The dictatorship of the proletariat had arrived, as predicted by Karl Marx. But then reality started to diverge from theory. Far from withering away, the Soviet state grew into the largest and most powerful hub the world has ever seen. Over the course of the next seventy years, it took control of all but the smallest businesses, as well as all educational institutions, newspapers, radio, television, police, the army and civil institutions across half of Europe. It also murdered tens of millions of its own citizens. The Soviet state inspired both Hitler and Mao Zedong, who, regardless of apparent ideology, modelled their monstrously vast and hate-creating hubs on identical lines, and similarly succeeded in their programmes of economic and military growth, and barbaric slavery.
We have talked of the ‘gravity of hubs’. In many senses, the Soviet, Nazi and Red Chinese hubs were the gravest of all.
These stories reveal that even astonishingly fresh and magnetic ideas–loving your enemies, the inevitable triumph of industrial workers over capitalism–do not live or die on their own merits. Without Paul, Christianity is unlikely to have reshaped the world. Without Lenin, statues of Marx would surely never have been erected across Russia, Eastern Europe, China and parts of South America. Nor, in all likelihood, would there ever have been a Russian communist state or civil war; or famines; or Stalinist tyranny, with its show trials, purges, mass murders and gulags; or the debilitating rivalry of the Cold War.68
Paul and Lenin breathed new life into the failed ideas of their forerunners. But they also did something even more vital, something which Jesus and Marx never effectively managed–they formed hubs. Paul organised his converts into house-groups in every port, churches that set out to convert more and more local people. Lenin formed revolutionary cells and built up the Bolshevik Party to the stage where it could seize power and then deny it to any other group. Simply because they formed incredibly powerful and important hubs, Paul and Lenin superconnected to an extraordinary and long-lasting degree, far more than Jesus or Marx had. All the world’s most influential superconnectors have left behind hubs that long outlived them; and the founders of the world’s greatest hubs, through that very fact, have all been great superconnectors.
Any idea needs a hub–an organisation of supporters–to become influential. A business idea needs a firm, just as the firm needs the idea. A religion needs a church. A political idea needs a party. A revolutionary idea needs terrorist cells. The supply of ideas always exceeds the demand for them, which is why some wonderful ideas die while others become widespread and even begin superconnecting themselves. The idea is not enough. It requires a coordinated group of zealous supporters to spread it far and wide, to find ‘customers’ who will support the idea against its rivals.
That is also why some terrible ideas–such as hell, the duty of religious persecution, communism and fascism–can become hideously pervasive: they are similarly supported by powerful hubs, and by protagonists intoxicated with power and dogma.
Ideas need networks to spread them–their own ‘broadcast media’. These can be books, radio, television, rallies, church meetings, rock concerts, the Web, advertising or a sales force. In spreading the word, ideas need to fight for attention–against all the other information and noise that might drown them out. Ideas succeed if the network can persuade people that the benefit derived from using the idea exceeds the cost of understanding it.
Consider a new movie or a brand extension like Diet Coke. If the movie is entertaining or the soft drink has virtually no calories, the benefit is small but measurable. Consequently, it will spread only if the effort to understand the benefit is even smaller. It’s easy to get the point of Diet Coke or the latest blockbuster movie. The purpose of brands is to make it easy to understand the product and the benefit it brings.
At the other end of the spectrum, think about a new technology, such as railways, cars, personal computers or the Internet. We now know that these can bring enormous gains, that they have rewired our daily routines of work and communication. But like all new technologies, they took a great deal of time and energy to invent, design, produce and distribute; and new users needed to devote a great deal of energy into understanding how to use them. However great the benefits, new technology spreads slowly at first–for instance, it took more than a decade for the Internet to become mainstream.
To spread an idea, operate on both sides of the equation–the benefits of the new idea, and the effort to understand it. Increase the benefits and make them obvious. Cut the energy required to grasp the new idea. Simplify it. Compress it into a soundbite.
The Sermon on the Mount was not a soundbite. ‘Faith, hope and love, these three abide; but the greatest of these is love’ was.
Das Kapital was no soundbite either. ‘Peace, land, bread’ was.
St Paul and Lenin did something else, too–they linked an original idea, from Jesus and Marx respectively, to another excellent but unrelated idea. In Paul’s case, it was linking the personal, loving God of Jesus to the Greek concept of the universe as a super-mind in which humans could share, so that people could become part of God. Lenin linked Marx’s idea of the inevitable triumph of revolution and the whole ‘scientific’ edifice of Marxism to the conditions in backward Russia.
Business people can similarly link two good ideas–or apply a good idea in a new context–and this can be a relatively easy way to remarkable achievement.
Venture capitalist Adrian Beecroft attributes his success to copying a simple idea:
I took the idea on which my career has been based from the Boston Consulting Group. BCG’s philosophy was to take the top two or three people out of the best business schools. It meant that the consultants were smarter than their clients, which is the only reason BCG survived. BCG and McKinsey swept the world by having the best people and putting them together in networks. The best people learned from each other and became even better at what they did. Now, everyone thinks they hire good people but almost no firms in the world hire
only
the best. It makes recruiting difficult, time consuming and expensive. But that was BCG’s idea and I experienced how well it worked.
And that is what we did in Apax Europe. I was totally uncompromising; I stuck to the idea completely. That was why my firm in Europe became bigger than Apax US. We eventually took over the US side and employed our idea there to great effect. When people ask me why we became so successful, they always expect me to talk about our investment philosophy or something directly related to our industry, and they are always surprised when I mention this simple idea and its overwhelming importance. But it is true.
Cape Town, South Africa, 1950s–present
In South Africa, one of the most famous people from the business world is my friend Raymond Ackerman. He’s known and loved by a huge number of ordinary people, because they shop in his Pick ’n Pay stores, because he is always willing to talk to anyone–his secretary June has strict instructions to put any customer straight through to him–and because he and his wife and business partner, Wendy, are generous and practical philanthropists.