Why Do Companies Need Anthropologists?

Understanding the future of technology used to be a simple science. You kept an eye on scientific journals, visited the odd corporate R&D lab, and kept a close watch on the price/performance curves that indicated the falling price of computation. These days, unfortunately, the greatest source of disruptive innovation often comes from consumers themselves -- which is why some of the world's largest companies are investing in specialist research divisions run by savvy anthropologists. One of the most influential of these new breed of innovation gurus is Genevieve Bell -- who is the chief anthropologist at Intel Corporation.

I had the chance to sit down with Genevieve during the CES show in Vegas this year and had a fascinating chat about the relationship between consumer behaviour and new technological breakthroughs. Genevieve believes that one of the most important reasons companies need to embrace consumer focused thinking is to bridge what she calls 'the imagination gap'.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• future
• intel
• geneieve
• bell
• mike
• walsh

[TheVMCoach]

Nice piece,Mike!! More...more... Anthropology might be the most important lens we can use these days not just to understand "products" but how we use social media itself... That's my  inquiry day after day now...

[attovishnu]

Anthropology, interesting. Corporations will need anthropologists to figure out how to restore the political systems they trashed to get their way. After they discover that no one is buying the products they sell because no one on that continent has any money anymore.

[llama098890]

I wanted to take this guy seriously, but his hair was just...too much.

[Tiairen]

Fantastic piece! Thanks for uploading! :-)