The Growth and Future of Business Anthropology

From:  http://openanthcoop.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-growth-and-future-of

     Varieties of surveys have indicated that employers look for the skills that undergraduate training in anthropology provides. The subject matter of anthropology is intrinsically fascinating; as such, it offers valuable preparation for careers in journalism, politics, public relations, or public administration, fields that involve investigative skills and working with diverse groups. Today, many students use anthropology as the liberal arts foundation for professions such as law, education, medicine, social work, and counseling.
     The ever-fast advanced technologies along with the globalization of the world’s economic systems in particular have changed the world we are living.  The new trends of technology advance and globalization have been deeply influenced everything in the world b.  Anthropology as a social science field of study by no means can get rid of the influence of these new trends.  In such a background, when we discuss the future of anthropology in general, and the future of business anthropology in particular, we must think in broader terms of global political economy, local demographic trends, prevailing cultural preferences, and the social and ethnic backgrounds of consumers. After this complex series of considerations we have to rethink, how we might fit if we want this discipline to continue as a practice oriented entity.

Anthropology: What Is It?

Fromhttp://businesseducation.co.in

The BestWork™ People - The Keys to Cultural Change

The BestWork™ People - The Keys to Cultural Change

The BestWork™ People - The Master Moves™

The BestWork™ People - The Master Moves™

Business Anthropolgy

Business anthropology

Anthropologists are experts in people and their habits, their particular research approach enabling them an “inside” view on cultures. 

Business anthropology  transfers anthropological approaches into companies and  organisations  utilizing traditional anthropological methodologies  inclusive of  participant observation.


Anthropologists are of the view that everything is connected

Business anthropology is significant in solving the following issues:

• What consumers want?
• User Analysis
• Customers
• User Experience
• What is your competition like? 
• Competition
• Competitive Products
• Product Design
• Reatail Positioning.
• How should the company, service or product be adapted to unknown cultures? 
•  analyse foreign markets  
• new target groups  
• prepare strategies of service and product adaptation
• How to bridge intercultural differences in a company? 
•  explore the cultural particularities of various groups within the company and find the best way for them to cooperate with each other
• Providing pathways to alignment
• How to provide user-friendly products or services? 
•  participate in product and service development, paying regard to user experience and particularities of the cultural environments, which the products and services are intended for.

In the USA and some other parts of the world, activities from the field of business anthropology have been integrated into companies successfully for more than 30 years, whereas in Europe this applicative science has been slowly developing. Whilstin australia we are seeing the emergence of anecdotes (storytelling) as a significant medium to determine approaches culture and strategy illumination.

Social Media and the Brain: A Business Anthropologist’s View

August 1st, 2009

A number of innovations have changed the face of commerce in my lifetime.  Credit cards greatly enabled commercial exchanges.  Email and FedEx both sped up communication and reduced cost.  The internet both transformed information transfer, and introduced people around the world who would not have otherwise found each other.  In each case, exchanges – the fundamental unit of commerce – became easier.  Barriers were lowered and trade flourished.  

Are social media another facilitator of trade?

One of the aspects of social media that I find most fascinating is the proliferation of free – non-monetized, and non-negotiated – exchanges.   There’s an ethos around that practice, to which participants are finely-tuned.  It’s OK to make commercial offers, and to be compensated for touting others’ products,  as long as a) you’re up-front about it,  b) it’s deemed appropriate to the specific site and subject , and c) that’s not the only kind of stuff you talk about.  In the recent surge of activity around the Iran election on Twitter, for example, those few who sought to reach participants with anything commercial were immediately and soundly slapped.

There is plenty of commercial activity on social media. Even so, many corporate marketers are not so happy with its power  – the loss of control is counter-cultural for them - while small businesses are faster to use it to advantage .  The explosive growth of Twitter confounded the pundits and sparked controversy for months.  Much of that chatter quieted when the State Department asked Twitter to postpone scheduled maintenance soon after the Iranian election.  

I’m struck by the way social media simulate community.  The earmarks of community are 1) Shared concerns and 2) Free exchanges addressing those concerns, in addition to monetized or quantified trading. In the 17 years I had my office in Napa, CA, the river flooded half a dozen times.   People of all ages jumped in to assist – with whatever equipment and know-how at their command – with no thought of quantifying the exchanges.  And they loved it; stories abounded for years.  The mood of the entire country shifted when a now-famous commercial airline pilot landed in the Hudson in January of this year, and locals leaped into every available craft to get people out of the water.   This month, untold numbers of people from all over the world changed their Twitter profiles to confuse Iranian secret police, and offered proxy sites as internet communication inside the country was disabled.  

I suspect that our forebears lived by means of free exchanging – in ordinary life as well as in crises – starting with the earliest communities – perhaps as long as 350,000 generations ago.  Human groups are characterized by coordination and cooperation.  When did those exchanges become widely monetized?  After the Industrial  Revolution, perhaps 12 generations ago.  So for 349,988 generations human communities thrived by virtue of exchanging [mostly] without quantification.              

I’m not speaking here of Free as a ‘new radical price’, like the book of that title, though I agree that trend is important.  I’m speaking of exchanging freely, with abandon, the way children learn in play.  Sparking curiosity and enabling Neuroplasticity: the power of our brains to move with the new, in the moment – perhaps the most important skill of this century.  

From Fast Company, “Enterprise MicroLearning”,   

Business is a Social Activity – A Business Anthropologist's View

October 16th, 2009

For many, the insight that business is social is something of a surprise.
In much of Western tradition, work and play are viewed as a dichotomy: business falls in the former, and sociality in the latter.

But that’s not how the brain is organized.

New insights from Neuroscience clarify how the brain functions to keep us focused on others (with emotions – ever heard of them?)


A recent articlefrom Strategy and Business explores the implications for managers.

Through the lens of Business Anthropology, it’s apparent that trading is old as the first human communities. Commerce is in our biology. Though I’ve been writing about that for decades, it’s delightful to see what Social Cognitive NeuroScience labs are revealing with fMRI studies; businesses large and small can seize new opportunities.

Our brains naturally respond to change as though it’s dangerous, and shut down our ‘thinking centers’ rather than firing them up.

But we can train our brains to be ingenious when exposed to risk.


I’m with Jim Collins’ assessment that the ability to face uncertainly with curiosity is the most important skill of our times.Neuroscience illuminates the challenge as well as how to focus on the desired competences.

Unfortunately, our brains are not geared to be effective in the face of ongoing stress like a global recession. We don’t tend to get smart. But we humans have a rare gift: we retain plasticity into adulthood. We can learn new moves. And the current business environment certainly demands that we do so.

Perhaps most important to my practice over 3 decades is understanding how we’re inclined to respond to vulnerability.

On this subject, current Neuroscience research is stunning. Even when informed that a situation is simulated – even using cartoons and stick figures – smart people feel intense pain of rejection and strong pleasure of belonging and contributing.

The actions we take, the decisions we make, the possibilities we recognize are determined by this powerful programming. Focusing on the vulnerabilities of others inspires our best work. We become ingenious. We can spark our enterprises and fire customers’ curiosity and commitment.

Solopreneurs and small business have a huge advantage in using this force, because we can be so nimble. We can quickly respond to emerging vulnerability and invent new ways to add value. Our forebears have done so for 150,000 generations – that’s how we got here. Any business can be vulnerability-centric. It’s the most powerful force at hand.
http://www.bestwork.biz

What's All the Fuss About Anthropology?

July 30, 2009

What's All the Fuss About Anthropology?
by Paula Gray, AIPMM
The reason that the social science discipline, Anthropology, is gaining emphasis and focus in the business world is that someone very learned and insightful, remembered that people drive all business decisions. They took a step back from being product-focused and turned the focus to people. People buy your products, people design your products, people analyze and write about your products. People do these things - not industries, not corporations, not media, not demographic data. A person or a group of people form opinions and make these all-important decisions. This is precisely where cultural anthropology, the study of human culture, comes in. Cultural anthropology offers us a peak into the context within which all decisions are made, including buying decisions. Culture is the framework that cultural anthropology uses to create this context.
The American Anthropological Association states that "Culture represents the entire database of knowledge, values, and traditional ways of viewing the world, which have been transmitted from one generation ahead to the next -- nongenetically, apart from DNA -- through words, concepts, and symbols."
In anthropology, culture is also described as the lens through which an individual sees the world. Individuals who hail from the same cultural background will share this lens in common, even though their individual views and experiences may be different. Through this lens your product, marketing campaigns, and customer service efforts will be viewed. By understanding the common cultural lens shared by a group of people, you can better understand what they view as important, how your product fits into their lives, what traditions or taboos you may be up against or on which you can capitalize.




So how does one go about understanding a group's culture? Anthropologists rely on "participant observation" to gather information. This involves observing the group from the inside and participating in their activities, where appropriate. This may sound complicated and time consuming but, in the age of technology, much information can be gathered online. Recently UC Irvine anthropology professor, Tom Boellstorff, conducted an ethnography (an in-depth study of a group of people who share a culture) on the virtual world, Second Life. He found the online community replete with similarities to "real world" cultures. He was able to decipher "shared symbolic meanings and beliefs" held by the group.
If your goal is to increase your market share for a software application to teen gamers, find out where they "hang out" online. Read, listen, and learn about their lives, not just how they use your product. Learn their language, symbols, attitudes and traditions. Discover what magazines, blogs, or forums they read, then read them. Discover what events, conferences, or meet-ups they attend, then attend them. What are their favorite vendors, not just in your category? Who do they idolize, respect, scorn or condemn? By learning about the "teen gamer culture" you learn what motivates them, moves them, inspires them or repels them. Key information for your marketing efforts.
If you are marketing to manufacturing businesses, the same rules apply. Look for trade associations that represent a wealth of information about your target market, but always remember you are ultimately targeting a person or team who makes the decision, not a business. Ask yourself who these people are who make these decisions. Where do they live, is there a concentration in one geographic area? Where did they go to college? Discover what industry magazines, blogs, or forums are popular, and read them. What issues are most important to them, not just in relation to your product? What industry "horror stories" does everyone remember? Is there a particular calendar for their manufacturing cycle, how does that impact their lives and business? What are the industry success stories? Discover the important industry events, conferences and trade shows; attend them with the purpose of watching, listening and learning about the people. Determine the shared beliefs, language and symbols held by individuals in the industry. Let this understanding inform all of your strategies, tactics, and programs with regard to these individuals.
In the end, your efforts will result in a deeper level of understanding of who your customers are and how your product fits into their lives. It will also lead to a more rewarding experience for your customers because you will be more successful at targeting their real needs, desires and motivations and applying your unique solution to them.

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Paula Gray is Vice President and co-founder of the Association of International Product Marketing & Management (AIPMM). With a background in cultural and applied anthropology she uses tools from the anthropologist's toolbox to assist product managers and product marketers in understanding customers and their behaviors, in context.