simon roberts' ukupa ethnography presentation
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Anthropology and the Abduction of Strategy15th March 2012TRANSCRIPT
Anthropology and the Abduction of Strategy
UPA London, March 15th 2012 Simon Roberts ReD Associates
My journey to date
1996 2012
Applied
Commercial
Corporate
Business
Design
What’s in an anthropologist’s name?
Back story: anthropology in business
The repeated discovery of anthropology in business
“Five years later, in 1996, the Fast Company article titled ‘Anthropologists Go Native in the Corporate Village’ reports (again) the enthusiasm of increasing numbers of major corporations for consultants with anthropological credentials. And as we’ve seen a decade later, in 2006, the commercial market for anthropology is still news”.
Anthropology as ‘Brand’: Reflections on corporate anthropology, Lucy Suchman
''If you want to understand how a tiger hunts, �don't go to the zoo. Go to the jungle.'' �
A.G. Lafley, former P&G CEO �
In the recent past the focus was on the method…
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…and methodological ‘innovation’ flourished
The pure and the impure? Reflections on applying anthropology and doing ethnography, Simon Roberts In Sarah Pink (Ed) Applications of Anthropology: Professional Anthropology in the Twenty-first Century (Bergahn)
Laying bare the cultural erotics of consumers (Sherry)�
Puzzling things out in situations of complexity (Cefkin)�
An opposable thumb�
An externalised mis en scene (Darrouzet et al)�
A messy engaged romp with uncertain outcomes (Blomberg)�
A cultural project
Increasingly confident claims are made about the power of these approaches
Anthropology/ethnography has staked a claim to a home within business, and beyond
Created an audience Formed a community Put up boundaries Split into clans and tribes
…and started to move, slowly but surely, from the small details to the big picture
But what it is and what it’s for is still open to interpretation. (And that’s no bad thing).
-----Original Message----- From: XXXX.com [mailto:XXXX.com] Sent: 27 October 2004 17:02 To: Simon Roberts Subject: Now I understand....
Si
I see a lot of company managements in my line of work, but I have just now met the first one who have talked about taking an ethnographic approach to their market research. Very exciting stuff. It was egg, specifically the chief executive Paul Gratton. He explained it as getting punters to do some drawings with crayons!
Can I sense your influence in this?
Eric
Anthropology’s abduction of strategy
At ReD we identify gaps between what people want and what companies give them. We translate those insights into solutions that will thrive in the marketplace.
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KEY INDUSTRY SECTORS Consumer Electronics
Telecom and IT Health and Medical Devices Consumer products
Public Sector and NGO
55 consultants in two offices. Copenhagen & New York
PRACTICES Product and Service Development Commercial Growth Complexity Reduction
Organizational Performance
DISCIPLINES Ethnography and Anthropology Business and Economics Sociology and Organization Political Science Architecture and Design
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03.
Complexity Reduction
• Identification of over met needs / wasted activity
• Portfolio simplification • Segmentation simplification
04. �Organizational Performance
• Innovation training • Solutions for cultural issues • Innovation intent • Innovation audits and metrics
UNDERSTANDING PEOPLE
Social situations, personal motivations, interpersonal dynamics…real world data
IDENTIFYING INSIGHTS
Insights from field research, expert interviews and secondary research
02.
Commercial Growth
• Sales channel management • Sales force effectiveness
• Marketing spend • Customer profiling and targeting
01.
Product/Service Development
• New product definition • Brand and messaging • Product road mapping • Future visions
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We are a strategy consultancy focused on top line growth
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While every ReD project follows a similar and proven process, the approach can differ based on the starting point
DEVELOPMENT AGENDA
Strategic problem-solving RESEARCH AGENDA
Open-ended Discovery
Opening New Doors Solving the Problem
For example: • What emergent interaction paradigms should we be
taking seriously? • What impact are social networking technologies having
on the way we think about friends?
For example: • How can we accelerate the technology refresh cycle
in small and medium size businesses? • How can we extend our franchise with small
businesses?
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Open-ended Discovery is about opening up completely new terrain– whether a new market, a new technology or a new business domain.
Display advertising technology: is this the right example here?
The future of sound
EXPLORING A NEW MARKET SEEKING VALUE IN NEW TECH VENTURING INTO NEW BUSINESSES
What it is good for: - Exploring new usage situations - Developing a new vocabulary around a subject - Inspiring new thinking through speculative ideas
What are the limitations: - Doesn’t deliver a definitive strategic direction - Without strategic objectives there can be a lack of a solid case - Opportunities are inspirational, not necessarily impactful
Defining Prospects for 1st Time Computing Devices in Emerging
Markets
Identify growth areas for Y Corp, the leading hearing aid manufacturer
How do you pick up on the technology adoption in K-12 edu?
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Open-discovery projects give executives a consolidated point of view around uncharted territory to help reach consensus and have a perspective on first steps.
Content - Deep customer understanding around unknown territory - What to focus on, relevant issues to consider - A differentiated point of view tailored to a newcomer
Audience - Executives looking for a consolidated viewpoint and approach
Impact - A fresh perspective that can facilitate consensus among the team - Inspired action (“we can do this”) - Clues on meaningful first steps
Open-discovery to open up fresh new thinking
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Strategic Problem-Solving involves finding a fresh customer-centric perspective to business issues that lie at the heart of the core business.
Getinge -
What it is good for: - Helps clients take key decisions - Gives an ambitious yet realistic vision of what can be done - Can unite multiple divisions under a common value goal
What are the limitations: - Concepts often aren’t radical, but they are right - Customer insights aren’t exhaustive, they focus on the problem
at hand
Identifying adjacent opportunities for a digitally-disrupted postal services
business
ADDRESSING UNMET NEEDS NEW PROPOSITION DEVELOPMENT IDENTIFY MARKET ADJACENCIES
Create a new innovation road map and value proposition
Create a SME centric cloud computing proposition for US telco
Identify opportunities for a digitally-disrupted postal services business
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Strategic concerns are increasingly about how to differentiate within a market, and how to climb up the value chain as a business
Content - A differentiated perspective within well-known territory - Rethinking the ‘basics’, things that businesses can control - A strong sensitivity to client needs based on their competencies
Audience - An implementation group looking for fuel to innovate
Impact - Value propositions that are tactical with clear industry positioning - Concepts that are ambitious and realistic enough to take on - A formulated and rationalized approach that gives confidence to a
team’s next steps
Strategic Problem-solving to address competitive issues
"Business schools tend to focus on inductive thinking [based on directly observable facts] and deductive thinking [logic and analysis, typically based on past evidence]…�
…design schools emphasize abductive thinking - imagining what could be possible. This new thinking approach helps us challenge assumed constraints and add to ideas, versus discouraging them.” �
A.G. Lafley, former P&G CEO
Lafley’s tiger meets two philosophers in the jungle
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Our approach requires questioning traditional management science & applying social science
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Mystery Conflicting data pointing in all directions - No hypothesis
Abductive reasoning
LEVEL 4 Not even a range of possible future outcomes
LEVEL 3 Range of possible future outcomes
LEVEL 1 Single view of the future
LEVEL 2 Limited set of possible future outcomes, one of which will occur
A
B C
Social Science
Management Science
Algorithm Strong understanding of situation and future - Reliability in testing Deductive reasoning
Heuristic Some connecting dots
Weak hypothesis - Heuristic Inductive reasoning
Relevance
Depth Value
Business Practice
Social Science
Client’s Existing Situation
Challenges to Existing
Assumptions
PHASE 1 - Frame Defining the problem
PHASE 2 - Research Uncovering insights from the real world
Platforms for Growth
PHASE 4 Synthesize
Prioritizing�impact
A Fresh New Perspective
PHASE 3 Organize Analyzing data
and finding patterns
New Discoveries And Insights
Change in Client Practice
Roadmap of Solutions &�Initiatives
PHASE 5 – Recommend Proposing a course �
of action
PHASE 6 - Realize Articulating impact and
its consequences
And starting, and finishing, in the world of business
The promise of anthropology
“A strategy is a coherent set of analyses, concepts, policies, arguments and action that respond to a high stakes challenge” Richard Rumelt, Good Strategy, Bad Strategy (Crown Business)
A highly specific, understanding of what is going on
A focus on identifying opportunities
Landing those back inside the business
Thank you. Please stay in touch.
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www.redassociates.com �@ReD_Associates @ideasbazaar�[email protected]