If you haven’t heard of “innovation expert” Jeremy Gutsche yet, you will soon. Founder of the barometric TrendHunter.com, a site with its finger on the pulse of everything current or on the horizon, co-host of Trend Hunter TV and one of North America´s most requested keynote speakers, Gutsche has just released Exploiting Chaos, a book that is, in a word, stunning. And it would be stunning if it didn’t become an instant bestseller and classic, and catapult its young author onto the current guru pantheon alongside trend spotters and commentators like Wired editor Chris Anderson and pop sociologist Malcom Gladwell.

But I suspect Gutsche, whose TrendHunter.com site boasts an audience of over 10 million monthly views, and is followed closely and sourced by media ranging from the Financial Times to Entertainment Tonight, will surpass Anderson, Gladwell and anyone else in that company. Though publications like The Independent have gushingly labelled TrendHunter.com the world´s biggest online “cool hunting magazine," what Gutsche presents in Exploiting Chaos is more than an anatomy or omnibus of “cool,” and more than the advertised “ultimate business survival guide,” but quite possibly a radical and sensible guide for living day to day in an increasingly complex and chaotic world.

Albert Einstein, as Guy Kawasaki points out in the book’s foreword, proposed three rules of work: “Out of clutter, find simplicity; from discord, find harmony; in the middle of difficult lies opportunity.” Gutsche seems to have internalized these simple but profound principles in dissecting the world and proposing a road map for the future. Through concise analyses of companies that survived and indeed flourished during chaotic times (and ones that did not) Exploiting Chaos distills the information into a practical “toolkit” for managers – i.e., 150 different ways to spark transformative change, key to which is the science of adaptation.

But perhaps directing advice like the following solely to “managers” sells the book and its manifold ideas a little short: “Adaptive Innovation: Engineers, designers, and scientists have invested billions of dollars to perfect human creativity. By applying the best of their proven practices to your own field, you can think big while acting small. You can rapidly identify and evaluate new opportunities.” A simple and perfect strategy for managers perhaps, but one that ordinary citizens could implement as well if they truly thought about and explored what was right at their fingertips.

Gutsche is like a surfing instructor showing a bunch of suits how to ride a new violent but potentially thrilling and rewarding wave, but even us folks up on the dune in our shorts can pick up a few tips from him. When he talks about developing tools to filter ideas, the advice may come as unnatural for some, unfeasible for others, but given the obvious signs of erosion of so many pillars of the 20th century, and the complete breakdown of others, it would seem sage advice indeed for any person to “relentlessly pursue new ideas ... feed my insatiable hunger for innovation ... expose myself to the fringe ... be cutting-edge and spectacular.”

Exploiting Chaos reads like a combination of an updated Law of Success and a cheerful and enthusiastic Future Shock (turning Alvin Toffler’s dystopian train on its head). Its clarion call for the creative, risky thinking critical during times of change and disorder will no doubt appeal to CEOs and entrepreneurs trying to stay ahead of the curve, and managers or bureaucrats trying to keep their jobs, but one can see it reaching the hearts and minds of a much wider demographic. Its messages transcend business matters and “cool” and offer some cutting-edge strategies for thinking and living well.

EXPLOITING CHAOS
Jeremy Gutsche
Gotham Books
272 pages
$25.00

More info: www.trendhunter.com

Salvatore Difalco is, among many things, senior writer for TORO and the author of Black Rabbit & Other Stories.