The Medici Effect Blog

Diversity and competition for talent

I just want to share an example of the attempts to recruit talent to Europe, which I discussed in my previous post:

Sweden is one of the countries where the authorities have realized that we are too few to support an ageing population. Not only is there a shortage of skilled professionals – there are also too few students to fill the universities. Therefore delegates from 15 Swedish universities are now visiting Chinese schools to recruit talent to master programmes and PhD programmes back home. Other Swedish universities have taken this one step further by establishing recruitment offices in China.

If we get more gifted students from China and elsewhere the general education level will be higher and that is all very good. But it will also generate a greater mix of perspectives. This aspect is missing in the discussion, though. Instead the debate is mostly about numbers and whether foreign students should pay for their education or not. (There are no tuition fees at Swedish universities.)

In other words – there is little recognition of the potential for innovative research that this cross-pollination may bring and maybe Sweden and other countries will pay a high price for this lack of vision. In any case it will be interesting to see what this movement of students will lead to. In a few years we will know.

/Kristian Ribberström

Creating diversity in Europe

Yesterday the European Commission made decisions that will make it easier for people from other countries to enter the European Union to work. Many countries are waking up late in the global competition for talent and there will be a rather grave shortage of labour in a very near future. Because of this great efforts are made to attract skilled professionals from very distant countries and the new rules are welcomed by many.

Sadly, this discussion about the labour market is almost exclusively focused on quantity. You hardly hear anybody mention anything about the quality improvements a diverse workforce may bring. The Medici Effect identifies the movement of people as a force that generates intersections. Consequently, if there is massive international recruitment we will have perfect conditions for diversity-driven intersectional innovation on a large scale. Right now this potential is not recognized at all. This is a great loss since a better understanding of this aspect of migration might have an impact on recruiting strategies. There is an opportunity here to recruit for creativity. 

/Kristian Ribberström

Naomi Novik - novels and interactivity

To some people associative barriers do not seem to exist. Author Naomi Novik is an excellent example. Her Temeraire series is a historical fantasy series set in the Napoleonic era. This genre description may sound like a contradiction, but Novik likes to play with the idea of “what if…?” and this is a good way of finding new creative paths. In some ways the series is a conventional historical drama, but fantasy elements, like dragons, are integrated as if they were an undisputed part of European history. It is an unorthodox way of treating the fantasy novel as well as the historical novel but when she explains it in one interview it sounds very simple:

- I liked the idea of having an air force of dragons on the Napoleonic Wars. It fit very naturally as a military force, she says.

With that kind of open-mindedness it actually sounds quite easy to be innovative.

But an even more interesting intersection in Naomi Novik’s work is found on another level. She used to be a game designer before she became an author and her experience from that field gave her a method of improving her writing. Before a game is released on the market it has to be tested by beta players. Their task is simply to play the new game and to report flaws in the program. Since this concept was natural to Novik she thought it would be a good idea to do the same thing with books. Although they do not include software flaws she believes that there are always things that can be made better. Therefore she lets fans read her script before a new book is published and then she listens to their feedback.

She does not only make minor adjustments according to the beta readers’ input; she makes enormous amounts of changes and sometimes she allows herself to be pushed in new directions where she wouldn’t have gone otherwise. This interactivity has huge impact on her creative process and she is convinced that it has enabled her to write better books. Her readers obviously appreciate the stories; she is an award-winning and best-selling author and none other than Peter Jackson has bought the film rights for the Temeraire series.

/Kristian Ribberström

Sharks and express trains

Korea’s new express train KTX travels at 300 km/hour and this extreme speed calls for extreme design. Every effort has been made to reduce air resistance: Gaps have been minimized, devices under the train have been covered up and there is a sleek texture on the surface of the vehicle.

The biggest challenge, of course, was the head car. But even in cutting edge technology surprisingly simple solutions may be found if engineers are open-minded enough to diverge into another field. In this case it was biology. They realized that nature had done part of the job for them through millions of years of evolution and the front car was modelled after the perfected shape of a shark’s head.

Often nature is used as an inspiration mainly for aesthetic purposes but in this case it was function as well as form.

/Kristian Ribberström

Dolphins and elite athletes

Often inspiration for innovation comes from animals and nature but some examples are more unexpected than others. The Swedish swimming team has started a project where two of the top female swimmers, Anna-Karin Kammerling and Josefin Lillhage, will see if they can improve their skills by allowing themselves to be inspired by dolphins. Therefore they now get acquainted with these fascinating animals at Sweden’s biggest dolphinarium, Kolmården.

The idea of combining elite swimming techniques with dolphin studies sounds like something you joke about during a brainstorming session rather than something you actually realize. But they really have brought the disciplines together. Participating in the project is dolphin expert Mats Amundin whose research is partly focused on the way dolphins teach their cubs to swim. One technique they discuss is the so called “dolphin kick”. Their approach is characterized by open-mindedness and curiosity; they honestly do not know if this will lead to anything but they have decided to continue the experiment. The next step is to intersect research from the two fields further.

- If we want to develop this sport we must have the courage to explore new methods, says Thomas Johansson, the coach of the team.

The project may seem far-fetched, but the Swedish swimming team has been really successful over the last decade and the dolphin experiment is hardly a sign of desperation - it is rather a sign of confidence. And where there is confidence there is room for innovation.

/Kristian Ribberström

Doris Lessing - productivity and successful creativity

“The Nobel Prize for Literature goes to…Doris Lessing”. And then, as usual, the debate starts: Did they make the right choice? Although Lessing is widely regarded as a worthy winner there are voices of dissent. It is argued that she is too uneven; the worst novels in her enormous production are simply too bad and because of that it doesn’t really matter how good the good ones are. Luckily, the committee chose to look at it from the opposite perspective; it doesn't matter how bad the bad ones are.

Even though she crosses barriers between cultures as well as genres in her narratives I’m not going to let her exemplify intersectional innovation. However, her claimed unevenness makes her a very good example of the correlation between quantity and quality and The Medici Effect argues that those who create a lot are those who have the most significant innovative impact. Not because of the quantity itself but if someone produces many things there is a greater chance that some of them are really good. One or two may even be groundbreakingly innovative. Such is the case with Lessing’s books and originality is one of the criteria for the Nobel Prize.

“I have written an awful lot of books” she says in one interview, and concludes that nobody can be expected to like them all. And, in theory, the less qualitative of those are arguably necessary parts in the lifelong creative process that enables her to write masterpieces.

/Kristian Ribberström

Unorthodox discipline mix improves MBA education

Since 2005 Insead Business School, with campuses in France and Singapore, has successfully cooperated with Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. Groups of design students have been invited for the spring term of the MBA programme to participate in a course on product and service development.

MBA students and design students solve problems together and the collaboration is rewarding for both groups. Business students who might not have been interested in this field before have successfully applied for jobs in product development and design or innovation management. At the same time the project has generated a much greater interest for business courses among design students. MBA students also visit Art Center in Pasadena since it is believed that they can get new ideas from the design industry’s teaching and working practices.

Feedback from recruiters has also been positive and Art Center has ambitions to start similar projects with Esade Business School in Barcelona and the UCLA Anderson School of management in Los Angeles. Traditionally MBA education is focused on economics, finance and management, but since modern business is increasingly design-oriented this interdisciplinary project makes the students better prepared for the future.

Read the full story here.

/Kristian Ribberström

Optic fibres and concrete

Optic fibres have been around for a while and concrete was actually used by the Romans. But it wasn’t until 2001 that the Hungarian inventor Àron Losonczi connected the two. So, what can possibly be created at this rather far-fetched intersection?  The answer is, believe it or not, see-through concrete. Although it seems impossible the principle is, again, very simple. Somebody just had to make the connection.

More and more designers and architects are fascinated by the possibilities of this material and the demand is increasing. It is patented and manufactured under the name Litracon.

/Kristian Ribberström

Moving to Tuscany or moving Tuscany?

Can you grow grapes in Sweden? The answer is yes - if you grow them in a greenhouse. The climate in a Swedish greenhouse is comparable to the outdoor climate of Tuscany, Italy. That is why houses in Tuscany need less insulation than houses in Sweden. Can you build a house with that little insulation in Sweden? The answer, consequently, is yes - if you build it in a greenhouse.

Anders Axelsson has invested most of his spare time over the last six years in his nature house project in Sikhall in western Sweden. Basically it consists of a very normal log house and a very normal greenhouse. The unusual thing is that one is inside the other. It is a very simple concept that solves a lot of problems - the only obstacle is that it challenges our common assumptions about what a house should be like. The house is not yet finished but it is fully functional and the family has moved in.

The glasshouse reduces heating costs for the log house with 50 % and there are many other ingenious solutions for an environmentally sustainable lifestyle. The goal is maximum self-sufficiency and minimum energy consumption. Very few sacrifices are made in terms of comfort and the advantages are many. The glass protects the wood from rain, wind and UV-radiation and therefore there is no need for paint or any kind of maintenance; good for ecology, good for economy and less work. They also get a 145 square meter roof deck with a very pleasant climate about six moths of the year. In Sweden that is quite unparalleled.

As for the grapes, they have twenty different kinds around the house to choose from when it is time for breakfast.

Sometimes new energy-saving technique is bordering on science fiction. And sometimes it is so simple that the only thing that amazes you is the fact that it has not been used on a larger scale earlier. Intersectional innovation is often simple and accessible; in this case somebody just had to break down associative barriers and use old concepts in a new way.

/Kristian Ribberström

Skyscrapers and desert flowers

I visited Barcelona recently and was amazed by the highly original architecture of Antonio Gaudí. His buildings from late 19:th and early 20:th century were unlike anything people had seen before and he achieved this by exploiting the intersection of architectural design and the shapes he found in nature.

This method is very much alive today. For example, spectacular Burj Dubai, the tallest building the world that will be completed in 2008 has actually borrowed its shape from a local desert flower.

Some people like cities and skyscrapers and some don’t, but humans in general might feel more at ease if the urban world of steel, concrete and glass is designed with references to natural shapes and patterns. And flowers are pretty.

/Kristian Ribberström