Speaker 1: From Adam from This anth Life. Good to have you
Speaker 1: here today with me. You know, we've been putting out
Speaker 1: a lot of episodes lately, shorts that are coming from
Speaker 1: the cultural capitalist work that I've been doing with my
Speaker 1: colleague Phil Searles, and you know, we wanted to kind
Speaker 1: of give a bit of a best of in this
Speaker 1: episode here, so kind of taking some of the ideas
Speaker 1: that we thought were most impactful to the insights that
Speaker 1: we've heard from folks that kind of helped them change
Speaker 1: their thinking, and kind of put them together in a
Speaker 1: little bit of a best of that tie some of
Speaker 1: the ideas together. So hope you enjoy it, and we'll
Speaker 1: be bringing your new content very soon. In fact, next week.
Speaker 1: Understanding human behavior and cultural trends has never been more
Speaker 1: crucial for tech investors. We're going to discuss how anthropological perspectives,
Speaker 1: which are often overlooked by investors, are now being harnessed
Speaker 1: to understand cultural change and guide smarter investment decisions in
Speaker 1: the tech sector. Anthropology has been applied in business contexts
Speaker 1: for decades, particularly in sectors like advertise and design, but
Speaker 1: now it's gaining traction in financial services and especially things
Speaker 1: like private equity and now venture capital. What this means
Speaker 1: is today we are seeing a growing interest among investors
Speaker 1: who realize that numbers alone can't tell the whole story.
Speaker 1: Private equity firms have been hiring anthropologists for years to
Speaker 1: help improve their market intelligence and their acquisition decision processes.
Speaker 1: Anthropologists can help these firms understand the behavioral patterns of
Speaker 1: industries and companies and even conduct cultural assessments in due diligence. So,
Speaker 1: for example, they might analyze what the popularity of organic
Speaker 1: pet food says about consumer values, or assess the cultural
Speaker 1: or organizational dynamics within a resort that's up for acquisition
Speaker 1: as a way to assess the business's viability. Hear a
Speaker 1: lot about AI out there, but the other kind of
Speaker 1: AI that we should be thinking about, and that's what
Speaker 1: Jillian Tech calls anthropological intelligence. According to Jillian Tet, who's
Speaker 1: a cultural anthropologist who famously predicted the two thousand and
Speaker 1: seven two thousand and eight financial crisis, wrote about this
Speaker 1: in her work anthro Vision, emphasizing the idea that anthropology
Speaker 1: can help support business in multiple especially around the context
Speaker 1: of ESG or environmental social governance concerns. Anthropological intelligence zooms
Speaker 1: in on the human element that goes beyond just things
Speaker 1: like decision making behavior to provide a more nuanced and
Speaker 1: contextual understanding that traditional analytical methods just miss. So as
Speaker 1: venture capital begins to intersect more with fields like tech
Speaker 1: ethics and cultural change, the demand for anthropologists and anthopological
Speaker 1: insights is likely to grow early. Tech investors who understand
Speaker 1: the implications of cultural change will be better equipped to
Speaker 1: drive successful investments and to navigate the socio technical shifts
Speaker 1: of tomorrow. So as we wrap up, remember that culture
Speaker 1: is not just a buzzword. It's a complex, every evolving
Speaker 1: system that impacts everything from consumer behavior to corpus success.
Speaker 1: By integrating anthropological insights into these strategies, tech investors cannot
Speaker 1: only anticipate cultural changes, but also help shape them through
Speaker 1: their investments. So if you're in the business of tech investments,
Speaker 1: interested in the idea of tech or investments, or business
Speaker 1: in general, it might be time to learn to think
Speaker 1: like an anthropologist. You ever wonder what sets the Mission
Speaker 1: and Wolverines apart from other college football teams. Now The
Speaker 1: easy answers might be their twenty twenty four national championship
Speaker 1: win or their iconic winning Telmets or their record breaking
Speaker 1: attendance at the Big House. Beneath these service level distinctions
Speaker 1: lies a far more intriguing and consequential difference. This is
Speaker 1: the case study and how organizations can navigate cultural shifts
Speaker 1: and leadership transitions while building lasting competitive advantages. In an
Speaker 1: era where college football often seems trapped between its amateur
Speaker 1: roots and the gravitational pull of the NFL and professionalization,
Speaker 1: the Wolverines have charged a unique course. They've developed what
Speaker 1: can only be described as a player led culture. It's
Speaker 1: a system that distributes leadership throughout the team, from seasoned
Speaker 1: coaches all the way to freshman athletes. And this doesn't
Speaker 1: just feel good rhetoric. It's a strategic approach that's yielding
Speaker 1: tangible results, of course, culminating in their twenty twenty four
Speaker 1: National Championship victory. But more than that, this approach isn't
Speaker 1: just about football. It's a microcosm of how organizations can
Speaker 1: adapt and thrive during periods of transition. The Wolverine story
Speaker 1: is particularly relevant now as college sports undergo seismic shifts
Speaker 1: in player empowerment and comp and it demonstrates how understanding
Speaker 1: and strategically shaping organizational culture can create resilience and success
Speaker 1: even in the face of leadership changes in industry. Wide
Speaker 1: of people explore how coach Jim Harbaugh, in a move
Speaker 1: that seems paradoxical, strengthened his program by seeding control, and
Speaker 1: how this approach might be the key to maintaining and
Speaker 1: building competitive advantages rooted in culture, whether on the field
Speaker 1: or in any organization that's facing change. By applying anthropological
Speaker 1: methods to sports, teams can uncover hidden dynamics that drive success,
Speaker 1: foster resilience, and create lasting competitive advantages. As we navigate
Speaker 1: this new landscape of cultural athletics, the teams that thrive
Speaker 1: will be those that not only embrace change, but also
Speaker 1: deeply understand their own cultural DNA. The Wolverines have shown
Speaker 1: us that in the high stakes world of college football,
Speaker 1: the most powerful playbook might just be written by anthropologists,
Speaker 1: not just coaches. As we move forward, the question for
Speaker 1: every organization becomes, are you ready to look beyond the
Speaker 1: scoreboard and dive into the roots of culture? A cultural moate.
Speaker 1: Now we're barring this idea from the idea of an
Speaker 1: economic mote, which is popularized by billionaire investor Warren Buffett,
Speaker 1: and an economic boat refers to a company's capacity to
Speaker 1: sustain a competitive advantage in the marketplace against other organizations
Speaker 1: or companies. A cultural mote, slightly differently gives a company
Speaker 1: a competitive edge through the cultural beliefs and practices of
Speaker 1: the company, the customers and stakeholders and everybody that's kind
Speaker 1: of in an organization's ecosystem. So it can have economic
Speaker 1: implications and often does because customers might be more loyal
Speaker 1: for example, they want to evangelize and tell their friends
Speaker 1: about a product or service they love. But it also
Speaker 1: does something else beyond just economics, and companies often will
Speaker 1: build these cultural motes through the value and the meaning
Speaker 1: of their brands and products to consumers. And this happens
Speaker 1: when companies think beyond just the use value of a
Speaker 1: product what it does for somebody, or the functional value,
Speaker 1: and they think about how it can contribute to people's
Speaker 1: lives in a more holistic way, so talking across like functional, economic, social,
Speaker 1: and emotional levels. Now, companies with strong cultural motes tend
Speaker 1: to have very distinctive brands, They have loyal customers and
Speaker 1: a societal impact that sets them apart from other companies. So,
Speaker 1: for example, Disney has a rabid fan base devotees we
Speaker 1: might say, who form a subculture that are so well
Speaker 1: known as a unique group that they've become the subject
Speaker 1: of serious academic scholarship and studies. They have shaped political discourse,
Speaker 1: and they've influenced culture globally. Cultural value is built over
Speaker 1: time through effective experiences and narratives between an organization and
Speaker 1: company and consumers. And while Disney's cultural value is often
Speaker 1: tied to nostalgia and customers' memories like imaging a magical childhood, right,
Speaker 1: Apple is more often associated with envisioning how technology is
Speaker 1: shaping the future. Now, the cognitive processes for remembering the
Speaker 1: past and imagining the future are powerful, and they're also
Speaker 1: closely related to one another. And so we see these
Speaker 1: companies have used these neurological processes to help them create
Speaker 1: especially impactful cultural modes. But one useful perspective that I
Speaker 1: want to leave us with in this context around Apple's
Speaker 1: green and blue bubbles is semiotics. Semiatics is the science
Speaker 1: of signs and symbols, and blue and green text bubbles
Speaker 1: have strategic to Apple because of their symbolic meanings to
Speaker 1: American iPhone users. Now, in the corporate world, semiotics is
Speaker 1: often discussed in terms of residual, dominant, and emergent cultural phenomenon.
Speaker 1: That means ideas that have been sticking around for a while,
Speaker 1: that they're residual, the dominant ones that are capitalizing and
Speaker 1: shaping mainstream thinking. An emergent are the new ideas that
Speaker 1: are kind of coming down the pike shaping subcultures that
Speaker 1: may become mainstream one day. In semiatics in general will
Speaker 1: go beyond these framing, but this is often how people
Speaker 1: are introduced to semiatic concepts, especially through business and marketing.
Speaker 1: So that's why I wanted to pay attention to them today. Now.
Speaker 1: One of the important things to think about this as
Speaker 1: well is that symbolic meetings tend to change with culture,
Speaker 1: and the thing is culture is changing faster than ever.
Speaker 1: So for example, think about how the symbolic meaning of
Speaker 1: a blue check mark on Twitter has changed over the years,
Speaker 1: and even Twitter's cultural motes have undergone dramatic change. Is
Speaker 1: just in the last couple of years. As you know,
Speaker 1: there's a new owner and there's a new company name.
Speaker 1: It's been a little bit crazy. So at a time
Speaker 1: when culture seems to be changing day by day. Apple's
Speaker 1: ability to keep the blue and green bubbles at the
Speaker 1: core of its cultural mote is especially noteworthy. And thank
Speaker 1: you as always for joining me on the pod today.
Speaker 1: If there are other companies and organizations, topics, or ideas
Speaker 1: that you'd love for us to explore in this series,
Speaker 1: do not hesitate to reach out and get me on
Speaker 1: social media for email, on the website, or on our
Speaker 1: substat I always love being in conversation with you, and
Speaker 1: you make the show worth it. Thanks for sticking around.
Speaker 1: You're listening to or watching this anthe life, and I'm
Speaker 1: your host, Adam Gamwell, we'll see you next time.