Takeaways From the book Tipping Point

Tipping Point is a book authored by Malcom Gladwell and it was published in the early 2000s. The book talks about some of the little events planned or unplanned it may be, which makes something hugely scalable and reaches epidemic magnitude. There are certain little things which causes the impact of an event to "tip over" to cause an impact to a big population.

According to the author, some of the principles which causes tipping over are  as follows:

1. Impact of the messenger: The persons carrying the message of the event or product plays a great role in causing an epidemic. If the messenger is a charismatic person who is energetic and sincere, the message becomes epidemic. Paul Revere - an American colonist in 1776 spread the message of an impeding British attack and roused the people in the surrounding suburbs of Boston to prepare and defend. Eventually the colonist succeeded in thwarting the attempts of British. Paul Revere is quoted as an example of a "Connector" type of messenger. The types of messengers which can cause a message to reach epidemic proportions are:
- Connectors - The type of messengers who are socially very active, who have a knack of establishing and maintaining contacts, who can make acquaintances at ease.
- Mavens - The experts who will volunteer to help the people without selfish motives. The type of people who are passionate on their area of interest and so people genuinely get influenced by their suggestions.
- Salesmen - The people who have the ability to persuade the audience and get them in the right direction. They may be a combination of a Connector and Maven.

It is the 'Connectors' and 'Mavens' and 'Salesmen' who contribute to the messages outreach and often is a difference between a super hit and average product in terms of impact.

2. Stickiness of the message: Subtle changes in the presentation of the message has a huge impact in how the information is retained. Only if the message is remembered, can the message be transmitted by people to next set over a period of time. The success of the message is determined by how long the patrons retain it. The TV episodes for children "Sesame Street" and "Blue's questions" are used to drive home this point.

3. Impact of the context:  Some of the little things which when not ignored, paves way for changes which are revolutionary in nature. The crimes in New York subways could be controlled by stopping the kids who do graffiti in the trains. A clean surrounding is a deterrent to crime. By creating a context with little things, bigger goals can be achieved.

4. Focus on groups:  Ideas get propagate in groups. It is better to focus on group at a time to convey an idea or product. The ideas get propagated as groups of groups and eventually reaches a big population.
 Another psychological study points out that there is a threshold in a group after if it crosses will lead to discordance among group members. The magic number is 150.
Case study: Company called as Gore: A material science company which produces different polymers, components and consumer products. A global company headquartered in Newark USA. The company has a strategy of employing only up to 150 people per branch. The organization has a flat hierarchy and all of the employees are "Associates" of the company. It is said that the peer pressure factor  results in innovation and excellence of high magnitude which may not be achieved in a 'managed' company. By keeping the size of 150, it ensures each person is accountable and known to others and there is a very high cross-collaboration.

5. Peer pressure: Studies on suicides and smoking shows that an incident or peer pressure gives a sort of permission to try the thing out or in other words - experiment.. In case of smoking, the addiction to nicotine varies from person to person. Nicotine releases such hormones which sort of acts as an anti-depressant. It may not be possible to prevent experimentation but is possible to control addiction. One way mentioned in the book is to limit the content of Nicotine to such low levels that even if we smoke 15-20 cigarettes, it does not reach the levels desired by the brain.

Overall Tipping Point presents very unique perspectives on how ideas evolve and reach big proportions. It is particularly useful for marketers of the corporate world by providing ideas on how to take the product to highly successful levels.