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The Medici Effect by Frans Johansson is all about innovation, particularly that type of innovation which occurs when two or more different disciplines, mindsets, ways of doing things, collide and new idea emerges. It seems that Frans learned that "best-selling author Paolo Coelho boosted sales in Russia by uploading a pirate copy of his book, The Alchemist," and decided this was something he would try out but in this case with the permission of his publisher. Get the free version from the Medici Effect website.

I thoroughly enjoyed the Medici Effect and it's full of engaging stories and practical ideas. As an entrepreneur I was anxious to have confirmed that nearly every new business fails a number of time before it gets it business strategy right. Frans goes on to quote Clayton Christensen from his best-selling book The Innovator's Dilemma:

Research has shown, in fact, that the vast majority of successful new business ventures abandoned their original business strategies when they began implementing their initial plans and learned what would and would not work in the market. The dominant difference between successful ventures and failed ones, generally, is not the astuteness of their original strategy. Guessing the right strategy at the outset is not nearly as important to success as conserving enough resources (or having relationships with trusted backers or investors) so that new business initiatives get a second or third stab at getting it right. Those that run our of resources or credibility before they can iterate towards a new strategy are the ones that will fail.

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Posted by: Steve Song at February 11, 2008 10:19 PM

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