Business anthropology is a discipline that offers findings and approaches businesses around the world have been implementing for over 30 years. In Slovenia, business anthropology has mostly been applied in family businesses aware of the importance of sound and transparent relationships between the employees for facilitating a successful business breakthrough. Business anthropology assisted by business research methodology has proven successful in many areas:
Marketing research based on new sales models and techniques,
Designing business models with higher added value,
Holistic approach to internationalisation,
Study of organisational culture,
Analysis of factors contributing to excellent management.
Among business anthropologists' loyal clients are numerous successful businesses: Apple, Coca-Cola, Pizza-Hut, McDonald's, Unilever, General Motors, HP, Microsoft, Nokia, Canon, Ford, IBM, Xerox, Ikea. Perhaps the most widely known is Intel, the world's biggest producer of computer processors. Intel collaborates with anthropologist Genevieve Bell (see her talk). The key advantage of business anthropology methods is that they can be applied in all industries.
The task of a business anthropologist is to decode the rituals of corporate world and focus on research of needs, desires and habits of consumers (marketing, sales, product and service development, marketing strategies) and employees (HR, management, organisational atmosphere). Business anthropology methods profess a holistic approach to business challenges. They encourage designing innovative and market-focused business models, systematic monitoring of the quality of relationships with stakeholders. Thus they can contribute to the development and strengthening of brands, higher sales and sustainable growth. This enables introduction of fresh approaches to classic analyses and innovative elimination of blind spots in understanding consumer habits, knowing that without every product or service fails without the buyer. The most successful businesses are those trusted by all stakeholders.
Budnjani d.o.o. aims to enhance business anthropology with the principles of multi-capitality, totality of businesses (inclusion of all levels of complexity and entangled environments) and authenticity (training genuine competences in personal and business). Business anthropology – an established discipline – is principally designed in the direction of harmonisation of disharmonies, connecting with external environments and creating new social and cultural business ecologies.