New NewCo Cities
Our newest NewCo partner city reflects the challenge and opportunity of diverse, global growth
(In partnership with M+D and the NewCo Miami team)
In 2004, a Swedish-American entrepreneur named Frans Johansson published a book called The Medici Effect that highlights breakthrough innovations “at the intersection of ideas, concepts, and cultures.”
The title celebrates the Italian banking family that supported diverse artists and helped to spark the Renaissance. The book also encourages business leaders to think more about the value of assembling diverse teams and explores the notion that the best ideas can often come from unexpected places.
I’m hoping (and predicting) that 2018 will be the year of “positive externalities” in business, and diversity will be an important part of the conversation. This is why we are excited to host NewCo in Miami, Fla., March 25–26, with support from the Knight Foundation and other sponsors.
Miami, which has the largest foreign-born population of any city in the U.S., has long been associated with vibrant, diverse culture, and the international art scene. But it has also positioned itself at the nexus of U.S., Latin American and European business. At the same time, Miami is establishing models for how companies can build diverse, global, multicultural enterprises — something that is increasingly important for sparking innovation, staying competitive, and leading in the future of work.
Miami also fosters a unique relationship between established corporations and the emerging entrepreneurial ecosystem — the city is a place where multinational companies in Latin America seek out emerging technology startups, and large U.S. multinationals incubate ideas for the multicultural U.S. market.
And given its location and climate, Miami is an incubator for technologies to address local and global issues — such as infrastructure and climate change. It’s channeling its role as a great entrepreneurial city to overcome other challenges too, such as corporate density, education and the digital divide.
NewCo Miami is coming at a time when Miami, like many cities, is at a tipping point. It is a city that embraces lifestyle and work-life balance, but is also working hard to transform itself from the ultimate party city into a center of global business.
We expect it will remain a great place to party as well. But we also believe this transformation can have a widespread “Medici Effect,” by launching great ideas at the intersection of international commerce and international culture. Miami will also set an example for many companies for how to build a diverse, multicultural workforce that sparks global innovation at scale.
These ideas are the focus of our first NewCo Miami and we look forward to sharing these stories with our NewCo communities around the world.