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Summary: Instrumental for your small business or start-up
Review: Malcolm Gladwell's excellent work 'The Tipping Point' is ostensibly a social science book. It's laden with references to a wide range of studies involving rats and nicotine, the dynamics of suicide epidemics, teen smoking, the 'Broken Windows' theory of crime, etc., etc.That may sound like rather dry stuff, but trust me: it's not. It's a very compelling read, mostly because this is really a small business/start-up success guide in disguise. Read Gladwell's excellent writing on things such as 'Connectors, Mavens and Salesmen.' He's hit upon the key to bootstrapping a business. He even throws in some advice like 'how to construct a Maven trap.' Any small entrepreneur can benefit from these ideas. The challenge is to find out how to adapt them and create an epidemic of your own. That's a thrilling thought.
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Summary: Turns Conventional Wisdom Sideways
Review: Malcolm Gladwell animates an idea that has been entombed in various arcane academic journals, with real-life examples, character studies, and a simple, engaging writing style. He weaves together Paul Revere's ride, teenage smoking, anti-graffiti campaigns, Sesame Street, and the success of best-sellers to create a world where conventional wisdom is turned upside down, and the reason for so many sudden shifts lie in unexpected places. A lot of our world is determined by context and the fortuitous presence of salesman, mavens and connectors - people that accelerated social change. More books should be like this - short, concise, lively, and well-footnoted! My only quibble with this book - and this is not so much of a quibble as an invitation to Mr. Gladwell to write a sequel - is how can we use these findings to make our would a better, safer place? The dominant theme of these first years of the 21st century is the looming threat of international, fundamentalist terrorism. What is the tipping point that could eliminate or decrease this threat, in the same way that the elimination of graffiti and fare-beaters in the New York City subway precipitated a significant overall decrease in violent crime throughout New York City in the 1990s?
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Summary: Change, society, and memetic epidemics
Review: This book is a brilliant combination of memetics, population dynamics, and marketing; using several historical examples (including Paul Revere's ride, Airwalk shoes, and actual disease epidemics) the author clearly explains how things that seem small to begin with can suddenly take over a population's interest. I read this in an evening; couldn't put it down; highly recommended for anyone interested in how marketing affects culture -- or how new ideas can overtake and crush old paradigms.
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Summary: Irresistibly "sticky" -- be a "maven," tell all your friends
Review: I won't go into the contents of this impossible-to-put-down book -- read the editorial reviews or other readers' reviews, or better yet, get a copy and read it yourself. I take issue with some reviewers' disdain for the so-called "dumbed-down" approach this book takes. I am far from "dumb," however neither do I have a degree in marketing, sociology or psychology. I was not looking for a college text full of five-syllable words and terms peculiar to those specialties. Some of these reviewers seem to exhibit a disdain bordering on snobbery for those of us who never heard the words "maven," "collector" or "stickiness" used in Gladwell's context. Pardon me for not being an expert in your specialty; I'm too busy being an expert in my own. Like so many other "pop(ular) psychology" books, this one will take it on the chin from some people precisely because it IS written for the layman. Just because something is put in terms that one can understand without an open dictionary at the elbow is no reason to dismiss it as superficial. There is an enormous amount of information out there that most people, myself included, have neither the time nor inclination to plow through in order to get a working knowledge of the subject. Perhaps the greatest contribution a book like "The Tipping Point" and its ilk can provide is the opportunity for a reader to learn about the existence of concepts that he or she would otherwise never have been exposed to. As a non-specialist in the areas this book touches on, I never would have known about the concepts Gladwell presents had it not been for this book. I agree that this is not a book that someone already steeped in psychology or marketing theory would find particularly illuminating. However, that was obviously not the audience the author intended to reach. He apparently knows more about marketing than some of the reviewers who complain that the book isn't scholarly enough for their taste. As for the book having a disjointed, pieced-together quality, I didn't feel it at all. Nor did I percieve any "padding" that some reviewers felt Gladwell did to make a longer, more profitable product from an article-length concept. From start to finish, I found "The Tipping Point" to be fascinating, well-written and thought-provoking. Buy this book. Then be a "maven" and tell all your friends.
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Summary: NETWORK EXTERNALITY? PAY IT FORWARD? NO, TIPPING POINT
Review: Some voracious reading of research on... (1) "Network externalities" and "network effects" from economics and
(2) WOM (word of mouth) research from social/cognitive psychology ...and shamelessly rehashing them with a doozy touchy-feely spin on "small things can inspire big things" a la "Pay it Forward" (that Helen Hunt/Kevin Spacey rigmarole) -- and lo and behold, you have a tipping point for a book that people are stomping over each other to buy and magically provoke their thinking about marketing or sociological phenomena. Indeed every once in a while we need a business book that summarizes and makes sense of all that goes on in academia, so even such blatant intellectual debauchery would be fine as long as the BASIC professional integrity of attribution was upheld. The very least one can expect from such a self-proclaimed "biography of an idea" endeavour is an honest acknowledgement of WHERE the idea came from. As though it was not embarrassing enough that epithets like "maven" and "connector" are well established in WOM or network externality research since nearly 20 years, we were also fed with the MOST commonly used illustrations -- faxes becoming important because other people had faxes, or some quaint fashion catching up overnight (Hush Puppies in this case, but it could be any number of things), or how broadband has swept our world, or the success of a TV show -- these are all primetime textbook examples to explain the very fundamental concepts of network externality in ECON 101. Some arcane mention of epidemiologists' theories does not count because the whole hypothesis here is to provide something that is "beyond the world of medicine and diseases". Not one mention of the "Network Externality" in the book or in the glossary at the end. To its minor credit, the book is written with a readable flow although expect to have each and every minutiae explained in a "for dummies" style. For e.g., the perfectly simple notion that yawning is visually and aurally contagious is explained over 2 pages of relatively small print with about 100 mentions of the word yawn. Yawn. Such excruciating fleshing out of material is understandable of course, given how little of substance there really was in this "thinking" to begin with. The text wallows in its conflicting logical morass. Remember, "small things" are supposed to make a big difference. A winding 40 pages are devoted to crime combat in NY under a newly appointed police chief. Forgive me if this concerted annual effort by a legitimate full-fledged police force does NOT sound like a "small thing" to me. We are told "What must underlie successful epidemics is a bedrock belief that change is possible". Unfortunately, all the examples Gladwell cites such as a sweeping shoe vogue, faxes becoming popular -- these are all a matter of happenstance instead of a concerted effort by individuals at a point in time. Such is indeed the true nature of contagious phenomenons as he himself mentions at the outset, there is no "bedrock belief" until afterwards when someone sits and analyzes the event. I could also hypothesize that a lot of these mini-revolutions happen when an optimal chain of events is accidentally (unintentionally) spurred on by some triggers in society/environment etc, but that is for another day. As though this were not enough we are treated to semi-pompous implications. For e.g., page 131: "There is something PROFOUNDLY counter-intuitive in the definition of stickiness that emerges from all these examples". Really? Would have been nice if it were apparent instead of having us hit on the head with it. Come to think of it a "big effect" is a pretty flaky/subjective concept anyway. How could this supposed big effect be sustained? Where are hush puppies now? As for NY's crime rate, many experts such as Andrew Karmen from CUNY (John Jay) believe that the drop in crime rates in NY in 1980s or 90s is insignificant, homicides in the city have risen 10-fold since 1950. How about faxes -- and their big effect being eaten by another big effect (email)? What is most piquing though is that in a round-about way we are offered Polyanna solutions as a result of this 3-pronged theory of network externality. One priceless gem emerges when we are convinced how cleaning a subway system would be enough to solve crime rates (with the Bernie Goetz case as a lynchpin). My retorts won't fit this review. Whether this is a legitimate business book or a mere avante-garde coffee table thoughtpiece, one would have at the least expected some sort of an organized framework to plan for these "small things" or to sustain the "big effects". None is forthcoming. As for me, the very fact that well-established research is packaged here in a 250-page drawl as a pretentiously seminal idea is quite a put-off in itself. A simple 5-6 page HBR article would have done the job just fine, but then that wouldn't make a lot of money for Gladwell, would it. If you are in business and hope to use this stuff for a spiral marketing/branding effort, you'd do a lot better getting your hands on some WOM literature than this inchoate theoretical indulgence. Highly over-rated material, this.
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Summary: The Science of Small Worlds in layman's terms--awesome!
Review: The Tipping Point is eminently readable and highly instructive. While it is only a peak (tip?) under the blanket of the whole new science of 'small worlds' and its power, it is exceedinly well written and captivating. I lecture on positvie neworking and commend this book to all my classes. Most audiences have people who have read it and all report having enjoyed it. Well done, Malcolm, and we are waiting for your follow-up work. How about something on the importance of f2f networking and the dangers of relying on email only for effective communications and networking?
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Summary: Sales and Marketing 101...
Review: If you're one of those people wishing to sell or promote a product, Malcolm Gladwell's "The Tipping Point" is a great place to start. True marketing begins by identifying one's target audience and then tailoring the product's design to meet that core audience's expectations. "The Tipping Point" examines in-depth the aspects that make "viral marketing" or word-of-mouth epidemics explode. The number-one method of product promotion is word-of-mouth, and it's free. People listen to their friends, so this is an important book with concepts marketing professionals need to master. Throughout his book, Gladwell analyzes certain principles that all epidemics have in common. In chapter two, he focuses on three powerful groups of people: Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen. Reaching these groups effectively is essential for any grass-roots campaign, whether you're selling a political candidate or computer software. In addition, the book gives an overview of "stickiness" and the imminent role it plays in successful marketing plans. Small business owners, CEOs, door-to-door salesmen, and artists will find "The Tipping Point" to be one of the best book purchases they've ever made. Read it. Memorize it. Then go out and do your best to implement it. Britt Gillette
Author of "Conquest of Paradise"
Rating:
Summary: An Incredibly Fascinating Book
Review: A friend picked this book up for me after we had attended a dinner at which this book became a major topic of the conversation. JCCI (Jacksonville Community Council Inc), a community affairs group in Jacksonville, FL, had done a study on neighborhood tipping points inspired by this book. I was particularly enthralled by Gladwell's presentation of mavens, salesmen, and connectors. They possess the ability to truly send an idea over the particular point that would make it a full-blown trend. He used the example of the rebirth of Hush Puppies. Hush Puppies were a dying brand and on the verge of extinction when they suddenly became the consumate fashion accessory. He also delves into the story of Paul Revere and his role as a "connector" in providing the spark that truly tipped the scale towards a full blown revolution. The in-depth discussion of teenage smoking is particularly relavant and one wishes that it was required reading for the Surgeon General before millions are spent on ads. Of course, as a child of the 70's and 80's, I also thought the study of Sesame Street as a trendsetter was pretty interesting. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in how things become trends or to someone who has a desire to spark a change. It's truly enlightening.
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Summary: That old adage that small things are the important things
Review: The Tipping Point is a book simply about how epidemics spread. Why did crime in New York City suddenly plummet in the 1990s, significantly more than any other city in America? Why is smoking among teenagers continuing to increase, despite the largest advertising campaigns today warning kids about smoking's harmful effects? Why was Paul Revere so successful on his midnight ride while his counterpart on the gallop, Billy Dawes, is virtually an unknown? The Tipping Point answers these mind-bender questions and forces you to consider new, and sometimes uncomfortable, ways of looking at and evaluating our world. Despite the disjointed and vast array of situations showcased to explain epidemics, this book is a fascinating and delightful read if you have a curious mind and want some new food for thought. The author Malcolm Gladwell takes you through his theories of the personality types that must interact on some level to start an epidemic to the actual conditions that need to exist to help the contagiousness of the situation. The author finds a readable and intriguing way of explaining all these epidemics and more -- from social to fashion trends, why some ideas stick and others don't, how something little can make all the difference in creating an epidemic. How something little can make a big difference.... How can something small, like removing all the graffiti from New York subways, lead the way for reducing crime in New York City? How did a few book clubs in San Francisco act as the catalyst for launching the career of a regional book - Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood? How did a handful of East Village kids turn Hush Puppies into the cool shoe of the mid-90's? The Tipping Point clearly shows how making small changes, sometimes even changes on the fringe, can tip the scale to start an epidemic. Now may we find a way to use these theories, make that small difference, and start an epidemic for the betterment of our world.
Rating: 
Summary: Worth a quick read
Review: In The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell presents an interesting premise regarding the early formation of trends - what makes certain things catch on and what prevents others from getting off the ground. Although the concepts are presented more from an anecdotal perspective than from a rigorous scientific one, Gladwell is able to nonetheless put forth a concept that merits attention.
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