BiF-4 Insights - Frans Johansson - Author - "Medici Effect"

Spoke briefly about the The Medici Summit.

People at the Harvard Centennial on Monday/Tuesday changed their speeches based on the financial cris, but not here at BiF:

• We view risks differently


• Innovators and Entrepreneurs

People adjust behavior to the perceived risk around them:

• Example of German taxi drivers and the introduction of anti-lock brakes


• No reduction in accidents despite this safety feature


• People drive faster, follow closer in response to this safety feature's introduction

Apple's $500 million investment in the Newton versus Palm's spending $7 million on the Palm Pilot:

• Why did Palm spend so little?


• Because that is all they had left to spend

We think we can increase success by having (or spending) more money, but we can't

• When we have more money, we spend it on trying to reduce the risk


• Strategy/Planning


• Researching if anyone else is doing it


• If they are, maybe we give up (falsely)


• What about Google? They weren't the first to do search, other people were doing similar things.

Example of three Harvard Business School graduates not ending up where they planned:

• One went from a startup to another startup to another startup (none of which succeeded)


• One went from a startup to a Strategy Consulting Firm


• One went from a Strategy Consulting Firm to Google to being retired

We can take more chances:

• Perseverence


• War option


• Passion helps us take chances

For more information on the talk, go here.