Developing Vital Individuals

Abstract

A German-born tailor traveled to San Francisco from New York, in 1853, to sell canvas tarps and wagon coverings to the rapidly growing population of 49ers who were coming to California looking for gold. Twenty years later, Levi Strauss learned from a Russian-born tailor named Jacob Davis that miners really needed sturdy pants made with rivets at stress points so they would last in rugged conditions. Strauss and Davis jointly patented a new kind of pants, made out of denim, called them blue jeans, and founded an empire. Strauss had the ability, in the Vitality lingo, to explore, changing his business model and evolving to meet the needs of his customers. What would have happened if he had pushed Davis of, telling him that the idea would have never worked? From a psychological standpoint, Strauss had, at a minimum, what organizational scientists call absorptive capacity, which is the ability to learn from your existing environment and transform it into something innovative.