Designing the Renaissance Company of the Future

Welcome to our quest. Please accept our invitation to explore this research site for authors Dave Hersh and Roger Mader.

Together we have observed, led and advised commercial enterprise from seed-stage startup to monolithic giants of industry at global scale. Here you can review and critique and inform the convergence of our insights, drawn from observations over the past quarter century.

Our purpose

Elevate the human condition through our most powerful mechanism for social transformation: free, fair and fluid markets.

We believe, and history bears us out, that market freedom yields personal freedom. The best method to liberate a people is to liberate their economic self-interest. Free their labor, free their assets, and you free their minds. Test the premise in our purpose statements to understand WHY we dedicate ourselves to this mission.

We aspire to help companies strive and markets to thrive, bringing greater opportunity to their communities, in every corner of the world.

Our mission

Identify and articulate that attributes that will propel companies over the next quarter century.

Anticipate the changes ahead. Help large companies act like the nimble startups of their hungry, aspirational origins. Help small companies assemble the DNA required to win at each stage of growth in a ruthless and dynamic market.

We believe there is potential to conceive and lead a renaissance company; that the differentiating competence is the infinite adaptability that comes with a holistic appreciation for both the science of management and art of markets.

What genetic formula could be engineered into the company of the future, one that allowed its people to see more clearly, farther afield and farther ahead? What if they sprang into the world fully formed, with an aptitude and aspiration to combine art and science, the creative and the critical, the expansive and the analytical? And what if they watched, learned, pivoted and adapted at every turn?

Our Method

Two friends and diversely experienced professional colleagues, Dave—a successful Silicon Valley entrepreneur,  and Roger—a Fortune 500 advisor on strategic growth, have committed to:

Conduct disciplined, thorough and objective research to address a pivotal question for today’s executives: What types of companies will win in the next quarter century and why?

Dave, based on San Francisco, brings the insights of and access to West Coast startups and venture capital—how nascent ventures spark, assemble and birth to an idea. How they struggle to grow and survive, die or thrive. He also serves as a guest lecturer on entrepreneurship to the students or Stanford Business School. With access to the top startups, tech entrepreneurs, thought leaders, innovation centers and investors, this book will observe the game-changing strategies used today in successful startups and innovative leaders—and others that should be— to profoundly impact our next era.

Roger, based in Manhattan, brings his East Coast counsel from global industrials, and the executives who guide the recognized leaders in consumer products, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, transportation and technology sectors. They too struggle—against their own legacy and entrenched infrastructure to act like the nimble startups they once were. He also influences the next generation of business leaders in his teaching in the Masters Interaction Design program at SVA.

Part strategic primer, part playbook, The Da Vinci Co. is about the rise of “renaissance companies” – those who embrace the latest art and science of corporate performance. This book seeks provide new and yet timeless insights and serve as an invaluable resource to  executives who strive to think beyond quarterly results and create the companies that fuel the future.

We intend to share the diagnostics, insights, lessons and methods that these leaders deserve. We will help them consider and assess the uncommon mix of talent required, and the organizational acumen to employ it to full intent.

As pivotal players in their own formative renaissance companies, they will learn how to discover raw customer need – the kind that precedes but necessitates demand – ahead of the market, but not too far ahead. They will learn to apply design methods to surprise customers with a differentially better offer, and serve them with a sincere commitment to durable value.

Our readers will learn when and how to anticipate and pivot in response to their ever-changing environs—to better serve customers, reward investors, engage employees, grow economies—and ultimately to free minds, elevate lives, and liberate societies.

Big challenge. We would really appreciate  your help. Thanks for your consideration.