Anthro-Vision: A New Way to See in Business and Life

Financial Times columnist Tett (The Silo Effect) argues in this cogent survey that financial and political models fail because they don’t take culture into account. “Big data can explain what’s happening” but not why, she writes, and calls on techies, bankers, and executives to add an anthropological framework to their data science and legal calculations in order to get a deeper and more relevant analysis. Anthropology in business is “vital for the modern world,” she writes, and incorporating it into business plans can help prevent tunnel vision as companies “grapple with climate change, pandemics, racism, social media run amok, artificial intelligence, financial turmoil, and political conflict.” Through case studies including Coca-Cola’s cross-cultural marketing missteps and differing international responses to facial recognition software, she argues that anthropology requires looking at the world according to three principles: make the strange familiar, make the familiar strange, and listen to social silence. With such principles, Tett writes, economists and corporate executives could better consider the environment, and the tech industry could better recognize biases in coding. It’s hard to argue with her common-sense case that companies should strive to take an outsider’s view: “There are multiple ways to live,” she writes, “and everyone seems weird to someone else.” Packed full of insight, this has the power to change minds. (June)