It’s so refreshing to speak with someone who is truly eager to learn about corporate anthropology and how it can help businesses better understand their customers and see their culture with fresh eyes. One of those someones is Roger Dooley—speaker, author, blogger, founder of the marketing consultancy Dooley Direct and co-founder of College Confidential.

Roger recently interviewed me for his podcast The Brainfluence, and there were so many things he wanted to know about what I do, such as why observing customers is an effective way to find out what they really want. I shared some success stories from my book, “On the Brink: A Fresh Lens to Take Your Business to New Heights,” of seven companies that were literally “on the brink” but using the tools and methods of anthropology, were able to turn their businesses around. We also discussed the importance of culture—those ties that bind people together through shared values, beliefs and behaviors—and how strongly it influences a company’s productivity.

Roger is terrific and I urge you to take a listen. Just click on the link below.

What you’ll learn from this podcast

For a delightful half hour, we talked about:

Why tech and manufacturing companies are turning to anthropologists for help communicating with their customers and employees.
How people’s habits and mental shortcuts likely affect their voting habits, and how this held true in the recent U.S. election.
Why you must observe your customers first in order to understand them.
Why you should be asking employees and customers for their stories, not just facts.
Some of the digital observation tools that we use at SAMC to understand customers’ habits.
How to affect cultural change within your organization, and what you should do as a leader to facilitate it.

With these tools, you too can be an anthropologist

For deeper dives into the four methods of corporate anthropology, download our anthropology toolkit. They help you take a step back so you “see with fresh eyes” and observe your business in a whole new way, enabling you to identify innovative solutions.

Perhaps “a little anthropology” could help your company grow?

At Simon Associates Management Consultants, our experience and expertise as corporate anthropologists enable us to help business leaders step out of their comfort zones and see, feel and think about their organizations with fresh eyes, leading to those “a-ha” moments which make transformational innovations possible. Is your company stuck? Please contact us for a free consultation. We’d love to show you how the tools and methods of anthropology can get you going again.