Cross-pollination is big these days. Whether you’re a retailer or a research lab, the gospel is that if you mix things up you’ll get a creative ferment. The Santa Fe Institute brings together physicists, biologists, businesspeople, and social scientists on a beautiful hilltop in New Mexico to meld ideas. Harvard will soon break ground on an innovation-stimulating, cross-disciplinary campus for its science, engineering, medical, and business schools. And of course there’s IDEO, the famously interdisciplinary Silicon Valley firm that designed the Palm Pilot, fat toothbrushes, and a better mouse.
A version of this article appeared in the September 2004 issue of Harvard Business Review.
