Malcolm Gladwell: What the Failed Quest for the One Perfect Spaghetti Sauce Tells Us About Diversity

You cannot make one product that is good for everyone. Society is way too diverse. That’s what Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers and, most recently, What the Dog Saw and Other Adventures, reminds his audience in this video on the quest for the perfect spaghetti sauce:

Whether it’s spaghetti sauce or coffee or furniture, the one-size-fits-all mentality is a dead end.  Powerful and profitable innovations involve finding out what diverse individuals prefer and experience. That’s why there are 30 different types of spaghetti sauce, myriad ways to make coffee that has made Starbucks and other coffee houses exceptionally profitable, and a growing variety of approaches to medical care. It also has implications for education and law enforcement among many different contexts.

And how best to see these multiple possibilities of needs, desires, and wants but to have a diverse and crossculturally competent workforce.

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