Sept. 28, 2024

Best of Cultural Capitalist series

Show Notes
Transcript

Today, we’re excited to bring you something a little different. Recently, we've been sharing a lot of episodes and shorts inspired by the work I’ve been doing alongside my colleague, Phil Searles, for Cultural Capitalist. In this special episode, we’ve compiled a "best of" collection, featuring full episode highlights and impactful quotes that have resonated with our audience and shifted their perspectives.

We’ve selected key concepts that stood out to us and brought them together to showcase how these ideas intersect and build on one another. We hope you enjoy this curated episode, highlighting some of our most thought-provoking content.

Full Episodes Included:

What Makes Apple, Apple? The Michigan Wolverines Cultural Advantage The Value of Anthropology to Tech Investors About This Anthro Life This Anthro Life is a podcast that delves into the human side of technology, culture, and business. We explore captivating stories and connect them to the bigger picture of our lives.

For more thought-provoking episodes and content, visit thisanthrolife.org and subscribe to our Substack at thisanthrolife.substack.com. To know more about the work of This Anthro Life host Adam Gamwell, visit anthrocurious.com.

Follow This Anthro Life: Website: thisanthrolife.org
Substack: thisanthrolife.substack.com
Twitter: @thisanthrolife
Instagram: @thisanthrolife

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From Adam from This anth Life. Good to have you

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here today with me. You know, we've been putting out

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a lot of episodes lately, shorts that are coming from

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the cultural capitalist work that I've been doing with my

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colleague Phil Searles, and you know, we wanted to kind

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of give a bit of a best of in this

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episode here, so kind of taking some of the ideas

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that we thought were most impactful to the insights that

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we've heard from folks that kind of helped them change

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their thinking, and kind of put them together in a

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little bit of a best of that tie some of

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the ideas together. So hope you enjoy it, and we'll

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be bringing your new content very soon. In fact, next week.

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Understanding human behavior and cultural trends has never been more

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crucial for tech investors. We're going to discuss how anthropological perspectives,

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which are often overlooked by investors, are now being harnessed

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to understand cultural change and guide smarter investment decisions in

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the tech sector. Anthropology has been applied in business contexts

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for decades, particularly in sectors like advertise and design, but

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now it's gaining traction in financial services and especially things

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like private equity and now venture capital. What this means

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is today we are seeing a growing interest among investors

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who realize that numbers alone can't tell the whole story.

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Private equity firms have been hiring anthropologists for years to

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help improve their market intelligence and their acquisition decision processes.

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Anthropologists can help these firms understand the behavioral patterns of

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industries and companies and even conduct cultural assessments in due diligence. So,

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for example, they might analyze what the popularity of organic

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pet food says about consumer values, or assess the cultural

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or organizational dynamics within a resort that's up for acquisition

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as a way to assess the business's viability. Hear a

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lot about AI out there, but the other kind of

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AI that we should be thinking about, and that's what

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Jillian Tech calls anthropological intelligence. According to Jillian Tet, who's

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a cultural anthropologist who famously predicted the two thousand and

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seven two thousand and eight financial crisis, wrote about this

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in her work anthro Vision, emphasizing the idea that anthropology

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can help support business in multiple especially around the context

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of ESG or environmental social governance concerns. Anthropological intelligence zooms

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in on the human element that goes beyond just things

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like decision making behavior to provide a more nuanced and

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contextual understanding that traditional analytical methods just miss. So as

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venture capital begins to intersect more with fields like tech

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ethics and cultural change, the demand for anthropologists and anthopological

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insights is likely to grow early. Tech investors who understand

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the implications of cultural change will be better equipped to

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drive successful investments and to navigate the socio technical shifts

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of tomorrow. So as we wrap up, remember that culture

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is not just a buzzword. It's a complex, every evolving

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system that impacts everything from consumer behavior to corpus success.

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By integrating anthropological insights into these strategies, tech investors cannot

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only anticipate cultural changes, but also help shape them through

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their investments. So if you're in the business of tech investments,

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interested in the idea of tech or investments, or business

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in general, it might be time to learn to think

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like an anthropologist. You ever wonder what sets the Mission

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and Wolverines apart from other college football teams. Now The

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easy answers might be their twenty twenty four national championship

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win or their iconic winning Telmets or their record breaking

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attendance at the Big House. Beneath these service level distinctions

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lies a far more intriguing and consequential difference. This is

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the case study and how organizations can navigate cultural shifts

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and leadership transitions while building lasting competitive advantages. In an

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era where college football often seems trapped between its amateur

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roots and the gravitational pull of the NFL and professionalization,

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the Wolverines have charged a unique course. They've developed what

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can only be described as a player led culture. It's

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a system that distributes leadership throughout the team, from seasoned

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coaches all the way to freshman athletes. And this doesn't

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just feel good rhetoric. It's a strategic approach that's yielding

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tangible results, of course, culminating in their twenty twenty four

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National Championship victory. But more than that, this approach isn't

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just about football. It's a microcosm of how organizations can

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adapt and thrive during periods of transition. The Wolverine story

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is particularly relevant now as college sports undergo seismic shifts

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in player empowerment and comp and it demonstrates how understanding

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and strategically shaping organizational culture can create resilience and success

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even in the face of leadership changes in industry. Wide

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of people explore how coach Jim Harbaugh, in a move

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that seems paradoxical, strengthened his program by seeding control, and

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how this approach might be the key to maintaining and

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building competitive advantages rooted in culture, whether on the field

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or in any organization that's facing change. By applying anthropological

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methods to sports, teams can uncover hidden dynamics that drive success,

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foster resilience, and create lasting competitive advantages. As we navigate

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this new landscape of cultural athletics, the teams that thrive

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will be those that not only embrace change, but also

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deeply understand their own cultural DNA. The Wolverines have shown

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us that in the high stakes world of college football,

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the most powerful playbook might just be written by anthropologists,

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not just coaches. As we move forward, the question for

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every organization becomes, are you ready to look beyond the

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scoreboard and dive into the roots of culture? A cultural moate.

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Now we're barring this idea from the idea of an

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economic mote, which is popularized by billionaire investor Warren Buffett,

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and an economic boat refers to a company's capacity to

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sustain a competitive advantage in the marketplace against other organizations

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or companies. A cultural mote, slightly differently gives a company

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a competitive edge through the cultural beliefs and practices of

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the company, the customers and stakeholders and everybody that's kind

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of in an organization's ecosystem. So it can have economic

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implications and often does because customers might be more loyal

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for example, they want to evangelize and tell their friends

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about a product or service they love. But it also

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does something else beyond just economics, and companies often will

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build these cultural motes through the value and the meaning

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of their brands and products to consumers. And this happens

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when companies think beyond just the use value of a

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product what it does for somebody, or the functional value,

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and they think about how it can contribute to people's

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lives in a more holistic way, so talking across like functional, economic, social,

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and emotional levels. Now, companies with strong cultural motes tend

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to have very distinctive brands, They have loyal customers and

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a societal impact that sets them apart from other companies. So,

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for example, Disney has a rabid fan base devotees we

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might say, who form a subculture that are so well

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known as a unique group that they've become the subject

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of serious academic scholarship and studies. They have shaped political discourse,

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and they've influenced culture globally. Cultural value is built over

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time through effective experiences and narratives between an organization and

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company and consumers. And while Disney's cultural value is often

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tied to nostalgia and customers' memories like imaging a magical childhood, right,

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Apple is more often associated with envisioning how technology is

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shaping the future. Now, the cognitive processes for remembering the

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past and imagining the future are powerful, and they're also

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closely related to one another. And so we see these

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companies have used these neurological processes to help them create

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especially impactful cultural modes. But one useful perspective that I

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want to leave us with in this context around Apple's

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green and blue bubbles is semiotics. Semiatics is the science

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of signs and symbols, and blue and green text bubbles

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have strategic to Apple because of their symbolic meanings to

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American iPhone users. Now, in the corporate world, semiotics is

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often discussed in terms of residual, dominant, and emergent cultural phenomenon.

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That means ideas that have been sticking around for a while,

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that they're residual, the dominant ones that are capitalizing and

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shaping mainstream thinking. An emergent are the new ideas that

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are kind of coming down the pike shaping subcultures that

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may become mainstream one day. In semiatics in general will

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go beyond these framing, but this is often how people

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are introduced to semiatic concepts, especially through business and marketing.

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So that's why I wanted to pay attention to them today. Now.

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One of the important things to think about this as

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well is that symbolic meetings tend to change with culture,

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and the thing is culture is changing faster than ever.

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So for example, think about how the symbolic meaning of

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a blue check mark on Twitter has changed over the years,

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and even Twitter's cultural motes have undergone dramatic change. Is

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just in the last couple of years. As you know,

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there's a new owner and there's a new company name.

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It's been a little bit crazy. So at a time

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when culture seems to be changing day by day. Apple's

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ability to keep the blue and green bubbles at the

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core of its cultural mote is especially noteworthy. And thank

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you as always for joining me on the pod today.

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If there are other companies and organizations, topics, or ideas

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that you'd love for us to explore in this series,

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do not hesitate to reach out and get me on

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social media for email, on the website, or on our

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substat I always love being in conversation with you, and

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you make the show worth it. Thanks for sticking around.

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You're listening to or watching this anthe life, and I'm

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your host, Adam Gamwell, we'll see you next time.

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