Coolfarming: Turn Your Great Idea into the Next Big Thing

PETER GLOOR (Cambridge, MA), the coauthor of Coolhunting (978-0-8144-7386-3), has enjoyed a 20-year career as an executive for UBS, PwC, and Deloitte. He divides his time between the MIT Sloan School of Management, Helsinki University of Technology, and the University of Cologne, and has been growing his startup company, galaxyadvisors.

C O N T E N T S

Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .IX

1 HOW DO YOU TURN A COOL IDEA INTO A TREND? . . . . . . . 1

The Four Steps of Coolfarming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

Finding the Trendsetters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

Growing Your Own Trends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

Coolfarming Is More Than Managing a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11

Coolfarming the World Wide Web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17

Coolfarming Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21

2 SWARM CREATIVITY: The Force That Fuels Coolfarming . . 29

The More Swarms Communicate, the Better They Perform . . . . . .34

Swarm Business Beats “Black Swans” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37

Lessons from the Beehive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40

Swarm Creativity in Ghana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55

Essentials of Coolfarming and Coolhunting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .68

3 CREATORS: Building the Vision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

COIN Leaders Are Not Leaders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .75

Eating and Feeding Royal Jelly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .77

Royal Pheromone—Nicholas Negroponte . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .79

Coolfarmers Are Coolhunters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .82

How Do Leaders Get Selected? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .86

Coolfarming Tourists—Immersing Yourself into the Swarm . . . . . .88

Coolfarming a Palm Tree Plantation—

Empowering the Community . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .93

Running an Internet Café in Ghana—

Using the Swarm to Police the Swarm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .95

Seven Guidelines for Creators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .98

4 COINS: Building the Product . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

How Picasso Created Cubism Through a COIN . . . . . . . . . . . .103

Gain Power by Giving It Up—Rotating Leadership . . . . . . . . . .106

Start Out as a Small Fish in a Big Pond . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .111

Six Guidelines for COINs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .114

5 CLNS: Teaching and Preaching the Gospel . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Increasing Sales Through a CLN of Salespeople . . . . . . . . . . . . .120

Learning About Innovations Through the

P&G Technology Entrepreneurs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Coolfarming in Twilight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .129

Six Guidelines for CLNs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .132

6 CIN: Building the Buzz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Immersion Gets the Swarm to Explosion—LEGO Mindstorms . . .137

Building the Heat—Yummy Industries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .145

From Creators to CINs—

Illustrating the Process Through Social Networks . . . . . . . . . .150

Five Guidelines for CINs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .155

7 COOLHUNTING: Find the Trends Through

the Trendsetters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

Coolhunting Combines the Wisdom of Crowds,

Experts, and Swarms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .161

Coolhunting U.S. Presidential Candidates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .168

Coolhunting the Value of Brands:

Looking for the End of the Federer Era . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .174

Why the World’s Most Influential Intellectual

Is an Islamic Cleric . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .175

Predicting the Outcome of the Academy Awards . . . . . . . . . . . . .178

Predicting Stock Trends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .180

Predicting the Actions of People Using Social Badges . . . . . . . . .181

8 WHAT MOTIVATES COOLFARMERS? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

Coolfarmers Show Yhteisöllisyys and Gemeinsinn . . . . . . . . . . . .186

Coolfarmers Are Ethical . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .190

COINs Need Cops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .192

Coolfarmers Are Happy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .193

Coolfarmers Are Altruistic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .196

AFTERWORD: It’s Not Chief Executives,

but Chief Creators We Need! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .209

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .215

About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .225