This is a must read book for everybody in Management. We are in the middle of a world where trends start and die every moment. But some catch-up, spread like wild fire and make everyone sit-up and take notice. In a nutshell, the book explains how this phenomenon occurs. For me Tipping point is a powerful and gripping book on the rise and fall of trends that touch our daily lives. They could be crime waves, fashion trends, social phenomenon are just killer epidemics.
Malcolm says trends take off for 3 important reasons:
First, Law of stickiness. The message needs to be powerful and should stick.
Second is the Law of Few, a trend takes off because it falls in to hands of 3 categories of people with different traits; Mavens, Connectors and Salesmen, in that order.
Third, The power of context, says that economic and social conditions really govern whether a trend can really take off.
Author says every explosive idea, trend or social behavior has 3 primary traits; contagiousness, small causes make a big effect and the trends don’t start gradually but explode out of nowhere.
Also read this book if you are new to the psychology theories like me. Some theories I found interesting in the book: Law of 150, Broken Windows Theory, The Nurture assumption, Emotional contagion and Six degrees of Kevin Bacon.