The Medici Effect Blog

Intersecting cultures gave birth to the Burqini

Aheda Zanetti has appeared in the media worldwide over the last year because of her innovative swimming costume The Burkini. Zanetti, who was born in Lebanon but grew up in Australia, saw a new need and a new product in the clash between Australian lifestyle and Muslim traditions: She invented The Burqini, a swimwear that is elegantly designed and covers the entire body except hands, feet and face. It is light, dries quickly and makes it easier for Muslim women to take part in beach life and swim publicly.

The Burqini has not only given Zanetti attention in the media but also customers in Europe, the Middle East and the USA. It turns out that she has solved a problem for many Muslim women around the world in a time when cultures meet and lifestyles change.

Why - one may ask - wasn’t a swimwear like this invented earlier, and in a country with a tradition of restrictions on women’s clothes? Apparently the innovator of such a product had to stand at the intersection of a culture where beach life is an integral part, and a culture with rules about appropriate clothing for women due to cultural and religious beliefs. Lebanese-Australian Zanetti did just that. The interesting thing from a business perspective, however, is that although the innovation is a result of the needs in this particular intersection, there is a demand for the product in many other parts of the world.

The Burqini case exemplifies two important points that are made in The Medici Effect: One is that we have a greater chance of finding new and valuable combinations at intersections and the other one is that “the movement of people” in the modern world is a strong force that creates new intersections.

The Burqini is made and sold by Aheda Zanetti’s label Ahiida.

/Kristian Ribberström

Connections: IT and Textiles

Glowing pillows from the Interactive Institute provides new means of communication.

The idea of having electroluminescent wire woven into the textile pattern of a pillow is original and creative in itself, but this gets even better: The pillows come in pairs and are interactive. When you touch or hug one the other one starts glowing correspondingly – even if it is located somewhere else in the world! The two pillows are connected wirelessly via a communication platform on the Internet and thus you can experience a sense of closeness over long distances.

The Interactive Institute is an interdisciplinary arena for experimental IT research and the interactive pillows is but one of many projects. They have a way of putting unexpected combinations to use in intelligent and playful ways and it is always very inspiring to see what they are up to. Check out more truly intersectional innovation at their site: Or their studio in Göteborg where the pillows were developed.

/Kristian Ribberström

Sweden: Women reduce risk of bankruptcy

New research on Swedish companies shows that at least one woman on the board of directors reduces the risk of bankruptcy with 34%! The business analysis agency UC looked at all Swedish incorporated companies with an annual turnover of at least 150,000 US dollars and with a minimum of two people on their board - all in all more than 23000 companies.

According to one analyst a reason for the differences might be that women directors are less likely to take big risks. He also says and they are usually very competent. The researchers have seen these differences before and therefore they regard female representation as a positive factor when they establish the value of a company.

It is nice to find actual figures that show that diversity leads to innovation or better decisions and this story got a lot of attention since the one aspect of diversity that is most talked about in Sweden is gender. There is constantly a debate whether female representation should be forced or not, but it is mainly seen as a matter of equality and not a matter of improving business. Hopefully these results will add something to that discussion.

It is generally believed that Sweden has come a long way compared to most other countries when it comes to equality between the sexes but only about one in five directors or board members is a woman.

/Kristian Ribberström

Enter Mr Ribbs

One more…. I have asked a friend of mine in Sweden, Kristian Ribberström, to help me blog some posts here. You will see him talking about various intersections of disciplines, cultures and fields.

Intersectional CEOs

OK – so now that I am at it … here is another post about an article I just read in Newsweek. The article highlights a growing trend – one that I believe we will see accelerate with tremendous force. Dan Gross writes that we are seeing more and more US corporations hiring foreign-born CEOs. This holds true for many different industries and among various competitors: 

In 2004, after several years of lackluster growth, Coca-Cola appointed a non-American, Neville Isdell, as CEO. Isdell's résumé reads like Graham Greene meets Good to Great: Born in Ireland, he went to work for Coca-Cola in 1966 in Zambia and had posts in South Africa, Australia, the Philippines, Germany, and the United Kingdom. He earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Cape Town, and it appears that his first full-time posting in Coca-Cola's Atlanta headquarters came in 2004, when he was named CEO.

Not to be outdone by its rival, PepsiCo—which is not a member of the Dow Jones Industrial Average but has greater revenues than Coke—bested Coca-Cola in the global diversity sweepstakes. Last fall it appointed Indra Nooyi, a woman born and educated in India, as CEO.

This trend should not come as a surprise. In fact, perhaps the biggest surprise is that it has taken so long for it to take off in the US. Globalization is roaring ahead at lightning speed but it is not enough to have people that are excellent at what they do - that is the baseline. You also need people that understand the power of different perspectives across cultures and domains.  Gross points out that:

The notion that American men who have spent their entire careers working in the United States—as is the case with the overwhelming majority of U.S. executives—are ideal candidates to lead such organizations seems increasingly out of date.

And yet, it is somewhat amazing that this crop of CEOs has risen to the top. For all the lip service paid to diversity and globalization, the corporate suites of Fortune 500 companies remain a bastion of conformity.

There are several lessons from this. First - corporations are increasingly understanding the incredibly benefits of diversity and second – they are desperately trying to understand how to leverage that diversity. The road to breakthrough innovation can be found that way. I often say that the single most important leadership skill for the next couple of decades, at least for those that wish to advance new ideas, will be how to recruit, manage and leverage diversity. In order to truly understand how to do those things successfully you must have been exposed to it. Find every opportunity you can get to do so - then step into the Intersection.

OK – setting the record straight on brainstorming

Crawling into of blogging again (and into the wider world – it’s been intense lately). What made me crawl out?  This post by Marc Andreessen and the ensuing discussions that erupted around the web because of it…

Marc wrote a post called Brainstorming Sucks and then put up a quote from my book to prove why. I really like that specific quote and in essence it talks about how brainstorming in a group tends to produce far fewer ideas than doing so individually. Brainstorming, as a technique, has been researched in at least 25 separate studies around the world and, it turns out, a group of people has never managed to outdo the same number of individuals separately trying to generate ideas. Wow. Or – to sum it up:  brainstorming must be one of the most hyped idea generation techniques in the world. 

Well – Marc’s post generated a lot of other comments around the web (such here and here ).  Many folks started smiling I am sure (as I have heard people say they did when reading that passage in the book) because they somehow recognized brainstorming’s lousy track record. How many useless brainstorming sessions have there been since the technique started spreading? Don’t know, exactly - but a lot.

Yet not everyone agreed. Some folks (such as here and here) argued that brainstorming can be very effective. Among the proponents, it turns out ... ME! Yes – indeed – only a few sentences later I talk about how effective it can get. A brainstorm done right can be insanely useful. It is the basis for how the most innovative teams get great ideas going, evolving and even executed. There are a number of ways to create super-productive brainstormers (and there are folks that focus on exactly that). In The Medici Effect I looked at some reasons for why brainstorming can be difficult to pull off – but also what you can do to make it successful. Yes - it does require a great facilitator, some prep work, and preferably some great tools (various lateral thinking techniques can be quite useful) along with a high pace and good momentum. With these things in place, however, a brainstorm will ROCK and I can’t recommend it more.

There.