Coolhunting: Chasing Down the Next Big Thing [Hardcover]

Peter Gloor (Author), Scott Cooper (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 4, 2007

'Coolhunting' and 'swarm creativity' are powerful concepts about identifying emerging trends and discovering the key trendsetters. They are about uncovering hidden innovation and innovators and they include the how and why new ideas and new knowledge are converted into products and services that correspond to the collective human mindset. Coolhunting involves making observations and predictions as part of the search for cutting-edge trends. It is a way of capturing what the 'collective mind' is thinking, and using what is captured to one's advantage. For an example of this 'collective mind' concept, on the television show "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?", contestants unsure of the answer to a question had the option of asking the audience or phoning a so-called 'expert'. Far more often than did the experts, the collective intelligence of the audience produced the correct answer.This is a simple example of swarm creativity. Humans swarm around like-minded people, with whom they not only feel comfortable but also can collaborate to produce winning ideas. The volume includes sidebars that expand concepts and present engaging anecdotes, as well as illustrations (charts, graphs, tables, and pictures) to help guide the reader through the explanations of concepts or simply to make for a more enjoyable read. The book includes many examples from history and from more recent business cases.Some of the examples are: how the CEO of Continental Airlines, participating in an online forum of frequent flyers, brought 200 of these people together in Houston at a dinner to discuss how the company could improve its services; how 10 research labs, collaborating globally to discover the causes of the SARS disease, were able to share newly acquired knowledge and achieve tremendous results very quickly; and, how Linux, an organization with no one officially in charge, became the only serious contender to the strictly hierarchical organization that developed Microsoft Windows.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

MIT Sloan School of Management vets Gloor and Cooper strip "cool" of its cool in this half-baked introductory lesson to trendspotting. Beginning with a definition of "cool" that includes "excellent," "fun" and "makes the world a better place, in some way," the authors show how the excellent, fun iPod is truly cool because it's "keeping kids out of trouble." Strung together with the thinnest of strings, this textbook-style read covers a double-handful of basic new media concepts, including the "swarm," a future-predicting, trendsetting collectivity; the "coolhunters" who get down in the trenches, uncovering those swarms; and the "coolfarmers," nurturing know-it-alls who encourage the fruition of nascent creativity. Redundancy creeps in early, as the repetition of these terms-along with the mantra, "don't be a star, be a galaxy"-may lead readers to question whether Gloor and Cooper have a grasp on the latest trends in trendspotting. The authors' advice-brainstorm with others, the best ideas come from unlikely places, etc.-is mostly familiar, having been put to use by everyone from Ben Franklin to Google, but at least it's reliable.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

"Coolhunting reports on useful techniques for helping to see what’s coming.Wrap it in a plain brown wrapper,and read it surreptitiously." -- Tom Davenport, Harvard Business Online

"...Coolhunting is a skill we all need to master. This book, entertaining and informative..., is a terrific place to start." --Jack Covert, 800-CEO-READ Blog

“Marketers, especially the online variety, and anyone else chasing what’s cool, will want to read the new AMACOM book Coolhunting .” -Ted Kinni, Reading Writing Management Blog

“If success in business means determining your core business and then adapting that core as our customers' needs change quickly, then coolhunting is a skill we all need to master. This book, entertaining and informative about current culture, is a terrific place to start.”

-Jack Covert, 800-CEO-READ Blog

“Coolhunting is an entirely different experience and targets those of us who are fascinated by social networks, how they work, and what's ‘cool.’" -- AllThingsWorkplace.com

“Gloor and Cooper provide a real-world, practical approach to hunting something as elusive and illusory as 'coolness'.” -- Soundview Executive Book Summaries

“The authors write in a style that is easy for those outside of their cutting-edge mindset to understand." --Midwest Book Review

“Helping to ‘elucidate the culture of cool’ this book is fascinating… based on solid and credible field research…“ – Inside Retailing

“…For those keen to mine the wealth of information available in online communities…virtues of social network analysis are clearly demonstrated…an inspiring read…”-- B&T Weekly

“There are many layers to this book, but readers will leave convinced that social networks hold the key to the future.” – BizEd magazine

“An invaluable tool for businesses of all sizes…will show you how to stay ahead of the curve and on the cutting edge.” -- Strictly Business.com

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: AMACOM; First Edition edition (April 4, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814473865
• ISBN-13: 978-0814473863
• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 1 x 9.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #926,630 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I am doing research at the Center for Collective Intelligence at MIT. I also teach how to become a creative member of Collaborative Innovation Networks at University of Cologne and at Helsinki University of Technology.
Besides I am involved in the development of TeCFlow, a software tool for dynamic social network analysis. Until the end of 2002, I was a Partner with Deloitte Consulting, leading its E-Business practice for Europe. Before that, I was a Partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers and the manager for Software Engineering at Union Bank of Switzerland.
Much earlier I was a Post-Doc at MIT and got a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Zurich.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Paradox of Coolhunting Coolhunting June 2, 2007

By Angelica Marte

Format:Hardcover

Review for "Coolhunting: Chasing Down the Next Big Thing" by Peter Gloor & Scott Cooper, New York, published by AMACOM 2007, 1. Edition, 236 pages.

The title of the book keeps its promise by chasing down the next big thing: coolhunting. It is a very well grounded in theory, though fun and inspiring book to read about coolhunting for coolhunting, a subject becoming a big subject (June 1, 07: 807,000 google hits). As described by the authors, coolhunting "is not as simple as the simple description - uncovering the source of trends - often given". Coolhunting also investigates how groups of people work together to innovate in so called COINs (Collaborate Innovative Networks), nourished by swarm creativity.

Both authors are renowned, much valued scientists in their respective fields, who published extensively on different interdisciplinary topics. Peter Gloor has many years of experience in management. This strong foundation enables an academically profound and comprehensive book with illustrative examples and inspiring stories about an intriguing, and in many ways paradox issue. Paradox, because "cool" products, themes, issues, designs, ideas etc. are not for everybody, as upon becoming public knowledge they actually loose their "cool" factor. This is the paradox the book is dealing with in a very open, dedicated, and informative way (and perhaps not everybody wants that secrets like this are broken). Beyond, with Social Network Analysis one can even visualize the process how groups of people collaborate, communicate, and innovate. As the authors state: "There can never be too much communication! And talk in galaxy, not as stars!"

When I started to read the book, I was surprised, and quizzical about the openness and diversity of the exemplifications, from personal stories to business cases to the constitution of Switzerland. Further, values like altruism, sharing, fun, responsible citizen came across. My mind was attuned to a technological driven book from two MIT researchers. Far from it! This is a truly diversified, innovative approach combining social processes with technology (coolhunting in swarm creativity), sometimes translating these innovations into real business (coolfarming).

In their recent article "The New Principles of a Swarm Business" (MIT Sloan Management Review, Summer 2007) they state three principles which are contradictory to usual assumptions: gain power by giving it away; share with the swarm; concentrate on the swarm, not on making money. This is exactly what the authors are doing with this book: giving away the information how to reveal innovation; sharing it with the people; for the third there is a blog to be found, where the authors concentrated on the people, not on making money: [..]

This innovative book is a must for everybody interested in detecting, even visualizing how innovation emerges in all kind of fields. It provides insights into a meta process applicable to nearly any kind of issue, therefore making a significant contribution to the open source movement, being innovative and open itself. Consequently, giving you everything you need to chase down your next big thing.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars to the point June 19, 2007

By Christine Kohlert

Format:Hardcover

What I really like about this book is that it's easy to read and doesn't just
give you theory. There are lots of compelling examples and good -- even unlikely
-- stories about coolhunting and coolfarming, like the rock musician John Mayall
or a high school theatre group. Plus, there are instructions for putting the
ideas to work in a real experiment, using software to analyze social networks
that the authors' let you download for free.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Predict or determine future trends. Theory, evidence, methods and tools. June 8, 2007

By Marco De Maggio

Format:Hardcover

"Coolhunting: Chasing Down the Next Big Thing" by Peter Gloor & Scott Cooper, AMACOM, New York, 2007. Review.

Reading this bright book is a recommended experience. For three main reasons.

First, it contains a refined abstraction of the human and social mechanisms that by far from we are in existence are the basis of human evolution. That is to point that at the individual side it is not just information exchange that determines the growing patterns of culture and civilization, what we call "trends", but the interaction experience of the "ego" in reality; and, at the collective side, the awareness to be part of a continuously changing collective universe that makes this process the "world experience". As far as we can predict from individual experience the individual evolution in personality, attitudes, choices and performance, from this collective sense of interaction we can track the processes and dynamics that are the premises of the world of tomorrow. We can predict the future.

So the first simple revelation of the work is right a truth: every role we are going to have in the process of trends emersion, leaders or followers, writers or readers, speakers or listeners, observers or proposers, we are all part of it, inevitably. Awareness is the first point.

Second, the authors develop very further these assumptions in a really concrete way.

The choice, they say, of the role to have in the collective interaction experience relies not only on who we are, our personal characteristics, attitudes and natural instinct.

It may be a conceived rational choice, that starts from the awareness of the creativity developed in a "swarm dimension" toward the owning of the way of managing, rather then following, the process. That is the choice to follow palely emerging ideas, or to look for the emerging new trends, or to create actually new trends by cultivating new ideas.

This is the second revelation the authors explain, followed by the introduction of the appropriate scientific, methodological and technical tools to support our mental model improvement requested for what they call "coolhunting" and "coolfarming".

Third, the authors argue a flowing stream of interesting considerations coming from their own different backgrounds that guide in a easy bright way through a path of evidence about a sort of "intellectual energy" emerging now as in the past, that was the basis for great world changes, inventions, creations, renewed during the last years in shape, speed, accessibility and terms, thanks to new technologies and cultures that reduced space and time, giving a new dimension to the new small world.

Making evidence from a rich variety of relevant examples and cases, coming from about science, democracy, wisdom, collaboration, as much as business, education and art, they built a really thought provoking logical architecture.