Author Archive

Not that long ago, it would have seemed strange for companies to send their employees into consumers’ homes to observe how they used products and tackled challenges.  Now, corporate anthropologists and ethnographers – researchers trained to observe people and cultures – are fairly common, especially among consumer goods companies. The same companies that once led the way in popularizing ethnographic research – customer-centric leaders such as P&G, Intel, Ford, and General Motors – are now bringing corporate futurists into the mainstream. Futurists are individuals whose job is to observe and predict. They research trends, talk to people with different backgrounds and study how things are changing. They look well beyond their own industries to understand how economic, social and technological forces will shape consumer demand and impact their businesses.

All companies and entrepreneurs aspire to be innovative and responsive to customer needs. But how do you balance the seemingly endless customer wish list with the very real effects that those “extras” have on your bottom line?