Serendipity is an unplanned fortunate discovery. The term was coined by Horace Walpole in 1754.
17-414: The concept is often associated with scientific and technological breakthroughs, where accidental discoveries led to new insights or inventions. Many significant discoveries in history were serendipitous, including penicillin, Post-it notes, Viagra, and the microwave, arising from unforeseen circumstances that were then recognized and capitalized upon. While serendipity in popular usage is often understood as
34-694: A Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Politics and Organization at the University of Hagen . He received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in management at the London School of Economics . Busch serves as an Associate Professor of Clinical Management and Organization at the USC Marshall School of Business . Previously, he taught at the London School of Economics (LSE) and New York University (NYU), where he directed
51-681: A casual walk in the park can lead to new friendships, interests, or even career opportunities. The first noted use of "serendipity" was by Horace Walpole on 28 January 1754. In a letter he wrote to his friend Horace Mann , Walpole explained an unexpected discovery he had made about a lost painting of Bianca Cappello by Giorgio Vasari by reference to a Persian fairy tale, The Three Princes of Serendip . The princes, he told his correspondent, were "always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of." The name comes from Serendip , an old Persian name for Sri Lanka (Ceylon), hence Sarandib by Arab traders. It
68-439: A matter of pure chance, scientific discussions emphasize the crucial role of human agency—recognizing, interpreting, and acting upon unexpected opportunities. This interaction between chance and conscious action has been a key theme in areas such as creativity, leadership, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Christian Busch views serendipity as "active luck", where chance encounters and human action come together. A missed flight or
85-557: A special issue on ‘Serendipity, Chance, and Luck in Management and Strategy’. Busch has published several scientific papers on serendipity, conceptualizing it as “active luck”—the notion of actively making surprising and valuable discoveries. He identifies three key elements of serendipity that help distinguish it from related concepts: agency, surprise and value, and presents a multi-level model involving chance triggers, associations (creating new connections) and ‘materialization’ (realizing
102-632: A specific possibility). Busch’s theory suggests that social actors have agency in creating serendipity: Like training ‘hard skills’ related to finance or engineering, it is possible to train serendipity-related skills such as alertness. Busch’s research is widely used in educational and professional development programs, including by the American Psychological Association and Harvard Business Review's Harvard ManageMentor. He has delivered multiple TEDx Talks on topics such as serendipity, innovation, and purpose-driven leadership. He
119-507: A young writer". He contributes columns to Psychology Today as well as Wirtschaftswoche. Busch is German, married to an US-American woman and has one daughter. 1984 This is an accepted version of this page 1984 ( MCMLXXXIV ) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar , the 1984th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations,
136-414: Is a management scientist , author and public speaker recognized for his work on serendipity, innovation, and purpose-driven leadership. He is a business professor at the University of Southern California (USC) Marshall School of Business and an affiliate researcher at the London School of Economics . Busch earned a Bachelor of Business Administration (B.B.A.) from Furtwangen University , and
153-534: Is at the fringe of what we already know, because that is when we have the cognitive structures to make sense of the new ideas." Serendipity is a design principle for online activity that would present viewpoints that diverge from those participants already hold. Harvard Law professor Cass Sunstein argues that such an "architecture of serendipity" would promote a healthier democracy. Like a great city or university, "a well-functioning information market" provides exposure to new ideas, people, and ways of life. "Serendipity
170-490: Is crucial because it expands your horizons. You need that if you want to be free." The idea has potential application in the design of social media, information searches, and web browsing. Several uncommonly used terms have been derived from the concept and name of serendipity. William Boyd coined the term zemblanity in the late twentieth century to mean somewhat the opposite of serendipity: "making unhappy, unlucky and expected discoveries occurring by design". The derivation
187-614: Is derived from the Sanskrit Siṃhaladvīpaḥ (Siṃhalaḥ, Sinhalese + dvīpaḥ, island). The word has been exported into many other languages, with the general meaning of "unexpected discovery" or "fortunate chance". The term "serendipity" is often applied to inventions made by chance rather than intent. Andrew Smith, editor of The Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink , has speculated that most everyday products had serendipitous roots, with many early ones related to animals. The origin of cheese, for example, possibly originated in
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#1732868602745204-692: Is speculative, but believed to be from Nova Zembla , a barren archipelago once the site of Russian nuclear testing. Bahramdipity is derived directly from Bahram Gur as characterized in The Three Princes of Serendip . It describes the suppression of serendipitous discoveries or research results by powerful individuals. In addition, Solomon & Bronstein (2018) further distinguish between perceptual and realised pseudo-serendipity and nemorinity . Christian Busch (management scientist) Christian Busch (* 1984 in Bergisch Gladbach )
221-408: Is the bestselling author of THE SERENDIPITY MINDSET, a “wise, exciting, and life-changing book” ( Arianna Huffington ) that “offers excellent practical guidance for all” ( Paul Polman , former CEO, Unilever). As of August 2024, it has been translated into 12 languages. This book was a finalist for the 2018 Financial Times / McKinsey Bracken Bower Prize for "best business book proposal of the year by
238-409: The nomad practice of storing milk in the stomach of a dead camel that was attached to the saddle of a live one, thereby mixing rennet from the stomach with the milk stored within. Other examples of serendipity in inventions include: Serendipity contributed to entomologist Shaun Winterton discovering Semachrysa jade , a new species of lacewing , which he found not in its native Malaysia, but on
255-683: The Center for Global Affairs’ Global Economy Program. He co-founded the organizations Leaders on Purpose and Sandbox Network, and served as co-director of LSE’s Innovation Lab. He is a member of the Expert Forum of the World Economic Forum , a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts , among CAPITAL's ‘Top 40 under 40’ and on the Thinkers50 Radar list of management thinkers ‘most likely to shape
272-702: The future’. Busch is also a ‘Subject Matter Expert’ of the Academy of Management . Busch’s research interests include: He has received multiple ‘Best Paper Awards’ from the Academy of Management , as well as the Masini Award for Innovative Scholarship. He serves on the Editorial Review Board of the Academy of Management Perspectives and is a guest editor at the Strategic Management Journal for
289-424: The photo-sharing site Flickr . Winterton's discovery was aided by Flickr's ability to present images that are personalized to a user's interests, thereby increasing the odds he would chance upon the photo. Computer scientist Jaime Teevan has argued that serendipitous discovery is promoted by such personalisation, writing that "people don't know what to do with random new information. Instead, we want information that
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