Innovation in their DNA
McAfee’s point is underlined by an interview once given by James Watson who, with Francis Crick, discovered the double helix structure of DNA. Asked how they had succeeded where others had failed, Watson explained that he and Crick had succeeded “because we weren’t the most intelligent people pursuing the answer”. The smartest, Watson added, was a scientist called Rosalind Franklin who, he said, “was so intelligent she rarely asked advice”. In contrast, Kenneth Lay, chairman of the scandal-plagued energy business Enron – run by a group of executives who really thought they were the smartest guys in the room – died in custody awaiting a prison sentence.
