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Serendipity: It Doesn't Happen By Accident
Breakthroughs aren’t random. They’re designed.
In It Doesn’t Happen by Accident, David Cleevely - telecoms pioneer, deep tech investor, and architect of the Cambridge tech cluster - shows how the world’s most successful ideas often emerge not from rigid plans, but from well-designed networks, environments, and a willingness to embrace the unexpected.
This book reveals how to build those conditions deliberately - whether you're leading a business, shaping public policy, or trying to create spaces where innovation can thrive. Drawing on complexity science, network theory, and decades of experience founding and funding over 60 companies - including the billion-dollar biotech firm Abcam, launched after a single dinner conversation - Cleevely offers a framework for making serendipity not just possible, but probable.
From 18th-century Birmingham to modern-day Cambridge, Silicon Valley, and Shenzhen, he explains how great innovation ecosystems operate - and why many institutions suppress the very dynamics that make discovery likely. You’ll explore the “three-step rule” behind breakthrough environments, uncover why digital platforms can unintentionally reduce serendipity, and learn how a little structured inefficiency may be the secret to real progress.
Whether you're designing a new organisation, reforming an institution, building a startup - or simply trying to make better use of your own time and talent - Serendipity offers a fresh and practical way of thinking about innovation in a world that needs it more than ever.
Praise for It Doesn’t Happen by Accident
“David doesn’t just write about serendipity - he creates it. This is a powerful guide to building the future through connection, curiosity, and purpose.”
Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn and author of Superagency
“As someone immersed in exponential technologies and systemic change, I found this book a revelation. Cleevely doesn’t just talk about innovation - he shows how we can design for it. Essential reading for anyone trying to build resilient institutions or shape the future.”
Azeem Azhar, founder of Exponential View and author of The Exponential Age
“Most serendipitously, the story behind the word ‘serendipity’ has been a million-pound question on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? David Cleevely shows that it’s a million-pound question for all of us - a reminder that sometimes, if we let them, Dame Fortune and Mistress Chance can take us by the hand.”
Stephen Fry, actor, writer, and broadcaster
“How do you engineer serendipity? This wonderful book explains why unexpected successes aren’t so surprising - and how to make them more likely.”
Dame Diane Coyle, Bennett Professor of Public Policy, University of Cambridge
“Most institutional decision-making suppresses chance. In a fat-tailed world, it's smarter to improve your odds of good fortune.”
Rory Sutherland, Vice Chairman, Ogilvy, and author of Alchemy
“This book turns an elusive idea into practical guidance. Cleevely explains, with authority and urgency, how schools, universities, and government can engineer the ‘happy accidents’ that power real innovation.”
Baroness Sally Morgan, former Minister of State for Women, and former Chair of Ofsted
In It Doesn’t Happen by Accident, David Cleevely - telecoms pioneer, deep tech investor, and architect of the Cambridge tech cluster - shows how the world’s most successful ideas often emerge not from rigid plans, but from well-designed networks, environments, and a willingness to embrace the unexpected.
This book reveals how to build those conditions deliberately - whether you're leading a business, shaping public policy, or trying to create spaces where innovation can thrive. Drawing on complexity science, network theory, and decades of experience founding and funding over 60 companies - including the billion-dollar biotech firm Abcam, launched after a single dinner conversation - Cleevely offers a framework for making serendipity not just possible, but probable.
From 18th-century Birmingham to modern-day Cambridge, Silicon Valley, and Shenzhen, he explains how great innovation ecosystems operate - and why many institutions suppress the very dynamics that make discovery likely. You’ll explore the “three-step rule” behind breakthrough environments, uncover why digital platforms can unintentionally reduce serendipity, and learn how a little structured inefficiency may be the secret to real progress.
Whether you're designing a new organisation, reforming an institution, building a startup - or simply trying to make better use of your own time and talent - Serendipity offers a fresh and practical way of thinking about innovation in a world that needs it more than ever.
Praise for It Doesn’t Happen by Accident
“David doesn’t just write about serendipity - he creates it. This is a powerful guide to building the future through connection, curiosity, and purpose.”
Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn and author of Superagency
“As someone immersed in exponential technologies and systemic change, I found this book a revelation. Cleevely doesn’t just talk about innovation - he shows how we can design for it. Essential reading for anyone trying to build resilient institutions or shape the future.”
Azeem Azhar, founder of Exponential View and author of The Exponential Age
“Most serendipitously, the story behind the word ‘serendipity’ has been a million-pound question on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? David Cleevely shows that it’s a million-pound question for all of us - a reminder that sometimes, if we let them, Dame Fortune and Mistress Chance can take us by the hand.”
Stephen Fry, actor, writer, and broadcaster
“How do you engineer serendipity? This wonderful book explains why unexpected successes aren’t so surprising - and how to make them more likely.”
Dame Diane Coyle, Bennett Professor of Public Policy, University of Cambridge
“Most institutional decision-making suppresses chance. In a fat-tailed world, it's smarter to improve your odds of good fortune.”
Rory Sutherland, Vice Chairman, Ogilvy, and author of Alchemy
“This book turns an elusive idea into practical guidance. Cleevely explains, with authority and urgency, how schools, universities, and government can engineer the ‘happy accidents’ that power real innovation.”
Baroness Sally Morgan, former Minister of State for Women, and former Chair of Ofsted
336 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 25, 2025
6 people are currently reading
17 people want to read
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
December 23, 2025
Cleevely is an expert at repeating the same point over and over again, to the degree that he has managed to turn what should have been a 20-page manifesto into a 300-page book. A summary of his arguments, so you don’t have to read this: be open-minded, and build multi-disciplinary research networks to accelerate innovation.
Aside from that, he highlights the issue of search algorithms prioritising engagement over exploration and how this impedes discovery, and makes the case for more regular small-scale testing of potential policy changes.
The ‘Serendipity Systems Model’ that Cleevely proposes is not drastically different to existing frameworks. He makes some good points and supports them with interesting case studies, but says nothing particularly insightful or useful.
Aside from that, he highlights the issue of search algorithms prioritising engagement over exploration and how this impedes discovery, and makes the case for more regular small-scale testing of potential policy changes.
The ‘Serendipity Systems Model’ that Cleevely proposes is not drastically different to existing frameworks. He makes some good points and supports them with interesting case studies, but says nothing particularly insightful or useful.
Displaying 1 of 1 review