Loonshots : how to nurture the crazy ideas that win wars, cure diseases, and transform industries

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Title:

Loonshots : how to nurture the crazy ideas that win wars, cure diseases, and transform industries

Author:

Bahcall, Safi, author.

ISBN:

9781250185969

9781250225610

Edition:

First edition.

Physical Description:

xi, 349 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Contents:

Part one: Engineers of serendipity. How loonshots won a war -- The surprising fragility of the loonshot -- The two types of loonshots: Trippe vs. Crandall -- Edwin Land and the Moses trap -- Escaping the Moses trap -- Part two: The science of sudden change. -- Interlude: The importance of being emergent -- Phase transitions, I: marriage, forest fires, and terrorists -- Phase transitions, II: the magic number 150 -- The fourth rule -- Part three: The mother of all loonshots. Why the world speaks English -- Afterword: Loonshots vs. disruption.

Subject Term:

Creative ability in business.

Entrepreneurship.

Success in business.

Summary:

"'Loonshots is a brilliant and wonderfully entertaining book, an unstoppable read, full of surprises and rich with insight into how people create and nurture things that change the world. It's also an important book. Bahcall, a physicist and biotech entrepreneur, is unfolding the secrets behind successes everywhere.' --Richard Preston, author of The Hot Zone and The Wild Trees What do James Bond and Lipitor have in common? Why do traffic jams appear out of nowhere on highways? How did the Allies win the secret war against the Nazis? Why does the world speak English? What do the answers to these questions tell us about building more innovative teams? Loonshots describes a new way to think about innovation: why a company's structure matters more than its culture. Safi Bahcall, a physicist and entrepreneur, applies the science of phase transitions to the behavior of teams. The Nobel laureate Phil Anderson once captured the essence of phase transitions with the phrase "more is different." The collective behaviors of liquids and solids are more than the sum of their parts. They are something new: phases of matter. The same molecules can behave in very different ways. Bahcall explains why the collective behaviors of people in teams and companies are something new: phases of organization. Small changes in structure can transform teams from nurturing breakthroughs to inhibiting them, just like small changes in temperature can transform flowing water to rigid ice. Understanding those phases can help us design more innovative teams. Loonshots describes the science, draws on examples from Pan Am to Pixar, and offers rules that creatives, entrepreneurs, and managers can use to innovate faster and better"--

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Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Hardwood Creek Library (Forest Lake)	658.4094 BAH	Searching... Unknown
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Searching... Wildwood Library (Mahtomedi)	658.4094 BAH	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

* Instant WSJ bestseller
* Translated into 18 languages
* #1 Most Recommended Book of the year (Bloomberg annual survey of CEOs and entrepreneurs)
* An Amazon, Bloomberg, Financial Times, Forbes, Inc., Newsweek, S trategy + Business, Tech Crunch, Washington Post Best Business Book of the year
* Recommended by Bill Gates, Daniel Kahneman, Malcolm Gladwell, Dan Pink, Adam Grant, Susan Cain, Sid Mukherjee, Tim Ferriss

Why do good teams kill great ideas?

Loonshots reveals a surprising new way of thinking about the mysteries of group behavior that challenges everything we thought we knew about nurturing radical breakthroughs.

Bahcall, a physicist and entrepreneur, shows why teams, companies, or any group with a mission will suddenly change from embracing new ideas to rejecting them, just as flowing water will suddenly change into brittle ice. Mountains of print have been written about culture . Loonshots identifies the small shifts in structure that control this transition, the same way that temperature controls the change from water to ice.

Using examples that range from the spread of fires in forests to the hunt for terrorists online, and stories of thieves and geniuses and kings, Bahcall shows how a new kind of science can help us become the initiators, rather than the victims, of innovative surprise.

Over the past decade, researchers have been applying the tools and techniques of this new science--the science of phase transitions--to understand how birds flock, fish swim, brains work, people vote, diseases erupt, and ecosystems collapse. Loonshots is the first to apply this science to the spread of breakthrough ideas. Bahcall distills these insights into practical lessons creatives, entrepreneurs, and visionaries can use to change our world.

Along the way, readers will learn how chickens saved millions of lives, what James Bond and Lipitor have in common, what the movie Imitation Game got wrong about WWII, and what really killed Pan Am, Polaroid, and the Qing Dynasty.

"If The Da Vinci Code and Freakonomics had a child together, it would be called Loonshots ." --Senator Bob Kerrey

Author Notes

SAFI BAHCALL received his BA summa cum laude in physics from Harvard and his PhD from Stanford. After working for three years as a consultant for McKinsey, he co-founded a biotechnology company developing new drugs for cancer. He led its IPO and served as its CEO for 13 years. In 2008, he was named E&Y New England Biotechnology Entrepreneur of the Year. In 2011, he worked with President Obama's council of science advisors on the future of national research. He currently works with CEOs and leadership teams on strategy and innovation.

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Innovation comes about when people bank on a "loonshot," a "widely dismissed idea whose champions are often written off as crazy," says Bahcall, cofounder of the biotech company Synta Pharmaceuticals, in this spirited but less than game-changing business guide. How can leaders take these crazy ideas and translate them into technologies that produce transformative products or services? Basing his work on science policy adviser Vannevar Bush's WWII-era theories on how to usher in radical breakthroughs, Bahcall discusses Bush's use of the physics concept of phase transitions as a framework for thinking about human behavior-for instance, how small changes in organizational structure, instead of culture, can change group behavior, much as "a small change in temperature can transform rigid ice to flowing water." With boundless energy and enthusiasm, Bahcall outlines his own ideas, such as distinguishing between product and strategy type loonshots. While the presentation is persuasive, it's hard to say that the world needed yet another book singing the praises of long shots. His work will likely prove too familiar to achieve the transformative effect he so admires. Agent: Jim Levine, Levine Greenberg Literary Agency. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Booklist Review

Physicist and biotechnology entrepreneur Bahcall examines how companies, and even countries, can encourage loonshots, which he defines as crazy ideas that are panned by critics but can become wild successes if nurtured. He divides loonshots into two categories, S-types (innovations in systems) and P-types (new products), and then suggests a plan for nurturing both types. First, he says to separate the phases; that is, separate the departments responsible for day-to-day operations the soldiers from the creative, experimental artists. Next, create dynamic equilibrium (find a balance between the two departments and encourage both), spread a system mindset (analyze both successes and failures), and finally, examine management principles, including size of teams and project-skill fit. He illustrates these methods with interesting examples, such as how radar was developed during WWII, Pan Am's rise and fall, American Airlines' development of an online reservation system, Polaroid cameras, James Bond and other originally indie movies, and many more. This thorough, fascinating study will appeal to a broader audience than just business wonks.--Caren Nichter Copyright 2010 Booklist

Prologue	p. 1
Introduction	p. 4
Part 1 Engineers of Serendipity
1 How Loonshots Won a War	p. 17
Life on the edge
The Dorchester
How not to fight a war
Gathering storm
Massacre
"One at a time, please"
Eight Nobel Prizes
The first two rules.
2 The Surprising Fragility of the Loonshot	p. 45
Akira Endo and the heart of stone
"It's not a good drug unless it's been killed three times"
Fungi don't run
Saved by chickens
A $90 billion coincidence
Beware the False Fail
3 The Two Types of Loonshots: Trippe vs. Crandall	p. 65
Jet engines vs. frequent fliers
The pie industry
The dangerous virtuous cycle
Wars, loonshots, and cuckoo clocks
"He went from Jesus to Judas"
Watch your blind side.
4 Edwin Land and the Moses Trap	p. 94
When leaders anoint the holy loonshot
Han Solo's escape
Disappearing fish
"Why can't I see it now?"
Photons, electrons, and Richard Nixon
Notes on falling in love
5 Escaping the Moses Trap	p. 121
Buzz and Woody rescue a 747, invent the iPhone, and explain system mindset
Eight megabytes of sexual satisfaction
Isaac Newton vs. Steve Jobs
Balancing Ugly Babies and the Beast
How to win at chess
Summary: The first three rules
Part 2 The Science Of Sudden Change
Interlude: The Importance of Being Emergent	p. 153
6 Phase Transitions, 1: Marriage, Forest Fires, and Terrorists	p. 160
When gradual shifts cause sudden transformations
Jane Austen, physicist
From gas masks to forest fires
How to be simple
Six degrees of Kevin Cricket
When terror goes viral
7 Phase Transitions, Is: The Magic Number 150	p. 186
Why size matters
Mormons, murder, and monkeys
The Invisible Axe
The tug-of-war
The innovation equation
8 The Fourth Rule	p. 203
Raise the magic number
Web of Darpa
A giant nuclear suppository
Six degrees of red balloons
A toothpaste problem
A shredding problem
Postscript: From Nobels and nudges to nurturing loonshots.
Part 3 The Mother Of All Loonshots
9 Why the World Speaks English	p. 231
The Needham question
Eight minutes that changed the world
Movies, drugs, and empires
Loonshot life support
Why England?
The three greatest loonshot nurseries in history
Afterword; Loonshots vs. Disruption	p. 258
The transistor
Walmart
IKEA
The truth about drug discovery
Acknowledgments	p. 265
Glossary	p. 269
Appendix A Summary: The Bush-Vail Rules	p. 273
Appendix B The Innovation Equation	p. 281
Illustration Credits	p. 285
Source Notes	p. 287
Endnotes	p. 315
Index	p. 339

Available:*

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

Summary

Author Notes

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Booklist Review

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