Best Books of the Year - The Financial Times and The Economist Shortlisted for the Financial
Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year Award World expert Bent Flyvbjerg and
bestselling author Dan Gardner reveal the secrets to successfully planning and delivering
ambitious projects on any scale. 'Important timely instructive and entertaining' - Daniel
Kahneman bestselling author of Thinking Fast and Slow Nothing is more inspiring than a big
vision that becomes a triumphant new reality. Think of how Apple's iPod went from a project
with a single employee to an enormously successful product launch in eleven months. But such
successes are the exception. Consider how London's Crossrail project delivered five years late
and billions over budget. More modest endeavours whether launching a small business
organizing a conference or just finishing a work project on time also commonly fail. Why?
Understanding what distinguishes the triumphs from the failures has been the life's work of
Oxford professor Bent Flyvbjerg. In How Big Things Get Done he identifies the errors that
lead projects to fail and the research-based principles that will make yours succeed:
Understand your odds. If you don't know them you won't win. Plan slow act fast. Getting to
the action quick feels right. But it's wrong. Think right to left. Start with your goal then
identify the steps to get there. Find your Lego. Big is best built from small. Master the
unknown unknowns. Most think they can't so they fail. Flyvbjerg shows how you can. Full of
vivid examples ranging from the building of the Sydney Opera House to the making of the latest
Pixar blockbusters How Big Things Get Done reveals how to get any ambitious project done - on
time and on budget. 'Entertaining . . . compelling . . . there are lessons here for managers
of all stripes' - The Economist 'My only complaint about this book is that it wasn't written
earlier' - Ola Rosling bestselling co-author of Factfulness
