicates that this book is not about the Medici family, but this family provided a number of exemplifies of possibilities for collaborative productivity (Johansson 3). I agree with Johansson that there are several lessons that people can learn from their community that can be of significant value to all organizations, in the 21st Century. For instance, he indicates that companies that depend on multi-disciplinary initiatives and multi-lingual communications successfully gain competitive advantage over their key rivals, in the global market. The key idea that Johansson presents in the book is “ When you step into an intersection of fields, disciplines, or cultures, you can combine existing concepts in to a large number of extraordinary ideas” (Johansson 189). Johansson is primarily interested in illustrating how organizations and people can benefit from a team that consists of people from different cultural backgrounds, skills, disciplines, ideas and knowledge.
The key issue Johansson presents, in this case, is how people can create a Medici effect. Therefore, he recommends three key objectives that people need to understand. First, he explains the exact meaning of the “ intersection” and its future benefits. Second, he explains the reason why “ stepping into the intersection creates the Medici Effect” (Johansson 102). Finally, he summarizes the challenges people normally experience when executing intersectional ideas and how to overcome these challenges. He refers to a significant intersection idea as being both innovative and creative. He clearly differentiates these ideas from directional ideas that are mere extensions, refinements and improvements of something already in existence (Johansson 18). Intersection ideas are primarily focused on opening new fields, which are usually triggered by the current changes in population, computation and science. Johansson identifies that most people usually predisposed to directional thinking when confronting challenges and problems. I find this true because most people normally concentrate on the existing ideas or problem solving methods to handle situations. According to Johansson, creative innovators are uneven, prolific and not scared by the risk of failure (Johansson 169). He also identifies that failure is one element that is significant in achieving innovative success. He recommends that an innovative environment should be designed to create a creative failure as part of necessary cost. Other behaviors, which lead to successful creativity, include taking risks, breaking away from the normal process or procedure and confronting the fear of failure (Johansson 164).
Johansson cites a number of successful creativities, which have resulted from Medici effect, and these include a Swedish chef, born in Ethiopia, who combines ingredients, in a unique way that nobody has ever done, to improve the reputation of New York restaurant (Aquavit), including himself, on the map. Another example is a young PhD mathematics student who developed a revolutionary card game, which earns the company producing it over $40 million (Johansson 63). After reading Johansson’s book, I came to realize that most people are committed to directional thinking that bars them from coming up with creative ideas. Additionally, brainstorming and working within specified time also limits the level of creative innovation. Therefore, I recommend that people should begin working, in teams comprising of people with diverse skills, knowledge, disciplinary, and from different cultural background, to create a Medici effect, which helps in inculcating creative minds and creating strong business managers.
Works Cited
Johnsson, Frans. The Medici effect: breakthrough insights at the intersection of ideas, concepts, and cultures. Boston: Harvard Business Press, 2004. Print