8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A 3.5 star special masquarading as something a little higher. I have trouble calling this a business book., July 1, 2007
This review is from: Coolhunting: Chasing Down the Next Big Thing (Hardcover)
This book was a tough read. When I finished it I asked myself "Why did I read it?" And I asked myself "What did I get from it?" I know I read it thinking there would be some good insight provided into how to identify trends and trendsetters so a reasonably quick profit could be made by jumping on the bandwagon. And now that I have finished the book I know that I certainly didn't get what I was looking for.
As far as I am concerned, the book uses too much of its own terminology and has to spend too much time defining terms. And the authors cite too many names and specific instances instead of smoothing over all of that and telling a simple easily digestible story. The title of the book is "Coolhunters." And that is fine. But why was there so much coverage of "Coolfarmers" in the book. That was a sideshow, and should have been left out in my humble opinion.
Basically I learned that coolhunters are seekers of trends and trendsetters. A coolfarmer is a leader of trendsetters. Swarm creativity is creativity resulting from a collective mindset. And Collaborative Innovation Networks (COINs) are teams of trendsetters who share ideas, information, and work in order to produce swarm creativity. Then social networks are cited as an example of some COINs. But so what? I still need to have all this pulled together for me so I can recommend the book to someone interested in starting a business or make their business better. I can't do that!
This book had 10 chapters as follows:
1. Why "cool" matters
2. Swarm creativity creates cool trends
3. Swarms can better predict the future
4. About trendsetters
5. Coolhunters look for coolfarmers
6. When swarms go mad
7. Do-it-yourself coolhunting with technology
8. Coolhunting by automated social network analysis
9. Five steps to becoming a coolfarmer
10. The coming world of swarm creativity
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Paradox of Coolhunting Coolhunting, June 2, 2007
This review is from: Coolhunting: Chasing Down the Next Big Thing (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.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
to the point, June 19, 2007
This review is from: Coolhunting: Chasing Down the Next Big Thing (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.
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