Foreword Guy Kawasaki 14
Part 1 A Bit of History 17
Crisis creates opportunity 18
You can thrive in times of loss 20
Reinvent what people want 22
Keep your finger on the pulse of pop culture 24
Learn the game and start to play 26
"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but rather the one most adaptable to change." 28
Even the clever must adapt 29
You cannot escape disruptive evolution 30
Don't become a boiled frog 31
Stay focused on opportunity 32
Find a way to make sense of all the noise 34
Accept that the world never returns to normal 36
You don't need to have everything figured out 37
There is comfort in chaos 37
The only things slowing you down are the rules you need to break 38
Small decisions can have a profound impact 40
Learn to adapt: The Exploiting Chaos Framework 42
Part 2 Culture of Revolution 45
Don't let monkeys inhibit change 46
Spark a revolution 49
Perspective 51
Understand your perspective 53
Specifically what are you trying to do? 53
"Smith Corona-the best typewriter company in the world!" 54
Don't be seduced by complacency 56
Look beyond the failure of others 57
Assume tremendous potential in rival ideas 58
Explore uncertainty 60
Avoid retreating to your comfort zone 62
Question rational thought 64
Understand the pattern of disruption 65
If you're big, act small 66
If you're small, act big 67
Chase the right dream 68
Exploit crisis to accelerate change 70
Shift perspective, spark revolution 72
You cannot predict the future ... 74
... but you can predict scenarios and capitalize on disruption 76
Visualize disaster and opportunity 78
"The rightquestions don't change as often as the answers do" 80
Experimental Failure 85
A decent proportion of your creations must fail 86
Be wary of your strengths; success leads to complacency 88
Don't let complacency be the architecture of your downfall 89
It's easy to find the peak of a hill ... 90
...to find a larger hill, you have to walk through a valley 91
Create a gambling fund 92
Break down managerial confidence 94
Don't ask, "Do you like it?" Ask, "What's wrong with it?" 95
Make failure a part of every day 96
Win like you're used to it, lose like you enjoy it 98
Fire people for not failing 99
Don't celebrate the attainment of the summit, celebrate the style of climb 100
Customer Obsession 103
If you want to be remembered, invoke an emotional connection ... 104
If you want to engage, invoke a cultural connection 107
Obsess about your customer 108
Don't speak to your customers, speak with them 111
Inspire customers to champion your brand 112
Observe in the zone 116
Get uncomfortable 118
Do it yourself 120
Fight the confidence that you know your customer 122
Spend time in the zone 124
Seek authenticity 126
Intentional Destruction 129
Tear apart structure 130
Become leaderless 132
Stop telling people what to do 134
Build a creative work environment 136
Act crazy* *especially if you're a senior leader 138
Hire freaks 140
Piss people off 142
Let reason triumph over hierarchy 143
Diversity thought 144
Cross-pollinate your ideas 145
Remove the walls that separate people and ideas 146
Destroy the perks of seniority 148
Encourage informality 149
Celebrate that nothing is precious 150
Destroy value 152
Throw away your best ideas 154
Laugh 156
Part 3 Trend Hunting 159
There's no point innovating if you think you already know the answer 160
Actively seek inspiration 162
Develop a toolkit to filter ideas 164
Awaken your inner Trend Hunter 166
Popular is not cool 168
Cool is unique and cutting edge 169
Most importantly, cool is viral ... which is why marketers and product designers seek to attain it 170
Constantly seek to be unique 171
Don't ignore the fringe 172
Hunt trends in 20 ways 174
Group ideas into meaningful clusters 178
Force yourself to re-cluster 179
Case Study: Design a hip hotel 180
Example of Step 1: Resetting 182
Example of Step 2: Hunting 182
Hotels: The cutting edge 184
Hotel services: Ideas from the fringe 186
Adjacent and unrelated 188
Example of Step 3: Identify clusters 190
Example of Step 4: Re-cluster 192
Let clusters lead you to breakthrough ideas 194
Part 4 Adaptive Innovation 197
Be methodical and stay out of communist prisons 198
Use the Trend Hunter Adaptive Innovation Framework 200
Step 1 Define a clear customer need 202
Find the next Cherry Garcia 203
Step 2 Ideate like it matters 204
Prevent ideation from sucking 205
Step 3 Synthesize 206
Step 4 Create rapid prototypes 207
Go faster 208
Step 5 Test and launch 210
Step 6 There is no Step 6 Repeat Step 1 instead 211
Manage innovation like a stock portfolio 212
Do lots, explore, gamble, and be safe 214
Innovate inside the box 216
Create artificial constraints 218
Stay strong after a snakebite 220
Don't play with the house money 220
You have to play to win 222
Take advantage of uncertainty 223
Pursue disproportionate value 224
Don't add when you can divide 225
Pull weeds, grow roses 226
Part 5 Infectious Messaging 229
When you create something that connects, your message travels faster than ever before 230
Package your product like it's the best in the world 232
Convey style before substance 234
Screw logic, tell a story 236
Let words create image 238
Invent mythology 239
Contextualize your message 240
Articulate your mantra 242
Convey everything in 7 words or less 244
Know why I should choose you 245
Rule #1: Relentlessly obsess about your story 248
Use the Trend Hunter Title Framework: Simple, Direct, and Supercharged 250
Example 1: The $5,000 Hamburger 252
Example 2: The Heart Attack Grill 254
Conclusion: Chaos permits you to think differently 258
Let the exploitation begin ... 260
Act now 262
Thanks 264
Want more? 266
Footnotes 268
Image credits 271
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