Prof. Dr. Christian Busch is the bestselling author of The Serendipity Mindset: The Art & Science of Creating Good Luck. Arianna Huffington called it “a wise, exciting, and life-changing book” that Paul Polman says “provides excellent practical guidance for all.”

Christian is an internationally-known expert in the areas of innovation, purpose-driven leadership, and serendipity. He is the director of the CGA Global Economy Program at NYU, and also teaches at the London School of Economics. He is a cofounder of Leaders on Purpose and the Sandbox Network, and a former director of LSE's Innovation Lab.

His work has been featured by outlets such as the Strategic Management Journal,Harvard Business Review, Forbes, The Guardian, Washington Post, and the BBC. He is member of the World Economic Forum's (WEF) Expert Forum, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and on the Thinkers50 Radar list of the 30 thinkers "most likely to shape the future.

In this podcast, he shares:

• His concept that luck (or serendipity) is not random, but can actually be cultivated
• Some of the specific characteristics and practices of organizations that are able to turn unexpected events, trends, market developments into opportunity
• Some really practical ways you can start generating more luck, for yourself, your life, and your organization

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"That...idea that we have to stick to the plan is something that...portrays authority, portrays the idea that we are reliable and dependable, but actually a lot of times it does the opposite in the end because we now have an incentive to hide numbers, to somehow try to figure out how we can tweak the budgets to still look good. And so actually from a performer perspective, we actually a lot of times do the opposite."

-Christian Busch

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Episode Timeline:

00:00—Introducing Christian+ The topic of today’s episode

2:23—What is your definition of strategy?

4:23—How did you get into the idea of serendipity?

5:28—How can serendipity be applied to business?

7:10—What are the barriers to seeing these opportunities that serendipity affords?

10:52—What are other leverage points to embed serendipity into a company's culture?

13:05—How companies can encourage or kill serendipity

21:30—What is something people get wrong?

17:40—Could you explain your concept of casting hooks?

19:04—How can people connect with you?

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Additional Resources:

Company Page: https://theserendipitymindset.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/chrisserendip

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/today/author/christianwbusch

Thank you to our guest, our executive producer Zach Ness, our editor James Pearce, and the Outthinker team. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow, download, and subscribe. I’m your host, Kaihan Krippendorff—thank you for listening.

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