Daily Real Estate News  |  November 10, 2008  |   Find Connections in Unlikely Places
What do you get when you combine a bottle cap with a light bulb? Or a spider’s DNA with goat milk? Or a burqa with a bikini?

The answer: Some successful—if unexpected— examples of innovation.

Frans Johansson, author of the best-selling Medici Effect, on Sunday implored his audience at the 2008 REALTORSŪ Conference & Expo to seek out and combine ideas from disparate industries and cultures to create products and services that will enable you to stand out from competitors.

“The world is getting more diverse, and it behooves you to understand that diversity. Try to think of combinations no one else has thought of,” said Johansson, whose multicultural message mirrors his background. He was raised in Sweden, went to college in the United States, and is part African-America, Cherokee, and Swedish.

His book refers to the burst of creativity championed by the Medici banking family 500 years ago in Florence, Italy.

“We can create the same kind of barrier-breaking innovation in our own lives and professions,” said Johansson. “Find inspiration from fields other than your own. And plan to make mistakes. Keep in mind that most of Picasso’s 20,000 works of art are collecting dust.”

Johansson illustrated his point through examples of real-life innovations: A bottle cap and light bulb combine to create a lighting fixture; a spider’s DNA and goat milk combine to create strong threads that are used for artificial tendons; and a burqa and bikini combined to create the “birquini,” a stylish swimsuit acceptable to Muslim women.

--Wendy Cole