“One of the fastest-growing disciplines in business goes by several names, but it’s all about observing customers (and potential customers) at work as a means of discovering unmet needs that your organization can fill. You won’t read much about it on the Web because it’s still competitive-advantage stuff: What I know about the science of it I cannot disclose under a confidentiality agreement, and most of the companies doing it (Steelcase, Intel, Volkswagen, Microsoft) aren’t talking about it much. Mostly it’s called cultural or corporate anthropology or ethnology, but I prefer the term Customer Anthropology — the study of your customers’ people and behaviours in their ‘natural habitat’.”

“A few weeks ago, the CEO of Whole Foods Market, John Mackey, gave a presentation called ‘Past, Present, and Future of Food’ for an audience of 2000 in Berkeley, California… Essentially, John Mackey was there to make a presentation and have a conversation that would persuade Michael Pollan (who was critical of Whole Foods in his bestselling book The Omnivore’s Dilemma) and a skeptical Berkeley audience that his large company still has the credibility to lead the food movement into the future. Mackey gave a 45-minute talk ‘aided’ by 67 text-filled slides followed by an on-stage conversation with the host Michael Pollan. Most people felt that the evening generally was successful given Mackey’s sincerity, honesty, and general likeability, but John Mackey’s ‘multimedia presentation’ as it was billed, could have been so much more.”