Copy Link
E-mail
LinkedIn
Facebook
Telegram
WhatsApp
Latest Updates
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
DIAMOND
RATING
RATING
Malcolm Gladwell Little, Brown, 2000
Senteo’s Review 
The Tipping Point is one of Canadian author Malcolm Gladwell’s best-known works. In it, Gladwell seeks to explain mysterious sociological changes – specifically, how it is possible for momentous, dramatic changes to happen seemingly overnight. He points out that while explanations centered on long-term trends have plenty of merit, in the short term any of these processes produces only incremental change and cannot by themselves explain any sudden, dramatic changes.
Gladwell argues that all sudden shifts, adoption of new ideas and trends, and so on, are just like epidemics. Ideas, products, messages and behaviors spread exactly like viruses do.
Gladwell outlines a framework consisting of three elements, each of which contributes to making rapid change happen. He terms these:
- The Law of the Few – transmission of ideas and messages is made possible by the involvement of people with specific social skills, whose involvement matters more than the involvement of ordinary people. These people are further split into 3 categories:
- Connectors – people with a large number of acquaintances and friends, who are naturally very connected, crucially outside their traditional sphere of comfort
- Mavens – people who tend to accumulate useful knowledge and share it with others
- Salesmen – people who have the charisma and forcefulness to persuade others to adopt new ideas or change their minds about something.
- The Stickiness Factor – how quickly stickiness can be improved with relatively minor changes to structuring and presentation of information. This makes the idea ‘catchier’.
- The Power of Context – Human behavior – and thus how likely they are to adopt new ideas – is very sensitive to its environment. Therefore, external factors can either encourage or hinder the adoption of new ideas and behaviors.
Gladwell uses a rich variety of examples to illustrate his theory. He includes examples ranging from the adoption of certain brands (Hush Puppy shoes) to STI outbreaks in urban centres, to children’s television programmes.
Gladwell’s book is characteristically well-written and engaging. The ideas that Gladwell expressed in this book are very compelling and are useful for anyone seeking to bring about changes and transformation – especially in large organizations, where getting in touch with everyone would be challenging, and therefore it would be wise to focus on getting the message through to the ‘special few’.
While well written, Gladwell’s methodology is not very scientific – he uses only those examples that illustrate his theories and does not subject his ideas to much scrutiny; moreover, the validity and universality of some of his examples have been called into question by several of his reviewers. However, this review would argue that criticising individual examples or Gladwell’s methodology does not detract from the overall validity of his ideas. We are, however, left with a desire for a more coherent methodology.
In this brilliant and original book, Malcolm Gladwell explains and analyses the ‘tipping point’, that magic moment when ideas, trends and social behaviour cross a threshold, tip and spread like wildfire. Taking a look behind the surface of many familiar occurrences in our everyday world, Gladwell explains the fascinating social dynamics that cause rapid change.
This book is useful reading for anyone who seeks to realise changes or transformations in practice, as it offers valuable insight into how ideas or trends can spread. Gladwell’s ‘Law of the Few’ should be of particular interest to anyone seeking to realise change in a large organization – it explains clearly why ideas spread more effectively when they are targeted at a small group of socially connected and influential people (in this case, influential within the organization), and why this is more effective than attempting to convert everyone at once. However, Gladwell’s framework is largely theoretical, and thus we would recommend consulting Senteo’s courses on Organizational Change and Evolution as well.
Senteo Subject Category
The authors of The Experience Economy provide a well-structured and sound theoretical understanding of the customer experience and its importance in today’s economy. Their framework for understanding also provides a framework which is directly applicable in development, justification and implementation planning.
The best book reviews in your inbox!
Subscribe now and receive a special gift with your subscription.
See content on this topic
PLUS magazine talked about many topics with Michael Ruckman, Founder and President of Senteo, a boutique consultancy with an impressive track record in business transformation.
Michael Ruckman, President & CEO of Senteo talks about Customer Contacts, Experiences, and Journeys in this fast moving presentation from the MECS+R Congress in 2021 in Dubai.
What is the difference between retention and loyalty, and between customer-centric and relationship-centric business models? How exactly can one monetize customer experience? Michael Ruckman answers these questions and more…
In a recent episode of the Escaping the Drift podcast, host John Gafford sat down with Michael Ruckman, founder and CEO of Centeo, to explore how artificial intelligence is reshaping business—and why organizational transformation must keep pace.
Related Book Reviews & Education
In this third edition, the author sets out to give a comprehensive model for development and use of customer satisfaction questionnaires. This edition contains additional information about customer loyalty measurement.
The Culture Code: An Ingenious Way to Understand Why People Around the World Live and Buy as They Do
Culture Code is written by a cultural anthropologist and marketing expert who worked on pioneering international marketing projects for many Fortune 500 companies, such as helping Nestle sell coffee to the Japanese.
Ireland aims to translate “customer experience” and what she calls “target experience requirements” into actions that deliver better financial returns, to underscore the importance of customer perceptions for financial performance.
Master Class
Workshop
Using Customer-Oriented Analytics & Behavioral Scenarios to Improve Business Performance
Understand the value of a customer-oriented analytics package and how behavioral scenarios can be used to improve profitability through influencing behavior and usage.
Master Class
Workshop
Understanding Game Dynamics & Applying Gamification to Drive Customer / Employee Engagement & Loyalty
To understand the principles of game dynamics and learn how to effectively use the elements of gamification in business: to involve customers, employees and contractors in the process.
Master Class
Workshop
Experiential Branding & Communications – Improving Brand Integration Through Emotional Engagement
Understanding branding and communications from the standpoint of emotional engagement and building relevant and meaningful dialogue with customers.
Master Class
Workshop
Designing Experiential Customer Environments (Physical & Digital)
This course covers a complete view of customer touch points (both physical and virtual) and a unique model for standardizing and managing customer contact models across channels including approaches for customer feedback, quality management, and migration.
New
Online Course
Understanding Brand & Communications
Experiential Branding & Communications – Improving Brand Integration Through Emotional Engagement.
$195 One-Time Charge
Online Course
Understanding Customer Touch Points
This course covers a complete view of customer touch points (both physical and virtual) and a unique model for standardizing and managing customer contact models across channels.
$195 One-Time Charge
Master Class
Workshop
Leadership In The Digital Age – A Guide To Leading Agile & Adaptive Organizations
Understanding how leaders must evolve with relation to the evolution of business models, new management models, and the significant changes to the workforce with Digital Natives now making up more than 50% of the workforce globally.
Management Trainings
The Leadership Playbook for Guiding Digital Transformations
Understand how to manage both internal and external digital transformation while considering the landscape for digital business models and the effect on traditional business models. Understanding organizational readiness for transformation and the role of corporate culture in managing transformations.
Management Trainings
The Difficulties & Imperatives of Leadership in The Digital Age
The changes in consumer behavior, employee behavior, and the evolution of business models in the digital age cause significant difficulties and imperatives for leaders who must develop new skills and evolve their leadership styles to be effective in this fast changing, challenging, and competitive environment.
Management Trainings
Strategy & Transformation Management
Understanding how to design & manage change/transformation programs in organizations of different sizes. This course will help any size team or organization to better deal with change & transformation on any scale.
Go Back
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.