Emeritus Professor Bent Flyvbjerg's book How Big Things Get Done has won international awards and plaudits since its publication, selling over 100,000 copies.
How Big Things Get Done is making a big impact across the business literature world, including being shortlisted for the Financial Times' Business Book of the Year 2023, named by The Economist as Best Book of 2023 in the business and economics category and CEO Magazine's Best Business Book 2023.
In the tome, Bent and his co author Dan Gardener reveal the secrets of how to successfully plan and deliver ambitious projects on any scale, from a home renovation, through to space exploration. The book is seeing especially strong sales across the United States, the UK and India.
We caught up with Bent, who was previously Programme Director of the Major Projects Leadership Programme at Oxford Saïd, to find out what went into writing the book, how it feels to have business bestseller and what the writing process has taught him.
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What motivated you to focus on this area for the book?
I wanted to write a book that would help anyone succeed with their projects, big or small, work or private. And I wanted my advice to be solidly based in decades of research.
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What were the key challenges?
The pandemic. I wrote the book during lockdown. It prevented me from going nuts.
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What are you most proud of?
The reception. People seem to really like the book, and to use it as we intended. Also accolades from highly respected colleagues like Daniel Kahneman, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, and Frank Gehry. And finally the fact that the book is read across business and management, not just in project management.
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Who is this book for?
Anyone who wants to understand how to plan and deliver their projects successfully. Or who is just curious about why so many projects go disastrously wrong, and what can be done about it.