The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell Summary and Reviews
|
List Price: Our Price: $3.99 You Save: $11.00 (73%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $3.65 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
Book Review: A fascinating insight into how society works
Summary: 5 Stars
When I picked this book up, I was thinking Hey this is just going to be another faddish piece of sociological mumbo jumbo pretending to be proper management science. Within about 6 pages I realised that I was being completely unfair and settled down to really Learn Something.The book in a way tells a story, about how an idea, or a brand or a new product, can start off small and then grow very large very quickly, and the book explains the forces and the factors that mean that this idea will either Make It or not. The Tipping Point of the title is the point at which the idea will either go one way or the other. The author does an extremely good job of highlighting all of the factors that have an influence, and uses several different types of example to illustrate this. There are examples from "on the street" (Zero Tolerance in New York), from fashion brands (a surfer brand from California), and from history and politics (how word of the English troops advance in the USA was spread and started the revolution). And many more.
This book was a real eye opener and an excellent read all in one. I can recommend it no higher than that. It is essential reading for all marketing or brand managers, and for anyone who is interested in how trends in society take off.
Book Review: A real eye opener and an excellent read
Summary: 5 Stars
This book in a way tells a story, about how an idea, or a brand or a new product, can start off small and then grow very large very quickly, and the book explains the forces and the factors that mean that this idea will either make It or not. The Tipping Point of the title is the point at which the idea will either go one way or the other. The author does an extremely good job of highlighting all of the factors that have an influence, and uses several different types of example to illustrate this. There are examples from "on the street" (Zero Tolerance in New York City), from fashion brands (surferwear from California), and from history and politics (how word of the English troops advance in the USA was spread and started the revolution). And many more.
Throughout the author quotes scientific research from many fields, including Psychology and Sociology. For all I know he could have made it all up. But I don't think so, I think he has it right.
This book was a real eye opener and an excellent read all in one.
Book Review: Amazing
Summary: 5 Stars
I would never read this kind of book usually, but I stumbled on it and sat down to read it at 11.30 at night. Three hours later I had finished it. The other reviews tell the story of its message well enough; the book is a profound examination of what I suppose you could call the social life of information. But it really does merit five stars: original, well researched, engagingly written, thought-provoking, insightful.Book Review: A Big Idea book
Summary: 4 Stars
The Tipping Point is one of those precious books that changes the way you think about the world around you. Gladwell makes a big idea (the science of fads and epidemics) fascinating and accessible, drawing from a convincing array of examples - from Hush puppies to AIDS, crime to yawning.I came late to this book (July 2003) and read it having already consumed Unleashing the Ideavirus, which was released later than The Tipping Point and covers some similar ideas. (Not surprising then that Gladwell wrote the Forward to Ideavirus).
How ever despite a slight sense of (reverse) deja vue this is compelling stuff... particularly for those of us in business. As with similar books, the ideas may have been around for a while but the skill is making them accessible, and in the process Malcolm Gladwell has created a Tipping Point of his own.
Book Review: Something original in the change field?
Summary: 5 Stars
This book, which I have now read 4 times, offers a potentially revolutionary insight into how to effect change. Malcolm Gladwell's insights (which are perhaps more of the "Charles Handyesq" synthesis than anything truly original, offer pointers for the key roles (Maven, Connector, Salesman) and processes (Stickiness....you'll have to read it for the rest :-) ) necessary to make a new idea travel and stick with its various audiences. He acknowledeges what many of us in the field of change management recognise - that there is no straightforward recipe and that the unlikeliest interventions can be the ones that really make the difference.This book ought to be compulsory reading for anyone in the Leadership field. Thoroughly recommended.