Description

Financial Times Book of the Year
The Times Book of the Year

A revelatory model that explains how we buy, sell, work and live.

‘Absolutely brilliant.’ Daniel Kahneman, author of Thinking, Fast and Slow
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Meet the business anthropologists seeking to explain how we buy, sell, work and think.

From supermarkets to factories, trading floors to tech firms, their methods are revealing the hidden codes that define our lives.

The result is a wholly new way to see human behaviour: anthro-vision.
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One of the World’s Top 50 Thinkers – Prospect

‘This engaging book argues why more businesses (and people) should look to anthropology if they want to succeed.’ Books of the Year, The Times

‘Will turn your world upside down in the best possible way. Fun, profound and bursting with important insights.’ Tim Harford

‘A terrific piece of work’ Thomas Friedman

‘Anyone working to rebuild a more equal world will benefit from Tett’s well-argued case that to solve twenty-first-century problems, we must expand our fields of vision and fill in old blind spots with new empathy.’ Melinda Gates

‘Tett provides readers with a new intellectual framework – grounded in her deep understanding of anthropology and her path-breaking journalism – that can fundamentally transform how we approach solving society’s most wicked problems . . . I cannot recommend it highly enough.’ Mariana Mazzucato

‘In a world of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity, we need an antidote to tunnel vision, argues Gillian Tett. That antidote is Anthro-Vision . . . Admirers of her journalism will love this book, but they will also learn a great deal from it.’ Niall Ferguson

‘A timely call for decision-makers to wean themselves off their dependency on big data and embrace the full complexity of human life.’ Financial Times

Publisher Review

A book that will turn your world upside down in the best possible way: fun, profound and bursting with important insights. -- Tim Harford, author of HOW TO MAKE THE WORLD ADD UP A fascinating and compelling demonstration that all of us, especially economists, can benefit from the insights of anthropology: the worm's-eye, not just the bird's-eye, view of how people behave. -- Mervyn King, former governor of the Bank of England and co-author of RADICAL UNCERTAINTY Drawing on a wide breadth of case studies, Gillian Tett explains that whether you're marketing Kit-Kats in Japan or fighting the spread of COVID-19 in England, you need a more qualitative understanding of who people are and what they care about. Anyone working to rebuild a more equal world will benefit from Tett's well-argued case that to solve twenty-first-century problems, we must expand our fields of vision and fill in old blind spots with new empathy. -- Melinda Gates, co-chair, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and author of THE MOMENT OF LIFT Absolutely brilliant . . . Very compelling examples. -- Daniel Kahneman, author of THINKING, FAST AND SLOW and NOISE From a Tajik valley to Silicon valley, Anthro-Vision takes us on an enthralling and deeply insightful journey. Tett shows us how the discipline and tools of anthropology helped her see the world more clearly. Full of rich insights and examples - I couldn't put it down. -- David Halpern, CEO, The Behavioural Insights Team and author of INSIDE THE NUDGE UNIT In a world of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity, we need an antidote to tunnel vision, argues Gillian Tett. That antidote is Anthro-Vision - applying the techniques of anthropology she learned as a young scholar in Cambridge and Tajikistan . . . Admirers of her journalism will love this book, but they will also learn a great deal from it - including how better to understand their own familiar yet strange tribe. -- Niall Ferguson, Milbank Family Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford and author of DOOM: THE POLITICS OF CATASTROPHE Looking at the world like an anthropologist has long given Gillian Tett the edge over the rest of us as a journalist and thinker. With this book she generously shares her secret recipe - and explains why we may all need Anthro-Vision to see a way through some of today's most pressing global challenges. -- Stephanie Flanders, Senior Executive Editor for Economics, Bloomberg Tett provides readers with a new intellectual framework - grounded in her deep understanding of anthropology and her path-breaking journalism - that can fundamentally transform how we approach solving society's most wicked problems, from climate change to pandemics to political polarisation. I cannot recommend it highly enough. -- Mariana Mazzucato, Professor, UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose and author of THE ENTREPRENEURIAL STATE A plea to those of us who may be unfamiliar with Tett's academic discipline to think more like an anthropologist. I think she's right . . . Tett's book may be anthropological, but it also embraces a style of accessible economic writing that, sadly, went out of fashion as the mathematicians and their models took over. Anthro-Vision reminds me of John Kenneth Galbraith's The Affluent Society (1958) and The New Industrial State (1967). Some economists may regard this as a criticism. I can think of no higher praise. * The Times * A good read, as one might expect from a Financial Times journalist . . . Many of the cases studies are entertaining and instructive . . . This book is a reminder that culture and context really do matter and cannot be ignored when trying to understand and change organisational behaviour. -- Adrian Furnham, Professor of Psychology, UCL * Literary Review * In this superb book, Gillian Tett - Editor-at-Large at the Financial Times - applies the lessons of her doctorate in anthropology to the world of business and, more generally, to social behaviour and trends . . . There are many reasons to read Anthro-Vision, but the most compelling is its liberation of [its] analysis from the often phoney and banal punch-ups of today's culture wars. -- Matthew D'Ancona * Tortoise *