Let’s be real: business, much like life, is messy. Reality has a way dropping the mic drop in the middle of our best-laid plans. What do I mean by serendipity?

This:

In 1945, a U.S. defense contractor employee was working on the magnetron, a microwave-emitting tube used in radar systems to detect Nazi warplanes, when he noticed something unexpected: The bar of chocolate in his coat was melting. Percy Lebaron Spencer hadn’t been the first to observe this effect of the magnetron, but he was the first to be curious enough to experiment with it. With a prototyped metal box and a high-density electromagnetic field, he investigated its effect on different foods, such as popcorn and eggs. The first microwave was born, with a helping hand from serendipity.
(Connecting the dots in an uncertain world).

That is from an article from 2020 at Price Waterhouse Cooper. I know – 5 years late. Call it serendipity.

Now imagine what the world would be like if that engineer had just shrugged his shoulders and switched coats instead of tinkering?

No $100 hot dog cookers and ice cream softeners that’s what.

I believe – and practice – that serendipity is not luck. It’s a muscle—one we can build if we make the effort.

Operationalizing Serendipity for Outrageous Results

Most organizations treat happy accidents like finding $20 in a pair of old jeans fun, helpful, interesting – but not bankable. But I submit, groundbreaking brands bake it into their culture.

I call it “institutionalized serendipity.”

This isn’t rolling dice. As the article discusses… companies like IKEA, when faced with sustainability pushes, didn’t just optimize current processes—they fully pivoted, investing in wind farms because they followed a chain of weird, non-obvious dots. A Turkish telecom, in a moment of national crisis, gave away internet to keep people connected—not in the playbook, but the right thing, and it unlocked massive loyalty. These moves happen because people, top to bottom, are trained to notice the weird, embrace the unexpected, and actually act on it.

Simple and practical first step?

Ask your teams: “What oddball stuff did you notice this week?” Even little things, like farmers using washing machines to clean potatoes, can spark entirely new products and markets if you’re brave enough to suspend judgment and chase the ‘why not?’.

THE CAVEAT – Get Used to Failure

From the article: “This serendipity-spotting mindset goes hand in hand with de-risking ideas and facilitating an environment of trust. An environment that encourages risk-taking and cross-pollination of ideas increases serendipity.”

Some of the best stuff bubbles up from postmortems where people swap flop stories. Pixar’s Ed Catmull famously said “early on, all our movies suck.”

That’s a feature, not a bug.

If people feel safe owning failure, more wild ideas get shared; sometimes those dead ends are gold mines for another division, just waiting for someone to connect the dots.

Return on Failure: Metric, Not Mantra

The article buried the lede IMO because the real AhA! Is this:

“He also emphasised the importance of a new success metric, Return on Failure, arguing that learning from failed experiments can accelerate innovation and deepen customer trust”.

In other words, stop rewarding only shiny, finished wins and start measuring how much you learn, adapt, and cross-pollinate.

We’ve heard it a thousand times but we rarely invest in it: fail smart, fail fast, and share the lessons. When customers see companies willing to be real, take chances, and show their learning, loyalty skyrockets because they trust the brand’s honesty and guts.[3]

Making Serendipity Repeatable: Process, Not Pixie Dust

Now, operationalizing serendipity isn’t new-age marketing speak. It means:

  • Cultivating serendipity spotting—regularly surfacing the unexpected, not burying it
  • De-risking wild ideas so people can try, learn, and pivot without fear
  • Making failure a team sport, not a solo shame spiral (Return on Failure FTW!)
  • Encouraging cross-pollination—random combos, open brainstorming, and project “funerals” where stuff that didn’t work maybe sparks something else
  • Emphasizing psychological safety, where nobody gets fired for a “bad” idea, so more gold gets mined[1]

Challenge for Marketing Leaders

The executives who can “see what others can’t” are the ones who build these muscles and turn them into habits and systems. Imagine your team isn’t just reacting to the market but shaping it, inventing channels and products that look, in hindsight, like genius moves but were really just the result of consistent serendipity spotting and acting. That’s Matrix-level marketing—dodging bullets others don’t even see coming.

In the end, those who operationalize serendipity will not only build brands that surprise and delight—they’ll create trust, loyalty, and whole new markets. So, next board meeting, don’t just ask for last quarter’s KPIs. Ask: “Where did we get lucky—and what did we DO about it?”

Make serendipity part of your playbook. Your future self (and your customers) will thank you.