Frans Johansson

Author, The Medici Effect

There are many ways to view an intersection. Most people think of automobiles, traffic lights and a tendency for short bursts of chaos. There are some however, like Frans Johansson, who view intersections as something much more powerful than a system for avoiding crashes on the roadways.

"Intersections are places where ideas from different fields and cultures meet and collide, igniting an explosion of extraordinary new discoveries," says Johansson. He believes that today's greatest innovators are likely found lingering and learning at the intersections of diverse disciplines: biology, math, business, art, politics.

In his successful book, The Medici Effect, Johansson gives dozens of examples that can help today's innovators see light in dark places. He recounts the meeting of a telecommunications engineer and an ecologist, or as he says, "ants and truck drivers." At this intersection, the ecologist explains how ants and other social insects search for food, which the engineer then applies to the problem of routing telecom messages.

"Out of that meeting (and years of research), came an entirely new field of study called swarm intelligence," Johansson explains. "It helped create methodologies that have been used in everything from helping truck drivers find their way around the Swiss Alps to helping unmanned aerial vehicles search for terrorists in Afghanistan."

The Ivy League educated entrepreneur has had his share of success and failure and is not shy about either. In fact, a good portion of the book discusses the important role that failure can play in innovation and how to succeed in the face of it.

After he was forced to shutdown a software company he founded, he moved to New York City, and began writing The Medici Effect. When the book was published, he'd burned through his savings, maxed out his credit cards and had $2.45 to his name.

"I remember exactly," he tells. "I had a $1 bill in my wallet and $1.45 in my money market account!" Out of the ashes came a smash hit and a career revitalized by the hard knocks lessons of business and life.

Johansson is a regular speaker and consultant to a long list of major corporations. His work is not just theoretical storytelling—he focuses on the real challenge of execution. While he spends much time on how innovators can choose and pursue relevant intersections, he also points out that "you have to prepare for failure, you have to be able to break away from your established networks, and you have to manage risks differently."

While others in the field have begun to question the legitimacy of brainstorming, believing it to be too haphazard, Johansson sees it as a critical innovation technique that simply needs to be managed correctly. His book is riddled with thought provoking nuggets demonstrating the purpose and value of individual and group brainstorming.

Johansson says there is much to consider on the subject of intersections and taking ideas from concept to reality. "It's not enough just bring together people with different backgrounds, cultures and disciplines and put them all in the same room," he explains. "It helps to have a stated goal, an agenda or a facilitator. You must actively explore the intersection."

Johansson helps develop tactics to "learn as many things as possible without getting stuck in a particular way of thinking about those things."

In the face of globalization, the convergence of scientific disciplines and the increase of raw computational power, it's possible to make great competitive leaps by harnessing the intersection. And if you're curious about the title of the book, Johansson explains that "it alludes to what the Medici family accomplished in Florence during the 1500s: they sponsored people from lots of different disciplines — architects, painters, sculptors, philosophers, scientists — from all over Europe, even actually as far away as China, and brought them all together in Florence."

"It's through their interactions that Florence essentially became the epicenter of one of the most creative eras in European history—the Renaissance."

The evidence and experience of histories, both ancient and recent, make for great reading and for clients, the basis of potentially great strategy. Reflecting on his own work and how it has impacted his life, Johansson laughs, "I can't help but to see intersections everywhere—and that's pretty cool."