Over the summer, I like to expand my reading list into different topics. This year I discovered Rory Sutherland and his book Alchemy: The Power of Ideas That Don’t Make Sense. Sutherland is a British marketing executive and vice chairman of Ogilvy, but his insights go far beyond advertising. His book weaves together ideas from economics, psychology, evolutionary biology, and philosophy. It’s packed with practical wisdom for personal growth as well as for running and marketing a business.
While the book is full of insights on nearly every page, here are five key takeaways that I found especially relevant for employers and business leaders.
Sutherland argues that the best ideas often come from unexpected places. He urges readers not to rely solely on logic, but also to leave room for chance, counterintuitive thinking, and the quirks of human psychology.
One of his fascinating examples comes from bee colonies: roughly 20% of bees ignore the “waggle dance” instructions that tell them where to find pollen. Instead, they set off in random directions, often discovering new sources of food. Without these “adventurer bees”—which I like to think of as modern venture capitalists—the hive would eventually fail once its known sources ran dry.
Takeaway: There’s risk mitigation in being unpredictable. Businesses benefit when they experiment, explore new opportunities, and avoid becoming entirely predictable.
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