Etnographic Research A Key To Strategy

MARKETS whether users at home would become services.
By understanding how people
Ethnographic a distinct market. Ethnographic research

showed so much potential that Intel set
live, researchers discover otherwise
elusive trends that inform the company’s
Research: up a business unit to concentrate on pro- future strategies. With smartphones, for
cessors and platforms for home use. example, we can contrast the technol-
A Key to Strategy Recently, Intel ethnographers have ogy perspectives of teenagers, who
by Ken Anderson veered into strategic questions. Like have used cell phones since they were
Corporate ethnography isn’t just for in- many high-tech companies, Intel makes in elementary school, with those of older
novation anymore. It’s central to gaining long-term bets on how markets will play generations, who came to them only
a full understanding of your customers out. Will television and PC technology after becoming proficient with PCs. Our
and the business itself. The ethnographic converge? Are baby boomers retaining job as anthropologists is to understand
work at my company, Intel, and other their PC and TV habits as they age, or are the perspective of one tribe, consum-
firms now informs functions such as they comfortable shifting to new media? ers, and communicate it to another, the
strategy and long-range planning. Will smartphones take over most of the people at Intel. Our experiences in both
Ethnography is the branch of anthro- functions of personal computers? worlds make this translation possible.
pology that involves trying to understand Intel can analyze the latest buying Ethnography has proved so valuable at
how people live their lives. Unlike tradi- patterns and customer surveys for useful Intel that the company now employs two
tional market researchers, who ask spe- data. But people often can’t articulate dozen anthropologists and other trained
cific, highly practical questions, anthro- what they’re looking for in products or ethnographers, probably the biggest
pological researchers visit consumers such corporate staff in the world.
in their homes or offices to observe and High-tech companies have to date
listen in a nondirected way. Our goal is to employed the lion’s share of corporate
see people’s behavior on their terms, not ethnographers. But I believe that ethnog-
ours. While this observational method raphy is so beneficial that it will spread
may appear inefficient, it enlightens us widely, helping firms in every industry
about the context in which customers truly understand customers and adapt to
would use a new product and the mean- fast-changing markets.
ing that product might hold in their lives. Ken Anderson (ken.anderson@intel.com)
Ethnography at Intel initially focused is an anthropologist at Intel Research and
on new markets. The company had a cofounder of the Ethnographic Praxis in
provided products only for the work- Industry Conference.
place, but in 1995 managers wondered Reprint F0903C
SEARCHING FOR CLARITY interfere with wise decisions. Maintain a decision making, which informs action,
bias toward action. Be open to change. which creates change, while feedback
Learning from Heroes Seek feedback. makes everything work better. They also
by Jack Covert and Todd Sattersten In the 1980s, for instance, Thomas resonate with the stages of the “hero’s
Like Hercules, Luke Skywalker, and Jack Peters and Robert Waterman’s In Search journey” made famous by mythology
Welch, we all struggle with five recurring of Excellence showed how exemplar scholar Joseph Campbell. The arche-
challenges as we journey through work companies instilled a bias for action typal heroes of myth and popular culture
and life: We wander without knowing by replacing reports, committees, and walked more or less the same path as
where we’re going. Data and circum- protocols with frequent conversation Jack Welch.
stances confuse us. Fear blocks us from and relentless prototyping. In the 1990s, It’s painfully obvious that companies
acting. Change paralyzes us. And despite Robert Kaplan and David Norton’s The continually fail to absorb these simple
our best intentions, we talk more than Balanced Scorecard demonstrated how lessons. The question is, What will it
we listen. the careful use of data can support take for us to internalize the insights won
An examination of business writing good judgment. And in 1999, Thomas by our heroes?
from the past 30 years shows that these Friedman’s The Lexus and the Olive Tree Jack Covert (jack@800ceoread.com) and
challenges emerge again and again – and described how change – in the form of Todd Sattersten (todd@800ceoread.com)
the best books offer simple yet profound globalization – can be freeing rather than run 800-CEO-Read, a company that sells
lessons for overcoming them: Find a paralyzing. business books. They are the coauthors of
clear purpose. Be aware that past ex- The five lessons feed into one another. The 100 Best Business Books of All Time
perience and a mass of information can Clarity of purpose provides wisdom in (Portfolio, 2009). Reprint F0903D
24 Harvard Business Review | March 2009 | hbr.org
1875 Mar09 FT layout.indd 24 1/28/09 6:21:49 PM

Etnographic Research A Key To Strategy

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MARKETS whether users at home would become services.

By understanding how people

Ethnographic a distinct market. Ethnographic research

24 Harvard Business Review | March 2009 | hbr.org

1875 Mar09 FT layout.indd 24 1/28/09 6:21:49 PM

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