The Medici Effects by Frans Johansson

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When we were given the opportunity to review a book that related to our entrepreneurship class I had one goal in mind, I wanted to find an author that was not the typical writer. I did not want a sixty-five year old professor who would give me dry explanations about theories and business models that I had covered in class. Frans Johansson was raised in Sweden and received his bachelor’s in Environmental Science then earned his MBA. Johansson was just what I had been searching for, someone who was applying concepts in ways that would help me throughout my own career.
The book’s title The Medici Effect makes reference to one of the most innovative and creative families that have existed in history; their influences can still be seen to this day. In the introduction the author talks about Peter’s Café that exists in Horta, a port city in the Azores islands. This is a cultural crossroad between various backgrounds where ideas are shared. Johansson refers to this location as the “Intersection,” the book’s core is that we must incorporate physical destinations like this into our everyday thought processes. Johansson walks the reader through attaining this goal by presenting different cases where people got to the “Intersection” and achieved new ideas that were only possible thanks to the work they did with fresh fields.
Mathematicians, medical doctors, neuroscientists, computer scientists, and a monkey are sitting in a room, they figure out how to remap the brain of paralyzed patients. This is no joke and was done by a team of researchers in 2002 at Brown University. Before a study like the aforementioned came along many would have ask what do a mathematician and a neuroscientist have in common. This is Johansson’s point; we have t...

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... book to those that have a entrepreneurial drive but also to those entering nearly any field. All fields are changing over time, formulas may stay the same and chemical properties will remain the same but new technologies or ways to get to the answers are always emerging. That is one of the points that this text strives to make, everyone need innovation and it is a skill that takes practice. This text was an easy read that laid out a step-by-step program in changing one’s future perspectives on problems they may combat. Johansson explains each topic in depth so that someone who is just starting from ideation can pick up his book and start to think differently. While also explaining topic ideas in detail there are also cases in each section that help supplement key ideas. These cases show how past companies have succeeded and failed through each stage of the method.

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