Frans Johansson

Frans Johansson, entrepreneur, speaker and author of The Medici Effect, has electrified audiences around the world with his message of innovation through diversity of industries, fields, cultures and perspectives and inspired people everywhere to change their organizations and the world around them. His dynamic style, innovative use of multi-media, and exciting case studies will give your audience the skills and inspiration to change their lives, their organizations and the world in an unforgettable and passionate presentation. Johansson demonstrates how to find ground-breaking ideas by combining different fields and cultures; explains why diversity drives innovation; describes how to make innovative ideas happen; and teaches how to think differently about the risks involved in all of these processes. The Medici Effect, considered one of the best books on innovation and named one of the top 10 best business books by Amazon.com, looks at how individuals, teams and organizations can create an explosion of remarkable ideas at the intersection of different fields, cultures and industries. Johansson has been living at the Intersection most of his life; he was a founder of both a Boston-based software company and a medical device company, and has written articles on healthcare, information technology and the science of sport fishing. He has been featured on CNN’s AC360, ABC’s Early Morning Show, and CNBC’s The Business of Innovation series along with Jack Welch and Muhammad Yunus.

TOPICS

The Medici Effect: Ground-Breaking Innovation at the Intersection of Disciplines and Cultures
What do goat milk, spiders, and fishing lines have in common? Music records and airlines? Ant behavior and telecommunications routing? Most of us would assume nothing. But out of each of these seemingly random combinations has come radical innovations that have created whole new fields. In this talk, Frans Johansson takes us on a fascinating journey to the Intersection: a place where ideas from different fields and cultures meet and collide, ultimately igniting an explosion of extraordinary new innovations. See how companies become global leaders, how products and services yield huge margins, how researchers, managers and artists outdo their peers.

Diversity Drives Innovation
The world is changing fast. Today more people than ever move between cultures and countries. Companies, cities, even nations, must compete on a global basis just to stay even. In this world, diversity has become a key driver for innovation. Johansson explains how today’s most innovative companies form culturally diverse talent pools and teams as a specific strategy to innovate. These companies have become #1 brand leaders, R&D centers—and very profitable. In this program, Frans clearly and persuasively shows what happens when different cultures collide and ignite an explosion of extraordinary new ideas and discoveries.

Diversity Drives Innovation Part II: Use the Power of Diverse Teams to Build, Change and Grow Your Business
A follow up session to the Diversity Drives Innovation, Frans Johansson will show how organizations can use diverse teams to connect diversity to your business, break down silos and brings out the best that everyone has to give to any challenge or opportunity. After this session people walk away energized and equipped with tangible tools, simple strategies and a proven process to create and manage diverse teams that are directly relevant to your company’s success. It reveals each person’s innate imagination and changes the way they use it, giving everyone more confidence, improved productivity and better collaborative skills that make a difference to the bottom line.

Innovative Leader: How to Break Out of the Pack
Whether you’re facing a challenge, threat or opportunity, it takes new thinking, creative ideas and collaboration if you want to survive, thrive or compete in today’s business world. Learn how to be seen as an innovative leader in your company. It doesn’t take a new budget, space age thinkers or wildly creative types. You already have what you need. Gain a fresh perspective on what innovation is and isn’t, how it happens and, more importantly, discover how you can develop your own creative and innovative abilities to meet any challenge and make a difference.

Full Biography

Frans Johansson is an author, speaker and entrepreneur. The Medici Effect was named one of the best innovation books of the year by several organizations and was selected as one of the top 10 best business books by Amazon.com. It has been translated into 17 languages.

The book looks at how individuals, teams and organizations can create an explosion of remarkable ideas at the intersection of different fields, cultures and industries. Frans has been living in the Intersection most of his life; he was a founder of both a Boston-based software company and a medical device company operating out of Baltimore, Maryland and Stockholm, Sweden. He has written articles on healthcare, information technology and the science of sport fishing. He has been featured on CNN’s AC360, ABC’s Early Morning Show, and CNBC’s The Business of Innovation series along with Jack Welch and Muhammad Yunus.

Frans enjoys playing Dungeons & Dragons, fishing with his father and friends and pursuing a never ending array of intersectional ideas. Raised in Sweden by his African- American and Cherokee mother and Swedish father, Frans earned his BS in environmental science at Brown University and his MBA at Harvard Business School. Frans currently resides in New York City with his wife and daughter.

Expertise:  Authors | BUSINESS | Change | Innovation | Leadership