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The New Polymath – Audio Interview with Author Vinnie Mirchandani
Polymath—the Greek word for Renaissance Man—is someone who excels in many disciplines. From Leonardo da Vinci to Benjamin Franklin, we have relied on polymaths to innovate and find creative solutions to the problems of the day. How would these Renaissance men and women manage our current technology bounty? Which disciplines would they choose to focus on? Would they work on the architecture of next-generation green cities, or focus on nanotechnology?
The New Polymath is an enterprise that excels in multiple technologies—infotech, cleantech, healthtech, and other techs—and leverages multiple talent pools to create new medicine, new energy and new algorithms.
Author Vinnie Mirchandani shares his varied experience as a technology adviser and market watcher to explain in business language the diversity of today’s technology palette and to profile a wide range of innovations at:
- Large multinationals, such as GE and BP
- Fast-growing, midsized companies, like Cognizant and salesforce.com
- The cleantech industry in China, on farms in Ireland, and along the back roads of Rwanda
This book categorizes eleven “building blocks” for the New Polymath to leverage in its R-E-N-A-I-S-S-A-N-C-E framework, including next-generation analytics, cloud computing, sustainability and social networks. The author profiles more than a hundred innovators and demonstrates how they use these building blocks to solve both their individual, day-to-day issues and the “Grand Challenges” the world faces.
Brimming with examples from a variety of industries, countries and business processes, the book will inspire you to groom your own New Polymath tools, processes and ecosystem of innovation ideas.
Tom Parish asks Vinnie the following questions in this interview:
1. After reading your book, I’m impressed with the approach you’ve taken. It’s not simply a book of case studies with observations about what’s common and what’s not. You’ve dug deeper into a trend emerging that’s people-oriented. In particular, it’s an acknowledgment that many multi-talented people who don’t fit into typical résumé profiles are solving big problems. I’ll have to say I have a feeling of hope from reading your book. So for the audience, what is a Polymath and a Polymath company?
2. Give us a couple of examples of a Polymath company.
3. Why is this important to know now?
4. I like the title of Chapter 1: The New Polymath: In an Age of Wicked Problems and Technology Abundance. Talk more about why this was an important way to begin your book.
5. I noticed you make reference to the ‘grand challenges’ throughout the book. Why?
6. Chapter 17: What is the tie-in to The New Polymath (and Polymath Companies) with communities, crowds, contracts and collaboration? What is the relationship between the Polymath and Clouds: Technology as a Service? There was no specific mention of it in the chapter.
7. Let’s talk about grooming your own Polymath – what are the steps for doing that?
8. I was particularly struck by your epilogue, The Beginner’s Mind, because I’ve studied Aikido for years and that’s its underpinning philosophy, which hasn’t been all that popular in traditional business. Do you think this could be the fundamental characteristic of the Polymath and Polymath Companies that will be emerging in the new economy? If so, why?
Resources
The New Polymath: Profiles in Compound-technology Innovations, by Vinnie Mirchandani
Production Credits
Tom Parish, Host and Executive Producer