Is modern business killing serendipity?

How many of your business processes improve serendipity and how many destroy it?

A couple of things got me thinking this week. First an article about Elon Musk, in which he said that there were too many MBAs in business. And second, an on-line training course which explained to me (again) the importance of SMART objectives.

I am a physicist by training, something that has set me up well for a career in product management and marketing. Physics is about measuring specific stuff in a timely way, and if you’ve ever seen a physics graduate interact with a chief financial officer, you’ll know exactly what I mean. But physics is also about curiosity and uncertainty, understanding a world where outcomes are not certain and learning to live with a cloud of probabilities. Life is certainly not linear and yet many of our cherished business doctrines are. 

I started out in the mobile phone industry 31 years ago. My company was trying to break into a digital market dominated by Ericsson, Nokia and Motorola. Apple was a little computer company and Huawei didn’t even exist. I nor my cohort had any idea where mobile devices would be today. In fact one poor software engineer was berated for programming a phone to play space invaders during his coffee breaks. “This is a serious business tool, who’s going to want to play computer games on it?” was the reaction!

One dictionary definition of serendipity is “an aptitude for making discoveries by accident”. In his book, ‘The Luck Factor’, popular psychologist, Richard Wiseman examines why it is that some people appear to be ‘luckier’ than others. His conclusion is that peoples’ luck increases because of their behaviours which lead to more opportunities. They indulge their curiosity and engage in more networks to happen upon more “discoveries by accident”. Or in 2020 corporate speak, they lack focus!

During lockdown, I have revisited a t.v. series from the late 1970’s about how interaction between different disciplines and technologies resulted in (then) modern day inventions. James Burke’s “Connections” traces how the most unlikely cross-fertilisation of knowledge results in innovate outcomes. I’ve found that innovation comes from bringing people together and creating an environment where synergies can spark and ideas can be exchanged from completely different skill sets. Often with a lot of humour and joking thrown in. You can create innovative serendipity but how many companies know how?

As an example of a non-linear, serendipitous business, 6 years ago I applied to Sheffield University’s ‘Festival of the Mind’ to present a talk on ‘disruptive technology’. I wanted to demonstrate to home constructors, makers and citizen scientists what they could do with two new technologies; home 3D printing and the recently introduced Raspberry Pi computer with camera. For no other reason than it involved both technologies, I designed a telescope which used the Raspberry Pi camera sensor to collect images and was largely 3D printed. The talk went well and through good networking with the university’s public relations team, also got a good press brief. Then things went a little crazy. The press brief reached national news papers; "the world's first 3D printed telescope". The project web site suddenly started receiving thousands of hits and I realised there was an opportunity to do more. At another networking event, I happened to meet the regional manager of Indiegogo. She gave great advice on how the project might be crowd funded to help people make the telescope at home. Now, 5 years on from that, the PiKon telescope has sold over 300 units all around the world and generated a community of builders. Kits are still available from a Shopify Shop The talk has turned into a business which furthers the original intent of popularising making for the citizen scientist. All without SMART objectives, but instead following curiosity, networking, recognising opportunities and not worrying when a given path didn't work out.

So the next time you are asked to come up with SMART goals, think very hard about how you manage your serendipity. Gut feelings and curiosity may be hard to quantify, they are vital to a resilient business.