Frans Johannson, The Medici Effect

Frans Johannson, The Medici Effect ICMA 9/23/08

The keynote speech appears to be basically an update and expansion of Kuhn’s “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions” (without attribution), although I assume this has been expressed in a number of theories.

Some major points:

-“Intersections” -Develop new ideas from combining ideas from various perspectives (fairly obvious and well documented by others)

-“Diversity drives innovation”. (Diversity of everything, ideas etc.)

-A point I continue to try to keep in mind and emphasize

-All new ideas are combinations of existing ideas (include his)

-Diverse Teams see things differently (again, obvious and something I emphasize)

-Innovative Teams generate and execute more ideas (maybe, maybe not, I wouldn’t necessary disagree, it depends on the team and organization)

His process for innovation:

-Look for information from other fields and “dare to explore the connections”

-Leverage existing diversity

-Ignite an “explosion of ideas” by listening to all persons etc. (again, all a good reminder)

He used the story of the “pit crew” on a race car, which is a good picture of some of his points

-Create a renaissance of ideas by using the diverse elements of the city.

-Find and use connections between the City, business and education

-Try as many ideas as you can.

-Use diversity of all kinds to find unexpected connections.

Overall, I feel this speech reminded me of some good points, but presented little new information that isn’t already well presented. The “medici effect” may be a good gimmick, and a good reminder, but overall I found it disappointing that he merely dressed up some old ideas.