by Jean Case
Mahanoy City speaks to the challenges faced by communities across the nation. Once thriving—reportedly the home to more bars per capita than any other place in America—it is today a town trying desperately to fight its way back. The economic decline and related issues—drugs, unemployment, low wages—are hard to reckon with for someone like Bobby, who came home in hopes of a new future for his hometown. While the US Census puts the median household income in the US at $59,000, it records Mahanoy County at $27,000. And yet the week we passed through town, Bobby’s Facebook page was filled with photos of donations from his friends and neighbors to the victims of Hurricane Harvey in Texas. We came looking for America and we found it: a struggling community giving what it has to benefit others who are even worse off.
During our 1,800-mile journey, meandering through the small towns of Pennsylvania, New York, and Virginia, we saw the face of America in many intimate encounters. There were those who were blunt about the lack of hope they saw. For example, at one stop we were greeted by a woman who exclaimed, “I don’t know what you’re doing here, but if you had any sense you’d get right back in your truck and go back to where you came from. Nothing good comes from this town.” But for every negative comment we heard, there were two or three positive ones that offered unique perspectives and made us smile. Like the Mennonite family of nine homeschooled kids that operates an organic store along the highway, or the mother of two preschoolers who, when learning of our RV camping trip and nights spent at beautiful state parks, was filled with admiration. “Why,” she asked, “would anyone pay a fortune to stay in hotel rooms when the most beautiful places are in our state and national parks, and only cost twenty to thirty dollars a night?” She had a point.
One of our last stops was at the breakfast spot ranked number one on all the crowdsourced sites. As we rolled off the highway and into a small town on the Susquehanna River, we realized that the highly rated dining spot was inside a pharmacy, and there was a line out the door. When we finally got inside, we found a bustling classic counter. We felt as though we’d checked in to a different era. As folks came and went, they greeted each other by name, and asked about family or commented on local happenings. This, we thought, was the spirit of community so many people yearn for in our modern era of technology and mobility.
Our annual RV trip along the back roads of America is a way for us to expand our understanding beyond our bubble, to reduce our blind spots or biases about people who live differently than we do. Study after study confirms that we all have biases of one kind or another. So if you seek to be a changemaker, you have to broaden your understanding of the world. There’s no other way.
In 2017, my friend and longtime colleague Ross Baird wrote a book called The Innovation Blind Spot. The book portrays the current state of entrepreneurship, investment, and innovation in the United States, with a focus on the blind spots that inhibit growth and opportunity. Ross reminds us that although entrepreneurship is what sets us apart as a nation, it turns out that entrepreneurial activity is actually at a forty-year low in the US. More businesses die each day than start.
Sure, there are sectors that are thriving in our “innovation nation”—particularly big companies and those elites who have historically had access to capital and networks. But others across the country are being left behind in the innovation economy, particularly women, people of color, those in the middle of the country, and those from lower-income backgrounds. Ross, who has joined every one of my husband, Steve’s, Rise of the Rest road trips, understands the hurdles this poses for innovators who come from diverse backgrounds or heartland communities. His book seems in many respects like a companion to Adam Grant’s Originals or my husband’s 2016 book, The Third Wave. As all of these books make clear, great innovations come from unexpected people and places, and together serve as a clarion call to the rest of us to pay attention to what’s happening beyond our own backyards.
Another regular on Steve’s Rise of the Rest tours is J. D. Vance, the best-selling author of Hillbilly Elegy, which was one of the most-read books of 2016 and continues to be a best-seller. Vance, who grew up poor in Middletown, Ohio, has a special gift for articulating truths about the values of people in the heartland, helping us all understand their challenges and the contributions they make in our society. He is a welcome partner on Steve’s entrepreneurial mission.
Eliminating blind spots in our mind-sets and our organizations can feel daunting, but it can also represent a powerful opportunity to broaden our perspective and may lead to new and novel solutions. Consider how we refer to the vast middle of the nation as “flyover country,” as if its merits don’t warrant serious attention. This closed-mindedness limits our potential as a nation. It also runs counter to our history, as the story of America is one of people coming from all places and backgrounds to take forward the next big idea.
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The former steel town of Pittsburgh is thought of by many as the victim of a dying industry. But Pittsburgh, I found on a recent visit, is a unique combination of start-up accelerators, universities, tech companies, and investors intent on creating the city’s resurgence. This is the reason Ford pledged to invest $1 billion over five years in a Pittsburgh-based company specializing in artificial intelligence and autonomous car engineering. It is the reason Uber has invested in Pittsburgh as a hub for its autonomous vehicle technology. Pittsburgh innovators range from Courtney Williamson, the founder of AbiliLife, a biomedical company that engineers devices for Parkinson’s patients; to Vaish Krishnamurthy of CleanRobotics, whose Trashbot uses artificial intelligence to sort recyclables from waste; to Matthew Stanton and Hahna Alexander, cofounders of SolePower, a technology that uses a foot-powered, energy-generating insole to charge portable devices—something of particular interest to the US Army.
Detroit is also experiencing an epic rebirth, led by visionaries like Quicken Loans founder Dan Gilbert, who moved his company and all of its employees to the city after the 2008 economic crisis. He has invested heavily in Detroit real estate, helped dozens of start-ups, and now employs an estimated 17,000 people. Detroit’s renaissance is also thanks to unlikely collaborations between the public and private sectors—particularly leading philanthropies, including the Kresge, Ford, and Kellogg Foundations, whose commitment to bringing all sectors of society to the table has been key to the broad impact the city’s economic and social revitalization has had. Because of these joint efforts, Detroit is fighting its way back, and the optimism coming from this city sets a great model for others. New skills and a new way of thinking about work are being created in the shadow of the once-great automobile industry.
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Often, the very nature of being in a bubble means you don’t know you’re in it. It takes intention and effort to shake loose from complacency, to get outside and look around. Comedian Tina Fey, commenting on her experience in the Saturday Night Live writing room, noted that when the writers were all or mostly male, it meant fewer skits for and about women. It wasn’t purposeful discrimination, just what happens when you exclude other voices. When more women had seats at the writers’ table, more stories written by women and about female experiences made it on the air.
Reach Beyond Your Bubble calls on you to seek out those with different perspectives and backgrounds as you take forward your Big Bet. The ability to work with and understand people who are not like you is part of the secret sauce of success.
SEVENTEEN
BUILD UNLIKELY PARTNERSHIPS
There is an old saying that two heads are better than one, and, of course, it’s true that more brainpower alone can be a good thing. But the phrase also hits on something not well understood by most people when they think about breakthroughs. As I’ve said before, too often creativity is seen as the stuff of a lone genius, when in reality great organizations, products, and movements have been advanced by the collaborations between people who are quite different from one another, and who complement one another’s skills. These
kinds of collaborations give projects a powerful competitive advantage.
And research supports this. In 2015, McKinsey’s Diversity Matters report looked at a wide range of financial metrics and the composition of the top management and boards of 366 public companies across a range of industries in Canada, Latin America, the UK, and the US, and found that companies with more gender or racial and ethnic diversity were more likely to perform better financially. This was true across the board: companies with the most significant racial and ethnic diversity were 35 percent more likely to have financial returns above the median return for their country, and those with the strongest gender diversity performed 15 percent better than their counterparts. In the United States, they found a direct correlation between diversity and performance, with every 10 percent increase in racial and ethnic diversity yielding a 0.8 percent rise in earnings. These diverse companies are examples of the benefit of forming unlikely partnerships.
When I guest-lecture in business schools, I love to tell a story about how the National Geographic Society reached beyond its bubble in a totally surprising way. Actually, National Geographic’s core mission has always been to reach out, tapping awesome explorers, photographers, scientists, and storytellers from around the world to go to the front lines of the unknown and tell the world what they have found. In my travels with National Geographic Explorers, I have climbed mountain peaks in the Himalayas in search of the world’s highest temple, dived to the depths of the ocean floor, and gone into the field to observe threatened species across continents. But the exhilarating work of National Geographic Explorers, and our ability to find and fund important work taking place across the planet, is only made possible by a unique partnership.
“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
—AFRICAN PROVERB
Shortly after the National Geographic Society was founded one winter night in Washington, DC, in 1888, the Society elected to produce a scientific journal to cover the exploits of scientists and explorers across the world, and to use the proceeds from the magazine’s sales to provide funding for more explorers and scientists. I like to say that National Geographic may have been the first social enterprise!
Fast-forward through time. This same enterprise model is alive and prospering. In 2015, a new, unlikely partnership was formed with 21st Century Fox to house the National Geographic cable channels, magazine, and digital offerings. It’s not intuitive to think about a nonprofit partnering with a major media and entertainment company; both Fox and National Geographic had to reach outside their comfort zones—Fox to work with a nonprofit, and National Geographic to work with a company whose content ranged from sports to movies. But this new partnership has allowed National Geographic content to reach nearly a billion people across the globe each month. Today the organization’s endowment is $1.3 billion, and more than $100 million flows out of the joint venture annually, enabling the National Geographic Society to continue its tradition of funding important science, exploration, education, and storytelling around the globe—strengthening and securing the brand and business model along the way.
Co-branding is not a new idea, but reaching beyond your bubble requires more than collaboration between two obviously compatible organizations. There’s no question that such collaborations can be daring. They require each side to give up some measure of control, to compromise while maintaining their values. But when those from different domains do form new entities, the result can be magical, accomplishing far more than either could do on their own.
“No matter how brilliant your mind or strategy, if you’re playing a solo game, you’ll always lose out to a team.”
—REID HOFFMAN
Consider the unlikely partnership between NASA and LEGO. A space agency and a toy company would seem to have different goals and different audiences, but a spark of awareness brought them together in 2010. NASA hoped to inspire a new generation of young people to become scientists and engineers; LEGO wanted to help children dream big and think creatively about their futures. NASA began the collaboration by putting a small LEGO shuttle toy aboard the Discovery, and allowing LEGO to use NASA branding on a set of kits based on the spacecraft. LEGO built a special website for kids about space exploration.
Then, in 2011, the program really took off (pun very much intended) when the space shuttle Endeavor carried eleven LEGO kits to the International Space Station. The models were used by scientists in space to conduct experiments, while earthbound kids and their teachers went along on the journey virtually; complementary curriculum allowed them to build their own models and interact with the astronauts. I imagine that one day we’ll be hearing from astronauts who got their start building LEGO toys.
Earlier I described Airbnb as a Big Bet, but it’s also an example of a company that has thrived thanks to unexpected partnerships. The first of these was with KLM Airlines in 2014. Realizing that their businesses intersected, the two companies decided to explore a partnership—but it’s the way they approached their collaboration that’s so interesting. To launch their collaboration, KLM converted an MD-11 jet into a faux Airbnb apartment, replacing rows of seats with a cool living room and a large, comfy bed. Then they ran a contest, offering three winners one night each on the jet. Contestants only had to write about why they deserved to win in one hundred words or less.
The contest was a huge success, with more than 3 million video views. The lucky winners got a dream Airbnb experience, and like the typical rental, the jet came with a list of rules, including “No flying,” and “Please treat our plane like you’d treat your own plane.” Today the two companies continue to cross-market. KLM passengers can book their Airbnb stays through KLM along with their flights. A spark of imagination, and a willingness to share resources and credit, created a lasting partnership.
Another great example of this principle is impact investing. Impact investments are defined as investments that represent both a financial and a social return, and they can span across all asset classes, sectors, and geographies. We’ve already highlighted the stories of a few such companies, such as Warby Parker, Happy Family, and Greyston Bakery, but they’re just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to new enterprises formed with profit and purpose equally in mind.
In recent years, there has been dramatic growth in the number of companies, funds, and organizations created in support of the movement. A cottage industry of associations, conferences, research efforts, advisors, and platforms has generated a burgeoning ecosystem for the movement. Indeed, some of the world’s hottest brands have arisen out of this trend, representing positive social impact through the very products and services they bring to market. A new class of investors and entrepreneurs are coming together with the simple, but somewhat radical, idea that social impacts have equal importance to financial returns.
In 2017, the amount of capital going into this new field more than doubled from the previous year to reach $228 billion. And traditional financial institutions have jumped in—from JPMorgan to TPG, from Goldman Sachs to Bain Capital. The world’s largest pension fund, Japan’s GPIF, allocated more than 1 trillion yen to socially responsible investments. Philanthropies and nonprofits are getting in the game as well, ranging from a $1 billion impact investing commitment from the Ford Foundation to a $50 million commitment from the National Geographic Society, with the belief that these investments can provide an attractive financial return while furthering the mission of these organizations.
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One of my favorite examples of a most incongruous partnership came as the world was grappling with the Ebola crisis. Between March 2014 and March 2016, West Africa experienced the largest outbreak of Ebola in history. President Obama appointed our friend, colleague, and Case Foundation board member Ron Klain as the Ebola Czar. Aid workers and medical personnel rushed to help, but the dangers of infection were very real. Unfortunately, the hazmat suits used in the region were unwieldy, requiring thirty-one steps to put on, and t
wenty minutes and two people to remove. The fabric didn’t breathe and the face masks fogged up within minutes. Even worse, the most common design had twenty-eight known points of potential contamination.
To start looking for solutions to this crisis, the global health nonprofit Jhpiego and Johns Hopkins University announced a design challenge to create a better hazmat suit. And the challenge brought in some unexpected players. Of course, there were engineering students, public health workers, and virologists in the mix. But there was also a surprising candidate—a wedding dress seamstress named Jill Andrews. Jill was fearless because she didn’t put herself in a box. As she put it, “It’s all engineering. If you can build a bra, you can build a bridge.” She wasn’t afraid to go beyond her bubble and join the weekend hack-a-thon at Johns Hopkins. And as is often the case, her fearlessness led to a great innovation.
Jill, along with a team from Johns Hopkins, created an Ebola hazmat suit that was one piece, with a zipper down the back to simplify removal. They also introduced a larger face mask and a small battery-powered fan that blows air into the hood. In a field of 1,500 applicants, their design was declared a winner and received a substantial USAID grant to work further to develop the suit. But first, Jill got to take the Ebola suit to New York Fashion Week, where Jhpiego partnered with the International Rescue Committee and the GE Foundation to present a pop-up lounge to display her creation. Jill had always dreamed of having a dress at Fashion Week, but she never could have imagined it would be a lifesaving hazmat suit. It remains my hope that this kind of thinking will inspire the next generation of protective suits for those caring for Ebola victims, as others are drawn to innovate in this area.
