The Power of Serendipity in Business
What Is Serendipity
Over the course of my career in PR, I have learnt about the power of serendipity in business and it is something that I like to talk about with small businesses and the self-employed. Essentially, it is associated with how we network and the importance of networking, which is all part and parcel of PR—remember Chapter 1 in this book—PR is all about relationships and people.
Being connected both online and off-line is a strong tool for small, medium-sized businesses (SMEs) because it creates opportunities and, when we build a solid network of global contacts, we are also creating potential business for ourselves.
Serendipity itself means “fortunate happenstance” or “pleasant surprise” and was coined by English art historian Horace Walpole in 1754 suggested by The Three Princes of Serendip, a fairy tale, where the heroes “were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things they were not in quest of” (Interesting Literature, “A Short History Of The Word Serendipity” https://interestingliterature.com/2015/01/28/a-short-history-of-the-word-serendipity/).
Perhaps the most famous example of serendipity is the accidental discovery of penicillin, a group of antibiotics used to combat bacterial infections. In 1928, Scottish biologist Alexander Fleming took a break from his lab work investigating staphylococci and went on holiday. When he returned, he found that one Petri dish had been left open and a blue-green mold had formed. This fungus had killed off all surrounding bacteria in the culture. The mold contained a powerful antibiotic, penicillin, that could kill harmful bacteria without having a toxic effect on the human body. Fleming’s chance discovery has been credited as the moment when modern medicine was born.
Characteristics of Serendipity
The first thing to learn is that serendipity is unpredictable and that it happens more when you work hard, but is not always there because you tried hard.
While you cannot predict when it happens, you can sometimes have a good guess. Luck and serendipity are often connected, and I, too, have mistakenly thought in the past that these two are linked, but I have learnt through experience that these two terms are actually quite different; because to become a wizard of serendipity you need to navigate and strategize until you are positioned in the right place at the right time, while to be lucky is to simply find oneself in the right place at the right time. There is a subtle, important difference.
The more we plan our PR and work online and off-line, we can create serendipity for ourselves. When we create a place where everyone who is connected to a business can interact, you automatically create a place where chance encounters are happening at every minute. Serendipity is an approach that should be cultivated and practiced at all times. It is not an abstract concept. It happens best when we are networking and using social media—we increase our chances of it happening. The more we work at what we do then the better are our chances for serendipity to occur. “Serendipitous networking” requires awareness, patience, and perseverance; as new relationships arise, these connections mature, and evolve. As a business owner and entrepreneur, you can easily see how serendipity networking gives you a better return on investment (ROI) on your relations capital.
It is a significant factor in both the creative process and the business process and Harvard Business Review’s CEOs revealed one pattern, which is the most successful leaders and their companies have increasingly, and usually subconsciously, been developing a muscle for serendipity (Global CEO Study 2017-2018).
The Four Principles
There are some things we can do to increase and build serendipity in our lives, which I believe thrives on four principles:
- Be random, open, and flexible. We are conditioned not to talk to strangers, yet some people enter our lives and change them forever. Do not just aim to talk to the people you think you need to when at events, because you just do not know who the other people in the room are connected to and who they may know?! Do not keep networking in the same pool, go out and be flexible. Accept invitations to connect from people outside your sector, as you do not know who they know and what opportunities might be waiting for you. What we do know is that when you are more serendipitous in your outlook, we create opportunities and possibilities—which is always good for business.
- Be helpful. Go out of your way to be kind, friendly, and helpful to everyone—they are likely to pay you back and remember you. I have found that “paying it forward” is one of the key principles of serendipity. There is always room for everyone. Plus, it is a fact that we always remember the kind, good people.
- Get out there. You need to be active online and off-line—connecting with people. Conversations cannot happen if you are not visible or participating. Action is needed. There may be occasions when you keep seeing the same person at different events or when networking. Do not ignore the person, go and get to know them, introduce yourself, and explain that you have been at the same events recently and that you thought you would say hello. I have done this and made some great connections.
- Always be ready. Most of your networking will not occur from Monday to Friday between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.; unexpected conversations are the stuff serendipity networking is made of! Always have business cards on you.
Tony Hsieh, an American serial entrepreneur who co-founded Zappos, an online shoe and clothing retailer, who is also co-founder of the Downtown Project in Las Vegas, is a firm believer in serendipity. He has tried to cultivate serendipity at the Zappos headquarters, where the office has only one entrance, so employees from all departments run into each other. Hsieh has said, “Meet lots of different people without trying to extract value from them. You don’t need to connect the dots right away. But if you think about each person as a new dot on your canvas, over time, you’ll see the full picture” (Inc.com 2013).
Frans Johansson’s 2015 book, The Click Moment, is about making that moment happen. He researched successful people and organizations, showing a common theme—a random moment occurs and they take advantage of it to change their fate—a “click moment” of unexpected opportunity. In his book he uses stories from history to illustrate the specific actions we can take to create more click moments, open ourselves up to chance encounters. I have included some stories here that sum up “serendipitous business moments,” such as, when Diane von Furstenberg randomly saw Julie Nixon Eisenhower on TV wearing a matching skirt and top, which led Furstenberg to create the timeless, elegant wrap-dress. Today Furstenberg has shops in 65 countries. Johansson writes, “We can’t escape the role randomness plays in our success or failure, but we can utilize its tremendous and enduring power” (p. 89).
Howard Schultz in his interview with the Daily Telegraph (2001) talks about creating relationships with people around the world, authentic experiences, and about doing something unplanned. These are all the elements of serendipity. In fact, in 1983, Schultz, then Director of Retail Operations and Marketing for Starbucks, went to Milan to attend an international housewares show. The Seattle company was not yet everywhere. Schultz took a break from the conference schedule to sample the local flavors, discovering that the Italian city’s cafés were packed. Sipping a latte, he realized that people were not drinking coffee because of the equipment used, but because of communal experience—that was the business for Starbucks.
Case Stories
Setting yourself apart is one of the best bets for success and is what chef Marcus Samuelsson did when he bid to make a state dinner for President Obama in honor of visiting Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Johansson (2015) noted that knowing that the other 16 chefs in the running would be cooking within the bounds of White House tradition—French American cuisine had been served at every state dinner since 1874—the fusion-thinking Samuelsson decided to differentiate himself, suggesting a menu of Indian-American dishes, including veggies from Michelle’s backyard garden. “The problem was that I was going head-to-head with 15 other excellent chefs. If we all proposed exceptional, but mostly traditional, menus it would be a crapshoot,” he told Johansson, “They would either accept my separate approach or they wouldn’t. If they liked it…I had no real competition. I would win.” Samuelsson was selected. Johansson writes that “by rejecting the expected he opened himself up to a number of immediate insights that separated him from his competitors and greatly improved his odds for success” (p. 135).
Through my own “serendipity moments” I have connected to a wealth of expertise, business and personal contacts. I have also collected some pretty amazing business stories along the way.
A business woman in London noticed a new florist that had opened at her local tube station. At this time this particular lady was looking for a celebrity to support her charitable cause. She decided to go in and give some local support and bought some flowers. While there she started a conversation with the florist, discovering that this florist’s biggest customer was Simon Cowell. The rest as they say is history.
Serendipity can cross continents and once while giving a talk about the “power of serendipity in business” at a local London business forum, during the Q&A session, someone stood up and said they wanted to connect me to their friend who is in Los Angeles (LA) and a songwriter. I was open to be connected and, two years later when I happened to be in LA for work, I met her friend, who in turn connected me to his friend, and his friend became one of my closest and long-standing clients—P.F. Sloan.
The PR strategy for P.F. Sloan was built on serendipity and this was a project with practically no budget. When I first met Sloan in LA in early June 2013, he had written his memoirs with his co-writer Steve Feinberg and they wanted a UK publishing house. When I came back to London that same month, I contacted four publishing houses and it was Jawbone Press who said they wanted to publish the book. They were looking for that last title that they felt was missing from their 2013 list. Everything was signed off by the end of that June, a rarity in publishing.
But the most significant serendipity story was I when had this deep gut feeling that I had to get P.F. Sloan to perform at Glastonbury in 2014 on the back of his London book launch and tour. I drew on my connections and had people connect me to the top dogs in the music business to help connect me to the organizers at Glastonbury, but nothing happened. I could have given up, but I was convinced this was going to happen and, importantly, had to make it happen. I decided to e-mail Glastonbury myself and found a contact e-mail on its official website. Within three hours of sending that e-mail, one of the organizers at Glastonbury contacted me to say that they would love to have the legendary P.F. Sloan perform and that is what happened. P.F. Sloan went to Glastonbury the same year Dolly Parton was there.
Some of my clients have come from random connections on social media, including one small business based in Las Vegas, who was looking for a London-based PR agency. This was a great opportunity that also grew my network in Las Vegas itself.
I connected a local photographer that I knew to a global business leadership forum, who wanted a good photographer to take photos at their key events. A year later, this photographer is still working for this organization and recently saw a high-profile business woman at one of these events, a business woman she had heard of and who had influenced her own life. This photographer took her chance and went to introduce herself to this influential business woman. They swapped business cards. Now this local photographer is working for this very business woman! This story holds all the principles of serendipity—paying it forward, flexibility, grabbing an opportunity—to make this business opportunity happen.
I heard this great story about Bill Clinton when he was governor, who made it his duty to shake everyone’s hand in the room—whether they were important or not. When asked why he went to so much trouble, Clinton replied, you just do not know who people are connected to.
“The Book Fairies” was a brilliant idea that launched in 2017 to inspire people to read books based on the principle of serendipity, which has now become a global business. The idea was simple and based on the premise that there are people around the world who like to read and share the books they have read. Combined with the fact that everyone loves a surprise, that is how “The Book Fairies” was created—giving people a chance to pop a sticker and some ribbon on a book, and leave it somewhere to be discovered! “The Book Fairies” can be anywhere and is for anyone—readers and authors; it is a clever business idea that not only helps to promote books but also authors. “The Book Fairies” has almost 9,000 people sharing books in over 100 countries!
In a world dominated by precision and efficiency, it is important to change the mind-set and perception of serendipity as loss of managerial control. Instead, see it as a sign of an open mind and a positive corporate culture that is crucial to avoid losing potentially serendipitous, valuable outcomes. Companies like Google are a great example of doing this and have learned to find a creative balance between their goals and a world that is completely unpredictable. As a small business, start-up, or being self-employed it means being out there, where people can find you. It means investing in creating your social media profiles on different platforms and being active. It also means being open to network with different people, which allows you to be connected to the connected.
Summary
Building relationships is part and parcel of good PR and in turn helps a business or organization to thrive and grow. The Internet and social media make it easier for us to create partnerships and collaborations. While off-line and real-time networking, being open to connect with others outside your sector can also be rewarding, bringing with it opportunities. The trick is not to put a time frame on when you think that these opportunities may come your way, because then you are automatically putting pressure on yourself and closing down your ability to be open. There is no science or algorithm to serendipity; it is based very much on trusting your instincts, which is good skill to have in business.