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SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2026 SMART THINKING BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR
What if the fact that no one can help you at your bank, doctor's office, airline, or job - you name it - is on purpose?
In One Size Fits None, social entrepreneurship experts Alejandro Juárez Crawford and Miriam Plavin-Masterman argue that the systems powering our experiences are unresponsive by design; they often run on "best practice" templates imported wholesale from somewhere else and applied to people and places they were never built for. In a fragmenting world, that top-down, one-size-fits-all approach is breaking down, and the cracks show up everywhere: in workplaces, hospitals, schools, and city halls, and in our collective inability to make progress on bigger problems like climate change, housing, and food.
The book goes beyond just highlighting these failures. Pairing an accessible style with sharp analysis, One Size Fits None shows that it doesn't have to be this way.
Drawing on original research conducted across 20 countries, the authors point to something already taking shape: a borderless, entrepreneurial ecosystem of people using digital tools to build the solutions the imported playbooks couldn't. This loose network of innovators—working across industries and borders—is emerging as a stabilizing force precisely because it starts from the opposite premise of "best practice": trust the people closest to the problem.
When we make it practical for the people facing unresponsive systems—employees, patients, students, community members—to build new ones that actually meet their needs, they rise to the challenge. We change from passive "users" to engaged participants equipped to shape the systems in which we live and work.
One Size Fits None is relevant to management and business readers looking to change organizations; researchers, students, and leaders focused on social entrepreneurship, innovation, or sustainability; and anyone who's ever wondered why things just don't quite work.
To learn why systems have become unresponsive, what can be done about it, and how to bring this approach to your organization or community, order the book here.
One Size Fits None is a must-read for anyone grappling with the systemic breakdowns that seem to define our era—whether it’s crumbling infrastructure, institutions, deepening climate crises, or increasing alienation in customer service. Instead of searching for a single, scalable fix (Go Big or Go Home), the authors challenge us to rethink problem-solving itself: How might we empower a generation hungry to make a change, the way Apple and Microsoft once empowered hundreds of millions through personal computing? What if we empowered local innovators to develop solutions tailored to their communities while learning from each other in real-time? The real challenge, the book argues, is redefining who we believe has the power to innovate. Backed by original research, this book makes a compelling case that such a shift is not only possible but necessary within the decade. A revolution isn't sparked by one person alone, but by countless people experimenting, sharing, and building change together.
— Sebastian Groh, cofounder and CEO, SOLshare, Earthshot finalist, and winner, Zayed Sustainability Prize
Alejandro Juárez Crawford serves as co-founder and CEO of RebelBase, professor of entrepreneurship at Bard College’s #1 MBA in sustainability, and global faculty chair of OSUN’s Certificate in Sustainability and Social Enterprise.
Miriam Plavin-Masterman is Professor of Business Administration at Worcester State University, where she teaches Management courses, focusing on organizational culture and innovation.
Please Listen Carefully, Our Options Have Recently Changed
Part I. The Real Cost of The Hockey Stick
Chapter 1. No Recourse
Chapter 2. Business Class Ticket Holders May Now Begin Boarding
Chapter 3. A Number of Our Teams Made Changes to Be More Efficient and Work Better
Chapter 4. The Blank Page Problem
Chapter 5. There’s No Such Thing as a Free Flywheel or Hockey Stick
Part II. A Feature, Not a Bug
Chapter 6. Those Other Countries are Closer than They Appear
Chapter 7. Who Markets Now Serve
Chapter 8. All the Running You Can Do, to Keep in the Same Place
Chapter 9. Genius!
Chapter 10. Break the Stranglehold on Innovation
Part III. From the Direction You Least Expect
Chapter 11. Equip People Close to Problems to Build Solutions
Chapter 12. Everything is Upside Down
Chapter 13. The Kitty Hawk Principle
Chapter 14. Launch a Bottom-Up Revolution