The Medici Effect Blog

Diversity as a business advantage

In a recent post I argue that the influx of Iraqi refugees to Sweden is beneficial to the country in a longer perspective; their knowledge, experience and language skills will be extremely useful as Swedish export industry need to enter into new markets. This aspect of immigration is never discussed since the short-term practical problems with integration dominate the debate about our relatively generous asylum laws.

Anyway, after I wrote that the Swedish Trade Council has identified the Middle East as one of our most important potential export markets. I just wanted to point that out since it supports my argument, doesn’t it?

/Kristian Ribberström

French Toast and Kabob

Thanks to super-cool Cat Laine, Deputy Director of super-cool AIDG (which I will write a longer and more exhaustive story on soon – their work is remarkably intersectional and very impactful). Anyway – this has nothing to do with development, technology or energy. It is a Martha Stewart recipe… 
French Toast Kabobs. Looks yummy, right? I love food, as readers of my book may have figured out – and brunch rocks.

Idea combinations in nature

This is an awesome picture of an orangutan that got a hold of a fisherman’s pole and used it to try and catch fish. It is a sight never before seen. One of the basic facts about creativity and innovation is that new ideas are really combinations of existing ideas. This holds true, whether you are human or an orangutan...
Article in the Telegraph says that:

The beguiling creatures are great imitators and having seen local people fishing with sticks they are quick to try for themselves. The orangutan used one of the fishermen's poles to try and spear the fish as they swam by but didn't quite have the necessary dexterity. Instead he used the stick to hook out fallen fruit as it floated by. Another orang used a fishing stick to pick out fish trapped in lines set by locals.

Drills, clocks and lamps

Here we go again – making smart inventions by combining old and well-known concepts is an extremely productive innovation method. The Greener Gadgets Design Competition 2008, which is arranged by the magazine Core 77, attracted many solutions of this kind. I especially like the two floorlamps Krank by Efrain Velez, and Gravia by Clay Moulton.

The design of Krank is simply a lamp combined with the form and function of an old fashioned mechanical drill. This also makes it obvious how it’s used - when you turn it manually it’s charged through magnetic induction and it lights up your room for 40-60 minutes.

Gravia is also powered by the user but in the form of potential energy. A weight is lifted and as gravity slowly pulls it downwards it powers a mechanism that generates electricity for four hours of light. And here is the intersection: The idea for Gravia comes from the wind-up principle of old clocks.

 

Products like these seem so obvious that you wonder why they haven’t been made before. But they also make you realize that there are still many connections to be made – still many intersections to step into.

/Kristian Ribberström

A very good bad idea

Yes, the exhaust burger feels wrong. But it is an intriguing combination and it really can teach us something about intersectional innovation. A basic theme in The Medici Effect is that it is beneficial for innovation to generate lots of ideas. An effective way of achieving that is to intentionally increase the number of unexpected combinations. To me this product is a highly unexpected combination.

It doesn’t really stimulate appetite, does it? But – and this is the important part – it might stimulate new ideas. Some of these may be really useful and since this invention is crazy enough to have torn down our associative barriers these new ideas are also more likely to be radical. That is why intersectional ideas often have more impact than directional ideas.

I don’t think the inventors themselves expect this tailpipe barbeque to be a commercial success but it certainly reminds us that energy is being wasted back there. Therefore it might encourage someone come up with a good way to use this heat - or to see and make use of surplus heat in some other context. Dealing with "failure" in the right way is often crucial for successful innovation. That’s why intersectional ideas are so great – even when they are "bad" they are "good".

/Kristian Ribberström

Overlapping cultures and business creativity

I wrote a post in November from Budapest where I reflected on the way Hungarian society is changing rapidly and the capital is becoming increasingly diverse. Now I am here again and I see further evidence of diversity - in my own subjective way.

Wherever I travel I have the habit of making reflections on how internationally "connected" a certain situation is. I know it sounds a bit weird but it is fun and it will give you some kind of unscientific index on how affected the place or situation is by globalization. This is an example of how it works: When I was visiting Frans in the US earlier this spring I was standing in a shop on Manhattan thinking to myself: Here I am - a Swede in New York, buying an Italian bag from a Russian shopkeeper as a gift for my Hungarian girlfriend. Several nations "involved" in that single purchase. And that is not because New York is a extreme city - you can easily see similar "chains" in places that are not nearly as big or multicultural. That is just the way modern society works.

In Hungary some ten or fifteen years ago, however, it wasn't like that. The reflection chain would be something like: Here I am - a Swede in Budapest. And that was it. Possibly with the addition drinking Danish beer (which isn't very exotic to a west-coast Swede.) Now - in 2008 - things are different. Being unable to stop this behaviour, I was thinking while having dinner the other night: Here I am  - a Swede in Budapest, drinking Mexican beer in a Persian restaurant while we are being entertained by a Turkish belly dancer (which is very exotic to a west-coast Swede) and trying to figure out if the people at the other table are from India or Pakistan. Budapest really has changed.

And here is the thing: Everytime I manage to make a "long chain" I am in a situation where I spend money - and where other people spend money. In other words there seems to be some kind of correlation between mixed national perspectives and entrepreneurship. Maybe these overlapping layers of diverse national experiences and skills automatically provide a divergence of ideas - and divergent thinking is what generates innovation. If that is true these longer chains I reflect upon is a sign of fertile soil for what we could call business creativity. Furthermore - an idea that is conventional in one place may be vital and even innovative elsewhere; a Persian restaurant will undoubtedly have less competition and higher profile in Budapest than in Teheran.

Well, this is not research - just thoughts. And I am just a Swede in Budapest. Spending my American money.

/Kristian Ribberström

Astronauts and African food markets

When Maria Nyström studied kitchens and cocking in developing countries she saw a strong connection to the living conditions for astronauts. The need to maximize the use of limited resources was what the two seemingly diverse fields had in common. Nyström, who is an architect and Professor of Sustainable Development at Chalmers University of Technology, realized that the same principles and recycling techniques that are developed for astronauts could be used here on earth. As we know by now, the resources are limited down here as well.

Even though she thought the idea had potential she didn’t believe NASA would even reply when she contacted them in 1997. But they did. Today she is responsible for Star Design (Space and Terrestrial Architectural Design) – a project where architects and designers develop equipment with focus on function and usability. The aim is to find simple solutions that can be used in space but also to improve life in developing countries. In order to understand environment issues and find the parallels between tough conditions in space and tough conditions on earth they need to work in extreme and unknown places. Therefore Nyström sends her students to Africa. It forces them to see reality and to be open-minded.

Systems for sustainable living are needed in a time with growing population and growing cities. It all comes down to smart use of resources and Nyström means that smart often means simple rather that high-tech. One of their projects is focused on using NASA technology for water cleaning and energy supply on food markets in Nigeria. Using these existing solutions may mean fewer diseases, cleaner environment and better food for many people. It is simple in a way, but it took someone like Nyström to see the intersection of space technology and poor living conditions to have that vision.

/Kristian Ribberström

The Kanzius Machine – a promising intersection

Please read this story about John Kanzius who has invented a technique that may be a very promising breakthrough in cancer research. The interesting thing is that Kanzius has no background in science or medicine. Instead he has used an existing and very basic concept - radio waves – in a new way and a field where it hasn’t been used before. Maybe he saw this possibility because he is a layman and lacks the associative barriers that experts have. In any case the intersection makes it a very good example of Medici Effect innovation.

/Kristian Ribberström

Workforce diversity mirrors the global market

In his speech at The Medici Summit Omar Hijazi, CEO of Dubai-based Tejari, pointed out that many emerging markets are underestimated by Europe and the USA. In the Middle East, Asia, Africa and South America the power to consume as well as produce is growing rapidly and very soon this will have a huge impact on the “old” industrialized countries. The general awareness of this development is surprisingly low in this part of the world.

I was reminded of this when I read an interview (Swedish) in Dagens Nyheter with Ulf Berg, CEO of the Swedish Trade Council. Berg shares Hijazi’s insight and he is very critical of the way Swedish companies are missing export opportunities simply because they lack knowledge of the emerging markets. Or, as he puts it: The problem is not the view people around the world have of Sweden – the problem is the view people in Sweden of the rest of the world. Berg believes that Swedes are too isolated and mostly associate these countries with cheap labour and low-cost production. The global development over the last ten years hasn’t affected Swedish trade much which may be a fatal mistake since the economy depends heavily on export.

I see a very strong connection to cultural diversity in the workforce here and my argument is this: One of the greatest potential benefits of diversity in a country’s workforce is that it mirrors the population, the cultures and the languages of the world - and the world is the export market. This benefit is hardly ever acknowledged.

Let me explain it with an example: Swedish immigration policies are relatively generous - partly for humanitarian reasons but also for demographic reasons. But when immigration is discussed it is mostly in the context of problems that need to be solved. One such case is a town called Södertälje. With some 80,000 people it has become the destination of 5% of all the Iraqi refugees that come to Europe. This means that Södertälje accepts more Iraqi refugees than the USA and Canada together and today there are about 100,000 people of Iraqi origin in Sweden. Because of this situation Anders Lago, the top politician in Södertälje, was invited to speak at the Congress in Washington last week. In his speech Lago acknowledged that immigrants are needed and welcome in Sweden but that responsibility for Iraqi refugees must be more evenly distributed; immigration has become a burden in his town.

However, since we are missing export opportunities because we lack knowledge of the world around us we need to look at immigration in a new way and in a longer perspective. I understand that successful integration is hard to achieve in Södertälje, but the questions we must ask ourselves are the following: Is it good or bad for Sweden to have 100,000 Iraqis in the workforce who speak Arabic and other languages? Is it good or bad to be able to harness the experiences of 100,000 people who have knowledge of traditions, tastes and values in a part of the world where we need to do business in the future? The answers to these questions are quite obvious. I think the conditions for integration would be greatly improved if this perspective was included in the discussion.

/Kristian Ribberström

Unique steel at high-tech intersection

Last spring Swedish Lamera won the aircraft industry's Crystal Cabin Awards with their lightweight steel Hybrix. It is a sandwich material that consists of microscopic steel fibres between two sheets of stainless steel.

It is thin (1-2 mm), strong and it can be processed and formed in the same ways and with the same tools as ordinary stainless steel. In fact, the only apparent difference is that it weighs about half as much.

Hybrix has been described as "magic" since it seems too thin and firm to be hollow but this story gets even better: Lamera has combined their invention with Decorex - a material developed by another Swedish steel company, Sandvik. Decorex is a steel surface processed on nano level that can be given different colours and structures. The combined material (Hybrix steel with Decorex surface) has been given the blend name Decobrix and has some really interesting properties. It is harder and lighter that aluminium despite the fact that the production is less energy-consuming; it doesn’t stain and it is insensitive to finger marks; it is aesthetic and the colour is not affected or crackled when the material is processed since it is not actually paint but an optical illusion created by the structure of the surface. No wonder this new material is also nominated for the Crystal Cabin Awards.

One obvious area of use is aircraft interiors since there is A LOT of money to save with fewer kilos in the air. (And the price of fuel is not on its way down.) But apart from that there are many potential applications. With a larger scale production the costs may be reduced and make Hybrix cheaper than ordinary stainless steel since it consists mostly of air. In that case it will be rational to use it…well, anywhere.

Hybrix itself was developed at the well-known bionic intersection of biology and engineering; the fibre structure between the steel sheets is an imitation of the hollow structure of bird bones. Once again we see proof of the innovative power of intersections. Solutions found in nature are used to achieve technological leaps and industrial research innovations are combined to create a product that is really hard to compete with.

/Kristian Ribberström

Business success with intersecting restaurant concepts

At Vapiano they want to give their customers the best of two worlds - standardized food and individual choice; quick preparation and elegant dishes. The idea behind the fastest-growing restaurant chain in Germany is the combination of McDonald’s principles and fine dining. Read the article here.

/Kristian Ribberström

H&M and Rei Kawakubo

H&M continues with their innovative formula for keeping at the forefront of fashion design for the masses – they bring in new perspectives through intersections with haute couture designers. Earlier they have produced collections designed by, for instance, Stella McCartney or Viktor & Rolf that have been loved by customers and, more importantly, the media. A press release yesterday announced that this year’s cooperation will be with Japanese designer Rei Kawakubo, founder and owner of Comme Des Garcons.

It is obvious that H&M has understood the creative and commercial value of tearing down the barriers between different styles and levels of fashion and they have successfully exploited that insight. Kawakubo is a perfect partner since she is a highly original avant-garde designer who is known for her intellectual profile and integrity. But she is also interested in the balance between creation and business and the H&M project will give her a chance to explore that. She also seems to be open-minded when it comes to unexpected connections – she is the designer that Speedo cooperated with in the development of their racer swimsuit that I wrote a post about earlier.

/Kristian Ribberström

The Burqini revisited

It has been more than a year since I heard about the Burqini the first time and it has been more than six months since I wrote a post about it. I like the story of the Burqini since it is such a great example of creativity at the intersection of cultures and I often use it to describe the mechanisms that make diversity and mixed cultural perspectives drive innovation.

Over the last months I have realized that the online discussion about this product has been gaining momentum. Opinions about it can be read on blogs about Islam, lifestyle, fashion, integration, politics, sports - you name it. In this media flow a couple of articles from Holland and Sweden caught my attention; it seems that the Burqini is actually being used in these countries and that it has made many Muslim women visit swimming pools and shores in a way that they didn’t do before. This too has caused debate - people react when they see things they haven’t seen before. Many swimming pools have rules about what you are permitted to wear in the water and often it is unclear how the Burqini should be treated in this respect. As I have mentioned before the debate on multiculturalism is continuous in European countries and the integration of Islam is far from friction free.

But friction is an inevitable part of the process that makes diversity drive innovation. If the Burqini makes people come to places where they wouldn’t have gone without it and mix with people they wouldn’t otherwise have met it may be a slow but effective tool for integration. And integration, naturally, makes it far easier to leverage diversity for innovation. Remember – it was such a mix of cultures that created the Burqini in the first place. Wouldn’t it be nice if this Lebanese-Australian invention could catalyze new diversity-driven innovation?

/Kristian Ribberström

Kites and cargo ships

Here is another example innovation through combination of existing concepts: Cargo ships equipped sails in the form of kites.

Arguably, all they have done at German Skysails is reinventing the sailing ship. But the important - and innovative - thing is that they have actually done it. Wind is free and oil is not and they claim that the can reduce oil consumption by 10 – 35% on annual average depending on wind conditions. The concept is still being developed and ships with bigger sails are under construction. This video explains it better than text.

/Kristian Ribberström

Medici Summit Video

Here is a video summarizing The Medici Summit. Already long for the next one!