Innovation through Fusion: Combining Innovative Ideas to Create High Impact Solutions 9781547401505, 9781547417766

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CJ Meadows Innovation through Fusion

CJ Meadows

Innovation through Fusion Combining Innovative Ideas to Create High Impact Solutions

ISBN 978-1-5474-1776-6 e-ISBN (PDF) 978-1-5474-0150-5 e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-1-5474-0154-3 Library of Congress Control Number: 2019949480 Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de. © 2020 CJ Meadows, published by Walter de Gruyter Inc., Boston/Berlin Typesetting: Integra Software Services Pvt. Ltd. Printing and binding: CPI books GmbH, Leck Cover image: Sakkmesterke / shutterstock.com www.degruyter.com

Praise “Innovation through Fusion is an essential guide for companies and individuals who want to think beyond disruptive innovation or incremental innovation. This book is a must-read for all innovation strategists in order to survive and thrive in this VUCA world. If you read only one book on innovation this year, make sure it’s this one.” – His Excellency Dr. Rashid Alleem, Chairman of SEWA, Author, and Award-Winner as One of the Top Nine Movers of the Islamic Economies “Innovation magic happens at intersections. Innovation through Fusion combines a diverse set of powerful stories with a practical toolkit to show how to get to those intersections and make magic happen. A worthwhile read.” – Scott D. Anthony, Senior Partner at Innosight and author of Dual Transformation and The Little Black Book of Innovation “Radical opportunities for high-value ventures can be found at the intersection of different industries, fields, markets, and new technologies. Innovation through Fusion gives you an approach to discovering these opportunities and stories to guide you toward your own launch, from some of today’s most successful entrepreneurs.” – Puneet Pushkarna, Venture Capitalist at Solmark and Chairman of Innoveo and Servion Global Solutions “An inspiring read and an empowering one! Leaders who want to build the future will have to create across boundaries—business and society, different social classes, fields, nations, technologies, and more. This book shows us the personal and professional journeys of inspiring innovators who’ve done it, as well as a framework, tools, and techniques. Required reading if you want to craft a high-impact journey, too.” – Claire Diaz-Oritz, Bestselling Author, Speaker, Angel Investor, 100 Most Creative People in Business (Fast Company), early employee at Twitter and “The Woman Who Got the Pope on Twitter” (Wired) “The Future of Work will demand that we create and perform as only humans can, while leveraging technology in new ways. Industries will converge, organizations will operate across silos, and individuals will need to perform in unique,

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high-value ways. This book provides a roadmap for how these innovators have done it, and how we can take that journey, too.” – Nicole Scoble-Williams, Future-of-Work Centre of Excellence Leader at Deloitte “While ‘fission’ helps us decipher the world around us, ‘fusion’ helps us create a new world—by uncovering opportunities and generating solutions. CJ, in her own meticulous style draws us in to uncover this subtle but powerful secret.” – Arun Sundar, CXO, Venture Advisor and Board Member, and Founder of The Social Capital Institute “These stories are moving and transformative! In the past I used to think of myself as the odd-one-out, and that feeling was accompanied with guilt and confusion. All my life I thought I was alone until I learnt about Dr. CJ Meadows’ Fusioneer theory. I remember having tears in my eyes the first time I was introduced to the concept, because I finally realized that I am special. I’ve been fusing musical styles, and my professional career(s) for as long as I can recall. Now I don’t have to choose, I can be whatever and whoever I want to be. I never had a language or community before to describe who I am and what I do. Now I have both and am inspired by these people who succeeded by being uniquely themselves.” – Sara Elgohary, Musician, Multi-Million-View YouTuber, Voice Actress, MC, and Education Marketing Consultant

Acknowledgments It takes a village to write a book. First, I extend my warmest thanks to God. That’s not a sentence you read every day. But it’s much deserved. Beyond life and breath each day and a multitude of gifts that would fill another book, He provided the inspiration for the topic, the model, and the journey while I was swimming laps in the pool. I pray before I write that I might bring His light to the world and that the work be His own. The inspirations are His. The flaws are mine. Although I have not injected my own fusion journey into this presentation of others’, faith has enabled me to practice openness, receive inspiration, trust that my odd collection of skills and experiences is based on a wonderful design, see differently, and make connections every day—big and small—and offer them to the world. I believe we can all do so, and that we can contribute so much good. My husband and children continue to enlighten and enliven me but haven’t seen as much of me as they should while I’ve been writing—Chris, Jonathan, Anna, David, and Sarah Marshall. You are truly a blessing. Our helper, Gisela Cabalang, is the reason I can spend so much time at work, since she’s spending so much time on family, as I mentioned in my TEDx talk “The Fusion Family: Why My Blonde Son Thought He Was Chinese” (https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=e7PGMtOa-CA). Without helpers in Singapore, we can’t do what we do. I thank the participants in this study (fusioneers and friends) for their insights, sharing, help, and patience. They’re an incredible group of people I’m so privileged to know. Thank you for your openness and sharing. You inspire me, and I am honored to know you. I thank Nitish Jain and the S P Jain School of Global Management for inciting and supporting this research, encouraging me with questions and reflections, being as passionate as I am about the high-value topic, and being patient with the creative process. Thank you, Dr. Lee Poh Chin, who transcribed, coded, analyzed, introduced me to the Multicultural Personality Questionnaire, submitted articles to academic journals, and more. Thank you Shareff Uthuman, who arranged the travel to the fusioneers, shielded me from budgetary and administrative duties, and much more. You’re both insightful and proficient professionals. Special thanks go to Gladys Lee for her marketing excellence and video- and podcast-production brilliance, as well as the host of creative professionals involved in producing the videos and podcasts, including:

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– David Artlett, narrator extraordinaire – Awesome animator Bonni Rambatan and his team – Photogenic talent Eva Chang, founder of Novogramm (http://www.novog ramm.com/) – Creative photographer Mohamad Shah Johan Abdol Latif – Awesome animator Diego Mera ([email protected]) – Magical stop-motion videographer David Marshall (www.brick-visuals. com) – Creative videographers Daniel Goh and team at Lion Pictures Pte Ltd – Domino experts David Marshall (www.brick-visuals.com) and Niv Ben-Ari (and his tolerant mother, Hagit Ben-Ari) – Inspiring location patrons from platform-e @Singapore Institute of Management, courtesy of Alan Wong and his team, including Virginia Cha, Chen Soong Fee, Kee Meng, and Jovan Tan – Videographer and steadfast friend Rahul Das Thank you, Jeffrey Pepper, and your team at De Gruyter, as well as Nick Wallwork (The Learning Curator), who introduced us. The material is so much better and reaches so many more people because of you. Thank you to every author I’ve referenced and those I haven’t. We really do stand on the shoulders of giants and must do so if we have any hope of creating something that will help the world. If I’ve missed someone, please forgive me. It takes a village to properly reference the village. Thank you readers for creating the impact I crave. Thank you all who labor today to make the world better—I pray this may help.

About the Author Dr. Meadows leads a Design Thinking & Innovation Center at S P Jain School of Global Management, a Forbes Top-20 International Business School, where she creates growth initiatives at the intersection of IT, business strategy, and design. Her research, consulting, and coaching focuses on Leadership & Creativity. Recently named one of Asia’s Top 10 Women in IT, she co-founded an Advanced-Technology Think Tank & Tinker Lab, envisioning the Future of Work and Education, applying AI, biometrics, and other advanced technologies to human L&D. She holds a Doctorate in Business Administration & IT from Harvard Business School and has over 20 years’ experience in Asia, Europe, and North America as a consultant, entrepreneur, dot-com builder, innovation lab co-founder, and Accenture IT & Business Strategy consultant. She is also Chairman & Co-Founder of The Tiger Center, a ground-breaking social enterprise in central India, and was a CPA and CMA. She can be found at www.spjain.org/faculty and www.drcjmeadows.com.

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Contents Praise

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Acknowledgments About the Author Introduction

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Part 1: Innovating How We Innovate Chapter 1 The Next Wave of Innovation

2

Chapter 2 Fusion: A New Model of Radical Innovation Chapter 3 What I Learned, How, and From Whom Chapter 4 Five Habits of Highly Effective Fusioneers

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Part 2: Stories of Outward Openness Chapter 5 Schools for the Schoolless Chapter 6 Silk Vaccines

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Chapter 7 eCommerce and Globalization Chapter 8 Lime.com

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Chapter 9 The Tippling Club

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Chapter 10 The Advanced Biopolymer Pocket Watch

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Part 3: Stories of Inward Openness Chapter 11 Quantum Potential Chapter 12 Execu-Care

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Chapter 13 SensPD and BioHug

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Chapter 14 Chief Dream Igniter

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Chapter 15 Well-Being and Wealth-Building

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Chapter 16 The Science of Happiness . . . at Scale

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Part 4: Stories of Collecting Chapter 17 Quantum-Chemical Social Networks Chapter 18 Matt Mitcham and the Mathematician Chapter 19 DNAApp 216 Chapter 20 Nokia Ringtones and Life Tools

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Chapter 21 SwineTech

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Chapter 22 Mr. Toilet and the BoP Hub

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Part 5: Stories of Sensing Chapter 23 KFC, Hungry Jack’s, and Domino’s Pizza Australia

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Chapter 24 Found8 275 Chapter 25 Mosquito Attractant and the Polyclone Chop Chapter 26 Urban Farming

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Chapter 27 The Swiss-South-African-Asian Joint Venture Chapter 28 The Human Face of Big Data

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Part 6: Stories of Fusing Chapter 29 Leading-Edge IoT and Integrative Thinking Chapter 30 Science Is a Personal Business Chapter 31 Connectography Chapter 32 Jeiva 372

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Chapter 33 Killer Mystery Infections and the 24-in-1 Test Chapter 34 Forbidden Music of the Cultural Revolution

Part 7: Your Journey Chapter 35 Exploring Your World

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Chapter 36 Exploring Yourself

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Chapter 37 Collecting the Dots

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Chapter 38 Seeing What Others Don’t Chapter 39 Connecting the Dots Index

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Introduction “A map does not just chart, it unlocks and formulates meaning; it forms bridges between here and there, between disparate ideas that we did not know were previously connected.” ― Reif Larsen, The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet

Video https://youtu.be/FgTnXvPXkSM

This is a book about innovation—a special kind of innovation prone to creating high value and radical change. With this approach, a creative person crosses some sort of boundary—be it industry, field, technology, organizational silo, nation, social class, or something else. He or she then integrates ideas, people, etc. that were previously separate but when put together form something new and highly beneficial. The process reminded me of nuclear fusion, in which two nuclei come together and form a new one, releasing a great deal of energy into the world. So, I called this approach fusion and called the people who do it fusioneers: fusioneer ˈfjuːʒ(ə)nɪə/ noun 1. one who innovates across domains of industry, field, country, social class, etc.

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◦ s radical innovator, interdisciplinary creator, T-shaped person, borderless freethinker, boundary-crossing integrator, oddball; The following pages introduce you to some of the value created by fusion, which I’ve also called “lateral innovation,” given the presence of “lateral thinking” in the creative process. These pages include the life- and creative-journeys of 30 fusioneers from business (and other organizations), science and technology, and the arts and humanities. I present a model that describes the process and share with you the lessons I learned along the way, which in fact was a purposefully designed journey, since it was a management research project (described more fully in Chapter 3). In addition to the fusion model, I also share with you some analysis from a personality-trait questionnaire I administered to each fusioneer. The book is divided into sections—first about fusion overall, then focusing on different parts of the fusion model, and finally focusing on overall lessons learned and implications for you. Within each of the middle sections, I present six fusioneer profiles that illustrate that piece of the model and conclude each chapter with some insights on that person’s journey and questions for yours. The structure is intended to incite inspiration, then reflection, then action. The fusioneers’ profiles/narratives are meant to be inspiring snapshots of innovative people, with ideas from their journeys you can use in your own. Although presented in particular sections to illustrate parts of the model, their lives and stories include multiple elements of the model and overall fusion themes and threads—not just one. Each chapter begins with a video. For the first and final sections, the video introduces a concept you’ll be exploring in the following pages. In the middle sections containing the fusioneer profiles, each chapter begins with a video of that innovator (with a few exceptions) sharing why they did what they did, what was important in making it happen, and advice for you, in case you’re considering making such a journey, too. The video titles may not exactly match the chapter titles. The fusion material was originally released as an article series, and in collecting the wellreceived materials into a book, we updated the article titles when they became chapters. However, we’ve kept the videos intact and ask your patience when they don’t match. Photographs throughout are provided more as art than example (unless otherwise noted) and are intended to enliven your journey through the materials. Other than quotes such as the above and my self-created dictionary entry above, italic text (unless noted otherwise) is the voice of the fusioneer. You will also note that, for your convenience, all monetary values in the book have been converted to US dollars based on the exchange at the end of 2017.

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To help you “fusion-surf” even if you’re reading a print version of this book, I’ve posted some useful links on two websites: S P Jain School of Global Management (www.globalinnovation.spjain.org/fusion-series) and my own website (www.drcjmeadows.com/fusion). They include the videos, a summary of each chapter, and links to the fusioneers’ LinkedIn profiles, websites, TED talks, and more. This book will also be available as an audiobook, course, and community on Gnowbe Learn (https://learn.gnowbe.com/). Via this micro-learning, mobilephone-first (now laptop-enabled) platform, you can watch the videos, listen to the book, connect with others who are learning about fusion, integrate your reading/watching/learning with actions, and craft your fusion journey as part of a community. A free audiobook will also be offered on Gnowbe Learn with videos, two full chapter audios, summaries of the remaining chapters, and the ability to connect with the community as you and they begin the fusion journey. Although the fusioneers you’ll read about have their ups and downs like everyone else, they all showed a remarkable energy, fueled by passion, conviction, inspiration, or some other form of joy. Whether you’re reading, watching, reflecting, answering questions, taking action, or interacting with others in a fusion program, I wish most of all for you to connect with your own creative energy and craft a journey that creates good in the world, rooted in joy. I pray these materials might be the beginning of a map for your journey— one that inspires and unlocks meaning, so you can build a bridge from here to there, connecting disparate ideas, people, and more, that should be connected. Will you be a fusioneer?

Part 1: Innovating How We Innovate

Open

Collect

Sense

Fuse

Chapter 1 The Next Wave of Innovation A New Renaissance Has Begun “The most innovative solutions to problems have come from the cross-pollination of fields.” — Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist1 “Innovation opportunities going forward will be at the cusps of different disciplines — biology and computer science, information technology and health care, semiconductors and medicine.” — Richard Newton, former Dean of Engineering, University of California, Berkeley2 “Technology alone is not enough. It’s technology married with the liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the results that make our hearts sing.” — Steve Jobs3

Video https://youtu.be/8gXa_YNy2bQ

1 Beard, A. (Producer) (December 18, 2015). Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/ideacast/2015/12/lifes-work-neil-degrasse-tyson 2 Mitra, S. (January, 2009). Barriers to Innovation. [Weblog comment]. Retrieved from: http:// www.forbes.com/2009/01/29/entrepreneur-venture-capital-technology-enterprise-tech_0130_ innovate.html 3 Lehrer, J. (October 7, 2011) “Steve Jobs: ‘Technology Alone Is Not Enough,’” The New Yorker. Retrieved from: https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/steve-jobs-technology-alone-isnot-enough https://doi.org/10.1515/9781547401505-001

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In science, the fusion of two nuclei into a new, combined nucleus releases a massive amount of energy (nuclear fusion). Likewise, a fusion in business, technology, and the arts can release a massive amount of value and create whole new companies, industries, and human capabilities. But how? Such fusions took place in the first half of the 15th century in Florence, Italy — a place well-known for architecture and art, piazzas and cafés, walkways and topiaries — propelled by a family that possessed and grew a business, political, and royal dynasty. Their influence spread throughout Europe and they provided support for gifted individuals who cross-fertilized ideas and inventions across business, science/technology, and the arts. The family was the Medici. The “mash-ups” that ensued from collecting, supporting, connecting, and engaging these gifted individuals produced an explosion of innovation at the intersections of their fields (Johansson, 2006, see Figure 1.1).

Figure 1.1: Art, technology, and business were the building-blocks of innovation during the Renaissance and now.

The Medici and similar families fostered the birth of the Italian Renaissance. Today’s renaissance is fostered more democratically and electronically, fueled by information technology, communication, and globalization. As we’ve seen in past eras of creative productivity, fertile ground for high-value innovation lies in the spaces between domains of industry, country, field, function, social class, and more. “The renaissance man,” supported by the Medici or other patrons, was a widely educated person across multiple domains. Today, we educate ourselves

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in functional silos with an industrial-age education system for jobs that may not exist in the future. However, with today’s mashed-up global economies and societies, a wealth of information at our Googling fingertips, and diverse sources of capital to launch good ideas into the marketplace, more and more of us are becoming cross-domain innovators and founders in a new renaissance that is surpassing the industrial revolution. It’s a new renaissance. Martine Rothblatt (formerly Martin) is a good example. Martine combined satellite technology and radio service (completely separate technologies and industries at the time) into Sirius Satellite Radio, which became Sirius XM Holdings, with a market capitalization of $24Bn. Without a background in drug development, but with a feverish desire to save her daughter’s life, Martine also founded United Therapeutics to finish developing a shelved drug that could save her. UT now has a market capitalization over $6Bn, and Martine is one of the 25 highestpaid CEOs in the world. More importantly, her daughter’s life was saved — as were many others — by reaching outside her field, connecting, creating, and building — something the original drug-development corporation wouldn’t do. Are there others like Martine who reach outside a field, industry, or company, make new connections, and create surprising value, surpassing today’s corporations? How do they do it? Can they do so within corporate contexts or only from outside? Why don’t others in the same circumstances create what they create (see Figure 1.2)? Throughout this book you will meet successful fusioneers in all types of pursuits. As a first step in our journey (Figure 1.2) toward answering these questions of who, how, where, and why, the chapters in this book contain inspiration and insights from journeys of new-renaissance innovators and what they created, including: – The world’s first digital music deal (the first contract between the music and mobile phone industries), which helped create a $2 billion market for ringtones.4 The same innovator also created Nokia Life Tools (another innovation based on fusion), which served 125 million of the world’s poor consumers with mobile “high-tech.”

4 2005 figure from Fortune magazine, as quoted in Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Ringtone): Mehta, Stephanie N. “Wagner’s ring? Way too long.” Fortune, December 12, 2005, p. 40. Sales declined afterwards, according to CNN, as the novelty wore off and consumers began making their own for free (Hare, Breeanna. “Whatever happened to the ringtone?” CNN, May 16, 2013, accessed from https://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/09/tech/mobile/ringtonesphones-decline/index.html).

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Figure 1.2: Why do some “climb to new heights” and some do not?

– “One of the 100 Most Innovative Firms in the World” (according to CIO Magazine), founded by an artist and quantum chemist, now a leading corporate anthropologist. – An advanced biopolymer cancer-treatment device that uses a design from the pocket watch, developed in 1893. – The highest 10-meter dive score in Olympic history, achieved through a fusion of athletics and mathematical modeling. – A billion-dollar+ company serving fast food in a notoriously “laid-back” country. – Silk fiber-injected vaccines aimed at bringing polio prevention to millions in the developing world — without refrigeration. – Harvard’s most popular course, taught by a squash champion turned positive psychologist pursuing the science of happiness. – “One of the 25 Coolest Companies in America” (according to Fortune Magazine), founded by a Time/Life/National Geographic photographer and big-data author. – Better lives for 450,000 people through a fusion of social programs and education, social castes, and rich and poor, with and without disabilities, led by a nun-cum-school-principal.

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In fact, I am writing this chapter with a product that illustrates the value of fusion—an integration that transcends its pieces. When first introduced, users complained loudly about how Microsoft Word was not an advance over WordStar or WordPerfect — likewise PowerPoint over Harvard Graphics, Excel over Lotus 1–2–3, and Outlook over Lotus Notes. However, Microsoft Office did something far better than all the others. It seamlessly integrated words, pictures, numbers, and communication in a way people wanted. The integrated suite now dominates markets formerly held by siloed specialists (see Figure 1.3). Given the power and value of integration, why don’t we do more? Why not focus our innovation investments on high-value fusions of industries, fields, nations, etc., mixing technologies and marrying them with other disciplines, serving old needs in powerful new ways? Do we simply not know how? Let’s find out how to spot opportunities at the cusps of different disciplines and start cross-pollinating . . . (see Figure 1.4).

Figure 1.3: Microsoft Windows won over rival software not because each application was superior, but because it integrated words, pictures, numbers, and communication seamlessly.

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Figure 1.4: It’s time to cross-pollinate fields for high-value innovation!

Chapter 2 Fusion: A New Model of Radical Innovation “The world’s most innovative companies prosper by capitalizing on the divergent associations of their founders, executives, and employees.” — Jeffrey Dyer, Hal Gregersen, Clayton Christensen (“The Innovator’s DNA,” Harvard Business Review, December 2009) “The people who are routinely creative are skilled at connecting information from various sources in new and surprising ways.” — Bruce Nussbaum (Creative Intelligence, p. 33) “Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things.” — Steve Jobs

Video https://youtu.be/8gXa_YNy2bQ

Fusion is a new model of lateral (often radical!) innovation (see Figure 2.1). It is both a series of actions and a set of capabilities. It arose out of my work as an innovation consultant, plus my research, which included interviewing 30 world-class innovators and over 70 of their colleagues, friends, and family (so, over 100 interviews in total). https://doi.org/10.1515/9781547401505-002

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Chapter 2 Fusion: A New Model of Radical Innovation

Figure 2.1: The Fusion Model describes Lateral (Often Radical!) Innovation.

The model includes a linear process — outward and inward openness leading to a unique mental collection, sensing opportunities in a special way, and fusing. It also includes non-sequential connections, such as when openness directly impacts our ability to sense needs and opportunities, as when the fusioneer school principal was open to helping street children get an education and began seeing poor unschooled children everywhere. Another non-sequential connection is between fusions themselves, which become part of our mental collection, thus leading to successive innovations. The Nokia executive, for example, developed a special ringtone to celebrate India’s independence and then built on that success to launch Nokia ringtones, crafting the world’s first digital music deal in the process. We will discuss what this actually means in this chapter and in this chapter’s video. I didn’t know what to call someone who engaged in this form of innovation— fusing disparate things — other than a welder, and that didn’t seem right. So I started calling them “fusioneers,” and their friends, “fusioneer friends.” The names stuck, and I’ve never devised anything better.

Open — Outward The model begins with outward openness and connectedness — a key feature of the fusioneers (see Figure 2.2). Fusioneers are described by their colleagues as unusually open (and outreaching) to new ideas, people, experiences, and more — essentially, to everything around them. They are highly aware, great listeners, and great noticers. Here are some examples of outwardly open fusioneers: – The chef I interviewed (Ryan Clift) had to interrupt our session to move a vase of dried flowers which was greatly distracting him. He not only described the pungent odor I couldn’t smell, but also pointed out a stress ball behind my sofa, a crooked piece of furniture, and dust underneath a chair

Open — Outward

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Figure 2.2: Opening outward is the first step toward innovating across boundaries.

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leg. His culinary creations do not emerge solely from his heightened senses, but they are a useful precondition. The multi-Emmy award-winning producer and director (Ted Saad) notices and fixes crookedness, clutter, and other visual distractions in the museum he now directs. Visitors react more positively after he’s done so, but no one ever seems to know why. The nun in this fusioneer group (Sister Cyril Mooney) noticed more children on the street than usual and traced them back to a newly connected migrant camp, for which she subsequently created a school program. The vaccine entrepreneur (Livio Valenti) constantly makes connections with others in their incubation building, and then taps them when his firm needs help, making unusually astute use of the incubation facilities. Post-$850 million IPO, the MenuLog executive (George Kolovos) runs a café and has a heightened awareness not only of what people need and want in the café, but also in their businesses. He connects them and helps them grow. Listening is just as crucial as watching, and when the cancer scientist (Chin Sau Yin) heard an odd idea from a younger colleague, she put it to use, integrating the pocket-watch Geneva mechanism (designed in 1893) into an advanced biopolymer medication device.

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Chapter 2 Fusion: A New Model of Radical Innovation

Open — Inward Inward openness to our own design and inspirations — and managing our inward spaces and connection to them — is also crucial (see Figure 2.3). Each fusioneer perused his or her own unique set of talents and interests and drew on them for innovation, whether they fit into standard jobs and school programs or not. One of the fusioneers is deeply spiritual and takes spiritual learning journeys (such as learning shamanism in a Peruvian village or Native American healing in New York). He gives spiritual development workshops and, now that he’s sold the biofuel factory he co-founded and the Emmy-award-winning marketing agency he started, he may open an enlightened incubator for consciouscapitalist enterprises. Another fusioneer is a pillar of the resilience movement, a fast-growing discipline that helps people manage their energies and build leadership capabilities with energized self-management and work-life integration. Two more deal directly with inner-states as part of their work — one in wellbeing and wealth-building, and the other in the science of happiness. Many fusioneers know the value of unplugging the mind through prayer, meditation, and mindful exercise like walking, lap-swimming, and power-washing the pig house.

Figure 2.3: To create something radically new, begin by opening inward, understanding yourself and your unique set of talents and interests as a tool for innovation.

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Being open in both outward and inward respects and experiencing creative flow between these environments is what I call creative porosity (similar to authenticity, which is generally understood as a static state, unlike porosity). This is an experience described by one of the fusioneers as a feeling of “right-person-rightplace-right-time,” in which external ideas, people, and events blend creatively with internal ideas, people, and events. New combinations build on one another, flowing inward and outward. Although “right-person-right-place-righttime” sounds like an accidental state of being, this person made choices that led to it, as did other fusioneers. It is different from the inwardly concentrated creative flow described by Csikszentmihalyi in his book Flow. So, it would seem there are multiple types of creative flow, and we can make conscious choices to enhance it.

Collect Each fusioneer has developed a unique collection in the workshop of his or her mind — ideas, people, experiences, skills, certifications, and more (see Figure 2.4). Some were extremely unusual. They collected out of curiosity, not seeking immediate application. One studied art and quantum chemistry purely out of interest,

Figure 2.4: Collect people, ideas, skills, and more into a unique mental workshop.

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Chapter 2 Fusion: A New Model of Radical Innovation

saw something based on that unique mindset, then researched the phenomenon and created a successful company using techniques from anthropology, ethnology, mathematical modeling, software development, and management consulting. Another loved sports and science and used mathematical modeling to help an athlete earn the highest 10-meter dive score in Olympic history. Another earned a PhD, masters, and bachelors at the same time, in fields that call themselves by different names (allergy, structural molecular biology, and psychology) but address some of the same underlying phenomena (such as brain chemistry and behavior), albeit from different perspectives. Another has a background in pig farming and medical/veterinary studies and accordingly created a med-tech device to save piglets. Another, after failing secondary school exams, started 16 (successful) companies and went to Harvard four times (and other places, such as Singularity), and is still collecting ideas and contacts wherever he goes, continuing his creative journey founding social enterprises.

Sense Being open, and having created a unique lens on the world, fusioneers sense the world in a special way — seeing and caring about opportunities others miss. An insurance salesman with a desire for entrepreneurship noticed a long line outside a Chinese restaurant in Australia. He realized people wanted fast food even in a nation known for its “laid back” lifestyle. He then built over $1Bn worth of business. Another fusioneer looked down from a mezzanine one day and noticed people moving in a pattern she’d seen in quantum chemistry. That started her journey to research the phenomenon and create one of the world’s most innovative companies, mapping and analyzing social systems. Three fusioneers saw from the eyes of a would-be customer and built businesses they wished could have served them — a startup hub, auto stamp maker, and urban farming. One co-founded a cross-industry dot-com and later led a fast-growing joint venture (a fusion of two companies), keenly sensing opportunities and problems between firms and nations. With his background at Time, Life, and National Geographic, another sees opportunities with a photographer’s eye and put a human face on big data.

Fuse After sensing, fusioneers fuse. This doesn’t mean just making choices between alternatives — an industrial-age management approach. Instead, they integrate,

Fuse

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taking disparate models, technologies, people, and organizations and fusing pieces of them together in new, value-creating ways (see Figure 2.5). In fact, following the IPO of his mission-critical rural high-tech company, one of the fusioneers founded The Desautels Center for Integrative Thinking at Rotman School of Management (University of Toronto) in order to research and teach that very topic. Another fusioneer researches and develops new methods in computational structural biology. Another integrated the fields of geography and ICT (information and communications technology) to create “connectography,” with implications for economics, politics, and societal development. Two fusioneers created innovations in medical technology that may save millions of lives and billions of dollars. One of them is building a company that uses oil pipe-sensing technology to locate early-stage breast cancer. The other fused 24 bacterial and fungal tests into one, providing infection diagnosis in a day instead of weeks. The final fusioneer I interviewed was taken (as a child) from her family and her music studies to work as a farmer during China’s Cultural Revolution. When opportunities re-opened, she studied and performed again, ultimately fusing traditional music from the Chinese countryside with Chinese and European classical music and even the jazz, rock, and R&B of her new home: the United States.

Figure 2.5: Put things together in unexpected ways!

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Chapter 2 Fusion: A New Model of Radical Innovation

More Learning: Fusion Foundations Beyond the fusion model (Figure 2.1), the fusioneers taught me four things — something about globalization and boundaries, entrepreneurship, mental diversity and education, and motivation. 1. 93% of the fusioneers are multinational. Almost all of them spent six months or more in multiple nations. They were selected for the study by creating something across boundaries, but not necessarily national boundaries. Could it be that crossing countries and cultures helps us cross other types of boundaries? 2. 90% of the fusioneers are entrepreneurs (or, within companies, intrapreneurs). We’ve put boxes around our companies, industries, departments, fields, and so on. Because of this, problems and opportunities often fall between the boxes. The fusioneers fill up the space between boxes (see Figure 2.6). They solve problems and create innovation in those spaces, then share their solutions with everyone else.

Figure 2.6: It’s time to unpack the “boxes” we’ve placed around our industries, fields, departments, social classes, and more.

The Fusion Profile Series

17

3. Fusioneers’ education ranges from primary-school diploma to multiple university degrees. What they have in common is not their level of education but their level of mental diversity. Most of them have trained and worked in multiple fields, and they’ve developed their own mental diversity well beyond what’s normally offered by our industrial-age schools. Many schools train us to do jobs, not create jobs, and most of us train to do something, not train to leave the field and apply our learning elsewhere. 4. Fusioneers were not chosen as “creative-pioneer trainees” or enticed with career ladders and bonuses. They’re self-selected and self-propelled, and the next fusioneers could be anyone who cares enough to create. If you met the insurance salesman at the start of his journey, you would never have known he’d become a billionaire. If you’d met the girl farming, you’d never know she’d be a world-renowned symphony composer. If you’d met the boxboy (a bagger of groceries), you’d never know he’d co-found what would be the largest financial advisory firm in his nation. Neither did any of the fusioneers know what they would create. Some achievements happened quickly, like the innovation tournament project that became a company. But many achievements happened slowly (sometimes over decades), peppered with other people’s suggestions that it was a waste of time. Fusioneers are energized by what they do (despite the risks) and are generally noted for being “high-energy.”

The Fusion Profile Series The coming chapters will provide more depth to this conceptual model, as well as more detail on each fusioneer’s journey. Learning from and about them has been an amazing journey for me. I hope it will be for you, too.

Chapter 3 What I Learned, How, and From Whom “You can observe a lot by watching.”

— Yogi Berra

Video https://youtu.be/KGofSxPEq6s

Nearly twenty years ago, when we were first figuring out what to call eCommerce, I co-founded an innovation lab in Singapore. Back then, people were stunned when we said we had a process, tools, and techniques for innovation. Most people thought innovation was a flash of insight that spurred building something to try out in the marketplace. I ran off with some innovative ideas of my own to try out as an entrepreneur and returned to academic life 15 years later to learn, teach, reflect, and make something new. By then, everyone knew about innovation processes, tools, and techniques (well, more people knew, anyway), and had a multitude to choose from. The big question was around how to scale, but with new approaches and success stories, that was taken care of, too — although still not easy. So, I decided to swim upstream. I found we still don’t really know how to manage the front end — how to create radical, high-value ideas to feed into our innovation and scaling processes. Further, we’re only beginning to tap into the high potential of cross-domain work. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781547401505-003

Chapter 3 What I Learned, How, and From Whom

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What better way to improve our approach to innovation than by feeding better ideas into the front end? And what more fertile ground for ideas than in the spaces between well-established domains, or radical connections completely unexplored. So I decided to do some exploring, too (see Figure 3.1). After finding wellgrounded possibilities in different areas: management, psychology, and physicalscience literature, I realized I still didn’t understand where good ideas come from and how people put together pieces from different domains to create a radical value. Disciplines found in the literature such as creativity, innovation, entrepreneurship, mindfulness, neuroscience, empathy, design thinking, and integrative thinking addressed various parts of what was happening, but none in an integrated fashion. I would need to fuse them myself.

Figure 3.1: To create new theory, I started by exploring, watching, and learning.

My basic questions were: – Why and how do world-class innovators create across domains, and – Why do others in the same circumstance not do so? In learning why and how cross-domain innovators do what they do, I hoped the rest of us might do more of the same. So I designed a research study in which I would interview 30 world-class cross-domain innovators, as well as other people

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Chapter 3 What I Learned, How, and From Whom

who were around when they were innovating (or at least who know them and their creative style well) — colleagues, friends, and family. Surely, with a Harvarddoctorate researcher investigating an important topic from a Forbes top-20 international business school, interesting people would line up outside my door. No one would to talk to me. Anyway, I don’t have a door. It seems world-class innovators are pretty busy and, on the whole, don’t want to talk to strangers with vague, wacky questions. Csikszentmihalyi (2013) had trouble sourcing interviews, too, but managed to gain access that caused a “snowball” effect from one research participant to others they knew, and others they knew, and so on. He wound up with Nobel laureates, rock stars, and more. Since I had a foot in practice-based innovation outside of academia, I started by interviewing people I’d worked with — leaders of intriguing, value-creating fusions — and it all “snowballed” from there for me, too (see Figure 3.2). With a few intriguing people, others wanted to join in, and I made contact with people they knew, people who stepped forward at innovation and entrepreneurship gatherings, and people my beleaguered research assistant found on Google. One sat

Figure 3.2: When no one would talk to me, I interviewed colleagues over coffee and discovered powerful innovations by people I already knew.

Chapter 3 What I Learned, How, and From Whom

21

down for a friend of a fusioneer interview, and when I began listening to him and hearing the things he had done, I quickly switched him to the innovator category during the interview. It was a good lesson for me. I hadn’t realized how inspirational my friends and colleagues were and how much they had done. How many other people do we encounter each day whose genius we don’t recognize? How do we appear to others? Have we not recognized our own? Although a researcher’s job is to provide well-grounded recommendations, much of the value we create is actually inspiration. And how we become inspired is part of fusion. Eventually, we did it. I flew around the world interviewing 30 “fusioneers,” shadowing the first 10 for a day (or as much of a day as possible); interviewing their colleagues, friends, and family; and gathering secondary data about them — their TED talks, articles and books written by or about them, websites, and more. All fusioneers were interviewed in person, and friends were either in-person or via phone or Skype. Three or more friends were interviewed per fusioneer for the first 10, and two or more thereafter. The friend interviews not only gave triangulated information about the fusioneer but also yielded some insights into why others in the same circumstance don’t innovate. Thus it was an “extreme sampling” approach (as used in design thinking) — those who innovated successfully, and those who didn’t (without any middle category). For consistency, I treated myself as a “research instrument” and conducted all the interviews. I had each fusioneer take the well-grounded Multicultural Personality Assessment to uncover or suggest patterns in open-mindedness, flexibility, stability, empathy, and initiative. Their training and innovations span arts/humanities, science/technology, and business/organizations. They are in their 20s through their 80s and live and work on four continents. Roughly a third are women. My research assistant transcribed the interviews — verbatim for fusioneers and all friends of the first 10, selectively for the rest (see Figure 3.3). She created “codes,” to classify what they talked about. I re-coded, sorted, and structured the codes to see relationships between them (axial coding). I wrote profiles of them and what I was learning, and the participants and others gave feedback and insights. My research assistant and I discussed, disagreed, revised, and learned—and this information is shared with you here. Unlike Csikszentmihalyi, my study doesn’t include Nobel laureates and rock stars (although we do have a Nobel laureate’s protégé and a world-famous composer). I wondered if my participants would be extreme enough or important enough for people to want to read about. Then I realized there was something important in the humble beginnings of my fusioneers and the fact that not all their stories are finished. Everyone can connect with a normal person who does something amazing and feel a bit of “me, too.”

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Chapter 3 What I Learned, How, and From Whom

Figure 3.3: My research assistant transcribed the interviews, which required a great deal more coffee.

I realized “world-class” doesn’t have to mean world’s best or world’s only. It can just mean excellent, or an inspiring spark that can ignite someone on the other side of the world. Whether you’re an employee or startup founder, poor or a billionaire, school-dropout or teaching at Harvard, there is someone here to connect with.

The “Fusioneers” What do a nun, a billionaire entrepreneur, a celebrity chef, scientists, artists, and corporate executives have in common? The ones in this global research study (see Figure 3.4) each created something from “odd” combinations that either have brought or should bring significant value to the world. They are presented in Table 3.1, along with what they created and why it’s significant. “Where” are the countries in which each lived six months or more (selfreported in the MPQ survey), listed in alphabetical order. Although I did not begin the study with a focus on globalization or entrepreneurship, it turned out that 93% of them are “from” more than one nation, and 90% of them are entrepreneurs or intrapreneurs. They span 31 nations on five

The “Fusioneers”

23

continents, and roughly six would currently be called “young” (20s and 30s), 19 “mid-life” (30s to 50s), and five “senior” (60s to 80s). Most participants trained and worked in more than one type of occupation, with roughly 14 in arts/humanities, 22 in science/technology, and 24 in business/not-for-profit. They are a diverse and inspiring bunch, as their profiles will show, with lessons for us all.

Figure 3.4: The fusioneers are 30 world-class cross-domain innovators that formed the basis of my study.

Table 3.1: The fusioneers created substantial impact on the world and, indeed, came from all over the world. Chapter Who

What

Why/Impact

Where (lived + months)



Sister Cyril Mooney

Schools for the Schoolless

, Lives Improved

India, Ireland



Livio Valenti Silk Vaccines

Millions of Lives and$ Billion to Save with Non-Refrigerated Vaccines

Cambodia, China, Italy, USA

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Chapter 3 What I Learned, How, and From Whom

Table 3.1 (continued ) Chapter Who

What

Why/Impact

Where (lived + months)



George Kolovos

eCommerce and Globalization

Early eCommerce, $ Million Australia, Greece Founding Team, and Leapfrogging Nike Sport Camps from , Kids to ,



Ted Saad

Lime.com

Lime.com – First Successful Integration of TV, radio, Internet, VoD, and Mobile



Chef Ryan Clift

The Tippling Club The Tippling Club - GlobalAward-Winning Deliciousness

Australia, Greece, Indonesia, Singapore, UK



Dr. Chin Sau Yin

The Advanced Biopolymer Pocket Watch

Low-Dose Chemo@Cancer

Malaysia, Singapore, UK, USA



Asil Toksal

Quantum Potential

Austria’s Largest BioFuel Production Plant, Early Interactive TV, early Digital Marketing, Spirituality and Enlightened Incubation

Austria, Turkey, Singapore, USA



Dr. Edy Greenblatt

Execu-Care

Resilience and Embodied Canada, Israel, Leadership for Thousands of Macedonia, USA, Leaders and their Organizations Yugoslavia



Raffi Rembrand

SensPD and BioHug

Age - Autism Intervention Israel, USA for Over  Million People Each Year (While Our Brains Are Speed-Developing)



Melissa Kwee

Chief Dream Igniter

Business and Social Activism

Indonesia, Nepal, Singapore, USA



Arun Abey

Well-Being and Wealth-Building

Managing $ Billion and Revolutionizing an Industry

Australia, India, New Zealand, SriLanka



Dr. Tal ben Shahar

The Science of Harvard’s Most Popular Course Happiness . . . at and Tech-Enabled Positive Scale Psychology

Israel, New Zealand, USA

Israel, Singapore, South Africa, USA

The “Fusioneers”

25

Table 3.1 (continued ) Chapter Who

What

Why/Impact

Where (lived + months)



Dr. Karen QuantumStephenson Chemical Social Networks

One of the  Most Innovative Firms in the World (CIO Magazine Ranking)

Mexico, Spain, UK, USA



Dr. Kenneth Graham

The Best Score in Olympic History

Australia, UK



Dr. Samuel Gan

DNA and Other Scientific Analysis Tools . . . on the Smartphone

China, Singapore, UK



Jawahar Kanjilal

Nokia Ringtones First Digital Music Deal and Life and LifeTools Tools ( Million Subscribers)



Matthew Rooda

SwineTech

$ Billion in Agriculture to Save USA (Silicon Worldwide Prairie – Iowa)



Jack Sim

Mr. Toilet and The BoP Hub

Toilet Campaign for . Billion People and a Startup Accelerator for  Billion Poor

France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Singapore



Jack Cowin

KFC, Hungry Jack’s, and Domino’s Pizza Australia

$ Billion+ Business Built

Australia, Canada



Grace Sai

Found

Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Development

Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, UK, USA (Silicon Valley)



Robest Yong

Mosquito Attractant and The Polyclone Chop

Finding Problems for Simple, Everyday ° Inventions

Malaysia, Japan



Dr. Margaret Connors

Urban Farming

Inner-City Nutrition and “Green- Indonesia, Collar Jobs” in a $ Billion Ireland, USA Global Market



Sean Leas

The Swiss-South- Innovative Methods in New African-Asian Markets: Growing Despite the Joint Venture Odds

Matt Mitcham and the Mathematician DNAApp

India, Singapore

Singapore, South Africa

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Chapter 3 What I Learned, How, and From Whom

Table 3.1 (continued ) Chapter Who

What

Why/Impact

Where (lived + months)



Rick Smolan

The Human Face . . . by a Time/Life/National of Big Data Geographic Photographer — Founder of “One of the  Coolest Companies in America”

Australia, Canada, HK, Italy, Japan, Spain, USA, Vietnam



Dr. Mihnea Leading-Edge IoT Redline.com and HarvardRotman Research Moldoveanu and Integrative Thinking

Canada, Romania, USA



Dr. Adelene Sim

Science is a Personal Business

England, USA, Singapore



Dr. Parag Khanna

Connectography Geography, ICT, and a New World Order

India, Germany, Singapore, Switzerland, US, UAE



Krish Krishnan

Jeiva

Portable, Over-Clothing, LifeSaving Breast Cancer Detection

Denmark, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, USA



Dr. Ravi Kumar Banda

Killer Mystery Infections and The -in- Test

 Million+ Lives and $. Billion to Save Worldwide

India



Dr. Chen Yi

Forbidden Music Fusion Symphonies of The Cultural Commissioned and Played by Revolution the World’s Top Orchestras

Deep, Broad, and Analogous Connections in Computational Structural Biology

China, USA

More Research Details In case they would be useful to other social science researchers, I’m happy to share additional details of this study. More detailed design methods from this study are being published elsewhere, especially addressing the influence of IDEO’s design thinking methodology on research design. I did begin with a going-in fusion model, based on my time with the innovation lab watching others create, as well as my own years as an

More Research Details

27

entrepreneur. The fusioneers provided much more detail and insight to the model (which the study upheld overall) and yielded some delightful surprises, such as the global nature of their lives/backgrounds and surprising humility, as well as issues of trust and connection. Data was triangulated, and participants provided clarification where needed during the analysis process. We, of course, had the ethics committee approval on the design and protocols, and participants had a chance to review the work before publication (i.e., chapters, speeches, etc.). “Snowballing” was not just a random selection process (see Figure 3.5). Once particular themes began to emerge, like globalization, we sought participants to “round out” the study for those particular themes (a practice known as theoretical sampling) and to have a balanced group of participants (e.g., male and female), to avoid skewed results. The fusioneers included twenty-one men and nine women. For generalizability of results and inspired by design-thinking’s approach to innovate at the intersection of human desires, technological feasibility, and business viability, we sought a balance across arts/humanities, science/technology, and business/organizations (“organizations” being not-for-profits, academic institutions, etc.). It was difficult and messy to assign participants to these perspectives, and was done on the basis of their training and work, especially where relevant to their “fusion.” Predictably, most of them fit into more than one category. As a Christian nun, for example, we counted Sister Cyril in the “arts/humanities” category, and we also counted her in “business/organizations,” since she ran a school and founded programs that were collected into a not-for-profit organization. She began her work at the school as a science teacher, but since her innovation was not science-related, we did not include her in “science/technology.” Working through their backgrounds in this manner, we counted fourteen fusioneers in arts/humanities, 22 in science/technology, and 24 in business/organizations. Hiccups Even the most solid research designs, conducted with the best care possible, can go awry during the research journey (see Figure 3.6). One fusioneer interview audio was deleted, so although we were originally not going to transcribe her friends verbatim, we did, and memory was supplemented with third-party materials and participant review. A few codes were included in overall results from memory and the supplemental material.

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Chapter 3 What I Learned, How, and From Whom

Figure 3.5: Once the first few fusioneers joined the study, they referred me to others, and it all “snowballed” from there.

More Research Details

29

Figure 3.6: There were a few “hiccups” along the way.

One fusioneer-friend audio recording captured me but not the interviewee, so only what was remembered and reviewed could be folded in with the other friend and supplemental materials. One fusioneer didn’t complete the MPQ, so results are presented for 29 of them, not 30.

Interview Protocols Interviews were flexible, semi-structured, open-ended discussions meant to be natural, open conversations. Each one roughly covered the notes in Figure 3.7. In some cases, we stepped through the issues in order. In others, the interviewee just talked, and I prompted them afterward to address areas that were missing. The “fusioneer” interviews generally took 1–2 hours (although some much more), and the “friend” interviews took about ½ to 1 hour.

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Chapter 3 What I Learned, How, and From Whom

Figure 3.7: I gathered particular information from every fusioneer and “fusioneer-friend.”

Chapter 4 Five Habits of Highly Effective Fusioneers What’s So Special About Lateral Innovators?

Video https://youtu.be/bDkk3gMzoPw

While flying around the world interviewing fusioneers, I gave each fusioneer a personality assessment in order to “measure” their openmindedness (part of the fusion model I wanted to investigate). The short-form multicultural personality questionnaire (MPQ) that I administered also assessed cultural empathy, emotional stability, flexibility, and social initiative— a happy bonus. Did the fusioneers score high (or low) in these traits, relative to other people, and what might it mean? Here I describe these five traits and how they apply to the fusioneers I interviewed.

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781547401505-004

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Chapter 4 Five Habits of Highly Effective Fusioneers

Habit/Trait #1: High Cultural Empathy and Three or Four Countries to Call “Home” All of the fusioneers showed high levels of cultural empathy and, in fact, the average number of countries they’ve lived in for six months or more is: three to four (see Figure 4.1).

Figure 4.1: Nearly all the fusioneers had multiple “home” countries.

They are remarkably global and can often intuit what others are thinking. They show genuine interest in others’ feelings and needs and can quickly understand which feelings, thoughts, and behaviors play an important role in various cultures. Empathy in general is much-lauded in design thinking as a key tool for understanding others’ needs and desires in order to design for them and learn from users as they interact with prototyped solutions. Empathy is also a useful tool in the broader sphere of innovation, which is merely creativity put to use and accepted by others. Culture is not just a thing of national identity. Organizations have cultures, as do industries, fields, and social classes. The ability to cross national boundaries with ease should also translate to crossing other boundaries, as these innovators do.

Habit/Trait #2: High Flexibility : Single-Nation Living May Inhibit Flexibility

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Habit/Trait #2: High Flexibility : Single-Nation Living May Inhibit Flexibility The MPQ not only measured cultural flexibility across nations but also addressed whether respondents actively seek change and adventure, seeing change and unusual experiences as a challenge. Those who score high in this area naturally adjust to practical constraints and shun regularity and routine. The fusioneers were highly flexible overall (see Figure 4.2), but four received mid-level scores. The four were a mix of male and female, science and business, race, age, and level of education, currently residing in four different nations. At first, it looked like there was no common thread.

Figure 4.2: Mental flexibility was a key trait.

However, we noticed something very curious: The only two fusioneers to have stayed in just one country both achieved mid-level flexibility scores, not high scores like 25 other fusioneers. Does remaining in one nation limit our flexibility? Put another way, does living in more than one country help us become highly flexible? Stories abound of the need for flexibility in innovation. For example, Jawahar Kanjilal (one of the fusioneers) was leading a team to bring microinsurance to poor consumers via Nokia LifeTools. The insurance service was developed, packaged, priced, and ready to go. But the regulators wouldn’t let them take fees for the microinsurance, since Nokia was a telecommunications provider, not a (regulated) financial services firm. After a certain amount of hair-pulling, the project manager told Jawahar, who instantly pivoted the business model and said, “Fine — customers can pay for the information service. Microinsurance is free.” They launched successfully.

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Chapter 4 Five Habits of Highly Effective Fusioneers

Habit/Trait #3: High Emotional Stability Creative genius is stereotyped as emotionally unstable. Although that may or may not be true for creativity in general, innovation requires acceptance of the thing created, as well as (usually) working with others, either during the innovation process or when gaining acceptance. All the fusioneers scored as highly stable (except one), meaning that they are able to put setbacks in perspective and keep their equilibrium in difficult circumstances. This is clearly helpful when discovering or experimenting with something new, untested, and untried. They are straightforward and quick to come up with solutions, again useful in creative endeavors, which are often time-constrained.

Habit/Trait #4: High Openmindedness Every one of the fusioneers scored as highly openminded — a necessity when you’re going to jump outside your box or straddle two boxes, crafting something new across boundaries (see Figure 4.3). The MPQ showed that the fusioneers are strongly open and unprejudiced in relation to unknown situations. They are interested in how others deal with daily problems, enjoy exploring other cultures, and quickly amass relevant information via study and personal contact.

Habit/Trait #5: High Social Initiative All the fusioneers showed high social initiative. They have an active viewpoint, actively get to know others, begin conversations, and make friends. In fact, one of them was the head of the World Presidents’ Organization (WPO), a powerful network of highly placed executives. Information, expertise, multiple perspectives, and opportunities flow through this social network and others, now that he’s taken the time to build the social capital. Again, high-social-initiative individuals will quickly adapt to other cultures and feel comfortable in them, but there’s more to it than just fitting into a new country. These people are at ease in a variety of situations, which means their energies are not depleted, covering situational stress. They use that energy to innovate and to build the social capital through which information and expertise can flow and be harnessed for innovation.

Some Traits Are Strongly Related

35

Figure 4.3: The fusioneers are remarkably open-minded.

Some Traits Are Strongly Related — Should They Be Developed Together? When we analyzed how the assessment traits are related to one another, we found that openmindedness, flexibility, and social initiative are significantly related (see Figure 4.4). It makes sense that opening our minds to what’s around us will give us more ideas with which to pivot our solutions and alert us to interesting people to connect with, both of which should help us further open our minds. Openmindedness and flexibility are also significantly related to cultural empathy — another sense with which to open our minds and give us information and perceptions for managing change and adventure. In addition, social initiative and emotional stability are significantly related to each other. The ability to reach out may help keep us emotionally steady and enable us to solve problems with others’ help.

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Chapter 4 Five Habits of Highly Effective Fusioneers

Openmindedness

Flexibilty

Social initiative

Cultural Empathy

Emotional Stability

strongly related not strongly related Figure 4.4: Some of the fusioneers’ MPQ Traits were strongly related to each other.

We also found it enlightening to consider the absence of significant trait relationships. For example, our analysis showed no significant relationship between emotional stability and (1) openmindedness, (2) cultural empathy, or (3) flexibility. Indeed, openness, empathy, and seeking change and adventure may all expose us to things that make us unstable. That said, they may encourage us over time to build more stability as a general capability. We did not examine the participants over time, but doing so might yield clues on how to build emotional stability. Oddly, cultural empathy and social initiative did not show a significant relationship (see Figure 4.5). Being interested in (and understanding) other’s thoughts and feelings would seem a natural complement to reaching out to them, but perhaps genuine empathy actually reduces the need to engage if we can understand people well just by watching, listening, and feeling. Given our small sample size, these relationships are guideposts for further study. We don’t contend that our statistical results are bulletproof— only that they are informative and suggestive, especially where results are unanimous. We also don’t make claims of causality. For example, although cultural empathy may lead you to openmindedness, it may be the reverse, or they may grow together. That said, given the above, it would appear that cultural empathy, flexibility, open mindedness, and social initiative should be developed together (e.g., in an integrated program) for synergy and mutual reinforcement. Emotional stability might best be addressed on its own or specifically as a complement to social initiative. These are design decisions we will explore in future programs.

If I Do These Five Things, Will I Innovate?

37

Figure 4.5: Cultural empathy and social initiative were not related, suggesting empathic awareness may lessen the need to reach out for understanding.

If I Do These Five Things, Will I Innovate? If you increase your capabilities in these five areas, would that help you innovate as the fusioneers have? There are, of course, no guarantees, but it is remarkable that the fusioneers were unanimously high on three of these factors (cultural empathy, openmindedness, and social initiative), nearly unanimous on one (emotional stability), and strongly high on another (flexibility — 25 out of 29). It’s also safe to say that you’ll find it hard to innovate with no empathy (cultural or general), a closed mind, and inflexibility, in isolation, while distracted by emotional volatility. If you’d like to enhance your capabilities, you might want to ask, “Can you increase these attributes, or are you just born with them?” Programs are available to enhance empathy (through relationship management, negotiations, etc.), flexibility (with creativity), emotional stability (via counseling and group programs), open-mindedness (one focus of liberal arts education), and social initiative (by way of shyness coaching and courses). Many of these programs are well-received and judged effective by participants and facilitators alike. In fact, crafting tomorrow’s leaders with a tri-national educational experience is the foundation of a successful business school we know well.

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Chapter 4 Five Habits of Highly Effective Fusioneers

A fusion of such very different programs to build these capabilities and more, crafting uniquely innovative global minds, sounds like a great next step in innovation (see Figure 4.6).

Figure 4.6: Growing as an innovator might be more effective if we grow related traits together.

Research Notes – Twenty-nine out of the 30 fusioneers filled in the Multicultural Personality Questionnaire (MPQ). We’re certain the one remaining is working on some amazing innovations and will get back to us. – The Multicultural Personality Questionnaire (MPQ) was originally designed to describe interactions between people from different cultures and to predict ease of adjustment to (and comfort in) other cultures. For more information, see van der Zee & van Oudenhoven (2000): “The Multicultural Personality Questionnaire: A Multidimensional Instrument of Multicultural Effectiveness,” European Journal of Personality, 14: 291–309. Validity of the short form we used was studied, affirmed, and reported in van der Zee, van Oudenhoven, Ponterotto, & Fietzer (2013): “Multicultural Personality Questionnaire: Development of a Short Form,” Journal of Personality Assessment, 95:1, 118–124.

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Research Notes

– We classified fusioneers’ responses as high, mid-range, or low using a whitepaper from Tamas Consultants, Inc. So, high/mid/low scores are relative to others who have taken the MPQ exam online with Tamas, which lists on their website 149 training and organizational development clients/ projects around the world. – Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients (see Table 4.1) were computed using SPSS (bootstrapping) to assess the relationships between the five personality traits. N was 29 for all coefficients, and the table below lists r and p for all significantly positive correlations.

Table 4.1: Pearson Product-Moment Correlation Coefficients. Relationship

r

p

open-mindedness and flexibility

.*

.

open-mindedness and social initiative

.**

.

open-mindedness and cultural empathy

.**

.

flexibility and cultural empathy

.*

.

social initiative and emotional stability

.*

.

*correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed) **correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed)

Part 2: Stories of Outward Openness

Chapter 5 Schools for the Schoolless 450,000 Lives Improved Sister Cyril Mooney – Nun, School Principal, Social Intrapreneur

You might call Sister Cyril a “radical nun.” With uncommon compassion for all the needy—and truly precious—children around her, she led the development of educational programs that integrated: – Education and social programs – Rich and poor – Indian castes – Students with and without disabilities Video https://youtu.be/NO3StPBp72U

“See that bridge over there?” “Yes.” “I’d like you kids to go find out how many poor children there are under the bridge who need schooling. Survey the area and find out how many we can serve.” https://doi.org/10.1515/9781547401505-005

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Sister Cyril Mooney had just become Principal of the Loreto Sealdah School in Kolkata (Calcutta), India. She had 700 paying students in her well-regarded, some would say “elite,” school for girls. She also had 100 non-paying students, since it had been a tradition to educate poor Catholic children for free if they couldn’t pay, because the school was run by the Loreto order of Catholic nuns (Mother Teresa, also of Calcutta, who knew Sister Cyril, was in the same order of nuns). However, Sister Cyril wanted to do more and reach out to educate any child in need. First, she needed to know how many there were. Perhaps they could start with some homeless children she knew were living under a bridge nearby (see Figure 5.1).

Figure 5.1: There are still many children in India outside of schools during the school day.

The girls came back excited from their journey, but seemed disappointed, too. “Sister, there weren’t any poor children under the bridge. They’re all quite fat.” Because they hadn’t learned the signs of advanced malnutrition, when the body swells, the surveyors couldn’t “see” the poor children, who were so poor their bodies were swelling from lack of food. “Oh. All right, then. I suppose we’ll have to find children-in-need some other way. Thank you — go ahead to your classes and recess.”

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For their community service projects, the girls taught in villages that were short of teachers or had no school — also an important need to be served. Three years after the survey at the bridge, some girls approached Sister Cyril: “Sister, why do we go so far away on a bus to teach when there are poor children nearby?” “Oh, really? Where?” “Just under the bridge — over there.” So, she let them start a program to teach the poor children under the bridge (see Figure 5.2). The new inquiry had come after the students had been working with poor children in villages and had learned something about poverty and hunger.

Figure 5.2: Loreto Sealdah students teach their juniors in the Rainbow Program.

With this new information in their heads, they could “see” opportunities they couldn’t see before.

New Vision, New Steps Then Sister Cyril’s eyes were opened one day when she heard of a four-year-old girl who was raped at night, nearby, while the school was empty, the doors

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were closed, and the gates were locked. It shook her. She asked, “Lord, what are we doing here — what am I doing here — if this is to happen nearby?” She opened the gates and the doors and let the children sleep in the empty school, where they’d be safe (see Figure 5.3). Later, she added food and education, and the Rainbow Program was born, providing education to 350 poor students (250 of them housed in the school full-time). The school remained at 700 paying students but grew the non-paying cohort to 700 and took special care to ensure there was no difference in treatment between paying and non-paying students.

Figure 5.3: Sister Cyril opened the school’s gates and let the street children sleep inside for safety.

In fact, when the issue came up, Sister responded, “Which of you here pay your own fees?” A girl chimed in, “Our parents pay.” “So you don’t pay, then?” “No — children don’t have any money.”

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“So everyone here is sponsored by a parent or someone else, so you’re all equal and there’ll be no more of who pays and who doesn’t pay?” “That’s right, Sister.” And that was the end of that. No more boundaries.

Opening the Floodgates of Innovation and Integration She opened more than gates to the school. She opened floodgates of creativity. Over the course of 35 years, she, her teachers, volunteers, and students founded and grew 15 programs for the poorest of the world’s poor — Kolkata children living in streets, slums, villages, migrant brick-workers, domestic child laborers, and more. She gave her students and staff freedom to explore, experiment, take risks, make messes, grow, and make a difference. They made a difference in themselves, growing more confident and creative, and their impact on the world grew (see Figure 5.4).

Figure 5.4: Students who learn together learn well.

Her staff describes her as a powerhouse, one who breaks down walls, a fighter, compassionate, a listener, faithful, always-available, a risk-taker, incredibly

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strong and energetic, courageous, with vision of the potential in others and willingness to let them try. Her door was always open, and she remembered and cared about everyone.

Crossing Boundaries and Integrating Sister Cyril was told it would be impossible to mix different castes in Indian society, and that as an Irishwoman she couldn’t possibly understand the caste barriers. However, she understands children, and they mix just fine (see Figure 5.5). She was told it would be difficult to mix disabled children into the non-disabled cohort. But they mixed just fine. If a student needs special support/assistance, they receive it, and for the bulk of their education, they mix and learn.

Figure 5.5: Students forget their differences when learning together.

One of the students noticed, thought about, and asked about educating child domestic workers (CDWs), so they started a CDW program. With the Sister’s permission, the students went to their neighbors and asked if they could play with the neighboring workers — perhaps play learning games. Many employers said no, but eventually they said yes (after repeated visits — just try to say “no” to a

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neighbor child), and some allowed the children to pursue more learning programs. They’ve worked with over 1,000 CDWs, admitted over 300 to school, provided vocational education to over 200, health assistance to over 650, rescued over 50, and provided advocacy for nearly 30,000. It’s hard to notice people who are hidden. But once noticed, they are hard to ignore.

See, Act, Grow Sister Cyril noticed growing numbers of poor children hemorrhaging onto the streets day after day. With mounting concern, she traced them through to the Sampurna Eastern Bypass, to a migrant area that had just opened up—with 1,200 schoolless children. She asked their parents what they needed. With no electricity and no running water, they asked for school (see Figure 5.6). Sister’s school now serves these children with teacher training and new schools.

Figure 5.6: Sister traced children back to a migrant area and found that with no electricity and no running water, the parents asked for a school.

We don’t always notice who’s on the street, much less pursue where they come from. But again, once found, they are hard to ignore. I was so fond of saying to my children when they were little, “No, no, we see with our eyes, not with our fingers.” But that’s not true. They were right.

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We see with our eyes and fingers and feet and hearts and everything we touch, hear, see, taste, smell, and empathize with (I count six senses there, not five), but seeing so much can be overwhelming. Kolkata, for example, is an amazing place of sights and sounds and smells and traffic and people going to school and work and eating street-breakfast and drinking tea and shopping and doing a thousand other things within any space you might choose to rest your eyes. A very human instinct is to shut it all out and become aware of nothing. But that won’t help you get where you’re going, and it won’t help anyone see opportunities to make anything better. How do we restrict our vision (and other senses) to what we can handle, yet remain open to opportunity? Sister Cyril both expanded and restricted her vision by creating the lens: “We educate children” (see Figure 5.7). I kept hearing her say “yes” to everything and asked her does she ever say “no”? She said, “No, I never say no.” To illustrate, she told me that when speaking with a poor mother one day, Sister asked, “Would you like your child to sleep here and go to school here as a residential scholar?” The mother, relieved and elated, said, “YES!” I noticed Sister didn’t invite the poor mother to sleep in the school and asked her about it. She

Figure 5.7: When you define your mission, you’ll see less of what lies outside your mission but more opportunities that lie within.

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said, no, of course not — she doesn’t provide housing to the poor in general and work on anything big outside of “We educate children.” So, she says yes to everything inside her lens and no to what’s outside. In fact, some of the children initially taken in were boys, yet her school is for girls. The vision of Mary Ward, the school’s founder, was to empower women, and the primary means was to educate girls. So, the boys’ needs were noticed, and were not ignored, but Sister transferred them to an affiliated school for boys. Sister Cyril has seen through open eyes for many years, but increasingly through a lens that she developed herself, and which both focused and expanded her vision. She focused on her mission yet remained open and noticed things (such as new kids on the street) because of that lens. Having noticed, she investigated, took action to help, and offers one piece of advice to others: “Just do it.” She didn’t have all the resources or grand plans when she started. She saw a need and did what she believed would be right in her eyes and God’s eyes. Along the way, when people heard of the needs of these programs and the good works, resources came, and they grew and served. It’s happened every time. And now, 450,000 lives are the better for it. Many of us think we see — analyze — act. But so often we can’t see. Without data, we don’t analyze. Without analysis, we won’t act. Isn’t it better to: act — see — grow?

Figure 5.8: Sister Cyril grew the Loreto Sealdah School, its programs, her staff, and the children in her care.

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Will you act? What will you see? How will you grow yourself and others? Sister Cyril Mooney served as Principal of the Loreto Sealdah School in Kolkata, India for 35 years and continues to serve internationally as an Education Consultant. The programs she founded have been collected into the Kolkata Mary Ward Social Centre and continue to grow. She’s “from” India and Ireland and was featured in INKTalks’ Journey to the Extraordinary. For more information on her work, see: Loretosealdah.org, kolkatamarywardsc.org, and YouTube videos such as “Circle of Empowerment.”

Chapter 6 Silk Vaccines Millions of Lives and $16 Billion to Save with NonRefrigerated Vaccines Livio Valenti – Entrepreneur, Science/Tech Venture

Livio Valenti gathered ideas and people into an award-winning “med-tech” venture that fuses: – Advanced materials technology (silk protein fibers) and biomatter (vaccines) – Technology, business, and social-impact development – A diverse founding team (different nations and fields) Video https://youtu.be/g0waC_04sBY

Walking down a dusty path, fine-grained dirt sifts between your toes. Dust gets into your hair and teeth. Heat makes it stick to a thin layer of sweat. There’s a seller in the village up ahead. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781547401505-006

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“Coke?” “Yes!” Handing over hot coins (not exactly cold cash), the seller has another important question: “Would you like a vaccine to go with it?” “A what??” This is a very real possibility—with silk-protein-stabilized vaccines (see Figure 6.1). When a fibroin (silk protein) solution is added to a vaccine, the biological compounds are encased in a matrix that protects them from degrading from thermal and other stresses. In other words, they no longer need refrigeration.

Figure 6.1: Coca Cola’s distribution network that reaches both cities and rural villages in 200 out of the world’s 202 countries could be a great network for vaccination.

Many of today’s vaccines are shelf-unstable and must be stored either frozen or between 2°C and 8°C. Each year, up to half of all vaccines lose effectiveness because they are not kept at the right temperature. Healthcare workers administering them don’t always know which doses are spoiled. The consequences can be dire. Annually, 2.4 million people die from vaccine-preventable diseases. One in every five people fails to receive basic vaccines — 50% of children in some parts

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of the World. Cold-chain distribution is a major obstacle, absorbing 80% or more of immunization costs. With the global vaccine market valued at $20 billion, that’s $16 billion that could be put to better use in or outside of healthcare. Do vaccines have to be administered by nurses with hypodermic needles — a medical technology developed in 1656? No, and again, silk offers a new route. With a 5-minute application of the Mimix™ sustained-release patch, silk fibroin microneedles infused with vaccine or immunotherapy can be painlessly inserted into the skin for sustained release over a course of days or weeks. In fact, vaccine/therapy effectiveness can rise dramatically because silk microneedle delivery mimics the prolonged exposure of a natural infection. So, with new vaccines and new microneedles, all that’s needed is a means for controlling who receives them, plus a distribution network that reaches cities and villages in every nation on earth. Coca-Cola reaches all but two nations and was considered early-on as a possible channel partner. App-enabled health workers are another possibility, as is the existing vaccine distribution chain, sans refrigerators.

Cambodia: One Thread in the Silk Road Silk has a long history of inspiring new advances. Silk textiles were created in China around 2700 BC, and silk trade routes opened around 130 BC (once the material was no longer reserved for royalty and banned from trade). The Silk Routes (or Silk Road) not only carried merchandise, but also people and ideas (see Figure 6.2). Hubs of culture and learning grew along the routes, fostering a continual infusion and expansion of art, literature, craft, business — and science and technology. The United Nations maintains an information-base on Silk Route countries and, in 2009, sent a young analyst to one of them — Cambodia. Still a silk producer, the nation faced serious development challenges, and the analyst — Livio Valenti — wanted to help. Livio is an economist by training from a small town in Italy. Conversant in four languages, he studied economics in Italy (focusing on interactions between public and private sectors), followed by studies in the US and China. He didn’t follow his fellow economics graduates to jobs at banks. Instead, with a desire to make a difference, he took a job with the UN in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, serving as its chief of staff. He wanted to help the silk industry thrive and help the nation thrive. Although a perfect place to grow silk, the nation hadn’t moved up the “value-added curve.” People were still desperately poor.

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Figure 6.2: Cambodia, part of the ancient Silk Road, was Livio’s first stop in a revolutionary journey.

Livio worked to create higher-value products, but the quality of the silk they could produce and the processing they performed wasn’t enough to lift the industry. “I felt I had wasted the project money— I felt very responsible for it. So I said, ‘What else can I do?’ One day I was feeling sad and went online to figure out what else we can do with silk, and I found that in Korea it’s used for fish food. They use silk because it’s protein. There were other uses I thought interesting. Then one day, I stumbled upon this TED talk — this scientist looking a little like me and talking about how to use silk for biomedical engineering.”

The TED talk seen by Livio was by Dr. Fiorenzo Omenetto (Silk, the Ancient Material of the Future) on new uses of silk, such as light transmission (e.g., optical guided lights), sustainability (as water-processed, biodegradable packaging), tensile strength (e.g., for knee ligaments), and medicine (e.g., resorbables and implantables).

A New Thread in the Silk Road — Boston Faced with bureaucratic drift and no clear vision of a higher-value-added road to development, Livio decided to go back to school in 2011 and search for what

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he should do. He joined Harvard’s Kennedy School of government for a Master’s in Public Policy (see Figure 6.3).

Figure 6.3: Harvard was Livio’s second stop in his revolutionary journey.

While in Boston, he made an appointment to meet the TED speaker, a professor at Tufts University in biomedical engineering and physics. With research covering optics, nanostructured materials (e.g., photonic crystals and photonic crystal fibers), nanofabrication, and biopolymer-based photonics, he pioneered, with David Kaplan, the use of silk in photonics, optoelectronics, edible sensors, resorbables, implantables, and more. An electrical engineer by training and PhD in applied physics, Fortune Magazine named him one of the top 50 people in technology development, alongside Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos. He recognized a link between tech-nology and a bio-material (silk) — particular features exhibited by silk that had been thought to be the sole domain of advanced photonic (technological) materials. “That moment of recognition led to asking a lot of questions like, ‘If this is such a good material for photonics, then what can we put in it, to give it some unusual optical or technological function?’ And so we started mixing biologicals with silk, for example putting blood

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inside optics. We found that these optical components with blood inside of them behaved unexpectedly — something you wouldn’t expect in a film format that was left in a drawer for many weeks. This coexistence of form and biological function led us to recognize that this could be a very broad and powerful platform.” – Dr. Fiorenzo Omenetto, Scientific Co-Founder and Director of Vaxess

They put all sorts of things inside the photonic-optical components — including vaccines.

Weaving the Threads — Vaxess Back at Harvard and building on his interest in the public and private sectors, Livio took a class at the business school called, “Commercializing Science.” He gathered a team, they wrote a business plan for commercializing silk-stabilized vaccines, and at age 29, he co-founded Vaxess (for “vaccine access”) with his teammates and Dr. Omenetto. After graduation, Livio became Vice President of Policy & Strategy; scientist Kathryn Kosuda became Vice President of R&D; and lawyer Patrick Ho became Vice President of Licensing & Regulation; with Michael Schrader as CEO (see Figure 6.4).

Figure 6.4: Silk cocoons are carefully prepared to become fibroin solution for vaccines. source: www.vaxess.com

Early vaccine tests showed relatively small loss of efficacy, and further tests would have to be conducted to show that products using their stabilization technology were both effective and reasonably devoid of unforeseen side effects. Findings were encouraging, though, and they were well on their way.

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Vaxess moved into the Harvard Innovation Lab (a multi-disciplinary coworking space), won three business-plan competitions, and raised $3.75 million in first-round funding. Grants and awards have come from the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, and Verizon. In 2017, they received $6 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Vaxess Technologies was featured in The Economist, Forbes, the New York Times, NPR, Fast Company, CNBC, and many other media venues. Livio joined Forbes’ 30-Under-30 list in 2014.

Questions Mark an Open Road Each member of the multi-national, multi-disciplinary founding team (business, government, law, and science) brings a different perspective. These are woven together with open-minded listening and friendship: “If you look at how this company was started in the first place, it was a set of very great relationships that was built right. Everyone brings their different views, and one of the things I really appreciate is that everyone is willing to listen, is open, and curious.”

Livio himself is described as fun to work with, open to new experiences and collaboration — intrigued by diversity, uniqueness, and new discoveries (see Figure 6.5). He says, “I’m fascinated by things I don’t understand. I value them, maybe more than what I do understand.”

He and Fio (Dr. Omenetto) are both intrigued by what doesn’t make sense (why did the blood remain stable?) and by experimental “what-ifs,” such as how to influence the biomaterials they study. For example, if you change the water or other conditions for a mulberry tree, would that change the leaves, and in turn the worm, then the silk, making a better outcome for the materials and bio-devices? Good questioning is key to their journeys of discovery and development: “The questions are the only thing. The answers are always going to be around, but if you don’t ask the right questions you really have a problem.”

Interweaving People and Ideas with Empathy Questions lead Livio not only to experiments, but most notably to other people (e.g., Dr. Omenetto):

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Figure 6.5: Like the other fusioneers, Livio asks insightful—and numerous—questions.

“He has an amazing network. We often joke about that, when we find he has some rare, random connection that turns out to be really useful. He’s a people person and very skilled at developing relationships in a very natural manner — not consciously or professionally-directed. It’s much more personal than that. He has a natural way of connecting with people and finding out interesting things about them that perhaps nobody else would. . . . We’re located in an incubator, and there are may be 25 or 30 companies here. There are people the rest of us see every day and recognize, and the incubator managers try to foster a sense of community, but Livio’s the one who talks with people over coffee or in the hall and then comes out of the blue and says, “You know, this person from XYZ down the hall has expertise in this area. Maybe we could talk to him.” – Dr. Kathryn Kosuda, Vaxess Co-Founder and VP-R&D

Livio continually considers not only individuals to tap but also organizations with which to collaborate — in academia, government, international bodies, foundations — integrating external people into Vaxess where appropriate (see Figure 6.6). Friends describe him as a creative problem solver, good communicator, energized by people, trusting and trusted, very receptive to feedback, hardworking, energetic, spontaneous, visionary, flexible, and fluid. He sees the

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Figure 6.6: Making silk and connecting people and ideas for innovation both require intricate interweaving.

bigger picture and is not detail-oriented. “Work” and “life” are integrated, and he’s very active (sailing, surfing, and more). He’s described as highly empathetic along all three dimensions — emotive, cognitive (understanding other points of view), and compassionate (helping others) (see Figure 6.7). “I think that’s actually at the core of who he is. You can tell from his life experiences he’s always pursuing ways to help others and do something for the greater good.” – Dr. Kathryn Kosuda, Vaxess Co-Founder and VP-R&D

Empathy is a useful tool not only for seeking help and impact, but also for understanding in depth, where common patterns emerge and where you can connect seemingly disparate things in new ways — from different people, different experiences, different cultures, and more. “He’s a connector. He seeks people, he’s open, he’s opportunistic. Livio has dealt with multiple cultures, is empathetic, and his defining trait is to be able to identify connections — bringing together different pieces that can have very impactful outcomes. That’s his distinguishing feature.” – Dr. Fiorenzo Omenetto, Scientific Co-Founder and Director of Vaxess

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Figure 6.7: Empathy not only helps Livio understand patients’ experiences but also drives him to learn broadly, connect people and ideas, and pursue ways to make an impact for greater good.

Weave an Open Cocoon For most people, exploring what’s next and dreaming of new projects are very open experiences, prompting us to meet new people and explore new ideas. Livio was open to needs outside himself (in Cambodia and global healthcare); open to failure and the need for new directions; open to questions and new ideas; and continually open to new people and partners. Fio was open to something that didn’t make sense (stabilized blood), questions, and meeting a stranger with a passion to create something good for the world. Implementation is usually the time to focus, and new creations require protection — a cocoon (see Figure 6.8). But what if you’re developing a dream? Openness to new ideas and people will be required throughout, and protective focus will have to be balanced and integrated with this openness.

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Figure 6.8: A variety of silk weavers weave different cocoons. Will you weave something unique?

“I think people who have done important things have been able to accompany execution with imagination. It’s very difficult to find someone who can do both.” – Dr. Fiorenzo Omenetto, Scientific Co-Founder and Director of Vaxess

Perhaps the most important openness is to build a dream with other people — some more open, some more focused — appreciating what each one brings, weaving them together. So the next time you walk away with a Coke, you might remember the vaccine that could have gone with it (see Figure 6.9), and ask yourself:

Figure 6.9: The next time you buy a drink, consider a child who might get a vaccine.

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What do I know of the people and ideas all around me? What doesn’t make sense, and what might I do? Will I walk a Silk Road, developing a dream, and who might walk with me? It might require two Cokes. Livio Valenti is Co-Founder and VP of Policy & Strategy for Vaxess Technologies. He is “from” Cambodia, China, Italy, and the US. For more information on his work, see: https://www.linkedin.com/in/liviovalenti/ and vaxess.com. If you speak Italian, you can catch him at TEDxVicenza or BeautifulMindsBologna. To learn more from Livio’s scientific co-founder, Dr. Fio Omenetto, visit TED. com for Silk, the Ancient Material of the Future. For a brief overview of silk vaccines, watch NOVA: Stabilizing Vaccines with Silk (PBS).

Chapter 7 eCommerce and Globalization $850 Million Founding Team and Leapfrogging Nike Sport Camps from 80,000 Kids to 800,000 George Kolovos—Serial Entrepreneur and Founding Team Member

Photo source: Ernie Smith’s Facebook

George Kolovos is an eCommerce pioneer, global entrepreneur, and master networker who fused: – Cosmetics and restaurants with the internet – US-based Nike sports camps with global markets via Sports Camps Australia (SCA) – People and ideas at The Quad Café Video https://youtu.be/BXy5DMU5KFA

“Great to see you! I’m glad you stopped by after our talk. Salmon sandwich with cream cheese and veggies? We’ve got multi-grain bread just out of the oven.”

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“Wow — my favorite — yes. How did you know?” “How about coffee? Fresh-brewed. No need for cream and sugar.” “Super. That’s how I take it, too. How would you know?” I still remember my visit to The Quad Café almost a year and a half ago (see Figure 7.1). I had a chance to see the owner-server-superconnector, George Kolovos, in a place that so beautifully exemplifies him — a hyper-aware, intuitive host who connects people and ideas, while delighting them with just the food and drink they’d like to have. I still have no idea how he guessed what order I’d like, or how he knew to introduce me to another customer who had common business interests to mine.

Figure 7.1: Coffee and creativity go hand-in-hand these days as startup entrepreneurs crowd coffee shops.

“When I’m here, I’m conscious of everything. I see everything around me, the space around me, the way things are. When I’m in the café, I empty my head of everything else, and I know what’s going where, who’s ordered what, what they’re waiting on, what needs to go, how that person’s being served. Is there money in the till? Do we have enough coffee over there? Can you please clean the table over here? Spatial awareness of my environment takes over. I’m open to seeing everything around me. Everything. My staff has noticed there’s no time lapse between something happening and my responding.”

That state of responsive awareness is part of his love of dressage—horsejumping. He’s noticed that if he considers a jump, calculates, and plans what to do, he and the horse may not make it. If they’ve practiced well, are in a state of

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responsive awareness, and jump without conscious thought, they almost certainly will. “At the café you can see a high degree of efficiency and effectiveness, but you can see that everyone is relaxed enough to talk to a customer. If someone actually came in and quantified the good will, I think it would be scarily high . . . It doesn’t matter who comes in. He knows every customer’s name, and most of his staff know all the customers’ names.” —Dr. Kenneth Graham, friend, customer, and principal scientist at the nearby New South Wales Institute of Sport

So there’s a relaxed yet efficient flow that goes along with (or is enabled by) the responsive-awareness, and the team, who are all good friends, take part (see Figure 7.2). If I didn’t know better, I’d have just given him a tip and thanked him for his perceptiveness.

Figure 7.2: Coupling efficiency and effectiveness with personal connection might be the recipe for an innovative network.

But I did know better. When I interviewed him, I found he’d also been an early dot-commer, a visionary leader in MenuLog’s founding team ($850+ million IPO), and was expanding Nike Sport Camps outside the US (with SCA — Sport Camps Australia), to potentially reach not just 80,000 participants, but 800,000 worldwide.

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Why does he spend his days running a café? Why do customers like to work in cafés (a common pursuit in every innovation hub I’ve visited)? What happens in a café that’s connected to startups and innovation?

Table #1: Family George’s serving days started with a family business (see Figure 7.3). His parents migrated from Greece to Australia in the 50s or 60s. His father had no formal higher education and was the child of two wars — WWII and the Greek Civil War. His entire village had been wiped out by the German army in WWII, and he lost his mother and sister. He considered emigrating to the US, where he had family, but decided instead — with no business experience — to help his brother do business in Australia.

Figure 7.3: Like many other innovators and entrepreneurs, George started with a family network and family business. “He had that innate ability to learn. He wanted to learn and wasn’t afraid of criticism, of failure, of disappointment, of people laughing at him. He was just thinking of family. And when you think of family, everything just gets brushed aside. He was driven by that, and as a consequence was very successful. I think a large part of that probably brushed off onto us

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kids. My sister and I both worked in my parents’ shop from the age of 5. My dad taught us — we were serving customers at age 5 — and we learned very quickly. I spent a lot of my childhood growing up in family business. My dad was never a big believer in formal education. He thought you should be actively involved in the community.”

George’s first job out of secondary school was in a movie theatre, as a projectionist. About six months later, he and a friend took over another theatre, and they ran the twin theatres together. Eventually he did pursue higher education, and learned something about himself in the process. “I went to university to try my luck to see whether the education system would work for me. I wanted to do an arts and law degree, but it was too regimental — too many boxes, not enough freedom. My head just wanted to be out in the open space, the open field. I didn’t want to be boxed in.”

A Brand New Wide-Open Field: The Internet A new field opened up a little later, one that paradoxically operated on boxes — servers and desktops, modems and routers. The internet was a seemingly limitless virtual space, open for new uses (see Figure 7.4). George saw everything around him as an opportunity. He looked, he thought, and then ideas and connections formed. He watched his girlfriend, a beauty therapist, serving clients and observed that not only did women spend a significant

Figure 7.4: George’s early forays into eCommerce were too early, but the learnings were invaluable to the next venture.

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amount of money in salons, but they were also short on time. With an interest in all things new (including technology) and adept at joining things together, he married the ideas of beauty products, time-scarce women, and the internet. George had limited knowledge of computers at the time, but joined forces with others around him. There was no funding for such ventures, especially in Australia, which surfed the e-commerce wave later than the US. His designer joined the venture purely out of interest, producing graphic designs for the website (and more) for free. Others in the cosmetics industry (and beyond) gave advice freely. “He’s very good at identifying the team he needs to get something done, enlisting people to his idea, and getting them motivated and focused on the end result.” —Frances Dart, Graphic Designer

The end result was one of the internet’s earliest e-commerce plays in cosmetics, eCosmetics, a global business operating out of Sydney that even sold Parisian cosmetics to women in nearby Monaco. The business operated for a number of years but ultimately closed because of difficulties building the brand and building a large enough customer base. The timing was a little early. It’s always time to learn, however, and he carried his learnings with him into the next e-venture. The original concept was to put restaurant menus online, handle order-taking and payments, pass the orders to the restaurants via computer, and let them cook and deliver. George crafted the vision, assembled a team he thought could best deliver in their respective areas, focused them, created content, and integrated them, driving toward creation of a service customers and restaurants both wanted. Building something new was hard, and it became increasingly difficult to keep the team focused on the vision, operating with synergy. Ultimately, the founding team realized the cohesive days of early building were over. So, they IPO’ed MenuLog at over $850 million (initial public offering of company stock to the public).

Focus on What Isn’t There and Watch It Evolve George still loves new, open fields and describes himself as a creative free spirit. He’s most productive as an idea generator and connector, not the final decisionmaker (see Figure 7.5). He needs to remain open to possibilities, watching them evolve. If they don’t work as originally intended, they’re still of value. They open up new pathways and learning, such as eCosmetics and MenuLog.

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Figure 7.5: If you need to be the creative free spirit, be that—there’s value in it for others who “make the trains run on time.” “We’re probably conditioned from the way we grow up to make judgments without seeing the possibilities. So we pass judgment built around past experience. But every situation is unique. Everything has a potential. You can’t close it off until you’ve made your attempt. One situation is very different to another because the environment is different, the timing is different, the location may be different, and the occasion is different. Stay open to possibilities.” “George is always thinking. He’s uniquely good at coming up with ideas. When he has one, he’s very good at extrapolating — thinking about where it could go. He’ll get help bringing it to fruition — he just comes up with the idea. He has a very creative mind.” —Frances Dart

Friends describe him as a larrikin (or maverick), smart, quick to catch on, very upbeat, trusting and trusted, a good listener (and talker), highly observant in great detail, and empathetic, without losing sight of his vision and goal. He likes interacting with people, is a driver and is driven, with high standards for himself and his staff. He’s “case sensitive” in his interactions (not the same person to everyone) and has built his café as a connection point for people. He collects experiences, ideas, and people, not only receiving business cards and handing out his own, but even handing them out for trusted friends.

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“He’s a connector and a driver, and you know — that’s where he’s most happy. What happens after that is up to the people he connects. But he does drive to make connections happen. He’s created an integrated network and puts energy into keeping that network active.” —Dr. Kenneth Graham

The network is not only for action-connections but also learning-connections — people to learn from. “He wants to be challenged. He surrounds himself with intelligent people who like to talk about ideas and learns from them. He’s widely read — like a sponge — interested in philosophy, politics, biography. He’s open and interested, asks intelligent questions, and you can talk to him about virtually anything. He’s quite unique.” —Frances Dart

When he’s not learning and connecting, swimming, running, biking, and equestrian show jumping, he’s hearing ideas from his network and helping them connect, be it mobile heart monitors or something else (see Figure 7.6). When asked how he decides what to work on, he says it “just comes to him.”

Figure 7.6: Don’t just give out your own business cards—give others’ and connect people in your network to others in your network.

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From Meatballs to Tennis Balls: Nike-SCA Something “came to him” one day in a catering job that evolved into much more: “I provided catering to Tennis New South Wales. The CEO came up with the idea that he wanted to do sport camps, and he went online and started researching youth camps. He kept running into NIKE sports camps in the US. So he rang these guys and asked. ‘Would you be interested in giving us the rights to run the NIKE Sports Camps in Australia?’ And they said, ‘Well, we haven’t really thought about it because we’re not really interested in leaving the US, but if you’re interested, we’ll fly you here, and we can have a meeting and discuss it.’ So they paid for him to go over, and he ended up getting the license for the whole of Australasia — Australia, Southeast Asia, all of India — plus all of the Ukraine, Russia, and a lot more.”

He put out “feelers” in his tennis network, asking who would be interested in hosting camps, what model they could operate on, gauging interest, and understanding what relationships and collaborations could grow. George watched how the new idea evolved, collaborated, and, as a partner, asked what works, what doesn’t, and how to drive it forward with passion. “You have to have passion and drive. With passion and drive, you can make an idea work, because people will connect with it and contribute to what you’re doing, and then you get quality. Once you get the quality, it generates even more interest. Even at the café, it’s the quality of the food, the quality of the service, the small things — the water in the glasses going out as the customer’s sitting down. Then the real stuff happens.” —Dr. Kenneth Graham

The Real Stuff The oldest child (and the only son in a Greek family with three daughters), George walks a path that isn’t the norm in Australia and isn’t the norm in Greece (see Figure 7.7). He hasn’t started his own family but has started businesses and community. He doesn’t have to own each initiative, noting that: “It’s better to have 1% of something than 100% of nothing.” George challenged my ideas of fusion, just by being who he is. I recognized immediately his thinking style that puts together ideas and/or people that aren’t normally combined, but are generative. He’s not always the boss but is always the free spirit, the generator, the connector who surrounds

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Figure 7.7: Virtual and “real” networks work together.

himself with others who feed into new ideas and connections—with George and with each other. His responsive-awareness is notable in the café, on horseback, and in every new business idea he’s fostered or led. His lesson to me is that if you need to be a free spirit, be one. Be the most extreme version of whoever you were designed to be. And there’s value in the idea-generator and the connector, just as there’s value in the implementer — the CEO. If you build and manage a network, it will continually nourish you, and good things will come to fruition in the community. Watching him, I see the value in connecting others, not just self with others. They will gravitate toward the connector, and be immersed in a network that’s particular to who you are. It doesn’t need to be hub-and-spoke — it just needs to be connected. You don’t have to sit at the center of your own network. George spends his days running a café because he’s happy, and it helps him innovate, alongside his customers. The connectedness begins with openness, which is best developed as a server, not as a customer (see Figure 7.8). These days, you can find café games on the internet to develop your awareness and other mental skills, but it’s not the same as real life.

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Figure 7.8: Building a network doesn’t mean gathering people who serve you—it’s built on serving first.

So the next time you receive a coffee, why not look around, watch what’s evolving or could evolve, put on an apron, and start serving? George Kolovos is a founding team member of MenuLog, co-founder of a variety of enterprises, and owner-operator of The Quad Café in the Sydney Olympic Park. He’s “from” Australia and Greece. For more information on his work, see: www.menulog.com.au/ and www.sportscampsaustralia.com.au/.

Chapter 8 Lime.com First Successful Integration of TV, Radio, Internet, VoD, and Mobile Ted Saad—Multi-Emmy-Award-Winning Executive Producer

“You LOHAS people are so serious! Couldn’t you be a little lighter, like LIME — a lighter shade of green?” —Cyndi Lauper

Ted Saad is a multi-Emmy-Award-winning media pioneer who created fusions of: – TV, radio, internet, VoD, and mobile—the first successful integration across these media – Visual arts and business – Diverse technologies and teams

Video https://youtu.be/2zYSw3R1HUI

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781547401505-008

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LIME was way before its time. It was about being green, sustainable, aware, planet-wise — conscious of our impact on the Earth. Today, “eco” and “green” offer mass appeal and attract premium pricing, but in 2005, whenever LIME Media’s founders said, “green” people responded, “What, grass? The color?” No one knew what “green” was in the way we know it today. Environmentalism was certainly around back then, but mainly embraced by highly serious eco-advocates. At a convention of “dark green” conservationists, world-famous singer-songwriter Cyndi Lauper was performing, stopped, looked out at the audience, and asked if the crowd couldn’t lighten up (see the quote above). CJ Kettler was in the audience that day and resolved to use the name “LIME” to found a new company for people who wanted to be gentler on the planet but also gentle on themselves, not restricting their food to organic-only or turning major parts of their homes into mini-recycling plants. “LIME, Healthy Living with a Twist,” would become a brand for personally sustainable conservation — sustainability you could live with (see Figure 8.1).

Figure 8.1: Lime—a new company for healthy people and planet in a fast-growing 50-millionconsumer market.

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The LOHAS market (lifestyles of health and sustainability) was nascent but showed great potential. The Natural Marketing Institute estimated it at 50 million people in the US alone (1/6th of the population), comprising extremely loyal consumers who were already spending $227 billion per year on “eco” and “alternative lifestyle” products and services such as organic produce, hybrid cars, yoga, and acupuncture. America Online Inc.’s founder, Steve Case, saw the potential and believed “new age” lifestyles would become mainstream. Having placed $500 million of his own money into Revolution LLC, his new investment vehicle, Steve met with Jirka Rysavy, CEO of Gaiam Inc., a producer and distributor of yoga and Pilates videos. Jirka was living at the time in a cabin outside Boulder, CO, with no running water and an outhouse master bath. Despite their divergent lifestyles, the two saw the same green vision, and Revolution invested $20 million in Gaiam. Revolution bought Wisdom Media Group, a small, family-run health and wellness cable company (radio and TV). They rebranded and relaunched it as a multimedia lifestyle company helping people lead healthier, greener, more balanced lifestyles. Content would be available on television, internet, video-on-demand, SIRIUS satellite radio, and mobile phones (see Figure 8.2).

Figure 8.2: Lime delivered healthy-lifestyle content, integrated across television, internet, video-on-demand, SIRIUS satellite radio, and mobile phones.

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No one had integrated those five media before, although some talked about channel integration as the future of entertainment. In addition, no one had created content for a “light-green” audience, since that was new, as well. Newly hired LIME executive Judith Tolkow had to get the right producer and director who could both create new content and integrate separate channels in a new way. Having launched the Sundance channel with a star producer-director and having worked with him for many years, she knew just who to call. Multi-Emmy-award-winning Executive Producer Ted Saad joined the founding team as vice president of programming and production, got involved in all aspects of production and delivery, and together they created leading-edge content, pioneering multi-platform programming along the way. LIME was the first entertainment company to successfully deliver the same content on five different platforms, in a user-centric, integrated fashion. They grew their customer base to 6.5 million cable subscribers, 2.2 million unique website visitors each month, a loyal base of 24-hour radio listeners, and 200,000 newsletter readers each day. Two years later, LIME was bought by Gaiam, which had become the largest distributor of wellness products in the world, and more people every day were pursuing healthier, more sustainable lifestyles that were a “lighter shade of green.”

It’s New York — Make Your Own “Big Break” . . . and Lots of Relationships Ted had gotten the call to join LIME while producing a show focused on New York City (which he did for five years) — “the crazies, the geniuses, the culture, the life.” He had developed his broad range of skills working in every entertainmentproduction role from conceptualization through post-production, including creative director, scout, producer, executive producer, and editor (see Figure 8.3). It all began with what you might call a little “acting.” He was working unhappily for an interior designer and found that a friend of the designer was a producer at America’s Most Wanted. Looking to make a change, Ted said he was a producer but was willing to take an assistant-producer job just to get his foot in the door — and only for one project. His resumé included a few embellishments. Back then, without the internet, few people actually checked references, and “creative writing” wasn’t unknown in entertainment-industry CVs. They hired him. With skills learned on the job and in his mostly finished Arts Administration MBA, he performed beautifully. Soon after, Ted got a call from Unsolved Mysteries, upset that he was producing a story the caller had (really?) scouted first. Knowing nothing about the origin

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Figure 8.3: Ted developed a broad range of skills in every entertainment-production role— conceptualization, creative director, scout, producer, editor, and post-production.

of the project, Ted asserted (truthfully) that he didn’t know anything about that — he’s just working here — “. . . but why don’t you hire me, since I already know how to do this entire story? I’ve got everything — I’ve got cranes, I’ve got helicopters, I’ve got everything ready to go for you.” They hired him, and project after project flourished under his bold leadership and infectious creativity. When Unsolved Mysteries went off the air, everyone scattered, but Ted was still the “East Coast guy” everyone knew and loved to work with. He continued to get more work than he knew what to do with for years to come. “At one point in the early 90s, I think I had something on almost every major network and cable channel, so I started my own production company. We were nominated for four Emmys and won three. We had a blast.”

The Saad and Moss Production Company (later Ted Saad Media) grew to 100 employees and became a multi-million dollar enterprise, working with top-tier clients such as ABC, NBC, CBS, HBO, Showtime, A+E, Discovery, Food Network, FOX, PBS, TNT, Martha Stewart, MTV, and New York Magazine, to name a few.

Catch of the Day: Agent’s Job (Hold the MBA), and a Waiter on the Side

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Catch of the Day: Agent’s Job (Hold the MBA), and a Waiter on the Side Before his “big break” at America’s Most Wanted, survival was the order of the day. Ted was $75,000 in debt when he was 75% into NYU’s MBA program in Arts Administration. Landing an agent job, he would gladly have taken postMBA, he skipped his last semester and began his entertainment career instead. Imaginative and gregarious, he crafted $300,000 of custom-designed contracts for his performing artists (a huge sum at the time for mostly unknown artists), but the agency wouldn’t pay $500 for a booth at a conference where he’d sign all the deals. Despite the scorn of his standard-contract colleagues and restrictive “organizational” rules, he scurried around outside restrooms and other venues getting the deals signed. Predictably, his patience ran out, his temper engaged, and both he and the agency realized he wasn’t the right fit for that organizational machine. So he took a job with the competition and another with the interior designer. One of his most valuable work (and learning) experiences happened during (but outside) his MBA program, which was partially paid for by waiting tables (see Figure 8.4).

Figure 8.4: The hyper-awareness and crisis-management capabilities a waiter develops served Ted well in media.

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“I think everyone should be a waiter at some point in their lives. It teaches so much — organization, communication, how to deal with an intense situation when everything is falling apart and somehow you have to keep it together. It also teaches you to be aware. You walk by a table and without a request say, ‘You need water — coming right up.’ You see the glass, you know the look, you get the water. You have 20 tables, you see 20 things, and they’re all happening at once. How do you prioritize? What’s the most efficient way? It teaches you skills for getting through life. I loved waiting tables . . . until I didn’t. I put myself through college doing it and made a fortune (in student terms). But then egos, rude and mean people started to bother me, and I was done.”

Growth, Rooted in Difference and Survival Ted’s early talents were not academic. In fact, he was highly dyslexic all through school, and people thought he was not the sharpest kid around. But he had savant-like talents in music (see Figure 8.5).

Figure 8.5: Don’t worry about what you can’t do—be a savant in what you can do. “When I was 3 years old, I heard a little song on the radio, so I toddled over to the piano and played it. It was quite a surprise. But there were lots of musicians in the family, so it was an easy decision to have me study music.”

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Music, family, food, and fun were all part of his experience growing up, although he would later learn — and produce a film called Paradise Behind Bars about — the harsh realities outside the family circle. It was emotionally difficult to open up to those inherited realities — of what it is to be of Palestinian heritage. Both of his parents were Palestinian Christian Arabs — mother from Bethlehem and father from Jerusalem. His mother came from a very wealthy family and, in 1948, soldiers knocked at the door and said, “There’s going to be a war — leave and take nothing.” She took a suitcase of paintings and left. The family’s belongings were confiscated, and she never went back. Survival was the order of the day, but life went on. She eventually made a new home in the US, married, and she and her husband started a family that was middle class, Midwestern-Middle-Eastern, and very “normal,” but with a core of survival, learning, growth, and creativity that could never be confiscated.

Listen, Collect, . . . Action! Friends describe Ted as enormously creative, energetic, persistent, fearless, reliable, sensitive, co-creative, funny, spontaneous, talkative, and an alwaysready listener—albeit distracted, because he thinks several steps ahead and then has to be pulled back to the present. He seeks to learn from others and quickly becomes a trusted friend or family member. He’s a gracious and generous host and a creative, list-making problem solver (see Figure 8.6). “Part of his creativity is that he has a great sense of humor and no filter. When everyone is thinking about it and wanting to talk about it, Ted’s the one who actually says it and does it. We call him ‘no-filter Ted’ sometimes. Whether you like what he says or not, he’s truly, truly honest.” —Ed Guski, partner

Ted keeps notebooks in various locations around the house for ideas that regularly pop into his head. He walks every morning alone, meditatively, along farms and woodlands. He says if he doesn’t do this, he’s useless all day. He also clears his head and focuses his thoughts by playing piano. He loves meeting intelligent, cutting-edge people and has an extensive, eclectic collection of long-term relationships. He also collects experiences, saying, “If there’s an opportunity for an experience, I’m there. That’s why I love television. Every shoot, every location, every place is a new experience.”

He’s forever “jumping in” (with both feet) and taking action — fixing, painting, imagining, organizing. One day, he was bored, started “yakking,” heard there was a community grant available that no one was taking, and put a successful

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Figure 8.6: Listen, collect people and ideas, and take action!

project together. He was amazed no one else had picked up the idea and made it happen. He enjoys imagining and implementing — acting on inspiration. “Action is inspiration. If you walk forward, you start seeing the path.”

Seeing and Feeling Ted is extremely visually aware, which has been helpful in video production, home décor (one of his homes sold with everything in it — nothing was to be moved), and his recent role as museum curator. When he enters a room, he sees the colors that don’t match, the items that have been moved or misaligned, and more. After he’s been through the space, fixing and adjusting as he goes, patrons walk through and mention the positive feeling and “flow of energy in the space,” not knowing exactly why it feels the way it does (see Figure 8.7). “You can’t leave a speck on a container before Ted comes and sweeps it up. He’s always taking in information in terms of color and shapes and emotional atmosphere in a room. He takes charge and wants things to be laid out appropriately. He came into my living room once and within minutes, said, ‘Najwa we have to move this around.’” — Najwa Saad, cousin and Co-Producer

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Figure 8.7: Ted is keenly aware of his environment and—as a video producer, home decorator, and museum curator—crafts experiences people “feel.”

Ted is highly empathetic — quick to pick up on people’s emotions (including any “negative energy” in the room) and is constantly considering things from multiple perspectives. Paradise Behind Bars, for example, integrates and exposes a variety of truths from a variety of perspectives. It’s been praised by some, but not every viewer is open to seeing a topic from all perspectives. He’s also actively compassionate, believing it is simply human to help and to make things better. “Ted has the biggest and kindest heart of anyone I ever met.”

—Ed Guski, partner

Aware of what (and who) is around him, open to new experiences and people, open to new ideas, inspiration, co-creation, rule-bending, boundary-crossing, and risk-taking, Ted sees opportunities, but at a price: “I think being open and aware is probably my gift and my torture. A lot of opportunities just come to me, because I’m open to them. Things come to you that you’re supposed to do, and everyone around pitches in and has great ideas. But that’s just part of it. I can be wounded, as well, because I feel the negatives that come my way, too, and not everything works out the way I feel it should.”

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True Colors Despite the discomfort that’s a natural part of openness, Ted keeps his eyes, ears, and heart open and finds ways to process, or let go of, whatever comes his way (see Figure 8.8). He’s open to the “colors” around him, joyfully cocreates, and shows his “true colors,” as well (see Figure 8.9). “Don’t be afraid to let them show — your true colors. True colors are beautiful . . . like a rainbow.”

—Cyndi Lauper, True Colors

Are you open to the “colors” around you? New ideas, experiences, relationships? Emotions, perspectives, compassion? What might you do with that openness? What are your “true colors”? Ted Saad is Executive Producer at Charter Communications and CEO of Ted Saad Media. A media master with more than 20 years’ experience creating awardwinning content, branding, and delivery platforms, he is “from” Israel, New Zealand, and the USA. For more information on his work, see: www.linkedin. com/in/tedsaad/.

Figure 8.8: Despite the discomfort, remain open and use the beauty around you to create.

True Colors

Figure 8.9: Create with—and show—your true colors.

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Chapter 9 The Tippling Club Global-Award-Winning Deliciousness Chef Ryan Clift – Serial Entrepreneur and Celebrity Chef

Chef Ryan Clift moved beyond brigade-kitchen haute cuisine into food science, creatively fusing: – Bar and restaurant, with the world’s-first cocktail-entree pairings – Perfumes, beverages, and menus – Science, gourmet cuisine, and management Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4i1nqTknxY https://youtu.be/j2P9isGI028

“Mmmmmmmmm. This perfume stick smells amazing.” “A great choice for pre-dinner cocktail, and its perfume bottle is lovely, too. How about a dinner cocktail to go with your entrée?” “You choose — your pairings are always better than the wine pairings I get everywhere else.” “Thank you. Will you have the cheesecake pills again tonight?” “Absolutely! I love the pill bottle they come in, and I’d much rather have dessert pills than diet pills.” https://doi.org/10.1515/9781547401505-009

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Although it sounds a bit odd, a conversation like the above between customer and waiter in The Tippling Club could launch yet another delicious experience in an artfully crafted space with consciously chosen art, music, and tableware. It’s all designed to delight the taste buds, nose, eyes, ears, hands . . . and imagination. What kind of chef designs cocktails served in perfume bottles with a smellstick menu? Or launches a fusion restaurant-bar with first-in-the-world cocktail-entrée pairings? Or offers dessert pills, made with cheesecake and a pill press? One that started out as a 13-year-old dishwasher.

Into the Frying Pan “I left school when I was 13. I wasn’t cut out for school life or discipline or authority. One afternoon, I saw a ‘Help Wanted’ sign and stepped into the back of a restaurant, just to earn some extra cash. I was only washing the dishes, but within 15 minutes, something clicked, and I loved it — the adrenaline, the screaming, the shouting. It was very aggressive — brutal — lots of slapping and punching from the senior staff, but somehow it fit. All of a sudden, there was structure and discipline in my life. Most people just walked out, but for me, the more crazy the kitchen was, the more it excited me. As a dishwasher, I was the lowest of the low in the kitchen, but every morning, I was excited to go to work.”

So off he went every morning — to the kitchen instead of school. Within a few months, one of the staff quit, and the chef handed him an apron and jacket, telling him to start working in one of the sections. Ryan was stunned and would have been even more so had he known that it was a Michelin-star restaurant. One star in the Michelin rating system signifies “very good,” two stars “excellent cooking worthy of a detour,” and three stars, “exceptional cuisine worthy of a special journey.” His would be a very special journey, indeed. Months later, two customers asked to see the kitchen staff who had plated the first course. Ryan reported to the table and had the shock of his life when found there his divorced parents who no longer spoke to each other (see Figure 9.1). Back in the kitchen, the chef administered a swift kick to Ryan’s backside and informed him it was highly illegal for the restaurant to employ under-aged, truant staff. Instead of firing him, however, the two of them returned to the table. The chef told Ryan’s parents he had talent, focus, drive, and passion, and should be allowed to pursue cooking as a career. Thankfully, they found that one-day -a-week culinary arts training would satisfy legal requirements for education. The chef began to mentor Ryan and found him a school.

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Figure 9.1: Ryan worked in the kitchen instead of going to school—until his parents visited the restaurant.

Back to School, With a Twist On the first day of class, 14-year-old Ryan (who had already been working for a year) joined a cohort of 18- to 23-year-olds who had never been in a professional kitchen. Ryan knew the name of every piece of equipment and had a surprising grasp of procedures and techniques. The instructor took Ryan into his office, found out where he was working, and said, “That’s a Michelin-star restaurant!” Ryan promptly replied, “What’s a Michelin star? I just wanted a job to earn some money.” The instructor gave Ryan a series of tests, and he breezed through the first year’s curriculum in about 45 minutes. Tests continued, and Ryan was placed in the third year of the course. His instructor got him a job in London at Claridge’s, an Escoffier restaurant, and after about a year, a young chef from France took over with his own staff of 25— he had fired everyone but Ryan and another boy. Ryan worked with him for nearly two years and then moved on to one of the finest (and most volatile) chefs in the world.

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Marco Pierre White, the youngest recipient of three Michelin stars (and Ryan’s new boss), has been called the first celebrity chef and the godfather of modern cooking. He trained future celebrity chefs, such as Gordon Ramsay, Shannon Bennett, Mario Batali, and Curtis Stone. Life expectancy in Marco’s kitchen was 15 minutes to an hour. Staff were generally fired every half hour, with a queue of incoming staff out the kitchen’s back door. Ryan stayed three years. “It was a psychotic place to work, but there was also camaraderie. At the end of the service you might be slapped, kicked, and screamed at, but then you’re in the pub at the end of the night having a beer together. Service is service, and what happens in service stays in service.”

From Brigade to Molecular (Modern) Such work environments are common in “brigade” kitchens, a system that dates back to the late 19th century, when a French military chef named Auguste Escoffier brought the army into the kitchen. He organized his staff with military processes and new roles, such as chef de cuisine, sous chef, chefs de partie, and more. With natural ingredients and personally judged cooking times, staff would work 20 years before being allowed to cook a critical item such as fish or meat. Ingredients and techniques were unique every time, and tempers ran hot (see Figure 9.2). Many years later, the gourmet kitchen would endure another invasion — this time, of scientists. Physicists and chemists joined forces with chefs to investigate the physical and chemical transformations that occurred in cooking and devise a modern style, christened in 1988 “molecular gastronomy” (a subdiscipline of food science). Also called experimental cuisine, culinary physics, modern cuisine, and modern gastronomy, new scientific and technical advances would lead the way to new creations and new methods. One of modern gastronomy’s pioneers was Marc Veyrat, the first chef to earn 20/20 in the Gault-Millau guide (twice, actually) and considered by some to be the finest chef in the world. Ferran Adria celebritized the field, and Heston Blumenthal popularized some of its techniques, like liquid-nitrogen ice cream. However, Marc Veyrat had pioneered the methods decades earlier. In 1996, Marc was running the most expensive restaurant in the world and personally introduced Ryan to a culinary revolution (see Figure 9.3). “It was a real turning point for me when Marc brought in a water bath where he was going to cook fish at 45°. I stuck my finger in, decided he’s never going to cook anything in that,

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Figure 9.2: Military haute cuisine has been supplanted (in part) by science—both revolutions in their own right.

Figure 9.3: While running the most expensive restaurant in the world, Ryan’s mentor introduced him to a culinary revolution—the next wave of innovation in haute cuisine.

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but then he did. A light bulb went on. I thought, ‘Holy sh** — there’s more to cooking than medium rare.’ I started working in the lab, meeting food scientists, testing new techniques, and doing events with him around the world. It was incredible, and there was so much to learn.”

Ryan spent hours on end talking with people like Marc Veyrat and food scientist Harold McGee, asking what to read and how to learn more. He continually researched and learned from non-culinary fields, collected a massive array of cookbooks, ideas, contacts, insights, and experiences. Even today, he constantly scans and learns but doesn’t particularly like the internet — it’s too easy. In fact, throughout his career, Ryan worked well beyond the already-insane hours top kitchens required and volunteered to help out anywhere he could to learn more and try out new techniques. He gave lectures on modern cuisine around the world and removed all possible errors and variability from his own cuisine. He no longer thickened sauces with butter, instead using hydrocolloid xanthan gum or guar gum — more stable and healthier. In his kitchen, an emulsified sauce can be boiled without splitting because of the way it’s stabilized. Soon, everything would become healthier and more stable.

Design Ownership and Real Ownership Ryan moved to Australia and within six months became chef de cuisine at Vue de Monde—where he would remain for eight years. It was the first time he was to run a complete restaurant operation, and he wanted complete control, to grow a healthy, new style and design new, stable operations. In the first year, the three-chef restaurant was awarded two hats (an Australian Michelin-type rating system). In the second year, the growing 38-chef restaurant was awarded three hats. They maintained those hats all during his tenure and achieved the highest rating score in Australia (28.9/30). Ryan developed the designs, the menus, and his own modern-cuisine style, taking ownership of everything. When a Singaporean customer, and new friend, at the chef’s table pointed out that he didn’t, in fact, own everything (he didn’t own the restaurant), the journey to real ownership began. She hired him as a consultant for one of her projects, paid him with a check worth four times his salary, and advised him to invest it in a restaurant of his own. Ryan moved to Singapore, opened the Tippling Club, and began winning awards —five awards at the World Gourmet Series Awards of Excellence (including Restaurant of the Year and Bar of the Year), top-20 listing in The Miele Guide for Asia’s finest restaurants, and more.

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Figure 9.4: The Tippling Club features a quiet, well-ordered, creative kitchen.

A Kinder Kitchen Through Science Ironically, Ryan’s new scientific approach to cuisine removed the dramatic craziness of the brigade kitchen that attracted him to gastronomy in the first place (see Figure 9.4). “I would never treat my staff like that. My kitchen downstairs is basically silent. The guys play music all morning until 11:30. They can have as much fun as they want, but once service starts, service is everything. We have a counter in front of the kitchen — it’s the best seat in the house. People say it’s like watching theatre. Everything is organized, there’s no shouting or screaming, nobody’s running, and nobody’s breaking a sweat, because it’s all organized.”

Such organization also gives staff opportunities they wouldn’t have in a brigade kitchen:

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“Everything is hundredth-of-a-gram precision. All our fish and meat are cooked in a water bath, so I no longer need a sous chef to cook for 20 years before he’s allowed to cook fish or meat. I’ve got an 18-year-old commis chef working downstairs in the sauce section, because it’s (for example) 57 degrees for exactly 12.5 minutes, remove from the bag, rest for exactly 3 min, sear at this temperature for 2 seconds, done, rested, served. You can’t mess it up.”

Although such a job sounds decidedly un-creative, precision performance enables Ryan and his staff to focus on creative design and people-development. In other words, downstream precision creates room for upstream creativity. Ryan designs the dinner menu, and the lunch menu is a collaboration between him and the sous chef (he still uses the old brigade titles), with all staff encouraged to contribute creative ideas. He cares about his staff (all 39 of them) and offers them a chance to learn, create, and advance (see Figure 9.5).

Figure 9.5: Ryan leads by example and empowers his staff to co-create with him and create in their own right.

He generally takes a staff member with him each month to another country, cooking for someone or going to a conference or doing a science project. After two years of service, staff members receive a paid sabbatical overseas at a restaurant of their own choice (generally the best in the world at something), where they can learn for a month. Staff must define and maintain their own high personal standards, even when others in the industry drop theirs.

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“In my last job as sous and head chef, there were limits to what I could achieve. Here, it’s the opposite. ‘No’ is not an answer — anything is possible. Here, you’re an artist. We’re told, ‘Be uniquely yourself — no limits.’ We explore, have fun, and enjoy what we do, and we work hard to create an experience for guests. We set a very high standard and always take pride in what we do. At service time, we’re totally on duty — total focus.” — Ayo Adeyemi, Head Chef

Staff members work 4.5 days per week, always get a break in the afternoon, and days off are taken consecutively (most restaurants split the days). Instead of the brigade kitchen heads-down, “Oui, Chef,” Ryan creates a fun, collaborative atmosphere and believes happy teams create and perform better. Staff members describe him as a good listener, trusting and trusted, happy, energetic, reliable, hands-on, strongly focused, always open to new ideas, highly observant, loud with a big personality, humorously sarcastic, and extremely hardworking, with a child-like sense of creativity and play that’s inspiring to see. He is empathetic (emotionally, helpfully, and with understanding of other’s perspectives). Making others feel joyful gives him joy. Eighty percent of the Tippling Club’s staff have been there since Day One — nine years ago — an unheard-of tenure in the industry, especially in manpowershort Singapore.

The Tippling Tablet: A New Method for (Gastronomic) Innovation When Ryan and his staff started the restaurant, they crafted new recipes by drawing them. That approach and process eventually became a new method (as well as their new logo—see Figure 9.6).

Figure 9.6: The Tippling Tablet (and Tippling Club logo) is a foundational tool for his new culinary design method.

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“The chain of thought begins with a line. For example, fois gras becomes a line across the middle, and each line that comes down would be an ingredient. Based on my food knowledge, the first item I think of that works with fois gras is apple, and I’d write that down next to a line above the fois gras. Another one would be cherry, another would be cinnamon, I might include caramel, brioche, next one maybe grapes, and I can keep going as far as I want until I exhaust every ingredient I can think of or research. I don’t care if someone else on the internet has added carrot. I don’t think it works, so I won’t add carrot to my list. Once I’ve exhausted all my ingredients, I return to the first one, and the line that goes down is the chain of thought for that ingredient — this is the technique part. So, now, with apple, I can serve it fresh, dehydrated, turn it into a sorbet, I can make an essence, a granita, freeze-dry it — there might be 30 techniques. Then I’ll repeat for cherry and all the rest. Then we choose particular ingredients and techniques, based on what works well with the fois gras and works with what’s been chosen so far. We link up all the ingredient-technique combinations, and once that’s done (and only then), we begin to make the dish. I can tell one of the guys downstairs to freeze-dry an apple, another to make a distillation, another to make something else, and they all know how to do it. Within a day, we’ve made a dish, but we might take weeks to experiment with it, because we keep adding ingredients and techniques until we’ve got something we feel is amazing.”

Through years of collecting ingredients and combinations and techniques in his head, Ryan is lightning-quick to draft a tablet. It never occurs to him that certain combinations are odd or “don’t go together.” “I don’t look at boundaries. I look at what I want to use. If I want to use this with that, I don’t care if it’s not been done and people don’t think it’ll work. You make it work. If it won’t, then I’ll try and try and try. I never take no as an answer. If it’s not working, then why isn’t it working? Does someone have an idea? You’ve got to keep trying something new instead of saying no.”

The Creations Each creation has a lifespan of just a few months in Ryan’s restaurant. (Staff stays, menus change.) He seeks to create the unique and the new, and if a young chef says he’s seen something similar, Ryan stops immediately and moves on. For example, inspired by reading an old recipe from the court of King Rama V of Thailand, Ryan created a new version of charcoal candy (good for digestion and also for food poisoning). He loves psychology and surprise (such as the drink that changes color and taste as you drink), and has invited magicians to co-create new means of presentation. “No-J,” a between-course palate cleanser served super-cold, is a jellified (and broken up) clarification of water with orange essential oils (made on-site),

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pulp, vitamin C powder, and hydrochloride. It tastes like “OJ” but looks like “No-J” (see Figure 9.7).

Figure 9.7: “No-J” is both orange juice and “not” orange juice.

Despite disorienting visuals like No-J, 90% of flavor comes through scent, and memories are often triggered by smell. Ryan’s scent-inspired concoctions include a cut-grass drink, marshmallow-campfire dessert (roasted on a table candle), and “Rain.” Petrichor is the fragrance produced by rain on soil after hot, dry weather, and the cocktail — served in an edible-clay vase — will include the restaurant’s own natural distillation bearing the fragrance (along with sugar and gin). Ryan collaborates with International Flavors & Fragrances, co-conceiving and testing new cocktail flavors in their lab and, in turn, providing natural substances for some of their projects, e.g., different varieties of pork stock with meats from Spain, France, etc., for their flavorists to try to replicate. Not only can fragrances and restaurant food emerge from the collaboration, but so can food and drinks that are pre-mixed and grocery shelf-stable — gourmet for everyman. Now that Ryan has enough chefs in the restaurant kitchen, he spends most of his time in the test kitchen. He loves new challenges. Each natural ingredient

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is unique, every day is different, all his creations are novel, and he’s truly happy.

What’s Now and What’s Next Ryan has four unique award-winning restaurants in Singapore: Tippling Club (modern gastronomy/avant-garde—see Figure 9.8), Open Door Policy (bistro), Ding Dong (modern Southeast Asian), and Open Farm Community (rustic).

Figure 9.8: The Tippling Club serves their innovative cuisine in a trendy location in Singapore.

Frustrated by throwing away spoiled produce imported from Europe, he bought three rooftop farms where he harvests herbs and produce. Open Farm Community is a fusion of farming, restaurant, and community — a place for people to gather and eat, play lawn bowling, learn how to grow their own food at home, and enjoy the farmer’s market, pop-up garden shops, culinary training, kid’s area, takeaway café, and (soon) chickens, quail, and beehives.

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The restaurant menu changes daily, serving what’s ready to be picked. The 10-level charcoal oven where 10 different things can cook at 10 different temperatures is a first in Asia. Ryan has opened another farm-to-table restaurant — Grow — in Bali, Indonesia, as well as a 120-guest rooftop bar overlooking the whole of Petitenget, Indonesia (and its sunsets). He’s taking over a 50-bedroom hotel, listed in Leading Hotels of the World. He’ll redesign the entire façade of the hotel and open a 50-seat cocktail bar and 90-seat restaurant, offering three meals a day to guests and the general public. He’s also setting up the accompanying farm so the restaurant can focus on healthy eating. Afterward, he’s looking to open something further afield — in Amsterdam.

Open, From Bottom to Top Oddly, although the brigade system didn’t bother Ryan, many other things do. A half-hour into his interview, he asked to be excused, moved the dried flowers to the far side of the room, and said, “Thank you — the smell of those things has been bothering me for a half an hour” (see Figure 9.9). I couldn’t smell a thing.

Figure 9.9: Even dried flowers can disturb and distract a sensitive chef.

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“I get very finicky and upset about things. You know, the leg on that chair is not quite straight at the moment. I wonder why the bottom hasn’t been cleaned. I’m looking at things randomly, and I’m always picking up on stuff. I see dust on that chair, and it’s annoying me. I saw an orange when I walked upstairs earlier, and . . . yes, it’s still there. In the restaurant, I’ll walk in one day and see a flower that annoys me. If a chair’s not straight, I’ll have my staff go around the room with a ruler and make sure everything’s perfect on the table — every fork in the right position. It’s about perfection. And I’m the same at home.”

Open to smells, sights, and everything around him; open to new ideas, experiences, and people (even difficult ones); open to learning and crossing boundaries — Ryan encourages his staff to be open and creative, too. He’s open to trusting and relying on others. The only things he seems to be closed to are taking no for an answer, lowering his standards, and giving up. He’s worked hard to become one of the world’s top chefs and still remembers to tell his staff to respect not only each other but also the boy washing the pots in the kitchen. Without him, no one else can cook — the system falls apart — and astounding careers have begun (well, one, anyway) with washing pots (see Figure 9.10).

Figure 9.10: Leadership and innovation can begin with the lowest job, if used as a platform for learning.

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What have you begun, starting at the bottom? What did you learn, and where is it leading? Is it time wash another pot? Chef Ryan Clift is one of the world’s finest chefs and owner of the Tippling Club, Open Door Policy, Ding Dong, Open Farm Community, Grow, and Ryan Clift productions. He’s “from” Australia, Greece, Indonesia, Singapore, and the UK. For more information on his work, see: www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-clift-18423436/ and www.tipplingclub.com/.

Chapter 10 The Advanced Biopolymer Pocket Watch Low-Dose Chemo@Cancer Dr. Chin Sau Yin—Scientist and Med-Tech Developer

Dr. Chin Sau Yin is a materials scientist and President of Biotech Connection Singapore (BCS). She fuses: – Advanced biopolymers and new applications and devices, as she did with the Geneva mechanism, a pocket watch device dating back to 1893 (at the latest) – Biotechnology, health care technologies, and medical technologies, encouraging the 2,000 members (and growing!) of BCS

Video https://youtu.be/zrsj_RmMM_8

“Our family did the whole traditional enrichment thing like ballet and piano and so forth. But Mom realized I would come home in my tutu and be kicking my brothers. After seven years of classes, I finally convinced Mom to let me quit and later signed on for Taekwondo and Muay Thai (Thai kick boxing).” https://doi.org/10.1515/9781547401505-010

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That spirit of independence and willingness to cross boundaries has served Dr. Chin Sau Yin well. Long after ballet and martial arts, she earned a PhD from Columbia University in biomedical engineering, developing an advanced biopolymer device for cancer medication — implantable, at the location of the cancer. Instead of flooding the entire body with chemotherapy drugs and enduring all the side effects, why not provide the medicine directly to the place where it’s needed, at much lower doses (e.g., a tenth)? Instead of using a biopolymer coating to retard rejection by the body (which sometimes rejects later when the coating is disturbed), why not make the entire device out of biopolymers? “As with a lot of engineering projects, it was a solution looking for a problem. . . . We talked to many clinicians to figure out what disease to target with the drug device.”

Listening Outside-the-Box “I had designed and tested it, but the dosing mechanism wasn’t quite working, and there didn’t seem to be any easy answers for making it reliable and accurate. Then a lab-mate [Nalin Tejavibulya] happened to see it. We were working on different projects, but she got interested.” “Did you look up the Geneva drive mechanism?” Nalin asked (see Figure 10.1).

Figure 10.1: The “Geneva stop” (related to the “Geneva drive”) was invented by watchmakers in the 17th or 18th century.

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Not only was Nalin a scientist (and four years Sau Yin’s junior), but she was also fascinated with horology — watchmaking. She wanted to be a professional watchmaker, but the science career won out. “I hadn’t thought of anything even remotely like that. So I looked it up on Wikipedia. I didn’t need something as complicated as what’s used in watches, so I simplified it and made it. This one failed less than the other design and was more precise.”

Reaching Outside-the-Box Cross-disciplinary collaboration and sharing is a core element of interdisciplinary work, and Sau Yin adds her own out-of-the-box approach. Her colleague Wan (Tassaneewan Laksanasopin) noted that watch-making was not Sau Yin’s only unusual source of inspiration: “We went to Chinatown and looked at the toys out there, and bought and played with them. We think it’s possible to simplify some of their mechanisms to work as a device. We explored machine shops and any other options we could think of.”

After all, if the double-helix structure of DNA can be discovered and modelled with Tinker toys (Watson, 1968), then why not use pocket watches and toys in advanced biopolymer medical device research? Outside-the-box inspiration is not just fun, though. Wan noted, “It’s part of the nature of the problem she chose to work on that she has to be so broad and incorporate very different ideas.”

Journeying Outside-the-Box and Defining the Box Breadth and incorporation of ideas are nothing new to Sau Yin (see Figure 10.2). She grew up in Malaysia, speaking Malay, English, and Mandarin. Before her undergraduate studies, she emigrated to Singapore (where she is now a citizen), studied two years for her A level exams (on scholarship from the Ministry of Education), applied for an A*STAR scholarship, and worked in a lab for 9–10 months. She then went to Imperial College for biomedical engineering (an interdisciplinary field/program), starting with medical-school topics plus engineering, then delving into chemistry and materials development. After graduating and working in a lab for a year, she went to Columbia for her biomedical engineering PhD. “You’re so young [when starting a PhD], you don’t entirely know what you want to do, the rest of your career. A lot of my friends struggled, and we ended up changing. When A*STAR

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Figure 10.2: Is your box open? What boxes surround you?

gives a scholarship, they encourage research attachments during the summer and a year of lab work after undergrad, both of which I did. Most people use that year to figure out what they don’t want to do. . . . I need to have a tangible product. I need to hold whatever I’m developing, and I prefer shorter term goals. Whereas for tissue engineering it’s going to take decades and decades for you to be able to see results in the form of an actual product in the market. My adviser wanted to make MEMS devices (Micro Electrical Mechanical Systems), basically tiny machines entirely out of bio-med compatible materials. At that time, I thought it would be a game changer because it’s a totally new way of making them.”

Her first project was in a microfluidic lab, miniaturizing a white blood cell counter to be used for HIV/AIDS monitoring — a collaboration between Columbia University and the Ministry of Health in Rwanda, where she did the device testing.

Joining an Interdisciplinary Box After earning her PhD, Sau Yin joined A*STAR’s Molecular Engineering Lab (MEL) (see Figure 10.3). Brainchild of Sydney Brenner (Principal Investigator of the lab and a Nobel Laureate), it’s a place where young researchers of different

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Figure 10.3: Dr. Chin Sau Yin uses the walkway that connects two A*STAR boxes (oops! buildings).

fields can work together on inter-disciplinary projects. The lab has given the opportunity for young post-docs to work together and explore the intersection of their disciplines to find novel applications. It includes a wide range of research interests, and these interests are constantly in flux as the team grows. Everyone works on something different at MEL, and there’s only one other engineer in the lab besides Sau Yin. “We need to be able to bounce ideas off each other, but not necessarily in the same field of research. In my current lab, we don’t all work in the same field of research, but everyone has one interest.” They bounce ideas when they have a problem, or are just talking, and at meetings when they present research problems and ask for different approaches. Having all been through their PhD programs, they’re comfortable sharing failures and problems. What happened to the cancer treatment device? “Ultimately, we showed that we do have a better treatment efficacy compared to the chemotherapy systemically, and decreased side effects.” Results have been published in the Science Robotics journal.

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Crossing Boundaries, Connecting, Giving, and Receiving What are some inspirations we might gain from Sau Yin? She began, as many of us do, with an independent spirit and a healthy disregard for boundaries (see Figure 10.4). Maybe if more parents and teachers helped us follow our passions (even if they’re unusual), there would be more of us learning, collaborating, and creating things across boundaries. Multilingual and multicultural, Sau Yin fused together biology and engineering, and an engineering solution with a problem it could solve (or improve). Sometimes you have the solution first, sometimes the problem first—nonetheless you must fuse them together to create impact.

Figure 10.4: Sometimes, you need to look over a boundary to see how things are done “over there.”

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She listened to a younger scientist, which doesn’t always happen, given boundaries created by seniority and disciplines. But you don’t always have to be the one with the ideas. It can be just as valuable to listen to others, put the pieces together, and act. Openness comes with a cost, however. You may need to spend time figuring out all the things you don’t want to do, then focus within your lens, i.e., say no to what’s outside it — as Sister Cyril Mooney did. Sau Yin went where she is unusual (only one other engineer is in the lab), which makes her perspective even more valuable. Sharing that valuable perspective takes a giving heart, because most of the collaboration occurs to solve other people’s problems (see Figure 10.5). But then when someone reaches in to help you with yours, you can create something together you couldn’t create alone, and the fusion begins . . .

Figure 10.5: Listen to colleagues and jump out of the box with them.

Have you reached out? Has someone reached in? Has your fusion begun?

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Dr. Chin Sau Yin is President of Biotech Connection Singapore and a Research Fellow at A*STAR’s Molecular Engineering Lab and is “from” Malaysia, Singapore, the UK, and the USA. For more information on her work, see: www.linkedin.com/in/sau-yin-chin-ph-d-712b98136/ and https:// www.a-star.edu.sg/mel.

Part 3: Stories of Inward Openness

Chapter 11 Quantum Potential Early Interactive TV and Digital Marketing, Spirituality and Enlightened Incubation Asil Toksal—Serial Entrepreneur, Bio-Fuel and Media-Tech Ventures, Spiritualist

It’s one thing to win an Emmy Award — it’s quite another to be nominated as a pioneer in an entirely new Emmy category. Could it have been led by an executive that manufactured diesel fuel? Asil Toksal created fusions of: – Energy and the environment – Technology, art, and business – Business acumen, spirituality, and startups

Video https://youtu.be/7xrt-Lvq5xA

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Asil was born in Vienna to an immigrant family of Turkish entrepreneurs. “I think that has shaped my way of thinking and seeing the world, and also what it takes to be an entrepreneur.” He grew up trilingual (Turkish, German, and English), an ethnic and religious minority. “The curiosity my parents had when they left Turkey in order to find a more interesting or bigger future for themselves — I feel like I have that, too. And that’s probably one of the things that led me to the US. It’s probably one of the things that led me to Asia, and is probably leading me to many other places.”

A Collected Education and Opportunity It also led him through an unusual education. “I was really interested in a lot of things but there was no university degree for ‘a lot of things.’ I had a longing, a thirst. My attitude was, ‘Don’t give me the boring parts. Give me the best parts that I can really apply to big problems — things I can apply to entrepreneurial quests.’”

So, Asil has a collection of unfinished degrees, “things I started, got the value out of, but didn’t really see the need to finish,” including chemical engineering, journalism, math, and economics. He did finish the Masters of Computer Science. While he was at university, his father’s friend bought a farm with a small lab for biodiesel production. As Asil was studying chemical engineering, his father asked if he’d like to join in at the lab and do some experimenting (see Figure 11.1). “And to me experimentation is one of the most fun things you can think of doing.”

They worked together in the lab (his father part-time) but weren’t focused on creating advanced (higher-margin) products for what was grown on the farm. They brought together two disciplines — energy and environmental conservation — and created a process to produce diesel fuel with used vegetable oil (e.g., from restaurants) — a waste product that is toxic to the environment. Asil raised €3 million to build a processing plant and became 50% owner and CEO of the company at age 21. “Fundraising was hard, and money came mainly from banks, since there were no angels or venture capitalists in that ecosystem at that time.” Building the company was also difficult, especially when suppliers realized they could start charging for the raw material, plus competitors in Germany felt the disruption and started fighting back. They made biodiesel out of government-subsidized fresh vegetable oils and began to lobby.

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Figure 11.1: Asil joined a lab and experimented—one of the funnest things he could think of doing.

“I realized that as much as I love the energy industry, it was lots of, you know, grey heads trying to hold their ground rather than being innovative. So I got a little worn out with our partners and our competition, and ultimately, they came with a new investor and acquired my 50%, so I left the company at age 23. That was my first exit before I’d even finished any university degree. At that time, it was the largest biodiesel plant in Austria. I think if I’d stuck there for a couple of years, I probably would’ve sold it for 10 or 15 times that, but then again, you never really know. And when you’re young, you’re a little more impatient, and you just want to get it done. So, I’d created it, but I didn’t necessarily want to operate it and own the operation problems. So I was ready for a new experiment.”

New Field, New Innovation Asil’s friends from computer science were working on dot-coms, and feeling he should do something more “age appropriate” with a cohort of people who would understand him, he started a digital advertising agency. Big corporations wanted business problems solved both technologically and creatively, with beautiful interfaces and smart, creative ideas. He realized quickly that he needed to “fish in a bigger pond,” and a new client came in from New York (see Figure 11.2).

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Figure 11.2: The next “fun thing” was digital media in New York with MTV.

That new client was TV Land, part of MTV Networks. It started small and grew to a ground-breaking project in 2005, integrating chat and interactive design with live video streaming on the internet. It won the first of an entirely newly created daytime Emmy award. “When he was taking the Emmy Award, the president of TVLand at that time mentioned the company and my name, as well, as being a contributor to the creation of this. That was amazing! I was 25 at that time. Later, he was talking to me in his Times Square office on the 44th Floor in the MTV/Viacom building. While we were holding the Emmy Award and taking pictures with that, he said, ‘You gotta come here! You gotta open up an office here. We’re going to give you more work than you can handle.’ So I separated from the agency I co-founded in Vienna and moved here to create my own agency in New York.”

He called it Lapis Digital, after the ancient Indian stone of spiritual communication.

Growing and Connecting with Spirit “At that time I was already strongly into meditation. When I moved to New York, I started to go to Native American gatherings and to communities because I was so drawn into their culture by the way they’re connected to nature, their traditions, rituals, and so on. So being in New York was an opportunity for me to expand spiritually.” (See Figure 11.3.)

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Figure 11.3: Sustainability for the earth and connectedness for people were tied to something deeper—spirit.

His friend Gary Zaremba noted: “He’s very spiritual. As long as I’ve known him, he’s been mixing commerce and consciousnessraising. He goes around bringing spirit into the boardroom.”

Just as before, big corporations wanted business problems solved both technologically and creatively. More clients came, mainly from Fortune 500 companies, including the Viacoms (MTV, Comedy Central, TV Land, Nickelodeon), the Museum of Natural History, Casio, and so on. With empathy, other-centered listening and language, structure-enabled guidance, and a plethora of stories to tell from experience, Asil is adept at gaining trust and beginning and growing account relationships.

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As colleague Thomas Dori observed: “One day we were having a very brief conversation about challenges within an organization, and he remembered all the vocabulary and all the terms — the exact terms this person was using at the beginning — and then we used them later on in the context of the solutions and our service offerings.”

Asil integrates spiritual and practical, structure and flow, and big-picture and detail, at the overlap of business, art, and technology. He also surrounds himself with a broad network of millennials, artists, professionals, entrepreneurs, thought leaders, and freethinkers from a wide range of fields and lifestyles — people he can learn from. They are key to growing his mind and alerting him to new possibilities. He describes his friends as, “Conscious — speaking about the things and the problems that matter, not just the mundane. And they’re not just talkers — they’re also doers.” His friends describe him as curious, open, empathetic, deep-thinking, adaptable, a leader, optimistic, with a strong inner voice, always seeking to make things better. He sold Lapis Digital to Vertic and stayed on for a while to maintain account relationships and ease the transition, but he began to feel restless. “It’s the restlessness of the entrepreneur, right? Creating something and then realizing that it’s been created. It’s been achieved, so what’s the next mountain I can climb? What’s the next big problem I can solve? And what’s the legacy I want to leave behind?”

Enlightened Incubation at Quantum Potential The next step — and perhaps his lasting legacy — is a fusion of incubation/acceleration, especially in the area of “conscious capital” (bigger impact than just money), with expert assistance and spiritual growth, to make change that matters and build the next generation (see Figure 11.4). He made a positive impact on the world by building his own companies. With the incubator, he can broaden his impact by helping to build many more. He named this latest venture Quantum Potential. “As the Natives say, everything is connected. I think level-of-consciousness and spirituality are so important to this new generation of entrepreneurs and founders, and it has become more and more important to me — how we impact everything else with our actions.”

Indeed, his actions have been to improve the world and heal. In colleague Kosta Stavreas’ words:

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Figure 11.4: Asil’s next step is “conscious capital,” helping others connect and grow enterprises for all dimensions of wellbeing. “In his heart of hearts, he’s a healer. Even energy and climate change are about healing.”

According to Creative Mornings, “By day a startup founder and advertising executive and by night a shaman and truth seeker in search, Asil has been working with tribal and shamanic elders, leaders, and teachers — and their medicines — for the past decade. He travelled for years to China to study with one of the last living Taoist masters, for years across the US and Americas to learn and understand the indigenous healing methods, using plant teachers. Over the past three years, he has led many ceremonial circles around the world from NYC to Indonesia and all points in between. He is currently holding healing and transformational retreats integrating the medicines and traditions of indigenous nations around the world to work on the body and spirit, combined with his vast coaching knowledge and eastern philosophy to shift the mind.”1 In fact, it may also be healing for Asil to further integrate his passions and remarkable gifts and magnify his impact by becoming an “entrepreneur of entrepreneurs.” Kosta continues: “He has an intuitive sense of the contours of other people’s souls. His ability to sense you and understand your faults and how you’re made up — he combines this with care and empathy.”

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“I think he sees people as a collective resource for making change happen. He understands that truly bringing people together in a way where they can be the best version of themselves — that is the way he can have his impact. So his role is about facilitating and coordinating, harnessing a bunch of smart people together toward an end, right, as opposed to — by contrast, not the style that Steve Jobs had. He had a view and he would make it happen irrespective of barriers. Asil is more of a conductor, less of a general. He shapes and molds, but he doesn’t force them. I think that’s one thing that makes him unique.”

Forcing others and forcing self can backfire — at best, achieving only a portion of the force applied. Asil recalls: “I used to believe that everything in life is achieved through hard work. I was young then, and I had a lot of energy —unlimited energy — and at some point when I was close to burning out, I realized—this can’t be it. Because if hard work equals the outcome, then I should have achieved everything in the world, I worked so hard! No, it only gets you so far. And I realized there’s a way that in nature even some of the hardest things seem so graceful and so in flow, and I try to find what does that look like as a human being? How can I do things more gracefully, more in the way nature does? Less stressed, less looking like very hard work. Can I make it look effortless? How can I be setting something out and get out of the way for it to manifest — to be created?” (See Figure 11.5.)

Figure 11.5: Asil found hard work only took him “so far,” after which he had to tap into a greater power and get out of the way.

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“So my spiritual practice brought a lot of that in — a lot of meditation. I particularly like Buddhist meditation, mindfulness meditation. I also learn with a Taoist master in China. I started with him on various breathing techniques and increasing the internal energy and learning with the Native Americans about prayers, about the connection to nature, about the respect they have of all living things and the things we don’t perceive as living, like stones and mountains and rivers and soil. Everything is alive in that perspective.”

Energy and Flow “Energy flows through everything. Don’t work too hard if it’s not flowing. Magical things happen in life when we get out of the way.”

Asil’s innovation journey has been continually rooted in energy, spirit, and connectedness in one form or another — from energy and our living environment to connectedness via technology/art/business, to enlightened incubation. What might the rest of us build when we tune inward, connect outward, and lead with our personal and collective energies and flows (see Figure 11.5)?

Figure 11.6: Lead with personal and collective “flow.”

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What are your connections? Where is your energy? How do you flow? Asil Toksal co-founded and led Energy BioDiesel GmbH (later Müenzer) as CEO. He and his team at TVLand+zetools won the first of a newly created daytime Emmy award for Interactive TV. Founder of Lapis Digital (now Vertic), he’s “from” Austria, Turkey, Singapore, and the USA. For more information on his work, see: www.linkedin.com/in/asilt/, http://www.TVLand.com, http://www. lapisdigital.com, and http://www.vertic.com.

Chapter 12 Execu-Care Resilience and Embodied Leadership for Thousands of Leaders and their Organizations Dr. Edy Greenblatt—Serial Entrepreneur, One of the World’s Top 100 Executive Coaches, Dance Ethnologist and Master Teacher They fly through the air with the greatest of ease, the executive team on . . . the flying trapeze?

Through her incredible journey as a world dance master teacher and dance ethnologist, as well as pre-med studies at UCLA and dual-PhD at Harvard, Dr. Edy Greenblatt creates fusions of: – Body and mind – Trapeze and teamwork – Dance, medicine, ethnology, and organizational behavior – Executive coaching and technology Video https://youtu.be/ojLqQTkaawQ

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It’s a bit extreme, yes, but trapeze is a highly effective way to increase team trust (or fall 20 feet into the net). It also improves team members’ listening, collaboration, and self-awareness (or fall 20 feet into the net) (see Figure 12.1).

Figure 12.1: If you can trust, listen, and collaborate on a trapeze, you can do it in a team. Such extremes are highly effective for learning.

Who would think of using a trapeze to develop executives and management teams? Someone with a background in dance, sports, management, ethnology, neuro-psychopharmacology, and more — with a creative, integrative worldview. “My worldview was dramatically shaped by early training as a teacher of world dance. Though I was 9 when I started, by the time I was only 10 years old, my teacher started training me to be a professional instructor. I was taught not just to dance precisely and make careful distinctions in movement. I was also taught to have respect for the cultures-of-origin that were not ‘mine’ and to learn the styles of each nation and region — to dance a Bulgarian dance like a Bulgarian and a Turkish dance like a Turk. Early on, I learned to avoid sensitive historical and political matters in social settings. For example, don’t go to a Greek festival or wedding and ask the musicians for a Macedonian dance (even if you know that it is danced by Macedonians in Greece). You have to be constantly mindful of person, place, context, politics . . . ”

Beyond minding individual sensitivities, she also learned that (for the most part) people are just people — not representatives of their government’s politics.

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There were problems on the ground in many of the countries whose dances she and her cohort performed. There was communism in the Eastern-bloc countries, Serbs versus Croatians during Balkan wars, anti-Israeli tensions. But at international dance events, they would dance Israeli, Lebanese, Croatian, and Serbian dances together. Dance events created unique social spaces. Nowhere in the world did people achieve the same integration politically that the dancers were creating socially. The dance events and the social ties they engendered taught her that good things come from openness to taking what exists and moving it around, breaking rules, forgetting about the politics, ignoring the bigger picture, dealing with the individual level, and solving the current problem. In this case, the “current problem” was that they needed to dance, connect, and be joyful for a while — together. Borders may change, but communities remain intact, and music and dance patterns have common roots that don’t shift because of politics. “The drummer knows it’s the same rhythm and the same dance when you cross the border.”

Edy notes (see Figure 12.2): “In any given moment, what you think is uniquely yours and what he thinks is uniquely his, is actually both of yours. So you keep your eyes open, you integrate the patterns, and pay attention to details. You get sensitive to what matters to people. Through world dance, you learn something superordinate that we all have in common.”

That said, it is sometimes necessary to maintain distinctions. Integration is not always the solution. For example, when Edy choreographs an Israeli dance suite to demonstrate its diversity, she knows to include the intact dances of the Yemeni and Chassidic communities and not blend their instrumentation, signature steps, and melodies. World dance formed a critical part of Edy’s education — both physical and intellectual. Understanding at depth allowed her to identify similarities across boundaries — of music, of dance, and later, of other fields. She also found that openness, sensitivity, and a willingness to integrate (or maintain distinctions, where appropriate) are key to the next step — creating something across those boundaries.

All Roads Lead to (or Are?) Education After spending her senior year of high school dancing and working for a software company 3,000 miles from home, Edy started studying pre-biology/pre-med

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Figure 12.2: Edy understood at depth and saw patterns in music and dance, then applied the same depth and pattern-recognition skills in other fields.

at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). She was admitted to the College Honors Program without a high-school diploma (see Figure 12.3). But dance was still her first love. Some of the world’s premier world-dance professionals told her that yes, she was at the top of her field in the US, but no one would believe she learned these dances in the native style in America — it wasn’t credible. So she dropped out of UCLA and, “headed for Bulgaria. But I never got to Bulgaria. Instead, I got off the train in Skopje, Macedonia, found my mentor, Atanas Kolarovski, and started learning. I danced and (unknowingly) did anthropological fieldwork. I studied Macedonian language, lived with a local family, and went to villages to document weddings. I worked with master-teachers and danced all the time. I did that for about six months and travelled a little, and when I came back, I knew what I wanted to study.” When she returned to finish pre-med, she discovered UCLA’s World Art and Cultures program (music, dance, theatre, folklore, mythology, art, and

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Figure 12.3: Creating across one set of boundaries may help you create across others.

anthropology) and decided to do both. To support herself (and soon, her mother), she taught dancing and swimming, worked in travel, and at some point in time got a California real estate license. Then her mother got sick. And no one could diagnose her.

How to Treat a Doctor Edy dropped out of UCLA to study anatomy, physiology, and advanced anatomy at Santa Monica College, trying to figure out what was wrong with her mother. For a school project, she interviewed doctors to help diagnose her mother’s problem and drew heavily on her skills in managing sensitive social situations — in some sense, combining dance (choreography) and medicine (see Figure 12.4): “The doctor who was attending to my mother refused the treatment I wanted, so I choreographed an encounter . . . with his supervisor, in the pharmacy that my friend runs. I read medical journals to find treatment hypotheses, then went to my mother’s doctor and said, ‘She needs this.’ The doctor said, ‘No, no, you can’t do that,’ and I said, ‘Oh, but I read these journals and here’s why it makes sense . . .’ The doctor would ‘dismiss’ me from his office, and I’d ‘run into’ his supervisor at the pharmacy and start chatting. I’d mention the article and ask if he thought the approach was worth a try. When he said, ‘That’s a good idea,’ I’d go back to the hospital and tell the attending doctor, ‘You know I was talking to Dr. So-and-So, and he thought it was a good idea.’ So my mother [finally] got treated. And it was the right approach.”

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Figure 12.4: Choreographing dancers is not entirely different from choreographing medicalcare professionals or co-workers.

Edy figured out what was wrong, convinced the doctors, and before she finished her undergraduate degrees, her mother’s course of treatment was complete. By the time Edy finished at UCLA, she had taken classes in every building — from Nobel Prize Winners and masters in science, arts, humanities, chemistry, physiology, biology, dance, music, theatre, mythology, and English literature. In her third stint at UCLA, she finished the interdisciplinary degree training, and the school offered her the biggest scholarship ever offered for a Master’s in Dance Ethnology. She turned down medical school and took the offer.

The Next Frontier: Dance Ethnology, Medicine, and Business By this time, Edy had steadily stressed her body as a dance professional. She’d stressed her mind in the broad array of disciplines she’d mastered. She’d stressed herself emotionally to help with her mother’s healthcare. She’d also

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stressed her finances to pay for school, healthcare, freedom to pursue the arts, and life itself (for herself and her mother) (see Figure 12.5).

Figure 12.5: With research spanning several fields, Edy formalized her instinctive understanding of burnout in order to help others.

Ironically, office-tired dance students who revived their joy and energy in her classes marveled at what a joyful, energized life she must be living. If the students are having fun for an hour, the teacher must be having fun all day, right? So how could she be tired? How could she be burning out? Was it time to head in a new direction? A casual conversation one day with a childhood dance friend was a turning point both personally and professionally. Dr. Drew Harris, who, along with his brothers, had performed with Edy in the same ethnic dance festivals in Florida more than a decade earlier, helped her see that her dance “products and services” were more than dancing. They were aligned with the cutting-edge concepts and best practices in organizational behavior (OB) and team effectiveness that he was discovering in New York University’s Entrepreneurship PhD

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program. He told her that ethnography and culture were critical parts of OB and leadership training. As a classically trained ethnographer, this intrigued her and she investigated, finding her own training to be more rigorous. Encouraged to apply to top-tier programs by some of their lead faculty, she applied for a joint program (of course) to use her deep skills in ethnology in fields she hadn’t yet conquered: business management and psychology. She joined Harvard University’s Joint PhD program in Organizational Behavior, offered by Harvard Business School and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (Psychology and Sociology). She found her own symptoms of burnout to be common in many professions and growing more so, robbing people of joy in their work lives and draining massive amounts of productivity out of companies, communities, and economies. Every piece of her background gave her a unique perspective on the problem of burnout. From medicine, sports coaching, and dance (performing and teaching), Edy was specially qualified to understand how our bodies and minds — including the chemistry of our brains — interact. She understood how body and mind respond to working conditions, task order, sleep, sunlight, and more. From group leadership and caregiving, she understood the demands of emotional labor and how our energy levels, work, and emotions are tied together. From ethnology and premed quantitative training, she had the skills to rigorously investigate, critically analyze, and deeply understand social situations—including personal states at work. She chose an extreme case in which to study burnout while controlling for work schedules, facilities, quarters, food, and so on (not easy to do with firefighters and emergency-room staff, who go home to very different lives). The case she settled on for study was burnout among Club Med workers (GOs, “Gentils Organisateurs”). In studying the 24/7 staff who provide training, service, care, and entertainment to guests under ideal vacation conditions not only reflected Edy’s own life but also revealed to her how we deplete our energies, how to manage for maintenance and restoration, and how our body-states and mind-states influence each other and our productivity. Her research was foundational to the resilience movement and led to work in television, radio, teaching, executive coaching, and consulting.

The Integrated Self Dr. Edy founded Execu-Care Coaching and Consulting to help her clients reintegrate the pieces of themselves they separate into “work” and “life,”

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professional and personal, mind-at-work and body-that-goes-to-the-gym (see Figure 12.6). She teaches people how to care for their entire selves all the time, and how to increase their total energy, happiness, and productivity, not just trade one for the other.

Figure 12.6: Re-integrating pieces of your life and managing your whole self all the time are key to avoiding (or recovering from) “burnout.”

For example, using strategic sequencing and her Personal Resource Management™ assessment, she shows people how to map their energy levels throughout the day, identify activities that contribute to and deplete energy, reschedule their days so they don’t over-deplete, and match activities with energy availability so tasks are done better and faster. She helps people understand the brain chemistry and neurology behind their typical workdays, social interactions, and physical activity (or lack thereof) and identify ways to modify their mindsets and behaviors to naturally improve their own chemistry. She herself uses different forms of exercise for different purposes. Her day starts with exercise, but if it’s a day that needs a lot of creative work, she’ll begin with lap swimming, an inward-focused exercise during which ideas hatch in her head. Afterward, she heads back to her office to record ideas on her laptop before something interrupts her creative flow. Water aerobics gives her a similar workout (similar chemistry), but there’s no “staff meeting” inside her head and different subsequent creative flow

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(different neural activity in different parts of the brain). Her mind is focused outward — on teacher and fellow students — not inward for creative inspiration. This set of behaviors and conditions engenders cognitive rest and social restoration.

The Integrated Team Beyond integrating individuals, Edy integrates groups, including MBA students in troubled teams, start-up founders, corporate teams, and even her colleagues at Rotman’s Desautels Centre for Integrative Thinking (see Figure 12.7).

Figure 12.7: Integrating teams effectively requires integrating whole people—body, mind, and emotions.

Analogous to integrating individuals, integrating groups requires coordinating whole people — body, mind, and emotions. All group members must be included. As Centre Founder Dr. Mihnea Moldoveanu noted: “She’s had a massively positive impact on the dynamics and ethos of the emotional landscape of our team. . . . She notices people that somehow escape the notice of others and brings them to the fore. And she integrates them through very natural means like food. She organizes events that bring people together to share a meal, and she guides and structures the dialogue. Things that we don’t usually talk about are brought to the fore. And the people that we don’t usually notice are recognized, which is massively important. Precisely the ethos we want to build.”

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Seeing from others’ perspectives (cognitive empathy) and integrating multiple perspectives (integrative thinking) are essential to her work with executives and student teams. According to her colleague, Dr. Maja Djikic, “She has no trouble understanding what each person in the team is going through and integrating that information. . . . From the perspective of each individual student, they don’t have a way out.” But Dr. Edy finds ways for them as a team, seeing at once from the perspectives of all.

Integrating Coaching and Technology In order to make her resilience approach available to a broader audience, Edy is now launching a new technology venture—RestorationVacation—which fuses resilience coaching with the leadership development and travel industries. In an effort to end the burnout epidemic, her new platform provides recommendations enabled by artificial intelligence (AI) and more powerful analysis models that continually improve via machine learning (ML). It’s a leading-edge fusion of the highly personal (coaching) with the highly technological (AI/ML) positioned to help millions of people.

Adapting . . . to Yourself Beyond her adaptability to the technological future, Edy is remarkably adaptable to others people’s styles. A student, Bonnie Bachenheimer, noted, “When Edy dances with the choreographer, she dances that teacher’s style. When she teaches, she embodies and transmits the choreographer’s intent. When the curriculum is her creation, she adapts her own style to the audience. She brings that same talent to working with leaders and teams: Respecting what is unique, always bringing the best of herself, and integrating to create innovative and meaningful results.” Adaptability has been essential to mastering a wide variety of disciplines, fitting into new circumstances, and choreographing a new approach to a problem. However, Edy’s most important lesson was on adapting to self, not others: “At UCLA, as a graduate student and teaching fellow, I participated in Margaret Hill’s freshman ballet class. Ms. Hill had been the principal dancer and senior ballet mistress of the Royal Ballet of London — a ballet master for over 30 years when I met her. On the second or third day of class, she took aside all the 18-year-old students enrolled in the Bachelor of Arts degree program in dance. To anyone else, they were all perfect-looking young ballet

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dancers. She looked at the first one and said, ‘You took [a certain kind] of singing lesson between the ages of 5 and 10, and as a result, it changed the shape of your ribs. If you’re going to dance ballet on the stage, you have to adjust your arm this way when you turn to your right.’ And then she went to the next perfect-looking dancer and said, ‘The ratio of your thigh to your calf is 1/3 too great, and as a result of that, you’re likely to develop [this type of] knee problem. So when you do your barre-work, you’ll need to do it this way.’ For the next hour, she continued to show each ‘perfect’ woman exactly how her body was not perfect for ballet and what she needed to do to be successful. In short, she taught each one the most important lesson I learned in school — one that gave me more humility, and better compassion for everyone.” “No one has the perfect equipment for what needs to be done — no matter how it appears — and everyone has to learn to dance in his or her own body. Even companies have to learn to dance in their own bodies.”

Leading Self and Others After decades of learning, creating, and leading, Edy has in many ways become like the ballet master — able to see, diagnose, and help others dance in their own bodies, as individuals, teams, and companies (see Figure 12.8). She’s attuned to what’s around her, including disparate perspectives and emotional dissonance, yet at the same time in sync with it all and integrating it internally — a state of openness both outward and inward and at ease with that dissonance.

Figure 12.8: Learn to “dance in your own body” as a unique innovation resource, crafting something unique with your own combination of body, mind, and emotion.

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Dissonance is essential to music. Tension is inherent in trapeze balance and dance. Making them dynamic is essential to flow — be it creative flow or the flow (and flight) of our personal and professional energies. Edy learned how to manage her own creative flow and energies and has raised the capabilities of thousands of leaders, who themselves impact many more lives. The Man on the Flying Trapeze lyrics begin, “Once I was happy, but now I’m forlorn Like an old coat that is tattered and torn.”

Although the song is actually about a lost love, feeling tattered and torn can also describe burnout — having lost the love of what we do. Edy integrated her diverse background and skills to the problem of burnout and found rejuvenation in the new tools and techniques she developed — and continues to develop- as well as the act of developing, itself (see Figure 12.9).

Figure 12.9: Is it time to fly, now?

Are you managing your whole self for high energy and creative flow? Is it time to form a team, climb a trapeze, and fly? Dr. Edy Greenblatt is one of the World’s Top 100 Executive Coaches (Marshall Goldsmith 100 Coaches), as well as Founder and President of Execu-Care Coaching & Consulting, Inc., Visiting/Adjunct Faculty at Rotman School of Management and The Center for Creative Leadership, and President and Co-Founder of Restoration Vacation, Inc. Her experiences as one of the world’s top Dance Ethnologists and

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Master Teachers were foundational to her pioneering work in Resilience and Embodied Leadership, as well as her PhD research at Harvard University. This author, former McKinsey consultant, and TV and radio host is “from” Canada, Israel, Macedonia, the USA, and Yugoslavia. For more information on her work, see her book (Restore Yourself) and www.linkedin.com/in/dredygreenblatt/, edygreenblatt.com, execu-care.com, and restorationvacation.com.

Chapter 13 SensPD and BioHug Age 0–4 Autism Intervention for Over 2 Million People a Year (While Our Brains Are Speed-Developing) Raffi Rembrand—Serial Entrepreneur, Science-Tech Inventor “Through the blur, I wondered if I was alone or if other parents felt the same way I did — that everything involving our children was painful in some way. The emotions, whether they were joy, sorrow, love, or pride, were so deep and sharp that in the end they left you raw, exposed and yes, in pain. The human heart was not designed to beat outside the human body and yet, each child represented just that — a parent’s heart bared, beating forever outside its chest.” —Debra Ginsberg, author and parent of an autistic child

Raffi Rembrand, father of an autistic child, chemical engineer, pianist, audiologist, and inventor fused: – Autism diagnostics and audiology (SensPD) – Touch and technology (BioHug) Video https://youtu.be/meZtRAr4mPA

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Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a range of conditions characterized by sensory-perception, social-skill, repetitive-behavior, and communication challenges, as well as positive differences and strengths. The challenges make it difficult to integrate with others at school, work, and social settings. Parenting an autistic child can involve difficulties not only in parenting the child with ASD but also the siblings, as well as managing work, marriage, and health. Finances also become a challenge. Special education and healthcare costs total over $17,000 per child per year. The average lifetime cost of having ASD is $1.4 million. Twenty percent of those diagnosed with ASD also have intellectual disability, which increases the average lifetime cost to $2.3 million. In the US alone, ASD costs are estimated at $11.5 billion per year. Diagnoses have risen exponentially, from 1 in 2,000 people in the 1970s to 1 in 59 today (CDC, 2016–2019, see Figure 13.1). That translates to over two million new diagnoses each year, with potentially 130 million people diagnosable worldwide. The current diagnostic procedure is based on subjective observation of behavior, beginning as early as 18 months, though most children are diagnosed at age 5 or above.

Figure 13.1: Autism diagnoses are becoming increasingly common, making early diagnosis and effective treatment ever more urgent. Source: SensPD Summary, May 30, 2016 and update in personal correspondence May 30, 2019

Unfortunately, this delay in diagnosis dooms most interventions to failure. Social-skills interventions before age 2 are over 90% successful. After age 5, the rate drops to 11%. “The importance of applying interventions as early as possible cannot be overestimated. It can make the difference between a meaningful life integrated in the community or an isolated life.” — SensPD Introduction and Summary, 2016

Learn and Collect Isolation along with the daily struggle of raising a child who has ASD — with no cure and few effective interventions — led one parent on a cross-disciplinary,

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international journey of discovery and invention. One of his inventions could help millions of children (whole families, in fact) and could become a standard test for all newborns. The other could provide comfort and calmness to those with ASD, as well as other conditions, such as PTSD, hypertension, hyperactivity, and others. His journey began with the same imperative all ASD parents face: learning. Every parent learns what characterizes ASD, what the implications are, possible interventions, and how to track the impact of the therapies they attempt. Raffi Rembrand pursued something more. For years, he tracked (and collected thousands of) ASD research studies. He was stunned by the lack of understanding of ASD’s underlying mechanisms, the absence of early diagnosis, and the scarcity of effective therapeutic interventions. He kept tracking the studies and even moved with his wife and son to the US from Israel, where he would find better support for his child’s condition and a more active community of parents and researchers.

Engineer-Thinking and Thinkwalking With a background in chemical engineering and extensive experience in signal processing, Raffi delved into medicine, physiology, and the physics of wavelengths. As an engineer, his default approach to any problem is to break it apart, find the problem(s), fix them, and re-connect. He has to find (or define) a problem before he can fix it. In fact, while he’s pondering a problem, he has a particular method for mulling it over and connecting with his creative inner environment — he takes a walk (see Figure 13.2). While he was in his master’s program, he walked extensively, and one day his supervisor stopped him, asking why he wasn’t working — he was just walking around. Raffi explained that his most creative thoughts came when he was walking (alone), thinking about a problem or about nothing in particular. There is even psychological research to support this practice,1 and “incubating” ideas subconsciously over time is a well-known creative technique.

1 Oppezzo, M., and Schwartz, D. L. (2014). Give your ideas some legs: The positive effect of walking on creative thinking. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 40(4), 1142–1152.

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Figure 13.2: Raffi came up with his most creative ideas while walking.

He explained what he’d thought about and the advances he’d made in his research beyond the current frameworks (and time-schedule) while he was walking. The supervisor went back to his desk.

Breaking Assumptions: Cause or Effect? Raffi’s new research would require some creative thinking. Currently, no one knows what causes autism (or at least, no one agrees). Only the effects — the difficulties — are known, one of which is sensory perception. “Researchers knew sensory-perception issues typify ASD, and their unconscious assumption was that it’s an effect. Breaking this assumption was my breakthrough. I believe sensory perception is the cause of autism.” (See Figure 13.3.)

He also believes that recognizing and breaking assumptions is a key tool for creative advances:

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Figure 13.3: Autism Spectrum Disorder and auditory dysfunction may be a chicken-and-egg question (i.e., which causes the other?).

“Usually people understand creativity as unhampered by conventions, and that’s just pure nonsense. Being creative means understanding what are those hidden assumptions that bog you down, and then crossing over them. You need to understand everything at a deeper level to find the assumptions — the barriers, the boundaries — and then break through those.”

Treating an effect as a cause opened a whole new avenue of inquiry — one he would pursue with his own time and his own funding — and one that began with an ASD difficulty: speech-in-noise discrimination.

How Ears Perceive — and Make — Sound Most people can have a conversation with someone in a noisy room. The brain filters out the general room noise (e.g., at a party) using Oto-Acoustic Emissions (OAE), which are naturally synthesized stochastic signals (sounds), generated in the cochlea (inner ear). These are the sounds you hear when you hold a seashell to your ear or when you’re in a silent room and realize it isn’t actually silent. Our ears don’t just perceive sound — they generate it. Like spilling coins onto a table before you can pick out, say, the dimes, the OAE is used sub-cognitively by the brain to filter out background noise so we can focus on particular sounds (see Figure 13.4). In fact, OAE also facilitates

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Figure 13.4: ASD patients have trouble picking out specific sounds from background noise, like being unable to pick up 10-cent coins from a scattering of change.

tactile, visual, and proprioceptive sensations (the sense of self-movement and body position). No wonder people with ASD withdraw into themselves and are often sensitive to sound, touch, body position and movement. They can’t effectively filter them out.

Audiodiagnosis Raffi needed to test some of his ideas, so he crafted a headset device to measure the OAE response to auditory stimulus, expecting that people with ASD would show delayed response and random response patterns. With two earphones and two microphones adjacent to each ear, the earphones emit a sound, and the microphones capture both the stimulus and the response OAE emitted from the ear. The stimulus is subtracted from the recording, in order to isolate the OAE. A 3D spectrogram is then produced, showing a frequency, time, amplitude signature.

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Figure 13.5: Otoacoustic emissions in ASD listeners do not mimic the original sound as they do in non-ASD listeners. Source: SensPD Study Report, August 4, 2016, p. 6.

As expected, in response to a given sound profile (top spectrogram, see Figure 13.5), the average listener’s response roughly mimicked the original sound and did so within a narrow band of response variations (bottom-left spectrogram). Listeners already diagnosed with ASD, however (bottom-right spectrogram), did not fall within normal range and did not mimic the original sound.

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Figure 13.6: OAE Responses are slower in ASD listeners than non-ASD listeners. Source: SensPD Study Report, August 4, 2016, p. 7.

In fact, the more severe the auditory dysfunction, the more severe the ASD symptoms. They also tested the timing of the OAE (see Figure 13.6). Once again, results were as predicted. The OAE of typically developing listeners (“TD”) were quickly produced, while ASD OAEs were delayed. The device has shown itself to be an objective, early-stage, non-invasive way to diagnose ASD and can be administered within a few days of birth. The

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test results even act as a biomarker of other sensory-perception disorders, such as dyslexia and hyperactivity. “This is a life-changer. Early, objective diagnosis enables early, effective intervention.”

SensPD Raffi filed a patent for the technology and co-founded a company called SensPD (for Sensory-Perception Diagnostics, see Figure 13.7). In 2017, he won first prize at the Merage Institute’s 45+ Entrepreneurs’ competition. He partnered with seven hospitals in Israel and the US that have agreed to finance and conduct clinical testing. He plans to offer the diagnostic tests worldwide, using

Figure 13.7: Raffi’s diagnostic can be taken shortly after birth. Source: SensPD report, 2017

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a cloud-based big-data approach that should enable perpetually improving analytics and further research. Such research will undoubtedly uncover causality and interventions such as oxygen pressure cells, auditory training, behavior modification, Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, and more. Whether OAE dysfunction is an effect or a cause (sole or conjoining), an intervention to directly correct perceptiondisorder has not yet been created. More research is needed. Further, although the SensPD device can detect the severity of a perception disorder, it cannot distinguish between ASD, dyslexia, and hyperactivity. Again, further research is needed. Nonetheless, SensPD’s diagnostic value is clear. With further testing (only preliminary tests are complete), the device should enable both early intervention and measurement of intervention effectiveness , thus leading to better interventions.

BioHug “Touch Technology” While researching the SensPD device, Raffi needed help to calm some of the participants. Parents and professionals working with ASD often do so by applying therapeutic pressure via weighted garments or blankets; enveloping them with cushions, mattresses, or wet linens; rolling them in gym mats; or applying rollers or physiotherapy balls. Unfortunately, some of the methods require training to implement, and the receiver cannot self-regulate. Raffi created the BioHug vest (see Figure 13.8) to deliver (technologically) Deep Pressure Treatment, a technique that helps patients calm themselves and process sensory stimuli. It uses the same type of surface pressure exerted in most types of firm touching, holding, stroking, animal petting, and swaddling. The battery-operated, washable, cloth vest offers stress relief and arousal control via inflatable air cells and an electronic controller. It delivers pressure of varying strength and duration (in both automatic and manual modes), in order to avoid habituation. It has been used with positive effect for ASD, ADHD, PTSD, and even hypertension: “I tried the vest, and it worked marvelously. We checked my blood pressure, and it went down immediately.” — Jonah Gavrieli, Patent Attorney, office-mate, and neighbor

Raffi created another company — BioHug — with a mission “to improve the lives of people with stress or anxiety issues.”

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Figure 13.8: BioHug Vest, kindly modeled by Jyothi Srivastava.

Outwardly Open Not surprisingly, Raffi is described as highly compassionate, persistent, and mission-driven (see Figure 13.9): “Raffi has a life mission concerning his son and is seeking a solution to his son’s problem. His son’s grown up now, but in Raffi’s head, the problem is still there. Now, after so many years of hard work, he’s found the solution.” — Kobi Cohen, Incubation/Innovation Mentor and friend

Surprisingly (or not, given his auditory focus), Raffi is extremely musical. He plays piano, sings in the choir, and is described as a good listener. He’s also a good noticer, empathetic, creative, systematic, and spiritually disciplined. He’s a citizen of the world (as well as Israel) and describes himself as a modern Renaissance man, interested in a broad array of topics and activities, collecting ideas as he goes, ideas he may connect with others later. He talks to everyone he can to learn more (broadly or deeply).

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Figure 13.9: Outward openness to information, new ideas, and helping others with problems you’ve faced is key to innovation.

“First of all I’m generally an open person, and second, I’ve had to be, since I’m doing research without funding or a big organization. In Israel, we’ve a very close-knit society. Relationships are very informal. So, it’s easy to pick up the phone and say, ‘Hi, can I ask you a question?’”

Once he’s identified a problem or topic, he’s extremely focused and reads everything he can on it to deeply understand. “Innovation comes from intimate knowledge. It’s not something you wake up with one morning and say, ‘I have this great idea in a field I’m unfamiliar with, and I know it’ll revolutionize the world!’” — Jonah Gavrieli, Patent Attorney, office-mate, and neighbor

Raffi knows what he doesn’t know and is open to partnering, believing we do not achieve things alone. He’s the first to say he’s not a businessman, so he sought a partner for each of his companies. We cannot manage breadth and depth alone.

Inwardly Open Caring deeply about another’s problem, investigating, collecting, and connecting with others are all outwardly open activities. They give us a reason to create

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Figure 13.10: Although Raffi’s innovation mattered deeply on a personal level, it couldn’t change life for himself or his son; but it might change the lives of millions of other people.

and help us create, but creating something radically new can only happen when we’re inwardly open. It requires deeply feeling, deeply understanding, and deeply questioning, followed by inwardly motivated, persistent action. Raffi did that by learning, searching, reading, walking, thinking, and experimenting—across years. He created something to help alleviate the isolation of autism, in the process becoming isolated in a world of autism detection — and hope (see Figure 13.10). Does your heart beat outside your chest? Will you take it with you on a journey of discovery and invention? Do you understand deeply enough to turn an effect into a cause? What or whom will that cause affect? Raffi Rembrand is Chief Technology Officer of BioHug Technologies and SensPD. He invented an electronic calming jacket for autism, as well as an autism diagnosis device that can be administered at birth, thus enabling early intervention. He is “from” Israel and the USA. For more information on his work, see: www.link edin.com/in/raphael-raffi-rembrand-80124380/, SensPD.com, and BioHug.com.

Chapter 14 Chief Dream Igniter Business and Social Activism Melissa Kwee—CEO and Board-Level Executive, Social Entrepreneur, Anthropologist “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” — Howard Thurman

Crossing boundaries of nation and social class, Melissa Kwee, CEO of Singapore’s National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre fuses: – Business and society – Rich and poor – Multi-stakeholder motivations Video https://youtu.be/zHiPmteFq-w

“I have a new tape from your Mama.” “Yessssssss! Can I hear it now?”

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“Sure, just let me set up the tape recorder here. Did you write your story for her? Are you ready to read it afterward?” “Yes, I did. I like to write. I like to read to her, too. Can you tell her I got a 46 out of 50 on my English Test?” “I certainly will! She’ll be thrilled to hear that.” “I love to hear her voice. I miss her. . . . Sometimes I can’t see her face anymore when I close my eyes. But I can imagine, since my friends have Moms. When will she come home?” “Oh, a little while yet.” “Mama” will be home in another year, when she finishes her 5 years in prison. She and her husband were both incarcerated for drug offenses. Their four children — ages 20 months to 10 years — were separated and sent to two different relatives. In the first four years of her sentence (her second drug-related conviction), she saw her children three times and otherwise had no news of them. She thought of them every day, racked with guilt, self-loathing, and anxiety. The children were too young to visit her by themselves, but each Mother’s Day, volunteers took them to Singapore Changi Women’s Prison (CWP).

“New Life Stories” and Social Entrepreneur Melissa Kwee Mother, daughter, and volunteer are real — and are part of New Life Stories, an early-reader program co-founded by social entrepreneur Melissa Kwee to help families break the cycle of incarceration (see Figure 14.1). Most CWP-inmates’ children are at a significant disadvantage at school, struggling with English class and other English-based subjects. Most of the women are divorced, unmarried, or separated from the children’s fathers. On average, each one has four children. The biggest source of anguish for imprisoned mothers is the separation from their children. Some are ashamed and tell them they’re seriously ill, in a hospital. Often, when the mothers return, the children reject them, feeling they were abandoned. When mothers emerge from incarceration only to face rejection and uphill battles at every turn — especially with their children — the results are predictable. Too many repeat their offenses and return to jail. Singapore has the third highest prisoner-to-population ratio in the world. Besides the toll taken on prisoners’ lives and families, each inmate costs over $20,000 per year to maintain — approximately the basic expenses of a fourmember household. Prisons offer programs to help inmates turn their lives around, but too many return to jail.

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Figure 14.1: Reading stories helps inmates’ children write new life stories.

With the New Life Stories’ early-reader program, volunteers visit inmates regularly, bringing news of their children, recording the mothers reading to their kids, and playing recordings of kids reading to their mothers. Children read with a volunteer twice a week, talk about the values the stories impart (like courage or perseverance), and hear in their mother’s own voice that she loves them dearly. The program helps mothers make sustainable changes in their own lives, stay out of prison, and help their children avoid ever going in. While writing and reading stories, they write a new future.

The Key Is Their Dreams For Melissa and her co-creator Saleemah Ismail, the idea actually started with another program, focused on educating at-risk girls — a connection between two programs, two generations, and two segments of society (see Figure 14.2): “We were working with 16-year-old girls who can’t really read properly, some of whom were having kids. Separately, we were trying to figure out inter-generational prison sentencing. I saw two things. The inmates’ kids were some of the least-advantaged kids in society. And I saw my sister’s kid, who was reading at age 2, going to enrichment programs and preschool, sang songs in Latin, and was learning to write. On day 1 in primary school, both kids show

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Figure 14.2: They key to innovating in one area may be an insight from another. up in the same classroom. The disadvantaged kid is labeled from the beginning and is too embarrassed to ask for help — and it never gets any better.”

The girls, many of whom were daughters of prisoners and former-prisoners, kept cycling in and out of jail. Rehabilitation programs taught them interviewing skills, how to write a resumé, how to apply for a job, etc., with the assumption being that the girls believed they’re worth investing in and could change their lives. But the programs weren’t working. “So, I started to look . . . and listen. ‘Truth is, half of them were in for drug-related offenses because they didn’t really think that much of themselves and were just following their boyfriends and fathers and husbands. Honestly, if they don’t stand up for themselves before landing in prison, what makes anyone think they’ll stand up for themselves afterwards?”

The key was motivation: What do these women care about? What’s so important to them that they would turn their lives around? None of the women dreamed of being bank secretaries, shopkeepers, or office workers. They didn’t generally dream of anything at all — except one thing: a happy family, with children who did not end up in prison. That dream was the key to everything. Mothers would stay in a program to build self-esteem, careers, and lives, if it meant that their children were being educated and counseled to avoid continuing the destructive cycle.

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Beautiful People The girls’ program also began with Melissa making a connection. She noticed a rising trend in girl gangs and teen pregnancies alongside a shortage of programs for girls. She founded Beautiful People to match women professionals with teens for mentorship (see Figure 14.3). “Big Sisters” visit girls in their homes on a weekly basis to listen, talk, and help with homework, while inviting them to camps, workshops, and talks by relevant professionals such as gynecologists, makeup artists, and selfdefense experts. Just by being there — and connecting — Big Sisters expose their Little Sisters to work and lives they otherwise would never consider, like aerospace engineering or international business.

Figure 14.3: Innovation results not only from integrating ideas by also by integrating people who otherwise wouldn’t connect. Source: www.beautifulpeople.org.sg

Beautiful People operates on the premise that dreams come true because of someone who believes in the dreamer; that every dream is a possibility; and that dreams and stories transform lives. Melissa wanted to articulate a vision of leadership that’s less about outward position and authority and more about inner values and relationships. She wanted to influence the next generation of young leaders

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in ways to make sure they understand that leaders serve before they are served, create a culture of service, and uplift situations in which no one has (yet) been lifted. One particular program remains in her heart and brings tears to her eyes even today. She worked with a group of 20 girls, who would become leadership catalysts, teach others, and organize a conference for hundreds more at their schools, causing a “ripple effect.” One of the exercises with Melissa was to create a leadership persona. Each team would elect a girl to become the persona and make the presentation, with support from her team. One group included both the head of her class at school and a girl with a physical disability. “Usually in such a group, you know who gets chosen to present — the popular girl. But in this group, they all decided to choose the girl with the disability. I was impressed at the time, but it got even better. One of the teachers told me later that this girl, who was incredibly bright, used to eat and do everything by herself because no one would spend any time with her. But after that day when she stood in front of her group and the whole team stood behind her, she became a totally different girl. It changed her world completely. When you change the values of the leaders of a culture, it changes everything for everyone.”

No Boundaries What kind of a leader would create programs for prisoners and at-risk youth? A prison inmate turned reformer? Troubled youth turned educator? Melissa was neither. Her father is Indonesian-Chinese-Singaporean Kwee Liong Tek, Chairman of Pontiac Land and owner of $1 billion worth of hotels in Singapore, including the Ritz-Carlton Millennia, Conrad Centennial, Regent, Capella, Camden Medical Centre, and a number of upscale residential developments. Kwee family net worth is estimated at $5.9 billion (see Figure 14.4). Her father and her Japanese-American mother, Donna Naomi, both speak at least three languages. Melissa’s mother always said, “You’re no better or worse than anyone else.” She was a role model of sensitivity and compassion to all. Melissa’s grandfather, founder of Kenwood Electronics and Mikasa Chinaware, George Aratani, was similar. She used to watch him work and noticed how he was exactly the same man whether speaking to business leaders, politicians, cleaners, or clerks. Years later, Melissa’s sister remarked how inspirational a speaker Melissa is on stage, and yet is exactly the same person at home “chilling out” on the sofa.

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Figure 14.4: Crossing social-class boundaries in order to listen and learn may be the most important step.

“I was socialized as a child to be blind to differences. I don’t see boundaries at all. They just don’t exist. I see what we can do together — what we have in common and can do with purpose, commonality, and mutual learning.”

The Kwee children worked during summer holidays. Melissa was a drugstore cashier, and her two sisters were waitresses. She was educated in Singapore-based international schools with a very multinational cohort. When she went to the US to further her education, she was surprised to find she didn’t entirely “belong,” despite her American heritage. She found the same in Japan, China, and Indonesia. “Identity and belonging are not the same. Belonging is a matter of building community, so I always try to remember to be a community member where I am. If I’m in the US, I’m a community member of the US. If I’m in Nepal, I’m a community member of Nepal. When in Singapore, I’m a community member of Singapore.”

It also helped her connect with others who didn’t quite “belong.” “Being a minority helps develop sensitivity towards other minorities.”

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Grasping the Beauty and Brokenness During a school trip to rural Indonesia with United World College, Melissa saw how little some have compared with what she has (see Figure 14.5). Instead of fueling a desire to hoard, it made her want to share.

Figure 14.5: There is beauty, despite the brokenness. “I don’t think it’s a coincidence that I discovered as a young person the immense beauty and brokenness of the world. I became keenly aware of suffering and the way we degrade the environment. My heart is drawn to where people are disadvantaged or structurally discriminated against and need change. At the same time, there’s the immense possibility of every person to be part of not just a problem but also a solution. That need for a bigger purpose — and sense of potential — has always appealed to me.”

Before studying Social Anthropology at Harvard University, she spent two years in a village in Nepal as an intern and English teacher, also pursuing volunteer and fund-raising activities. Afterward, she became a Fulbright Scholar in ethnographic studies at Tribhuvan Vishwavidalaya in Nepal, and a Visiting Scholar (Activities and Societies) at University of California-Berkeley.

Sustainable Impact Melissa doesn’t engage in vanity projects or live off family wealth. She earns her own living as CEO of National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre (NVPC) and as a business consultant, drafting community-engagement strategies for corporate clients. She engages in real problem-solving for marginalized people, and creates programs that are self-sustainable.

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She co-founded and co-inspired the Halogen Foundation for mentoring and empowering young people, including leadership workshops and camps in local schools. In 2015, they reached 10,000 children and launched a regional program, One Degree Asia, to bring together social innovators from different sectors around the region. As a Director of Pontiac Land, she led the creation of an alternative hiring system that treats foreign construction workers more humanely and doesn’t reward middlemen for employee churn. She and her team co-founded Company of Good at NVPC to help companies and corporate leaders integrate and magnify their business efforts and social impact. She also co-founded and co-inspired financial education for migrant women workers (AIDHA), as well as the Kindness Exchange (online marketplace for professional pro-bono work), and more. Having served as President of UN Women Singapore (formerly UNIFEMSingapore), Melissa initiated a ground-breaking project against commercial sexual exploitation of women and children that changed the Singapore penal code and led to more reform. “Melissa was one of the key individuals whose ideas and personality led to the groundbreaking awareness and advocacy for anti-trafficking legislation. I say ‘personality’ because her inclusive, integrative personality made it possible for stakeholders with different desires to come together and focus on what we have in common. She made a huge difference to the project just by being who she is.” (See Figure 14.6.) — Saleemah Ismail, Co-Founder and friend, Private-Sector Partnership Developer for UN Women

Although Melissa held the title of President, she makes it very clear that it was a deeply collaborative team effort. Indeed, leading change and innovation requires establishing an ethos of openness and collaboration. That may be tomorrow’s leaders’ most important job. It requires setting the stage for others to shine, enabled by open, integrative leadership focused on the task at hand — not ego. Melissa’s many awards include the Harvard Foundation Award for InterCultural and Race Relations, “35 under 35” (World Business, London), Asia 21 Young Leaders (Asia Society, NY), Singapore Youth Award, Women in Leadership Fellowship (Center for Strategic & International Studies, Washington, DC), Young Woman Achiever (Her World), and Emerging Leaders Fellowship (State of the World Forum, San Francisco).

Outward Openness Melissa’s most defining characteristic is empathy — understanding others’ perspectives, sharing emotions, and actively helping. Friends describe her as other-

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Figure 14.6: Melissa integrates stakeholders with different desires to work together and focus on what they have in common.

centric, generous, humble, authentic, modest, polite, down-to-earth, inclusive, multicultural, welcoming, warm, effusive, eloquent, and action-oriented. She’s very observant, a good listener, non-judgmental, open to new ideas and experiences, broadly read, intuitive, and a mobilizer, catalyst, and free spirit who learns from those she serves, while focusing on the greater good. She’s playful, openly emotive, and not afraid to give a hug or friendly touch. Although described as a super-connected super-networker, she also fosters a small community of very close friends who support and guide her. She knows her calling and vocation and spends no energy being someone she’s not. “She’s definitely a polymath with interests in multiple dimensions, and she connects them with each other. She’s creating pathways of connection between rich and poor, corporate

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and social. When she gives of herself to others, she’s also storing up information. Then when she looks for a solution to an issue, she connects the dots. She pieces things together so they make sense and translates learnings from one context to another.” — Peter Hsu, collaborator and friend

Although described as a high-energy extrovert forever working on multiple projects, Melissa sometimes runs out of energy and needs time to reflect. “I can’t think at my best, all non-stop, full-on. I can get small insights but really to get the bigger ideas, I need a certain freedom of mind-space and some conversations over a period of time, while the ideas are ripening. I also can’t create sitting in a cave — I have to work on it — and just be around it and observe.”

Inward Openness Melissa refines her thoughts while writing poetry (see Figure 14.7). She loves beauty but is not obsessed with it. She wanders in parks, listens to cello, and loves to “dream the impossible.”

Figure 14.7: Cello, poetry, and dreaming help Melissa rejuvenate.

Whether eating a bowl of laksa with villagers in the Himalayas or dining in a Michelin restaurant in the Central Business District, Melissa is the same. Her ability to mobilize others flows from authenticity and genuine inspiration. Her own motivation flows from her deep Christian faith.

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“I believe that nothing is accidental in life and that everything was created or allowed for a purpose. If we’re open to being of service then the right things happen at the right time. For me, the Christian faith anchors and directs how I think about these things — understanding what is God’s plan and His design for each of us? How are we part of that?”

Melissa’s outward openness and empathy enable her to reach inside herself and others — tapping on motivation (like the mothers in prison), crafting values (like the girls learning leadership), and igniting dreams (see Figure 14.8).

Figure 14.8: Are you designing new growth?

What are your dreams? Are you helping someone else’s dream? Are you writing a new future and coming alive? Melissa Kwee is CEO at the National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre, Director of Pontiac Land Group, Chair of Millennia Hotel Pte. Ltd., and Co-Founder of Beautiful People. She is “from” Indonesia, Nepal, Singapore, and the USA. For more information on her work, see: www.linkedin.com/in/melissa-aratani-kwee2562953/, www.nvpc.org.sg/, www.newlifestories.org.sg/, https://halogen.sg/, and BeautifulPeople.org.sg.

Chapter 15 Well-Being and Wealth-Building Managing $15 Billion and Revolutionizing an Industry Arun Abey—Serial Entrepreneur, Researcher, Philanthropist

Source: Arun Abey’s LinkedIn

From box-boy to researcher to founder of one of the world’s most innovative financial firms, Arun Abey crafted fusions of: – Well-being and wealth-building – Biology, psychology, economics, and finance – Theory and application – Macro and micro economics Video https://youtu.be/m9ALhSmu8Jo

“No, no . . . no . . . not this one . . . not that one . . . ” “Can I help you, sir?” “I don’t know.”

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“Are you looking for something big? Something small? I stock everything here, so I know where it all is. See — here’s a callus on my thumb from stocking all these boxes.” “Actually, I was hoping to buy some happiness.” “Oh, I’m sorry, sir. You can’t get happiness with money. But you can get money with happiness.” The boy who stocked those shelves didn’t actually say that, but he did grow into the man who would — after a 30-year journey to discover how (see Figure 15.1).

Figure 15.1: His job as a box-boy opened a new journey in Arun’s life.

Rich and Poor at Once His name is Arun Abey. Born in Colombo, Sri Lanka, to parents from distinguished families, he was exposed early-on to a wealth of interests and beliefs. His paternal grandfather was a pharmacist and the headman of a large district. His grandmother studied philosophy, economics, and politics. His father was expected to inherit the family business but became a newspaper journalist instead. Arun’s mother’s family came from India and worked in various areas of medicine. His maternal grandmother — one of 13 well-educated daughters —

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was among the first women in the world to study medicine in London in the early 1900s. His mother was a home-science teacher, an accomplished musician, and a gifted Kandyan dancer, having studied under the nation’s prima ballerina. His parents were unconditionally loving, open-minded, and happy for Arun to explore and discover his own interests and life-mission. Grandmother was Anglican, Father was Buddhist, and Arun’s first school was Irish Catholic. Although culturally and intellectually savvy, his parents were (unfortunately) not financially savvy. Arun’s father accepted a position at the Ceylon Tea Board to promote Sri Lankan tea, and the family emigrated to Australia when Arun was four. Although his father earned a good Sri Lankan salary, the Australian cost of living was about five times that of Sri Lanka. No one thought to check on that before accepting the job. Their only choice was to send Arun to a good public (government-run) school, so they moved to a good neighborhood on Sydney’s North Shore. Given the high cost of the location, they lived in a one-and-a-half-bedroom flat (a converted commercial office, really) above a dog-grooming salon, opposite a pub. Arun was too embarrassed to invite friends home and didn’t bother trying out for his best sport — soccer — since they wouldn’t be able to afford the shoes. He grew up with a desperate desire for money and financial independence (though not so desperate he’d do something uninspiring). Arun held down three jobs at Woolworth’s, picking parcels and packing shelves. With his earnings, the family bought their first car — an orange Datsun, which he drove for the next 17 years, even after becoming a successful finance executive. (He would have freely and happily continued, were it not for the strenuous objections of his business partners.) Not an outstanding student at school, his first ambition was to become a “checkout chick” so he could ease the strain on his hands and back, stressed while hauling tons of goods around. Since he wasn’t a “chick,” he wasn’t allowed, so he kept stocking shelves and studying (see Figure 15.2). As a teen, he developed a keen interest in psychology, and later — while studying for a Bachelor of Arts in Asian Studies — he was exposed to anthropology, sociology, and the psychology of groups. Such training would later provide him with invaluable insights for effective leadership. As luck would have it, he also discovered that his right-brained parents had produced a left-brained child. He loved economics — the richness and intricacy of the ideas, as well as the powerful potential to reduce poverty for nations and for individuals. So he earned a Bachelor of Economics, as well.

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Figure 15.2: Arun wasn’t qualified to be a “checkout chick” so had to find another career.

Connecting Trends and Trouble In the early 1980s, Arun was a development economist at one of the nation’s most prestigious research organizations — Australian National University. He learned about globalization, technology, demographic shifts, and other trends. He was a rigorous researcher and he wanted to alleviate poverty through his work. He wrote a thesis on technology and economic development in Indonesia. However, when he realized he wouldn’t make an impact on the world while working in academia, he left. “I love the ideas and research, but it was dissatisfying to me in academia not to make a difference. I guess I’m part architect, part builder.”

At the same time, former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating (thenTreasurer) planned to improve Australia’s competitiveness by floating the nation’s currency and interest rates, as well as partially deregulating financial services. With a solid understanding of classical and behavioral economics, Arun saw that globalization and deregulation together would crash into a populace that was completely unprepared to decide their own financial future. They would need guidance.

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Further, only the most informed economists knew what globalization really meant to economies and societies, and modern portfolio theory (to optimize a portfolio’s risk-reward ratio through diversification) hadn’t yet won Harry Markowitz his 1990 Nobel Prize. Academics couldn’t read stock market data, and stock brokers were salesmen who knew nothing of research on structural economic change. In fact, some financial “advisors” were coached by their organizations to say things like, “international bonds are on special today!” (Had they stocked the shelves with them?) Individuals and organizations with $20 million or more had access to high-quality advice and services, but not the rest of the market (i.e., almost everyone) (see Figure 15.3).

Figure 15.3: Financial advisors seemed to care but operated on conflict of interest.

Extreme Independence (with Friends) Arun didn’t have a business background, but once he became interested in investing and began researching it, he shared his ideas with finance professionals. He found them lacking (to say the least) and was gratified to hear they were sharing ideas with their clients that he’d shared with them. He sensed a business opportunity. “I was seeing what was happening with democracy, deregulation, globalization, and markets, and thought, ‘How can I connect all these things into a brand new firm? How can we take this macro-economic university research and apply it at a different

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level — to individuals?’ Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Mark Zuckerberg all took ideas out of universities and applied them to individuals, groups, or society in a way that was gamechanging. Could we do the same? There are not that many people who can translate theory to real life. If you can, you’ll find huge opportunities.”

Twenty-five-year-old Arun developed a vision and gathered three partners into a team with diverse yet complementary personalities and strengths — and with the same vision and values (see Figure 15.4). Together, they founded ipac securities limited to translate rigorous academic theory into action (investment decisions) that would benefit individuals and families.

Figure 15.4: Democracy, deregulation, financial markets, and globalization created a “perfect storm” in the finance industry—and people’s lives.

ipac would charge a fee for independent advice but not for transactions — the reverse of the industry standard. It was originally an industry outcast, and well-meaning friends (including Arun’s mother) spent 10 years trying to talk him out of it. He wouldn’t listen (see Figure 15.5). He held fast to the idea that advice should be well-researched, client-focused, and free from conflicts of interest (e.g., product commissions). Four naive guys with unkempt hair gathered around a desk each day challenging each other’s ideas and pursuing affluent, well-coiffed, conservative clients.

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Figure 15.5: If you truly believe the status-quo is wrong, then don’t listen when they discourage you from launching something new.

None of them could do a job they didn’t believe in. All were pursuing a calling: Helping others. All had strong research skills, including one who had been the national research head of a major financial institution. They endured a steep learning curve, figuring out how to convert an idea (and an ideal) into a business. No one earned anything for three years. Their first clients were family members of friends. For the next seven years, they paid senior staff more than themselves. Each one felt that whether the firm rewarded them with a big financial payoff or not, they got a lot out of the journey. Only after 10 years did they finally began earning a market rate for their skills and seniority. They struggled for many years but slowly grew. Eventually, Commonwealth Bank of Australia invested in the business, and they finally had senior, external

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people on the board of directors. They developed more formal, structured processes and laid a stable foundation for rapid growth. It worked. ipac became one of most valuable financial-advisory partnerships in the world and eventually grew its funds under management to over $15 Billion. In 2002, AXA bought ipac for AUD $220 million (almost $180 million).1 Today, its ground-breaking revenue model is common in developed markets. In early 2008, running as an independent business within AXA, ipac had 70,000–80,000 clients across Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, South Africa, and the UK. Twenty-five years after partnering, the four founders were still together. “There’s every reason why we should have failed. There are a few reasons we succeeded. Most importantly, we had a far better idea than the status quo. That enabled us to experiment and develop. There’s also no substitute for high-caliber people, common values, and a desire to serve. If you’re passionate about your client’s welfare, you’ll see things others don’t.”

Never-Ending Curiosity After decades of financial advice and wealth management for individuals and institutions, as well as strategy advice to some of the world’s largest firms, Arun still had questions. He was still thinking. He embarked on a one-year research study which became five intensive years integrating behavioral economics, behavioral finance, behavioral psychology, evolutionary biology, and positive psychology. The result was a coauthored, international best-selling book (see Figure 15.6). How Much is Enough? (Greenleaf, 2009) introduces readers to the fact that successful investors (who do not measure their success based on what others are doing) are first happy people with a sense of inner well-being, unwavering sense of self, and vocation (enduring source(s) of lasting satisfaction). The skills, mental resources, and authenticity necessary for happiness are the same resources necessary for successful investing. “They do not chase money at all costs and hope to achieve happiness later. Happy people create wealth, not (necessarily) the reverse.”

The connection between happiness and investment success is not new, but no one else had institutionalized a happiness-based financial planning approach

1 September 8, 2017 spot exchange rate was used to convert to USD.

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Figure 15.6: His research shows wealth follows well-being, not the other way around.

for the investing public, and no one else had presented such a deeply researched, integrated, and broad-based foundation for it.

Coaching Others to Look Inside Arun’s new firm, where he is executive chairman, Walsh Bay Partners (WBP ) provides wealth and well-being advisory services to families and endowments based on this research and experience. The firm emphasizes creating deep relationships through family strategy planning, as well as providing access to institutional-quality investment opportunities. Their most important measure of success is balanced and long-term: family well-being and wealth. They coach their clients to see inside themselves, decide on their future outward reality, and take actions from there. The key is asking the right questions and helping people discover and decide the way forward for themselves. In 2013, Arun was elected to Australian National University’s College of Business and Economics Hall of Fame for “exemplary professional achievement and distinguished contribution to community.” He still helps people grow their well-being and wealth and continues to research and write, especially on leading-edge topics (such as the practical application of brain science).

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Uniquely Arun Friends describe Arun as deep-thinking, highly values-driven, empathetic, global, creative, extremely alert and aware, complex, genuine, sincere, rigorous, intellectual, and unconstrained by either conventional thinking or narrow motivation (see Figure 15.7).

Figure 15.7: Look beyond the box. “Everyone talks about people thinking outside the box, but that’s not really the right description of Arun. He doesn’t even see the box. He traverses the whole spectrum of soft- to hard(technical) skills, and he crosses boundaries by not seeing limitations at all.” — Mark Dutton, Chief Investment Officer at Walsh Bay Partners

He doesn’t make decisions quickly, doesn’t blindly follow, and doesn’t accept facts at face value. Open to thoughts, ideas, and emotions, he checks them against his values and the fundamentals of who he is. He likes the subtlety and “shades of grey” found in such areas as finance, which requires making continual judgments under constant uncertainty. A great communicator and “ideas and strategies man,” he quickly grasps the key elements of any discussion. He values breadth of learning and quality of thinking. “Meetings with Arun are different. When I first met him, it was not what I’d call a normal interview. Arun started drawing on the white board, and I started drawing on the white board, and three or four hours later, we were still drawing and swapping ideas and insights. He’s a sensational listener and deeply empathizes. He understands what’s behind what people say.” — Mark Dutton, Chief Investment Officer at Walsh Bay Partners

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He collects contacts — people — meaningfully, not mercenarily. He reads broadly, observes keenly, and has a few people around the world on whom he calls for advice. Likewise, he shares what he’s thinking. “We don’t get paid for educating, but Arun is a born teacher. One of his great strengths is that he’s very gracious with people. He loves to teach — no, teach is the wrong word — he loves to share his passion. He’ll willingly spend hours with the front desk receptionist or anyone else who’s interested in our ideas and what we do. He shares ideas and vision with everyone.” (See Figure 15.8.) — Peeyush Gupta, Co-Founder of ipac

Figure 15.8: Share ideas and vision—you’ll develop both ideas and people.

These days, in addition to thinking, writing, and WBP, Arun enjoys his cattle farm. The physical demands remove him from intense intellectualism and engage him mindfully and fully in the present. Having worked hard all his life, he abhors waste and pursues philanthropy through the long-term change programs at the Smith Family social enterprise, a philanthropic organization that engages people in building a better future, not just receiving charity. He supports research into juvenile diabetes and cancer. His kids play three to four instruments each, play cricket, explore their interests, and enjoy “creativity week” — part of a liberal education that teaches them to think in unconventional ways.

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It Comes from Inside Arun’s life has been both outwardly and inwardly rich, filled with serious contemplation about what’s important, why, and what it means to both himself and others. While open to ideas and changes around him, what distinguishes Arun is inside. Whatever he hears and learns is compared with his inner values and deeper understanding. He’s able to connect different trends and disciplines because he understands them at depth, considers inwardly, and integrates them. He was first driven by an inner desire (his financial well-being) and then by a shared inner desire (everyone’s financial well-being). Business success (ipac) was driven by a core idea and new business model, and the partners sustained their relationships and effort based on their inner values — as well as ignoring what was outside (higher salaries and more customers elsewhere). Most major creative breakthroughs come after about a decade of work, (hence the “10-year rule” or “10,000-hour rule” of creativity). Examples abound in the arts (e.g., Mozart and Picasso), as well as science and technology (e.g., Einstein’s special relativity, Fleming’s penicillin, and Berners-Lee’s World Wide Web). ipac seems to be an example for business. Only by holding fast to something inside can you ignore what’s outside and keep building something new (see Figure 15.9).

Figure 15.9: It may take a decade, but hold fast to something inside yourself—idea, vision, values—if you want to build outside the box.

What would you be willing to do for 10 years, driven by inner desire? What are your inner desires and values?

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Do they connect with someone or something outside yourself? The callus on Arun’s thumb is still there. Do you have one, too? Arun Abey is Chairman of Walsh Bay Partners and ipac securities limited (also co-founder). He is “from” Australia, India, New Zealand, and Sri Lanka. For more information on his work, see: www.linkedin.com/in/arunabey/, www.wbpartners. com.au/, and his co-authored book, How Much is Enough www.amazon.com/ How-Much-Enough-Financial-Well-being-ebook/dp/B0097KHUTS/.

Chapter 16 The Science of Happiness . . . at Scale Harvard’s Most Popular Course and Tech-Enabled Positive Psychology Dr. Tal ben Shahar—Serial and Social Entrepreneur, Psych-Tech Venture Founder, Educator “What is most personal is most universal.”

— Carl Rogers

“Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life.”

— Omar Khayyam

“Don’t take life too seriously. You’ll never get out of it alive.”

— Elbert Hubbard

Once Dr. Tal ben Shahar journeyed beyond his first love of professional squash, he discovered his quest for happiness could help him lead others to happiness. Then and now, he fuses: – Research and practice – Technology and human well-being – Personal happiness and public programs Video https://youtu.be/Cujd5-TTLkM https://doi.org/10.1515/9781547401505-016

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Harvard University’s Registrar had a problem — but a good one, perhaps. Nearly 900 students had enrolled in a single course. What field of study would garner such mass appeal? Something that elevated the intellect, like philosophy; or focused on the body, like medicine? No, the course was one that dealt with a more unlikely topic — the human heart. “Positive Psychology 1504” uncovered for its students the scientific study of optimal human functioning — the psychological aspects of fulfillment and flourishing, including love, friendship, empathy, spirituality, creativity, humor, achievement, and happiness (see Figure 16.1).

Figure 16.1: Harvard’s most popular course was positive psychology.

When added to his “Psychology of Leadership” course, Dr. Tal ben Shahar in the Spring of 2006 was teaching over 1,400 students.

Positive Psychology — The Science of Happiness The term “positive psychology” originated in a 1954 book by Abraham Maslow, Motivation and Personality (Harper). A select group of psychologists around that time were increasingly studying mental health. However, the field of psychology as a whole remained largely consumed with treating illness. During those decades focusing on ill-being instead of well-being, was there a reduction

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in mental illness and acute psychological suffering? Since well-being has not traditionally been tracked at scale, an answer may emerge from the other extreme — suicide. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), in the last 45 years, the suicide rate has increased worldwide by 60%. Nearly 800,000 people committed suicide in 2017 — one every 40 seconds. For every death, there are indications that another 20 attempt it. It is the third-leading cause of death among those age 15–44 and the second-leading cause of death for those age 15–29. A 2005 study showed that 8–20% of adolescents under the age of 18 had mental disorders.1 In the US, nearly 10% of children had a depressive episode before age 14. Up to 20% of those age 16–17 had an anxiety disorder, mood disorder, or substance abuse. In one study, 25% of American students reported being “unhappy,” “terrible,” or having highly negative experiences in school or family. No wonder happiness — or lack thereof — is a topic of interest, especially among the young. Recognizing that prevention is often the best medicine and that lack of illness does not necessarily promote wellness, Martin Seligman, President of the American Psychological Association, issued a rallying-cry in 1998 to re-orient the field away from its nearly exclusive focus on illness, toward wellness. Psychologists teamed up with biologists, chemists, neurologists, and others, and scientifically valid psychology studies on wellness-promotion proliferated. New measures were created to track individual happiness and the effectiveness of interventions. Doctors began recommending treatments for wellness in addition to illness, and positive psychology flourished.

Insights and Impact for Schoolchildren, Teachers, Businesspeople . . . Well, Everyone! Tal didn’t stop with university students. At InterDisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya, he established a program for schoolchildren and teachers called Maytiv (Hebrew for “Doing Good”). The program trains teachers in positive psychology

1 The “2005 study” was cited in Shoshani, A., and Steinmetz, S. (2013). Positive Psychology at School: A School-Based Intervention to Promote Adolescents’ Mental Health and Well-Being. Journal of Happiness Studies, 15(6), 1289–1311. Also ref: Shoshani, A., Steinmetz, S., and Kanat-Maymon, Y. (2016). Effects of the Maytiv positive psychology school program on early adolescents well-being, engagement, and achievement. Journal of School Psychology, 57, 73–92.

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and gives them teaching materials and tools to help them be positive change agents in their classrooms and communities, promoting happiness, fulfillment, meaning, and self-realization (see Figure 16.2).

Figure 16.2: Tal teaches teachers how to foster positive emotions and skills in their students. Source: Maytiv Center for Research and Practice in Positive Psychology — Positive Psychology School Intervention Program brochure. Dr. Tal ben Shahar in foreground.

The program has impacted over 50,000 children and teens and over 5,000 teachers across Israel, the US, Mexico, Costa Rica, and China. In studies involving thousands of students, the program was shown to reduce depression, anxiety, distress, and violent incidents, while improving positive emotions, peer relations, emotional and cognitive engagement in school, grades, and self-esteem (see Figure 16.3). Not only is well-being a concern for students and teachers, it’s also a key issue for business leaders. So, Tal co-founded Potentialife to bring positivepsychology leadership development to companies. With a blended approach— in-person plus the use of various technologies—programs to develop positive organizational leaders can be mass-personalized, target behavioral change

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Figure 16.3: Maytiv’s positive psychology school intervention program has had a positive, measured impact on thousands of students. Source: Maytiv Center for Research and Practice in Positive Psychology: Positive Psychology School Intervention Program (overview).

(instead of learning-only), drive behaviors that actually drive performance, and roll out at-scale to tens of thousands of employees. Beyond schools and businesses, to reach individuals en masse, Tal wrote a series of international best-selling books (now translated into over 25 languages) and influences even more through happier.tv.

Exploring, Focusing, and Being Different What kind of person would immerse himself in this blend of psychology, technology, and the physical sciences, in order to bring research findings to laymen? Tal was born in Israel and at the age of 9 moved with his family to South Africa. His was an intellectual household, with extremely open-minded,

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Orthodox Jewish parents. In a broader environment that wasn’t notably openminded, his parents showed him that it’s okay to be different. His mother regularly interacted with a wide variety of people and welcomed everyone into the house — young, old, educated, non-educated, military, trade. Tal’s teacher always said, “If you want to see what hospitality is, go to Tal’s house.” Tal’s top priority had always been to become a professional athlete, which was odd, growing up in a scholarly, religious household that emphasized study and learning, not sports. Tal tried basketball, running, tennis, table tennis, long jump, and long-distance running. One day, when Tal was 11, he went with a friend and his father to the squash court, and it was love at first sight (or first strike). This was his sport. He gave up everything else he was doing in life and wanted just this one thing (see Figure 16.4). He wanted to become the world champion and didn’t read anything beyond squash (e.g. novels, comic books, etc.). Squash was the focal point, and he’d read material from any discipline if he could apply it to squash.

Figure 16.4: Tal devoted his entire life to professional squash, but when we could no longer pursue that dream, he had to find something else to do with his life.

Tal’s parents were notably liberal and always supportive of the things he did— despite the fact that neither could hold a racket properly, let alone hit a ball. Whatever his interest, they treated it seriously.

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Extra cash was a rarity, but they managed to pay for six private lessons. Unfortunately, tournaments were not held in their small town. They were held in Johannesburg on Saturdays. As Orthodox Jews, they couldn’t drive on the Sabbath, so there was also the extra expense of going to tournaments all weekend and renting a hotel room. They didn’t pressure their children (three of them) to achieve particular goals, but they sacrificed (without complaint) to enable them — to invest in them. Their aim was to expose them to whatever was of interest that the world had to offer. They did, however, demand perseverance, respect, and manners. Discipline was strict, and actions had consequences. Tal wanted to turn pro as soon as possible, but his parents said, “No — not until you complete school. That’s the only thing we’ll require of you.” So he studied hard and graduated from high school at 16 in Israel (having returned two years before). He turned professional, left home, and moved to England — the mecca of World Squash. At age 16, Tal became the youngest-ever Israeli national champion, and one of the best junior squash players in the world. At the time, he occasionally thought, “What am I going to do when I’m 30? When I have to give up professional sports, what would I do with my life? What else is there?” For a successful player, there’s always coaching, so he assumed that would be his beyond-30 future. Two years later, he joined the Israeli military (a national requirement). Two years beyond that, he discovered he had a permanent back injury. No more squash. No career as a retired-sportsman-coach. No money for anything else. Now what?

Life After Squash Tal could still play college-level squash and realized some universities gave sports scholarships (see Figure 16.5). When he investigated, he found squash was included among the Ivy League scholarship sports. Unable to play professionally, but able to play at the college level, he applied, thinking maybe he’d become a chiropractor or something. He entered Harvard. “In school, I wasn’t very happy. My first year was studying computer science, and I did OK. One thing I really liked about Harvard was they encouraged us to try things, so I explored. I tried economics and thought that might be it. I tried history and a few other things. But I realized that what I really wanted was to be happy. So I studied psychology and philosophy and fell in love with them. At last, I found a second love after squash.”

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Figure 16.5: Tal received a sports scholarship to Harvard, explored a variety of fields (encouraged by the school), and found his passion.

He became increasingly intrigued with the science of happiness, especially as applied to organizations. After graduating and finding work with an Israeli company in Singapore, he realized he had no interest in business. However, the people who worked in organizations were fascinating. Seeing a lack of enthusiasm for the business but a great passion for people, Tal’s boss asked, “What do you want to do?” Tal said, “I want to be an organizational behaviorist.” The boss replied, “Fine, do that,” and set a 24-year-old with no experience free to do whatever it is a behaviorist does, in a multimillion-dollar company with thousands of employees.

Pizza and Politics: Noticing, Connecting, and Seeing Systems What Tal did — and does to this day — is notice patterns and see systems (see Figure 16.6).

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Figure 16.6: See systems and notice patterns – even between pizza and politics. “I’m a noticer when it comes to people, environment, and ideas. If someone’s a little bit off, I notice it. If someone is interested in something, I can hear it. I see systems and make connections. My philosophy teacher once said, ‘You’ll understand philosophy when you can see a connection between pizza and politics.’”

Indeed, seeing connections (including the non-obvious, like pizza and politics) may be the foundation for seeing systems as Tal does. After all, what is a system but a collection of connections? As a consultant, he continued to notice things, make connections, and see systems. At one client, he uncovered systemic dishonesty that tainted everything the employees did. He saw an environment in which it was not safe to admit failure (especially in face-saving Asia), traced it through the C-suite to the board, and helped them overcome the basic fear and dishonesty that had rippled through the organization with predictable results. Another company

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was filled with people who neither took nor were given responsibility, and he also helped them change.

You Explore to See, not See to Explore Every time Tal enters an organization or lectures on a new topic, he faces the unknown but realizes that with openness and trust, he will begin to notice things related to what he’s seeking (see Figure 16.7). Then, he’ll make the connections he needs.

Figure 16.7: Trust your mind—explore, then you’ll see patterns and connections—not the other way around.

“I trust that my mind will be able to make the connections to put together a coherent finding — and an interesting one. Where does this trust come from — this self-efficacy? From doing things well and trying the next.”

Except for the company in Singapore, Tal has “never been a full-time anything.” He works on many different things at once. An effective approach to his creative work today, it almost got him into trouble at school.

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“When I was doing my PhD, I flunked my qualifying exam and was almost thrown out — and deservedly so. I earned that. I was doing 20 other things at the same time, just like today. Now, with the freedom to pursue what I want, I run a few companies, I lecture, I write, and I spent a lot of time with my family.”

Tal doesn’t do research. He connects people to academia. He gathers the 1% inspiration researchers produce and then develops and launches programs to bring the new insights to the world—the 99% perspiration. He launches a lot of programs. Some succeed, some don’t. He partners with people who can put systems around the programs (he sees systems but doesn’t build them) — people who can sell, run, manage, and grow an enterprise. That way, Tal is able to move on to the next vision, make new connections, and do many things at once. “When he gets to the boring details, he loses his interest. Very, very fast he moves on to the next thing, and getting the right partner (before he rushes off) is everything. With the right partner, it succeeds. With the wrong one, it fails.” — Arik Praisman, Maytiv CEO “He brings the content, the knowledge, the product, and then I bring all those things which he would never want to do, like marketing, logistics, planning, negotiating, etc.” — CJ Lonoff, Speaking Agent

Working Hard or Hardly Working? Friends describe Tal as humble, self-effacing, adaptable, flexible, authentic (“walking the talk”), loyal, generous, grateful, and focused (on work, family, or whatever he’s doing at the moment). A boundary crosser, voracious reader, and introvert, he’s more comfortable listening than lecturing. He keeps a gratitude journal, exercises, writes, sleeps well, meditates, and does yoga. Inspiration comes from books, meeting people, and travel (see Figure 16.8). “He’s just a very, very, very hard worker. He pursues what interests him and then invests the time to make it happen.” — Arik Praisman, Maytiv CEO “I’m always working and never working. Once a friend of mine asked me, ‘How many hours a day do you work?’ and I said, ‘I don’t know.’ When I go to the movies or work or write or enjoy the kids, very often things happen, and I use the stories in my programs or books. It’s just life. Things happen and you use them.”

Hard-working or not, he’s constantly growing and learning, professionally and personally, whether investigating a new thread of psychology research or be-

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Figure 16.8: No one’s really sure if Tal is hard-working or hardly working.

coming a certified yoga teacher. He has the drive to be excellent but does not compete. He just enjoys excellence. At the same time, he also gives himself permission to be human — to experience failure and learn from it. And he extends that grace to others. Highly forgiving, arguments are rare or non-existent. “This man is one of the most exceptional human beings I’ve ever met.” – CJ Lonoff, Speaking Agent

Creating from Within Tal is happy again, bringing the building blocks of happiness to others (see Figure 16.9). He’ll never again need to give up his passion, as long as he has a mind to create, hands to write, and a mouth to speak. When asked for advice for others who would like to create, he says,

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Figure 16.9: Whatever you create, make sure you grow your capacity to create.

“Just follow your passion — do what you love. Along with that will come many things, in a personal odyssey. While you’re on that hero’s journey, you will have to be open to experiences and willing to fail.”

His own journey has been marked with openness to experience, making connections, sensing opportunities, and integrating a variety of insights and people in a host of new programs and enterprises. To put academic research to use in practice in his cross-disciplinary field, he integrates technology and human development, the fundamentally personal in public programs, delivered at scale for mass-impact. “Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.” – Albert Schweitzer

So, for Tal, more important than success or failure — the outward outcomes of particular projects — is his ever-growing internal capacity to create. This internal capacity is rooted in happiness and helping others build it, too (see Figure 16.10).

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Figure 16.10: Connections are made in hindsight, but exploring is always done forward.

What do you love doing? What makes you happy? What personal odyssey will you launch, and where might it lead? Dr. Tal ben Shahar is Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer at Potentialife, a leadership-development program that leverages technology and behavioral science to enable client organizations to grow high-performing leaders at scale. He is also the founder of Maytiv (“Doing Good” in Hebrew) at InterDisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya. This best-selling author, teacher, and organizational founder is “from” Israel, Singapore, South Africa, UK, and the USA. For more information on his work, see: www.linkedin.com/in/tal-ben-shahar-09943aa7/, potentialife.com/, maytiv.idc.ac.il/en/, and www.happier.tv/. His international best-selling books are available on Amazon, including his latest (co-authored with Angus Ridgway), The Joy of Leadership.

Part 4: Stories of Collecting

Chapter 17 Quantum-Chemical Social Networks One of the 100 Most Innovative Firms in the World (CIO Magazine ranking) Dr. Karen Stephenson—Entrepreneur, Corporate Consultant, ScientistTechnologist, Artist corporate ˈkɔːp(ə)rət/ adjective 1. relating to a large company or group ◦ s collective, shared, common, communal, joint, combined, united, allied, amalgamated, pooled, merged, concerted, collaborative, cooperative; — Google

An artist and quantum chemist with a keen eye for pattern recognition, Dr. Karen Stephenson created fusions of: – Quantum physics, chemistry, and anthropology – Ethnology, mathematics, software development, and management consulting Video https://youtu.be/D1gKGcNySCE

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Why aren’t corporations more corporate? It’s one of today’s top business problems. People work in silos and reap their personal and divisional profits at the expense of their peers and of the “whole” organization. Why hasn’t this tired old behavior been corrected, now that there are advanced tools available for mapping and measuring cross-silo connections? Today it is possible to identify key players who build a network, and reward them for their “net-work,” based on objective data. The tools and underlying research were developed by Dr. Karen Stephenson and popularized by Malcolm Gladwell in The New Yorker and The Tipping Point (Little, Brown, 2006). The consulting firm Karen founded — Netform — was ranked by CIO Magazine as one of the 100 Most Innovative Firms in the World. But it didn’t begin with the challenge of corporatizing corporations. It began with a love of art and quantum chemistry.

Art and Quantum Chemistry “Art and drawing have always been a part of my life, so I didn’t think to actually major in it when I went to college. Instead, my studies in chemistry in high school were so interesting that I chose to major in it. While in college, I became equally interested in physics, so I combined them in what was known as quantum chemistry.”

While in school, Karen was still drawing portraits for family and friends and went to the art department for feedback. The professor she consulted persuaded her to also go for an art degree. So she pursued two degrees, in both art and science. A friend asked her, “What’re you going to do with these degrees?” She replied, “I don’t know. It’s a liberal arts college — can’t I study what I want?” (See Figure 17.1.) She wasn’t concerned with how they fit together. In her mind, the abstract thinking underlying both art and science was the same, and understanding the logical patterns in both led her to see what others couldn’t. “As part of the requirements for completing a major in art history, an annual exam is given at the end of the school year. In that exam, you are shown 100 slides, each slide representing a single painting. The goal was to identify the artist from only a portion of the painting or a close-up of the brush strokes or painting technique. I aced them all. The professor gave me a commendation, commenting, ‘No one has ever done this.’ I responded, ‘Well, OK, I guess I got lucky.’ But after three consecutive years of scoring 100%, it wasn’t luck. It was pattern recognition.”

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Figure 17.1: Karen studied art and quantum chemistry because she loved it, not for a particular job.

Epiphany Karen pursued a graduate degree in quantum chemistry while working in the NIOSH laboratory at the University of Utah (National Institutes for Occupational Safety and Health) (see Figure 17.2). “My office was on the mezzanine floor . . . looking through the glass partition down on the floor below . . . to where 200 chemists, physicists, and technicians were working, and that was when I had an epiphany! I saw these interacting patterns among the people that had little to do with their work. They were connected in these really interesting patterns I had seen before . . . in Feynman diagrams, which are graphical representations showing subatomic behavior or protein-molecules changing their orientation. . . . So I thought, ‘Wouldn’t that be interesting if there was an underlying science to the way things are organized — including human beings? Why would human beings be exempt from any scientific laws? They wouldn’t!’ ”

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Figure 17.2: Looking down from a mezzanine one day with her mind attuned to artistic brush-strokes, she saw a quantum-chemical pattern in how people were moving. “I couldn’t get this idea out of my mind. It kept bothering me, and bothering me, and bothering me. Kept me up at night because I wanted to know why? Why? Why were people connected in these patterns? I just know there’s an underlying logic to it. . . . Perhaps if I could find these same patterns in the archaeological record, for example, trade networks. Maybe then, I might be able to say the two are connected.”

So she took classes in archaeology, and her chemistry department head, Henry Eyring, supported her inquiry. She studied ancient tribal networks with anthropologist Per Hage and the brilliant, “crazy mathematician” Frank Harary (father of graph theory). She subsequently earned her Masters in Anthropology with a specialty in Mathematical Modeling where patterns common to human interaction and other inorganic contexts were identified. With her new master’s degree, Karen could have pursued a PhD, but instead she went to Boston with her new husband, who had just accepted a position at Harvard. She took a course at the Harvard Extension School and wrote a paper on the ancient trade networks that ran between the Tigris and Euphrates, applying her new algorithm. That prompted her professor to call her in for a consultation. When they met, she shared her background and asked who he was. “I’m Carl Lamberg-Karlovsky, Director of the Harvard Peabody Museum. I’d like you to join our department.” The rest, as they say, is history (or archaeology, in this case).

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Pursuing the Puzzle Karen joined the Anthropology department and earned her PhD, investigating her anthro-chemical puzzle, working with Dr. Marvin Zelen, a world-renowned statistician. “I talked to him for over a year, repeatedly explaining these patterns. Finally, after a year, the penny dropped, and he said, ‘Oh, my God! I finally understand what you’ve been trying to tell me! We can do this.’ So we jointly published an article that ended up being a seminal article in the field. A year later, I was hired by UCLA’s business school as a professor in management.”

During her decade-long tenure at UCLA, she started her own consultancy to collect data from both research participants and consulting clients. She refined her methodology for collecting survey data and then created the software to process and analyze the data, making it accessible through the internet as a piece of software for service. Dr. Stephenson won international recognition as one of the world’s foremost corporate anthropologists. Nonetheless, the university was slow to respond to her new initiatives despite a growing list of articles in Forbes, The Economist, Wired, Business 2.0, and a number of other print and online media. The growing recognition brought her more clients looking for answers and along with it, the enmity of the faculty. Then she took a call from the dean of Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. He said, “We teach designers and architects how to design the built environment, but we don’t teach them anything about the actual structure of a culture or how we could design a building for a culture. Could you come here and help us try to marry these two fields of expertise together?” So, she went back to Harvard, and after five years, she had finished all the course development and teaching. She left to pursue research and consulting on her own.

The Journey of a Lifetime “I’ve been on this 35-year journey, but I feel that I’ve only just scratched the surface.”

Dr. Stephenson has travelled on that journey 345 days a year for almost 30 years — more than most pilots — and has honed her skills deploying technology, infrastructure, and simple, creative efficiency, freeing her to do what she does best (see Figure 17.3). She doesn’t use secretaries — they slow her down. Her home is sparse, like her suitcase. But her education and experiences form quite a collection.

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Figure 17.3: Karen flies, in more ways than one.

The journey may never end. As colleagues Jeanne and Barry Frew noted, “One of the reasons why we really enjoy working with her is that her work has never stopped growing.” Clients, colleagues, and friends describe her as eclectic, high-energy, brilliant, curious, quick, collaborative, connective, down-to-earth, integrative, empathetic, open, interesting, practical, fun, optimistic, smart, strategic, visionary, focused, risk-seeking, funny, confident, and a good noticer and listener. Jeanne and Barry Frew observed, “She doesn’t understand what a boundary is . . . That’s one thing that distinguishes her.” Another is communication and connectedness. According to former client Maria Leo from Merrill Lynch, “She’s truly amazing when she talks about her work. She is a gifted speaker making the concepts come alive. She makes the abstract real and relevant. She has the ability to connect with the audience and, in turn, they feel empowered to use that knowledge in their organization.” She enters into client relationships as an expert collaborator, open to new ideas, listening and observing, with respect for the client’s expertise. That goes a long way toward developing trust, not just as an object of study, but also as an essential element in conducting her studies. As Jeanne

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and Barry Frew observed, “Even when she has a strongly held belief, she’s willing to hesitate and listen to understand.” Listening to understand is vastly different from listening to respond.

Seeing Differently Connectedness, listening, and her mind’s unique collection help Karen see things differently (see Figure 17.4). According to Jeanne and Barry Frew, “The people who sat in the silos weren’t able to see outside the siloes, the way she was able to see across them. One CEO said to her, ‘I don’t see hierarchy,’ to which she responded, ‘Of course you can’t see it, you’re sitting on top of it.’” She has a way of communicating that gets people to drop their guard, or as a Navy Rear Admiral said, “You have such a nice way of delivering bad news.” She could get people to see across a cultural divide to the connectors waiting on the other side, wanting to engage in relationship building. One of her colleagues recounted: “I think everybody sensed it, but she saw and said it differently from everybody else.” Looking back at her intriguing and integrative 35-year journey, Karen notes, “I wasn’t looking to create something, I was trying to solve the riddle of culture. The rest just happened. I didn’t know I was creating a new field at the time. I was relentlessly following the

Figure 17.4: Karen sees uniquely, across organizational silos, across fields, and with a unique mental workshop.

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idea of how trust binds us together like an energy field binds the nucleus of an atom or a string of atoms in a molecule. I remember Bob Eccles (a business professor) said to me one day, ‘You need to focus.’ I looked at him and said, ‘FOCUS?? I don’t understand what you’re saying. I’m the most focused person I know. I’ve been focused like a laser beam on this idea, trying to solve this one problem, and it has taken me from field to field to field to solve it.’”

She fondly remembers (with a sly smile) a finance professor at UCLA commenting on her work, “This research in social networks won’t amount to much.” That was the 90s, and the early days in the field she was creating. Now, years later, clients hire her to enhance their connectivity (inward and outward) for effectiveness and innovation. When she started, business leaders couldn’t see human networks. Now they can, and those who see the networks and use them well create significant advantages (see Figure 17.5). “When you’re trying to solve a riddle, many times people on the outside — or even those in your own field — can’t see what you’re trying to do. They see you as unruly and unserious because you’re coloring outside the lines. But those lines are man-made, and they can be un-made and re-made again. If you’re chasing an idea, you have to test its worthiness by pummeling it to death. If it rises up like a phoenix and keeps on surprising you, well then, you’ve got yourself a really fine idea. People will try and stop you because what you are

Figure 17.5: Karen was told it wouldn’t amount to anything, but 35 years later, social network analysis is helping large companies create significant advantage with cybersecurity, customer management, HR, innovation, and more.

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doing is unconventional. But you just keep on going. They are blocking you because they think they know better, but they don’t really understand. You on the other hand, know you don’t understand and are therefore more open to new ideas. Remember: innovation is the nemesis of legacy and convention.”

Collecting, Seeing, Exploring, But Never Straying Depth of understanding was key for Karen. She could see how things were connected because she looked with depth and breadth at the underlying patterns in paintings, quantum chemistry, mathematics, and anthropology. To see at depth requires curiosity and genuine interest, and the result, in Karen’s case, was an eclectic education, a unique collection of skills and experiences, and a ground-breaking journey led by an epiphany on the mezzanine floor of a chemistry laboratory (see Figure 17.6). “None of my education has ever been wasted. I use every bit of it . . . And that epiphany about a science informing organizational patterns is what I have followed. I’ve not strayed from it . . . ever.”

It appears that, for Karen, epiphany is a verb, not a noun.

Figure 17.6: What do you see that no one else is seeing?

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Have you begun your epiphany? Dr. Karen Stephenson is the Founder and CEO of Netform Resources and one of the world’s top Corporate Anthropologists. She’s “from” the Netherlands, Spain, UK, and USA and is featured in a touching and inspiring TIS Talk (MSD) (https://youtu. be/1hlH1L6Nuf8). For more information on her work, see: netformresources.com.

Chapter 18 Matt Mitcham and the Mathematician The Best Score in Olympic History Dr. Kenneth Graham—Entrepreneur, Sports-Scientist

Video on The Olympic Channel featuring Matt Mitcham’s record-breaking dive: https://youtu.be/RoBvnzfU3yg

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781547401505-018

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With a love of sports, science, and integration, Dr. Kenneth Graham fuses: – A variety of sports and scientific disciplines – High-end coaching and mass-market product development Video from The Olympic Channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sb82tVOq2dY&feature=player_embedded Video of Dr. Graham: https://youtu.be/RoBvnzfU3yg

The year: 2008. The city: Beijing. The event: 10-Meter Platform Diving The athlete: Matt Mitcham There’s the pre-dive commentary, the collective breath-holding, Matt walks to the edge, turns, breathes out, visualizes. Matt jumps, twists, flips, double-turns, folds, hugs his knees, flips, unfolds. Bang! He hits the water. Three seconds of Olympic spotlight is over. The crowd goes wild. He emerges from the water and raises his arms. The judges say: 112.1 — The highest score in Olympic History!! It was a brilliant performance — the fusion of great athletics and great . . . mathematics?

The Mathematics of Diving Dr. Kenneth Graham, Principal Scientist at the New South Wales Institute of Sport (NSWIS) had been working with Matt Mitcham and his coach Chava Sobrino, helping them “go for the gold.” While doing so, he created a mathematical model for the dive scores that should result from various dives (see Figure 18.1). The model generally predicted Matt’s scores accurately, but sometimes it didn’t. Kenneth and the coach wondered why. They dug into the data and found two key patterns: 1. Judges scored higher than predicted for harder dives, and 2. Matt scored higher than predicted toward the end of a routine (a series of dives). Matt’s performance was unusual. Divers normally do the hard dives first, since they perform better when they’re fresh. Matt performed better at the end. They

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Figure 18.1: Mathematical modeling and “playing” with numbers are useful ways of uncovering insights.

thought, “What if Matt does his hardest dive at the end of the routine? Would he earn ‘extra’ judging points and ‘extra’ performance points?” He did — and set a new Olympic record.

Bodies in Space: Molecular and Human This wasn’t the only time Kenneth connected mathematical modeling and sports. That’s a big part of what he does every day (see Figure 18.2). For example, a university dean called him one day to report that one of the school’s researchers was investigating the principles of vibrating molecules. The researcher said they should be the same as the principles of aerial athletes (gymnasts, divers, skiers, etc.)—packing and unpacking their bodies, causing not only shape but also positional changes. Kenneth was intrigued. “So, I introduced this German mathematician from the UK and a Mexican diving coach. One didn’t understand the techniques of diving, and the other didn’t understand the math. They spent two hours talking and worked out a common language. They could each see how a

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Figure 18.2: Studying molecular bodies in space helps Kenneth guide athletic bodies in space.

body changes its shape in space, be it molecular or athletic. Out of this came the Bodies in Space project, for which we got funding, and now we have PhD candidates in Mathematics, Robotics Engineering, Social Engineering, Sports Science, and Biomechanics modeling, and better understanding how divers change and un-change, as well as helping coaches find the best ways to help them do so.”

Many sports scientists focus on a single discipline. Biomechanics, for example, don’t usually understand physiology. However, Kenneth has a broad understanding across fields and has even applied his learning to fields outside sports

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or science—such as worker safety, based on safety precautions for Olympic athletes.

Collecting Across Country, Culture, and Sports Kenneth also crosses over other areas. To scale up for the Sydney Olympics in 2000, coaches and athletes arrived from all over the world to compete in a variety of sports — Kenyan distance runners, British sprinters, Norwegian kayakers, German rowers — and more. During the two or three weeks they were together, Kenneth joined them for lunches, talked, listened, and got to know them. He found very rapidly that — independent of country or sport — they showed a high degree of consistency in their training approaches. For example, a seminar on the use of altitude training included a Moroccan athletics coach, a German rowing coach, and an Australian swimming coach — three sports with three completely different coaches in terms of background, learning, and so on. Kenneth asked the coaches what their plans were for the training year, and all three showed him identical models. They were all staying at the same training venue, but because the swimmers were at the pool, the athletic team ran on the track or roads, and the rowers were at the lake, they never actually spoke to each other. Kenneth found it useful to glean insights that crossed countries and sports, putting them to use where they hadn’t been tried. “You have to take all the different approaches and find the pattern underneath. My aim is never to get too close to a sport. If you get too caught up in the culture of one particular sport, you think within those constraints.”

Kenneth listens to the world’s top coaches, looks for consistency, and eliminates sport-cultural practices, that is, methods in use not because they’re effective, but because “they’ve always been done this way” (see Figure 18.3). He also seeks objective material to analyze, both quantitative (for modeling) and qualitative (e.g., videos). After a water polo tournament in Hungary, for instance, the coach scolded the players for what he thought they’d done wrong. However, when Kenneth (who has no experience in water polo) reviewed the video afterward, he realized the problem was actually something else. The coach began objective (video) monitoring after the games and started seeking Kenneth’s input. “I never thought I was helping in any way, but after we were talking one day, he said to me, ‘come here,’ and called the players over, saying, ‘team, come here — Kenneth has something to tell you.’ I said, ‘What do you mean I’ve got something to tell them? I don’t know anything

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Figure 18.3: Kenneth gathers insights listening cross-sport, cross-coach.

about water polo.’ He said, ‘You need to tell them what you saw, because I didn’t see it. You have an expert evaluator’s eye.’”

Kenneth looks beyond a particular sport’s competitors, as well, because the players and their coach are already well aware of them. However, they may not be aware of similar maneuvers done by athletes in other sports.

Collecting Perspectives: The Coach, the Stands, and the Athlete When Kenneth studies athletic methods and performance, he never sits beside the coach, since he’ll only see the same things the coach sees. He sits in the stands for a different perspective and the “big picture” (see Figure 18.4). He also develops new training equipment with his staff, for example, a tumbling machine for divers and gymnasts. Since the coach can remain right next to an athlete and take additional perspectives from above, below, another side, and so on, during key moments, the coach gains new insights not seen from the usual perspective and distance.

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Figure 18.4: For a new perspective, Kenneth leaves the coach beside the athlete and takes a view from the stands.

Further, an athlete can practice a tumble again and again without interrupting practice to get back up on the diving board or back onto the bars. Coach and athlete can train, experiment, and learn in quick succession, and the coach can see patterns by seeing a rapid progression of performances. In a short time, they can collect many data points.

Collecting Over Time: Train for Tomorrow’s Record, Not Today’s Another difficulty in training is knowing the goal. Since sports records and performance standards continually advance, athletes need to train for world-class performance at the completion of their training, not at the start. In field hockey, for example, Kenneth asked five different coaches what the sport looked like 10, 6, and 2 years ago. From this, he modeled what the sport might look like in two years’ time, noting the trends and consistency of patterns. Collectively, the coaches and Kenneth predicted an evolution in style of play, based on the consistencies of vision. They were then able to identify the

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characteristics that athletes needed for that future style and either select or develop athletes for tomorrow.

“Thinking Different” and Learning to Collect and Connect “Scientists think differently. Actually, friends tell me, ‘YOU think differently.’”

Friends even ask Kenneth to bounce around ideas in completely different fields, such as finance or law. Perhaps one reason he can reach so regularly and so far beyond the familiar is because not so long ago, everything was unfamiliar. Kenneth had viral meningitis in 1993/1994 and was hospitalized. He lost both short-term and long-term memory and had difficulty storing new memories. “I sort of knew I knew things but couldn’t work out how I knew them. And it wasn’t just past memories that were gone — I couldn’t always make new ones. I could go out for a walk and find myself somewhere with no idea where I’d been. It was terribly embarrassing, but I couldn’t recognize people I used to know really well. My friends would sometimes tell me about it later when I asked why these strangers [unrecognized friends] were so upset.”

It took a long time, but as he regained his health, Kenneth began saving memories again and connecting the unconnected ones he already had. Eventually, he developed a notable proficiency in “collecting the dots and connecting the dots” (see Figure 18.5). He continues collecting and connecting to this day.

Collecting . . . and Giving Away Kenneth enjoys collecting art and considering the artists’ choice of perspectives, as he himself chooses perspectives when studying athletes. His mental collection of perspectives, ideas, and skills come from different disciplines across coaching, sports, and the sciences. As a cycling and rowing coach, Kenneth trained athletes to become WorldChampionship medalists. So he understands coaching from the coach’s perspective. As a sports scientist, he holds a Bachelor of Science in Science and Mathematics (with special focus on Physiology), Master of Applied Science in Exercise and Sport Science, and a PhD in Science and Physical Education. His doctoral work integrated neural, humeral, biochemical, and metabolic analyses; qualitative and quantitative approaches; and studies of the underlying physiology, neurology, and biochemistry.

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Figure 18.5: With memory loss from viral meningitis, Kenneth learned how to learn and learned to “connect the dots” anew.

These days, he collects ideas. He’s an insatiable reader, constantly curious, and loves gathering and connecting information. “I remember as an undergraduate, every Tuesday they would put the new journals on the shelves. So, every Tuesday morning, I would get 5 to 8 journals in my favorite areas — science and math and whatnot — and go through them. I wanted to learn new things and get to the new information as quickly as possible, because that was a fun thing to do. It still is.”

He doesn’t care if all his journals, articles, and Google searches are in his area or not. He just reads (voraciously) whatever interests him (see Figure 18.6), even “cross-reading.” When reading a newspaper, for example, different stories catch his eye, and he winds up reading multiple stories at once. Not only does he connect the ideas to one another and whatever he’s working on, but he also connects ideas to people and actively shares them. “I’m quite happy to stand in the corner and say, ‘Oh, that’s interesting — you’re doing that better than me, so I’ll use that, thank you.’ Likewise, if I’m doing something better, I’ll tell you—if you’re not a competitor. No, actually, it doesn’t matter if we’re competing. I’m happy to give things away because I just like the challenge.”

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Figure 18.6: For Kenneth, “fun” is devouring his favorite new journals when they arrive at the library.

He receives a great deal from his notably broad network, both in- and out-side of sports, and as a member of professional associations and academic bodies. Technology companies frequently send him samples of new software and prototypes. If he wants to know something, there’s someone he can call, and he’ll dig up all the research and select whichever method appears to be the most effective (but only after collecting everything he can).

Coaching Coaches: They Have the Answers, So Help with the Questions As a former coach, Kenneth knows how to talk to coaches. Instead of showering them with glitzy information they can’t use, he focuses on asking good questions, guiding them through a process of self-reflection (see Figure 18.7). The more highly prized the coach and the more highly ranked the athletes, the more people surround them, telling them what to do.

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Figure 18.7: Helping others frame questions is often more important than giving them the answers.

In order to be heard, Kenneth’s advice has to be different. In order to be truly useful, it also has to build the coach’s own capabilities. “He’s quite happy to sit at the back and watch and learn as much as he can. A lot of the young sports scientists want to be at the pool and tell the coach everything. Instead, Kenneth asks questions. The coach usually has the answers but hasn’t thought of the questions. Since coaches travel all the time, they need to be able to think it through when they’re on their own. And in the crush of the Olympics where everything happens very quickly, they have to make decisions right on the spot. The coach who’s self-reflected is a lot is better off.” – Robert Medlicott, former colleague at NSWIS

Coaching Start-Ups Not only do athletes need coaches, but so do athletic businesses. So in 2015, NSWIS and the Sydney Olympic Park Authority established the Sydney Sports Incubator (SSI). Their job would be to commercialize some of the NSWIS prototypes (developed for Olympic and World-Championship athletes), as well as serving companies that were reaching out to them for help developing commercial sports products, services, software, and training. In addition to basic incubation services, SSI connects start-ups with corporations seeking collaboration — and even connects start-ups with each other.

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The Olympic Park itself is a collection of long, carefully managed relationships. NSWIS was one of the first organizations on site, and after 20 years, people know each other very well.

Read, Play, Love Kenneth loves sports, loves math, loves science, and found a way to blend them. Learning, researching, solving problems, and starting new things are all just plain fun (see Figure 18.8).

Figure 18.8: Play with the numbers, ideas, methods, and more. “When I was doing Matt’s diving analysis, I had all these numbers and I was just playing with them for no reason. I was just going to see what was connected and found something that didn’t make sense. I like playing with information. You can take it and look at it from different directions. You can use one piece of information in five different ways and find five new things that are interesting.”

Psychological flexibility is key, and Kenneth switches the way he thinks, depending on the circumstance. For example, quantitative modeling for men’s 100-meter track versus qualitative analysis of team sports. He uses competition results to map performance against the rest of the world, and consistency of judges’ scores to track self-progress. He sometimes says “no” when something hasn’t engaged him, listens, and then says “yes.”

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Friends describe him as inquisitive, knowledgeable, enthusiastic, totally committed, ethical, straightforward, connected, passion-driven, confident, humble, modest, trust-building, and a pleasure to work with. He looks at everything in a very positive and engaging way and is very good at public speaking and promotion. “He’s very much a star. You could just sit and listen to him all day.” —Steve Roknic, General Manager of Sydney Sports Incubator

Kenneth is aware of his own strengths and weaknesses and is open to having others contribute. He seeks to work himself out of a job and have his staff take over. Highly personable, he puts people at ease and deeply listens.

It Starts with Collecting Kenneth created a unique collection of skills and ideas in sports, mathematics, and the sciences, including Coaching, Physics, Physiology, Biochemistry, and Biomechanics (see Figure 18.9). He continually collects ideas and inputs from different sports, fields, countries, perspectives, trends, research, and people.

Figure 18.9: First collect tools, techniques, ideas, and people—then use them in new ways.

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Having collected all these ideas and inputs, he connects them. Having collected a broad, multidisciplinary network, he receives ideas and help — freely giving, as well. Having developed a unique outlook on the world, he sees what others don’t. When asked what advice he would give someone who wants to create as he has done, he says: “Honestly, I wouldn’t give such advice. I’m just me.”

Can we learn from what is, at first glance, unique? We can, if we can collect examples, look for patterns, and understand more deeply—generating insights to apply elsewhere. Kenneth does it in sports, and we can all do it in life (see Figure 18.10).

Figure 18.10: Are you ready?

The year: Now. The city: Here. The event: Your life. The athlete: You. What do you collect? What would you like to? Where will you go to see from a different perspective? What will you see, that others don’t? And the judges say . . .

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Dr. Kenneth Graham is the Principal Scientist at the New South Wales Institute of Sport (NSWIS) and Adjunct Faculty at both the University of Sydney and Western Sydney University. He is “from” Australia and the UK and is featured in a touching and inspiring TISTalk (MSD) (https://youtu.be/1hlH1L6Nuf8). For more information on his work, see: linkedin.com/in/grahamkenneth/, nswis.com.au/, and sydneysportsincubator.com. To see Matt Mitcham’s dive, just view the “Top 3 Olympic 10M Platform Diving Scores Ever” video on YouTube from The Olympic Channel.

Chapter 19 DNAApp DNA and Other Scientific Analysis Tools . . . on the Smartphone Dr. Samuel Gan—Entrepreneur, Scientist-Technologist, Theologian

Dr. Samuel Gan is a multi-national, multi-disciplinary scientist/entrepreneur/ technologist/theologist who fuses: – psycho-endo-neuro-immunology, biology, psychology, virology, and molecular antibody engineering – science, app development, philosophy, theology, and business Video https://youtu.be/S-G3SpZOdeM

“No, I’m traveling right now, in Shanghai . . . Actually, yes, I did see the sequence file in my email — and I saw everyone else’s emails, too. No, I can’t process DNA sequencing files en route. I’ll do it the moment I can — I promise.”

Samuel Gan does research in multiple fields, including psycho-endo-neuroimmunology (PENI), and his team was awaiting his input for their therapeutic antibody production. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781547401505-019

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Everyone was stuck. “I was frustrated, and I looked at my phone. It’s actually faster than an old laptop I had, and I was thinking, ‘Hang on — why is it that I can do something simple on an old computer but can’t do it on a much smarter device?’”

He posed this as a challenge to his computer-programming teammate Phi Vu Nguyen (Samuel is many things, but not a programmer), and within three months, they launched DNAApp, for analyzing DNA sequences on the smartphone. It was the first of 21 scientific-analysis apps, used (collectively) by close to 30,000 scientists and reported by more than 100 news agencies worldwide. “I was surprised by DNAApp’s popularity. The software for looking at sequencing was available on desktops everywhere. It’s not a big leap to put into a phone. So after that one, I asked, ‘Well, OK, what other problems do I face?’ The other problem I had was that new staff didn’t know how to analyze DNA and protein gels, so they’d come and ask me and send me raw data by WhatsApp ‘round the clock’ . . . I don’t remember the marker bands myself, so I have to look it up. So again, I thought, can the phone help solve this?”

GelApp became their next most popular app, and now, instead of ten researchers lining up for one lab machine and a supervisor, ten smartphones can just use GelApp.

Post-Innovation Inspiration Interns Wong Chun Foong and Ian Budianto noted, “Inspiration comes after every single app we develop” (see Figure 19.1). For example, with PsychVey (used for online psychology surveys), Samuel realized he could use the webcam (or random shots from front and back smartphone cameras) to monitor exam cheating. Samuel’s other interns also created VibraTilt to measure whether a labtable surface is flat, and then later realized that the gyroscope in smartphones could also be used as a pedometer or as a medical device to measure clinical tremors. Shortly after VibraTilt, another developer from another group in the US combined the mobile gyroscope with map technology and released a popular earthquake monitoring app. Samuel’s personal efforts also branched into devices, such as a portable spectrophotometer that can be connected to the smartphone. Again, Samuel combined forces — this time with two biomedical engineering interns. He shared the problem and a vision for connecting a device via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, connected and applied in a new situation, using existing technology. Kits are

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Figure 19.1: After DNAApp, Samuel started making other tools, like GelApp.

also fair game, like his DNA extraction kits for schoolchildren — a simplified educational version of something he put together when he worked for a local small- to medium-sized enterprise (SME). Inspiration also comes through people. Now that Samuel has a user base and reputation, people come to him with problems — new ideas for both app improvement and for new development.

Acceptance — Or Not Innovations are not always accepted. Schoolchildren love his DNA kits, but administrators often don’t “get it.” Despite having his tools adopted by thousands of researchers for their work, the scientific community was not uniformly enthusiastic about his activities that didn’t fit existing fields and journals. Nonetheless, publications are needed by every non-tenured researcher who wants to keep doing research. So Samuel co-founded a journal on mobile apps, covering research- and science-related apps and peripheral devices, such as add-on sensors and wearables (e.g., Google Glass and the iWatch). The journal should be a first step toward establishing scientific mobile app development as an academic field of its own (see Figure 19.2).

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Figure 19.2: Since there were no established journals in which to share these new apps and development insights, Samuel founded a new one.

Collecting Like the classical scientists who crossed domains and founded new fields, Samuel collects knowledge, skills, qualifications, and problems to work on. They may seem diverse, but he says: “I see everything as one field, and what happens in one may give insight to another. There’s no reason to not branch out. I’m just trying to get the big picture.”

Seeing that big picture with enough depth of knowledge has enabled him to connect ideas in different fields. For example, while reading an IT article, he recognized that an algorithm worked similarly to DNA mutation and could be used to study mutations. He believes that seeing an issue from a perspective no one else is taking is the key to creative problem solving, and it requires boldness to step outside your field. Bold he is. He’s the only person I know who studied for a PhD, Master’s, and Bachelor’s all at the same time—the Master’s to supplement the PhD work, but the Bachelor’s just out of interest. (He gets “itchy” and bored.) The PhD is in Allergy, the Master’s in Structural Biology, and he has two Bachelor’s: in Psychology and Molecular Cell Biology. That supplements his Diploma in Biotechnology and certifications in Writing in the Sciences; Chaos and Dynamical Systems; Commercial Law and Technology Transfer; Complex Systems; Business Administration; Academic Practice; 3D Modeling and Animation; English/Chinese Translation and Interpretation; Religious Knowledge;

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and Theology, Philosophy, History, and Ethics. He holds a third-degree black belt in Aikido. He’s still enrolled in Bible College (soon to complete a certificate in biblical studies), has a readership of over 30,000 for his books on Christianity, and might pursue an IT qualification if he gets really bored.

Bureaucracy and Boundaries After his doctorate in 2008, Samuel was Chief Technology Officer (CTO) in a Shanghai biotech SME, and came back to Singapore in 2010 to scientific administration. He was well placed to move up fast but decided to return to the lab. He joined a modeling and simulation team (outside his comfort zone) and eventually established an experimental lab fundamentally different from the group he was with. “There was no research division in which he would fit, because what he was doing was completely different,” noted his mentor, Vivek Tanavde. So he’s now functionally independent. “Bureaucracy is the greatest creativity and innovation-stifler ever. It’s important for bosses to never lose track of operational work, because that’s where the most important problem solving ideas come from . . . ” (see Figure 19.3).

Figure 19.3: Samuel views bureaucracy as, “the biggest creativity and innovation-stifler, ever.”

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To make positive change, employees need power and to be heard (not ignored); managers need to stop being buried in bureaucracy; and they all need desire, drive, and passion. “There’s a saying that if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it. But it doesn’t have to be broken. It may be misaligned, it may be bent, and you should try and make it better.”

Although not generally a respecter of boundaries and rules, and having declared that “working hours are arbitrary,” there are some he adheres to. “We have to be restrained by morality, by practicality, and by social responsibility. There are rules I don’t necessarily abide: bureaucratic, administrative rules . . . But there are social and ethical rules I try not to bend.”

Openness and Leadership Samuel views “failure” and “mistakes” as lessons to be repurposed (for example, when he’s turned many experiment mistakes into publishable findings of discoveries). He actively seeks and uses feedback. According to intern Benjamin Goh, “This is why he’s able to connect the dots. He’s willing to listen to other people’s ideas, and he understands that he himself will not be able to generate all the ideas he connects.” In fact, connecting people from different fields (not just ideas) is core to his leadership. He’s egalitarian and friendly at work, but everyone knows he’s serious about the work. Colleagues describe him as inspiring, inclusive, bright, fiercely independent, enthusiastic, entrepreneurial, hardworking, caring, and driven. He’s an encouraging and motivational leader who works as hard as (or harder) than his staff. Unlike many labs, if a junior person creates something or plays the crucial role to make research publishable, their names go first on the publication. Many cross-disciplinary ideas come out of a very simple practice — the daily lunch meeting, where the team shares professional and personal problems, possible solutions from other perspectives, and current and future activity. With open communication and by empowering and motivating, he taps into everyone’s power to innovate.

The Future of Science? The first human genome took a decade to decipher. Now, sequencing can be completed in a day. Research in the biological sciences has a long history of

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in-field data collection, lengthy in-lab analysis, and then possible follow-on fieldwork long afterward. Industrial-age computers made work more accurate, scalable, and faster, but consumed entire floors of space and still tied scientists to their labs. Laptops allowed some freedom to explore and analyze infield. But the real integrator of fieldwork and lab (i.e., agile learning and discovery) may be the smartphone, to be supplanted by wearables and, ultimately, man-machine singularity (see Figure 19.4).

Figure 19.4: Now that scientists have focused on lab work, new tools may launch them back into field-work for greater discovery.

“I think there’s a clear revolution coming our way in that mobile labs can now be just smartphones, rather than mobile lab vans/trailers. A lot of scientific discoveries in the golden age were made by scientists at home, such as animalcules (microorganisms) by Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, father of modern microbiology. Smartphones can make it possible for scientists to do research and have freedom outside the lab.”

Such freedom should also allow lab work in emerging economies, both applied (e.g., in medicine) and lab-based research enabling discoveries to be generated in emerging economies and shared with industrialized economies (i.e., “jugaad innovations”) (see Figure 19.5).

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Figure 19.5: Mobile phones, robotics, cloud computing, and more may democratize scientific investigation to emerging economies, enabling “jugaad innovation” (from, not to, emerging economies).

In fact, Samuel’s dream is to have robots perform experiments for him so he can concentrate on scientific theory rather than operations — a future not unreasonable, given the advanced automation already embedded in many lab devices. But would that mean that after enabling scientists to do their jobs outside their labs and offices, the next step is for scientists to remain in their offices and leave the fieldwork and labwork to robots?

Collecting, Connecting, and Converge-Diverge Whatever the future of science, Samuel’s experiences have clear lessons for us. He collects knowledge and ideas in a way that to others seems cross-domain, but to him is just following his interests across arbitrarily divided fields addressing the same thing. He connects not only ideas but also people across fields and is able to connect and create opportunities with others who possess skills or ideas he doesn’t. Finally, he illustrates the importance of going beyond the diverge-converge process so well known in creativity and innovation practice — diverging to produce multiple ideas, then converging on one or a few to pursue.

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It is absolutely essential, once we’ve converged on a solution, to then diverge to other users and uses, reapplying an approach and repurposing a solution (see Figure 19.6). As colleague Vivek Tanavde noted, “All of us in research like to find problems and solutions, but a lot of us are so completely focused on our own.”

Figure 19.6: Solve your own problem in new ways, but then give a gift to the world—make it available to others.

What if we all crafted creative solutions, then gave them away to the whole world? What problems do you want solved? With whom could you share your solutions? Dr. Samuel Gan — Scientist, Inventor, Product Developer, and Educator — is Assistant Principal Investigator at A*STAR Bioinformatics Institute. He’s Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Scientific Phone Apps and Mobile Devices (Springer Journal) and Associate Lecturer at Singapore Institute of Management University. He’s “from” China, Singapore, and the UK. For more information on his work, see: linkedin.com/in/drsamuelgan/, facebook.com/APDLab, bii.a-star.edu.sg/ and his books on Amazon, including A Practical Guide to the Logic, Philosophy, and Thoughts of Christianity (2009), Another Practical Guide to the Logic, Philosophy, and Thoughts of Christianity (2012), and A Guide to the Bible Lands: Jordan and Israel (2015).

Chapter 20 Nokia Ringtones and Life Tools First Digital Music Deal and 125 Million Subscribers Jawahar Kanjilal – Entrepreneur and Intrapreneur, Technologist “I’m truly, madly, deeply in love with my Nokia 3210!” — Nokia ad with Sony Music India for Truly Madly Deeply ringtone by Savage Garden, 1999 “Whenever my Nokia rings my heart goes boom, boom, boom!” — Nokia ad with Sony Music India for Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom ringtone by Vengaboys, 1999

A world’s-first innovator in mobile phone technology, music, printing, gaming, and more, Jawahar Kanjilal fused: – Mobile-tech with music, games/radio/internet, location tagging, photo printing, and more – Telecommunications, entertainment, printing, and other industries – “High technology” and “base-of-pyramid” consumers Video https://youtu.be/bY3GI4ql1fA https://doi.org/10.1515/9781547401505-020

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“We’re launching the 5110 phone this year in India? Hmmm. It’s also India’s 51st year of independence. We must make something special of this!”

Jawahar was a product manager at Nokia, trained as a mechanical engineer and MBA. With mobile tech always at the back of his mind, his job was to create new products and services. So he signed a deal with a composer and had the company embed a special song into the Indian version of the phone — a unique ring (see Figure 20.1). The year was 1998, the composer was Pandit Ravi Shankar, and the song was Saare Jahan Se Accha, an unofficial national song of India, adopted as the Indian Armed Forces’ official quick-march. Jawahar didn’t invent the ringtone technology, but he did use it to create an attention-grabbing product and set Nokia on a path to growth in India.

Figure 20.1: Nokia’s digital-music journey started with one special ringtone for India’s 51st anniversary of independence.

From Special Ring to Ringtones A little while later, Nokia added the “ringtone composer” function on their upcoming product roadmap. He would have to find a use for it. One evening, Jawahar turned on MTV, and he watched a song that was the theme music for a new movie — one that would come out a few months later. With mobile tech and now mobile music in his head, he thought, “Wouldn’t it

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be useful to Bollywood to have their movie songs played in crowded buses and trains and markets when someone receives a call?” Understandably, no one wants to buy a new phone every time a new song comes out, but the upcoming ringtone composer would enable users to change the songs. He wanted to print a little booklet with instructions to program songs and place one in every new mobile phone box. Multi-channel movie promotion now had a new channel — digital. The year was 1999, long before ringtone services, Napster, and Kazaa. Jawahar went to the Bollywood producers and the music companies. They all thought it was a great idea — and they all said no. Why? Each song had a myriad of rights — publishing, recording, and territorial, which changed by country and by channel (TV, radio, cassette, CD . . .). They didn’t want to rework every contract to issue rights to Nokia to print programming instructions. So what to do? After the last no, he responded, “Fine. I don’t need the rights. Let’s make a win-win. You print the booklet with all your terms and conditions. I’ll tell you the look and feel I want. And we’ll build consumer promotion together.” Sony Music in India understood and liked it. Both legal teams worked for more than six months to craft a world’s-first contract. It was the first deal ever between a music company and a mobile phone company, as well as the first digital music deal. They called it “tones on your phone,” which later became “ringtones.” Nokia in India grew from fewer than 25 employees back then to hundreds at its peak, and the global ringtone market (of which this was a part) grew into a $2 billion industry in 2011.

Mobile with More Was this a fluke or more of an innovation habit? It seems to have been a habit (see Figure 20.2): “There was a bunch of kids at the bus stop, and all of them were plugged into their Walkmans. There was no digital music player that I was aware of at that time (the year 2000). They were also on their phones. Each kid was playing a snake game on the phone, listening to the Walkman, and would pull off an earphone and say, ‘Huh? What’d you say? Oh, okay.’ Then he’d put the headset back, and he’s back in his zone. He’s playing his game, and then somebody taps him, and again he says, ‘Huh? What?’ and eventually goes back into his zone. That was the interaction pattern.” “At that point in time, an idea struck me because at the back of my mind was, ‘What can I do with this new feature that’s coming up — the first phone with an FM radio and a web internet. . . . Can I do something, because otherwise these are just two [separate,

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Figure 20.2: Jawahar watched the kids interrupt each other’s phone games and asked himself, “why not interact via the phone?”

coincidental] pieces of technology.’ Why not get the radio station to do something every day, coinciding with when school day’s over? Why not just have the radio station post quizzes and show the lyrics of a song as it’s playing on its mobile site (WAP at that time)? [The kids could play on the phone, enjoy music on the phone, and maybe interact via the phone.] . . . this was revolutionary. . . . People never thought about streaming and timing and synchronizing.”

Again, Jawahar had mobile technology at the back of his head, new tech developments, a problem (what new products/services to create), and went about his day scanning the world. Another idea came to him when the first camera was integrated with the phone. There was no GPS back then, but he knew a phone could be located by the cellular towers. What if, in addition to date and time being printed on a photo, the location could automatically print, as well? He campaigned inside the company for radio-broadcast-internet synchronization (interactive radio) and location tagging on photos, but his desire for those patents wound up in cold storage. Eventually, he did patent the synchronization technology with a colleague, productized it, and brought it to market with Hewlett-Packard as Visual Radio. That was not the only partnership between Nokia and HP. He also created a “skunkworks” project (small, independent, and experimental) to print directly from the phone. This became a line of photo printers for the next 10–15 years. It grew into a large effort, jointly staffed from both companies’ global R&D.

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“So again, there was something at the back of my mind — the problem I was trying to solve — when I saw something totally unrelated and unconnected. Then it connected, and I was able to know how to respond — how to fuse it and solve the problem. I didn’t know whether it was of value or not, but I wanted to do something with it. If it happens, it happens, if it doesn’t, it doesn’t. You have to have the courage to try and to fail.”

Life Tools Courage was essential when he was tasked with opening an entirely new market. Although mobile phones had penetrated the cities, rural areas were relatively undeveloped (see Figure 20.3). “They told me I couldn’t ‘dis-feature’ an existing product and say it’s customized for the emerging market. I had to create from the ground up.”

Figure 20.3: Life Tools, which delivered personalized SMS messages across education, healthcare, and agriculture in 25 different languages to 125 million people, has never been replicated.

Having grown up in India in contact with rural people, he understood that most people simply want a better life. Agriculture, education, and health were major levers. People didn’t want to just hear the weather. They wanted to know what to do. Having spent his career steeped in the latest mobile technologies,

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he knew the tools that could help and started gathering a team. It grew to 12 people by the end of a year and ultimately 150 around the world. They developed Life Tools, which provided people with customized smsbased information that not only alerted them to what was happening, but also gave them ways to handle it. Information was personalized for each individual subscriber, based on Profile, Place, and Time. For example, Profile indicated not only a farmer but also whether he grew soybeans, potatoes, wheat, etc. Place would determine soil, sun, rain, temperature, altitude, weeds, and insects, etc. Time would indicate the cropping cycle, including season, crop maturity, time until planting or harvest, etc. Pregnant mothers could learn what locally available herbs and foods would be particularly useful to her during this particular week of pregnancy. Students could read information particularly useful at that point in the local school’s academic calendar. To this day, although artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies can replicate the individualization of information, no one has replicated the knowledgebase and personalized service for customers at the base of the economic pyramid. It requires understanding the questions each person should be asking — even when they’re not able to articulate their own, because they haven’t considered the currently impossible. Life Tools was delivered in 25 languages in the four most populous nations on Earth: India, China, Indonesia, and Nigeria. Out of the United Nations’ eight Millennium Development Goals at the time, Life Tools directly impacted six, and 125 million subscribers attested to its usefulness (see Figure 20.4).

Figure 20.4: A poor woman in rural India, for example, could get health information in her own language relevant for her current week of pregnancy.

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Flexibility and Leadership Jawahar doesn’t create the technology, but he does connect and apply ideas and is remarkably flexible. When his team wanted to introduce microinsurance into the health service, they packaged a new $1 insurance with the service and, as a last step, presented it to industry regulators. The officials said, “No, you can’t offer insurance. You’re a telecom equipment seller, not a financial-services firm (an insurer).” When they left no room for negotiation, the distraught project leader called Jawahar with the bad news. Without hesitation, he replied, “Don’t worry. Just offer the information for $1. The micro-insurance is free.” Colleagues describe him as inspiring, open, caring, empathetic, professional, strict, demanding, optimistic, mindful, collaborative, hands-on, intense, strategic, detailed, thought-provoking, committed, hardworking, and a great leader and listener, who networks and connects. According to colleague Karthik Balasubrimanian, “For the first 6 months, he really pushes a new team member to the edge so that he’s up to his expectations. Once he crosses the fire, then he trusts you completely and gives you a free hand. . . . He knows how to get the maximum out of you. He knows how to stretch you and give you confidence and give you new opportunities.” “You have to find out what thrills you . . . what gives you that heart high. Once you find it, you have boundless energy. Unless you find it, you feel tired. Otherwise, work becomes work, it become drudgery. I’ve never ever tired, doing what I’m doing, my entire 20 years. But you can’t be on highs always — there’ll be lows.”

He manages incumbencies and ecosystems but doesn’t always win. Top management closed down the service just before Microsoft acquired Nokia. “It was too disruptive an innovation. It was targeting users they didn’t want to pursue.” Jawahar is an entrepreneur now — no longer an intrapreneur. With insights he gained from launching Life Tools and his skills as a great manager and leader, he created TeamStreamz, a sales force management platform that covers everything from on-boarding through exit interviews. “As a good leader, a good manager, you can only influence about 10–15 people in a group. But software can mimic a good manager and impact 10,000 — or more.”

Motivation and Insight “What drives me is being the first to do something, or in the case of Life Tools, empowering someone to help themselves. It doesn’t drive me to have pots of money, but it drives me to be there first, and to see what others haven’t seen.” (See Figure 20.5.)

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Figure 20.5: Jawahar wasn’t motivated by money, but he was motivated to be first and to see what others did not.

His key to seeing differently is to always have at the back of his mind a unique collection of technologies and experiences. Then he scans the world around him, makes connections, and creates. What he’s created adds to the collection, and the cycle begins again, as when the special ring on the Nokia 5110 fed into ringtones — one innovation leading to another. His collecting, seeing, and creating entailed crossing boundaries, like the mobile phone and music industries, or mobiles and insurance, or different technologies like mobile and radio, cameras, and printing. Sometimes there have been rules in the way (e.g., charging for a financial service) or no rules yet (e.g., the first digital music deal). Crossing into new territory required mental flexibility (“Fine, you print the booklet,” or “Fine, charge $1 for information — insurance is free”). Crossing boundaries also meant developing new markets, like base-of-pyramid customers who find “high tech” very useful, indeed. Fusing technologies (and teams) have generated a lifetime of energy and value for Jawahar, colleagues, company, and customers. Great value lies waiting in undeveloped inter-spaces and new applications. In fact, one of the best examples of the value of fusion is the smartphone. Useful as a phone, its usefulness skyrockets when we integrate into it an address book, calendar, games, flashlight, heart monitor, and any number of new uses that integrate (or fuse) this life tool into our lives (see Figure 20.6).

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Figure 20.6: The world’s first digital music deal (Nokia-Sony) made consumers hearts go “boom, boom, boom” for ringtones.

No wonder our hearts are going boom, boom, boom and we’re truly madly deeply in love with them. What else makes your heart go boom? Jawahar Kanjilal was a VP and Global Head of Emerging Market Services at Nokia and is now Co-Founder at TeamStreamz. He’s “from” India and Singapore and is featured in INK Talks’ Journey to the Extraordinary. For more information on his work, see: linkedin.com/in/jawaharkanjilal/, nokia.com, teamstreamz.com.

Chapter 21 SwineTech $8 Billion in Agriculture to Save Worldwide Matthew Rooda—Entrepreneur, Technologist, Farmer

Matthew Rooda crossed boundaries of farm, medicine, technology, and more to fuse: – Agriculture, medicine, and high-tech – Porcine litters – Best-practice management methods across farms

Video https://youtu.be/-ncI0BVrl7w

“That’s it!” “No, that’s a milk fight.” “How do you know?” “See, it’s only 3–4 seconds.” “OK. That’s it!” “No, it’s not loud enough.” https://doi.org/10.1515/9781547401505-021

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“Huh?” “Look at the decibel meter.” “Hmmm. I guess that’s not it, either.” “No No No No! That’s it! Quick — get her off or he’s going to die! Press the button!” It’s not your usual day in the office, and it’s not your usual day on the farm. But it was a fairly usual day when developing intelligent technology that could distinguish between the squeal of a piglet fighting with its litter-mates for milk and the squeal of a piglet being crushed to death by its 350- to 600-pound mother. A death squeal is loud and lasts at least 30 seconds. A piglet that is laid on by its mother typically struggles for 4 minutes and dies from suffocation. That may not be something you really wanted to know, but if you’re a farmer, it is. Farming is won in the details. A pork producer tracks all productivity with a swine management system and that allows them to pinpoint weaknesses and trends. The average sow will give birth to 14 piglets and some will have as many as 29. A producer is constantly looking at feed to weight-gain ratios, genetic improvements, and ways to automate processes, as well as ways to save money and improve the health of their animals. Potential savings worldwide per year is $8 billion. You really want your sows to get up when crushing a piglet. SwineTech devices do just that, via a specially developed sound analyzer that tracks sound patterns (in addition to decibel and duration, see Figure 21.1) and a special belt tied around the sow’s waist. When a piglet is being crushed and the mother does not rise on her own, it delivers a mild vibration similar to an electronic dog collar, prompting her to rise and save the piglet’s life. The device operates automatically (no more need for technicians to stand by, as in the dialog above). It took a special kind of innovator and company founder to: 1. Find the problem 2. Care about the problem 3. Integrate expertise from agriculture, medicine, and engineering 4. Bring the solution to the world with keen leadership and entrepreneurship.

First, Find the Problem Matthew Rooda began farming before he started school. His grandfather owned a family farm with pigs, and his father helped him join in the work—as farm families have always done. Matthew recalls having fun helping out at age five or six and riding in a little wagon that transported feed to the sows.

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Figure 21.1: SwineTech is an innovative fusion of sound analysis and agriculture.

He created his own job as a first-grader, collecting steel gates, and hired himself out in fifth grade, vaccinating animals on nearby farms. He worked at a grocery store as a teenager but realized entrepreneurship paid better, and that he could try out his more creative ideas (like car-washing farm buildings). His family sold the farm when Matthew was 11, and he had no contact with farms or pigs until age 16 because new corporate farm-insurance rules prohibit anyone under 16 on-site. When Matthew graduated from high school, he was hired as a farm assistant and learned farrowing (pig breeding) — the operations, medicine, and business. Every morning, he checked on all the sows and piglets and often found dead piglets. These had to be diagnosed and recorded (death from crushing, disease, and so on). Most causes were obvious, but when they weren’t, he performed a quick autopsy before recording and carrying his bucket of dead piglets to the composting system.

Next, Care about the Problem—and Those It Affects Anyone who’s enjoyed Winnie the Pooh or the movie Babe knows piglets are cute (see Figure 21.2). Matthew likes the little animals and didn’t want to see

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Figure 21.2: It’s easy to care about piglets. Beyond the economics, they’re surprisingly cute.

their lives ended. Since animals are raised for slaughter, a farmer cannot afford to over-sentimentalize, yet on the other hand, a farmer does not become an emotionless robot at work. Matthew had been around death since he was a small child, so it didn’t bother him too much, but he valued life. Oddly, farming was not his passion. He really wanted to be an obstetrician. His favorite activity was helping new life enter the world and providing every opportunity to succeed. Most of the people he worked with just wanted to get their jobs done and resisted new ideas. Matthew, on the other hand, was fascinated with making things better. He wanted to make a difference instead of just doing the job the way it’s always been done.

Innovation #1: A New Method for Runt Litters Matthew learned best practices from the farm veterinarian and from other farms in his area. He drastically increased production by adopting successful practices wherever he found them. He then took over the farrowing operation (which normally requires a two-year degree) and created a new method he’d never seen before: runt litters (see Figure 21.3).

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Figure 21.3: Matthew developed a new method to save runts by consolidating them into a single litter, before research had been published to do so.

When piglets are only a pound at birth, they generally won’t survive 21 days (to weaning) and may even be euthanized to avoid “wasting” resources on them. Matthew felt there might be a better way. He looked for sows who appeared to be good mothers, collected all the runts into one litter, gave it to the foster-sow, and moved her piglets to the original runt litters. It worked—and the sows didn’t mind. Unfortunately, when he left, he was told they wouldn’t continue the runt litters, because no one cared to pay attention to such details and continue practicing his new method. About two years later, he read a research report from Kansas State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine. They had discovered a new method — runt litters — demonstrated its effectiveness, and recommended widespread adoption (of the method and the pigs).

Innovation #2: Swine Acoustics When Matthew arrived at work each day, his job was to induce the sows to stand to prevent sores (see Figure 21.4). He quickly found it was relatively easy to teach them to stand up on their own in response to a sound (a steel bar

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Figure 21.4: If sows can be induced to stand to prevent sores, they can be induced to stand to save their piglets.

tapping a crate). He knew they could learn. In fact, a pig is estimated to have the intelligence of a three-year-old child. As he walked through the piggery during his workday, taking care of the animals, he could distinguish different cries and sounds, the way a new mother distinguishes her baby’s sounds — a unique, customdeveloped language. When Matthew heard something that didn’t need his attention, he ignored it. When he heard a cry that meant a problem, he intervened. Since he wasn’t there 24/7 to intervene, he wondered if there was a way to sense the sound and issue a trigger for the sows to stand up. After all, if a human can sense, analyze, and respond, why can’t a machine? He shared the idea with his father, who shared the idea with the owner of the company, who got very excited, saying there were real commercial possibilities if it would work. He told Matthew, who quickly responded, seeking advice from an acoustical company.

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“My brother-in-law is part-owner of the largest acoustical company in America. Because he’s an acoustical engineer, I told Matthew he ought to talk to him and find out if this is even feasible — whether currently available technology could actually sense and distinguish the different types of squeals. He responded that the first thing you need to do is find out the difference in the decibel level between a pig arguing and a pig being hurt. So, during school break, Matthew bought a decibel meter online for 100 bucks, went to a sow unit, and recorded different squeals. He found out that hurt-piglets are the only animals squealing over a certain decibel. That got the ball rolling, and he got involved with an accelerator. Then everything went crazy.” — Dan Rooda, father

They quickly found there was a lot more involved than the loudness of the squeal. They needed a reader that would map the sounds’ wavelengths, as well as a method for inciting the sow to rise. Once they had the information to sense and respond, they needed to analyze the information, which meant developing their own software. To develop the software, they developed a company.

Figure 21.5: Co-Founders Abraham Espinoza and Matthew Rooda started SwineTech as part of a Venture School program.

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Fostering a New Company Matthew received an email about the University of Iowa’s summer Venture School program, which offered a stipend to promising new companies (see Figure 21.5). He applied and was accepted. He knew something about agriculture, medicine, and business, but nothing about software development or engineering. So he pulled together a small team (two of whom remain business partners) and they got a small stipend ($1,500) that allowed them to buy more equipment and keep developing their idea. They were then recruited out of 900 companies to join the Iowa Startup Accelerator, which would require that the team drop out of school for a semester, something they didn’t want to do. Instead, they took classes online to keep up with their cohort and retain their university benefits. To lead a team of engineers, Matthew also earned Scrum certification (an agile methodology and framework for managing complex projects) and a certificate in International Business Operations. Life was intense. They made an economic case for commercial viability and talked to potential customers to ensure acceptance. Farmers easily saw the economic benefits and started asking questions, wondering if the waistband device could also integrate and deliver more data, such as health information. Could it operate like a Fitbit? Although an odd idea to put a Fitbit on a pig, up-to-the-minute health information such as body temperature can be very useful. For example, a sow’s temperature rises two degrees just before giving birth. If the band around the sow’s waist could send an alert, the farmer could be present when the litter is being born and help with complications. The company could solve a high-value problem and become a platform for much more. So, instead of focusing on acoustics, they broadened their vision and christened the new enterprise SwineTech.

Pushing (and Crossing) Boundaries Few people working on farms intend to pursue medicine, software development, or engineering. However, Matthew did want to cross over into medicine and studied pre-med courses and special-interest topics like genetics and biotechnology (see Figure 21.6). There were two ways for him to gain needed medical exposure outside the classroom: either shadow a doctor (seeing and listening, but not doing) or work on a farm learning and practicing veterinary diagnosis and treatment. Medical

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Figure 21.6: Boundaries between “fields” such as medicine, software development, and engineering don’t have to stand in your way.

schools view both of these favorably and increasingly seek “out of the box” learning, so off he went, crossing over from one field to another. Farms are like small countries. No one travels from farm to farm to examine practices from each one, looking for what may be transferrable. But Matthew did. He crossed farm boundaries. Further, most people train for a job and then do it, without constantly challenging why things are done the way they’re done — and whether they can be done better. But Matthew did. He pushed the boundaries of status quo. “He was a challenging child and constantly pushed the envelope. He’s still that way — pushing and crossing boundaries.” — Dan Rooda, father “I was always the kid that liked to push everybody to the limit — see how far I could go to get away with something. It’s just my personality — to cross every boundary I can find.”

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Transplants Think Out-of-the-Box Matthew started crossing boundaries with his parents. He was born in North Carolina to a farm manager and a teacher who relocated to Iowa for better educational opportunities. Though not an international move, it was a move from state to state and from city to country (see Figure 21.7).

Figure 21.7: If you want to think “out of the box,” it helps to be a “transplant” (from another “box”).

“I was never that much into farming. I was always that city kid who lived down in the country.”

Matthew was different, and his teacher noticed something about the “different” students. “In junior high, Matthew’s teacher said there were three kids in his class that were able to think out-of-the-box, and he was one of them. ‘Funny thing was . . . the kids that could think out of the box had all moved from somewhere else.” —Dan Rooda, father

Friends and family describe Matthew as ambitious, competitive, self-driven, strong-willed, honest, open to new ideas and trying new things, never discarding potentially useful ideas (an idea collector). He reads and continually seeks

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new knowledge across a variety of fields — questioning, listening, and absorbing others’ expertise. He is incredibly energetic, always pursuing both school and work, sometimes both full-time. At one point, he was reporting to work at 3:00 a.m., leaving at 8:30 for school, and returning to work from 1:00 to 6:00 p.m. Oddly, reducing his workload to normalize his hours reduced his grades as well as his work output, so he resumed his crazy schedule. He has great leadership and people skills and holds attention well in conversation and presentations, skills he began honing as a child telling anecdotes at family weddings. He senses others’ emotions (be it an individual or an audience), offering help and advice where needed. Managing people well has been enormously important for him. Matthew’s first management experience was at age 20, when he took over from someone 44 years old who had been managing the farm for 14 years. He builds a cohesive team, keeps people informed, and his investors trust him.

Want Great Ideas? Power Wash the Pig House When does Matthew get his best business-boosting ideas? Like many innovators, he gets creative when bored (see Figure 21.8).1 “When you power wash a pig house (or other tedious jobs), you can solve the world’s problems. With nothing for your mind to do, you’re constantly brainstorming.”

Ironically, his Dad had other motives when he assigned his son to power-washing: “I wanted him to have absolutely nothing to do with livestock and raising hogs. So I got him to do a lot of power washing . . . and he hated it. He hated it, and that was my goal. Finally, I got my kid to hate raising hogs, so out of the farm and on to college, right?” —Dan Rooda, father

Although it wasn’t the original plan, combining hogs and higher education worked out quite well. In 2015, Matthew founded SwineTech, Inc. and in 2016 became the University of Iowa’s Entrepreneur of the Year. His presentation skills and business plan won first place awards from Harvard, Princeton, and Microsoft. In 2017, became the National Student Entrepreneur of the Year,

1 See TED.com talk by Manoush Zomorodi, “How Boredom Can Lead to Your Most Brilliant Ideas.”

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Figure 21.8: Matthew came up with great ideas while power-washing the pig house.

International Business Model Champion, USA Ambassador of Entrepreneurship. He’s now in Forbes 30 under 30. Matthew feels there has been a plan, even though it wasn’t clear at the beginning, and inspiration comes from a higher source than the powerwasher (which simply gives his mind time to listen). He credits his faith for his work ethic and caring, having grown up in a Christian home and faith-based school. However, he’s also been in the right place, at the right time, finding just the right opportunities and people, just when he needed them (see Figure 21.9).

Collecting and Creating Matthew has a unique collection of skills and ideas in his head that began with being different — a city kid in the country and a pre-med major working with pigs. He then collected ideas and practices across farms and across fields. He gathered people around him with skills and knowledge he didn’t have (audio diagnostics, software development, and engineering). Whatever he created— like “runt-littering”—in turn became part of his mental workshop — fodder for more innovation.

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Figure 21.9: Helping new life thrive became the basis for Matthew’s life to thrive.

Figure 21.10: Will you develop your own dream by helping someone else?

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Helping new life thrive has become the basis for his own life to thrive (see Figure 21.10). He didn’t follow exactly his dream of being a doctor. But sometimes, we find a better dream along the way. Do you feel “different” from those around you? What might you collect across boundaries, assemble, and apply in a new way? Will you help a new life thrive, including your own? Matthew Rooda is Co-Founder, President, and CEO of SwineTech, Inc. He is “from” the USA (Iowa — the “Silicon Prairie”). For more information on his work, see: linkedin.com/in/matthew-rooda-182063113/ and swinetechnologies.com/.

Chapter 22 Mr. Toilet and the BoP Hub Toilet Campaign for 2.6 Billion People and a Startup Accelerator for 4 Billion Poor

Jack Sim—Serial and Social Entrepreneur “I was an outstanding student. I was always sent to stand outside.”

An open-hearted serial entrepreneur, Jack Sim creates multi-stakeholder enterprises that fuse: – Private and public – Business and society – New-venture stakeholders with very different goals Video https://youtu.be/mYJz-8dtPLM

As a child, being talkative earned Jack trips outside his classroom and even appearances on stage:

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781547401505-022

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“In Primary 3 — ten years old — I was often caned on stage because I was talking in class, and my teacher was very angry. She would send me to the principal for caning, and very often, they caned me on stage. So the good thing is I don’t have stage fright. It was just a rattan cane on my palm — more shame than hurt. But for me there was no shame. I was trying to make it look painful to satisfy the principal — to get the message through to the school, because he’s got to do his job. His job was to tell the rest of the students to behave. I could empathize with the principal.”

Although useful for developing stage presence and empathy, Jack’s trips weren’t very useful for schoolwork. His teachers didn’t realize they hadn’t just sent him outside the classroom. They sent him outside the school system entirely. Standing outside the class, he didn’t learn what was going on inside and failed his O-Levels (secondary school certification exams). High turnover at his next school meant there was often no teacher. So alongside nearly all of his 40 classmates, he failed his A-Levels, as well.

Talkativeness and Daring — Bad for School, Good for Life With no chance for admission to higher education, his next step was vocational school, generally regarded as a “dummy school” back then. He learned about hotels and catering, training to become a receptionist or housekeeper. Instead, he became a site supervisor and salesman at a construction company. Three years later, he was their top salesman (see Figure 22.1). How? He was talkative. Unfortunately, since he didn’t have a degree, he couldn’t be promoted. He didn’t fit “the system.” So he started his own business at age 24. In fact, Jack didn’t just start a business. Singapore was growing exponentially at that time under Lee Kuan Yew’s leadership (1959–1990), and over the years Jack founded 16 successful companies in a variety of fields — Malaysia’s biggest brick factory and biggest roof tile factory, Singapore’s Australian International School (co-founded then sold for $100 million), factories in Singapore, and more. “All the bad things that happened turned out to be good things.”

His talkativeness, empathy, and sales skills were key for success at the construction company and would serve him well throughout his life, starting new ventures. He listened, watched, and learned quite well in the “real world.”

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Figure 22.1: Talkativeness and daring made Jack a poor school student but a wonderful salesman and entrepreneur.

Success . . . Then What? At age 40, it was time for a change. He counted his money, decided he had enough, and wanted to find meaning in life (see Figure 22.2). He’d had a very special role model for business and beyond — his mother, who was also an entrepreneur: “She taught me how to create businesses without resources; how giving is more fulfilling than getting; how happiness comes from appreciating instead of craving; and how to trust and care for strangers.” — Simple Jack (dedication)

He volunteered, restored historic buildings, and created art—but was still searching. One day, when reading the newspaper — an addiction, along with magazines — he noticed a quote from Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong (in office 1990–2004), saying we should measure our graciousness against the cleanliness of our public toilets.

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Figure 22.2: Jack counted up his money at age 40, decided it was enough, and moved on to social entrepreneurship.

“I thought, ‘nobody would do this,’ so I did it.”

He created the Restroom Association in 1998. The public loved it, and he started educating shopping centers that toilets are actually income earners. He taught schoolmasters that students’ marks improve if they can go to the toilet. Three years later, there were 15 toilet associations around the world but no headquarters. He met their representatives in Japan, and they said they’d be happy to join an organization if he’d run it. So he did. “I called it the WTO (World Toilet Organization). I figured if the World Trade Organization doesn’t sue me, then we can use the acronym. If they sue me, then it’ll be a runaway success.”

WTO — Making the Private Public “I love to handle taboos. After all, if you don’t discuss, you’ll never improve. HIV was a taboo, but when Rock Hudson died of AIDS, everyone in Hollywood wanted to talk about it. No one in Hollywood ever died of diarrhea, so nobody wants to talk about it. But somebody has to. That’s me.” (See Figure 22.3.)

Jack was inspired by Mr. Condom in Thailand.

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Figure 22.3: Jack found an important problem no one wanted to handle and said, “OK, I’ll do that.”

“He did a lot of other things, but no matter what he did, he’s always called Mr. Condom. I talked to him about starting the World Toilet Organization, and he said, ‘Can you make people laugh?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ ‘Can you laugh at yourself?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ Then he said, ‘Good— you can do it. Because when people are laughing at you and you don’t mind, then you’re creating something. It’s like an artist creating paintings that get a reaction — viewers hate it, they love it, they ask what it is. If they just walk past, then it’s useless.’”

So he combined toilets and humor and attracted the media—who want more readership and viewers. He attracted politicians—who want votes, visibility, and popularity; bureaucrats—who want politicians’ favor; academics—who want publications; NGOs—who want funding; and philanthropists—who want to donate to hot topics. Jack did what he does best: aligned them all into an ecosystem — a collaborative movement. With no funding, he put toilets ahead of competing agendas and created a global organization with no staff. For the first seven years, WTO was just Jack telling stories. He created the World Toilet Summit and issued hosting rights to governments, some events costing almost $1 million. Host countries mobilized support for infrastructure development and gained international branding. Beijing Tourism Board, for example, said their 2004 summit was the cheapest advertising campaign they ever had. The Olympics would be held in 2008, and if the toilets failed, the Olympics would be a national marketing

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disaster. They built and renovated 4,000 public toilet lots, and their Olympics was one of the most successful ever. Fourteen other cities followed, as did two World Toilet Expos. WTO now has 235 member organizations in 58 countries and its very own United Nations Day. In fact, World Toilet Day 2010 trended on Twitter in fifth position, just below Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which was released on the same day. Media, politicians, bureaucrats, academia, NGOs, and philanthropists all worked with WTO, but one group was missing: business. Then WTO and former-President Bill Clinton made a commitment to promote market-based sanitation at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) in 2008. With the support of Unilever, The Rockefeller Foundation, Index Award, and Singapore’s Economic Development Board, Jack’s SaniShop franchise now teaches people how to produce and sell sanitation systems to families for less than $40.

BoP Hub: A Start-Up Accelerator for the Poor WTO launched another CGI commitment in 2011: The BoP Hub (BoP stands for Base of Pyramid), a cross-sector business accelerator for the four billion people at the base of the world’s economic pyramid (see Figure 22.4). In the face of

Figure 22.4: Who needs a start-up accelerator more than the poor?

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increasing global inequality, Jack believes business is a tool for the poor, not the reason they’re poor: “The charity model treats people as helpless. It distorts their marketplace and feeds donor egos. Poverty is caused by the lack of opportunities, connectivity and the slow velocity of money. So if you can create efficiency and velocity, you unleash their spirit of enterprise, and the third world can become first world. Singapore did that. China copied, and in 30 years they got 600 million people out of poverty. The future of the base of the pyramid is ecommerce and epayment, and I’m building the first World Trade Centre for the poor.”

Seeing Beyond the Marks Factory Jack sees beyond today’s systems and builds toward visions in a way that’s not taught in schools: “The educational system is not fit for the future. In the future you’ll not need to calculate a block of numbers. You need to know how to manage people and tools. Your ultimate competitiveness as a person is your ability to communicate, trust, motivate, and love — all these soft skills they don’t teach for a very simple reason: they can’t measure it. They can’t allocate marks. Today’s schools are marks factories.”

If you want to create something beyond today’s systems, obviously there won’t be existing marks and measures. Because Jack failed at school (or school failed Jack), he learned to do things for other reasons and to trailblaze on his own, beyond what others taught him to do. Teachers didn’t tell him why to study what they taught, but outside school, he clearly understands his own whys — and others’. WTO has been an exercise in trailblazing, and it’s been hard to rally support. Funders will happily give money to build toilets (which are easily counted) but generally won’t fund an awareness movement, the necessary precursor. They also want well-written business-proposals with specific success targets — hard to create when you’re an action-oriented entrepreneur in an early-stage venture still finding its way. One way to manage unpredictability is to find solutions that already work and scale them. This approach is especially important for the social sector, where organizations operate in silos and compete for funding instead of cooperating and expanding. Success scaling is now part of BoP’s mandate. It operates across silos and leads multi-stakeholder efforts, such as the Fortified Rice project — a 15-year-old nutritional technology enhancing rice with vitamins, minerals, and trace elements — in collaboration with the UN World Food Program,

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World Health Organization, DXN (for operations), NUS (for research), and construction companies (for workers in need), along with their construction-site caterers.

The Idea Collection and Trust: Catch a Dream, Pass it On, Catch the Next Jack sees potential — even underground (see Figure 22.5): “When we moved here, I wondered why it was called Fort Road. One year, the rain stopped for 2 weeks, the grass dried up, and there was a pattern in the grass. There were straight lines, and it looked to me like more than just pipes. I checked further and discovered there was a fort buried here. It’s 6 inches underground and sprawled all over the park. Eventually we found it in a London archive, I reported it to Singapore’s National Archive, and a student team came to dig it up. It’s not done yet, but it’s supposed to be done after the MRT is built in 2023. If I have an idea, I’ll stick on to it. In 1992 I started to fight for this excavation, and in 2023 I hope they’ll finish it.”

Figure 22.5: Fort Road archaeology site, Singapore, launched because Jack saw the pattern of a fort beneath the grass and wondered why it was called Fort Road.

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It was a public park, yet either no one saw or no one cared to act. Certainly, few people would keep track of a public project for over 25 years (so far) – the span of time that began when Jack asked questions of the government, investigated public records in London, lobbied to excavate, launched an archaeological dig, was notified the project would be on hold, and was scheduled for recommencement after subway installation. The excavation site (see Figure 22.5) waits while the MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) station is being constructed at the same location. Once the station is finished, excavation is planned to resume. The BoP team knows he’ll walk in with a new collection of visions and ideas when he returns from a trip—he travels 60–75% of the time. They sort through his ideas, and they will remain in “the collection” until he finds an executor: “I’m an addict to new ideas and giving them to people so they go and run it. I don’t want to run it because there’re too many ideas oozing out every week. I just write them down, and if I meet somebody who likes it, I give it to them. Very often they drop it after a while, but if I try many times, there’ll be one guy who’ll do it.”

Jack trusts people by default and says if you trust people, you can get a lot done. People likewise trust him. Colleagues describe him as genuine, humble, plain-speaking, honest, exciting to work with, and a big ball of energy, impatient in a good way. “Jack is like a dream catcher, and he’s a maverick. He connects the dots. Whenever he meets people, he sees opportunities. One day, he was listening to innovations at the Singapore Science Centre, found one on water accessibility, told me, and now we’re going to make the world’s cheapest water filtration device. He understands how to nurture creativity, brilliance, and innovation among the people he works with.” (See Figure 22.6.) — Arindam Som, BoP Hub “Jack thinks beyond what’s doable now. He doesn’t start with the constraints. He starts with the end — the vision — and he’ll work backwards from there. He’ll find people to help, and also a path. It’s never ‘Do something small and see how we go from there.’ It always starts from the big picture.” — Kevin Moon, BoP Hub “He’s a mix of practical common sense and the possible that hasn’t happened yet. He’s in a class totally by himself.” — Nasha Pestonji, BoP Hub

A New Class — For Jack and for Tomorrow’s Children At age 52, Jack went back to class. Four years later, he had earned a Master’s in Public Administration — his first graduation. He added a Master’s in International Marketing, took classes at Harvard four times, and graduated from Singularity

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Figure 22.6: Jack is like a “dream catcher” —catch a dream, pass it on, catch the next.

University. He’s been a guest lecturer at Yale, Illinois University, National University of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Management University, and was invited to teach for Singularity. In fact, Singularity opened his mind to how robotics can replace employees. He’s thought deeply about how we should develop our children in a robotic future and is starting the School of Gumption, focusing on the 7Cs: curiosity, courage, commitment, compassion, collaboration, communication, and community-circumspection (systems thinking). He believes art is excellent education because you learn about feeling (faster and more powerful than thinking alone — robots can remember dates and calculate numbers). He notes that being a poor child is good because you create games with whatever is at hand instead of playing computer games designed by someone else. Instead of avoiding mistakes, his school will teach children to experiment and create. “I want to create because if I don’t create, I suffocate.”

Indeed, Jack creates all the time. He composes sculptures and paintings, is inventing paint for blind people, co-designed a World Toilet Museum (similar to the Guggenheim, but in the image of three toilet rolls), wrote 16 episodes of a talking-toilet cartoon series, produced a movie, wrote a story for Bollywood, and is writing a new LGBT story to open that taboo, too.

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How Does Jack stay creative? “By being a child and never growing up. If you want to be happy and creative, have the audacity to say and think, feel the freedom, you have to stay a child. You can pretend to be an adult when you need to, but you have to be a child.” (See Figure 22.7.)

Figure 22.7: If you want to be happy and creative, don’t “grow up.”

Success, Again What did Jack create as a social entrepreneur? He founded seven NGOs and social businesses. Time Magazine named him “Hero of the Environment,” and he became an Ashoka Global Fellow, Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur of the Year, Schwab Fellow of the World Economic Forum, Synergos Senior Fellow, and Asian Development Bank Water Champion. What happened to the other 40 students who failed A-Levels? They generally did well — some exceptionally well, including a mining tycoon, bond trader, foreign exchange dealer, TV broadcaster, well-known DJ, successful fashion designer, performers, and a collection of businessmen. “There are rules that say you cannot, and if you break them, you’re a troublemaker. But if they like it, you’re called an innovator.”

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Jack plans to exit social entrepreneurship at age 80 and uses a countdown app on his phone that shows him every day how much time he has left — a dwindling number. But for now, he talks to everyone, has meetings in his car, whiteboards with new collaborators by the swimming pool, and does the rounds checking on his staff, offices, and ventures. Jack doesn’t separate “work” and “life,” since he sees things and has ideas all the time. His team can call him (and vice versa) 24/7.

The Creator-Collector Jack didn’t learn to see the world the way everyone else does. He learned how to learn on his own, collecting his own skills, ideas, and people into the unique workshop of his mind (see Figure 22.8). He collects new ideas to match with implementers and has built a unique collection of businesses, social ventures, degrees, and certifications. He’s no longer standing outside or acting on stage. He’s surrounded with people who work with him to create good in the world. He returns home after

Figure 22.8: Don’t just make marks in school—collect ideas, people, skills, and more.

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Figure 22.9: What will you explore?

trips to his loving wife of 25 years, his mother, four children, and an eclectic art (and toilet) collection. He fills his dwindling collection of days with love, exploring, and creating (see Figure 22.9). Jack Sim’s motto: To live a useful life. What have you explored and collected? What would you like to? Jack is “from” France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, and Singapore. For more information on his work, see: linkedin.com/in/jack-sim-40879910b/, “Meet Mr. Toilet” (GE Focus Forward) youtube.com/watch?v=mmDtw4npb1g, worldtoilet.org, bophub.org, Designing Business to End Poverty (youtube.com/watch? v=apgCZqGz_ek), and his book: Simple Jack (Sim, J., & Pak, S. [2011]. Simple Jack. Singapore: Straits Times Press).

Part 5: Stories of Sensing

Chapter 23 KFC, Hungry Jack’s, and Domino’s Pizza Australia US$1 Billion+ Business Built

Jack Cowin—Serial Entrepreneur

Source: Jack Cowin’s Facebook page (black sofa added)

Recognized as one of the world’s great entrepreneurs, Jack Cowin built multibillion-dollar businesses that fused: – Fast food and a “laid-back” location – Ideas across industries Video https://youtu.be/4bkDZLcFIAQ

“How long is this queue going to be? “I have no idea, but I’ve been here almost half an hour already.” “Look — There must be 50 people here!” “Yeah.” “Do you even like Chinese food?” https://doi.org/10.1515/9781547401505-023

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“I do, but it’s really just a way to eat fast. Even with the queue, it’s still the quickest way between my office and my son’s soccer game. You?” “It’s not my favorite, but yeah, you’re right — the fastest way to eat between here and there. Be nice if it were a little faster.” “Oh — they just called my number — good luck!” Australians are known for their prowess in sports and for taking life at a pace that promotes health. According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (Australia’s Health 2016), life expectancy is one of the world’s highest. The nation is getting continually healthier, with declining rates of smoking, alcohol consumption, heart attacks, and cardiovascular death. According to the OECD (The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development), Australians avoid the dangers of over-working, as well. From the late 1970s to the late 1990s, Australia’s average working hours were consistently lower than the US, at about 36 hours per week—without adjusting for vacation time (Employment Outlook 2017). Ironically, pursuing a healthy lifestyle with sports and freshly-prepared food can also cause time pressure in a way that destroys this pace. Isn’t there some way to balance food, sports, and time?

What Do You See? KFC? A Canadian insurance salesman working in Australia saw a situation similar to the opening dialog in 1969. Young Jack Cowin was a keen observer and listener with a degree in psychology and a desire for entrepreneurship. He knew fast food in Canada kept life moving at a faster pace and wondered if the same would work in Australia (see Figure 23.1). Convinced that it would, he borrowed $7,800 from 30 friends to buy a KFC franchise.1 At age 25, with no experience and no collateral, half-way around the world from home, it was the start of a bigger adventure than he realized. Jack started with one KFC, then opened another . . . and another. He learned and grew and took calculated, self-funded risks, without visions of a grand food empire. Having opened eight KFC outlets, he decided to branch out into burgers.

1 Currency translations throughout the chapter from AUD to USD are at 2017 rates (not at the time of the transaction).

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Figure 23.1: Fresh food, sports, and work all hit the same constraint: time.

How Hungry Jack’s Beat Burger King Jack bought rights to the Burger King franchise, but unfortunately, he and Burger King then discovered someone else had already bought them. Burger King didn’t have the right to sell him the brand rights. So they dusted off an old pancake brand — Hungry Jack’s — and re-launched it. Jack launched Hungry Jack’s and it grew, but eventually his relationship with Burger King turned sour. They began five years of “fair practices” court cases, and Jack realized at one point that having invested $6.2 million in legal fees, he would have to decide whether to settle out of court or fight to the end. He realized he would feel better about himself wrestling it to the end instead of conceding, so wrestle he did. Back-channel negotiations ensued, and Burger King asked him how much he would sell Hungry Jack’s for. He said no sale. They told him, “fine — we’ll find another way.” That meant they intended to stop him from opening restaurants, and they competed ruthlessly wherever he did open — with 50+ stores of their own. Jack eventually did set a price — almost $180 million. Burger King offered just under US$170 million. Jack returned from a meeting with lawyers in Miami

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and realized the entire case depended precariously on the judge’s mood that upcoming Friday. Realizing it would probably cost him almost $80 million in fees and other costs if he lost, Jack decided at the last minute to cut his losses. He phoned the lawyer in Miami at 9:00 p.m. and was told, “Congratulations. It’s been a difficult experience, long and drawn out, but I’m glad we’ve finally reached an agreement. There’s a board meeting in the morning, and when you arrive in the office tomorrow, there’ll be a fax confirming everything.” Jack recalls: “So I go home, have a good night’s sleep, come to the office the next morning, and here’s a fax saying there’s no deal. If you thought there was a deal, you’re mistaken. So, at ten o’clock, the court decision is done. We won! And they had to pay us $56 million.” (See Figure 23.2.)

Figure 23.2: Jack thought he’d settled, had a good night’s sleep, but found there was no deal after all—and then won.

Despite being on opposite sides of the courtroom, over the years Jack got to know the people involved not just as opponents but also as people. Jack saw his counterpart at Burger King one day, and: “I asked him, ‘How did this ever happen?’ He said, ‘Well after having fought, kicked, and scratched for 5 years, at one minute to midnight you all of a sudden decided you’re finally

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going to accept the offer. The consensus of the board was you must have some inside information that you’re about to lose the case.’”

Jack had no inside information but did learn two lessons. First, something he’d been doing all along — listening to people and making friends — helped him learn the reason for their refusal. Good listening means good learning. Second, never give up if you think you’re right. Courts are littered with big corporations wanting protection from little guys. This time, the little guy won.

Domino’s Rising Dough The little guy wouldn’t be little much longer. Jack bought pizza stores that became part of a large stake in Domino’s Pizza Australia. He acquired 10% of Dominos stock at less than $2 a share — now worth over $36. In 2005, when Domino’s Pizza Australia listed on the stock exchange, Jack’s family holding company owned 75% of it. Its market capitalization is now over US$3.2 billion. Jack became chairman of the group in 2014, and share prices more than doubled in 1½ years. With 26,000 employees, it’s the largest pizza chain in Australia (in stores and sales), as well as the world’s largest Domino’s Pizza brand franchisee. Jack gathered KFC and Hungry Jack’s, along with food retail and manufacturing, property, and distribution, into Competitive Foods Australia (CFA). Privately held, it is Australia’s largest restaurant franchiser and one of the nation’s largest and most diversified private companies.

Idea Delivery CFA staff always know when Jack’s been to Domino’s headquarters because he brings back new ideas (mainly about technology) and wants to apply them to other companies and other industries (see Figure 23.3). Indeed, cross-fertilization is a big part of what he does now. He’s on the board of a TV network, chancellor of a university, director of an Olympic park, and involved in newspapers, printing, manufacturing, sports, beef production, seafood, horticulture, salad processing, wine, railways, scaffolding, and much more, all over the world. He even integrated infrastructure and tourism, paying US$6 million for rights from the government to the Sydney Harbour Bridge so tourists can climb up and see the view (guided and with safety equipment, of course). Bridge Climb Sydney now earns over $24 million per year.

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Figure 23.3: Jack believes Domino’s is a technology company, and he cross-fertilizes ideas across holdings in “separate” industries.

With a track record of success and a reputation as a cautious and canny investor, people now bring ideas and deals to Jack, and he’s remarkably adept at spotting good opportunities. However, he doesn’t rely solely on the financials. Jack buys businesses that have people inside on whom he can rely and trust, cultivating long-term relationships. It’s still all about people.

Early Jack Jack’s mother was attentive to people and relationships and influenced him to be attentive, as well. His father was a Ford Motor engineer who worked his way up through the ranks. Jack remembers as a kid listening to all the drama of corporate politics — who got promotions, who got fired, who did this, who did that, and he decided he wanted to control his own destiny. Control wouldn’t have to come from being in business or from enormous wealth, but it would have to come from a position of strength — the freedom to change if he was unhappy with what he did. His parents didn’t pressure him to pursue a particular career. They were open to whatever he was interested in and just wanted him to be happy — to go out and do his best. So that’s what he did. With a keen desire to make his parents proud and excel at whatever he did, he put his people skills to work in sales.

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“From the age of 10 years old or less, I was always selling things. I sold newspapers. I sold Christmas cards. When I got to university, I did summer jobs selling trees and shrubs, farm to farm, door to door. One of my professors said it really bothered him that I was earning more that summer than his annual salary.” (See Figure 23.4.)

Figure 23.4: Jack started selling things by age 10.

Selling door-to-door, Jack never encountered a customer who immediately welcomed what he had to offer. However, he was always quick to listen and offer help (including products that fit client needs). He was an excellent football player and wrestler — a national junior heavyweight wrestling champion. When he finished university, he thought he would become a professional football player. But it didn’t inspire him to prepare enough, so he followed his passion for sales, joining an insurance company. Again, he did extremely well and learned that whatever you do, you have to love it, pour yourself into it, build confidence, take some risks, and connect with people.

Connecting and Collecting Jack is a master connector — and collector — building not just investment capital, but also social capital, which is also useful as creative capital (see Figure 23.5).

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Figure 23.5: Social capital is just as important as financial capital—perhaps more, since social networks contribute to innovation, operations, and financial growth.

He was International Chairman of the Young President’s Organization (with 24,000 members), and has someone at hand to call for any question. Jack spends about half his time maintaining his extensive network and communicating with people from all walks of life. He has a remarkable ability to charm people, understand them, ask questions, and bring out the best in them. A good noticer and listener, he’s insatiably curious — a hunger that’s never quite satisfied. “He’s not a time-waster and doesn’t accept invitations for a beer after work to while away the evening. . . . He cares about and is fascinated by people in all walks of life; last week he spent half an hour talking to the janitor.” – Ian Parker, CFA Executive

He constantly seeks people to learn from and collects new experiences and ideas from a variety of fields. He likes being challenged and thinking in depth. Relationships are truly important to Jack. Among his tens of thousands of employees, he engenders incredible trust and loyalty, some working for him for over 40 years. He carefully maintains his global network, as well as his nucleus of close friends and family. Conventional and consistent, he’s lived in the same house for 36 years, and has been married for over 50. Every weekend, he and his wife spend time with

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at least some of their four children and their spouses, as well as 12 grandchildren. They’re very close. “He’s a very charismatic guy and the best relationship manager I’ve ever met.” – Ian Parker, CFA Executive

Although aware of others’ emotions, he is not dictated by them and is not overly-demonstrative of his own. He remains emotionally stable and takes a long-term view. He watches things evolve, and eventually the right decisions become obvious.

Reading, Energy, and Creativity What’s the first thing he does when he gets to office? Read (see Figure 23.6). He subscribes to four newspapers and collects (or is sent) a variety of other material. His says his biggest problem in life is information overload, because he wants to read everything.

Figure 23.6: Jack always has a stack of papers to read—he’s always learning.

At the corner of his office there’s a pile of bags filled with paper. Everywhere he goes, he’s got two bags of paper with him, because he’s collected things he wants to read and is always reading. He’ll read at 2:00 a.m. then attend a board meeting that day, then the next midnight he’ll have a conference call with shareholders in Canada.

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“He’s 74 years old and works 15 hours a day, every day. He works harder and travels more than anybody I ever met.” —Ian Parker, CFA Executive “I could go play golf, but I’d rather be doing business.”

For Jack, work, life, and play are all integrated. He’s not striving to gain money and success. He already has them. What motivates him is people, life, and creating, even though he doesn’t see himself as creative. When asked for an interview, he responded, “I’m happy to meet, but I’m not creative — I don’t think I fit into your study.”

When his colleague at CFA overheard, he responded, “Nonsense — look at what he’s created and how many people’s lives he has influenced.” —Ian Parker, CFA Executive

In fact, in a separate interview, another colleague commented, “He’s a creator, not a trader.”

— Atul Sharma, Hungry Jack’s

Jack asks “why?” to understand, then asks “why not?” and acts. If something fails, he learns, let’s go, and moves on. Beyond the above, friends describe Jack as humble, adaptable, competitive, patient, and persistent, with a wicked sense of humor. He meditates, focuses, and is in control of his own mind. Beyond reading prolifically, he hand-writes voluminous correspondence. He has a strong sense of fairness and will go to great lengths to ensure a correct outcome, be it for himself or others. He knows people can sense whether you’re doing something for your own gain or because it’s right and creates value for everyone.

Seeing Differently Over Time . . . and Differently from Others Jack didn’t start his adventure wanting to be a billionaire. He simply wanted control over his own life. Jack didn’t start by studying business or high-tech. He studied something he loved that’s the foundation of organizations and how he sees the world — people (see Figure 23.7). He spots opportunities and makes them happen through his interest in people. That said, how he sees has changed over time. He began his entrepreneurial journey observing 50 people ordering take-out (see Figure 23.8). After building organizations and a people-network, they now bring ideas and opportunities to him, or — when he’s read or heard something of interest — serve as experts,

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Figure 23.7: Jack sees through a different lens—of people and time.

Figure 23.8: Noticing a long line for takeout began Jack’s journey. What will begin yours?

filters, and sounding boards. Having started seeing opportunities with his own eyes, now he sees with many more. How he creates has also changed. He began his entrepreneurial adventure across nations and now puts new ideas to use across industries, too. He creates value reaching across them and taught me something about diversity.

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Business leaders in a VUCA world (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous) seek diversity for their organizations so they have resources at hand no matter what happens. Jack goes a step further and diversifies his peoplenetwork and his own mind. Instead of organizational diversity, tomorrow’s leadership imperative may be social and mental diversity. What do you see, with what desire in your heart? Will you act, persist, and build? Will you build social diversity and see with their eyes, too? What mental diversity will you build? How long have you been waiting in the queue? Jack Cowin is Chairman and CEO of Competitive Foods Australia Pty. Ltd. He introduced KFC to Australia and created the Hungry Jack’s fast-food empire. Majority owner of Domino’s Pizza Australia (which he considers a technology company), this “self-made” billionaire originated in Canada then settled as an adult in Australia. For more information on his work, see: linkedin.com/in/jackcowin-5952b910/, kfc.com.au/, hungryjacks.com.au/home, dominos.com.au/, and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competitive_Foods_Australia.

Chapter 24 Found8 Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Development

Grace Sai—Serial and Social Entrepreneur

From her first (lonely) impact venture to creating an entrepreneurship ecosystem, Grace Sai created fusions of: – Business and society – Co-working space, mentorship network, venture fund, events facility, and café – Multiple stakeholders

Video https://youtu.be/RNph1fp8Nlg

It’s a small village, with a dusty road and trees — much like any other in rural Indonesia. She glided toward the white porch with the open gable and drifted inside. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781547401505-024

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She saw the children’s paintings filling one of the white walls — brown and green tree, red bird, multi-colored flowers, and a rainbow. To the right is the green bookshelf, half-filled with books, each sporting a yellow sticker atop its spine, all neatly stacked. She floated through the ceiling and saw the building from above, its design clear and simple. “When I woke up, I drew it out and called my dad and said, ‘Hey dad, I’m going to start this thing. You don’t have to worry, because it’ll also be sustainable.’” He said, “No! Don’t be crazy.”

She didn’t talk to him for six months. Unfortunately, she got a similar response when she told her boyfriend. So she started it alone. Twenty-four-year-old Grace Sai had been working with her sister in Jakarta, Indonesia, setting up a telecommunications company, when she had the “flash enlightenment” in a dream. Her day job was productive but unfulfilling—at night, she could dream.

Books for Hope Founding a not-for-profit organization while being discouraged by the people closest to her was very scary and lonely (see Figure 24.1). Nonetheless, she modeled the enterprise on John Wood’s Room to Read organization and adapted it for Indonesia. Within three weeks, she put together a team of volunteers and 3,000 donated books. She kept her day job, but on weekends carted books into Indonesia’s jungles and slums. Within a year, she had set up 12 libraries across the nation. Beyond literacy, she was also excited to run entrepreneurship workshops to help villagers narrow the rural-urban income gap. For two years, Books for Hope built libraries for children in remote villages by working with big corporations — training Googlers and PwC auditors and more to become child-centric volunteer teachers. Almost every weekend, she was in a jungle village. When she left to do her MBA at Oxford on a Skoll scholarship for social entrepreneurs, the local team continued for another four years. Twelve libraries grew to 26, and they’ve given 30,000 children across the country access to books and literacy.

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Figure 24.1: Books for Hope was an inspiring but lonely venture.

The Hub — San Francisco While at Oxford, she focused on two things: Social entrepreneurship and how to create new markets and innovation systems. She realized that innovation often comes at the periphery of boundaries, but it needs support — the kind of support she wished she’d had. She accepted a consulting project in Palo Alto, CA (USA) as part of her MBA program where a colleague decided she needed a push to go to a new place in San Francisco that she said, “is SO you.” Grace had plans and declined but the friend got her to go (see Figure 24.2). “So, I stepped into the San Francisco Chronicle building — this big, grand, former newspaper-printing space — and I felt it — it clicked. I thought, ‘Oh my God — this is where I want to be’ — an inner knowing, that this is something I have to do — a calling.”

Grace had entered Impact Hub San Francisco. She describes the place as having an electrifying energy that could make anyone believe anything is possible. All the Hubs have a social entrepreneurship flavor, although any entrepreneur can join, and provide community and a place of courage. She knew she would have loved such a place when starting Books for Hope and hoped there was an untapped market of people with the same desire — enough to make it a business.

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Figure 24.2: Grace didn’t want to go but found a “calling” once she got there.

She spoke with the founders about the business model and whether there was a Hub in Asia. There wasn’t and they suggested she start one.

The Hub — Singapore Based on her studies at Oxford, Grace knew that behind The Hub there’s a good deal of science — research into social network theory, innovation ecosystem development, and more. She realized that The Hub is the manifestation of a node at the intersection of different networks, including creative media, technology, and so on (see Figure 24.3). It’s a neutral platform that integrates government, startups, and corporations such as JP Morgan, Google, and P&G. She knew Asia’s first Hub should be in Singapore. If it did well, the entire region would follow. Nevertheless, her decision to return to Asia was not easy. She’s at home in Silicon Valley and London and could have taken a job in one of those places, building her own life. But she would miss “making an impact” in a place where she could make a big difference. “I’m not happy here, but I have purpose here. And from purpose comes happiness.”

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Figure 24.3: The Impact Hub (now Found8) — Prinsep (Singapore) is a place where people from different domains can interact and help each other’s enterprises grow.

She started a small social-enterprise community, and after becoming visibly successful in the first year, she hosted the first Asia Summit in 2012. Between the two, she worked for six months to save money to spend nine more months launching Impact Hub Singapore. As part of a franchise, this hub is a node in a global community, and the founders freely shared their seven years of experience with her, shortening her learning curve. During those nine months, she had over 400 conversations to explore whether the highly successful country filled with corporate jobs really wanted a Hub. Would people really use it? Nothing like it existed there. “Before you start, you need to kill your idea. A lot of first-time founders make the mistake of talking to people to validate their ideas. That’s dangerous. You need to try to kill it before you spend a lot of resources starting it.” (See Figure 24.4.)

Grace couldn’t kill it, and the timing was perfect. She started with a team of three, and in their first 1,000 conversations, they were constantly explaining co-working, the business model, and why would a community or collaboration be needed. People asked, “Are you a business, a community, or a network?” She said, “Yes.”

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Figure 24.4: Before you start, try to kill your idea—develop it only if it survives.

The Hub is best described as three things: An inspiring co-working space, weekly events (keynote speakers, incubator pitches, mindfulness classes, and more), and a curated community of like-minded but diverse individuals seeking higher success rates through collision of ideas, conversations, and connections (“planned serendipity”). It also includes a venture fund and mentorship. The team grew from three to 14 (with two co-founders in addition to Grace). They started with 30 members and now have 650, including billion-dollar “unicorns.” It is Singapore’s largest co-working community and expanded to a second location. The global Hub has grown, as well, now hosting 80 nodes (26 in-development), with over 15,000 members across five regions. Singapore and the region have also changed and grown, and Grace speaks widely on innovation and ecosystem development. She was invited by the Prime Minister’s Offices in Singapore and Malaysia to share her input and is now a Social Entrepreneur-in-Residence at INSEAD.

Found8 The Hub eventually left the global Impact Hub network and rebranded itself as Found—a globally connected, Singaporean/Southeast-Asian brand and organization. It then merged with Collision 8 to become Found8.

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In six years, The Hub had built a community of 2,500 members and alumni who created over 4,500 jobs, combined revenue of $725 million, and raised over $275 million in funding. As a team and community, they helped over 75 corporations with their innovation initiatives and became Google for Entrepreneurs’ first Southeast Asian partner. In Grace’s words, “Found. is a network of innovation studios where ambitious entrepreneurs and corporates find coaching, expertise, and partners to create future-ready solutions. The name ‘Found.’ signals both a journey and a goal. More importantly, it is a place of belonging, whichever part of the journey you are on.”

The Origins of Grace Born in Malaysia, Grace was the fifth of six children. Both her parents were educators, and there were 20 to 30 children at the house every night. Life got a little crazy when they used the mattresses as slides or turned on the taps to make the bathroom a pool to jump into from the window. Each child might take charge of a room, set up an activity, and see who could earn more by selling tickets (see Figure 24.5). They also had strong discipline and work ethic. Grace’s mother insisted all the children learn piano, so Grace studied from age 4 to 17. In contrast to two siblings who were musically gifted and adept at improvisation, Grace had to read, memorize, and practice, but was excellent at music theory — understanding concepts, patterns, form, and abstraction. Grace speaks six languages (Cantonese, Chinese, English, German, Indonesian, and Malay) and was the first of her siblings to study in Singapore on scholarship. She read extensively, was president of three clubs while studying for her high school exams, and annoyed her classmates by asking so many questions. As a triple science student (physics, chemistry, and biology), she approaches ideas scientifically. She graduated from Nanyang Business School with student loans, having also worked as a tutor, selling education programs at roadshows, and writing case studies for international marketing guru Philip Kotler.

Grace Inside Friends say Grace is able to make associations across disciplines and fields when others can’t see them. She similarly connects people — those with the same underlying purpose who are different on the outside, such as when she

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Figure 24.5: When kids take over the house, it could be a foundation for innovation.

connected wealthy professionals with villagers in Books for Hope. Likewise, at The Hub — a multi-stakeholder ecosystem — she connects members, investors, mentors, the broader ecosystem, and the team. She sees at depth, connects what’s similar even when they’re different on the surface, and communicates in a way that transcends. She is described as passionate, driven, aware, smart, dynamic, extremely inspirational, curious, constantly learning, authentic, objective, collaborative, and flexible, with contagious energy. A good negotiator and tougher on the outside than in, she notices team morale and feelings yet also says exactly what she thinks and openly shares her emotions. Although short on time, patience, and attention, she builds good relationships, and once something has happened, lets it go. She collects non-fiction autobiographies and biographies, and ideas come from broad, voracious reading, as well as from people-connecting. She listens to customers and potential customers and watches competitors. She clarifies by visualizing, drawing, and writing things down. That said, a lot of her best ideas and solutions come to her when she’s away from The Hub — especially in the zone between thinking and not thinking, in the shower, or when going to sleep. That’s when things are most clear.

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She understands she can’t purposely think of a problem. It has to incubate and will pop up when it’s ready. She’s also learned to tell her team an initial decision is a “place holder for now” while her mind incubates. They sometimes get frustrated when un-incubated decisions are reversed. In fact, Grace says team management is the hardest part of her job. She cares for them on a personal level — love is given. Trust, on the other hand, is earned. She’s quite demanding until she knows they’re thinking at a certain level of quality (although not necessarily in agreement with her). Then they have her full trust.

Lessons on Listening Listening to Understand Versus Listening to Respond Grace listens closely to her mentors, and a conversation may give her insights to work on for an entire year. That said, as a former National Debater, her Hub team has accused her of listening to respond, not to understand (see Figure 24.6). As a determined person, it is also tempting to listen for what she wants to hear, although scientific training pushes her to listen objectively. Sometimes She’s “Speed Listening” Like other busy leaders, sometimes she’s recognized a pattern or made a decision while listening. She really did listen, but the speaker isn’t finished, and it

Figure 24.6: There are different ways of listening — use each wisely.

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may look like she didn’t. In order to change her mind by the end of the conversation, she needs the speaker to think at the same speed and challenge her underlying assumptions. Sometimes Listen to Everyone Building a multi-stakeholder ecosystem and leading a team requires that Grace be aware and listen to multiple inputs and perspectives. Listening is good. Sometimes Don’t Listen If she had listened to her dad and boyfriend, she would not have formed Books for Hope, and 30,000 children would not have had libraries. Sometimes judgment is necessary and not-listening is good. Listen When Someone Is Really Passionate Grace had plans and had no need to go to The Hub in San Francisco, but listening to her insistent friend launched a new future. So listening to the right people at the right time is good — if you can figure that out. Listening (and Empathy) Can Burn You Out All social entrepreneurs have active empathy. They help people. However, it can lead to burnout, and Grace, like many empaths, has learned to control the urge, now jumping in only when asked. She also has emotional empathy, as well as cognitive empathy (seeing from other’s perspectives). However, she’s learned not to use them all the time. They’re too exhausting. “Empathy is a very tiring process, so I just switch it on when it matters. After two burnouts, it took me a lot of years to learn how to manage that power and energy. I was available without boundaries, and that’s not good. We need some boundaries.”

Ironically, as a professional boundary-crosser, she had to learn to set and manage boundaries while helping others cross boundaries and come together as a community. However, she doesn’t particularly observe boundaries between work and personal life. It’s all integrated, and she does gain significant energy, purpose, and happiness from her work (despite the stress and strain of building a new enterprise). She meditates daily, participates in triathlons, and walks in the park when she needs to clear her head.

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Figure 24.7: Grace changed during her journey. How are you changing over yours?

Grace Over Time Grace has hardened and softened during her journey (see Figure 24.7). On the hard side, she’s built resilience and calmness, now viewing things more like a game to be played or a puzzle to be solved. On the soft side, her sharing and openness has increased, as well as her patience and being able to ask for help. Her advice for new entrepreneurs is to join a community with mentors and peers. Don’t do it alone. Grace was open to reaching out, building something for others she would love to have had herself. She heard and acted on inner inspiration and manages it actively. She manages inward-outward openness (“porosity”) with alternate inspiration and conversation. She collected a network of people and ideas, and before fusing a solution, took care to make sure she sensed correctly — that people had a real need and would use what she wanted to create. Good sensing and listening skills are essential for innovation — listening to kill your idea, to understand, to filter and respond, to speedily sense patterns or make decisions; listening to everyone, to no one, or to someone who’s inspired; and never to the point of burnout (see Figure 24.8).

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Figure 24.8: Don’t just listen — decide how to listen (or not listen).

Who do you listen to but maybe shouldn’t? Who are you not hearing but maybe should? Will you join a community with experts and mentors to listen to? Have you dreamed a dream and listened to your heart? Grace Sai is the Co-Founder and co-CEO of Found8, a collaborative, co-working community of entrepreneurs and corporate innovators. Well-regarded as the node of Asia’s entrepreneurship ecosystem, she is a Prime Minister-level advisor on ecosystem building and policy development for startups and social enterprises. She is “from” Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the UK, and the USA (Silicon Valley). For more information on her work, see: linkedin.com/in/gracesai/ and found8.com/.

Chapter 25 Mosquito Attractant and the Polyclone Chop Finding Problems for Simple, Everyday 180° Inventions Robest Yong—Inventor

Robest Yong crosses boundaries of industry, social class, experience, and more, to fuse: – Other people’s problems, his own curiosity, and multi-sourced methods – Invention and commercialization Video https://youtu.be/Aej-LwE8JMM

“Can I have a chop, please — a rubber stamp? I’m starting a new company and need an official stamp for registration and bank account.” “Sure. Can I see what you’d like to stamp?” “Here you go.” “No problem. We’ll have it ready next week.” “Next week?? So ridiculous! One rubber stamp — you mean one week? Why do I have to wait a week?”

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“That’s how long it takes to make the stamp.” “Why is it so difficult to make a simple stamp?” “They’re hand-carved, you know. I have people back there working on piles of ’em all day. OK, you’re so clever, you tell me how we should do it. Come, I show you.” They walked into the hot back room and watched the tedious operation amid rows of debris, walking among people carrying stamps and supplies from here to there. “This is not how to do it. I was a printer. I know how it should work. I can do it better. The easy way to do this is to cure the pattern onto the rubber with ultra violet light and then brush-wash the uncured rubber you don’t want to be part of the print. It should take you five minutes.” “Wow — if I could do that, everyone would get stamps from me.” The year was 1993, and with knowledge from the printing industry and a tinkerer’s mindset, Robest Yong devised an automatic stamp-making machine. Patent in hand, he sold his machines to stationery- and book-shops all over the world. The Polyclone Instant Rubber Stamp maker won him an award (the first of many) at the International Invention Exhibition in Geneva, and he was named Malaysia’s National Inventor of the Year.

The Invention Collection Robest didn’t stop there (see Figure 25.1). He went on to invent a magnetic brush, luggage detector, and much more, for example:

Mosquito Glue Most people use mosquito repellant to drive bugs away from their bodies and homes, but then the bugs just go to their friends and to the neighbor’s house. Robest thought that wasn’t very friendly and decided to ponder the problem backwards. He finds 180° transpositions useful for making breakthroughs. “So, I attract. The thing works like a glue. Mosquitos land on it and die, like flypaper. But to catch mosquitoes is different from flies. They’re not attracted to blood or sugar or whatever, so I had to figure out a lure. They’re actually attracted to carbon dioxide and heat (as when you breathe out). Scientific researchers trap mosquitoes to count them and use a solution that’s already in the market — just not for commercial use. So, I adapted that, and it works!”

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Figure 25.1: Robest is continually inventing in his office/workshop.

Micro-Fertilizer “One day, I was going to buy fertilizer and noticed it comes in these big, smelly bags, and I know 80% of it is rubbish. They use fillers to make the thing look huge so you think you’re getting a lot when you buy it. It’s cheating, really — not serving customers. Transporting it is a pain, storing it in a condo is ridiculous (we live in a house, but many people are balcony gardeners), and customers have to pay for the pre-sale packaging, transportation, storage, and handling. Why not just sell the essential bits and solve everybody’s problem?”

So, he created a fertilizer concentrate, using probiotic enzymes which (when added to soil) enables microbes to grow and plants to break down nutrients. You use just a single dash. It’s soil probiotics. The Flush ’n’ Wash “Another day, I was in the petrol station and noticed the cover for the cistern was broken. Many people here actually open the cistern to get water for washing, and don’t put it back properly, so it drops and breaks. Separately, I realized that even if you want to wash your hands at the sink outside, after you’ve done so, you have to close the tap, and when you touch it, you’re germy again — back to square one. Also, your hand-wash water is just running down the sink, useless. Why not make a cistern where, once you flush, the water flows like a sink for a short time, enabling you to wash your hands above the cistern, and the hand-water refills the cistern? So, I did — it’s called the Flush ’n’ Wash.” (See Figure 25.2.)

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Figure 25.2: One of his simple and elegant solutions is the flush ‘n wash. Source: www.apanama.com.my

The Rubber Band Mistake Have you ever bought take-out coffee in a plastic bag tied at the top with a rubber band (most Asians have)? It’s devilishly difficult to get the rubber band off so you can enjoy your drink. Robest found a mistakenly mal-formed rubber band one day and realized it would be the perfect solution for the stubborn rubber-band problem. He tried it out, found he could grip and remove it easily, went to a rubber band factory, drilled a special channel to try making one, and when he did, filed another patent. No special factory is needed — just a tab drilled into an existing channel mold.

Smartphones for the Blind On another occasion, Robest met a friend of a friend for lunch. His new acquaintance was blind and was using a very old feature phone (with buttons). Robest asked, “If your phone breaks, where would you get a new one?” The man said he didn’t know. No one made that model anymore, and soon all feature phones might become extinct. He had tried a variety of apps for sight-impaired users, but none worked very well. Dictation capabilities exist on every new smartphone but

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are notoriously inaccurate. You have to type the corrections. So, for the moment, he would just happily text his friends with the phone he still had. It became a new challenge for Robest, who decided to address it simply — without advanced technology — maybe with braille? All the letters of the alphabet can be written in braille with a combination of six dots. Specially made phones with raised keypads do exist but are predictably expensive and complex. Instead of pushing something up, why not push down? He punched holes in a transparent piece of plastic with a school-binder hole-punch, laid it atop a smartphone, and found that he could, indeed, find his way around a smartphone without seeing (see Figure 25.3). With a simple app to mimic a braille keyboard, sight-impaired users can now use any smartphone to write text.

Figure 25.3: Robest made a simple yet powerful smartphone adapter for blind users.

Step 1: How to Sense a Problem “He sees things more sensitively than other people.” —Teng Yu-Mein, Robest’s wife and former colleague

Finding problems is Robest’s forte. He notices things and gets ideas when talking with people (which he does a lot). When people share problems with him, they’re not always aware that they are problems. Once sensed, he can find a

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university researcher or other innovator happy to work on it (and grants to fund the work), but someone first has to find and define the problem. “The key to inventing is to become more observant — more aware — and you do that with the things you care about and the things you collect or mess around with. Take bird watching, for example. Observing birds doesn’t make you a bird watcher. But being a bird-watcher will make you observe birds very well.”

To maintain his creative energy and flow of ideas, he associates with other innovators, engages in competitions, and conducts workshops. He’s noticed other innovators who start to think too highly of themselves and lose their outward focus and openness. He guards against that as best he can. He listens openly for problems and searches for expert help, but he works on basic approaches himself—less open while innovating a solution (see Figure 25.4). Once he’s created a solution, he’s again open — to challenge and arguments — in a way that sets him apart from many others. Most people fall in love with their solutions and don’t want to be challenged. Robest, on the other hand, wants to hear challenge and opposition. Instead of rejecting an idea outright, he will often think about it actively and subconsciously for a week, a month, or more.

Figure 25.4: Robest openly engages with others when gathering ideas, looking for problems, and testing solutions, but “closes into himself” when creating potential solutions.

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Step 2: Do Something and Market It Robest constantly crosses boundaries into “other people’s business” and takes action where others don’t. Since he earns his living inventing (not as a salaried university researcher inventing on the side), he monetizes something out of every journey (except Smartphone for the Blind, which is free). Innovations must be useable, marketable, bankable, and sustainable. To compete with existing solutions (even bad ones), his must be completely different. He can’t say his is 10% better and expect to oust an incumbent or attract investment capital. Further, if his invention is good, it’ll be copied immediately. To stay a step ahead, he keeps improving and inventing. He designs for pain-points and markets for desire, since people buy what they want—not necessarily what they need. Marketing must be creative when an idea is novel. He’s noticed that many innovators do not have marketing ability (especially researchers).

Not All Empathy Is Needed for Design Empathy is a much-lauded skill for solution-design, but Robest is not known for having emotional empathy. Most emotional-empaths would not have given the stamp-maker a hard time and been challenged to walk into the back room to design something better. Emotional empathy might actually have prevented that encounter and the subsequent innovation. That said, he is perhaps a helpful example for understanding at depth different types of empathy — and that good design does not always require them all. He has the second basic type of empathy: cognitive (taking others’ perspectives). Although he may bring multiple players together and senses others’ problems, he doesn’t necessarily align himself with others’ perspectives. He keeps his own and pursues projects that interest him and have commercial potential. The third type — active empathy (compassion) — is where he excels. Although he works on some problems of his own (for example, the polyclone stamp and micro-fertilizer), the majority of what he works on are not his problems. In fact, he even solved problems for a former employer: “He already left the company, and the new mechanic couldn’t handle the machine. They actually called him up and asked him to come and help. He wasn’t even handling that machine, but he did it. How come he can find the problem and solve it, and so very fast? They had all the same information he did, and yet he can solve the unexpected.” —Teng Yu-Mein, Robest’s wife and former colleague

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Since Robest now has a national reputation, people from all over seek his advice (see Figure 25.5). He gives it freely.

Figure 25.5: With caring, curiosity, and adaptability, Robest helped a former employer with a misbehaving machine he hadn’t even worked with.

Collecting People, Problems, and Ideas People find him (and he finds others to add to his network) through government agencies such as the Ministry of Science and the International Youth Center. He would like to foster a culture of innovation and promote it through workshops for government, schools, and private companies like Grab (a competitor of Uber), where he has held workshops for workers and their children. He has a little black book—actually, a collection of them. Every time he sees a problem and doesn’t have a solution, he writes it down to solve another day. He doesn’t record technologies or ideas of other people (which can be Googled) but does draw ideas he’s had. He throws idea grenades onto his Facebook page “Think Without the Box” and collects a lot of good ideas that way (see Figure 25.6). He says, “Everybody can teach you something.”

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Figure 25.6: Robest can learns a lot by posting challenges on his Facebook page and seeing how people respond.

“Robest Inside” Friends describe Robest as enthusiastic, goal-oriented, determined, headstrong, truthful, direct, very focused, always thinking, and gifted. Intensely curious about everything around him, he loves to ask questions such as, “Why is it done this way? Isn’t there a better way?” or “How can I commercialize this new way?” Nicknamed MacGyver (after the unconventional problem-solver from the 1980s/90s TV show), he’s open to any kind of problem — big, small, day-to-day, workplace, household, societal — and rapidly finds ways to overcome them. He brokers between different fields and dabbles in technology, marketing, finance, and beyond, looking for ways to apply what he finds in one field to another. He bridges different domains, teams, and cliques. He reads and writes a lot. He drills down to the fundamentals of ideas instead of branching off into complicated implications and applications. He marries the technical with the creative, as well as innovation with commercialization, which are unusual combinations in a single person.

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It All Starts with Sensing He’s planning to publish a book on his approach and methodology — something like Blue Ocean, but addressing an earlier phase — how to create the new. He’ll add it to his repertoire of workshops. But no matter how well he lays out his inventing tools, techniques, and methodology (especially his 180° turns and bias for radical simplicity), nothing can replace his remarkable state of openness, curiosity, questioning, and unique brand of empathy that sees from others’ perspectives and compels him to act yet embraces opposition. Learning to see is intensely personal and rooted in curiosity. Seeing differently requires uniqueness. Robest is unique, and that uniqueness both sets him apart and connects him to others in a way others miss. Setting out on his own, making his own company, and needing a new stamp set him on the journey of a lifetime, seeing something new with each step (see Figure 25.7).

Figure 25.7: Walking into a back room to tinker with someone else’s problem can make all the difference.

What do you already see or hear that others miss? What do you care about and would like to tinker with? Will you walk into the back room? Robest Yong is an Innovation Ambassador with Innopreneur Enterprise. He is “from” Malaysia and Japan. For more information on his work, see: linkedin. com/in/robest-yong-bb059635/ and Smartphone for the Blind on TEDx.

Chapter 26 Urban Farming Inner-City Nutrition and “Green-Collar Jobs” in a $50 Billion Global Market

Dr. Margaret Connors—Serial Entrepreneur, Urban Farmer, Medical Anthropologist “Food lies at the intersection of many of our most pressing problems: The obesity epidemic, soaring healthcare costs, a faltering economy, and climate change.”1

To create innovative ways to feed urban children, Dr. Margaret Connors fused: – Farm and city – Production and consumption – Races and social classes – Agriculture, industry, and home

1 The Conservation Law Foundation and CLF Ventures, Inc., Growing Green: Measuring Benefits, Overcoming Barriers, and Nurturing Opportunities for Urban Agriculture in Boston (whitepaper, July 2012). Quotations from page 3. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781547401505-026

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Video https://youtu.be/4jz5532poZU

“I was working as a wellness coordinator in the Young Achievers Math and Science Elementary School — part of the Boston Public School System. A little more than half the schools in the city of Boston do not have their own kitchens. So, meals are sent from faraway places to the school frozen, and then thawed in warming ovens and served to the children for breakfast and lunch. One of our warming ovens had broken. So, for 3 weeks running, the kids were getting cheese sandwiches for breakfast and lunch. As it was, the students weren’t eating the food because it tasted so horrible. The pizza tasted like cardboard. There were virtually no fruits and vegetables. They were being served nothing but cheese sandwiches. Nobody was eating the stuff. They were getting headaches from hunger and performing poorly in school. When you don’t eat, you don’t learn. They weren’t going to be ‘young achievers’ for very long.”

During the industrial revolution, people flocked to cities for new factory jobs. Cities grew, and with transportation technologies and infrastructure, they also sprawled. Urbanites were separated from farmers, and within cities people no longer lived where they worked. Canning and other preservation technologies improved, and fresh food became ever-rarer. Most of what people ate was packaged and transported, and people’s lives separated into work-life and home-life. Urbanization continues today. According to KPMG (Future State 2030), 60% of people around the world will live in cities by 2030. Inequality also continues — and grows — especially with high rates of joblessness in many innercities. According to a Sierra Club report on the “true cost of food,” 7% of our farms grow 72% of our food, and urban communities of color often have little, if any, access to fresh food (see Figure 26.1).

A New Achievement at Young Achievers Dr. Margaret Connors was working with the Young Achievers cafeteria staff to survey and document how much the students were eating, what they liked, what they threw away, and how well they performed in their studies. Based on the results, the school staff decided to secede from the Federal School Lunch Program, take their $1.90 per meal, per child, and “go local.” The school brought in City Fresh Foods, a local fresh-food distributor of meals to schools, child-care centers, and home-care elders. Together, they introduced freshly prepared meals and repeated the surveys and interviews six months later.

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Figure 26.1: Urban people need healthy food, and the urban environment itself can provide it. Source: facebook.com/citygrowersboston/

The difference was phenomenal. The children were cleaning their plates of rice and beans, chicken, and vegetable stew — dishes that were both fresh and familiar to them. A year later, the school’s test scores were among the highest in the city. Expanding the menu to include fresh fruits and vegetables — while meeting the price point that schools can pay — is always a challenge for businesses like City Fresh Foods. Margaret was brainstorming about this dilemma with City Fresh CEO Glynn Lloyd one day, and said, “Wouldn’t it be great if we could grow greens right around the corner from the school in all these vacant lots?” In fact, Margaret’s research found that 73% of all the vacant land was concentrated in just three of the City’s 21 neighborhoods. That was the beginning of City Growers.

City Growers In 2010, City Growers established their first urban farm (see Figure 26.2), just managing to support the farmers at a living wage. Two years later, they established the commercial viability of operating multiple urban farms with central management. In three of the most economically challenged communities of Boston, City Growers has transformed vacant land into productive lots for growing

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Figure 26.2: Hungry people + vacant lots = potential! Source: facebook.com/citygrowersboston/

food. They have three main objectives: Employment at a living wage; local access to affordable, nutrient-rich foods; and food security based on local sourcing. They demonstrated that small plots become economically viable when they’re centrally managed and employ intensive growing practices. Some lots were recently vacated with the economic downturn, but many had been vacant for over 30 years. Most were residential, and many would have soil quality issues requiring new topsoil. Some were industrial, offering possible contamination issues. Those would require geotextile barriers (like plastic sheeting) and raised beds to guard against phased-out use of leaded gas, leaded paint, pressure-treated wood, and other toxins. Urban land preparation is considerably more expensive than rural, and small plots are more labor-intensive and complex. Before any physical changes could take place on the lots (like enhancements for water and soil), zoning regulations had to be changed to support mixed use of land. This required massive paperwork to transform “industrial” and “residential” lots into “agriculturally productive” land. Neighbors would have to be persuaded to accept new noises, smells, and appearances. Workers would have to be trained, and nascent markets needed development. Capital would have to be gathered, including foundation grants, state grants, and private investment. Loans would be negotiated creatively, since

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standard farm loans are based on land ownership and not on new distributednetwork business models of small plots with a complex array of ownership and agreements.

New Fruit (and Challenges) from an Old Vine Before launching a ground-breaking enterprise, Margaret and Glynn did their homework (see Figure 26.3). Research showed that 50 acres of farming in Boston would create up to 220 agricultural jobs (plus more to serve the sector), reduce CO2 emissions by 4,700 tons, and generate over 680,000 kg (1.5 million pounds) of fresh produce for local consumption.2 In fact, urban farming has a long and illustrious history: “The Parisian maraîchers of 160 years ago pioneered intensive sustainable urban agriculture, producing year-round all the vegetables consumed by Parisians on one-sixteenth of the land within the Paris city limits — with enough left over for export to England. . . . Urban agriculture — growing food in and around cities — is widely practiced around the world today; over 800 million people engage in urban food growing and processing as a means to

Figure 26.3: 160 years ago, urban farmers in Paris farmed the city’s needs and exported to England. Today, 14 of China’s largest cities grow 85% of needed vegetables.

2 Ibid.

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generate income, and it plays a significant role in building food security, particularly for low income and poor city dwellers. . . . There are . . . 80,000 urban farmers in Berlin, and China’s fourteen largest cities produce eighty-five percent of their vegetables. Sustainable urban agriculture is a key component in creating more livable, carbon resilient, healthier, economically vibrant, and environmentally sustainable cities . . . .”3

With annual revenues of $1.70–2.20 per square foot,4 Boston’s vacant 800 acres could produce $70 million annually. There are 30 cities in the US with at least 600,000 people, so if universally undertaken, US revenue could approach $2 billion per year. The US contains about 4.4% of the world’s population, so extrapolating further, global revenue could approximate $50 billion per year. City Growers was among the first in the nation to conceptualize urban farming as a commercial industry — a community-based business with commercial viability. As social entrepreneurs, Glynn provided the business perspective, and Margaret provided research, policy, and advocacy. Not-for-profit farms prevail in their market, but City Growers’ plan is to become a model for economic self-sufficiency. Margaret and Glynn also created a separate not-for-profit, the Urban Farming Institute (UFI), for land acquisition and management, infrastructure development, and farmer training. As a not-for-profit, UFI has access to grants and donations that commercial growers (like City Growers) cannot obtain. In growing this way organizationally, they are also growing their programs for community education and outreach, as well as developing affordable farmer’s markets in the neighborhoods where they operate. To make it all work, they had to integrate community, business, government, consumers, investors, and more. In fact, the Massachusetts Urban Agricultural Conference (founded by City Growers and co-hosted by UFI and the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources), is an annual event where these efforts can ferment. The Conference brings together farmers of all types — small- and large-plot, rooftop, community gardeners, chicken growers, beekeepers, etc. — to engage with political activists, policy makers, commercial buyers, and investors. Now Margaret has launched a new enterprise — Life Is Local — which digs deeper into City Growers’ theoretical foundation. Life Is Local envisions a future where both the local and global economies drive local purchasing. Its mission is to provide local knowledge, products, and services in one location under one

3 Ibid. 4 Ibid.

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banner — LIFE IS LOCAL™ — for promoting and growing locally sustained economies.

Crossing Boundaries with Empathy What kind of person fuses farm and city, production and consumption, work and home, race, social class, and a multitude of stakeholders (see Figure 26.4)?

Figure 26.4: Dr. Margaret Connors is a pioneer.

“She’s a pioneer — open to the unknown. She’s willing to mark and stay on course, and the course is not always clear. It takes a certain personality to put up with that. You have to be flexible all the way.” —Glynn Lloyd, City Growers Co-Founder

Flexible she is — and curious, cross-cultural, and cross-disciplinary. A native of Boston, Margaret went to Indonesia to study gamelan music. She was so intrigued by the indigenous medical system that when she returned to college, she decided to earn a PhD in Medical Anthropology — the study of culture through the lenses of medicine and medicine through the lenses of culture.

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Planning to return to Indonesia to work for an NGO, Margaret was swept up by the fervor of the AIDS epidemic in the US. With the preponderance of infections coming from sexual activity and drug-needle sharing, she studied risk and risk-aversion practices in “crack houses,” as interventions to curb the epidemic were introduced. She found herself in Worcester, Massachusetts (with the highest rate of Hepatitis C in the nation), Chicago, and among the Tohono O’dam of Arizona, researching socio-cultural factors that contributed to infection rates. Afterward, she accepted a fellowship at Harvard Medical School to continue her work investigating HIV risk-taking among intravenous drug users. Illicit substance-abusers are not typically welcoming of people they perceive as wealthy elites, such as scholars from Harvard. However, with her working-class background and deep empathy, people quickly warmed to her and shared their experiences and lives, agreeing to let her publish their stories with her insights. She talks with people, draws them together, and gets them involved. She’s keenly aware of power relations and structural injustices, as well as the intricacies of social and individual agency (see Figure 26.5). “I’ve been fusing things my whole career — trying to integrate so many different ideas and fields and people that — in my view — should be together.”

Figure 26.5: Margaret is rooted in her community yet brings in fresh ideas from outside.

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Crossing Boundaries by Being Rooted Always open to new ideas and exploring new possibilities, once Margaret gets an idea, she pursues it speedily and confidently. She doesn’t shy away from boundaries other people see, and her initiatives always benefit someone else. They create value to society and all the players involved. “She was the first to have chickens, you know, right in Jamaica Plain — totally urban Boston. She led her neighborhood in planting fruit trees on the block, too. She was already doing this stuff around gardening in a pioneering way. Farming was the next step.” —Glynn Lloyd, City Growers Co-Founder

Friends describe her as a driven, determined, passionate, experienced, open, creative risk-taker — a doer with integrity and a sense of reciprocity, friendship, and justice. Margaret produces a perennial harvest of new ideas, connects the dots, and is a trouble-maker (in the most positive way). She is never constrained by convention. As an anthropologist, she knows how to observe, consider, and investigate. As a researcher, she knows how to gather resources for what no one yet knows how to do. She collects seeds of ideas from broad-based and voracious reading and gathers tools and help from the different communities she engages. She has boundless energy and plans far more than is possible. She’s mindful, present, and very, very aware — extremely “tuned-in” to the environment around her. As a naturalist, she recharges while hiking and camping and has a vast knowledge of flora and fauna. Her perspective is both international and local — cross-cultural as well as deeply rooted in family and Boston. She adroitly crosses sub-cultural boundaries with the depth of understanding only a native has. Rootedness has also required her to be creative in a way that only placebased people understand. Changing circumstances (like economic recession) don’t drive them to move away. They make changes to survive where they are. In fact, she shocked her friends by turning down a prestigious social-science tenure-track job elsewhere. Working and living in her community was more important than securing an academic salary, and she’s done well in the decades since.

Sensing and Fusing Margaret is highly aware of the people around her, reads them well, and understands their needs and capabilities based on deep local knowledge, empathy,

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and friendly engagement (see Figure 26.6). That said, she also sees with the eyes of a traveler who’s come home.

Figure 26.6: Margaret crossed cultural boundaries—within and around Boston itself.

Having seen the needs of her children and neighbors, she crossed cultural boundaries and found information, people, and resources in the last place on earth most city residents would go — next door to Harvard, MIT, city government, investors, and the like. City Growers didn’t invent urban farming, but applying it in a new context required considerable integration of previously separate stakeholders. Thankfully, Margaret is highly adept at cultivating, organizing, and connecting different communities. Despite seeing neighborhoods rife with poverty, crime, unemployment, and underemployment, her future-vision is one of integration, life, and growth — one where life is no longer fragmented (see Figure 26.7). Perhaps the best way to craft such a future-vision is to stand on familiar ground — our own and others’ — seeing together, through everyone’s eyes.

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Figure 26.7: Margaret saw neighborhoods infested with poverty, crime, unemployment, and underemployment, as well as integration, life, and growth in the same space.

In what are you rooted — place, family, or something else? What boundaries might your rootedness enable you to cross — drawing people together in a way outsiders can’t? What will you grow? Dr. Margaret Connors is Co-Founder and Principal of City Growers, LLC, and Founder of Life Is Local. Her PhD in Medical Anthropology is from University of Massachusetts (Amherst), and her groundbreaking sociomedical research is from Harvard Medical School. She is “from” Indonesia, Ireland, and the USA. For more information on her work, see: linkedin.com/ in/margaret-connors-350bb210/, citygrowers.wordpress.com, and urbanfarminginstitute.org.

Chapter 27 The Swiss-South-African-Asian Joint Venture Innovative Methods in New Markets: Growing Despite the Odds Sean Leas—International Executive “Two companies come together in what seems to be an ideal match. Demand for the planned product or service is strong. The parent companies have complementary skills and assets. And together they can address a strategic need that neither could fill on its own. But in spite of such advantages, revenues decline, bitter disputes erupt, and irreconcilable differences emerge — and managers call it quits . . . even companies with many joint ventures struggle, even though best practices are well-known and haven’t changed for decades.”1

To integrate world-leading companies into a joint venture (JV) that can do what no one else can, Sean Leas fuses: – JV parent organizations – New services across countries, cultures, and development stages – Corporate, entrepreneurial, and multi-stakeholder perspectives

1 John Chao, Eileen Kelly Rinaudo, and Robert Uhlaner, “Avoiding Blind Spots in Your Next Joint Venture,” mckinsey.com article January 2014. “Failure” as used here includes both cessation of operations and significant underperformance. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781547401505-027

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Welding companies together fails 40% – 60% of the time (see Figure 27.1).2 We know the key success factors — strong business rationale, good governance, structural fairness and alignment, effective decision processes, and even thoughtful exit planning. Despite that, many fall victim to underlying competition, cultural differences, poor integration, and poor or unclear leadership.

Figure 27.1: Welding two companies together into a joint venture usually fails, but Sean’s venture is thriving.

The potential is there, but we don’t really know how to make it work. Something’s missing. Global expansion also offers much — rich new markets to explore — but delivers little: “In an analysis of 20,000 companies in 30 countries, we found that companies selling abroad had an average Return on Assets (ROA) of minus 1% as long as five years after their move. It takes 10 years to reach a modest +1% and only 40% of companies turn in more than 3%.”3

2 Ibid. 3 Christian Stadler, Michael Mayer, and Julia Hautz, “Few Companies Actually Succeed at Going Global,” Harvard Business Review, June 2015.

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So joint ventures and global expansion seem doomed to failure. Why would anyone try? Most companies expand internationally to escape stagnation at home. Predictably, they usually need help with research, marketing, market analytics, sourcing, distribution and logistics, sales, and after-sales service. DKSH (DiethelmKellerSiberHegner), a 150-year-old market-expansion company based in Zurich, not only helps clients expand successfully into foreign markets, but in the process expanded its own business to 780 locations in 36 countries, with over 30,000 employees serving 1,500 clients and 500,000 customers with 4,000 suppliers, 150 distribution centers, and 26 innovation centers. Innovation is key at the 86-year-old Smollan Group, as well, one of the world’s biggest field marketing businesses. They help clients with retail sales and field execution (e.g., shelf and stock management, promotion management, enticing brand choice, and introducing new product innovations), brand activation and point-of-sale brand management, retail advisory services, and advanced IT solutions and analytics. Headquartered in Johannesburg, the international company employs over 70,000 people and is known for its sophisticated systems. So, one company has broad expertise in Asian expansion, and the other has deep expertise in retail sales and advanced field execution. Together, they can help clients grow internationally with advanced systems and solutions in a way that neither can do alone — nor can many others (see Figure 27.2).

DSFM In 2008, the two companies formed an international joint venture — DKSH Smollan Field Marketing Southeast Asia (DSFM). Smollan’s retail execution, client-facing analytics, and processes would leverage DKSH’s internal services and infrastructure. Both would be put to use in one of the fastest-growing regions in the world with countries across a broad range of economic development. Their first six years were refreshingly successful and drove staff expansion to nearly 1,400 full-time employees. Having developed and customized successful offerings and fostered new client relationships, they needed a new leader to scale up. They found one with extensive experience in retailing across multiple markets and industries and an unusual combination of entrepreneurship (a former retailer and cross-industry dot-commer) and corporate experience. He’d worked for Smollan for 14 years and had run every business in South Africa except one. A top salesman, he had injected sales culture into the business and founded the Growth Division. In four years, headcount grew to 2,500 — the fastest-

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Figure 27.2: With one company’s expertise in Asian expansion and the other’s in retail sales and advanced field execution, they could help clients do what neither could do alone (nor competitors, for that matter).

growing division in the company. Both DKSH and Smollan agreed to mandate him to accelerate the capability and growth of DSFM. Despite the statistical odds, DSFM not only survived its first six years, but in the following three years more than doubled its headcount to over 4,000 full-time employees; opened up five new markets; built regional and country capability; developed client-specific solutions; and invested heavily in its technology and employees’ development. Commercially, DSFM gradually increased profit margins for both DKSH and Smollan, delivering strong double-digit revenue and EBIT results, at more than double that of its industry peers. DSFM’s ambition is to be the partner of choice to its clients and customers alike, offering solutions that deliver real results; provide meaningful employment to its staff; expand its coverage to over 150,000 outlets; and employ over 10,000 staff by 2020. Given their success so far, it looks like they’ll be one of the rare companies to both (1) survive as an internationally expanding JV (joint venture) and (2) yield substantial returns. How is DSFM’s leader able to keep the partners together and continually integrate new practices into new clients in new markets? Is there a secret sauce on a shelf somewhere for sale? (See Figure 27.3.)

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Figure 27.3: Together, they would find the “secret sauce” for joint venture success.

Travel, Listen, and Learn Sean Leas grew up in a middle-class South African home and after high school started buying and selling things — second hand bicycles (to fix and sell), cars, radios — anything. He took a “gap year” backpacking with his girlfriend (now wife) across Europe from the UK to Turkey, attending the World Expo in Seville, watching the final opening ceremony practice of the Barcelona Olympics, and haggling in the markets of Turkey for carpets and leather jackets to sell back home. He earned money along the way to keep backpacking, learning, and seeing new places and perspectives, but he has never been motivated by money alone. He’s motivated instead to pursue the experiences that life offers. In 1997, dot-coms were taking off, and in many cities around the world, techies, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs were gathering on the first Tuesday of every month — called “First Tuesday.” Sean’s old friend taught him the power of networking, and every alternate Tuesday night, they began inviting the smartest-they-could-find doctors, lawyers, dentists, social anthropologists, architects, process engineers, and more for an evening of drinking and talking. He collected contacts and ideas that he incorporated into a dot-com business of his own. He left his full-time retailing job and moved into the online

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world of retailing and financial services. Sean’s 20s and 30s were focused on listening, learning, and experiencing. “I learned a fortune during that time.”

Formal learning — college and graduate school — were all part time, including the MBA dissertation he wrote in nine days (always finishing what he starts). He happily travelled all over Africa, Europe, and the US as a retailing executive — and developed a cycle of learning, thinking, and implementing. He’s comfortable, adaptable, and has a voracious appetite to challenge the status quo and move ahead of the herd. After 20 years of travel, and having married and started a family, he accepted his first overseas posting with DSFM to give his children a new perspective. His financial goals remain simple — to be able to give back, be independent, and travel to wherever his children will be in the future. Financial goals at work are important, but whatever he does as a businessperson— whatever innovation he brings to people — must be meaningful, repeatable, and leave an organizational legacy.

Search, See, Hear, and Feel Still a dot-commer (and learner) at heart, Sean is a serial Googler (see Figure 27.4). Not a day goes by that he doesn’t Google at least once before 9:00 a.m.

Figure 27.4: For Sean, learning is life-long exploration—physically and virtually.

He’s also highly observant. He knows when figures aren’t right on a spreadsheet, perceives a client’s hesitation, notices when a visitor is cold in the

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meeting room, watches an employee’s nervousness, sees when something’s out of place in the office, spots the dirty car in the parking lot, scans the calendar for deadlines, and more. He listens to what’s said — and what’s not said — positive and negative, and asks questions constantly. “It’s all about listening and observing. I listen to my staff. I listen to clients. I listen to colleagues. As the former head of sales at Smollan, we didn’t just sell. We listened and developed new solutions for clients while selling. Where do ideas for training and development come from? I don’t just wake up and think of them. I listen to people, and it becomes evident when I see or hear them having problems or gaps in fulfilling our strategy.”

Not only does Sean listen, he integrates the perspectives of organizational clients, retail customers, employees, and parent companies — even more challenging when managing expatriates, locals, and organizations across a variety of markets. In doing this, culture is key, and Sean focuses on ensuring that the organizational culture remains true and is carried forward from recruitment to delivery. He constantly sees, hears, questions, adjusts, integrates, and crafts ways forward. DSFM supports clients in gaining “customer intimacy,” and Sean develops it with his own clients, too. Generous and compassionate, Sean is quick to help, and he’s very perceptive emotionally, as well. He shows all three types of empathy — cognitive, compassionate, and emotional. He pays full attention when he’s with someone, calls people by name, puts them at ease, and is a gracious host. People respond by sharing what they’re thinking and feeling. Emotionally stable, he’s described as “uplifting.” Soft-spoken, you might not know when he’s annoyed. Although Sean earns a living crossing company and country boundaries, he maintains healthy boundaries with staff and is adept at drawing and maintaining boundaries with difficult, over-demanding clients. You have to sense and respond to needs but run your own business.

Empathetic Leadership Research shows that empathy is a key component of leadership effectiveness and that it’s even more important in certain countries, such as China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, and Taiwan.4

4 William Gentry, Todd Weber, & Golnaz Sadri, Empathy in the Workplace: A Tool for Effective Leadership, Center for Creative Leadership (whitepaper), 2007.

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Important for leadership in general, empathy is critical for global executives and may even be the secret sauce for joint ventures (see Figure 27.5).

Figure 27.5: Empathic leadership is key to Sean’s success.

Sean’s leadership style is described as open, egalitarian, authentic, competitive, and lead-by-example. Inspirational and results-driven, he creates vision, expands goals, sets clear objectives, clears a path for achieving, and increases performance. Instead of driving the process, he drives specific deliverables, measures, budgets, and deadlines, and supports people to achieve them. The firm is growing too fast to have employee-dependents. He wants (and needs) people to take ownership— not orders — make decisions and be independent. Bi-directional communication is key. He expects clear and concise feedback of deliverables, but is also comfortable letting his executive team vent when they need to. The culture he builds is intended to get results but also be fun. He invites everyone to contribute their perspectives, and with a safe environment, people share, build on ideas, and explore new businesses and markets. To do that, learning and development are priority, and thankfully Sean loves teaching. Short of time and attention, his staff knows in meetings to give him the facts (and quickly). He takes prolific notes to help him stay focused. However, he has a special reserve of patience when teaching. Actually, he sees himself mostly as a teacher, although he finds traditional schools frustrating and detests the exams and general inefficiency. Tolerant of first-time mistakes, he says, “if we don’t learn, we will not grow.”

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Friends and colleagues also describe him as humble, hardworking, streetsmart, detail-oriented, hands-on, and extremely aware of “all the little intricacies.” A voracious reader, he tries to remain at the forefront of the industry and keeps an eye on innovations, always probing (internally and externally) into what’s next — market conditions, business moves, a local engagement that can become regional, new technologies and opportunities, and so on. Extremely energetic, he wakes at 4:30 a.m. to exercise. He gets energy from people and cultivates an ever-expanding collection of contacts. He says key to growth is collecting new dots in your network (and growing the relationships, of course).

Sense and Integrate DKSH and Smollan started with an advantage — a long history of cross-border operations. Nonetheless, even companies with a long history of cross-border and cross-organizational activities struggle with joint ventures, and large, old, successful organizations can find themselves unable to handle new endeavors. Integrating companies requires creative adaptation that is itself an act of innovation — crafting something new out of pieces of the old (see Figure 27.6). Bringing innovative services to new places is the same, since clients rarely want to buy exactly what companies want to sell. It’s usually a better idea to alter and integrate than to simply transfer.

Figure 27.6: Joint venture co-creation requires sensing and integration.

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Knowing what to adapt and how starts with superior sensing. Whether it’s the secret sauce (on a field-marketer’s shelf) for international joint ventures or not—seeing, listening, sensing, and empathy are key leadership skills for this fusioneer. Sean sees issues between organizations before they blow up, hears what clients want and need to buy, and has a feel for the needs of his staff and the organization. He senses what will work in another culture, be it national or organizational (see Figure 27.7).

Figure 27.7: It’s always time to explore and learn.

Will you travel and see, whether around the world or around the corner? Will you listen and question — to whom? Whose perspectives and needs will you integrate, and how? Sean Leas is the Chief Executive APAC for the Smollan Group and Managing Director of DKSH Smollan Field Marketing South East Asia. He is “from” South Africa and Singapore, has travelled extensively across most continents, and has many “found stories” from innumerable places. For more information on his work, see: linkedin.com/in/sean-leas-a459295/, dksh.com/global-en/home, smollan.com/, and dkshsmollan.com/.

Chapter 28 The Human Face of Big Data . . . by a Time/Life/National Geographic Photographer Rick Smolan—Serial Entrepreneur, Technologist, Photographer

As a record-breaking photo-journalist, publisher, and technologist, Rick Smolan’s work fuses: – hundreds of the world’s best writers, photographers, filmmakers, designers, and “techies” – art and design, multiple new technologies, and business Video https://youtu.be/fp3CZshmSEk

“Why did I ever buy you that stupid camera?” “You know why, Dad. You said I couldn’t spend any more time sending Morse code on my ham radio in the basement.” “Fine. It got you out of the house, with other 14-year-olds, but it isn’t your life.” https://doi.org/10.1515/9781547401505-028

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“Yes it is! I’m photographing football games, science club, cheerleaders, chess group — everyone doing everything. Other kids only fit into one group of friends. Who else but me gets invited by all these different groups to everything they do?” “That doesn’t make it a career — you’re dreaming! You never finish anything. I had to put you in four high schools because you kept flunking out. You even forged my signature and went on exchange to Spain!” “I’m going to be a photographer, Dad. I’m going to work for National Geographic, Time, and Life.” “Oh no you’re not. You’re going to college — one without a photography program. Doctor, lawyer, engineer, whatever — just choose something that’ll earn you a living — not taking stupid pictures of babies and weddings.” Young Rick Smolan did go to college, after lifting his grades from D- to straight A’s in an experimental program for gifted, “non-performing” students. He met with an art professor, and within a week had created his own photography major, basically teaching himself since there was no formal program or faculty. His father, of course, was furious, and their fights continued until graduation, when Rick went with yearbook in hand to interview for his dream job. Time magazine took one look at his work and hired him on the spot. His second job was at National Geographic. “I’ve been so lucky. I always seem to meet the right person at the right time, usually while I was in the wrong place doing the wrong thing, and then things work out for me in a way that defies all logic, and I have to pinch myself to see if I’m dreaming.”

Rick sold everything he owned and lived in a Volkswagen van (see Figure 28.1). Editors would call with assignments saying things like, “Where are you now? We have an assignment in South Dakota.” He’d reply from Florida, “Oh, yes, I’m nearby” (only a 28-hour drive away). The answer was always “Yes.” He would drive anywhere, fly anywhere, and do any assignment, traveling on his own money, not caring how much it cost or that he hadn’t trained for specialist sub-fields like conflict photography. He hadn’t actually trained for anything. With each assignment, the euphoria of getting the gig would soon transform into terror. In his mind, he’d already failed terribly (before even beginning) and used that sense of anticipated defeat as the motivation to turn a potential catastrophe into something great. His creations were fueled with anxious energy. To this day, he never knows if his creations will be well-received or not and is surprised and thrilled when they are.

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Figure 28.1: To do what he loved, Rick lived in his Volkswagen and drove to “nearby” assignments (sometimes 28 hours away).

A Day in the Life Rick then talked his way into a job at his third dream — Life magazine. In 1974, Life did an issue called “A Day in the Life of America” — the worstselling issue ever — a disaster (see Figure 28.2). Six years later, long-haired,

Figure 28.2: A “day in the life” became a new life (or at least a larger journey).

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jeans-clad, ginger-ale-sipping Rick was in a bar listening to a well-groomed group of older, wiser, professional photographers. As usual, he was the baby of the group (by about 10 years), and the hard-drinking photojournalists were disgruntled, because editors often used their photographs to sell advertising instead of publishing stories that brought to life events the photographers believed the world needed to see. Rick said, “Hey, guys, why don’t we take that day-in-the-life idea and do it in Australia, where I’m living? Unlike the first time, we’ll only put the best pictures in, whether everyone gets a photo in or not.” They said, “Yeah, yeah, kid, you organize it and we’ll come,” and went back to their drinks thinking nothing of it. Rick flew to the US — full of hope that the world’s best photographers would scour a nation for a day and come up with the most brilliant, entertaining, thought-provoking images. He was turned down by 35 publishers. The typical response was: “Who on earth would pay $40 for a book of pictures taken by your friends in some Godforsaken country where nothing happens?”

While turning down the project, they gave loads of suggestions for toning it down and making it safe and cheap — use stock photos, print in black-andwhite, make it smaller, and so on. So Rick went to Australia’s Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser, whom he’d met and photographed many times — himself an amateur photographer who’d hosted Rick in his home with his family on weekends. Rick had been one of six journalists invited as part of a national marketing effort to tour Australia for two weeks and Rick thought they might sponsor the book. Unfortunately, Fraser didn’t have a budget to cover the cost to fly 100 photographers to Australia.

Connections More Valuable than Money Instead, Fraser introduced Rick to a young guy named Steve Jobs who was starting a computer company, as well as the CEOs of Kodak-Australia, Qantas Airlines, Hertz, and more (see Figure 28.3). Rick thought the Prime Minister was suggesting sponsorship as a way of turning him down but then Malcolm suggested that Rick approach these companies to donate computers, equipment and supplies, flights, cars, etc. The idea he gave Rick that day was a business model no one had ever used in publishing before — editorially independent book sponsorship. When Rick finally pulled together all the sponsorships, 100 photographers from 30 countries joined in, and they barely had enough money to do the

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Figure 28.3: Australia’s Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser offered Rick something more valuable than money—contacts and a new business model.

project while camping in sleeping bags on friends’ floors and traveling on the cheap. They ran short of funds, and Rick got just enough from BP-Australia to keep going. An anniversary was coming up at about that time for Fairfax Media group, one of the largest media and publishing groups in the nation. The whole company was getting ready to celebrate. Since the publishing world was so skeptical, Rick came up with a second innovation. Rather than sell books in bookstores, he approached Australia’s Fairfax Media Group, whom he had heard was looking for a unique way to celebrate their 50th anniversary. They agreed to buy 50,000 copies of the book sight-unseen — but only on the condition that Rick would not allow it to be sold in any book store for the first six months. Rick likens this to the story of Br’er Rabbit (“PLEASE don’t fling me in the briar-patch”) since at that point no book store was interested in carrying the book. Fairfax ran TV ads, full-page color newspaper ads, and more, and the only way to buy A Day in the Life of Australia was to go to a Fairfax Media newspaper office (such as the Sydney Morning Herald office). Rick was worried that making the book so hard to buy would be the kiss of death, but it had the opposite effect. Fairfax sold 50,000 copies in a few days, setting a world record.

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The book itself became an item of news, when one of the Pulitzer-Prizewinning photographers contributed a picture of a girl, not knowing she’d been missing for two years (see Figure 28.4). Her family had been desperately searching for her, and they were reunited on-camera.

Figure 28.4: A photo in the book became a reunion between a missing girl and her family.

It became the #1 book in Australia and sold 250,000 copies, breaking every record in Australian publishing history. People would line up for blocks to buy it. After sample copies were repeatedly stolen, Fairfax drilled a hole in each sample and tied it to a desk. When someone actually cut the rope securing the book and stole the book with a hole drilled through it, Rick realized the book had become a nationwide phenomenon.

Success Instead of Jail It took two years for Rick to pay off all the debt incurred in putting A Day in the Life together (over $150,000). He had no idea how to pay it all off and figured

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he’d go to jail if the book didn’t become a best-seller. But the book did sell, and Rick did pay all his debts. Years later, he found out that one of the project sponsors (BP-Australia) and the Prime Minister had put together a plan to bail out the project because its failure would have reflected badly on the nation. But Rick and the team had done it anyway, and the secret bailout fund was never used. Since he’d already assumed he’d be going to jail for spending so much money he didn’t have, he decided to do it in style and produce a one-hour TV documentary about the project while creating the book. Then Hawaii’s governor saw the book in a hotel, loved it, and had his office call Rick, asking if he’d do it again for Hawaii’s anniversary of statehood. American Express called to sponsor a book on Japan as a show of good faith during some tricky negotiations. Gorbachev’s office called (office of the Soviet Union’s President). The king of Spain’s office called, since Spain and France were vying to host Disneyland Europe. After having been an exchange student in Barcelona for a year, never dreaming what would unfold in the future, Rick again had to pinch himself as he rode in a royal helicopter piloted by King Juan Carlos and later taught the King how to use a Macintosh computer. A dozen Day in the Life projects later, Rupert Murdoch bought Rick’s company, including the Day in the Life brand. After seven years producing the series, it was getting too comfortable, and Rick and his business partner were increasingly unhappy with each other. They decided to split up and completed the sale just before A Day in the Life of America became the USA’s #1 book.

The Magic Is in the Fusion On his own again, Rick’s father — a pharmaceutical marketer, with whom he’d reconciled— said, “Why not do A Day in the Life of Medicine?” (see Figure 28.5) Rick reminded him that the Day in the Life brand had been sold, and his father said: “No one will care what you call it. I don’t think the Day in the Life brand is the value in what you do. I think it’s you pulling together all these creative people and then curating and assembling it. I think that’s where the magic is.”

Rick doesn’t do solo projects. He co-creates — with writers, designers, programmers, administrators, and other photographers and videographers. He pulls the pieces together, and the newly integrated creation always reveals something new beyond the pieces alone.

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Figure 28.5: Next step: The Power to Heal—a runaway fundraising and publishing success.

He wasn’t convinced there would be a market for a book full of people lying in hospital beds, however. His father said: “No, no, not like that. There’s so much transformation happening now in medicine that a book about how the human race is learning to heal itself would be engaging. It could include new technologies and the amazing scientific advances we’re making every year. I could introduce you to the head of every drug company in America.”

They raised several million dollars in three weeks, making everything he’d raised for every other project he’d ever done pale by comparison. Instead of selling the book, the sponsors wanted to give it away for free, to one out of every three doctors in America. Newsweek put them on the cover, and The Power to Heal was a runaway success.

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Against All Odds An astute marketer, Rick’s father then said, “Why not form a company and work on cool emerging topics — an omnimedia company with books, movies, TV shows, exhibits, and more?” (See Figure 28.6.)

Figure 28.6: Rick’s work now is not only a fusion of photographers and writers but also of technologies and media channels.

Against All Odds Productions was born. In addition to The Power to Heal, Rick and his team did such projects as a crowd-sourced national family album (America 24/7, which became a New York Times best-seller and an Oprah Winfrey favorite); and a project looking at the impact of the internet the first year it began to impact civilization (24 Hours In Cyberspace). America 24/7 became the first mass-customized New York Times best-seller by enabling readers to put themselves on the cover. Rick also worked with famed film director Ridley Scott on Life in A Day, produced to celebrate YouTube’s 5th anniversary. The film was the world’s first feature-length, user-generated, single-day-shot documentary, and Rick’s team dispatched more than 1,000 video cameras to people in remote regions of the world to ensure that the voices of people not on the web were represented. Andy Grove (CEO of Intel) approached Rick at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland to create One Digital Day — a book capturing the impact of how — in just 30 years — the microprocessor had revolutionized human existence.

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Fortune magazine featured the book on its cover and in the largest book excerpt in the magazine’s history. Intel gave away 120,000 copies — 50,000 to key influencers around the globe, and 70,000 to Intel employees.

Finding Humanity in Big Data Marissa Mayer — Google employee #20, former CEO of Yahoo!, and key supporter of Against All Odds Productions (providing office space and ads) — reconnected with Rick at a TED conference. She asked Rick what he was up to and if there was anything she could help with. Rick shared that he wasn’t finding an engaging topic that grabbed his imagination. She said, “Have you thought about Big Data?” (see Figure 28.7). He said, “What’s that?” She explained that we may be watching the planet evolve a nervous system. With sensors everywhere, data covering every aspect of our lives is being amassed and analyzed real-time in a way that may actually produce emergent intelligence.

Figure 28.7: Rick and his team showed us what we all want to find in big data—humanity.

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Rick spent a year knocking on doors, meeting with senior executives at IBM and even Sergey Brin at Google, but their reaction was that there was no way to do a photographic book about something as esoteric as Big Data. Then, while having a catch-up lunch with Akamai CEO Paul Sagan, Rick shared his frustration that he had been striking out in finding a sponsor for the project. Paul was on the board of EMC, then the world’s largest provider of data-storage systems (since purchased by Dell for $67 Billion — the largest-ever tech-industry acquisition), and suggested that Rick try them. Rick had already had a hundred meetings about the project but agreed to try one more. EMC’s new Chief Marketing Officer Jeremy Burton agreed to meet Rick at a Pete’s Coffee near San Francisco airport, intending for his secretary to call him after 20 minutes to say there’s an emergency — sorry, gotta go. He had agreed to meet Rick out of politeness, not out of particular interest. But after seeing what Rick had in mind and that so many of his previous projects had been featured on the covers of Time, TV specials, and so on, the CMO said he wanted the whole thing — no co-sponsorship with anyone else (although later, Cisco, SAP, and others did join in). The more Rick talked about the wonders and dangers of Big Data, the more worried he became that only big businesses and governments are concerned about this powerful new intelligence. He became anxious that soon there would be things set in stone that ordinary people can’t change—like who owns data about each one of us, who analyzes and makes decisions about us, algorithms that discriminate against people because that’s the way things have always been, potential dangers by governments or terrorists, and more. He didn’t just want to raise an issue. He wanted to start a conversation. With EMC’s OK, Rick met with Rob Carter, FedEx’s Chief Technology Officer. He shared a fantasy that this book be shipped simultaneously to every world leader, every Fortune 500 CEO, every major media company CEO, winners of Pulitzer Prizes, Oscars, Olympics, and more — to start a global conversation about humanity and Big Data (see Figure 28.8). The CTO got approval from the CEO, and told Rick the next day that the project was approved. Next, Rick went to Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, whom he’s known for a long time, and said, “FedEx has agreed to deliver the books — could you help with the packing and materials and warehousing?” Jeff agreed to do it. “I keep waiting for my luck to run out, ’cause I’ve used up more than 100 people should have. I’m reasonably smart and work very hard and I try to be persistent without being obnoxious, but I can’t explain why things always seem to come together for me. But I don’t

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Figure 28.8: The new book didn’t just deliver images and information—FedEx shipped it to leaders, artists, and more around the world, spawning a global conversation.

count on it, and I don’t ever take it for granted. I am always amazed each time things actually work out.”

Rick approached publishers, but despite his track record, and despite the illustrious corporate support . . . no one wanted it. So he went back to self-publishing. He thought no one would want to buy a book about data and was thankful EMC agreed to give away 10,000 copies. Once again, he was in for a shock. Amazon can’t keep The Human Face of Big Data in stock. They’ve sold 55,000 copies, and Rick and his brother Sandy (a film producer) made an award-winning, emotionally touching Human Face of Big Data PBS Documentary. It won the Best Cinematography award at the Boston Film Festival, and the US Government screens it at consulates around the world. The book is integrated with Aurasma software (now HP Reveal), which enables readers to download a smartphone app, point to a picture in the book, and automatically jump to a TED talk by the person in the photo, or their website, etc. The team crafted a website for the book and made an iPad app that won the Webby for best educational app of the year.

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His journey with Against All Odds has been going on for 28 years, now, and his “luck” isn’t over yet. His father was right. The real power of Rick and the company is in fusing together a broad variety of people, technology, and experiences in an emotionally compelling way — a unique fusion of art and design, technology, and business. Each piece requires all the others.

The Man Behind the Camera “I was painfully shy when my father gave me that camera. I was doing Morse code on the ham radio because I couldn’t even talk to people on a radio. All of a sudden, with a camera, I could walk up to people, and it was my excuse to be there. I thought if I could watch how people interact, I could learn how. For most of my life, my family and friends have accused me of being there and not being there. I’m there, but I’m always on the outside looking in.” (See Figure 28.9.)

Figure 28.9: Rick found he could connect with people from behind a camera.

Rick looks in with a great deal of empathy — understanding (and photographing) others’ perspectives, sensing (and visualizing) emotion, and reaching out with compassion, whether to chase all over New York returning a camera someone left in a taxi or chasing all over the world. He describes one of those world journeys in his TED talk, The Story of a Girl, seen by over a million people.

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“I’m actually bored by my own culture. I like being in the outside world. It’s like telling a fish about water. How do you describe something that’s there all the time? But if you’re an outsider, you see it with fresh eyes. And being a photographer, you bring it to people in a brand-new light.”

More confident now, Rick goes to TED every year, constantly scanning for new ideas and connections for the next, most-intriguing project. He carries a tiny booklet in his rear pocket, and as you’re talking, you’ll notice him pulling it out, writing, and asking, “What’s the name of that book you mentioned? Who was it you said I should look up?” (See Figure 28.10.)

Figure 28.10: Like many fusioneers, Rick takes note of ideas to pursue later, collecting thoughts as they come.

Although he makes videos, he doesn’t watch much TV. Friends at TED, INK, and elsewhere forward him articles, and he’s an avid reader and podcastlistener. He may talk to people all day long or read sites all day and look at Twitter or Facebook. Sometimes people approach him and say, “Here’s something we’d fund, if you’d make a book about it.” Big ideas emerge in conversation or when he’s bored, in the shower, or late at night. After incessant scanning, he sees trends, and then something emerges. An adrenaline-junkie, Rick likes projects that are just over his head. He attracts creative people by working on big ideas against all odds. Success seems to be more about doing what he loves and less about the odds.

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“I’ve never had a job. I’ve been so spoiled, doing whatever I wanted to do, my whole life.”

Rick creates iteratively, not like a corporate production process. He’ll create something, then take it apart and recreate it 20 different ways. Most people just want to finish what they do, and most companies want to craft something once with a minimum of cost and risk, but Rick creates and recreates until he’s explored fully and crafted something truly amazing. He’ll do things on a lark and persists because he loves what he does. He pushes projects to the limit and discovers new ideas until the very last minute. When he’s not traveling, he sits in Starbucks most mornings after dropping the kids at school. There’s something about the white noise and the lack of his own belongings (and colleagues) that frees him from distraction so he can focus and create. Friends and colleagues describe him as extremely curious, egoless, cocreative, tireless, super-excited, always reaching out to people and tossing ideas around. He’s a great listener and noticer, open to new people and ideas — a technology nerd, an early adopter up on any trend, driven to create and synthesize ideas.

Synthesize, See, and Turn the World Upside Down Synthesis started for Rick with being open to what he loves and open to adventure and projects others wouldn’t do (see Figure 28.11). Now he’s confident asking, “What’s that?” He’s engaging because he shares himself authentically — in a way most of us mask with professionalism and insecurity. Openness inward prevented, then enabled him to be open outward. He collects people, technology, experiences, and ideas, guided by what interests him, fusing them together in captivating ways. He constantly scans, sees, listens, and senses with empathy, both while sourcing new projects and while working with a team— sometimes a global crowd. To fund an art/design and technology project as part of a viable business, he must offer sponsors something of value to them — sensing needs from their perspectives. His TED talk didn’t garner over a million views because he marketed it effectively. He didn’t market it at all. He shared a real story he cared about and found other people cared about it, too — then shared it. His books are popular not just because they’re marketed well or beautifully crafted. Each one begins with an engaging topic people care about, pieced together (or “fused”) from what he’s been scanning — what he’s actively seen and heard and discussed. Doing what he loved turned the world upside down. A shy teen became a million-view TED speaker with friends and connections all over the world.

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Figure 28.11: What you see could turn your world upside down—and someone else’s.

Books no one supported became bestsellers. His anti-photography father became his biggest fan. Projects are managed the opposite way to any normal company. Success emerged from doing something no one taught him to do (see Figure 28.12).

Figure 28.12: Rick often feels so lucky he has to pinch himself to see if he’s dreaming.

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Are you doing something no one taught you to do? Are you scanning — seeing, hearing, discussing — and piecing together something you care about? Have you pinched yourself yet — or need to? Rick Smolan is Founder and CEO of Against All Odds Productions, described by Fortune magazine as one of “25 Cool Companies in America.” A former Time, Life, and National Geographic photographer, he’s best known for his best-selling A Day in the Life book series. This New York Times best-selling author, journalist, photographer, producer, story-teller, and passionate speaker is “from” Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Spain, the USA, and Vietnam. For more information on his work, see: linkedin.com/in/ricksmolan/, againstallodds.com/, BigThink: Can Big Data Change Who You Are? (bigthink.com/videos/can-bigdata-change-who-you-are), Amazon (amazon.com/Rick-Smolan/e/B001ILM7W4/ ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_2?qid=1508488425&sr=8-2), and TED.com (The Story of a Girl, which has over 1 million views, ted.com/talks/rick_smolan_tells_the_story_of_a_girl#t-1483188). The Human Face of Big Data is available on Amazon, as is his subsequent work, The Good Fight: America’s Ongoing Struggle for Justice.

Part 6: Stories of Fusing

Chapter 29 Leading-Edge IoT and Integrative Thinking Redline.com and Harvard-Rotman Research

Dr. Mihnea Moldoveanu—Serial Entrepreneur and Educator, ScientistTechnologist, Pianist

Source: Rotman School of Management faculty bio

A creative genius across business, engineering, mathematics, literature, music, and more, Dr. Mihnea Moldoveanu integrated: – technologies, fields, and multi-cultural teams into a $30 million start-up – a research center on integrative (“fusion”) thinking from colleagues in a variety of disciplines

Video https://youtu.be/Uu1hWktO7C8

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Question 42. What do the following have in common: A 30-million-dollar rural high-tech start-up, leading-edge Internet-of-Things, Rotman-Harvard research, and biometric leadership education? a. high impact b. the same founder c. integrative thinking d. all of the above e. none of the above The answer is d: all of the above.

High Impact: Redline and IoT Back when people communicated over copper wires, banks leased E1 and T1 lines for $10,000 per month. When a new wireless bridge was introduced that would transport 40–50 megabytes of data per second, suddenly one line could host 20 times as much data — $200,000 worth of line access. The one-time (not monthly) cost of the bridge: $10,000 — $20,000. It was a no-brainer for companies to buy Redline’s technology — one of the first asymmetric digital subscriber line modems (ADSL) in the world. Not only did Redline’s founder, Dr. Mihnea Moldoveanu, want his new product to outperform all other modems on the market, but he wanted to do so in the most severe environments. They started by offering their technology to Canadian oil fields and mining companies, and created a fast-growing market niche. Redline and its technology were a highly integrative, cross-disciplinary effort — multi-technology, multi-discipline, and multi-ethnic. By necessity, it got involved in constructing cellular base-stations—as complex as jet aircrafts — and brought together: – Technologies and methodologies: Digital signal processing, queueing theory, machine language, antennae, alloyed integrated circuits, and powered amplifiers – Solutions: Tactical, design, user-interface, mechanical, technical, thermal, magnetic, and digital – Cultures and disciplines: Romanian R&D, Canadian engineering (100 engineers) plus six teams in Bucharest, a largely North-American board, a very large French-Canadian private investor, public investors, marketing, and a largely middle-Eastern sales team

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Clients running oil fields wanted wireless connections not only among their people but also among all their tools and sensors. One company could do it — Redline.com. Essentially, Redline was offering Internet of Things (IoT) in the early 2000s, just after “IoT” as a term had been coined (in 1999). Founded in 1999, Redline was the second- fastest-growing company in Canada for the five years from 2002–2007. They grew from four people to 300 in five years and in 2007 launched an initial public offering (IPO) on the Canadian stock exchange. The company raised $30 million. Did the founder spend all his time focused on this macrocosm of multiplicities? No. While he was building Redline, he was also a professor at Rotman School of Management (University of Toronto), teaching and researching topics relevant to what he was doing in business (see Figure 29.1).

Figure 29.1: High-tech Redline’s founder was not just a technologist — he’s an engineer, businessman, mathematician, musician, poet, novelist, and entrepreneur.

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High Impact: Integrative Thinking for Thousands of Business Leaders Early experience at Redline alerted Mihnea to the difficulties of managing across technologies, disciplines, countries, and more. He had also noticed widespread student anxiety among teams and individuals, as well as MBAemployer desires for better team skills, decision-making, and executive presence. So he founded the Desautels Center for Integrative Thinking (DCIT). In it, he and a faculty team would investigate integrative decision-making — taking pieces of available options and crafting them together into new solutions. Their work would help business leaders not just make better decisions but also integrate better in teams, drawing more effectively on the ideas and talents of the group. A self-development lab and a leadership lab soon followed, as well as The Mind Brain Behaviour Hive (MBBH) — a collaboration between University of Toronto’s Schools of Management, Arts and Sciences, and Music (itself an unusual integration). The MBBH operates at the intersection of neurophysiology, phenomenology (the study of consciousness), engineering, and management, and has developed a new pedagogy of biofeedback-enabled growth — a fusion of traditional education, coaching, and technology. Not only do Mihnea and his colleagues craft multi-disciplinary management techniques and pedagogy, but they also co-create across the labs, integrating their own fields, personal work styles, and diversity — psychologist, business consultant, entrepreneur, phenomenologist, executive coach, and engineer. Mihnea himself has published articles in sociology, economics, psychology, engineering, and more. “Human beings are uniquely the same. When you gather different backgrounds and perspectives and combine them with intellectual respect, autonomy, and a general openness to each other, you foster creativity and innovation. You also need a certain amount of maturity to stay in uncomfortable or difficult conversations to get a real synthesis of intelligence.” —James Destephanis, Faculty, Self-Development and Leadership-Development Labs, as well as entrepreneur, coach, and organizational consultant

Management methods and education from the centers impact thousands of business leaders, who in turn impact thousands more in their organizations. The research, disseminated through Rotman’s and Harvard’s publication networks, are somewhat asymmetric, not-always-digital signals with the power to transform.

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The Founder “He’s one of the few people that come to mind when I hear the word ‘genius.’ He is a creative genius, and it’s across different domains — mathematics, music, poetry, engineering, literature, and entrepreneurship. I’ve never encountered this particular combination before. He’s extremely perceptive and emotionally attuned, so can work well with people. His ideas come from everything that he’s ever read, experienced, and thought, and his mind works much, much faster than the rest of us. Left brain and right brain are operating together, and at an extraordinary intensity. He perceives more than the rest of us and anticipates what people will want, way before the need arises. When he started the labs, everyone thought they were just some little project, but five years later, it’s a differentiator, and Rotman is branding itself with them.” (See Figure 29.2.) – Dr. Maja Djikic, Psychologist, Associate Professor and Executive Director of the SelfDevelopment Lab

Figure 29.2: Mihnea’s ideas come from a tremendously broad array of reading, hearing, experiencing, and thinking, and he uses them freely across domains.

Originally from Romania, Mihnea trained in Toronto as a concert pianist. Although already playing in piano competitions, he stopped at age 16, realizing he didn’t want to spend eight to 10 hours a day doing only that. He eventually went to MIT to study neuroscience and ended up majoring in mechanical engineering. He pursued an off-the-beaten-track specialty in a

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branch of mathematics that’s less about proving theorems and more about thinking and calculating — an unforeseen foundation for his later work on integrative thinking. He applied to Harvard Business School (where he is now Visiting Professor) to the Doctorate in Business Administration program. He was put on the waiting list, so pursued a doctorate in plasma physics instead. He was fascinated with fusion and controlling the instability that results from it, but became disenchanted with the fusion community. Instead of actualizing and improving it (fusing theory and practice), they were more interested in writing papers. So, he pursued image compression and signal analysis, working as an engineer (again, showing a desire to fuse theory and practice). However, engineering wasn’t quite satisfying, either. “I realized very quickly I wasn’t going to become an engineer. I needed to find something to fit my capabilities — my ways of being and aspirations. I remember in 1992, instead of working really, really hard finishing a piece of code I was working on, I instead wrote a paper on the epistemology of non-separable systems. About that time, I started working with Howard Stephenson at the Harvard Business School to start up a new company, and to me that was every bit as important as a way of learning about business — or more important, really — than doing a DBA.”

Where Most CEOs Fail: Speak Another’s Language, Understand at Depth “Sometimes multiple disciplines are saying the same thing, but in a different language.” —James Destephanis, Faculty, Self-Development and Leadership-Development Labs

While working as a CEO on the company he founded with Howard’s advice (Redline), Mihnea realized that people in each function of a company—marketing, finance, engineering, etc.—thought, spoke, and acted very differently (see Figure 29.3). Each spoke a different language. They didn’t always need him to agree or approve what they wanted. But they always wanted to be understood and be spoken to in their own language. “It’s not just enough to say ‘I hear you’ in a meeting. You actually have to give evidence that you’ve understood and speak in the other person’s language. This is where, I think, most CEOs fail.”

A former CEO noted for all three types of empathy (cognitive, affective, and active), Mihnea believes there is another element essential to connecting with

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Figure 29.3: Understand at depth and speak your listener’s language—the language of their nation, industry, field, etc.

others and speaking their language — depth of understanding. Instead of a fourth element, it might instead be described as another dimension of empathy, since it can add meaning to all three — depth of cognition, depth of emotion, and depth of experience. “When someone says to me they understand, I’m always suspicious. To prove you understand, you have to build on what I’ve said, not just repeat it back. We wound up firing both of our operating CEOs. In both cases, there was insufficient investment in understanding.”

Mihnea reads foundational texts in a variety of fields, talks with experts, and stays open to correction (actually, he seeks and amplifies it) in order to learn the language system of each, as well as its underlying models. He’s not so much gathering information from many fields as gathering abstractions that apply to more than one. At the same time, he has to ensure that his meaning is actually getting across to others. One colleague noted: “He’s so smart. Sometimes when you’re talking to him, you need a translator.”

And he himself noted a communication issue all founders face: “An entrepreneur has to put his neck out there all of the time. You have to set goals. But some people infer promises from those goals.”

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Open, Closed, and Connecting with Emotional Resonance With Redline and the centers, Mihnea didn’t just notice what was around him. He noticed what was missing. Noted for his awareness, he can sense when people are not comfortable and sometimes can hear what is not said even louder than what is said. He’s open to underlying logic and reading people’s moods and behaviors (see Figure 29.4). He’s not open to poor, incomplete, and politically or ostentatiously articulated ideas.

Figure 29.4: Instead of closing yourself off in the name of being “professional,” try using your emotions and state of being to sense, understand, and share authentically.

Moods and biases can make him less open, which he believes is a universal problem. Having thought about it and pursued his own self-development, he now rides his moods like waves. Instead of suppressing his emotional state in order to “be professional,” he finds it far more effective (and less tiring) to use them for sensing and communicating. For example, whenever he prepares a talk, he creates five versions and chooses at the time what best fits the day, the audience, the occasion, and the dialog he’s just had with someone. He uses emotions to sense issues and to resonate with others in a meeting (or with an audience), connecting with them fully and authentically.

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Collecting and Letting Go “I’m not a collector. Oh, these notebooks where I write down my ideas? I have over 300 of them.”

Ideas come to him constantly and have done so for as long as he can remember (see Figure 29.5). Walking around the Stanford University campus, he began his first business plan at age 18. He doesn’t have enough time to pursue them all, so the dilemma is which ones to pursue and what to do with the rest.

Figure 29.5: Like many fusioneers, Mihnea records ideas as they come to him—300 books’ worth at last count.

Wanting them all to come into being, he offers many of them to others — giving ideas to people and setting them free, without the need to share in the value or even be acknowledged as the idea generator. He not only collects people he finds interesting but senses their strengths and capabilities, envisioning which project or projects would be a good fit for them. He cares about both the people and ideas and sees connections that would help each of them flourish. His colleague, Maja, for example, was happy researching and writing psychology papers when Mihnea suggested she’d be very good working with business students. She had zero interest in business at the time but tried out some

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student interactions and found within six months that working with them was remarkably fulfilling. She describes making a difference in students’ lives as exactly what she was missing in her own. Ideas that don’t go into the notebooks for later and aren’t passed along are developed in a variety of ways. Mihnea writes poetry, short stories, apps, is founding two new companies, developing two–three software platforms, working on several academic papers, two books, and contributing to projects in the centers. Different ideas call for embodiment through different means.

Work-Play “Is he a hard worker? Oh, my God! I don’t anybody who works harder. And he’s so generative that by the time I come up with five ideas, he has 100 from which to choose. You know, most of us work on one or two projects at a time, but I think he’s working on 10 right now. Imagine the passion that drives him. It energizes him in a remarkable way, and the projects have synergy — they cross-fertilize each other. He seems very joyful to me. He enjoys the work and finds it meaningful, which are often two different things. But in the end, he sacrifices himself to the projects.” –Dr. Maja Djikic, Psychologist and Executive Director, Self-Development Lab

Mihnea works and plays at the same time (see Figure 29.6). He’s being uniquely and extremely who he is, doing what is engaging and natural for someone with his intellect. However, working and playing at the same time — all the time — can be exhausting. “Play” can require enormous effort, and a generative mind can exhaust the body that works to fulfill it.

Crossing Boundaries and Using Analogies Mihnea spends a lot of time alone and is a broad, voracious reader. With an engineering mindset he can apply to any discipline, he is precise and rigorous. He models the world and understands things at a mathematical level, yet communicates like an entrepreneur, using others’ own language and showing them value. He likes to take things apart and put them together iteratively — especially ideas, using different perspectives and modes of thought — and achieves a very high resolution on his ideas (see Figure 29.7). “When we were studying some of the neuroscience and neurophysiology, Mihnea would always introduce an engineering model. Or we’d start to envision the brain, and instead of a bunch of intertwined neurons, we’d envision it as a giant signal processor, asking what’s being processed in the various anatomical areas, what’s happening to the signals, what’s the distortion like, and so forth.” —James Destephanis, Faculty, Self-Development and Leadership-Development Labs

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Figure 29.6: Working on many projects with synergy is stimulating and good for the projects but can also be draining.

Figure 29.7: Mihnea introduces engineering rigor into other fields and actively employs analogies.

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Thomas Kuhn wrote in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (University of Chicago Press, 1962) that scientists hold on to their paradigms until a better one comes along that is so substantial an improvement it can wrest from them their old paradigm, knowledge, and tools. In fact, most people don’t want their paradigms wrested away from them (having invested substantially in their siloed careers) and will cling to the old. Mihnea, however, is paradigm agnostic and seems happy to switch from one paradigm, theory, or field to another, the way a child selects one sand toy over another (see Figure 29.8). Whatever works will be used. Unconcerned about crossing boundaries of paradigm, field, etc., he seeks truth, usefulness, and other boundary crossers to work with.

Figure 29.8: Multiple fields, paradigms, frameworks, and tools are all part of Mihnea’s sandbox.

Integrative Self and Integrative Management Mihnea’s fusions of technologies, fields, disciplines, theory, and practice have been enabled by his openness to what he’s genuinely interested in — multiple interests — and willingness to dive deep enough to learn the language and abstractions common among them. With outward openness and empathy (including depth), he connects to others and leverages their knowledge and talents. He collected a unique array of skills, ideas, and people, and with his unique view on the world, emotional authenticity, and emotional resonance with others, he senses what others need, even before the need arises.

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He connects ideas and people that can flourish together and matches ideas with their appropriate means of embodiment (writing, technology development, entrepreneurship, etc.). He cross-fertilizes the ideas and projects he develops himself, and because he chooses work to which he is uniquely suited, can integrate work and play, as well. Having integrated his own mind, teams, and organizations, Mihnea has given significant thought to leading and managing integratively. As a musician, he aptly chose a musical metaphor for effective leadership beyond the command-and-control industrial age (see Figure 29.9): “Furtwängler is considered the greatest conductor ever, because he’s the only one who could get the orchestra to play in sync even when the tempo changed. Beat is the fundamental tool that all conductors have, with which to impose order. If you give up the beat, then you normally have chaos. Not Furtwängler. He could guide the orchestra through a tempochange by creating an atmosphere — not by issuing a set of commands.”

In this new age of disruption and creativity, humanity’s beat is changing. We have new tools, new capabilities (both individuals and organizations), a new tempo (speed of operation and change), and need new leadership. We must learn how to orchestrate independent players, enable them to create at their best, and craft an atmosphere in which they synergize even as the beat changes — not through command, but through integration (see Figure 29.10). What new tools are you using — or would like to? What would you like to create — by yourself or with an organization? How might you integrate your tools and the problems you see, tools with each other, problems with each other, and all of yourself? How might you create an atmosphere of synergy for others?

Figure 29.9: Conducting projects can be like conducting a symphony.

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Question 43. What do the following have in common: New tools, new projects, and new leadership? a. high impact b. integrative thinking c. you d. all of the above e. none of the above The answer is . . .

Figure 29.10: Who do you see when you look in a mirror?

Dr. Mihnea Moldoveanu is Vice Dean of Learning, Innovation, and Executive Programs at Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, as well as a Visiting Professor at Harvard Business School. He is the Founding Director of the Desautels Centre for Integrative Thinking, created to research and develop people’s abilities to synthesize and integrate different models and perspectives for creative problem-solving. He is “from” Canada, Romania, and the USA. For more information on his work, see: linkedin.com/in/mihnea-moldoveanu-b1a70a4/, his faculty profiles at Rotman School of Management (rotman.utoronto.ca/FacultyAndResearch/ Faculty/FacultyBios/Moldoveanu) and Harvard Business School (hbs.edu/faculty/ Pages/profile.aspx?facId=10609), the Desautels Centre for Integrative Thinking (rotman.utoronto.ca/FacultyAndResearch/ResearchCentres/DesautelsCentre), and the Mind Brain Behaviour Hive (mindbrainhive.org/).

Chapter 30 Science is a Personal Business Deep, Broad, and Analogous Connections in Computational Structural Biology

Dr. Adeline Sim—Scientist-Technologist “My PhD lead supervisor was Michael Levitt, Nobel Prize winner, 2013. I learned so much from him. In a lot of places, people backstab in order to succeed, but he never resorted to that. To be really successful in what you do: Do good. Be good. Be humble. He’ll tell you the same thing, and he led by example. After my thesis defense, he asked me, ‘What do you want for your thesis party? I’m going to the supermarket now, and I can grab whatever you want.’”

Source: Dr. Adelene Sim

Open, aware, and integrative in a variety of scientific disciplines, as well as her international career, and as a teacher and mentor, Dr. Adelene Sim fuses: – physics, informatics, and biology

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781547401505-030

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– holistic connections with a diverse set of colleagues, students, and mentees – international life and language Video https://youtu.be/8GCsAE-4GlA

How often has a Nobel Prize winner offered to grocery shop for you? Most of us can’t get our spouse or children to do it. And yet, simple acts of reaching out can do two things: join us together so we can build together, and help us understand the space we’re reaching across. The first helps us collaborate. The second pushes us to understand at depth, from more perspectives than our own.

The Lone Puzzler Dr. Adelene Sim is the only scientist in her family. Her father does business, mother did law, brother did geography and now teaches. To bridge the gap, she had to understand others’ perspectives and often had to explain why she did what she did, which made her think more deeply.

Figure 30.1: Solving puzzles in play can help us solve puzzles in life.

As a child, she solved puzzles for hours on end (see Figure 30.1), assembled airplanes and ships, and played with LEGO. She was driven by curiosity and a desire to solve problems. Good in soccer and keenly aware of her surroundings,

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she noticed things and often heard from her parents, “Wow — you’re the only one who saw that.” When she sees a problem, she lets it simmer, discusses it to gain other perspectives, then tinkers, because frequently, “until you actually sit down and get your hands dirty, you don’t know the right questions to ask.” Unlike some parents, who push their children to follow in their footsteps or follow better footsteps like medicine, law, and engineering (especially in Asia), her parents were supportive of whatever interested her. They fed those interests with models, toys, and education, and enjoyed the benefits of having a tinkerer around: “When something doesn’t work, it really bothers me. Why did it stop working? Can I fix it? At home, I’m actually the one who fixes stuff and assembles Ikea furniture. And it becomes a cycle. When you fix more stuff, you encounter more problems, and you keep fixing and learning.”

The Inter(est)net She followed her curiosity beyond problems at-hand and beyond school, via the internet: “I grew up when the internet was growing, and it made a huge difference. When you learn stuff in school, it’s typically quite narrow and is focused on learning for the exam. I remember looking up Chemistry with Yahoo! Search (Google wasn’t big then) and cutting out pictures of how orbitals look. I was really intrigued by it and how it wasn’t adequately described in class. I’m motivated by interest and want to decipher how things work. It was so much easier to learn with Yahoo! instead of going to the library. And the curiosity and learning built upon itself.” (See Figure 30.2.)

Her interests moved from chemistry to physics, which she approached with the same desire to understand. However, it held an extra feature — it could help her understand everything else: “When I was growing up I was always interested in physics because I thought it could link together everything. I used to say that it’s the most basic of all sciences. It helps me connect things. I like underlying principles, underlying ideas. At a deeper level, they’re all connected.”

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Figure 30.2: Curiosity builds on itself, and it’s now easier than ever to follow our curiosity, learning beyond (or without) structured school programs.

Deep Thinking at Cambridge and Stanford Adelene earned her bachelor’s degree in physics at Cambridge University. After three years there, she returned to Singapore to work for a year in materials research. She moved on to Stanford for her master’s and doctorate degrees in applied physics. In the first of her six years there, she rotated to different labs, which gave her a chance to try new things before settling into one area of focus at the Levitt Lab. She started with photonic crystals (designing them to guide light in different ways), and moved into biophysics, ultimately working to predict and understand RNA tertiary structure using knowledge-based potentials, lowresolution experimental data, and novel computational sampling and clustering approaches.

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Analogous Thinking at A*STAR: Why Not Cancel a Virus Like Canceling a Print Job? Returning to Singapore as a post-doc for five years, Adelene set to work on computational modeling of protein structures and protein-RNA interactions at the Verma lab in A*STAR’s BII (Agency for Science, Technology and Research, Bioinformatics Institute). She studies the key RNA structural motifs involved in protein-RNA interactions and uses molecular dynamics and Monte Carlo sampling to determine conformations and dynamics of proteins involved in the p53 tumor-suppressor network. For the rest of us, that means she works in computational structural biology—that is, modeling the structures of biological macromolecules (like proteins) and how structural changes affect their function. The methods and models she develops can be applied to a wide range of specific situations, like the spread of dengue or cancer (see Figure 30.3).

Figure 30.3: Analogous thinking helps Adelene solve problems in novel ways, wondering, for example, if we can find a way to cancel a virus like canceling a print job.

Cancer, for example, is basically cell mutation and proliferation. Cells deform and reproduce in a way that’s harmful. The way she explains it to students (and interviewers) is: If your printer started printing junk, you would cancel the print job or —if that didn’t work—turn off the printer or pull the plug. We don’t really understand cancer well enough to know how to stop the print job or “turn off” the cancer cells readily. If we understood the machinery, we might be able to.

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Similarly, when Adelene’s brother got dengue (twice), all anyone could do was admit him to the hospital and give him Tylenol. No one knows exactly how dengue works, despite (annually) 390 million infections, 500,000 hemorrhagic fever cases, and 25,000 deaths. We can’t easily “turn off” dengue. Then, when you add Zika (in the same family as dengue) and other viral infections, the picture, printed or not, becomes clear: We need to understand at a basic level how they work and how to stop or reprogram them. We need to model their structure and behavior using advanced mathematical methods and computer algorithms — such as those created by Adelene.

Go Deep and Connect Where You Surface “I work on multiple projects at the same time, and things I understand or uncover in one eventually have implications on others which were seemingly unrelated. It can be as simple as finding a new way to write a computer program that makes it faster, or a modeling technique.” (See Figure 30.4.)

Figure 30.4: Working on multiple projects at once and thinking at depth helps Adelene see the commonalities she can apply across disciplines.

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Adelene learned that developments in one discipline might have uses in many others. Her research and personal style is to learn broadly, understand deeply, and make a connection to what she’s working on. “The more I’m exposed to, the more I connect and see patterns. It builds on itself. In fact, if someone looked at the things that I’ve done, they might think it’s all separate and doesn’t make sense. But to me, it does. In my mind, it’s all connected. It’s all the same thing.”

. . . or Just Make a Dot — The Next Person Will Connect It In fact, she doesn’t even have to make the connection — a good thing, since her job is in basic research, not applied research. She compares research to a team building a skyscraper. Everyone adds bricks (knowledge), and no one knows the value of a particular brick. Einstein’s equations were not originally thought to be useful. Lasers initially had no use. The first programmable devices were musical instruments and toys, not computers for the workplace. So, Adelene continues to pursue new knowledge about how things work and publishes in top journals. She’s passionate to know how things work, but she often doesn’t know how her work will be used. When asked if that bothers her, she says, “It’s fine not knowing.” Although she may not know who will use her “brick” or place the next “brick” on top of hers, collaboration is key (see Figure 30.5). The best

Figure 30.5: You don’t have to have all the answers and apply all the learnings—just put something out someone else can build on.

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collaborations she’s enjoyed have come through friends and colleagues and involved deep discussions beyond the research at hand. Colleagues describe her as collaborative, open to sharing her ideas, a good teacher, patient, strong in spirit, deep-thinking, broad, hard-working, effective and efficient, and productive, seeing the big picture as well as how parts work together. She asks deep questions at weekly lab meetings and helps shape others’ thinking of their projects with deep listening and questions (not just answers). In fact, she impressed her colleague Chinh Su Tran To with a very simple act on Chinh’s first day of work at the lab. Adelene offered Chinh first use of the computer. That sounds small and forgettable, but over a year later, it was the first thing Chinh mentioned in an interview about Adelene. Her last sentence was, “She’s one of the few people that make me impressed.”

Analogous Teaching Makes Her More Creative Adelene is extremely passionate about mentoring and teaching the next generation of scientists and data analysts. Further, she finds the best way to learn is to teach, and it boosts her creativity through analogous thinking: “I often draw analogies of complex/abstract stuff to things that I’m familiar with. I notice I always have to do this when working with students, to explain things to them in a way they can relate to. In retrospect, I think these help reinforce intuition (for me), which may be important in drawing connections and networks. In particular, I’m forced to draw connections between things that are seemingly disparate, just to better explain an idea.”

Those who help others often coincidentally help themselves, like the old story of a man in need of help on a snowy mountain. People passed him by, saying they had to get to the top before the blizzard, so they couldn’t help. One man picked up the fallen traveler and hiked up the mountain with him on his back. One by one, he passed the others, frozen dead in the snow. When he reached the temple at the top and laid the fallen man on the ground, he at last took a moment to wipe off his sweat. Students and interns at various levels work with Adelene — high school, undergraduate, graduate, and PhD candidates. She mentors the whole person — not just the scientist — and seeks to cultivate values (mentoring at depth). As a Christian, she feels God gives her inspiration, and she chooses problems to work on for both the intellectual thrill as well as the potential impact on humanity.

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Living Abroad Also Boosts Her Creativity Adelene’s students come from very different backgrounds and a variety of nations, so she’s stretched to see from their diverse, international perspectives. Like teaching, it helps her see from others’ perspectives, make new analogies, and craft creative solutions. Likewise, her own life abroad opened her eyes to “just how big the world is” — the excitement (and acute humility) of discovering what she didn’t know and didn’t know she didn’t know (see Figure 30.6).

Figure 30.6: Living abroad enhanced Adeline’s humility, passion to learn, and creativity.

“I have friends who’ve lived in one nation their whole lives. Their perception of the world is different from someone who has not just traveled, but actually lived on another continent.”

A native Mandarin and English speaker, she appreciates how language can help you immerse in a different culture and understand more deeply and flexibly. When she travels, she learns at least some of the language, as on a recent trip to Spain.

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Collecting and Connecting: The Ever-Faster, Never-Ending Journey “Never, ever stop learning. And never do it to get smarter. You’re not going to know it all.”

Adelene reads prolifically and broadly, takes courses on Coursera and EdX, and talks to different people, including many good friends outside the sciences. With bachelor’s, master’s, and PhD degrees in hand, she recently earned her second master’s degree — in computer science at Georgia Institute of Technology. No one’s CV needs that many degrees. She’s exploring what interests her and enjoys learning. Nowadays, she intentionally learns from different disciplines in order to cross-connect, for example, mathematics principles that can be applied to social or biological networks. “The dots are there. It’s just that no one’s connected them yet.”

Despite her breadth (from the average scientist’s perspective) she feels she’s siloed herself in the sciences. She wants to branch out, learning more languages and humanities, with a desire to use her skills in genomic data science, educational technology, and healthcare.

Figure 30.7: Human advances aren’t just intellectual—they’re fueled by personally reaching out and building together, in seen and unseen ways.

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So far, her journey has been rooted in diversity, powered by deep understanding, crafted with connections and analogies, and enabled by humble, holistic personal connectedness. To go on a similar journey, we can actively diversify ourselves, follow our interests toward understanding at depth, make intellectual connections, and practice analogies. However, we may need to do something harder and less obvious, for advances we can’t make alone (see Figure 30.7). Maybe the real question is: Whose groceries did you get today? Adelene is, “a lifelong learner who loves to break silos across different disciplines. I started as a physicist, moved to become a biophysicist and now am probably closer to being known as a data scientist/machine learning engineer. I love to work with data (genomic data, molecular simulation data, wet-lab experimental data, electronic health records, etc.) and to uncover the secrets they tell us. The noisier and bigger the data, the more fun it gets! On top of that, I am also very particular about acquiring proper domain knowledge, so that I can avoid getting garbage out (due to garbage in).” She is now a research scientist at Amazon and is “from” England, USA, and Singapore. For more information on her work, see: linkedin.com/in/adelene-sim/ and The Bioinformatics Institute at A*STAR (bii.astar.edu.sg/).

Chapter 31 Connectography Geography, ICT, and a New World Order

Dr. Parag Khanna—Serial Entrepreneur and Government/Business Advisor, Researcher “Beneath the chaos of a world that appears to be falling apart is a new foundation of connectivity pulling it together.”1

Source: Parag Khanna

A world-traveller, prolific author, and academic-realist, Parag Khanna fused: – geography and ICT infrastructure – business, government, and academia – world-travel experience and International-Relations theory

1 Parag Khanna, Connectography: Mapping the Future of Global Civilization, Random House (2016) (abstract). https://doi.org/10.1515/9781547401505-031

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Video https://youtu.be/I-02ogjC98k

“I’m not a natural writer. I don’t even like to write. In fact, I hate it.” “Right. You’re a best-selling author and you hate to write. Is this why you’ve just handed me a thousand-page manuscript? A thousand pages — really?” “OK, OK — I already know what comes into my head jumps onto paper. But everywhere I go, everything I see — there’s a connection to what I’m doing.” “We have to cut this. 50,000 words on nodes and economic zones and inter-city competition? That goes.” “Fine, but you can’t touch the stuff on Eastern philosophy and how it underlies geopolitical futures.” “Why are you reading Eastern philosophy? You’re an International Relations specialist.” “The past tells us a great deal about the future.” “And what’s this book all about, again?” “Well, with USD $10 Trillion a year being invested in energy, transportation, IT, and communications infrastructures linking the world’s growing megacities, connectivity is the new arms race. We’re reengineering the planet, and I’m laying out a fusion of geography and connectivity, showing a new world order. Being in a city now means more than being in a country, and we’re accelerating into a future shaped less by countries than by connectivity. The most connected powers — and people — will win. The book is an amalgamation of my research, with diametrically-opposed scenarios in different disciplines.” (See Figure 31.1.) “And why are you doing this? To become the world’s top something?” “No, I don’t want to be at the top of any particular field, ignoring all the rest. My goal has always been one thing: to give the most accurate account of what’s happening. My yardstick is reality — accuracy — truth — not to please some boss or get promoted. Who cares? What’s fun is when I find tremendous support for opposing arguments and discover they’re both right. I need to reconcile them — integrate them by creating something new.” “No boss, huh? So, companies pay you for consulting? Governments?” “That’s part of what I do. Companies need geopolitical advisory for long-term planning, as well as when they least expect it. I also advise governments on scenarios

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Figure 31.1: Connectography—Parag’s new fusion of connective infrastructure and geography— may show us a new world order.

for their strategic decision-making as well. Whatever their interest in my work, I want to help them find the relevance. It’s really for everyone.” “So we cut the 50,000.” “OK, but we keep Eastern Philosophy.” “Deal.”

Uniquely (and Globally) Parag Born in India, Parag grew up in the Middle East, US, Germany, Switzerland, and London (see Figure 31.2). He now lives in Singapore, which is part home and part platform for a global life. He’s the kind of person one refers to as a Global Citizen and speaks English, French, German, Hindi, Spanish, and basic Arabic. He started collecting maps, globes, and other geographic- and travel-related artifacts during his “itinerant” childhood. Despite the constant change, he describes it as stable, happy, and normal. He feels it has a lot to do with his inner calmness and inspiration, which brings clarity and helps him freely connect people and ideas. A great deal of what he writes has grown out of a seminar he took when he was a 19-year-old student at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.

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Figure 31.2: Multi-national and multi-lingual, Parag sees from and integrates multiple fields and perspectives.

The course was called Map of the Modern World. He’s still responding to that professor, with whom he still corresponds. Connectography is in some regard a commercialization of that class so that everyone can access the ideas and use them. In short, Parag brings together the normally separate worlds of academia, business, and government — as well as connecting leaders and the people they serve. The last book in his best-selling trilogy, Connectography, follows The Second World (on geopolitical structure and how multi-polar competition operates in emerging markets) and How to Run the World: Charting a Course to the Next Renaissance (on the future of diplomacy — basically his doctoral thesis rewritten for popular press). In How to Run the World, he proposes that we harness technology and connectedness to emerge from stalemates of East versus West, rich versus poor, democracy versus authoritarianism, free market versus state capitalism, and business versus government—into a new Renaissance. He outlines how a new

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“mega-diplomacy” of integrated coalitions among activists, technocrats, executives, super-philanthropists, and everyday people can engender the world we want. “If we focus on the lines that cross borders, the infrastructure lines, then we’ll wind up with the world we want, a borderless one . . . by wrapping the world in such seamless physical and digital connectivity, we evolve towards a world in which people can rise above their geographic constraints.” — Parag Khanna, “How Megacities Are Changing the Map of the World,” TED.com (transcript)

Traveling and Collecting Beyond business, government, and academia, Parag also fuses theory and experience (see Figure 31.3). He reads voraciously and actively researches topics of importance, but he takes a step further — many steps, in fact. He travels to places he

Figure 31.3: Reading and research aren’t enough—you need to go see for yourself the reality beyond theory.

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writes about, converses with people (in their own language, where possible), and experiences situations first-hand. “You cannot discount the things you see with your own eyes. Read widely, travel a lot, and think of everyone as a teacher — because everyone is. I remember them. If you turn to page 416 and point to something and ask who taught me this, I can tell you. I’ll remember sitting in a café with someone, for example, in Tripoli, learning about Libyan history.”

Sometimes, experience and theory don’t align, and that’s where the fun begins. “You have to reconcile the disparate experiences, ideas, and literatures. That’s what makes this fun. You have to come up with a theory or explanation for why they don’t mesh. For example, one of the major dichotomies in the book is globalization versus deglobalization. There’s research strongly supporting both positions. My job is to investigate and come up with a fusion that explains it all.”

His explanation, called “Devolution Aggregation,” seems to fit reality better than either globalization or deglobalization. Is the world falling apart or coming together? The answer is apparently yes — both. If we have more and smaller political units, then they have to integrate (to trade for food, water, and everything else), so what looks like fragmentation is actually a necessary precondition for integration. “You cannot be right without taking into account the exact opposite. And you cannot discount what you see because it doesn’t fit your theory — or someone else’s.”

Parag collects an eclectic array of ideas, people, conversations, and experiences (see Figure 31.4). Beyond research and travel, he receives Google alerts, listservs (article summaries on various topics and trends), and takes part in a variety of networks (associations, annual conferences, regular talks by experts, and so on). “He makes an effort to experience things and meet a lot of people, and that gives him a very unique perspective. He’s got good insights nobody else is coming up with.” — Karan Khemka, Georgetown classmate and friend

Collecting and Connecting “He’s one of the most connected people I’ve ever met, and he’s wonderfully generous about sharing those connections. It’s not a connectedness that’s self-serving.” —Aaron Maniam, Young Global Leader — World Economic Forum

Friends describe Parag as a brilliantly extroverted, driven, well-thoughtthrough provocateur — a great intellectual sparring partner. He cultivates relationships and debates ideas with people all over the world. He’s also a good listener (which good debaters often aren’t).

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Figure 31.4: Parag uses and continually collects an eclectic array of conversations, people, ideas, and experiences.

Adventurous and open to new ideas, experiences, people, and insights, he’s not only curious about what’s happening in the world but is also aware of himself, how he reacts to ideas, and how they might fit together. “After a while, the ideas kind of co-mingle. They end up being greater than sum of their parts.”

An ideas person, Parag is not noted for emotional empathy, however he is notedly compassionate and readily steps into others’ perspectives, for example, at conferences where he repeatedly paraphrases and synthesizes the ideas of other speakers. Being an extrovert, he derives a huge amount of energy from interacting with others, in addition to refueling with sports, meditation, and time with his wife and children.

Charting His Own Course Parag understands he doesn’t need to be a tenure-track professor to do research, a politician to make a difference, or a businessperson to earn a living. He sits in each of those worlds and in the space between them, bringing something to each (see Figure 31.5).

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Figure 31.5: Crafting something unique outside a single discipline may require charting your own career course.

In academia, he’s a Senior Research Fellow in the Centre on Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (National University of Singapore). In the area of policy, he’s a leading international strategist, CNN Global Contributor, and influential author. His 2008 story on the cover of New York Times Magazine (“Waving Goodbye to Hegemony”) is one of the most influential and hotly debated essays since the Cold War. As a businessperson, he’s the Co-Founder and CEO of Factotum, a content branding agency, as well as Managing Partner of Hybrid Reality, a strategic advisory firm serving corporations and governments. He’s shown there’s real value in big ideas. His message to businesspeople is not just to respond to global integration but also to foster it: “To succeed in this global marketplace, multinational companies must learn to become metanational: truly stateless. This requires thinking long-term about new growth centers, recruiting and training an international workforce comfortable across functions and locations, developing more locally tailored products and services, and restructuring management into partnership models that devolve authority.” — Parag Khanna, “How Megacities Are Changing the Map of the World,” TED.com (transcript)

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The Journey to What’s Next Insatiably curious, Parag is constantly on the road learning and discovering (see Figure 31.6).

Figure 31.6: Traveling, learning, integrating ideas in new ways—it’s all driven by curiosity.

“It has to start with that fundamental orientation of curiosity. Everything else, the energy, the drive to do it, the use of technology to build networks and community — all of that is secondary.” —Aaron Maniam, Young Global Leader — World Economic Forum

The more he travels and learns across fields, the more unique he becomes. The more he integrates, the bigger value he creates. “He’s shown that you can really be yourself — uniquely yourself — and succeed.” — Karan Khemka, Georgetown classmate and friend

With 50,000 words removed from his manuscript, he’s traveling a bit lighter these days, and there’s always room on journeys for his wife and two children. When “the four little Khannas” set off on a new journey of learning and discovery, they go with light bags and blank iPad screens, typing what they see and hear, finding new ideas and experiences to unravel and integrate into something new — not the least of which is their ever-evolving, continually new selves (see Figure 31.7).

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Figure 31.7: The more unique Parag becomes, the more value he creates.

Where will you go—to see and listen, learn and grow? What will you read and research? How will you integrate them — into new ideas and a new you? Dr. Parag Khanna is Co-Founder and CEO of Factotum (a content branding agency that creates multi-media thought leadership for companies and governments), Managing Partner of Hybrid Reality (a geostrategic advisory firm), and Senior Research Fellow in the Centre on Asia and Globalization (Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore). This leading transnational strategist, CNN Global Contributor, and best-selling author is “from” India, Germany, Singapore, Switzerland, the US, and the UAE. For more information on his work, see: linkedin.com/in/drparagkhanna/, Factotum.Agency, hybridreality.co/, his Amazon author’s page (amazon.com/Parag-Khanna/e/ B001JS9A30/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1508922599&sr=8-1), CNN Global Contributor profile (edition.cnn.com/profiles/parag-khanna), YouTube Channel (youtube.com/user/paragkhanna7277), and TED talks on Cross-Border Conflicts and Megacities.

Chapter 32 Jeiva Portable, Over-Clothing, Life-Saving Breast Cancer Detection Krish Krishnan—Serial Entrepreneur, Science-Technology Ventures

Collector of medical technologies, ideas, and people, as well as masterconnector of the same, Krish Krishnan fuses: – scientific advances and technologies with business – ideas and people from around the world Video https://youtu.be/krhgDASdIhM

Dr. Warsito P. Taruno, an Indonesian physicist, trained in Japan and went to Ohio State University (in the US). He developed a technology to measure small differences in electrical capacitance — how electrically conductive a material is. He developed it to find obstructions in oil pipes, gas, water, etc., without breaking open the pipe. But there’s an even-more-complex collection of pipes — the human body. What would happen if you used this technology on a human body? https://doi.org/10.1515/9781547401505-032

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Permittivity and Breast Cancer The physicist returned to Indonesia and did just that — took readings on humans with the technology. The specific property he works with is permittivity — the distribution of electrical capacitance in a three-dimensional space. Cancer cells have different permittivity from normal cells. That’s already well-established. Women hate getting mammograms. That’s also well-established. It normally requires a general-practitioner visit, referral, paperwork, disrobing in a cold hospital room, and an uncomfortable or painful test, only to discover the presence of a lump on a two-dimensional image — not whether it’s cancerous, and not revealing its location three-dimensionally (see Figure 32.1).

Figure 32.1: Mammograms are expensive, uncomfortable, and unavailable to many.

How do we actually test for cancer? We locate the mass during surgery, perform a biopsy and lab analysis, followed by yet another patient-physician visit to discuss results. After a lumpectomy, another mammogram is often necessary to see if the surgeon removed all the dangerous material. But that’s too painful soon after surgery, so cancerous tissue can still remain while the patient is unable to undergo the follow-up test.

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How might we test for cancer in the future? The VisiGram — a conical sensor that fits comfortably over the breast and clothing, scans the breast’s permittivity, and displays 3D readings immediately via desktop, laptop, tablet, phone, etc. A non-malignant lump can be diagnosed on the spot, and the patient can return for monitoring anytime — every day if she wants. When the mass grows faster than it should or becomes cancerous, caregiver and patient can both see it immediately and decide what to do — impossible with a mammogram, since we need to limit our exposure to radiation. It’s already being tested. Hundreds of women in Indonesia have volunteered to share their readings, forming a growing body of research data. “We already know the permittivity data tells us what’s a malignant cell and what’s a benign cell. The boundary between them is not clear — it’s a continuum. But the more data points we get, the narrower the boundary becomes.”

Of course, new medical technology ignites questions and visions of disaster—for example, women not receiving treatment when they should have gone for biopsy surgery. However, not everyone has access to formal healthcare procedures, and a variety of economic and cultural factors inhibit women from breast cancer screening, especially in poorer nations and among minorities in wealthy ones. According to the WHO, breast cancer is the most common cancer in women worldwide. Most breast cancer deaths are in developing countries, where diagnosis is generally late — and incidence is rising. Village or neighborhood clinics generally don’t have the money for new diagnostic devices, but what if the device were free and the test — delivered over the cloud — were provided at just a small fee? Crowd-funding and personal gifts could fund the rest. What if you gave your mother a VisiGram on Mother’s Day? Or added a donation sticker on your InterFlora card showing that another mother somewhere in the world will receive a VisiGram as part of the gift? How else might we use the technology, with development and testing? The pelvic girdle (or colorectal, gastro-intestinal, etc.), BrainScan helmet, and more. You could potentially wrap it around any part of your body and create a threedimensional permittivity image, finding any cancer, or potentially, other permittivity disruptors.

MedTech Innovation + BizModel Innovation = Disruption Dr. Taruno met Krish Krishnan at a conference in a tiny village in Germany focused on laser therapy (not permittivity or cancer, see Figure 32.2). Krish is not himself a researcher, but he is a biochemist-MBA accelerator co-founder, and is

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Figure 32.2: A tiny village in Germany hosting a conference in another field became the launchpad for this revolutionary new med-tech company.

now working with Dr. Taruno to develop and commercialize the technology. The plan is to develop a breast-imaging company, which will expand to other applications and other nations, organically. With his business acumen, Krish knows existing mammogram equipment companies won’t like this. So instead of competing with the GEs and Siemenses of the world or partnering with them (because big companies kill disruptive initiatives), VisiGram envisions taking the game away from them. Mammogram and MRI machines cost $120,000 to $200,000. A VisiGram device currently costs $2,000 and can be sold, or even given away if there’s enough revenue stream from testing. Krish knows that within a corporate environment, it will take a long time to break through policies and procedures to address a disruptor. He intends to get VisiGram to the market and grow before they can retaliate.

Scientist Turned Businessman Turned Both How would he know what corporations can and cannot do? Simple — he worked for Novo Nordisk for 15 years selling industrial enzymes around the world,

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especially in emerging markets. His job was to take technologies and needs and put them together internationally, sometimes telling headquarters in Denmark that what they’re offering won’t really work the same way in China, Russia, Brazil, Indonesia, and others. “My years at Novo Nordisk International were amazing. If I were to review my whole life for learning — that was when I learned the most.”

Krish had learned a good deal of science before business. He earned a bachelor’s in life sciences, then a master’s in biochemistry, but disrupted his own path with an MBA. “It became pretty clear that I didn’t want to do a PhD, because I couldn’t stand the idea of having my real career start when I’m well into my 30s. I had gone to do a PhD in Canada but told my profs I wasn’t going to do it — I’d get an MBA. They thought I was nuts.”

He lived in California for a while because it was a hotbed of biotech, and worked in India, in what he describes as “a complete aberration of my career — American Express.” Working for a finance company may have proven useful, however, since he now raises funding for startups. After a year there, he got bored and joined a Swedish Company called Pharmacia — a critical step toward Novo Nordisk, which set him on a path of science and business discovery.

Global Childhood and the Debating No-Door Family In fact, discovery and reaching out with new ideas began much earlier. Krish was born in Kerala, India, and lived in a variety of locations (and cultures and languages) around the nation. He moved to Malaysia for more than 10 years, growing up in Kuala Lumpur, and returned to India to “finish” his education. He speaks English, Hindi, Tamil, and Bahasa Indonesian. During his formative years in Malaysia, his expatriate Indian father would invite colleagues from his company to dinner — CEOs, MDs, and other executives — Europeans, Americans, and more. They would enjoy traditional Indian food and entertainment, and the children would dine with the adults. Krish was encouraged to participate, and there was an incident one evening, in which Krish spoke his mind about an issue, and the guest he was addressing replied, “What do you know? You’re a kid.” Krish’s father stopped immediately and said, “In my household, I encourage my children to participate in conversation and share their opinions” (see Figure 32.3). He gave respect to his son (and the other children), listened to everyone’s ideas, and dinner conversations

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Figure 32.3: In Krish’s home, children were to be seen, heard, and spur thought through questions and alternative ideas.

were a venue for debating positions and deciphering truth. Boundaries were few — no doors.

Cross Boundaries, Collect, and Connect Crossing boundaries is one of Krish’s strengths. (“One of the key things is: rules don’t matter.”) Another is making connections. At the laser conference where he met Dr. Taruno, he met a German doctor who invented a way to use lasers inside the human body (first in the world), with dramatic results. Krish connected him with a 75-year-old cancer patient who was sent home by her doctors to die but is now receiving laser therapy. At the same conference, he was listening to someone describe how oxygen stresses tumors. An agent that raises blood oxygen levels can be administered by injection or capsule and followed by laser. “So he was talking about all of this, and I had a germ of an idea at the back of my head. I looked up all the stuff that I know, and I found it. There was a Russian invention from years ago, originally a blood substitute . . . Now I’m in the middle of putting them together.”

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Not only does Krish attend conferences, but he also reads widely, and continuously scans for and connects with new ideas and people. He often connects them with each other or works to spread them to other parts of the world, especially Asia, where he lives.

JEIVA (Life) + Syndesis In fact, it’s such a way of life that he and his wife, Suzanne Druce, cofounded JEIVA, a consultancy for commercializing innovation. What began as a broad-based management consultancy—serving European and Asian clients in non-precious metals, engineering, chemicals, biotech, medtech, and pharmaceuticals—became more focused. They built their network, grew by word-of-mouth, and now can focus on what is close to their hearts and desired legacy — innovations in human health and ecology. They pursue what no one else is doing but needs to be done. Jiva (without the “e”) means (roughly) “life” in Sanskrit. They choose projects that should make a difference in the world but don’t attract enough systematic attention and funding. They apply their own systematic attention — an innovation process from idea to concept to technology to prototype and beyond, which they’ve called Technology Syndesis© (see Figure 32.4). Syn (together) + dein (to tie) = combining or binding together. JEIVA seeks to synergize and liberate what is currently pre-market or low-penetration, buried in specialist silos, resident in different technology clusters, isolated within intra-organizational silos, or restricted/controlled by current market structures or players. Even after they’ve taken a project, they often find venture capitalists can’t fund it because their timeframes are too short. Angels’ pockets are too shallow. Private equity can’t assess the risks. A big player in the industry would kill it. But someone in another industry (e.g., insurance or telecommunications) knows they need to cross industry boundaries and pull together in a new way. “The people who are going to succeed with innovation, who are going to build tomorrow’s 100-year-old companies, are those that understand how to deploy the convergence of science/technology in the most effective way for human benefit. What has siloed is now pulling back together. The only source of innovation in the future is going to be that pull.”

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Figure 32.4: Making life better requires more than science—syndesis is needed—tying together science/technology, specialist fields, business, organizational silos, and more.

Building Innovation Capital: The Idea+People Bank In the past 11 years, they’ve not only gathered a science/business network but have also gathered and kept track of a large number of technologies from around the world (see Figure 32.5). Innovators most often abandon their projects in the prototype-to-product stage, frustrated by lack of immediate acceptance (and funding), with a desire to move on to the next puzzle. “Then comes the things that JEIVA does, or Suzanne tells me I do. I think, ‘what if I put this and this together — is it going to make something new? Is that something possible? Who do I need to talk to? How can I make it happen? How long would it take, and who might fund it?’ Now we actually have a large enough bank of concepts and technologies (and in rare cases prototypes) where we can actually make it happen.”

Interestingly, 10 years is the average incubation period for creative individuals to have a major breakthrough. Like JEIVA (a creative company), during that time they collect ideas and people and hone their skills. They build innovation capital. In Krish’s case, the ideas, people, and skills are remarkably broad.

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Figure 32.5: Collecting people, ideas, and technologies that might be useful later created invaluable “innovation capital.”

“He’s cycling between 20 different subjects in his head at any point in time as a way of being. He’ll be on the phone to a mentee in Malaysia about a palm-tree trunk chipper. He’ll give some advice, put the phone down, and it rings again. It’s somebody from Russia talking about oil-drilling technology. He puts the phone down and says, ‘Oh, that’s interesting. There are parallels here, and yesterday I had a similar conversation with a new tech provider — I’ll connect those people.’ He can see in his head how to attach one thing to another, then how it connects with someone he met in another industry at a cocktail party. Then he calls a series of people until he’s got a business model and go-to-market strategy that works for everyone. And he doesn’t understand how other people don’t do that.” —Suzanne Druce, wife and Co-Founder and Director of JEIVA

Backward Chain . . . to a Person and the Personal “I love an intellectual challenge. I get a real rush from having people telling me they haven’t thought of it.”

Krish is described as intelligent, thoughtful, honest, authentic, very opinionated, bold, confident, open, extremely generous, empathetic (perspectivetaking, emotional resonance, and compassionate action), resilient, perseverant,

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stress-tolerant, strong, alternately frustrating and infuriating, and a talker who speaks his mind freely, wants to be involved, and says yes to everything. Colleagues say: If there’s any way to interrupt his day when he’s busy, it’ll be to ask for help. He can demystify complicated topics, and there are no barriers — he can talk to anyone and is genuinely interested. That said, he knows how to manage his personal boundaries and maintain his energy. He talks about what’s real, and it resonates with people. “Never underestimate what you don’t know. Krish unlocked my mind and helped me undo my thinking. He’ll tell you everything he knows that’s of value to you. This comes at a price, though. You’ll need to be equally open to receiving criticism and questions.” —Chandrasekhar Arun, mentee “He’s not satisfied to not know. He speed reads, sits up late at night, and reaches out. He’s constantly absorbing and constantly linking.” —Suzanne Druce, wife and Co-Founder and Director of JEIVA

To Krish, ideas are personal, and people are approachable—the way they were around the dinner table. He backward chains, that is, follows references back to earlier works, sometimes contacting the authors for a discussion (see Figure 32.6). He has a sharp memory and can recognize new work as belonging to someone he read about or spoke with before.

Figure 32.6: People and ideas flow together, and authors usually have more to say than they’ve written.

He needs to “go off to his cave” a lot, alone. When something’s on his mind (as it usually is), he’ll read, watch YouTube, listen to music, or do nothing at all,

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often at night. At the last minute, when something is needed for a project, he’ll wrap it up and present it, having thought about it (consciously or not) for however many nights it needed thinking. He enjoys swimming and squash, which are specific and purposeful, but loves Tai chi and yoga, which have no end. One of the reasons he began martial Tai chi, the mother of most martial arts, is because there’s no belt system. It’s about 10 years before you achieve any kind of mastery — the same timing as personal creative breakthroughs.

The New Age of Polymaths and Meta-Mindframes But what about collective creative breakthroughs, and how do individuals fit in? What kinds of individuals are needed, and how long does it take? (see Figure 32.7) “The people I admire most in the world were polymaths. They had expertise in many different areas and could jump from one to another — Buckminster Fuller, Edison, Lister, Darwin, Pasteur. Originally, there were no fields. But for the past 130 years or so, we’ve siloed ourselves in them. Now, science is all coming back together again. What’s there in biotechnology is so close to nanotechnology, physics, and chemistry. We had to go deep, but now, knowledge is a Google search away. For the world to progress, we need people who acquire knowledge, connect broadly across fields, and have a meta-mindframe.”

Krish has a meta-mindframe — thinking that rises above industries, fields, etc., sees commonalities and patterns, and cross-connects. He loves to have idea jam sessions with wacky, boundaryless thinkers like himself. They’re hard to find and largely unemployable since they like their freedom, but every now and then a company is born from one of those discussions, like VisiGram or xCyton (another Fusion story).

It Takes a Village to Fuse an Innovation Many fusions are required to create and bring something to the world, and you don’t personally have to perform each one. Krish didn’t fuse permittivity technology and healthcare, but he did understand it with enough depth to recognize its value, and then fused it with startup acceleration. Without startup acceleration, it might just languish in a lab. Krish is open to new ideas and people, both inward (reading and listening) and outward (helping). He is inwardly open to inspiration and manages his internal space with time alone to think, and martial Tai chi. He collects interesting ideas and people (whether they interest anyone else or not) in conferences,

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Figure 32.7: We need polymaths for lateral innovation, like DaVinci, Darwin, Edison, Fuller, Lister, Pasteur, and others.

backward-chained publications, acceleration work, and social gatherings. When he senses something of interest with his particular lens on the world (med-tech and eco-tech acceleration), it either moves backward into the collection or forward to fusing and action. The act of fusion itself goes beyond connecting something sensed with something easily accessed in the mind. It may require digging in the collection (mind, laptop, and others) to find something intuition says is there, searching outside for information and people, and backward and forward chaining until all the needed dots are connected into a pattern — a workable new business with a path to growth. At a meta-level (organizational), this is JEIVA’s process, as well, and can be any innovator’s or organization’s. Once you’ve opened outward and inward, once you’ve collected (intensively or long-term), and once you’ve sensed something with your own innovation lens, it’s time to connect (see Figure 32.8).

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Figure 32.8: A polymath may innovate across the arts, science, and business, but doesn’t have to do all jobs alone.

Are you open, outward and inward? Are you building your collection? Once you sense, do you make a new picture, backward- and forwardconnecting your dots, whether they’re already collected or not? What will your new picture be? Krish Krishnan is Co-Founder and Director of JEIVA International Pte. Ltd., a strategy and innovation company, as well as Director of Biospheire International Sdn. Bhd., a turnaround and interim management firm. He is also a Strategic Advisor to ImmunoHeal Pte. Ltd., dedicated to fighting disease with the immune system; minimizing risk and long-term drug dependence; improving quality of life; and increasing access to affordable health care. He’s “from” Denmark, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and the US. For more information on his work, see: linkedin.com/in/ krishgkrishnan/.

Chapter 33 Killer Mystery Infections and the 24-in-1 Test 10 Million+ Lives and $1.2 Billion to Save Worldwide Dr. Ravi Kumar Banda—Entrepreneur, Medical Scientist-Technologist

To solve an impossible and deadly medical problem, and facing a scientific advance that top colleagues from around the world said couldn’t be done, Dr. Ravi Kumar Banda and his team: – created the world’s first life-saving fusion of 24 different bacterial, fungal, parasitic, and viral diagnostic tests – sustained and grew an enterprise of excellence in science and business Video https://youtu.be/Ul1OKSlzJ48

“Hey, Ravi — there’s something unusual here we can’t figure out. Are you free to come?” Ravi hopped on his scooter and raced over. “What did I miss?” “Nothing. I waited for you. You’re irrationally enthusiastic — you realize that, don’t you?” https://doi.org/10.1515/9781547401505-033

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“I prefer to call it curious and thoughtful. In fact, I keep thinking about what we found last time — tuberculosis of the brain — and how the autopsy showed the bacteria that causes typhoid instead caused meningitis. You know, these people wouldn’t have to die if we could diagnose these infections in time. I mean, everything we’ve seen is treatable.” “I know. That’s exactly why I’m always calling you for autopsies. I realize your research is on schizophrenia and the bio-chemical aspects of drug receptors, but other people in the US can do that. With our access to tissue samples, diagnosing the undiagnosable needs to be done here in India — by someone with your kind of curiosity and enthusiasm” (see Figure 33.1).

Figure 33.1: Ravi would hop on his scooter at a moment’s notice to investigate something interesting, whether inside his medical specialty or not.

Diagnosing the New Dr. Ravi Kumar Banda trained as a medical clinician and then earned a diploma in psychiatric medicine. He switched back to basic science (psychiatric biology) to investigate one of the causes of mental illness — chemical brain damage. He moved to Bangalore, India, to do his PhD research on drug receptors and studied fetal and early-childhood brains, befriending a pathologist along the way. The problem of failed diagnoses rooted in the back of his mind. Post-PhD, at the end of 1995, Ravi founded a lab at XCyton to develop a diagnostic test for a newly codified and dangerous infection: HIV. Scientists were just

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discovering that HIV has different subtypes, and one of these — HIV 1C — was found in India. Scientists guessed that it might represent up to 68% of India’s HIV cases. The diagnostic kits from the US were not only expensive, but they were also based on the most prevalent subtypes in the US — HIV 1A and 1B — with a significantly different protein structure. Ravi believed India needed locally made diagnostics that were not only more cost-effective but were also more appropriate for the market. He developed a kit based on synthetic proteins (simpler to produce than natural) which diagnosed Indian HIV more cheaply and accurately. “If something is very complicated (like natural protein production for HIV diagnostics), that’s where you can make a difference. If something is easy, anybody will do it.”

The World Health Organization (WHO) approved the product, and it was well received. Scientists later discovered that HIV 1C actually represents 98% of India’s HIV — not 68%. Despite the importance of a locally developed test for the locally found strain, it didn’t sell well because 70% of the market was from the government. They had unwieldy procurement procedures, and Ravi found it harder to push forward bureaucracy than the boundaries of science. Nevertheless, Ravi and his team kept moving forward and developed a diagnostic kit for Hepatitis C. At the request of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, they created another for Japanese Encephalitis, which was procured by WHO. In 2004, XCyton was well-established, growing, and had 38 investors.

Diagnosing the “Undiagnosable” A conservative businessman would have built on his established successes, developing incremental, routine improvements on diagnostic processes and producing less-expensive, local diagnostic kits. However, Ravi wanted to do a 180-degree turn and create something new (see Figure 33.2). His dream was to work in Critical Care and to save lives. Ravi knew Critical Care had its problems. When people die in the hospital, 60–80% of them do not die of the disease for which they were admitted. They die of infection — mostly hospital-acquired infections that take advantage of the patient’s suppressed immune system. Death certificates show “kidney failure” even though the cause is infection. When bacteria enter the bloodstream (sepsis), all parts of the body can be damaged — kidneys, liver, lungs, brain. The result is called “multi-organ dysfunction syndrome.”

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Figure 33.2: Ravi the businessman could have just grown his company, but Ravi the innovator wanted to tackle something big that was “worth failing.” Sepsis death rates worldwide are 40–60%, and in only 12–15% of cases are the causative bugs actually diagnosed. Doctors around the world treat such patients via guesswork 70–85% of the time. Patients can die from either the infection itself or their own immune response in later stages.

Without knowing the exact cause of an infection, doctors prescribe an expensive cocktail of antibiotics (“empirical therapy”) while sequentially performing diagnostic tests — struggling with bacterial cultures that provide a result only 10-15% of the time. Antibiotic cocktails can cost $7,500–$9,000 per patient — way beyond the means of most Indian families, 85% of whom have no health insurance. And while tests are being conducted, sepsis progresses. Ravi discussed his dream of diagnosing sepsis with friends and funders, estimating development costs at $1.7 million. None of his individual funders could provide that much, but they were powerful people with high-level connections. They decided to pursue it. One of the group — a director of the Institute of Science — was absent from an investor meeting and called the others. When told of their ambitious desire, he responded:

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“Are you mad? He has no money, and he’ll pursue his passion and kill himself. Do NOT do this!”

Ravi met him for coffee that afternoon and reminded him, “If a cause is profound, means will follow. Everyone says it’ll fail and I’m being foolish, but I don’t mind being foolish. So what?”

The director was still against over-ambitious projects but said he would recommend Ravi to everyone he knew. If anyone could do this, Ravi could.

First Prove Yourself on Something Else Before launching into the sepsis project, Ravi would have to prove himself on a newly launched initiative by the government’s Disability Commission (see Figure 33.3). Each year, 200,000 people were going blind because of infections, and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) would have to do something about it.

Figure 33.3: Since he couldn’t work on sepsis right away, he accepted another challenge with the understanding that sepsis would be next.

CSIR’s Director General, Dr. R. Mashelkar, called the nation’s top eye hospitals for input, alongside CSIR’s Director of Technology Networking and Business

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Development (TNBD), Dr. D. Yogeswara Rao (who was also in charge of their New Millennium Indian Technology Leadership Program). They asked who could develop a test and make it commercially available, immediately. The TNBD Director recommended Ravi, and several committee members knew Ravi and were excited to work with him. Ravi met with them. The Director General asked how many months it would take to develop the eye kit, how many kits he could produce, where he would raise money for marketing, what plans he had to take it abroad, etc. Ravi agreed to discuss all the issues and more but first presented his thoughts on critical infections, letting them know that the eye diagnostics shouldn’t be done with serial testing any more than sepsis diagnosis should. They needed an integrated test for all relevant pathogens at once so patients would not lose their sight during the testing process. Ravi agreed to work on it, but since it had never been done before, he wanted a time frame of three years instead of two. He was confident it could be done but was not sure of the final form of the product. Providing accurate diagnosis was the most important feature and could not be compromised. However, all other product specifications were negotiable. He was willing to fail if it couldn’t be done. It was a journey of discovery. The Director General agreed, saying, “This is a project worth failing. The country will learn something. And for the very first time, I’ve found a guy who says he’ll put his head on the chopping board if things go wrong. I’ve never found one before. Now that I have, I’ll give him the money.”

He funded the partnering institutes with grants but funded Ravi with a loan and a contingency fund he could ask for (with explanation). He wanted a progress update every six months, and with each update, they discussed, resolved problems, and Ravi received whatever support he asked for. Three years later, the eye-infection diagnostic test was done. Ravi reminded the Director General in 2008 (after a new DG took over) that the eye test was a proof-of-concept for integrated diagnostics. Now it was time to develop a test that would diagnose the pathogens causing sepsis. The test would be used to detect pathogens after a clinical diagnosis of sepsis. The project was granted after going through three committees and a lot of deliberation at both scientific and financial levels.

Save Us from Sepsis By 2005/2006, XCyton was in financial turmoil. Nonetheless, Ravi and his dedicated team of insatiably curious scientists would experiment in the lab until

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evening; then brainstorm over tea, biscuits, and Maggi noodles; and then experiment some more, late into the night (see Figure 33.4).

Figure 33.4: They “failed” every night and revived the dead project the next morning.

It was devilishly difficult to integrate bacterial, fungal, parasitic, and viral diagnosis into one test. They were told by a lot of well-meaning friends in the scientific community that it couldn’t be done. However, they kept moving forward, financially and scientifically, day by day. Test development for sepsis prevention took nearly four years, from early 2008 to early 2012, and cost $7 million. They were never really sure if it could be done or not, as the product had presented them with apparently insurmountable technical problems. They despaired that their dream product was probably not feasible, after all. It was an incessant spirit of “resurrection” that moved the product through these difficult stages. At last the test was done, and within three years, they processed 10,000 patient diagnoses (15,000 to date). XCyton’s test is a multiplex PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test directly detecting virulent pathogens — definitive diagnostics

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of individual species (bacterial, fungal, parasitic, and viral), as well as antibiotic resistance. After a doctor takes blood, eye fluid, brain fluid, etc., and sends it (overnight express) to XCyton, the lab processes it in seven hours and responds via phone and email — within 24 hours of a patient entering the hospital. They later discovered by accident 14 publications on the efficacy of their approach. The data shows that XCyton provides the highest sensitivity and specificity of any approach in dealing with sepsis. XCyton is encouraging another 15 studies, providing data and analysis needed for international journals. In one such study, using the XCyton test reduced mortality among neonatal sepsis cases by 83% (from 18% to 3%). Instead of accurate diagnosis and treatment only 15% of the time, patients can now expect diagnosis and treatment 72% of the time. Ravi and his team believe they can increase the rate of detection to 85% by instituting a hospital protocol to take a sample and send it for testing as soon as a patient with a critical infection is admitted. Integrated testing also reduced hospitalization by four days, reduced time on ventilators, and reduced antibiotic use by half. It performed well on every parameter. In India, 800,000 newborn babies die each year—80% are from undiagnosed infections. XCyton data suggests that 80% of them can be saved — over 500,000 lives per year. Ravi and his team are doing a study at a hospital that did make the test a standard protocol for all sepsis patients at the time of admission. The resident physician reports having seen at least a 70% reduction in mortality. An additional 3.5 million non-newborn patients in India need the test each year and face a 48% mortality rate. Even if the new test saved only half of them, that would be 840,000 lives saved. With 19 people dying from sepsis every minute worldwide, 10 million lives a year could be saved from sepsis alone. Further, antibiotic use could be reduced by $225 million annually in India — over $1.2 billion worldwide.

Global expansion is now their first priority, as part of ImmunoHeal Personalised Medicine, a new health-sciences corporation based in Malaysia. The next step for XCyton is to automate the testing process, and they’ve already commenced that two-year (expected) project.

Inward Openness and Inspiration What sort of a man would hop on a scooter to assist in an autopsy that’s not in his research area? Or integrate knowledge from a collection of specialties in order to integrate bacterial, fungal, and viral diagnoses?

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Ravi comes from a highly conservative, very open-minded Hindu family with extreme empathy and internal drive. His father taught him: “Whatever you work for, the work is the fruit — not school marks or money or anything else. So many scientists have done things of great difficulty and brought it to the world. Why? It all came from something within themselves that nothing outside could stop. Those that never came to fruition were because of personal shortcomings of individuals. At the end of the day, you must overcome something within yourself to bring a new creation to the world.”

Both parents taught sensitivity to human values, not narrow, religious values. Ravi is a devout Hindu and practices the rituals of his faith (see Figure 33.5). His daughter-in-law is a devout Christian, and they get along beautifully.

Figure 33.5: Ravi cultivates his inner life with meditation and has received inspiration in dreams.

Ravi combines his meditation and exercise, spending at least 1½ hours a day chanting on his cross-leg trainer (designed for Yoga or muscle training). Missing a day or two drives him nuts. The drive to office with his wife is nontalking time — himself chanting and her sitting quietly. Such inward openness can be instrumental in problem-solving, as when Ravi saw the solution to a problem in a dream: “We purchased this huge microscope at the Astra Research Centre in India, and it wasn’t taking good pictures. We needed a much higher speed. 400ASA pictures had to be taken, and we would have to call the manufacturer the next day for help. I went home and slept. In my dream, I clearly saw on the side that there’s a switch for 400ASA. Next morning, I ran there. I

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didn’t even have my coffee and bath — I just ran there. At the side was a small plate. We opened it, and inside there was a switch. I put the switch to 400ASA and took the pictures. I’d flipped through the manual earlier not noticing anything in particular, but somewhere, somehow, the information registered. Dreaming can be very useful for solving problems.”

Outward Openness, Sensing, and Empathy Ravi accepts people as they are, talking with and listening to everyone in his company (see Figure 33.6). He’s interested in all of life and science, including a broad array of interests like bio-fertilizer nitrogen fixation, the development of flower color patterns, and the compound eye of the color-blind honeybee. He’s not a great noticer in general but does care deeply for people. He’s immediately aware of employees’ feelings, shows care and concern for what’s happening in their personal lives, and mentors and counsels them well beyond

Figure 33.6: An empathic leader, Ravi cares deeply about people and considers himself very Blessed with so many people who’ve helped him.

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their scientific duties. The moment he walks in, he can tell how someone’s feeling by the way he’s greeted. XCyton staff have learned a special way of life: no one hides anything. Ravi mentors them all and cares for both their work and their personal well-being. Ravi manages by consensus and develops intrapreneurship among his staff. On one occasion, he returned from a trip seeking a big order with the government, and an employee stopped him at the door, asking what happened. He explained and listened and was later asked by someone else, “Why are you explaining your activities to the man at the door? Who’s he to question what you’re doing?” Ravi replied that the man’s interest means everything to what they all do — he’s a company stakeholder taking ownership, which is a good thing. Ravi can’t speak the language of the cleaning staff, so asked his wife (an executive in the company) to be their connection and share with him what she feels should be shared. Ravi pays no attention to status. He listens to everyone with respect and interest in their ideas. Not only does he see from others’ perspectives (cognitive empathy) and pick up on their emotions (emotional empathy), but he also takes action (active empathy). He gives generously of his time and money to help, despite the lack of abundance of both. On one occasion, a colleague’s father had a throat problem, and Ravi sent him to a surgeon friend. The surgeon called back and said it was cancer. The colleague didn’t understand all the treatments and options, so Ravi took time off, met the doctor, and returned with the information. The son and father chose to let the advanced-stage cancer take its course, and Ravi kept in touch with the situation. When the father needed help — at 2:00 a.m. or any time — father and son would call Ravi (who lived quite a distance away) to come and help. Such caring is available to everyone at XCyton. Ravi is the “first line” of medical assistance. Ravi describes XCyton as a family of 38 people — very loyal staff who care about the business and do so much more than their jobs. On a festival day in a deluge, for example, one of the staff left his family celebration to fix the drains at work. When financial difficulties erupted, everyone stayed and said they were willing to take a 50% pay cut for six months to stabilize the company. When asked, “Is it worth it? Why do you stick to it?” Ravi said, “What makes it worthwhile is the people. I’m very lucky with people. That’s my major capital. Lots of them stay with me for long periods of time, and there’s always people who come and help me, from very unexpected quarters.”

Perhaps it’s not a defect to pay attention to meaning and motivation — to care and show compassion.

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Collecting Ravi is a great listener and gains information mainly from people — asking questions, going to talks, and picking up far more than the average listener. He believes everyone has something to teach. He collects people and even stays in touch with his old teachers. With a huge network, no matter what the topic, he has a friend who knows something about it. “His scientific knowledge is vast, and the best qualities I’ve seen in him are his questioning, thinking, and willingness to make mistakes — also supporting ours. According to him, there are no stupid questions, and when you learn from your mistakes, you’ll grow.” (See Figure 33.7.) —Sunil Govekar, XCyton Head Scientist

Figure 33.7: Listen keenly, question deeply, think, and make mistakes — and support others in their mistakes, too.

Ravi is noted for love of a challenge, joviality, child-like qualities, openness to feedback, openly sharing what’s on his mind, capacity for change, flexibility, and an elephantine memory. He prefers textbooks to Google and cares most for how his creations would be useful to humankind, not his own monetary advancement. It would be very easy for him to open one more lab in the building for blood glucose or some other easy money-maker. But he won’t do it unless it’s a challenge that affects everyone.

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“I think it’s his heart that makes him work, not business results or even the intellectual kick of scientific advancement. It’s the heart — what can he do for someone else.” — Latha Lakshman, XCyton Chief Operating Officer and wife

At the end of the day, Ravi seeks happiness, and creating good in the world makes him happy. Ravi’s leadership is neither purely business-driven nor science-driven. It’s humanity-driven, enabled by both business and science (see Figure 33.8).

Figure 33.8: Ravi’s not driven by business or science—he’s driven by caring, enabled by both, and seeks to be happy.

Fusing Did integration create value? Yes. Separate, sequential bacterial, fungal, and viral tests already existed. Integrating them can save over 10 million lives (for sepsis alone) and $1.2 billion a year — value arising purely from integration. What’s shocking? That less than four years of effort and $7 million of investment could turn into $1.2 billion of value created per year (for sepsis alone). Is the value of fusion predictable? When it’s a radical new innovation, generally no — there’s not enough information at the start. But with experimentation and experience, his HIV team, for example, learned that HIV 1C in India

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surpassed early estimates of 68% incidence, representing instead 98%. Only after the sepsis test was well underway could they believe it would succeed and start estimating what (and whom) it could save. What was necessary to make it happen? First, Ravi and his team had a track record of success (HIV), but instead of the usual way business is run, making incremental improvements on successful activities, Ravi chose a new direction, seeking radical innovation — not routine. He had to assume substantial risk (accepting loan funding instead of grants offered to the institutes), and he had to be willing to fail (“So what?”), especially while leaders in the sciences pronounced it impossible. Further, the project he wanted to work on (sepsis) had to be put on hold while he developed a proof-of-concept for another problem that already had a solution mandate (eye infections). They had to sustain their momentum. Pursuing the currently impossible had to be managed differently from business-as-usual. He declared it a journey of discovery and conducted progress checks every six months, not promises of results he couldn’t predict. Success would take years, breadth of knowledge and connections, and an integrated, dedicated team of scientists who bring their whole selves to work, integrating “work” and “life.” Finally, it had to be a project worth failing — high impact, offering important learning no matter what the result. Difficulty should be expected. After all, if it were easy, anyone would do it. It would require irrational enthusiasm (see Figure 33.9).

Figure 33.9: What would you hop on a scooter at a moment’s notice to do?

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Are you irrationally enthusiastic about something? Is it high-value, difficult, and offers learning with either success or failure? Does it require a new, integrated approach? Will you hop on a scooter at a moment’s notice to do it? Dr. Ravi Kumar Banda is the Founder of XCyton Diagnostics and is from India. For more information on his work, see: linkedin.com/in/ravi-kumarbanda-09097b16/ and xcyton.com.

Chapter 34 Forbidden Music of The Cultural Revolution Symphonies Commissioned and Played by the World’s Top Orchestras Dr. Chen Yi – Multinational, Multi-Genre Composer

A survivor of China’s cultural revolution who thrived and grew artistically, Dr. Chen Yi fuses music that is: – Chinese and Western – symphonic, chamber, solo, choral, band, multimedia, and mixed instrumental – consonant and dissonant – tonal and atonal

Video https://youtu.be/AuYb_HSZvNY

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“Take the music. Take the piano. Dispose of them. All personal items must go. Take the violin. What is this?” “It’s my daughter’s.” “It’s a violin?” “It’s a toy. She’s just a child.” “Leave it. Take the books. Get the record player and those records. Remove it all.” The year was 1968, the city Guangzhou. The Revolution Committee searched the residence, seized or destroyed all possessions, the empty home was locked and abandoned, and the family was dispersed to different locations in the country to perform forced labor and public self-criticism (“re-education”). Like others who were educated and had been exposed to Western culture (“pollution”), the Chen family knew they were a potential target. For a while, Chen Yi practiced violin with a heavy metal mute and played piano with a blanket between the instrument’s hammers and steel frame. Such things had to be done in secret. But it didn’t last. Fifteen-year-old Chen Yi found herself traveling to the countryside with her “toy” violin (see Figure 34.1). Her sister was sent to a remote farm in the north. Her younger brother was sent to a middle school in the south,

Figure 34.1: Chen Yi was allowed to keep her violin because her mother declared it “just a toy.”

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where an old family friend kindly continued his music education and took in their family cat. Her mother, a medical doctor, became a prisoner at the hospital in the city, tasked with heavy labor. Her father, also a doctor, who had devoted his whole life to the people in his motherland, was sent to work performing medicine in the countryside after undergoing serious surgery on his stomach. Chen Yi was sent to the countryside to work as a farmer and was also assigned construction work for a new military battle castle. Some days, she carried 100 pounds of stone and mud 22 times from the base of the mountain to the top. She quickly learned to wake at 4:00 a.m. to avoid the heat of the day. She slept with her violin, never really sure if it would be taken away (see Figure 34.2). Days stretched into weeks. Weeks stretched into months. Months stretched into years. And yet, “ . . . nothing could stop me from thinking and yearning and hoping for a better future, or from seeing the beauty of nature, and smelling the scent of a field. I used my spare time to play my violin to poor country kids, to farmers, to soldiers, but only revolutionary songs were allowed to be sung and played, so I made up double stops and fast passages that I learned from Paganini when I played the popular tunes from revolutionary songs. It may have been a small triumph, but I felt a big release in being able to exercise some of my creativity in making something out of these circumstances.”1

Not only was she exercising creative freedom, but she was also exercising her fingers. Violin technique is easily and quickly lost without practice, and she didn’t want to lose the skills she had learned and carried with her. So much else had already been taken away. In an unlikely place, it was the birth of her composing career.

Life and Learning Before the Cultural Revolution Chen Yi’s parents were both medical doctors and music lovers. Her mother played piano at a professional level, and her father played violin. Chen Yi studied both from the age of three. Her sister was a child piano prodigy and had played on stage and for radio since she was five. Chen Yi listened to her practice every morning before school. Recordings of Heifetz and Kreisler accompanied family meals and eveningtime, along with classical instrumental, vocal, orchestral, and opera. Her father said it would be wonderful if Chen Yi could play her own works someday like 1 John de Clef Pineiro, “An Interview with Chen Yi,” New Music Connoisseur, v9 n4, p. 4.

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Figure 34.2: Chen Yi slept with her violin, awoke at 4:00 am each day to haul mud and rocks up a mountain, and played for the farmers in her off-hours—secretly including western techniques to stay in practice.

them. She had no idea they were foreign men. She only knew the beauty they created, which she loved dearly. She was deeply moved by all the classics. The family was happy together, playing violin and piano, listening to all kinds of classical music records, attending weekly events, including Western symphonies, chamber concerts, foreign ballets, and ethnic singing and dancing from the Congo, Japan, and beyond (see Figure 34.3). She read every music history book she could find, European novels, stories about operas, and the Chinese classics. Western music eventually became a catalyst for crisis, but it was also a quiet source of strength when she was sent away:

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Figure 34.3: Life was happy before the cultural revolution, exploring world music, learning to play, and spending time together as a family.

“It perhaps was the beauty and the spirit of Mozart’s music that helped me to overcome the hardship and all difficulties during this dark period. I remembered that my father had said to me that, from Mozart’s music, you feel the sunlight and see the composer’s happy face, but people don’t know the tears of sorrow running down behind his cheeks. This challenging experience brought home to me what my father meant.”2

Blossoms from the Stone Crevice — Mountain Music and Cultural Re-Awakening Chen Yi spent two years farming and hauling stones and mud, crafting her own education, blossoming amid hardness (see Figure 34.4):

2 Guo Xin, Chinese Musical Language Interpreted by Western Idioms: Fusion Process in the Instrumental Works by Chen Yi. Florida State University College of Music (doctoral dissertation, 2002).

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Figure 34.4: She learned folk music and a love for the people during the revolution and began composing in that very unlikely place.

“Frankly, it was not until then that I found my roots, my motherland, and really appreciated the simple people on the earth and the importance of education and civilization. I learned to overcome hardship, to bear anger, fear, and humiliation under the political pressure, to get close to uneducated farmers on a personal and spiritual level, and to share my feelings and thinking with them, to learn to hope, to forgive, to survive, and to live optimistically, strongly, and independently, and to work hard in order to benefit more human beings in society.3

At age 17, she was granted a new job — orchestra concertmaster and composer in the Beijing Opera Troupe in Guangzhou. For the next eight years, she performed revolution-style operas and researched Chinese traditional music, as well as Western and Chinese music theory. Higher education opened up again in 1977, and 18,000 students applied for admission to the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. In 1978, Chen Yi was among the 200 accepted. She was actually admitted for both violin and composition but had to choose one major. Like the others, whose education had been on hold for a 3 Chen Yi, “Tradition and Creation,” Current Musicology (67 & 68), Columbia University, 2002.

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Figure 34.5: When the revolution was finished, she had an insatiable hunger for music and learning.

decade, she was hungry to learn (starving, some said) and wanted to stretch herself with something new (see Figure 34.5). So she chose composition. The mixed-genre, mixed-cultural course included a systematic study of Chinese traditional music; Western classical techniques; Chinese and Western music history; traditional instrumentals; Chinese folk songs (including dance music, working songs, lullabies — everyday music sung in fields and homes); local operas (including history, singing styles, reciting, acting, accompaniment, makeup, costume, stage setting); and narrative music (Qu Yi — musical storytelling half-sung/half-spoken). Students would memorize and perform four folk songs each week in the local dialect, then a selection randomly chosen at the end of the semester as a final exam. At the end of each of her eight years there, they took ethno-musical field trips to the countryside to collect and bring back more. By the time she earned her bachelor’s degree, she had composed the first viola concerto in China. While earning her master’s, she won first prize in a national composition competition, and her orchestral works were recorded by the China Record Corporation. Her chamber, choral, and orchestral compositions were featured on several one-hour radio programs.

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In 1986, she became the first woman composer ever to receive a master’s degree in composition in China, so an entire concert of her orchestral works was performed at the Beijing Concert Hall by the Central Philharmonic Orchestra, supported by the Chinese Musicians Association, Central Conservatory, and China People’s Broadcasting Station.

Still Hungry Still hungry for learning, it was time for a doctorate, and she was accepted at Columbia University in New York. She wouldn’t have to go alone. She and her husband had met when they joined the undergraduate program. They enjoyed five years of learning and friendship, and married upon their graduation from the Conservatory. She joined her husband when she earned her masters’ degree three years later, to set off for a new life together in a new country. Chen Yi learned and composed all day, then studied at the Lincoln Center Public Library and Columbia music libraries until they closed their doors at night (see Figure 34.6). Seven years later, she had earned her DMA (Doctorate

Figure 34.6: She learned and composed all day, then studied until closing time in the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center Plaza.

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in Musical Arts) with distinction, and she and her husband became American citizens. Her years of learning and creating grew into an explosive, fruitful, musical harvest. She won a score of awards and prizes, including being the second person ever to receive the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Charles Ives Living Award, finalist for the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Music, and more. She served as composer-in-residence to the Women’s Philharmonic, Chanticleer, and Aptos School in San Francisco, taught composition, multicultural analysis, and orchestral works at Peabody Conservatory at Johns Hopkins University; she served as Visiting Professor at the Beijing Central Conservatory and the Tianjin Conservatory of Music, guest-lectured throughout China and the US; and is now Distinguished Professor of Composition at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Fellowships and commissioning awards have come from the Guggenheim Foundation, American Academy of Arts and Letters, Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University, the Koussevitzky Music Foundation at the Library of Congress, National Endowment for the Arts, the Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, the Roche Foundation, and more. She’s served on advisory and educational boards at Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard, Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, New Music USA, and others. She received honorary doctorates from five universities and has even been the subject of a doctoral dissertation — Chinese Musical Language Interpreted by Western Idioms: Fusion Process in the Instrumental Works by Chen Yi.4 Her compositions have been commissioned and performed by Yo-Yo Ma, Yehudi Menuhin, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, BBC, the Lucerne Festival, and other top musicians and ensembles worldwide, as well as being recorded on many labels. She may be the first Asian female contemporary classical composer to achieve widespread international acclaim.

More Fusions While in New York, she began to transcend concepts of Eastern versus Western, and historical versus contemporary music—more deeply considering musical

4 Guo Xin, Chinese Musical Language Interpreted by Western Idioms: Fusion Process in the Instrumental Works by Chen Yi. Florida State University College of Music (doctoral dissertation, 2002).

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Figure 34.7: She even combined music and calligraphy in The Points, written for solo pipa.

similarities in principle, style, aesthetics, customs, and feelings. She developed her own unique style, inspired by various cultural traditions and even incorporated scientific principles like the Golden Section and the Fibonacci Series, which found their way into her octet Sparkle. When attending an African-American dance concert, she was struck by how they danced in the style of the Chinese red silk dance, but much faster, stronger, with more energy and exciting drumming, and with shorter silk fabric in their hands. She shouted out, shed tears of joy, and soon had composed the orchestral work Ge Xu (Antiphony) in response. She even combined music and calligraphy (see Figure 34.7). The Points, written for solo pipa (also called the Chinese lute), is structured according to the eight standard Zhengkai calligraphy brushstrokes of the Chinese character yong (eternal). Chen Yi translated the brushstrokes of the character into plucking movements on the specially retuned instrument. Symphony No. 3 was a fusion of Chinese and American cultural influences, which also incorporated jazz, American rap, Chinese folk music, and even rock & roll. One of her orchestral works is titled Chinese Rap. She also wrote a composition with her husband — a fusion of two artists with very different styles and composition techniques:

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“We only collaborated on one work — in 2009. We called it Humen 1839. It was an EastWest, multi-movement symphony that also incorporated the country’s folk tunes. It was commissioned to commemorate the 70th anniversary of an East-West historical event — the First Opium War. We had a kind of war of our own composing it, but we give and receive criticism in the most honest way. We’ve done so since we were students and only argue on the music, not on the daily living.” —Zhou Long, husband and the first Asian American to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music

Love, Energy, and the Filing Cabinet Friends describe her as exuberant, irresistible, filled with limitless energy and good will, hardworking, deeply caring, trusting and trusted, humble, generous, and a born teacher who retains a childlike sense of wonder and optimism. She is happy, bouncy, and makes others around her happy. She loves people and wants to know everything about them. Not only is she open-minded, by way of insatiable curiosity, sincere listening, deep interest, rigorous research, and loving acceptance, but she is outwardly open, sharing her world and herself with others. She is visually aware and shows great empathy, in terms of emotion (shared feeling and reading expressions), cognition (helping others find their own voice and composing for instruments she doesn’t even play), and compassion (helping others). She has helped almost all her classmates premiere their compositions, and, along with her husband and the organizations they worked with, introduced hundreds of new musical compositions and musicians from East and West to musical and educational exchange programs in the US, Germany, UK, and a variety of Asian countries. Working with students makes her feel younger spiritually, keeps her mind creative, and helps her learn by analyzing the work of great composers, which helps her own compositions (see Figure 34.8). “I remember marveling at how she never got tired. She worked so hard all the time — writing music late at night, then working all day with our orchestra. It was amazing how much she could do. She has so many commissions and traveled all over the country and all over the world but never seemed the least bit tired. In fact, she always brought dim sum on performance days so everyone would have something to eat between rehearsal and concert. She always thought about everyone, and I think in the end, it’s people that give her energy.” — JoAnn Falletta, Maestro and former conductor of the Women’s Philharmonic in San Francisco (where she worked with Chen Yi)

Many people assume Chen Yi’s powerful music is written by a man, and Maestro Falletta was also amazed by Chen Yi’s strength (see Figure 34.9):

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Figure 34.8: Beyond the joy of helping others, teaching helps Chen Yi feel young, energized, creative, and improves her compositions with her new learning and analysis of great masters.

“I remember one day when we were moving our office in San Francisco. As the Women’s Philharmonic, of course we were all women, and we were trying to figure out how we were going to transfer some of the really heavy stuff. We were looking at this filing cabinet, saying, “We’ve got to call somebody for this one,” and Chen Yi said, “No, no. Just give me the filing cabinet.” And she insisted we put it on her back so she could walk it down the stairs. We were HORRIFIED! No one could be that strong! She did it and said, “No, no. I’m very lucky. I got this strong because I had to carry rocks in China, so now I’m very strong.” And I thought: only Chen Yi could see all the hardship she lived through as a plus, to gain strength. She’s the strongest woman I ever met in my life. And she was so happy she lifted the cabinet and could be strong to help us.” —Maestro JoAnn Falletta

How to Compose Like Chen Yi: Compose Like Yourself With perfect pitch, and hearing Chinese instruments even when composing for Western, she first crafts her instrumentation, then matches it with an image and creates a title. She writes down all the adjectives that describe her feeling of the image, and then creates instrumental textures. She organizes and structures the material (which can be changed), oftentimes on the floor, followed by many more steps toward a final product.

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Figure 34.9: She used the strength she built hauling stones up a mountain to haul a filing cabinet down the stairs for the philharmonic. It made her happy to help her friends.

Do such steps in a composition process lead to music like hers? What is the secret of crafting the new from a fusion of the old? Fusion requires deep integration. Chen Yi did not simply transfer herself and her music to the US. She absorbs everything around her continuously and assimilates the new without sacrificing the old. Her music speaks to audiences because of its sincerity of emotion and the depth of feeling of everyday people, nature, and spirit. She teaches her students to bring out their own voices, not imitate hers. Her advice is to study carefully to get the essence of a creation — then use your heart to feel it, and create from there. So the secret is, you can’t compose like Chen Yi. You must compose like yourself — your own unique lifetime of ongoing experience deeply absorbed, with elements newly combined and authentically shared (see Figure 34.10). Fusion isn’t just the last step. It starts with who you are and everything you’ve collected. Then it feeds back into that collection — and who you are.

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Figure 34.10: Although you must learn from others, you create as yourself.

A Vivid Life of Creation in Context Chen Yi doesn’t write to sell and hasn’t changed with success, which walks alongside authenticity. Money seems to matter very little to her, but gratitude, happiness, and helping others seem to matter a great deal. Her composition calendar is booked two years in advance, and she travels to China intermittently, where her brother and sister are professional musicians. She loves expressing herself through music, a universal language, having an audience share her experience, and improving understanding between people of different cultures. She says she doesn’t advance her field by pushing musical boundaries — everything is open, and there’s no need for boundaries, old or new. She wrote a symphony for her father, in which you can hear loss and pain, but she doesn’t keep score or carry burdens. She lets go and has carried enough. Her advice to those who would create is first to love (see Figure 34.11).

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Figure 34.11: Chen Yi’s gift to the world is music rooted in love.

What do you love? What have you heard, seen, learned? What are the elements? How might you combine them in new ways, then share them authentically? How will you love? Dr. Chen Yi is the Lorena Searcy Cravens/Millsap/Missouri Distinguished Professor in Music at the Conservatory of Music and Dance at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. She is a prolific composer blending Chinese and Western musical traditions; Pulitzer Prize finalist; and may be the first Asian female contemporary classical composer to achieve widespread international acclaim. Her compositions have been commissioned and performed by Yo-Yo Ma, Yehudi Menuhin, the LA Philharmonic, BBC, the Lucerne Festival, and other top musicians and ensembles worldwide, as well as recorded on many labels. She is “from” China and the US. For more information on her work, see her faculty bio at UMKC (conservatory.umkc.edu/faculty.cfm?r=1925), as well as the references quotes in the footnotes to this chapter.

Part 7: Your Journey

Chapter 35 Exploring Your World “A mind is like a parachute. It doesn’t work if it is not open.” —Frank Zappa (variation on Thomas Dewar)

Openness is key to innovation — but what is it? The fusioneers are great observers, listeners, and sensitive in a variety of ways—which leads them to find new needs. With emotional, cognitive, and active empathy, they bring their new creations to the world and receive by giving. Highly global, they cross many boundaries — even rules. Openness must be managed, however, and there are key times to close for innovation.

Video https://youtu.be/hicKhXfRSrg

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All the fusioneers tested as highly open-minded (see Figure 35.1),1 and the most common advice I received after interviewing fusioneers and their friends (other than “just do it”) was this:

Figure 35.1: Openness has many useful dimensions, but sometimes it is best to be “closed.”

“Be open.” It’s good advice and was a major theme, but hard to assess (especially our own): “Am I open? No.” “Is he open? He’s incredibly open and aware.” –Dr. Mihnea Moldoveanu (Fusioneer) and Dr. Maja Djikic (Psychologist, Associate Professor, and Executive Director of Rotman School of Management’s Self-Development Lab)

It’s also hard to enact without understanding more deeply what “openness” actually is, how it’s useful, and when it’s not.

1 Each fusioneer was given the MPA/MPQ (Multicultural Personality Assessment/ Questionnaire) short-form from Karen van der Zee, Jan Pieter van Oudenhoven, Joseph G. Ponterotto, and Alexander W. Fietzer. “Multicultural Personality Questionnaire: Development of a Short Form,” Journal of Personality Assessment (2013): 95:1, 118–124. See also Chapter 4: Habits of Highly Effective Fusioneers.

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Your Zipper’s Showing The Personal Assistant to a company founder was shocked one day when they rose from a meeting and the founder said, “The pillow’s backwards. Can you fix it?” The PA asked what he meant and was shown that pillows have zippers and it’s not nice to leave a pillow backwards with the zipper on display (see Figure 35.2).

Figure 35.2: Innovators are often great “noticers.”

The founder was management innovator, author, educator, and philanthropist Kōnosuke Matsushita, of Matsushita Electric Corporation, which is now Panasonic, worth nearly $4 trillion.2 He was notorious for noticing everything around him, and, indeed, noticing is a well-noted innovation trait. Visual sensitivity is, of course, useful to the multi-Emmy-award-winning executive producer and museum curator profiled as a fusioneer. After he’s walked through a room, changing things as he goes, people notice it “feels better” but don’t quite know why. The two fusioneers who had been waiters described a hyper-aware state during mealtime rush, when a hundred things are happening all around them, needing attention immediately. One said everyone should have the experience

2 PHP Institute, Inc. Matsushita Konosuke (1894–1989). His Life and His Legacy: A Collection of Essays in Honor of the Centenary of His Birth. Kyoto, Japan: PHP Research Institute (1994).

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of waiting tables, in order to learn organization, communication, intensitymanagement, and awareness. Whether waiters, executives, professors, speakers, or performers, hyperawareness was noted among a variety of Fusioneers as useful in a variety of situations. One noted: “The key to inventing is to become more observant — more aware — and you do that with the things you care about and the things you collect or mess around with. Take bird watching, for example. Observing birds doesn’t make you a bird watcher. But being a bird-watcher will make you observe birds very well.” —Robest Yong, Inventor

If you’d like to be more aware and observant, a good first step might be to simply care about something, collect, and start messing around — or wait tables.

Open Your Ears, Not Your Mouth “Knowledge speaks. Wisdom listens.”

—Jimi Hendrix

Highly observant Kōnosuke Matsushita was also well-noted for listening to everyone. While waiting for a board meeting, he might be on his knees chatting with the electrician fixing a meeting-room wall plug. During meetings, he would always raise detailed issues from the shop floor or sales meetings or customer experiences. Executives would whisper to each other, “How did he know about that?” He shares this trait (see Figure 35.3) with fusioneer Jack Cowin, billionaire fast-food entrepreneur: “He’s not a time-waster and doesn’t accept invitations for a beer after work to while away the evening. . . . But he cares about and is fascinated by people in all walks of life. Last week he spent half an hour talking to the janitor.” —Ian Parker, CFA Executive

Keen listening was useful to the fusioneer scientist who followed her colleague’s advice to incorporate a design from the pocket watch (designed in 1893) into an advanced-biopolymer medication device (designed in 2017). In addition, the fusioneer joint-venture executive has an “open door” policy to listen to issues before they become big problems, crafting solutions based on what people need and want: “It’s all about listening and observing. I listen to my staff. I listen to clients. I listen to colleagues. As the former head of sales at Smollan, we didn’t just sell. We listened and developed new solutions for clients while selling. Where do ideas for training and development come from? I don’t just wake up and think of them. I listen to people, and it becomes evident

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Figure 35.3: Listening is also key.

when I see or hear them having problems.” —Sean Leas, Chief Executive APAC for the Smollan Group, Managing Director of DKSH Smollan Fieldmarketing South East Asia

They may not be listening as other people want, for example, when their minds race ahead or float off thinking of possibilities (the executive producer and the startup ecosystem founder are notorious “speed listeners”). However, they generally listen deeply and probe with questions — listening to understand, not just to respond. They either seek feedback (e.g., the inventor with new prototypes) or at least accept and value it. They give honest feedback, too.

Do Be So Sensitive Sometimes, well-meaning friends advise, “Don’t be so sensitive.” But maybe the reverse is better advice (see Figure 35.4). Sensitivities can be used to advantage and developed. For example, superior smell, taste, hearing, and touch (sight, too) are key tools for the Michelin-star chef who had to interrupt his Fusion interview to move a vase of dried flowers. He was disturbed by the odor, which no one else in the room could smell. He then shared other things that bothered him — a crooked chair leg, a fork in the wrong place, a stress ball under the sofa, a flower that annoyed him, dust underneath a chair leg, and other oddities all around. Like the executive

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Figure 35.4: Sensitivity can be annoying and painful but can also be useful for innovation.

producer mentioned above, he changes things all around his guests, thus changing their mood and experience. And his food, drink, mood, and experience command top dollar.

Trust — You’ll Build More When I began the Fusion research, I knew openness to ideas would be an important theme, but it surprised me how much ideas and people flow together. The fusioneers developed broad, eclectic social networks and gleaned ideas and help from them (as well as giving freely). Most of them partnered or cocreated: 17 out of 30 (57%) were either entrepreneurial or intrapreneurial cofounders. Another 10 (33%) were strong collaborators or team-builders. Only 3 (10%) founded organizations independently and largely drove their innovations themselves (albeit with inputs and contributions from others). Two of them described how they generated far too many ideas to develop and were always on the lookout for people to give them to. They wanted good things to happen and were open to giving good ideas away. For ideas they developed, most of them trusted their teams fully. Team members might undergo six months or so of close collaboration and scrutiny (e.g., those who worked with the Nokia executive or the ecosystem founder). One quipped,

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“Love is given. Trust, on the other hand, is earned.”

However, once their trust was earned, they trusted fully. They encouraged and empowered their colleagues, freeing up the fusioneer to generate more ideas and initiatives. Trust went both ways. The fusioneers were seen as very honest, and those who raised funds for their new ventures engendered remarkable trust from their investors. Trust also helped others let their guard down and share sensitive information with the fusioneers. The social entrepreneur, urban farmer, and several others quickly gained people’s trust and established a bond of empathy.

Have at Least One Type of Empathy — But Not Necessarily All “Empathy is the engine of innovation.” — Gary Hamel, The Heart of Innovation3

Empathy is sometimes considered a “sixth sense.” It includes emotional, cognitive (perspective-taking), and active (compassionate action).4 All the fusioneers were exceptional in at least one type of empathy and found it useful for innovation. Most had two or all three, but it wasn’t necessary to be exceptional in all (see Figure 35.5). Active Empathy — Fusioneers who were entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs (90% of them) showed active empathy — reaching out to help others with their innovations. Generous, giving, and other-centric, with an eye to creating value for multiple stakeholders, they were not the stereotypical selfish, economicrational-man type of entrepreneur. They gave, and in giving they received. The financial advisor, for example, had grown up poor, with a keen desire for financial independence. Once he researched economics and understood the threats and opportunities aroused by globalization and deregulation, he could have capitalized on the trends in a variety of ways, lining his own pockets. He didn’t. He and his partners realized most people in their nation were completely unprepared to handle the changes and would need help. They chose to bring a new model of independent, well-researched financial advice to

3 Hamel, Gary. The Heart of Innovation. www.garyhamel.com/blog/heart-innovation 4 Hodges, S. D., and Myers, Michael W. (2007). “Empathy” in R. F. Baumeister and K. D. Vohs (eds.), Encyclopedia of Social Psychology (pp. 296–298). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

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Figure 35.5: On average, the fusioneers were highly empathic along three dimensions— cognitive, affective, and active—but they didn’t all score high in all three, and they didn’t engage all of them all of the time.

the marketplace, reducing their own incomes for 10 years (zero income at the beginning), while building something new that would help others. They did well in the end, however, finally earning a market rate for their skills and expertise, then selling the firm they built. They stayed on to grow it further, eventually managing $15 billion for tens of thousands of clients who appreciated their ideas and approach. Some fusioneers also repurposed what they created — opening for other uses and other users (see Figure 35.6). The scientific app developer, for example, builds tools for his own use and then offers them for free to scientists all over the world (30,000 at last count). The sports scientist crafts new methods and devices for the Australian Olympic team and has now co-founded an accelerator to develop them for commercial use. The autism audiologist developed a calming device (the BioHug vest) to settle participants in his autism-diagnostic studies. Now, not only is he developing the autism test for commercial use, but he co-founded a company to sell the vest, too, since it is so useful to people with autism, their families, doctors, and teachers. It’s too late for his own son to receive early diagnosis and effective intervention. But he’s still working to bring it to others. Fully half of the fusioneers teach or mentor and find it, in turn, helps them. The computational structural biologist explains by analogy, which helps her think laterally. The composer deepens her grasp of classical composers while

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Figure 35.6: One source of innovation is simply to share your solution to your own problem with others who might need it, too.

teaching, thereby reconnecting with musical elements she can use in her own work. The joint venture (JV) executive, in fact, views himself less as an executive and more as a teacher empowering his team. They don’t lose sight of their own goals, however, or the needs of their innovations. The JV executive still has to ensure they perform (it’s a business, not a school). The professional inventor calls it “rational compassion” — to create for and with others but not lose sight of what he wants and needs. Cognitive Empathy — An essential skill of entrepreneurship (including launching a new innovation) is to understand the motivations and perspectives of others — cognitive empathy. Multiple stakeholders are inevitable in any enterprise but must be specially managed in new enterprises, since they can fail so easily when a stakeholder withdraws. One of the social entrepreneurs, for example, was so frustrated by government bureaucrats that he earned a master’s degree in public policy in order to understand them. He found it helped, and with a solid understanding of their motivations and constraints, he can design programs and enterprises that include them in ways they can accept. Another social entrepreneur found it essential to reach deeply inside others’ heads in order to design interventions that would actually work. For example, she realized that female prisoners won’t necessarily turn their lives around for themselves, but they are motivated to keep their children out of jail. Knowing that, she designed a program to help the children — but only if the

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mothers would pursue new work and life goals. Unlike most recidivism interventions, it worked. Emotional Empathy — Emotional empathy was a distinguishing feature of a range of fusioneers — scientists, entrepreneurs, and business executives, as well as the more predictable artisans and humanitarians. When crafting something new and at risk of failure, emotional understanding is essential, not only of service/product users, but also of the development/delivery team (see Figure 35.7).

Figure 35.7: Emotional empathy is useful not only for designing new customer solutions but also for partners and employees who face a challenging journey every day.

The diagnostic lab founder, for example, is immediately aware of employees’ feelings and offers help well beyond the scope of daytime lab-work. He considers them family. They, in turn, have performed way beyond the call of duty, even forfeiting half their salaries for six months while the enterprise faced financial turbulence. The joint-venture executive uncovers problems when he senses employee discomfort and takes action before problems grow. He also senses client hesitation, probes their needs and constraints, and both customizes and expands his services to them.

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Beyond merely sensing emotions, the tech-company founder and management researcher finds himself more effective when he has emotional resonance with others in meetings and presentations. This requires sensing others’ emotions — as well as his own — and aligning them. The celebrity chef derives joy from making others joyful — both guests and employees — fueling both them and himself. Sustaining a new enterprise and the relationships that bring it to the world requires emotional stability, which the fusioneers showed.5 Beyond survey scores, the billionaire entrepreneur, for example, has been married for over 50 years, has close relationships with his grown children, and has cultivated far-longer-than-average employee tenure in his companies. In contrast to other, more emotionally expressive fusioneers, he doesn’t “wear his heart on his sleeve.” However, he has weathered the turbulence of bringing something new to life, including the entrepreneur-against-big-business lawsuit that could have bankrupted him.

Open Yourself to the World — Live in Three or Four Countries and Speak Multiple Languages “. . . if managers try out even one international assignment before becoming CEO, their companies deliver stronger financial results than companies run by CEOs without such experience — roughly 7% higher market performance on average.” —Research by Gregeren, Carpenter, and Sanders cited in Jeffrey Dyer, Hal Gregersen, Clayton Christensen, “The Innovator’s DNA,” Harvard Business Review, December 2009.

Beyond empathy in general, the fusioneers tested high in cultural empathy.6 In fact, although the Fusion study was not intended to be global, it became intensely so. It was hard to schedule research trips, for example, with (1) one fusioneer who lives in Dallas and Spain but met me in New York on her way between working in Copenhagen and Frankfurt; (2) another who lives in Los Angeles and Tel Aviv but works in Toronto; and (3) another of Turkish heritage who lives in New York, Singapore, San Francisco, and Vienna. On average, the fusioneers had lived in three or four countries (some concurrently, as above, see Figure 35.8). Many had international backgrounds as children (having themselves migrated, or their parents).

5 Van der Zee et al., “Multicultural Personality Questionnaire.” 6 Ibid.

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Figure 35.8: Fusioneers lived in three–four countries on average and spoke multiple languages.

At least 21 out of 30 (70%) spoke multiple languages. Two of them speak six languages (see Figure 35.9). One of them— the international-relations author— found it very helpful to “get the real story” in local context, with local language. One fusioneer learns language — at least a few words (though normally more) — of whatever nation she travels to. Research has shown that living abroad enhances creativity, but not just traveling abroad.7 That said, in one study, participants who saw a slide show comparing cultures in the US and China wrote stories afterwards that were more creative than participants who saw slide shows on the culture of only one

7 C.T. Tadmor, A.D. Galinsky, and W.W. Maddux. “Getting the Most Out of Living Abroad: Biculturalism and Integrative Complexity as Key Drivers of Creative and Professional Success.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 103(3), 520–542.

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Figure 35.9: 70% of the fusioneers are multilingual, and two speak six languages.

nation (only US or only China).8 So living abroad apparently boosts creativity, and cross-cultural travel or exposure may help. Being global may also enhance mental flexibility. The only two fusioneers who had lived solely in just one country both showed medium mental flexibility (0% high flexibility). In contrast, 25 of the 27 multinational fusioneers scored as highly flexible — 93% of them.9 Why is this important? Because mental flexibility is important for innovation, such as when the fusioneer who crafted the first digital music deal (between the music and mobile phone industries) hit a roadblock. The music companies wouldn’t re-contract music to give him the rights to print ringtone booklets. He swiftly responded, “Fine — you print the booklets. You have the rights. Just sell the booklets to us, and let’s craft the marketing together.” On another project, his manager developed a health-information service that included a micro-insurance payment as part of the package. However, the telecommunications regulators rejected their application to 8 Maddux, W.W. and Galinsky, A.D. (2009). “Cultural Borders and Mental Barriers: The Relationship Between Living Abroad and Creativity.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 96(5), 1047–1061. 9 Van der Zee et al., “Multicultural Personality Questionnaire.”

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launch it in the marketplace. They were a telecom provider, not an insurance company, and mobile money hadn’t been invented (or regulated) yet. The manager was dismayed and thought all their efforts were wasted. The fusioneer instantly said, “Never mind. We’ll charge for the information service. The insurance is bundled in for free.” The regulators approved, and the product was a success. Some flexibility (as with the mobile phone executive, above) develops with experience; but other types of flexibility (or adaptability) seem to be inborn. For example, the fusioneer who became an international-dance instructor was considered a “Zelig” in youth — adaptable and sensitive to others’ style. In their global experiences or empathic sharing with others, all the fusioneers showed Zelig-like capabilities, blending in and adapting.10

Cross Boundaries “I learn as much from painters about how to write as I do from writers.” — Ernest Hemmingway

Beyond crossing place, culture, and language, fusioneers cross industry, field, technology, taboo, and more (see Figure 35.10). After all, crossing boundaries and integrating what they find is what makes them fusioneers. They crossed boundaries in at least six ways: 1. Cross-Fertilizing — All of the fusioneers cross-fertilized ideas and resources, often working on an unusually high number of projects at once, for example, the integrative-thinking researcher who works on 10 projects at once, the entrepreneur who founded more than 20 successful organizations, and the sports scientist who applies ideas cross-sport among his myriad projects. One went where he “didn’t belong” (a common theme) and took ideas from farm to farm (a strong cultural boundary), cross-fertilizing best practices and new ideas wherever he went. 2. Multi-Perspective — Crossing over to different perspectives was important, too, as with the sports scientist who made sure he observed from a different angle or distance than the coach, e.g., by watching sports performance from the stands instead of beside the athlete. He even built a device that would not just allow rapid experimentation and turn-practice by gymnasts and divers, but would also enable observation from front, back, side,

10 Woody Allen. Zelig. Los Angeles: Orion Pictures (1983). American mockumentary film.

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Figure 35.10: If Hemmingway could learn about writing from painters, what might the rest of us learn from other fields?

below, or above, in rapid succession, to enable multi-perspective insight by coach, colleagues, and himself. 3. Multi-Fusions — Some fusioneers integrated across multiple boundaries at once. The nun-school-principal, for example, not only integrated social assistance and school but also integrated different Indian castes and generally abled with differently abled. The corporate anthropologist combined her artistic abilities with social science, mathematics, software-development, and

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business. Another created a dance-ethnology-medicine-anthropology-business fusion, drawing on neuropsychopharmacology. 4. Integrated Work-Life — The majority of them integrated “work” and “life,” recognizing that creative ideas (and energy) would come when they come, not restricted to the official workday. The happiness expert doesn’t know whether he’s working hard or hardly working. “Work-life” for them is not a balance — it’s another integration. In fact, that insight fed into the groundbreaking work of one of the fusioneers to help people integrate their lives, manage their energies, and avoid (or recover from) burnout. 5. Breaking Free — Many fusioneers were described as “free spirit.” While some knowingly crossed boundaries, some didn’t even see them (see Figure 35.11). For example, when the quantum-chemist looked down from a mezzanine and saw a chemical pattern in people’s interactions, she studied anthropology, ethnography, mathematics, and software development to model it and learn more about what it was. Her advisor told her she needed to stop exploring and focus. She was astounded and said she was focused like a laser

Figure 35.11: Sometimes, fusioneers crossed boundaries unconsciously—not seeing them at all.

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beam on the one thing she was studying. She just drew from multiple disciplines and was borrowing a diverse set of tools to address it. “Creativity is thinking without the box.”

—Robest Yong, Inventor

6. Breaking Rules — Most had little patience for seemingly arbitrary organizational or societal rules that got in the way of “doing the right thing,” e.g., the nun-school-principal who opened her previously locked doors and gates, inviting street children to sleep in her school (without asking for organizational permission). She eventually grew the student cohort — and her school programs — to include them. The serial entrepreneur, the farm-tech entrepreneur, and the celebrity chef were among those who were difficult children who “pushed boundaries” more than most. However, moral rules were a different matter. All showed a high degree of integrity. They just cared more about what is right than what are the rules. Every parent worries that breaking one rule or crossing one boundary may lead to more. In the case of the fusioneers, that’s been a good thing. Most of them created more than one innovation and got better as they went. The first step over a boundary can lead to an amazing journey — for the innovator and for us all.

In Closing, When to Close “The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.” —Terry Pratchett

The hyper-aware executive producer called openness a “blessing and a curse.” The chef revealed that he can’t turn off his awareness of random, annoying oddities. He’s “finicky” at his restaurants and at home. Maintaining openness and using it effectively requires some management (see Figure 35.12). Framing — Some framing may be possible (and, indeed, necessary), to help with over-stimulated hyper-awareness. The nun-school-principal, for example, surrounded by Kolkata’s millions, has a mission for her life and her school: “We educate children.” When asked if she ever said “No” to someone asking for help, she said, “No.” (So, obviously, she can say it.) However, in the ensuing discussion, she described a homeless mother and child, to whom she had offered help — housing and education for the child. When asked if she offered housing to the mother, she said, “No — we don’t give general assistance to families. We educate children.”

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Figure 35.12: Sometimes it’s better not to have an open mind (or a mind “too open”).

Within her mission — her lens on the world — her assistance appeared limitless. However, she had limits, and in having them could remain open within those boundaries. Time — She continually looked through that lens, scanning the world for children to help and resources to use. However, there may be times when “closing” is more useful. The inventor, for example, is open to new inputs while scanning for needs and ideas, as well as while he’s testing solutions. However, the middle stage — when he’s crafting a solution — is decidedly “closed” time. That said, the silk vaccine entrepreneur, even while focused on growing his startup, remained open to new connections. Most people “close in” on themselves when developing something new, but by remaining open, he continued to find new contacts, some of whom later provided important help when new problems came along. Likewise, the enlightened-incubator mentor recommended staying open and watching events unfold — flowing with the energy of a new creation instead of pushing things forward with self-determined hard work. Based on his exhausting experience as a bio-diesel CEO, he now finds it more useful to

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remain open, observe, gauge whether people want an innovation, and whether there’s energy (and others’ help) behind it. Single or Social — Perhaps the key is the type of work. Creations best suited to an individual may benefit from “closed” focus. Creations that are social in nature (like growing a new business) may benefit most from at least one team member remaining open, making new external connections. During Take-Off — Another key “closed” time was when these innovators were convinced their creations were good, but others offered discouragement because it was different or they didn’t understand (see Figure 35.13). The new-anddifferent, independent, fee-based model of financial advice attracted discouraging remarks for 10 years (including from one founder’s mother). However, it eventually became one of the world’s most valuable financial-advisory partnerships. The quantum-chemist-corporate-anthropologist was told her research would never amount to anything. However, she pioneered a new field, and 35 years later, she’s still consulting to the world’s top corporations and governments who want to leverage her work.

Figure 35.13: When launching an innovation into the world, sometimes it’s better to ignore feedback from others who don’t understand the new creation. “Sometimes you have to look reality in the face and deny it.”

—Garrison Keillor

Filtering — A few fusioneers were characterized as super-honest “no filter” people. One often said whatever came into his head (“No-Filter Ted,” the executive

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producer), and one habitually wrote whatever came into his head (a bestselling author fondly remembered by his publisher for thousand-page manuscripts). Non-filtering is, in fact, a standard creativity technique. In the classic diverge-converge sequence, we suspend judgment (filtering) in order to come up with many, sometimes wild, ideas to take forward. After diverging, judgement is reintroduced, and the creative team converges on one or a few ideas to pursue. Individuals can also use the technique. Ernest Hemingway wrote about 100 book titles for each book he wrote — and then chose one. However, being too “unfiltered” can create problems organizationally. Another fusioneer found that the honesty and directness of her national and artistic backgrounds had to be softened if she was to remain a corporate employee or finish her degree program at an old, established school. Burnout — Another key reason to close is empathetic burnout. One fusioneer found empathy had to be “turned off” when not in use, or it would lead to exhaustion. As an ecosystem founder, she ironically discovered she had to learn to create boundaries (and some degree of isolation) for herself while helping others cross boundaries, coming together as community. Her advice for innovators in general, though, is to join a community — open outward and don’t try to do it alone.

Figure 35.14: Most fusioneers found it helpful to be in the company of others creating and launching “the new.”

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Opening Your Journey Thankfully, among the many ways in which these fusioneers were open, they were open to sharing themselves and their journeys with an interviewer — and ultimately with you (see Figure 35.14). Openness — in a variety of ways — was key to their innovation journeys. Given their diversity of field, function, country, and more, we hope the Fusion stories have helped you become a little more diverse and open, too (see Figure 35.15).

Figure 35.15: The first step in the fusion journey is outward openness.

How will you use and develop your sensitivity(ies), becoming more open and aware? What kind of empathy do you have (emotional, cognitive, active)? How might you use and develop it? What boundaries will you cross (global or other)? Will you trust, partner, and co-create? Are you open to the next step?

Chapter 36 Exploring Yourself Manage Creative Insight, Outsight, and Your Own Design

If you want to get great work done — and make it creative — the following might help: do poorly at school, do very well at school (getting multiple degrees and certifications), play, go to sleep, pray and meditate, power-wash the pig-house, lapswim, take a walk, jump horses, take a shower, play piano, be bored, and “think” with your heart, not your head. What’s the common thread? Inward focus. If you work alone, guard your inward, non-interruptible time. If you’re creatively stuck or creating with others, focus outward (“outsight”). Most importantly, tap into your own unique design (not just the bits you tap for a job/career), and share that with the world. If you stick to it authentically and cultivate your inner life, you’ll land where you’re valued and create what only you can create. Video https://youtu.be/9Ez360Dyj2Y

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“The man who has no inner life is the slave of his surroundings.”

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—Henri Frederic Amiel

Something inside made a difference. Every fusioneer found something in his or her inner life that enabled (or drove) change in his or her surroundings (see Figure 36.1).

Figure 36.1: We create based on our inner design and inner life.

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The motivation wasn’t money. None of them expressed a burning desire to be rich — even the one who became a billionaire. He, like the wealth-management fusioneer, wanted independence. In fact, all of them can be described as strongly independent, whether they have a great deal of wealth or, like the nun, have none at all. The Nokia intrapreneur wanted to be the first in the world to launch an innovation. The diagnostic scientist and the happiness expert both sought happiness. All could do something else to earn a living. But all chose what they do in life and basically love what they do — even when they struggle, tire, or get discouraged. Many feel what they do is a profound calling (e.g., the scientists and social entrepreneurs), describing their work with words like mission, purpose, meaning, impact, legacy, and improving or saving lives. Those who don’t claim a particularly noble mission simply find joy in being who they are and crafting what they create. Some described the urge to create, some liked challenge. Since their creations were new and success unpredictable, motivation had to be internal, not external. Those who had done poorly in school had an advantage, in some regard, like the serial entrepreneur (who failed his exams), the celebrity chef (who dropped out), and others. They did not pursue school grades and other external rewards. They learned to work for their own reasons, learned how to learn on their own, and learned how to work outside of formal systems (like schools and companies). That said, some used school well to learn what they wanted to learn, earning doctorates and multiple masters’ degrees in the process — qualifying them to work in research and development or craft something new. In short, they’re not trapped in already-existing systems. They can create their own (see Figure 36.2). The fusioneers may not know if what they set out to do will work, and since their motivation is inside not outside, they can choose to pursue the “impossible” (or at least the unknown). Some were told what they wanted to do either couldn’t be done or was a waste of time. The diagnostic scientist and his team, for example, hit roadblock after roadblock, each one seemingly killing their integrated diagnostic test. Patient and persistent, they listened to well-meaning friends in the scientific community declare that integrating 24 tests into one was scientifically impossible. However, every morning after a setback, they “resurrected” it and kept moving forward. Now, they have a product that can save over 10 million lives a year from sepsis alone and $1.2 billion in healthcare costs. His father, in fact, had taught him about the fruit of work and “something within” when he was a child:

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Figure 36.2: Fusioneers don’t just navigate systems others have built. They create systems. “Whatever you work for, the work is the fruit — not school marks or money or anything else. So many scientists have done things of great difficulty and brought it to the world. Why? It all came from something within themselves that nothing outside could stop. Those that never came to fruition were because of personal shortcomings of individuals. At the end of the day, you must overcome something within yourself to bring a new creation to the world.” —Father of Dr. Ravi Kumar Banda, Founder of XCyton

Curiosity, Depth, and Play One of the “somethings within” possessed by all the fusioneers was curiosity. A few were described as childlike or playful in their inquiries. They genuinely engaged and understood deeply because they were truly interested — even passionate. “One of the huge mistakes people make is that they try to force an interest on themselves. You don’t choose your passions, your passions choose you.” — Jeff Bezos

They spent years learning and honing skills in the various disciplines they chose. Having understood at depth, these innovators realize that many disciplines are working on the same phenomena, just with different languages (see Figure 36.3).

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Figure 36.3: Fusioneers think and learn deeply, recognizing what’s the same “under the surface” across domains.

Some developed deep understanding through modeling (e.g., the sports scientist and the corporate anthropologist) or by studying a field at sufficient depth to understand its underlying models and theories that might be useful elsewhere. When models don’t fit reality, they don’t just ignore it and move on. If the sports scientist had done that, he wouldn’t have found the insights that helped his diver win the highest score in Olympic history. The international relations author travels the world looking for inconsistencies between theory and reality that indicate new understanding (new theory) is needed. The quantum-chemist found a phenomenon that had no theory — and created a new theory and field in the process. Sometimes, deep thinking enabled them to break through assumptions, not just connecting one domain with another. The autism audiologist, for example, realized that instead of being an effect of autism, the inability to process sound may actually cause it. Pursuing an “effect” as a “cause” led to a whole new line of inquiry that could revolutionize autism detection and treatment. They “play.” The sports scientist described how he was “playing around with the numbers” when he found the inconsistency that led to his Olympic-winning diving recommendation. The photographer-author-publisher takes his books apart and puts them back together repeatedly until he’s satisfied. Indeed, in design

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thinking and other creative approaches, “playing” and “messing around” with things is inherent to learning and creating. Playing can be a good way to get your work done.

Inspiration “The uninspired can’t help you figure out the unimagined.”

—Eddie Yoon1

Inspiration is credited for creative breakthroughs, but what is it, exactly, and how can we tap into it? In his book, The Act of Creation, A Study of the Conscious and Unconscious in Science and Art, Arthur Koestler suggests that we receive inspiration and insight when we suspend rational thought, such as during dreams or trances.2 Two of the 30 fusioneers had dream inspirations, and one is an expert spiritualist, who can purposefully enter a trance state when needed. The first dream-inspired fusioneer was a scientist who could not take high-enough quality pictures with a new microscope. He flipped through the manual not noticing anything in particular, and after a number of failed attempts, thought he would have to call the manufacturer overseas the next day. But the needed switch appeared in a dream, clearly residing underneath a small plate on the side of the device. He ran to the office, found the switch, flipped it, and took the pictures (see Figure 36.4). The second, one of the social entrepreneurs, dreamed of a new library for village children. She saw the building design clearly and drew it when she awoke, fired up and inspired to build it. She founded Books for Hope, and one library eventually grew to 26, serving 30,000 kids across Indonesia. Sleeping can be a great way to get your work done.

Incubation and Inwardness Beyond paying attention to dreams, that founder learned to call on-the-spot decisions “placeholders” so her startup staff would not be frustrated when she ruminated over an issue subconsciously and later reversed the decision. In fact, idea incubation (subconscious rumination) is well known, and several of the fusioneers spend significant time alone, “unplugged,” ruminating, or 1 Yoon, Eddie. “What Superconsumers Can Teach You,” Harvard Business Review, December, 2016 (www.hbr.org). 2 Koestler, Arthur. The Act of Creation, A Study of the Conscious and Unconscious in Science and Art. Hutchinson & Co, 1964, reprinted by Last Century Media, 2014.

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“wasting time” in seemingly mindless ways. The healthcare accelerator, for example, retreats to his “cave” and sometime later “pops out” with last-minute solutions, after everyone else has struggled to solve the problem or anxiously doubted it could be solved. Apparently, you have to be patient with the “pop.”

Figure 36.4: Powerful inspiration can come when we dream.

The executive educator described the difference between lap swimming and water aerobics. When she swims laps for her morning exercise, she simultaneously has a “staff meeting” in her head and has to rush to her office without interruption to record her ideas (see Figure 36.5). Water aerobics is a good workout, but there’s no creative “staff meeting,” since her attention is focused outward on the instructor. “Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself. I am large. I contain multitudes.” —Walt Whitman

Other fusioneers discussed meditative activities, such as walking, which research has shown enhances creativity.3 The autism audiologist produced his best ideas and much of his master’s degree while walking around — even getting in trouble with his supervisor for apparently goofing off — until he explained his ideas,

3 Oppezzo, Marily and Daniel L. Schwartz. “Give Your Ideas Some Legs: The Positive Effect of Walking on Creative Thinking.” Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 2014, 40(4), 1142–1152.

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Figure 36.5: One fusioneer described lap-swimming as an internal “staff meeting” that generated lots of useful ideas and insights.

progress, and how they came about. Indeed, the multi-Emmy-award-winning executive producer says he’s “useless” without his morning walk in the woods. Power-washing the pig-house gave the farm-tech entrepreneur many good ideas, and others extolled the virtues of horse-jumping, showering, late nights, piano-playing, and general boredom.4 For many of them, inspirations pop up at seemingly random times throughout the day, and are written down for later. Even randomly looking around can yield insight if you’re good at seeing patterns and making connections. One fusioneer described an epiphany when looking down from a mezzanine at the people below. Having honed her pattern-matching skills in art school, she saw people moving in a pattern she’d seen in quantum chemistry. She then saw the same pattern elsewhere — again and again. She quit her job, went back to school, developed new mathematical modeling methods and software, and founded a new field.

Insight Versus Outsight When cognitive neuroscientist John Kounios studied the neuroscience behind such epiphanies, he uncovered a remarkable insight about insight:

4 Zomorodi, Manoush. How Boredom Can Lead to Your Most Brilliant Ideas. www.ted.com, 2017.

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“Analytical thinking is preceded by ‘outsight,’ i.e., focus on environment. EEG readings prior to creative insight showed less visual cortex activity (visualizing the environment) and more temporal lobe activity (processing words and concepts). This is the mind turning in on itself. This is the mind disengaging from the world. This empowers a person to imagine new and different ways to transform reality creatively into something better.” —John Kounios5

Unplugging from the outside world and tuning into your internal world is helpful to creativity (see Figure 36.6). Some of the fusioneer examples above include interacting with the outside world, but the key is attention. When doing water aerobics, a swimmer must pay attention to instructions from the class leader (outsight). Once you’ve learned to swim, however, the mind can disengage and is open to insight. In fact, when we learn, we use our logical, analytical mind (Daniel Kahneman’s “System 2”), but once we’ve learned something, we switch to our creative, intuitive mind (“System 1”).6 The coffee-connector fusioneer noticed the difference between the two when show-jumping horses. When he consciously thinks (slow, analytical System 2), he cannot make the jump. When he “doesn’t think” (i.e., engages fast, intuitive System 1), he jumps successfully.

Figure 36.6: “Unplugging” from the outside world helps creativity.

5 Kounios, John. The Neuroscience Behind Epiphanies. TEDTalentSearch, June 26, 2012 (youtube.com/watch?v=7uyw5y_tHEM). 6 Kahneman, Daniel. Thinking Fast and Slow. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Macmillan), 2011.

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The serial-entrepreneur fusioneer says “thinking” is slow (“System 2”), so he uses emotions to help him “think” (“System 1”). The integrative-thinking researcher also uses emotions as key information and seeks emotional resonance with others. Like the international-relations author, he probes his own emotional reactions to enrich his understanding. The wealth and well-being expert also reaches inside, comparing whatever he learns against his inner values.

Prayer and Meditation Beyond inward-focused, meditative activities, of course, is meditation itself — and prayer. So many of the fusioneers shared the importance of their faith in what they did, that the podcast narrator of these stories said he was getting tired of reading it, story after story. Many are Christians and include prayer as part of their daily lives (especially the nun). One scientist was Hindu and meditated an hour and a half every day during exercise. Another claimed no particular faith but then mentioned he did meditate, and another mentioned being a spiritually disciplined, practicing Jew. One is an advanced practitioner of Shamanism, Buddhism, Taoism, and NativeAmerican spirituality, who not only could enter an advanced trance-state but appeared to pray/meditate even while being interviewed. Whether praying, meditating, or something else — and whether at regular times or just before creative work — the majority of fusioneers actively cultivated their inner lives and believed it important to do so. Even something seemingly outward-focused like looking can actually be inward-focused— if you’re not actively engaged with what you’re looking at. Case in point: The chemist casually looking (just before the creative epiphany) or the producer walking in the woods each morning — seeing but not focused (outward) on seeing.

When to Use Outsight — Should Your Box Be “Full of Holes”? So, should we continually focus inward for creativity and limit our outward focus? No — outward focus can help creativity, too (see Figure 36.7). Research has shown that making performance or learning more difficult (such as with an unfamiliar or damaged musical instrument, or a harder-to-read font)

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Figure 36.7: Outward focus can also be useful for creativity, especially when gathering fodder for creation or getting out of a “rut.”

actually improves performance and learning through the need to pay attention.7 In one study, outward-attentive students who couldn’t “filter out” distractions (like TV or radio) were at a disadvantage when writing their essays, but were: “. . . vastly more likely to have some real creative milestone in their lives, to have published their first novel, to have released their first album. These distractions were actually grists to their creative mill. They were able to think outside the box because their box was full of holes.” —Tim Hartford8

So, outward attention is useful for collecting grist for creativity and for learning something someone has already created. However, the neuroscience remains. The act of individual creativity — post-collecting/post-learning — is enhanced by focusing inward. The outward-attentive students had to get away from TV and radio to write their essays. Performance is more complicated. “Master your instrument, master the music, and then forget all that bullshit and just play.” —Charlie Parker, Jazz Musician

Once a musician has mastered the instrument and the music, does she focus inward? Csikszentmihalyi’s work on creativity and “flow” suggests that she does.9 However, Hartford extolls the creative virtues of messes and frustrations that (obviously) draw our attention outward. Jazz musician Keith Jarrett, for example, recorded the world’s best-selling piano album and the best-selling solo jazz album on an out-of-tune piano he didn’t want to

7 Hartford, Tim. How Frustration Can Make Us More Creative. www.ted.com, 2015. 8 Ibid. 9 Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention. New York: Harper Collins, 2013.

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play. Ambient composer Brian Eno has been the catalyst behind great rock albums by disrupting musicians’ creative process with “The Oblique Strategies” — a set of uncomfortable changes musicians often hate (such as switching instruments with the rest of the band), but which get them “unstuck” when they’re creatively stuck. Perhaps the key is comfort. When we’re comfortable with what we do (like jazz virtuoso Keith Jarrett), we will not be reaching out to create something radically new. When we’re getting nowhere with our comfortable, old approaches, we need to be pushed to try something uncomfortable.

Outsight for Group Creativity Outward attention is also necessary in a group setting, and group problemsolving can result in more creative solutions than working alone (see Figure 36.8). In fact, diverse groups seem to require even more outward attention than uniform groups, and they also produce more creative results. In one study, when a group contained an unfamiliar member, participants were not as happy with their experience or as positive about their performance, but they actually performed significantly better than groups

Figure 36.8: Co-creation also requires outward focus.

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Figure 36.9: Interruptions can be extremely frustrating and draining.

that already knew each other.10 Another study showed that groups of scientists from different backgrounds solved problems more quickly than unidisciplinary groups.11 To enhance creativity, you may want to be part of a group brain — especially a diverse one — that will require connecting outward to the rest of the group. If you’re creating something alone, you’ll want to focus inward before — and during — your creative time. Beyond choosing when to use inward- or outward-focus, it’s also necessary to guard it. The collective cost of interruptions can be high, and companies adopting quiet-focus “library rules” in designated times and places see a significant boost in productivity.12 Sudden shifts from the inner world to the outer — interruptions — can also be extremely frustrating and draining (see Figure 36.9). Research by the executive educator and resilience pioneer noted that focus-time management boosts both effectiveness and energy.13

10 Hartford, How Frustration Can Make Us More Creative. 11 Moldoveanu, Mihnea and Olivier Leclerc. The Design of Insight: How to Solve Any Business Problem. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2015, p. 17. 12 Fried, Jason. “Restoring Sanity to the Office.” Harvard Business Review, December 29, 2016. 13 Greenblatt, Edy. Restore Yourself: The Antidote for Professional Exhaustion. Los Angeles, CA: Execu-Care Books, 2009.

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Energy All the fusioneers were noted for high energy, as well as hard work. They were described as enthusiastic, fun, lively, well-liked, passionate, optimistic, full of ideas, strong, driven, and determined. One of them works best when he’s working two full-time jobs. Another refuses to slow down: “He’s 74 years old and works 15 hours a day, every day. He works harder and travels more than anybody I ever met.” —Ian Parker, CFA Executive

Some are extroverts. Some are introverts. All are energized by what they do and are recognized for energizing others, even making others happier (like the composer). Similar to Csikszentmihalyi’s interviewees, they experienced joy in what they do, even though there were also times of exhaustion (e.g., the ecosystem founder) or anxiety (which the photographer converts to nervous creativeenergy). Many engage in work-play, unable to tell if they are working hard or not (see Figure 36.10). The positive psychologist uses examples from “life” in his “work” and doesn’t really know if finding something meaningful in life means he’s working in his “off” hours. As the resilience pioneer would recommend, they manage their energies and integrate “work” and “life.”

Figure 36.10: Many creative people engage in work-play, moving forward not knowing if they’re working or playing, and often not caring which is which.

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Humility, Authenticity, and a Different Kind of “Flow” They don’t waste energy carrying around inflated egos or being someone they’re not. Some were noted for being the same person all the time, and all were extremely, uniquely themselves. “He’s shown that you can really be yourself — uniquely yourself — and succeed.” —Karan Khemka, Georgetown classmate and friend, speaking of Fusioneer Parag Khanna

Being unique, what they produce is also unique, and although their successes are highlighted here, their creations don’t always garner immediate acceptance. The scientific app developer, for example, found it hard to publish papers, since they didn’t fit into a single, existing genre. After repeated frustrations, he founded his own journal (sponsored by a well-regarded publisher) and publishes high-quality papers by other frustrated cross-domain researchers, at the same time growing a new field. They adhere to their uniqueness and eventually find themselves in situations where that uniqueness is valued, even if various stops on the journey don’t make sense at the time or don’t “succeed.” “See what they all have in common? . . . There’s no one type of scarer. The best scarers use their differences to their advantage.” —Mike Wazowski, Monsters University (Pixar Animation Studios, 2013)

All the fusioneers created something that leveraged their diverse backgrounds and unique selves. The Nokia intrapreneur spoke of being “the right person in the right place at the right time.” Who he was on the inside matched what was needed on the outside. He had found the right “outside” by maintaining and presenting his authentic “inside.” Creative “flow” is not just an inner creative process. It is also a “flow” between our inner and outer worlds.

Open to Yourself “It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.”

—E.E. Cummings

Although openness to inspiration, insight, and outsight are important to manage for innovation, the fusioneers’ real source of innovation appears to be their openness to their own unique design (see Figure 36.11). Their creativity is founded on their curiosity, internal motivation, and willingness to discover and use their full range of talents in the things they

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Figure 36.11: Perhaps most important is to be open to your own design, using curiosity and internal motivation to develop self and creation(s).

create — not force-fitting who they are and what they learn to pre-defined jobs and careers. Some had humble beginnings — failing school, dropping out, or simply poor (e.g., too poor to buy soccer shoes). Some were well off — one born into an extended family worth $5.8 billion. That didn’t matter as long as they pursued who they were, who they could be, and what they could create. By remaining authentic (and whole), they wind up in places where they are valued, working on problems no one else can solve, or opportunities for which they are uniquely skilled. By doing what they love, they maintain their energy and sense of purpose. They bring what’s inside themselves outside — not slaves to their surroundings — by first cultivating themselves (see Figure 36.12).14

14 Personal Note on God, Daemons, and Genius: Like the fusioneers, I also focus inward for inspiration, although I’m not sure whether it’s really focusing inward or outward to God. I feel it’s both — through me to Him. I begin my mornings with prayer-time and exercise alone. The fusion model came into my head while swimming, and I regularly stop my aerobic routine or meditative walk to write down ideas as they come on what I’m researching or writing. I feel they come from God and that my time each morning with Him is the most important part of my day. Apparently, the ancient Greeks and Romans also thought creative ideas come from outside — a divine spirit. Socrates believed he received wisdom from a spirit speaking from

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Figure 36.12: Creative flow depends on a rich inner life, cultivated based on your own unique design. “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”

—Mahatma Gandhi

What are you curious about or care about? Would you pursue it without reward, even if it’s “impossible”? What gives you energy? What takes it away? If you only did the former, what would “life” and “work” be like? When do you unplug your mind so it can work? What is your unique design?

afar. The Greeks called them “daemons.” The Romans called them “genius.” (For more, see Elizabeth Gilbert, Your Elusive, Creative Genius, TED.com, 2009.)

Chapter 37 Collecting the Dots Create Your Unique Mental Workshop

The fusioneers collected knowledge, skills, people, and more, according to their own unique design — their talents, interests, and curiosity (see Figure 37.1). Some failed school, some didn’t finish. All learned beyond school and in multiple disciplines. Some learned by teaching, some collected degrees. All never stopped. Many kept a “little black book” of ideas, problems, solutions, etc. Many collected experiences. They collected people — often a broad, eclectic array — who helped them not just implement new ideas but create them, as well. Their collections formed a unique mental workshop integral to what they all did later, although https://doi.org/10.1515/9781547401505-037

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Figure 37.1: Fusioneers collected people, ideas, skills, and more, to use when an opportunity would come along.

they didn’t know it at the time (they didn’t know the value of what they were collecting while they collected). As technology takes over our standardized work, we will need to focus more on creating the novel. To do so, we will need unique and diverse minds, assembled by “collecting the dots.” Video https://youtu.be/QPPnJ8WzfT4

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.” —Steve Jobs1

1 Fisk, Peter. Gamechangers: Creating Innovative Strategies for Business and Brands: New Approaches to Strategy, Innovation and Marketing. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., 2015. Quote from www.thegeniusworks.com/2016/02/what-is-innovation-connecting-the-dotsthe-ones-other-people-miss/.

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Collect the dots, connect the dots. You’ll connect better if you start with a good collection. The Foley artist from Star Wars and Wall-E, for example, doesn’t start hunting for the sounds he needs after commencing a movie project. Like most artists, he’s more gatherer than hunter. He collects interesting sounds as he comes across them and then, while working on a movie, connects the sounds in his head with what he’s working on. He hunts within his collection before hunting outside.2 How does he decide what sounds to collect? After all, he’s surrounded by sound all the time (as we all are). He has no measure of usefulness to guide his collecting, since he never knows what he’ll need. He simply keeps what he finds intrinsically interesting. Do most of us collect that way? Actually, we do. People create all sorts of physical collections of everything that tickles our senses, from stamps to stuffed toys, spices to scents — even sound, since most of us have collections of music. We also create virtual collections of ideas and skills. However, the beginnings of that collection are usually based less on interest and more on what someone else has decided is important. For most of us, childhood learning is curated by schools. However, schools are not for everyone. Leonardo da Vinci, for example, was not allowed to go to school because he was the son of a single mother. Young Thomas Edison’s mother was told he’d never be able to go to school. Einstein was considered mentally deficient when he was little and didn’t do well in school. Beethoven’s parents were told he was too dumb to be a composer. Isaac Newton’s parents were told he was “the most unlikely student they ever had.”3

What Fusioneers Collect and How — With or Without School “I was at the foot of my class.” “I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.”

— Thomas Edison —Mark Twain

The fusioneers, having opened themselves to their own unique talents, interests, and curiosity, collected knowledge, skills, and more — curated according to their own design. Their parents generally encouraged and supported their interests, instead of force-fitting their own. Some failed school (or, actually, school failed them, see Figure 37.2). The serial entrepreneur, for example, failed his O-levels and A-levels (his high school and preuniversity “leaving exams”). The National Geographic photographer attended four

2 Bernstein, Julie. Spark: How Creativity Works. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 2011. 3 Michalko, Michael. Creative Thinkering: Putting Your Imagination to Work. Novato, CA (USA): New World Library, 2011.

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Figure 37.2: Some fusioneers (and other well-known innovators) did poorly at school.

high schools because he kept flunking out. That said, the serial entrepreneur did graduate (at age 56) with a master’s degree, attended Harvard four times (for executive programs), and has been invited to teach at Singularity University. The photographer did ultimately graduate from high school in an experimental program for gifted students (rising from D-grades to straight As). He also finished university — a photography program he and an art professor custom-designed. Some didn’t finish. The celebrity chef dropped out of school at age 13 (but avoided truancy problems by entering cooking school). One dropped out of arts and law because university was “too regimented.” Another has a collection of unfinished degrees, including math, economics, chemical engineering, and journalism (he did finish a Masters of Computer Science). He “started, got the value out of it, but didn’t really see the need to finish.” The executive producer was 75% finished with his Arts-Administration MBA when he left to take a job he would gladly have taken post-program (also allowing him to start repaying student loans). Inquisitive, skeptical, and deep-thinking, they learn beyond school. For example, the international relations author gathers insights “on the ground” while traveling — insights that are integral to his new theories and books. The autism audiologist was actually a chemical engineer but spent years poring through research papers learning about autism, looking for a new pathway to diagnosis. The celebrity chef supplemented his already-crazy work hours in haute cuisine by reading and learning from everyone he could.

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They learn from multiple “schools” or disciplines. By the time the dance and executive educator finished at UCLA, she had taken classes in every building, including disciplines such as chemistry, physiology, biology, arts, humanities, English literature, mythology, music, dance, and theatre (see Figure 37.3). Another applied for doctoral degrees in business and plasma physics. While one fusioneer was studying art and quantum chemistry, her friend asked, “What kind of a job are you going to get with that?” she replied, “It’s a liberalarts college. Can’t I study what I want?” Fusioneers learn what they want.

Figure 37.3: The fusioneers used multiple sources of learning, for example one who took classes in every building across her university campus.

Some learn by teaching. The computational structural biologist actively teaches and mentors, and she finds it helps her think laterally, since she frequently teaches concepts by analogy. The composer, inventor, wealth manager, and more, teach and mentor (formally and informally), helping them deepen their knowledge, keep it top-of-mind, and build a network of people to tap as needed. Some collect degrees (whether intentionally or not). The DNA scientist studied for PhD, master’s, and bachelor’s degrees all at the same time. In fact, he has not one but two bachelor’s degrees, to go along with his PhD, master’s, diploma, and 10 different certifications, including law, technology, business, complex systems, linguistics, and theology. The computational structural biologist already had bachelor’s, master’s, and PhD degrees but then earned another master’s and continues to take courses on Coursera and EdX. They never stop. Whether their learning earns them a degree (or certificate) or not, they continue collecting new knowledge, skills, etc. The Nokia intrapreneur, for example, continually learned new technologies, kept them at the back of his mind, then scanned the world looking for new ways to use them. The computational structural biologist described a learning cycle,

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whereby she would fix something, learn from the experience, then fix something else, learn, etc. They don’t just live life — they learn it.

What Else Fusioneers Collect “I’m not a collector. . . . Oh, these notebooks where I write down my ideas? I have over 300 of them.” —Mihnea Moldoveanu

The “little black book” was a common theme (see Figure 37.4). Instead of girlfriends’ phone numbers, the books were places to note down ideas as they occurred (e.g., the executive producer); books and articles people recommended (e.g., the photographer); problems to solve (e.g., the inventor); and both

Figure 37.4: Collecting ideas into “little black books” was a common activity.

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problems and solutions, either to enact later or to give someone else to pursue (e.g., the integrative thinking researcher quoted above). Many “collected” new and interesting experiences. The med-tech accelerator collected abandoned prototypes and non-commercialized technologies, never knowing what might become useful later. Overall, they collected ideas from books and articles, interactions with people, and basically everything they came across. One used technology to gather ideas, by posting provocative statements and questions on Facebook (the inventor). Collecting is different from researching. When they needed more information or help to solve a problem, they gathered purposefully, and what they gathered was added to the mental workshop. However, collecting for its own sake, without a problem at hand, out of curiosity and a desire to learn, is a hallmark of fusion (see Figure 37.5).

Figure 37.5: Collecting, based on curiosity (not a problem) is a hallmark of fusion and includes people, experiences, and skills, as well as ideas.

Collecting People — Broad, Eclectic, “Wacky” Social Capital Most fusioneers collected people and actively built social capital. Many were described as good with long-term relationships, maintaining that network well.

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The fast-food entrepreneur, for example, was a president of YPO/WPO (Young Presidents’ Organization/World Presidents’ Organization), where he networked extensively. The nun keeps in mind people she’s come across and contacts them again when she has a new project that needs help. The coffee connector collects business cards and even hands out other people’s business cards when two people in his network could help each other. Another continually connected with others at his incubator space (and beyond), later tapping on them when his startup encountered new problems. Their networks were often called “eclectic” or “wacky” (e.g., the enlightened incubator). The joint venture executive, in fact, had earlier co-founded a cross-industry dot-com, and he described “first Tuesdays.” Around the world, on the first Tuesday of the month, “techies,” venture capitalists, and entrepreneurs would gather, connect, drink, and discuss. Every alternate Tuesday night, he and his co-founder began inviting the smartest doctors, architects, process engineers, lawyers, social anthropologists, dentists, and others, to drink and talk. Contacts and ideas he collected were then incorporated into his dot-com. His youth was devoted to experiencing, listening, and learning. Their networks are not mercenary. They collect contacts that resonate — people who genuinely intrigue them — not just targeted, professional networking. Their interest in others is genuine, and the network is key not only in implementing but also in generating new ideas.

A Unique Mental Workshop “Chance favors the prepared mind.”

—Louis Pasteur

Collecting odd bits into a unique mental workshop was key to what the fusioneers all did later (see Figure 37.6). Whether or not each one had a mind like a steel trap, each had a mind like a lint trap. In fact, we all do, whether we collect independently or not. In an age in which we can Google whatever information strikes our fancy, is there still a role for knowledge-acquisition and schools? I believe yes, since we craft new creations using our own mental workshops. Having tools at hand (or knowledge) facilitates carpentry (or creativity) and influences what we build. To connect the dots, you’ll want to have collected them first. If a few are missing in the ultimate design, you can hunt for them, but you begin the creative process with what’s at hand.

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Figure 37.6: “Collecting” resulted in a unique mental workshop necessary to what the Fusioneers did later.

Schools can be a great place to learn, since experts have curated the material and crafted a design — usually much better than a novice can. However, they generally follow a design of topics (a curriculum) for standardized learning across students in order to create standard-skilled people they can then certify. This is useful for producing industrial-age employees and certified professionals but can be over-regimented. Instead of using schools to force-fit students into pre-designed molds, schools may increasingly be used for exploration — self-discovery — then deepening knowledge and skills according to each student’s unique design. As robots take over more of our standard physical and intellectual labor, they will take over parts of our jobs, and uniqueness will become more important to human development. Machines require repeated examples in order to learn. However, crafting the novel (for now) remains essentially human — and will require unique minds. So schools that want to remain good venues for learning will have to reduce their fact-stuffing and memorization but retain enough so students collect a fertile conglomeration of tools, materials, and skills — and learn to remember and

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use memory. No one has been able to replicate the super-computer between our ears, and memory is essential to what it does. But we don’t need to waste time replicating the internet (or bots). Schools will also need new interdisciplinary degrees and certifications — some form of shorthand to quickly represent the odd array each person collects into a unique workshop. Don’t worry about the connections you’ll make later (see Figure 37.7). For now, collect the dots that are inherently interesting to you, develop your own filter (assuming you have a mind like a lint trap), and supplement the curated collections you’re required to have with interest-based collections that make your mind—and its products—unique.

Figure 37.7: Collect before you know the use of each item.

What do you find intrinsically interesting and naturally remember, without effort? What have you already collected? When you connect them, what does it create?

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Are you a hunter or a gatherer? Need to spend more time gathering? What will you gather (collect) more of, and how? Collect even though you don’t know the ultimate value (see Figure 37.8). Diversify your mind, since you don’t know what you’ll need.

Figure 37.8: What will you collect?

Have faith. Maybe it’ll make all the difference in your life.

Chapter 38 Seeing What Others Don’t

Fusioneers see the world like no one else. That’s why they can see opportunities others miss. Some create a lens on the world that excludes what’s not in their mission but opens them up to opportunities within that self-crafted mission. They see for themselves and peek in the back room. They see with their hands and feet. They play. They see deeply, not just connecting fields (where in-depth they address the same things, just with different languages), but also breaking through assumptions, allowing radical new directions, and seeing underground (e.g., a new archaeological site). They see big-picture and little, near and far, and patterns and connections. They see from different perspectives—including other people’s—and see what doesn’t exist, but should. They see what’s next, and they see again (innovation leading to innovation). Their vision is unique. Each one sees what others miss (see Figure 38.1).

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Video https://youtu.be/rjfyhYpSO9c

“I shut my eyes in order to see.”

—Paul Gauguin

Figure 38.1: Fusioneers see the world like no one else and create based on vision or opportunities others miss.

Overall, the fusioneers were attuned, observant, open-minded scanners who saw the details and beyond. Openness helped them see, but there’s much more involved in seeing that you would think at first glance. Seeing is not just a state of openness or a reflex after looking. It is an action (or series of actions), enhanced by an actively developed mental collection. Sometimes, we cannot see without adding to that collection new mental models of what we might see. Sister Cyril’s students, for example, when she sent them out to survey poor children under a bridge, returned and reported that there were no poor children: “They’re all quite fat.” Sister’s students hadn’t yet learned to recognize the advanced stages of malnutrition, when the body swells. After more experience with poor children, Sister’s students began to see poor children all around them. And they reached out to help.

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Seeing Through a Lens — and Seeing with Your Heart “Indeed, great innovators are great observers. But human nature leads us to attend selectively to the things we believe are important; observation is framed. Attention is yet another skill that must be cultivated.” —Roberta Ness1

The students cultivated their skill of attending to poor children, and in fact, Sister Cyril did the same (see Figure 38.2). Living and working in the heart of Kolkata (Calcutta), she was surrounded by needs to which any nun would be attuned and attentive. They could easily become overwhelming.

Figure 38.2: Sometimes, you have to “do” first and then “see,” like Sister Cyril’s students who recognized poor children only after working with them—not before.

Yet, by understanding and honing her mission (“we educate children”), she filtered out needs that were outside her “lens” and opened more fully to those within it. She did not provide assistance to a poor mother, for example, who could not house and school her child, but she did offer schooling and housing to the child. Like her students, she saw needs everywhere — through her own lens. If she could see them through her mission-lens, she founded programs to help. If they fell outside of the lens, she left the opportunities to others. Developing your own “lens” can both restrict and expand your vision — restricting sight to your mission, but sensitizing your sight to see more opportunities within your mission.

Seeing Like No One Else “When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”

—Max Planck

1 Ness, Roberta B. “A Renewed Vision for Public Health Education.” American Journal of Public Health, 105(S1), 2015, p. 115.

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With your own customized lens on the world, you will see differently from others, and seeing based on what’s in your head is nothing new. Indeed, changing “the way you look at things,” as well as what’s “at the back of your mind” is a well-known, if underused, way to change your world. The things you look at will change, whether by mere observation or active intervention. The Nokia executive, for instance, always had new technology at the back of his head and a keen desire to find new ways to use it. When he scanned the world, he saw with the eye of a technologist looking for new needs to fulfill with new technology. He did just that — pioneering ringtones, photo printing, location tagging, customized information services, and more. The SwineTech founder also saw differently from those around him, supplementing the usual farmer’s view-of-the-world with that of a farmer-cumveterinary assistant-cum-pre-medical student with an interest in entrepreneurship. His view meant he could see $8 Bn of opportunity others missed.

Seeing for Yourself (Peeking in the Back Room) That fusioneer wasn’t working on farms because he went where he completely “didn’t belong.” He was the son of a farmer and was working on farms. However, he did cross over from one farm to another, cross-fertilizing ideas and best practices. Most farmers felt others didn’t belong on their farms and didn’t welcome visitors or new ideas without a reason (e.g., veterinary assistance). So he belonged and didn’t belong. The inventor, on the other hand, did go where he “didn’t belong.” He was dissatisfied with being told it would take a week to make a rubber stamp and went with the manager into the back room (where customers “don’t belong,” see Figure 38.3). Having worked in the printing industry, he told the manager he could make a stamp in an hour. It shouldn’t take a whole week. A printing technician doesn’t usually go into a stamp maker’s back-room, but having done so, he brought his outside perspective and practices and created something new, having seen how inefficiently things were done. The result: his most successful patent. “He sees things more sensitively than other people.” —Teng Yu-Mein, wife and former colleague, speaking of inventor Robest Yong

The medical anthropologist hung out in “crack houses” in order to understand needle-sharing practices in the early days of AIDS. Most associates from Harvard Medical School didn’t go to crack houses and weren’t really welcome.

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Figure 38.3: You have to see for yourself to innovate, so you can see what others are missing.

However, once she went, she shared what she learned, and her boundarycrossing research may have saved many lives. Being there in person learning “on the ground” is also a hallmark of the international-relations author. He finds discrepancies between theory and reality and reconciles them — bringing us new theory and practice that informs the decisions of our world leaders. As the saying goes, there’s no substitute for “being there.”

Seeing with Your Hands — and Playing “At just the right moment, when I was looking for something, it walked in the door.” — Dr. John Goodenough, co-inventor of the lithium-ion battery

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Actually, the “being there” advice is usually given to parents, and it brings to mind something children have to teach us about seeing. I remember telling my children repeatedly, “we don’t see with our hands.” However, I’ll not be saying that anymore, because now I think they’re right (see Figure 38.4).

Figure 38.4: “Messing with stuff” in a workshop, tinkering with your hands, and “playing” are effective ways of seeing.

Working on something or “playing” with it does help you “see,” as anyone who leads prototyping or design thinking will tell you. The photographer and bestselling author/publisher may put together and take apart a book 20 times before finalizing it. It’s important to play with something and use your hands to “see.” The sports scientist working with the Australian Olympic team only “saw” the insight that helped make Olympic history by modeling judges’ scores and then “playing with the numbers.” If he didn’t model and didn’t “play,” he never would have seen it. You may have to look for something (or play with it) in order to see it walk through the door.

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Seeing Deeply — Even Underground Although modeling is one good way to “get under the surface,” it’s not the only way. Sometimes, just an inquiring mind that sees like a child can lead us to what no one else sees. The serial entrepreneur, for example, noticed dry grass in the park and, lingering over the pattern, realized it wasn’t just grass or perhaps subterranean pipes. He saw the shape of a fort and realized the road — Fort Road — must have been named for a fort that was now submerged (see Figure 38.5). He allowed his vision to linger, allowed his mind to linger and connect (with the street name), and pursued government approval over multiple years for an archaeological dig.

Figure 38.5: Jack Sim looked at the same dried grass in the park as everyone else, but he was the only one who “saw” a fort below that patch of ground on Fort Road.

Seeing beneath the surface can be purely metaphorical, and, indeed, seeing and understanding a field in depth can reveal underlying concepts or models that are the same across domains—as in the work of the integrative thinking researcher or the scientist who studies psycho-endo-neuro-immunology.

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Seeing deeply allowed the autism audiologist to break through an assumption (that hearing problems are a result of autism, not the cause) and open a pathway to early diagnosis and treatment for 2 million people a year. Depth of understanding was key to the urban farmer, who was able to understand the perspectives and motivations of multiple stakeholders (and manage them) because she was a local — deeply rooted in her community.

Seeing Near and Far However, understanding deeply was not enough to sprout two new urban farming organizations. She saw her surroundings with a traveler’s eye, knowing it could become something else. Most of the fusioneers saw not only locally and globally but also smallpicture and big-picture, like the international-relations author who also saw on-the-ground-reality and academic theory. They’re able to see both and switch as needed.

Seeing Patterns and Connections Most fusioneers were highly adept at seeing patterns, like the artist and quantum chemist who looked down from a mezzanine and saw the same pattern of movement in a group of people that she’d seen in quantum chemistry (see Figure 38.6). When she was in art school, one of the tests was to identify a painting’s artist and year by the brush strokes. She was correct 100% of the time — multiple years in a row. This fusioneer saw the world in brush-strokes. Having developed her pattern-recognition abilities in one field, she couldn’t help but apply them in others. Her view led to the creation of a new field and one of the “100 Most Innovative Firms in the World” (CIO Magazine ranking). The dance ethnographer who knows thousands of dance patterns had no trouble seeing patterns in work energy that led to the resilience movement. She also sees interaction patterns in the MBA and executive teams she coaches. The sports scientist (while mathematically modeling) saw a pattern in the “error term” that he used for Olympic insight. The happiness expert sees patterns in social systems and helps leaders find and rectify destructive patterns and rifts. The coffee connector sees whom in the network should be connected for mutual gain and connects them. (That’s one reason everyone comes to his café to network.)

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Figure 38.6: Learning to see patterns and connections in one domain (e.g. dance, art, or mathematical modeling) can help develop the skill of seeing patterns elsewhere.

Having honed a skill for discerning patterns in one domain, you may find patterns in others. Whether useful for developing patterning skills, dedication, or purely by coincidence, it is interesting to note that the fusioneers include a piano prodigy, a concert-trained pianist, an amateur pianist, and a pianistviolinist composer.

Seeing from a Different Perspective If you can see patterns, you’ll of course want to be in a position to see them. In the artist-chemist’s case, she was on a mezzanine looking down. She wasn’t part of the system. She saw with a bird’s-eye view. Likewise, the sports scientist worked with Olympic coaches from another angle. He always sought a different perspective so his observations would bring something new — not next to the athlete (where the coach would be), but from

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the stands. Not from below the diver or gymnast, but from multiple perspectives all around, with a newly invented training device.

Seeing from Someone Else’s Perspective — Through Their Eyes Not only is it useful to see with your own eyes from multiple perspectives, but it’s also useful (and possible) to see through others’ eyes (see Figure 38.7).

Figure 38.7: Seeing “through someone else’s eyes” not only helps you design for customers but helps craft multi-win situations for entrepreneurial partnerships.

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Fusioneers with a great deal of empathy, like the “chief dream igniter,” see more fully than average from someone else’s perspectives. In her case, she saw that female prisoners wouldn’t necessarily turn around their own lives but would take effective measures to prevent their children from walking a path to prison. Only by sharing their perspective and understanding what they wanted was she able to make a breakthrough that would sustainably help them change and make a change for the next generation. In fact, empathy, and others’ perspectives, may be the secret sauce for joint venture (JV) leadership, as in the case of the JV executive who understands parent organizations, employees, clients, and customers — interweaving them all to achieve success together. Likewise, the serial entrepreneur, the urban farmer, and the ecosystem builder all bring together multiple stakeholders to achieve what each one wants but no one can achieve alone.

Seeing What’s There—and What Isn’t Beyond seeing motivations and desires, fusioneers see what doesn’t exist but should. In fact, that’s what launches their journey to integrate multiple stakeholders. Fusioneers like Sister Cyril noticed not only what was there (like an influx of children into the city) but also what was unsaid or missing (like schools). The fast-food entrepreneur saw 50 people in a restaurant take-out queue (line) and fast food from his home country (Canada) that was missing from his new home (Australia). The ecosystem founder saw a vision in a dream of libraries for poor children, alongside the reality — none. She saw both an existing startup hub (in San Francisco) and one missing from Asia (in Singapore). The urban farmer saw not only the vacant lots that surrounded her school but also the urban farms that could be there — but weren’t.

Seeing What’s Next “Our existing models, metaphors, and frames shape our ways of looking, and precedents constrain what we end up looking for. They can provide useful shortcuts for transferring insight from one field of practice to another, but they are our enemies in producing new insight; they are the pictures we took using yesterday’s lenses.” —Mihnea Moldoveanu2

2 Moldoveanu, Mihnea and Olivier Leclerc. The Design of Insight: How to Solve Any Business Problem. Stanford, CA (USA), Stanford University Press, 2015, p. 3.

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The wealth-management fusioneer studied not just existing economics and financial systems but could also see where two trends were leading — globalization and deregulation. He was able to use new trends so see how then-current economic and financial models and practices would play out (see Figure 38.8). He connected two trends, found the current system’s weakness (financialadvice conflict of interest) and reimagined how to operate.

Figure 38.8: Seeing trends and envisioning the future are key skills for building the future, making communication—convincing others of what does not yet exist—a key innovation skill, too.

While others remained trapped in “business as usual” operating models, he and his partners imagined a better one. That made all the difference. Their new model upended the industry, and now the industry follows them. Likewise, the biofuels entrepreneur-cum-digital marketer has entered a new phase of creativity — enlightened incubation. Seeing a shift in the world toward something new, and a new cohort to enact it (the millennials), he’s willing to let go of existing models, metaphors, frames, and precedents, and is now framing new ways to promote human enlightenment. Fusioneers are often described as “visionary” — and deservedly so. They see far more than what’s in front of their eyes.

See with Your Feet Sister Cyril noted — as most startups will tell you — that when you start building something new — if it’s radically new — you won’t have the models, you won’t

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have the resources, you won’t know the timeline, and you won’t know if there’s a “market.” In fact, you won’t know much of anything (see Figure 38.9).

Figure 38.9: As any startup entrepreneur will tell you, when you build something new there is often no data for planning or decisions. You simply start and consciously experiment.

Her advice: “Just do it.” She says if you just start, the road will unfold before you. That seems to be the modus operandi in the startup world, and it’s the same for cross-domain innovation, much of which results in “startups.” If she’d planned, she never would have taken the first step.

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However, by walking where she at first couldn’t see, she’s co-founded 15 programs over the past 35 years, and as people learned of her noble purpose and good work, resources and people came to help. They’ve never failed. It’s changed her own life, surely, and 450,000 more. So, you see with your feet. The road unfolds, people join if it’s worthwhile, and you’ll see your way once you’re on your way — but not before.

Seeing Again Beyond the curve in the road, with innovation success comes more innovation success. Failures are repurposed (as the DNA researcher does), and one innovation can lead to another. The Nokia executive, for example, began his ringtone journey by creating a special ring for the Nokia 5110, celebrating India’s 51st anniversary of independence. With that special ring on his mind, he watched an upcoming movie theme song on MTV and realized a special ring would be very useful for promoting movies. It would have to be programmable, however (unlike the 5110), since movies launch continually. Thus began his ringtone journey, which would set Nokia on a path to growth in India and pioneer what became a $2 billion industry—ringtones—by 2011. Without the first innovation (the 5110), he might not have made the second (“Tones for Your Phone”). We see the world differently after each step of the journey.

What Do You See? Having opened themselves to the world around them, opened to themselves, and collected ideas, skills, people (and more) into a unique mental workshop, fusioneers see the world uniquely through that “workshop window.” That window (or “lens,” see Figure 38.10) helps them filter out what’s outside their mission and open more to what’s within it. However, that openingclosing requires not only actively collecting into their unique workshop but also defining a mission. They do their homework. Seeing is a product not of the moment, but of the moment and the mind (see Figure 38.11). Perhaps Gaugin was right — you must shut your eyes in order to see. But when you open them, what do you see — and how?

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Figure 38.10: The more unique your mental workshop, the more uniquely you’ll see the world through its window.

Figure 38.11: What do you see? Do you have a friend to see it with?

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What is your lens on the world — your mission? What do you see that’s big? Far? Little? Close? Do you see from different perspectives (including someone else’s)? Do you go where you don’t belong — or want to? Do you see patterns, and how? Do you see with your hands and feet and heart? What do you see that isn’t there? What’s next?

Chapter 39 Connecting the Dots Create Fusion

Fusion is more than having diverse interests. It is bringing them together — integrating pieces of this and that — in a way that creates value (often radical value!) for yourself and the world. It begins long before the act of fusing, by setting yourself up to see the world differently, through the window of a unique mental workshop, containing an eclectic conglomeration of skills, people, and ideas, collected with curiosity and openness outward and inward. It can be learned (or at least encouraged) and may offer a new way forward for leaders, teams, organizations, and you — as tomorrow’s leadership skill, a path to survival and growth, and a means to succeed uniquely as yourself, within or without an organization. Video https://youtu.be/F14syg1SSAg

“A+B+C+D (Always Be Connecting the Dots).”

—Sir Richard Branson1

1 Fisk, Peter. Gamechangers: Creating Innovative Strategies for Business and Brands: New Approaches to Strategy, Innovation and Marketing. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., https://doi.org/10.1515/9781547401505-039

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“The most powerful overall driver of innovation was associating — making connections across ‘seemingly unrelated questions, problems, or ideas.’” —Dyer, Gregersen, and Christensen, having tested and observed 3,000 executives over six years2 “It’s this interweaving of art and science that elevates the world to a place of wonder, a place with soul, a place we can believe in, a place where the things you imagine can become real — and a world where a girl suddenly realizes not only is she a scientist, but also an artist.” —Danielle Feinberg, The Magic Ingredient That Brings Pixar Movies to Life. TED.com, November, 2015

T.S. Eliot, perhaps the most celebrated poet of the 20th century, was also a banker at Lloyd’s. Friends questioned why he would want to waste his days in a bank, but he truly enjoyed both banking and poetry. So he did both. Charles Ives, who transformed everyday sounds into some of the world’s most innovative orchestral music, founded a large insurance agency. Franz Kafka, one of 20th-century literature’s most notable figures, was an insurance clerk. Albert Einstein, of course, well noted for his advances in physics and mathematics, worked in a patent office. He regularly spent eight hours at work, eight hours (separately) in scientific pursuits, and eight hours asleep (or writing up his scientific ideas). Although examples of mental (or life) diversity, they are not examples of fusion (see Figure 39.1). T.S. Eliot did not write bank poetry; Charles Ives did not compose insurance orchestration; Franz Kafka did not write insurance fiction; and Albert Einstein did not pioneer patent process mathematics. Fusion is different from living two lives or having diverse interests. On the other hand, Leonardo da Vinci was watching ripples in a pond one day, heard a church bell, connected the sight and sound, and flashed on an idea that perhaps sound travels in waves, leading to modern acoustical theory (see Figure 39.2). Albert Einstein connected energy and mass in a way that others hadn’t. Since there was no existing theory to do so, he created one, resulting is his most famous mathematical equation. A more tangible and “everyday” example of innovation, George de Mestral noticed the adhesive properties of burdock

2015. Quote from http://www.thegeniusworks.com/2016/02/what-is-innovation-connectingthe-dots-the-ones-other-people-miss/. 2 Dyer, Jeffrey, Hal Gregersen, Clayton Christensen (“The Innovator’s DNA,” Harvard Business Review, December 2009), as quoted in “Sparking Creativity in Teams: An Executive’s Guide,” McKinsey Quarterly, April, 2011, p 5.

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Figure 39.1: It’s one thing to have a lot of dots—it’s quite another to connect them and create fusions.

Figure 39.2: Da Vinci connected what he saw and what he heard into an idea that founded modern acoustical theory.

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seeds, wondered if he could make a burdock zipper, investigated and experimented for more than eight years, and created Velcro.3 Creating something new by connecting the unconnected was da Vinci’s definition of innovation. When doing so across domains of industry, field, function, nation, etc. (or as above, sight and sound, energy and mass, natural and artificial), it is also Fusion — and has the potential to create radical value. The above fusions created obvious value to the world, and the fusioneers created more. (See Table 3.1 in Chapter 3.) They’re not just generally creative. In fact, some don’t even realize they’re creative. Time and again I listened to protests like: “But I’m not creative — I don’t think I fit into your study.” “Nonsense — look at all he’s created.” —Billionaire-entrepreneur Jack Cowin and colleague Ian Parker, CFA Executive

Their work spans business, science and technology, and the arts and humanities. In fact, great value lies in the intersections of those three — and especially the intersection of all three (see Figure 39.3). Design thinking practitioners

Figure 39.3: Big value can be found at the intersection of business, science and technology, and the arts and humanities.

3 See note 1.

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recognize that value and form teams that cover and integrate all. Such integration was key to early eCommerce development and continues to underlie highimpact startups.

OK, How Is It Done? Like many things in life, fusing might best be understood backward (see Figure 39.4):

open

collect

sense

fuse

Figure 39.4: Fusion begins with inward and outward openness and collecting, which influences how we sense and provides opportunities to create new integrations.

Fusing, or “connecting the dots” of ideas, people, and so on, is essentially integrative thinking — combining a piece of this and a piece of that. But it begins much earlier: – By seeing what others don’t – By collecting ideas, skills, experiences, people, and more into a unique mental workshop – By following your own unique design and cultivating an inner creative life and inspirations – By being open to what’s around you As Nike design legend Tinker Hatfield said, “When you sit down to design something, it can be anything, a car, a toaster, a house, a tall building or a shoe, what you draw or what you design is really a culmination of everything that you’ve seen and done in your life previous to that point.” — Tinker Hatfield, co-creator of the cross-trainer and Air Jordans

In the language of The Tipping Point, these folks are “connectors,” actively connecting not only knowledge and skills but also their networks — connecting other people directly to each other when appropriate, and tapping on their own networks as needed for what they create.

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Likewise, they are willing to be tapped, such as the scientists at A*STAR (Agency for Science, Technology, and Research). Not only do they seek help for their own problems from colleagues in other fields, but they contribute ideas, contacts, and potential solutions, too. Although all the fusioneers are connective and generative, they don’t have to implement everything they create. Some, like the coffee connector, serve as generators and connectors, letting others drive through to implementation. Even those who do implement some ideas don’t have to drive every idea. The serial entrepreneur and the early IoT founder (Internet of Things) regularly give ideas away to connections they feel could bring them to fruition. They just want to see good things happen. Connectedness of ideas and people, collaboration, trust, and empathy all enhance fusion. Described as great communicators, fusioneers connect well (“integrate”) with their audiences — a helpful skill when motivating others to make big, new visions happen. Fusion is also enhanced by broad multi-tasking. Many of the fusioneers work on multiple projects at a time — sometimes many more than usual, and in a variety of fields — intentionally cross-fertilizing, learning broadly, understanding deeply (where the commonalities lie), and teaching with analogies (thus practicing lateral thinking, see Figure 39.5).

Figure 39.5: An effective strategy for innovation is to work on multiple projects in multiple domains and cross-fertilize them.

Fusion actually covers the first two of Von Oech’s four roles in the creative process — explorer, artist, judge, and warrior.4 Once the exploring and artistry of 4 von Oech, Roger. A Kick in the Seat of the Pants: Using Your Explorer, Artist, Judge, and Warrior to Be More Creative. New York: William Morrow Paperbacks, 1986.

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fusion is done, it will be necessary to judge the innovation ready for release (or needing further development) and undergo the process (or war) of introducing it to the world. Although I didn’t focus on those latter stages, I did obtain a glimpse into how the fusioneers did them. In general, they didn’t generate just one innovation. The integrative diagnostics scientist, for example, produced multiple advances before fusing 24 tests into one. The eCommerce founding team member ran an early eCommerce venture and closed the too-early business before embarking on the later one that generated an IPO (Initial Public Offering of stock) for $850 million. The school innovator kept generating new programs for 35 years and, in doing so, fostered a community of innovators who would continue the work. The process of innovation doesn’t stop with the innovation. Fusions feed back into the collection; seeing enhances openness; and failures are repurposed into successes (as with the DNA scientist who turns “failed” experiments into publishable, new discoveries). Fusion enhances fusion, and once we cross a boundary, it may be easier to cross more. “We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we’re curious, and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.” —Walt Disney

Can You Learn It? “. . . students today are educated in collecting dots, but almost none of it spent teaching them the skills necessary to connect dots. This requires confidence and creativity, to think bigger and laterally, rather than just pass exams. . . . The magic of connecting dots is that once you learn the techniques, the dots can change but you’ll still be good at connecting them.” —Peter Fisk, Gamechangers5

These fusioneers blazed their own trails to lateral innovation, and those who didn’t fit into “the system” of schools (and later, companies) learned to learn on their own, follow their passions beyond established “boxes” and rewards, work from internal motivation, operate outside systems, and create new systems. Although no one taught them to be fusioneers, they were keen learners, and their “fusioney” behaviors — openness outward and inward, learning (or “collecting”) what interests them, connecting with people they like, seeing opportunities in their own unique ways, and thinking integratively — can all be learned, or at least encouraged (see Figure 39.6). 5 See note 1.

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Figure 39.6: Although no one taught the fusioneers to be fusioneers, their approaches and skills can be learned.

Like every aspect of who we are, they started with proclivities. They grew with practice. They learned and exhibited different fusions — not only integration of domains (industries, technologies, fields, etc.), but also inter-personal integration (with teams, organizations, stakeholders, etc.) and self-integration (of different interests, scientific and spiritual, personal and professional, “work-life balance,” etc.). How might these different fusions be handled in the future by leaders, teams and organizations, and individuals?

First, For Leaders—Tomorrow’s Leadership Skills: Creativity and Mental Diversity “A global survey of 1,500 CEOs identified creativity as the number one leadership competency for the future.” —ideou.com

In a world of industry convergence and disruption, organizations need creative leadership to craft new ways forward. Introducing lateral innovation should promote radical creativity — especially where siloed innovation efforts are receiving diminishing returns.

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To both create and respond to disruption, CEOs will need to know how to cross-fertilize ideas across businesses, functions, countries, and industries and leverage the lateral innovators in (and beyond) their midst (see Figure 39.7).

Figure 39.7: Leaders will need to move beyond developing diverse workforces and develop their own mental diversity.

After all, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” —Albert Einstein

In a VUCA world (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous), diversity is necessary. In the face of rapid change, you won’t know who you’re going to need, and you won’t have time to gather them in a crisis. Similar to organizational diversity, individual leaders need mental diversity. Beyond acting as innovators in their own right and as examples for the rest of the organization, leaders are uniquely positioned to traverse industries, functions, and more, in a way the rest of the workforce isn’t. Further, they’ll need experience creating (and an understanding of how creativity works) in order to set the conditions for others to create. One fusioneer leader particularly focuses on lateral innovation for his organizations — Jack Cowin, Chairman of Domino’s Pizza Australia and Competitive Foods Australia. He views Domino’s as a technology company (not just pizza)

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and cross-fertilizes ideas across every business he works on at CFA, from restaurants to farming to infrastructure tourism, and beyond. Once we’ve done all the siloed innovation we can, lateral innovation may be the number one leadership competency for the future. Perhaps it already is.

Second, For Teams and Organizations — Creating Better, Surviving Disruption, and Growing the Future While leaders blaze new ways forward, managers will need to get better at managing teams for breakthrough creativity (see Figure 39.8). Many companies use cross-domain teams hoping they’ll produce fusion, and some organizations have structured themselves and introduced processes to promote fusion, like the cross-disciplinary science labs at A*STAR or the cross-domain Harvard Innovation Lab (i-Lab).

Figure 39.8: Integrating teams of diverse individuals so they can co-create will also be key to organizational innovation and growth.

Such teams and labs have traditionally been formed with a diverse collection of single-field experts, but unfortunately, some of them are not able to integrate

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their ideas with the rest of the team in order to produce something new that they couldn’t create alone.6 Increasingly, cross-domain teams are being staffed with cross-domain individuals who know how to fuse ideas when working alone — potentially enhancing integration with others. Whether or not they’re able to extend their individual integration to team integration, understanding how they integrate ideas alone (as with the fusioneers) may provide a model for teams. Although the Fusion model currently addresses individuals, it could form the basis for managing lateral innovation in teams and organizations. That said, the real difficulty for fusing in teams and organizations may not be co-creation, but rather retaining cross-domain professionals if an organization is siloed and they don’t “fit in.” Although a few of the fusioneers were employees, the vast majority were entrepreneurs or intrapreneurs. In the words of one highly independent fusioneer, “The minority is a huge asset to the majority, but it’s really hard to be the minority. Organizations that are going to push people to think like fusioneers — or that are going to hire people who already think this way — need to accept that they’ll have to take care of them, continually making sure the arrangement benefits both the organization and the individual.” —Dr. Edy Greenblatt, one of the World’s Top 100 Executive Coaches (Marshall Goldsmith 100 Coaches), and Founder and President of Execu-Care Coaching & Consulting, Inc.

Third, For You — Creating the Future Within (or Without) an Organization As we move beyond the industrial age into the information and creative ages (or Industry 4.0 or the “fourth industrial revolution”), with networked organizations and the “gig” economy, fitting into organizations may not matter as much as it used to (see Figure 39.9). Indeed, we don’t really know how much future economic activity will be dominated by large, “traditional” organizations. Most of the fusioneers didn’t follow standard “career paths,” pursuing stable lives in large organizations. Instead of training for a job and rising in a particular field or industry, most of them learned broadly and had multiple “careers” or created new careers and fields. They created systems instead of just fitting into them.

6 Gardner, Heidi K. “Getting Your Stars to Collaborate,” Harvard Business Review, JanuaryFebruary 2017, as heard in the podcast “Collaborating Better Across Silos,” HBR Ideacast, January 5, 2017.

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Figure 39.9: Becoming a unique resource may mean you no longer “fit” into a standard role in an organization, but that may not matter as much as it used to.

Now more than ever, instead of force-fitting ourselves into pre-existing roles, we have the opportunity to create customized roles we can uniquely fill. Instead of cogs competing for space in the corporate machine, we may increasingly see artisan-professionals co-creating in the corporate (and open) marketplace.

Will you change who you are to fit the situation, or find a situation that fits who you are? Creative journeys are notoriously volatile, and the fusioneers’ were especially so. The restaurant entrepreneur nearly lost everything in a lawsuit that would establish his new organization. The diagnostic scientist and his team hit their final dead-end multiple times. The artist and quantum chemist was told her work would never amount to anything. Indeed, most fusioneers were told early-on that their work had no value. But with courage, confidence, persistence, openness to the new and unknown, and a willingness to take risks, they succeeded. One friend remarked,

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“He’s shown that you can really be yourself — uniquely yourself — and succeed.” —Karan Khemka, Georgetown classmate and friend of Parag Khanna

They create from their unique selves in a way no one else can. Their selves are integrated into their work, and most are not sure how many hours they “work,” since life and work are integrated. Work is rooted in who they are and how they’re (uniquely) designed.7 The fusioneers created value not just for the world, but also for themselves, by being themselves and building what only they could. Uniqueness may be the basis for tomorrow’s “career path.” If robots take over 45% of today’s jobs, what will be left for humans? Since machines learn by repeating tasks, the novel remains essentially human. Crossing boundaries to integrate the disparate and create something new — fusion — is essentially novel, essentially human, and may be tomorrow’s path to (human) sustainability and growth (see Figure 39.10).

Figure 39.10: Something new is created when we integrate, like when we combine primary colors to make secondary, and combine secondary to make tertiary.

If you fused the different parts of your life and self — including work and personal — what would your fusion(s) be? Become uniquely and extremely yourself. Open, collect, sense, fuse, and bring your creations to the world (see Figure 39.11).

7 Bolles, Richard Nelson. What Color Is Your Parachute? New York: Ten Speed Press (Penguin Random House), 2018 (first edition 1970).

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Figure 39.11: What fire will you create? “Sii colui che Dio voleva che tu sia e darai fuoco al mondo. (Be who God meant you to be, and you’ll set the world on fire.)” — St. Catherine of Siena

. . . or instead of fire, why not create fusion? (See Figure 39.12.)

Figure 39.12: What will your fusion be?

Index Abey, Arun 162 Analogies & analogous thinking 355 Art 192 Authenticity 344 Authenticity & humility 452 Aware/awareness 84 Awareness 74 Banda, Ravi Kumar 385 Ben Shahar, Tal 175 Boundaries 155, 430 Chef Ryan Clift 88 Chin Sau Yin 103 Clift, Ryan 88 Collaboration 105 Connors, Margaret 297 Cowin, Jack 263 Curiosity 169, 441 Depth 441 ECommerce 65 Education 89, 90, 125, 249, 250, 457–460 Empathy 32, 293, 423 Energy 121, 135, 451 Energy/energetic 83 Family 352 Family, childhood, & parents 103, 330, 352 Flexibility 33 Fusioneer XV, 22, 41 Fusion Model 10, 486–488 Gan, Samuel 216 Global 32 Graham, Kenneth 201 Greenblatt, Edy 123 Harvard 175 Healthcare 127, 128, 138 Incubation 443 Insight & outsight 438 https://doi.org/10.1515/9781547401505-040

Integrative thinking 482–486 Interdisciplinary 105 Joint Venture 308 Kanjilal, Jawahar 225 Khanna, Parag 362 Kolovos, George 65 Krishnan, Krish 372 Kwee, Melissa 150 Lateral innovation XVI Leadership 340, 489–491 Leas, Sean 308 Listening 283 Listening/listener 83 Moldoveanu, Mihnea 337 Mooney, Sister Cyril 43 Motivation 152, 153 Multicultural 108 Multilingual 108, 342, 343, 427–430 Multinational 359, 364, 367, 427–430 Music 82 Network 74, 275 Networking & social capital 461, 462 Openminded 34 Out-of-the-box 105 Pattern recognition & systems thinking 182–184, 473 Play 346, 352, 353, 441 Rembrand, Raffi 137 Renaissance 4 Rooda, Matthew 234 Saad, Ted 76 Sai, Grace 275 Science 91–93 Shahar, Tal ben 175

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Sim, Adeline 351 Sim, Jack 248 Sister Cyril Mooney 43 Smolan, Rick 318 Spirituality, prayer, & meditation 447 Stephenson, Karen 192 Teams & teamwork 132 Toksal, Asil 113

Travel 312, 362 Trust 422 Valenti, Livio 54 Yin, Chin Sau 103 Yong, Robest 287