Big Tippers The factors that push businesses over the edge and into the type of growth there's no coming back from

Market research and competitive intelligence have always been aminor part of the services provided by Steve Rice, a Florham Park,New Jersey, environmental management consultant. However, afterreading a book about a concept called the tipping point, the48-year-old former corporate environmental executive plans torevamp his strategy, pushing a little harder to pitch competitiveintelligence and thinking more about whom to pitch to in hopes thatthese offerings may lead to a growth surge for his business."The tipping point got me to thinking," Rice says,"whether this could be a bigger part, if not the biggest part,of my business."

The basic idea behind the tipping point is that things canhappen fast. The tipping point is the point at which a situationthat may have seemed stable or only very slowly changing suddenlygoes through a massive, rapid shift. "It's the boilingpoint. It's the moment when the line starts to shoot straightupwards," explains , author of The Tipping Point (Little, Brown), abook that explains the concept of the tipping point and ways it canbe used in business and in life.

Gladwell chronicles numerous examples of tipping points, rangingfrom the effect of Paul Revere's midnight ride on Americanhistory to the way Hush Puppies shoes suddenly went from out offashion to very chic. In each case, he shows why and how thesituation quickly and dramatically changed due to the effects ofsome powerful tipping-point activators.

Rice's hopes for increasing business from what hadpreviously been merely a sideline service aren't so farfetchedwhen you consider the possible effect of hitting the tipping point.And there are many other benefits of understanding it, according toArlyn J. Melcher, a management professor at Southern IllinoisUniversity in Carbondale, who has used the tipping point to impartmanagement concepts in his classes.

"It's particularly relevant for BIZ Experiencesialfirms," says Melcher. The tipping point idea helpsentrepreneurs understand why they don't always get thehoped-for results immediately with a new marketing campaign ormanagement policy, and it encourages them to continue their effortsuntil, with luck, they reach their tipping points and suddenlyexperience rapid progress toward their goals, he adds.

Tipping Back

"Tipping point" is a term drawn from the field ofepidemiology, the study of the spread of diseases through apopulation. The tipping point in an epidemic such as AIDS is thepoint at which there are enough carriers of a disease or some otherfactor influencing the contagion to allow an explosion that willinfect a large number of people. Similar concepts are used in thesocial sciences, where ideas that spread through cultures likegerms are called memes.

Gladwell presented his ideas, which add examples and analysisfrom business areas such as advertising and televisionbroadcasting, in a 1996 article in The New Yorker magazine,where he is a staff writer. They met with a ready reception, and,since then, the concept of the tipping point itself has tipped.Gladwell's book became a bestseller, and the journalist hasbeen the subject of numerous articles since its publication.

Part of the tipping point's appeal is the simple way inwhich Gladwell describes it. He says there are just three basicrules that govern how products become hot sellers, ideas becomepopular, and other epidemics come into being. One of the rules,which he calls the "Stickiness Factor," states that anidea has to be memorable or a product has to be of durable value toeffect a tipping-point change. Another of Gladwell's rules, the"Power of Context," essentially states that nothinghappens in a vacuum, and the surrounding environment has a lot todo with when tipping points are reached and what happens when theyare.

Perhaps the most interesting of the rules is the "Law ofthe Few." It refers to the fact that, generally, most of theeffect of anything is produced by a relatively small number of theeffectuators. It's better known as the 80-20 rule, or the"Pareto Principle," which explains why, for instance,roughly 20 percent of a typical company's customers produceapproximately 80 percent of its profits. Rather than leave it atthat, Gladwell identifies three types of people whose influence isout of proportion to their numbers. In other words, these are thefew you need to reach if you want to pursue your own tippingpoint.

The Few

According to Gladwell, the people who count are"connectors," "mavens" and"salespeople." Connectors are those exceptionallywell-networked colleagues, employees, customers and other peoplewho seem to know everyone everywhere. They aren't difficult toidentify, and if you can influence them to relay your message byword-of-mouth, whether it's about a new product or a newpolicy, you can be certain they'll carry it far and wide."When you think of leaders who effect change, they'reamazingly well networked," says Mabel Miguel, a managementprofessor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill."They know everybody, and they know the rightpeople."

Mavens, on the other hand, might not know everyone, but theyappear to know everything. And they're eager to shareall that information with other people. Mavens are opinion leaderswith expertise and the ability to impart it, which marks them asthe people others go to for advice. And their advice is usuallyfollowed. For an example, Gladwell describes a particular friendwhose restaurant recommendations he follows automatically. Theinfluence of this maven, he says, is evidenced by the fact that,when frequenting an eatery suggested by his friend, he often seesother people acquainted with that person dining at the same place.The point is that mavens can be used to powerfully influence peopleif you can get them to accept your ideas.

Then there are salespeople. They might not be all that wellconnected or even that incredibly knowledgeable, but the fact thatthey're extremely persuasive makes them stand out-andmakes them especially useful to BIZ Experiencess in search of atipping point. Although Gladwell's analysis of exactly whatmakes these people so persuasive is thorough, he doesn't needas lengthy an explanation to convey the source of their value.Quite simply, if you're able to get a powerful persuader onyour team, you'll persuade more people to go along, whether youwant employees to endorse a new benefits package or customers toaccept a new pricing plan. "Clearly," agrees Miguel,"a very strong element of management is persuasion and beingable to influence people."

You should try to recruit these three types of people any timeyou're trying to effect change, Miguel says. But don't stopwith just a connector, a maven or a salesperson-get all threeon board, and your chances of approaching a tipping point willsignificantly increase. The importance of the concept is ratifiedby studies of change-management processes in companies, Miguelsays. "Forming the guiding coalition of opinion leaders iscritical," she says. "If you don't do that, thechange isn't going to take."

Tipping Trends

The tipping point doesn't explain everything. It's stillno cinch to know whether you're barking up the wrong tree witha new policy or product, or whether you're about to approach atipping point when suddenly everything you wanted to happen willtake place with blinding speed. While the tipping point has beenwell supported by scientific studies in fields such asepidemiology, no similar studies have taken place in business, sothe theory's validity in this area is still based on anecdotalevidence, notes Melcher.

Yet Gladwell's explanation of how things work is simple,attractive and flexible. While the tipping point probably won'tsolve every problem you encounter, it will address many of yourbusiness issues. "People who understand the tippingpoint," Gladwell says, "have a way of decoding the worldaround them."

Mark Henricks is an Austin, Texas, writer who specializes inbusiness topics.