A new wave of anthropological research is transforming how the world does business. This book reveals how.
Gillian Tett is the chairman of the editorial board and editor-at-large, US, at the Financial Times. Perhaps best known for predicting the 2007-8 financial crisis, Tett's bestselling book Fool's Gold was one of the definitive books on the crash. Tett holds a PhD in social anthropology from the University of Cambridge, where she studied marriage rituals in Tajikistan. Her work for the FT has taken her around the world - from Brussels to Tokyo to Moscow to New York - and won her numerous awards, including Columnist, Journalist and Business Journalist of the Year at the British Press Awards.
Will turn your world upside down in the best possible way: fun,
profound and bursting with important insights.
*Tim Harford, author of HOW TO MAKE THE WORLD ADD UP*
Makes a compelling case that "anthro-vision" can help us understand
ourselves, our tribes, companies and communities, and to reduce our
wilful blindness . . . One of the glories of Anthro-Vision is that
it never argues (as many do) that its way of seeing is the only
way. It's a timely call for decision-makers to wean themselves off
their dependency on big data and embrace the full complexity of
human life.
*Financial Times*
A fascinating and compelling demonstration that all of us,
especially economists, can benefit from the insights of
anthropology: the worm's-eye, not just the bird's-eye, view of how
people behave.
*Mervyn King, former governor of the Bank of England and co-author
of RADICAL UNCERTAINTY*
Drawing on a wide breadth of case studies, Gillian Tett explains
that whether you're marketing Kit-Kats in Japan or fighting the
spread of COVID-19 in England, you need a more qualitative
understanding of who people are and what they care about. Anyone
working to rebuild a more equal world will benefit from Tett's
well-argued case that to solve twenty-first-century problems, we
must expand our fields of vision and fill in old blind spots with
new empathy.
*Melinda Gates, co-chair, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and
author of THE MOMENT OF LIFT*
Absolutely brilliant . . . Very compelling examples.
*Daniel Kahneman, author of THINKING, FAST AND SLOW and NOISE*
From a Tajik valley to Silicon valley, Anthro-Vision takes us on an
enthralling and deeply insightful journey. Tett shows us how the
discipline and tools of anthropology helped her see the world more
clearly. Full of rich insights and examples - I couldn't put it
down.
*David Halpern, CEO, The Behavioural Insights Team and author of
INSIDE THE NUDGE UNIT*
In a world of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity,
we need an antidote to tunnel vision, argues Gillian Tett. That
antidote is Anthro-Vision - applying the techniques of anthropology
she learned as a young scholar in Cambridge and Tajikistan . . .
Admirers of her journalism will love this book, but they will also
learn a great deal from it - including how better to understand
their own familiar yet strange tribe.
*Niall Ferguson, Milbank Family Fellow, Hoover Institution,
Stanford and author of DOOM: THE POLITICS OF CATASTROPHE*
Looking at the world like an anthropologist has long given Gillian
Tett the edge over the rest of us as a journalist and thinker. With
this book she generously shares her secret recipe - and explains
why we may all need Anthro-Vision to see a way through some of
today's most pressing global challenges.
*Stephanie Flanders, Senior Executive Editor for Economics,
Bloomberg*
Tett provides readers with a new intellectual framework - grounded
in her deep understanding of anthropology and her path-breaking
journalism - that can fundamentally transform how we approach
solving society's most wicked problems, from climate change to
pandemics to political polarisation. I cannot recommend it highly
enough.
*Mariana Mazzucato, Professor, UCL Institute for Innovation and
Public Purpose and author of THE ENTREPRENEURIAL STATE*
Trouble follows when insular guilds - bankers, doctors, journalists
- fail to take into acconut the viewpoints and folkways of
non-elite people . . . [Tett's] conclusions are bright and
buoyant.
*Wall Street Journal*
A plea to those of us who may be unfamiliar with Tett's academic
discipline to think more like an anthropologist. I think she's
right . . . Tett's book may be anthropological, but it also
embraces a style of accessible economic writing that, sadly, went
out of fashion as the mathematicians and their models took over.
Anthro-Vision reminds me of John Kenneth Galbraith's The Affluent
Society (1958) and The New Industrial State (1967). Some economists
may regard this as a criticism. I can think of no higher
praise.
*The Times*
A good read, as one might expect from a Financial Times journalist
. . . Many of the cases studies are entertaining and instructive .
. . This book is a reminder that culture and context really do
matter and cannot be ignored when trying to understand and change
organisational behaviour.
*Literary Review*
In this superb book, Gillian Tett - Editor-at-Large at the
Financial Times - applies the lessons of her doctorate in
anthropology to the world of business and, more generally, to
social behaviour and trends . . . There are many reasons to read
Anthro-Vision, but the most compelling is its liberation of [its]
analysis from the often phoney and banal punch-ups of today's
culture wars.
*Tortoise*
A really interesting read. Increasingly, businesses are
understanding that we can change our attitudes to things - be
better at managing people, managing ourselves, and become more
profitable - if we do not take a myopic view of culture.
*Nihal Arthanayake, BBC Radio 5 Live*
Fantastic . . . A wonderful book and I recommend it. It will help
you think about the world differently, but it will also help you
think about yourself differently. A very entertaining exercise in a
kind of social and cultural mindfulness.
*RSA Bridges to the Future*
Deliberately listening to other people and taking on their
perspective is a rare skill, and a powerful tool . . . For readers,
this book offers something more valuable: the opportunity to
consider how truly strange we all are.
*New Statesman*
Wonderful . . . [on] that anthropological skill of looking at
things from the outside.
*Rory Sutherland, Vice Chairman, Ogilvy UK and author of
Alchemy*
Full of examples that make you see work and business
differently.
*NPR*
A rattling good read . . . The book has loads of interesting
vignettes about the use of anthropology, particularly in
business.
*Diane Coyle, Bennett Professor of Public Policy, University of
Cambridge*
Tett's examples of research are vivid, surprising and imaginative;
their revelations are informative . . . Tett's book is lots of fun
and could even create a few business converts to the
anthropological cause.
*Times Higher Education*
It's hard to argue with her common-sense case that companies should
strive to take an outsider's view . . . Packed full of insight,
this has the power to change minds.
*Publishers Weekly*
I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed reading this book . . . A
terrific piece of work.
*Thomas Friedman, author of THE WORLD IS FLAT and THANK YOU FOR
BEING LATE*
A compelling, readable argument for the business value of
anthropology.
*Strategy + Business*
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