The Voltage Effect: How to Make Good Ideas Great and Great Ideas Scale

“Scale” has become a favored buzzword in the startup world. But scale isn’t just about accumulating more users or capturing more market share. It’s about whether an idea that takes hold in a small group can do the same in a much larger one—whether you’re growing a small business, rolling out a diversity and inclusion program, or delivering billions of doses of a vaccine.

Translating an idea into widespread impact, University of Chicago economist John A. List says, depends on one thing only: whether it can achieve “high voltage”—the ability to be replicated at scale.

Please join us on April 7 at the Ed Kaplan Family Institute for Innovation and Tech Entrepreneurship to hear from List, the author of The Voltage Effect. In his book, List explains that scalable ideas share a common set of attributes, while any number of attributes can doom an unscalable idea. Drawing on his original research, as well as fascinating examples from the realms of business, policymaking, education, and public health, he’ll share five measurable vital signs that a scalable idea must possess, and will offer proven strategies to avoid voltage drops and engineering voltage gains.

The first 50 attendees will also receive free copies of his new book!