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Summary: The little book that makes a big difference!
Review: "The Tipping Point is that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire." (from the back cover of the first paperback edition) This concept, of paramount importance to marketers and social behaviorists alike, is the basis of Malcolm Gladwell's exploration.In Gladwell's analysis, he defines three critical elements that he refers to as the rules of The Tipping Point. These are "the stickiness factor," or memorability of the message, "the law of the few," which refers to the importance of who delivers the message rather than how many times it is delivered, and "the power of context," meaning the environment in which the message is delivered. Gladwell weaves in amazing examples of trends that had enormous impact, yet whose results could never have been predicted. He takes apart such diverse occurrences as Paul Revere's midnight ride, the sudden second wave of popularity of Hush Puppies in the early 1990's that baffled the company's management, why Sesame Street worked but Blue's Clues worked better, and the "overnight sensation" of the book The Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood, after a year of low sales. He illustrates how these events came to reach The Tipping Point. This book is a must read for anyone that has anything to do with marketing a concept, a product, a business or, especially, yourself! The stories are interesting and the book is written in a flowing, easy to read style.
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Summary: Fun
Review: The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell. Fun and interesting book that explores how people are connected and ideas/products catch-on/spread almost like an epidemic. Explores marketing examples like the Hush Puppy trend, marketing research behind the success of Sesame Street & Blues Clues, and also the social science perspective, crime in NYC (Bernard Goetz). Essentially the author segments people into various groups "connectors", "market mavens" etc. While I liked the book (interesting & fun), overall I felt it lacked focus. Definitely has marketing applications. I do recommend it.
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Summary: Epidemics are a result of collective consciousness
Review: This book is remarkable in that it provides a key to success in marketing a concept, product or service. The Tipping Point shows you what is required for word of mouth to reach a point where a concept/product or service becomes fashionable. remain competitive and in vogue. I strongly suggest another book, Optimal Thinking-How To Be Your Best Self too. Optimal Thinking will enable you be optimally efficient in achieving desired outcomes in good and tough climates.
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Summary: Brilliant and engaging
Review: Half-marketing strategy, half-social theory, this book nevertheless proves to be a highly interesting read for the lay reader. I bought this on a whim just on simple interest in trends and how they spread; now I know about it in sociological and psychological terms. Some fascinating case studies, examples, experiment results and random facts pepper the book, and Gladwell writes in a friendly, accessible and conversational style whilst presenting a theory that (though I must admit I am something of a novice in this area) is original, I am lead to understand. The book is jargon-free and really is a fascinating read for anyone with even the vaguest interest in the wide range of areas the book taps into.
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Summary: This book changed my world view!
Review: In it Malcolm shows how viral marketing works by identifying key factors to the sucess of various ventures in several very clear and well researched case studies. The life changing bit for me though was his indentification of a type of personality he labled a connector, someone who knows everyone, and he showed how the world works better in large part because of connectors. It showed me that I was a hub in a really useful network of people and that to increase the power of that network for everybody in it, all I had to do was focus on what, until then, had been a side effect of how I do business.
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Summary: The Tipping Point - A Text for Transformational Leaders
Review: "The Tipping Point", by Malcolm Gladwell, is an essential text for individuals (business, educational and government leaders...) who seek to better understand and generate positive social epidemics within today's society. As Gladwell states, "the best way to understand the emergence of fashion trends, the ebb and flow of crime waves, or, for that matter, the transformation of unknown books into bestsellers, or the rise of teenage smoking, or the phenomena of word of mouth, or any number of other mysterious changes that mark everyday life is to think of them as epidemics." Gladwell aptly calls this process, The Tipping Point. Gladwell's insightful argument is that ideas, products, messages and behaviors spread like viruses. To support his argument, Gladwell, describes how Hush Puppies shoes in the 1990s suddenly became fashionable after years of steady decline in sales or how Paul Reveres "word of mouth" ride alarming colonists of an imminent attack by the British spread more effectively than his counterpart, William Dawes, who was carrying the same message. So, how can we better understand why some trends "tip" and others don't? Gladwell argues there are 3 rules which can provide us with insight into the Tipping Point: The Law of the Few, the Stickiness Factor, and the Power of Context. Marketing industry personnel can take a direct lesson from Gladwell's The Tipping Point. Yet, where the text is most effective is how The Tipping Point can be utilized by transformational leaders to better understand why social trends -fall of crime rates in urban cities, teen suicide and smoking - suddenly spike or dissipate within communities. Understanding human nature is not an exact science. Therefore, by critically examining societal epidemics and their tipping points, transformational leaders can better serve their communities by instilling positive changes/trends to remedy negative societal epidemics.
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Summary: Do not pass up this book!
Review: This is one of the most phenomenal books I have read in years! How do things get so popular so quick? How does a virus spread? Why are some people the "EF Hutton" of their town? Why did so many people listen to Paul Revere? Malcolm Gladwell does the unthinkable in researching the stuff we all want to know. This is a book you do not want to pass up.
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Summary: Rock Your World
Review: If you want the real deal, and true understanding of POWER of yourself and the POWER of BEYOND yourself - how to tap into what you can do, how to use it, and where it came from, why you have it, how to balance it, and what you're supposed to do with it, read these books. I read mucho, mucho books, and was impressed by several that are unique and have something DIFFERENT to say. We all have to better ourselves, right? Need a reason to live, right? I've ordered a lot of self-help/spiritual/mind body spirit DOGS, so this is my way of saving you a lot of MONEY (hey, then you can buy more books - get off your butt, forget da tube). HEY, I'm spiritual - you know - a REAL MAN who wants to be fit on the INSIDE and the OUTSIDE. Sorry Girls, my HEART is already taken. This list is my Season's Greetings to you. Rock and Roll your clicky finger and order them now! NOW!
Merry Xmas, Ho Ho Ho!!! * Wild at Heart: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul- John Elredge
* Psychic Gifts in the Christian Life - Tools to Connect -Tiffany Snow
* Who Moved My Cheese? An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life - Johnson, Blanchard
* The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference -Malcolm Gladwell
* The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment - Eckhart Tolle
* The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For? - Rick Warren
* Guy Q by Joe Kita
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Summary: No analysis, just amusing stories
Review: This book is presented as an explanation of what it is that might cause something to go from insignificance to ubiquity. It in fact does nothing of the sort and is actually just an amusing collection of stories. It is well written as a social history, and has a light, journalistic style good for dipping into, but the reader is left absolutely none the wiser as to why any of it happened. I would therefore class it as pretty much a waste of anyone's time. One thing that particularly annoyed me about this book is that chaos theory - a branch of mathematics almost 40 years old, for the analysis and prediction of exactly the sort of thing this book is wondering about - is mentioned only once: as a footnote. That's like writing a book about why planets stay in orbit around the sun, and mentioning astrophysics as an aside.
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Summary: So many new ideas I couldn't sleep!
Review: Do not read this book before going to bed. There were so many fascinating and new concepts in The Tipping Point, I could almost hear all the new neural pathways being created in my brain all night long! I have found applications for Gladwell's principles in a surprisingly broad range of environments--anything which involves people lends itself to the use of Tipping Point's principles. I came away with an overwhelming feeling that human beings are pack animals, picking up on subtle societal messages on an instinctive level and needing each other more than they'd like to admit.
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