企业那些自欺欺人的天价谎言

    你得出了什么观点？

    任何文化里都有关于世界如何运转的一系列假设，这些假设很难被挑战，因此它们就慢慢地变成教条。比如饮料公司就认为人们喜欢甜味，但是究竟怎样界定喜欢呢？

    在企业里，人们几乎不可能跳出品牌进行思考。以制药公司为例，哪怕病人已经生命垂危，昏迷不醒了，制药公司还是觉得病人可以选择药物的具体品牌。甲骨文公司（Oracle）信奉的教条就是摩尔定律：速度提高两倍，体积缩小两倍，这就是他们基本的见解。英特尔（Intel）已经在干两件大事：智能手机和平板电脑，但他们错过了搭这两条顺风船的第一时间。为什么呢？因为处理能力已经不那么重要了，更重要的是电池寿命和用户体验。

    那么企业为什么会错过身边的变革？

    经常是心理问题导致的。在制药行业，他们用一群二十八九岁的销售代表根据10000个病人积累的经验向医生卖药。你认为医生和销售代表之间有健康的信任关系吗？没有，这也就是为什么他们只有两分钟的时间向医生推销样品，而样品大概占成本的40%。改变这种情况的唯一方法是让对方明白世界并不是这样的。

    为什么你和你的团队比贝恩（Bain）和麦肯锡（McKinsey）等咨询公司更擅长向企业展示这一点?

    我们有从一个世界进入另一个世界的出色能力，所以我们喜欢招聘人类学毕业生和记者。他们可能是最擅长从一个世界进入另一个世界的人了。他们会选择用哪些措辞，哪些东西适合某个特定文化。所以我们会研究不同的世界，在各个世界以及他们使用的不同的东西里存在一些共性。我们把这种链条称作“目的链”——你之所以做这件事，是为了做成那件事。

    但是说到做一件事是为了做成另一件事，这个说法听起来不是很理性，而且你不是说过人类本质上是非理性的吗？

    是的。看看我们是怎样结婚的，怎么挑剃须刀的，都是在许多选择中纠结的过程。再看看买车的人，他们会做各种调查，然后买一辆自己觉得对的车。我们买电视的时候，经常会买与房子的装修最搭调的。这些都暗示了“我”是一个什么样的人。它不是一件理性的事，但它可以被研究。

    And what is it you bring to the table?

    In any culture, you have a set of assumptions about how the world works. They're hard to challenge, then those grow into orthodoxies. The example at beverage companies is [the idea] that sweetness drives liking, but what does it mean to like something?

    Inside companies, it is nearly impossible to think outside the brand. At pharmaceutical companies, for instance, even when the patient is knocked out fighting for his life, [companies] still think people have a brand choice. Or at Intel (INTC), their dogma is Moore's law: twice as fast, twice as small. That's been their foundational insight. Intel has had two things happen: the smartphone and the tablet. They [missed] the boat on two main developments, and why?Because processing power isn't as important. It's about battery life, user experience.

    So why do companies miss out on the changes around them?

    It often comes from psychological things. In the pharma industry, they are selling to doctors with 10,000 patients in their experience, using a sales force of 28- to 29-year-olds. Do you think there's a healthy trust between the doctor and the sales rep? No. Which is why they have about two minutes of time [with doctors] which they buy with samples, and samples are around 40% of the cost. It's a waste. The only way to change that is to show that the world is different, that there is a way.

    What makes you and your team better at showing companies this than, say, other consulting firms like Bain or McKinsey？

    We have great skill moving from one world to another. That's why we hire anthropologists and journalists: They are probably some of the best at moving from one world to another. They pick up on what words to use, what is meaningful in certain cultures. So we study worlds, and within all worlds are commonalities in the different stuff they use. We call these chains of "in order to" -- you do this, in order to do that.

    But describing doing one thing, in order to do another thing, isn't that pretty rational, and aren't you saying we're essentially irrational?

    Oh yes, look at the way we marry, or what razors brands we end up with; it happens in this swirl of decisions. We look at people who buy cars, and they do all this research, and then go with the one that feels right. With televisions, it's often the one that fits in my house; that says something about who I am, and that's not a rational thing, but it can be studied.