“You can only change the world at scale”, is the very strong assertion by John List in his new book The Voltage Effect: How to make good ideas great, and great ideas scale (2022). List is a distinguished economist who not only has an impressive academic career but has also been the chief economist at Uber and Lyft. He provides not only well researched ideas, but also real world examples of it in practice.
The main thrust of the book is identifying that scale is the one thing that is needed to take an idea and turn it into something that impacts the world and provides the “capacity to grow and expand in a robust and sustainable way.” He uses the term Voltage Effect to explain the science of scaling – why some ideas succeed in scaling up, and why others fail. The book identifies five key signature elements that stop an idea from taking off:
• False positives
• Overestimating how big you will grow
• Failing to identify if success is based on unique circumstances
• Unintended consequences
• Being too costly to scale
The argument is very hard to dispute, and the examples make it easy to see how it would work in practice for yourself. The book is very well organised and written, that can easily be read in bed, on a plane or by the pool.
It would appeal to anyone who is responsible for leading an organisation and wants to take ideas and give them the best chance of working at scale. Equally important for those who have developed ideas and are keen to see what it would take for them to be further developed for scale.
It’s a great book that was challenging and invigorating. Highly recommended.